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Well, like Nick said, my name is Matt Altman, and uh it's a privilege to get to be here this morning and get a chance to teach. Um get to do this a few times a year, and it's always uh exciting, sobering, nerve-wracking, uh a lot of things like that. And so uh, but I'm thankful for the opportunity to get to get to sit and stand up here and and uh share with you God's word and just some practical things that I think we're gonna see today as we look through this passage. And so um a couple of housekeeping things before we we jump in. If you didn't get a worship guide, uh one of the folded pieces of paper, like Nick mentioned, just raise your hand. We've got ushers in the back. We're good. Oh, we're out. We're we printed okay, never mind. If you didn't get one, look on with somebody next to you. Sorry. I guess that's a good problem if uh if we've run out of them, so we'll print more next week. Um, and then also, like Nick said, a series that uh is a challenging topic, uh, sensitive topic, one that the church has not typically um approached uh consistently throughout history. And so because of the unique nature of talking about sex uh within this setting, um, I understand that you know, if you're new here, if this is your first time here and you've got younger children, pre preschool up through elementary age, um, you may want to consider having them go to one of our classes that we've got in the buildings that are outside. And so uh my wife and I, Tracy, she's back there, she can wave her hand. Um there's Tracy, everybody. Uh we get the privilege of leading our preschool team here, and so she can help you, the ushers can help you if you do have somebody sitting here with you that you'd like to have them go to those classes. So um I'd encourage you to do that. I'm not we're not gonna be inappropriate, we're not gonna you know go where we don't need to go, but we do understand that this topic obviously raises a lot more questions. And if maybe your kids aren't quite ready for that and you would like to keep that from being the case right now, then then we certainly encourage you to consider that. So um well, I don't have any funny stories or jokes or anything to really start us out this morning. You know, uh my uh my daughter has not quite yet figured out some of the things that maybe Nick's son has been asking about. So um, you know, but I did hear a funny story one time about uh a young girl who was asking her parents, when am I gonna get one of those? Right. And so it was the same type of deal, even as kids, we wonder about what is this part of our body, this sexual part of our body, and how do we deal with it? And so, um, but I don't have any personal examples to share with you this morning. So, because of that, we're gonna just jump straight into the text and then I'll share some stories throughout as we go. If you've got your Bible with you, go ahead and open it up to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, and uh we're gonna start in verse 12, and we're gonna read through to the end of the chapter. So this is Paul again, he's talking to the church in the city of Corinth, and uh this is a letter to them, and as we talked about last week, he's specifically addressing sexual immorality that was present within the church. And so he says this everything is permissible for me, but not everything is helpful. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be brought under the control of anything. Food for the stomach, and the stomach for food, but God will do away with both of them. The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Don't you know that your bodies are a part of Christ's body? So should I take a part of Christ's body and make it part of a prostitute? Absolutely not. Don't you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For Scripture says the two will become one flesh, but anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Run from sexual immorality. Every sin a person can commit is outside the body. On the contrary, the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body. Don't you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. I'd like to just pray for us again before we start unpacking what this text has for us, okay? God, thank you again for your word. Thank you that it's living and it's active. Um, I thank you that according to your word, it's able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of our hearts. Uh, we need that. We especially need that in this area of sex. And not only do we need to have our thoughts and our intentions brought into the light, but we need hope and we need grace and forgiveness, and we thank you that you offer that also. So I pray as we work through this passage today that your Holy Spirit would bring conviction, but also the hope of restoration and redemption that's found through Jesus. Uh, it's no secret that we struggle in this area, not only as a culture, but as a church also. And so I just pray that we would be honest with ourselves and honest with you, and that we would respond appropriately to you as you speak to us this morning. Thank you for this opportunity, and thank you again for your word and for Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen. Um we've messed it up in this area, to say the least, right? I mean, last week Nick started us off in 1 Corinthians 5, and he explained how there was this sexual immorality that was present in the church, uh, so much so that he said even the world would look at this and go, man, you guys are messed up. The specific issue that he highlighted was that there was a man who was sleeping with his stepmom, okay? And we all should hear that and it should make us pause for a moment. Um, that was the kind of the background. There were things like that that were occurring in the church in Corinth. Um that doesn't just happen overnight, that kind of thing doesn't just take place because of bad teaching or just an all of a sudden a mistake that took place. There were a lot of things that had kind of been adopted, not only in the Corinthian culture, but also that the church had taken from the culture that I think explains some of what we're gonna be talking about today. And so anytime we read the Bible, we've got to remember the context that the particular passage is in. You're gonna see in this passage about three or four times where there's some things that are in quotes. Okay. And it's not uncommon for the Bible to quote things. It typically quotes itself, though. Um, even some of the New Testament writers quoted things from other writers. So in this particular case, though, uh the quotes that are here are not from Old Testament passages or from other writers, they're cultural sayings. All right, this is the prevailing belief. And so the reason why I have to say that is because if I just said, all right, let's read the first sentence here, everything is permissible for me. If I were to take that thought and just run with it, we would go down a path that we don't need to go down, right? Obviously, everything wasn't permissible because we had a case in chapter 5 where a man's sleeping with stepmom. Okay, so Paul is not telling them that everything is permissible. He's quoting a phrase that they were using to defend their behavior. Does that make sense to you? Okay, so we need to keep in mind as we go through some of this section, there's a lot of quoted things. And every time there's a quoted passage, it's followed up with kind of a counter-argument. So that kind of helps us see the context here. So let's look at the first one. Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is helpful. Okay? So your first fill in the blank is simply this permissible does not equal helpful. And your second part of that would be beneficial. That's another translation. Everything is permissible for me. He's saying, you're saying that. We're permitted to do whatever we want. He's like, I hear that among you. And then he says, but not everything is helpful, and not everything is beneficial. That changes the layout of that verse a little bit, right? He's not actually saying that everything is permissible. Okay? However, our culture certainly says that it is. Right? Our culture has uh pretty much opened the floodgates on permissibility when it comes to this area of sex. But as the church, we're not called to that standard. Just because the law of the land says that we're allowed to do this, this, and this doesn't mean that we should do those things, and certainly doesn't mean that those things are helpful. Um we're called to seek out God's will for our lives and God's word with regards to sex, and we're gonna talk about that throughout the passage, but I think it changes the way we ask questions in this area. We don't need to be asking the question, what am I permitted to do? That's not a bad question, but it's not the best question. All right? It's not about what am I permitted to do with regards to sex, how far can I go? But rather we should be saying, what is truly helpful and beneficial when it comes to sex? What does God say about sex? You'll notice that the title of the sermon today is God's glory. Ultimately, our sex life is about God's glory. You may be saying, come on, let's get real here. Sex has nothing to do with God's glory. Actually, it has everything to do with God's glory. Okay, and so the questions we need to be asking should be questions that are to that end. Am I doing things that glorify God with my sex life? Am I encouraging my spouse to do things that are glorifying to God with regards to our physical sexual oneness? Those are a little bit different questions than saying what is permissible. That standard hasn't worked for us, and we can't continue to hold that as. Well, what am I allowed to do? Well, you're allowed to do these things and these things, but don't cross this line. That's the wrong attitude. We can't have that attitude. Okay, so Paul's refuting that when he says everything is permissible? No, no, no, no. You may say that, but not everything's helpful, not everything's beneficial. Look at the second half of verse 12. He gives another counter-argument to this permissibility mindset. Everything is permissible to me, but I will not be brought under the control of anything. Okay, so now if they're not getting the point, he's telling them, listen, you're letting something that's good control you. I can't allow that to happen. He loves them too much to just let them walk in sexual immorality. It's becoming a controlling influence in them. This is true, though, about any good thing that God gives us, right? Sex is good. And you would say to that, amen, right? Jackson says, Amen, right? All the men in the room say, Amen. Sex is good. But sex has boundaries, and those boundaries are what determine whether it's permissible or not, and we'll we'll get to that in a minute, but it can also be very enslaving and it can be controlling. Okay, so your next fill in the blank is what seems permissible can easily control us. Sex is no different than any other good gift that we could have in our lives. Okay, so I'm gonna share a personal example, it's not sexual, okay? But a personal example of one of my favorite things in the world and how it's a good gift that can easily control. Okay? I love baseball. All right? I love to play it, I love to read about it, I love to watch it. As a matter of fact, the reason why I'm still sore is because I played it last weekend, and if you remember when Nick mentioned he did things that it shouldn't do at his age, uh, it was my fault because we were playing a sandlight game of baseball down at Butle Park. And we'll probably do it again. I love it. It's a great game. There was a point in my life, though, where baseball controlled me. And I know you may be thinking that's ridiculous, you know, but let's stop and think about any other sport. I mean, football is king in Texas, right? And I'm sure there are plenty of us in the room who, if we wanted to get open and honest, would admit that there are times when we've let football control us. Okay? I'm sure Nick would say, yeah, longhorns are his deal, but the Texas Rangers are mine, okay? So, but baseball controlled me. My entire day kind of rose and fell based on what the Rangers had done the day before. Okay, if they won, man, the next day was great. If they lost, the next day was hard. That's ridiculous and it's silly, but it was true. And Benji's a baseball fan, he's back there laughing too. Don't get any started about West Coast games either, right? They start at 9 p.m. our time. So I'd go to bed, they'd be at the clock, have trouble sleeping. Wake up in the middle of the night, and if it was after midnight, because the game takes about three hours, if it was after midnight, I'd wake up and I'd go, well, let me check this one. In the middle of the night, right? I mean, it controlled me in 2011 when the Rangers were one strike away from the World Series twice in the same game. I experienced a realm of emotions related to watching that game. I can tell you everything that happened in those last few innings and what I was feeling in response to that. Okay? I was devastated. I was angry, I was frustrated, I was disappointed, I was even depressed. Like all types of emotions that should never be associated with something like baseball. And yet I had let this good thing become controlling. So needless to say, the Rangers didn't win that year, and they haven't really come close since, and maybe we're the new, you know, that it's going to take 108 years before that happens. But what I do know is this it wasn't a pretty place for me to do it. But it's still what I need to do this. No, you're good. Can y'all hear me? Should I turn this one? I got a pretty there we go. All right. Does that work? All right. I'm gonna sit here so that I can uh make sure I don't want to break this thing. Um the next year, off season comes through, spring training comes around, and God just really challenged me during the season of Lent, which we just celebrated, to give up baseball. And I knew that's what I needed to do, and that was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Those 40 days were really a sweet time of me not worrying about who did they trade for, who's injured in spring training, what's going on, what's gonna happen? Are we gonna start off hot in the season, or you know, what's gonna I didn't worry about any of those questions. And now that I've kind of gone through that, I I experience baseball in a different light. I still enjoy the game, I still like to watch it, but it doesn't have the controlling influence that it used to have when I had elevated it to a position that it didn't belong. That's just one example, but baseball by no means is the only example. There's a whole list of things that are good gifts that easily turn into idols. Food. Our children, our spouse, job, money, relationships, the list goes on, but sex is on this list. Okay, and we'd be foolish to think that it's not. I mean, and when you just go ahead and for my own humor, nod your head and say, yes, I understand sex is a very controlling thing. Can we just say that today? Yes, are you all right admitting that? We need to admit that because it's true. And God did intend for it to be helpful, he did intend for it to be beneficial. But when it becomes what it's all about, it also can control and enslave. This is why sex is used as a marketing tool. Okay, there's a reason why they say sex sells. That's right. Because it does. It's probably the number one uh thing used to sell products. I mean, answer this question, not literally. How does sex have anything to do with a hamburger? Okay, it d it shouldn't. Not not that I should ever see, right? Like it should those two things should never, you know, that shouldn't be the case. And yet that's how far our culture has gone to say you've got to in order to buy this product, I'm gonna influence you with this other thing. That really has nothing to do with it. It's sad, but it's true. So here's some questions for you to consider. They're not gonna be on the screen, but things you need to ask yourself if you're being controlled or enslaved by sex. Do you find yourself rising and falling based on your sex life? Are you anxious about it? Do you feel like you can't live without it? Do your do your emotions uh are they determined by how much or how little sex you've had? Are you being brought under the control of your own desires? Do you make plans according to this part of your life? Do you manipulate things according to this part of your life? If the answer to those questions are a yes, then there's a good chance that you're being brought under the controlling power of sex. Now, that'd be a terrible teacher if I just left you there and said, good luck with that. Unfortunately, that has been the approach of the church for a lot of years, is just kind of we've we've kind of turned an eye and said, you know what, that's really their problem, right? Like we're just gonna let them try to deal with that on their own, and we're gonna talk about that issue here in a minute. But bottom line is it's got such great power and influence. And yet it's also so good, and God wants it to be good, and so we have a responsibility to be obedient in this area of our life, because it's not only incredibly blessed and amazing, but it's also incredibly destructive and can uh it wields power in both directions. I heard somebody explain it to me like this when I was young growing up, and you know, in those formative teenage years, and you may have heard the same analogy sex is like fire. Okay? When it's inside of marriage, it's like a fire inside of a fireplace, right? It keeps the house warm, it has a function, and it cr it uh fulfills a purpose. But you take that fire and move it three feet out of the fireplace and put it on the floor, and now all of a sudden you've got a different animal, right? You've got destruction and you've got pain and you've got lots of negative things happening. And I just really like that example because it's really clear, and just I'll go ahead and say it now, and then we'll talk about it continuously this morning, that God's intention for our sex life is to be within marriage. Okay? I know that's unpopular now to say that, but it's true, and I'll make the case for that here in a minute, that that's been the definition of sex and marriage from day one. And so we're gonna talk a little more about what that looks like and how have we messed that up. But let's keep on reading, okay? I can't spend 12 minutes on each verse, or we'll be here all uh all afternoon. I don't want to do that to you. Look at verse 13, the first half. Food for the stomach and the stomach for food. And then the second half, but God will do away with both of them. The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Alright, so food for the stomach and the stomach for food, it's another quotation here. And what Paul is trying to say is that food and sex are not the same thing. And we all should sit here and go, well, yeah, duh, they shouldn't be the same thing. The problem is that the church was treating them the same way. Okay? Without giving you a whole history lesson, the Old Testament had certain restrictions on dieting, the Jewish people couldn't eat certain things because they were considered unclean. But the New Testament, God declared all things clean, right? This is why, as a Christian, I had I don't bat an eye when I eat bacon. Okay? As a matter of fact, I had it for breakfast this morning. It was great. But if I was under the Old Testament law, bacon would be prohibited. Not allowed to go there, it's unclean. Well, Paul taught them now, hey, listen, you can eat all foods, right? There's nothing that's off limits here. Everything's been declared clean. They took that mindset and said, oh, okay. So if we can eat whatever we want, then we can have sex whenever we want, however we want, with whoever we want. You see the big disconnect? Okay? So his he's attacking that viewpoint: food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and then he says, but God's going to do away with both of those things. And then he makes it very clear the body is not for sexual immorality. We could end the sermon there. If you needed any clarification on what your body was meant for, I can tell you what it wasn't meant for. It wasn't meant for sexual immorality. And then he follows it up by telling you what it was meant for. It was meant for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Go back to the title here: God's glory. You don't think sex is about God's glory? Let's keep talking. Because here he's starting to lead us there. Your body was meant for the Lord, and the Lord was meant for the body. From the very beginning, our role as humans has been to acknowledge that God created us. And even if you're in the room this morning and you're not a Christian, you have some sort of potential Godward focus, or you wouldn't be here. Right? You probably acknowledge on some level there is a God and that He created us. And that's a good thing to acknowledge those things. But as Christians, we're not called just to see God as the creator. He's now also the owner of our body. Okay? And at the end of chapter 6, he says that we were bought at a price that were not our own, and we're going to talk about that here in a minute. But that adds another layer of responsibility for us as believers in the room. We're made by God, we belong to God. We don't own ourselves. This refutes the common cultural phrase that we have nowadays. Well, it's my body, I can do what I want. Not according to the Bible. It's not your body, it's God's body, and you don't get to do with it what you want. Okay? We have a responsibility to listen here. Now, I know I've been kind of on the negative side of things, kind of like saying, you know, no, no, no, all of these things. But we're going To talk about here in a minute, what is God, what has He offered us? Because what He's offered us, especially in this area of sex, is really, really good. Alright? And we would be remiss to just talk about all the stuff we shouldn't be doing. Okay? Let's talk about the things that God does say we get to be a part of. And they're much bigger than just sex. Look at verse 14. We're going to go through verse 17 here. God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Don't you know that your bodies are a part of Christ's body? So should I take a part of Christ's body and make it part of a prostitute? Absolutely not. Don't you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For Scripture says the two will become one flesh, but anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. So now he's starting to intermingle this concept of our body being about the Lord and sex being about God and how all of this stuff starts to work together. This section here, I think, really focuses on our identity as Christians. That's your next fill in the blank. As Christians, our bodies are members of Christ's body. You say, okay, well, that's a pretty simple concept. That includes what we do with our bodies physically. That includes our spiritual life. That's everything. As a Christian, I am a part of Christ's body, the church. So he uses, why does he talk about prostitution here? Where did that come from? Well, there must have been an issue in the church, or he wouldn't have brought it up. And I think what he's saying here is he asked the question, should Christ be joined to a prostitute? And they would have all known the answer and said, Well, no, that's ridiculous, right? We should never, we should never bring Jesus and prostitution and put those things two together. But he's telling them that's what you're doing when you take your body and you join it to someone else who's not your spouse. And notice that he says the two will become one flesh. That can happen between any two people. One flesh happens when two people sleep together. Alright? God meant for that to happen between two specific people, a husband and wife, which we're going to talk about here in just a second. When we stop and think about sex and the act of sex, it's not just physical. Okay? Our culture has pretty much defined it that way, but we know as Christians that it's so much more than that. It's physical, it's emotional, it's spiritual. One of the beauties of what I call Christian sex is that I get to enjoy this amazing thing and lift my eyes toward God in the process. Every good gift that He's given us is meant to point us to Him, right? That's why when we eat a good meal, we should say, Thank you, God, for the wonderful food, because He's the one who provided it. That's why when we enjoy good sex, we should say, thank you, God, for providing this amazing gift because you're responsible for it. You designed it, you made it. That was your idea, not mine. Man, I should be given credit where credit is due. God came up with it. And so if we keep sex at a strictly physical level, we're gonna miss out on worship with God. And I know that sounds odd and maybe we haven't thought about that before, but that's the truth. God wants us to worship Him through our sex life. The same way we would acknowledge His goodness in eating a good meal or in being provided a good job, right? All of those things, when God says, I've gifted you with this, and you say, Thank you, God, I worship you for that, he wants us to do the same thing with our sex life. Now, when we think about it as a physical thing, there's this oneness that occurs. I mean, the very design of a man and a woman, you can't get any closer physically than having sex with someone. Right? I mean, that's that's as close as one as you can be with a human being. And God didn't intend and design for that to happen with anybody, wherever, however, whenever. I'm gonna do a little illustration here because I think it kind of gives us a picture of what that's like. And I may need uh I may need some help if you want to, since I've got to hold the microphone here. So this is Nick, he's my assistant here, he's gonna help me out. Um I always talk about being a teacher and and having illustrations because I think it's something that's memorable and maybe you'll walk away with it. And so um I want you to hold these two up, all right. This is this is uh a young man and a young woman, okay. I tried to draw earlier this morning for pre-service, and it didn't turn out well, so I'm not gonna go there. I'm not not a great artist, but this is Johnny and this is Sally, okay? And Johnny and Sally are Christians and they're uh they're in our youth group, okay? And Johnny and Sally are hanging out, you know, they're having a good time, they're getting to know each other a little bit, and and they decide, hey, we we wanna we wanna start dating, okay? To which all the dads in the room said, never. Right? Well, they said, well, maybe we'll have to look into it a little bit further. We'll talk about the role of dads here in a minute. So they decide, hey, we're gonna start dating, and and so they go out to the movies. You know, you can do things like this. They go out to the movies, and they decide to is that dancing? Are they dancing now? They don't dance in the movies. They yeah, not that, no. Um they decide they're gonna hold hands, okay? They're gonna hold hands. So there's a little bit of hand holding going on there, all right. Um their relationship progresses, and they decide, well, maybe we could kiss each other, okay? So, you know, a little bit of kissing. And and so they've been together now for about six months, and and uh now we're gonna fast forward, you know, let's pretend now they're in college, okay? So they've been together for a long time. They've stayed sexually pure, and they get to college and you know, they they go to separate universities, and they just decide they're gonna they're gonna break up. It's just not gonna work out. So she comes over here and he goes over there and they go along their way, right?

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Okay?

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We've seen this happen. That's not a bad thing, that's part of life. We have relationships, we break up, okay? Now, let's take the same scenario, okay? Here's Johnny and Sally, and they decide they're gonna go to college at the same university, and they're gonna continue their relationship, and they've now got a taste of their own freedom. And and they've loved each other now for four years, from the time they were 14 in high school until now they're 18 and they're adults, and they know best what's right for them and for their life, okay? And so they decide, you know what, we love each other. That's all that matters. God wants us to be happy, and so we're gonna sleep together, okay? Now, what's gonna take place here is is a whole lot more than just, I'll let you take that. Will you glue those two together for me? All right. They're they're gonna join themselves together, and as the Bible says, they're gonna become one flesh. All right? They're gonna commit themselves to one another in this act. Notice I didn't say for the rest of their lives, because you don't commit yourself to somebody through sex, you commit yourself to somebody through marriage. But they haven't done that, okay? So they've decided we know what's best, we're gonna do this on our own, we're gonna join ourselves together. Okay? And for the most part, things seem to be as they've always been. They're still happy. Alright, thank you. You can uh just set that right there, and then maybe she'll throw that away because it's kind of hard to yeah. Thank you. Alright, we're gonna we're gonna come back to them in a minute. Alright. They're not married, though. That's a big problem here, okay? The Bible makes it really clear that you're supposed to cling to one person, men, your wife. I'm gonna read it to you. Alright, it's said in three different places, as a matter of fact. I'm gonna go to Ephesians 5, verses 31 and 32. Paul says this to the church in Ephesus for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. All right. A couple of things to point out here. Again, God did not intend for this intimacy to be had between people who weren't married, between anybody but a husband and a wife. This is oftentimes called the blueprint for marriage. Jesus quoted it, and it was also the definition from the very beginning. So give you a little history lesson here on the Bible. When God creates the world and he creates mankind, and he makes Adam, and he's got all the animals here, and the Bible says that among all the animals there was not a helper that was found to be suitable for Adam. There's another way that says that there was no one there that complimented him. So God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. He takes a rib and he creates Eve, to which Adam replies to God, Whoa, man, right? Like that's that's where we get the name woman from. I'm just teasing that was a joke, okay? Just trying to wake you up a little bit here. All right. We're talking about sex in the church, okay? Wake up. You're allowed to be alert here. You should be. Um, but God defines marriage here when he makes man and woman, and he says, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cling to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. What's interesting about that is that's declared before sin enters the world. Okay? So that statement was what it was meant to be when God's original plan was orchestrated in the garden. Alright? So now, Adam and Eve sin, they mess up, sin enters the world, brokenness occurs throughout humanity. Fast forward to Jesus, and he repeats that same passage and says, Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cling to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. What God has joined together, let no man separate. Okay? And then in the church age, we see Paul reiterate again. The definition hasn't changed. Okay? God's intentions for sex and God's intentions for marriage have been the same from the very beginning, before sin entered the world and since sin entered the world. It's been the same. Okay? I do think it's interesting that as a church we're talking about sex before marriage because our marriage study is coming up after this, but I think that's really just because it falls in the text that way. Paul's addressing the sex side of things here in chapters 5 and 6, and then we're going to talk about marriage in chapter 7, but you can't separate the two, is what I'm trying to get at. Those two things don't go apart from each other. Okay? Sex was always meant to be within marriage. He says, shall cling to his wife, not to his girlfriend, not to his fiance, not to just anybody, not to a prostitute. He says, the man shall leave his father and mother and shall cling to his wife. Now, again, I know I'm talking a lot about the negative side of things here, and there may be some of you in the room that are going, Well, I've already, I've already been down that road. Right? There's what what do you have to say to me? And I promise you that there's hope here, and we're gonna get there. But I do want to share just some things with you that I've seen uh that I'm really thankful for the leadership that we have here at our church, uh, our pastors and our elders, and we've had a lot of young couples who have come to them and said, hey, we want to, we want to get married in the church. And because guys like Nick and Harley and Alex are gracious but truthful teachers of God's word, they always ask the same couple of questions. Are you living together? Are you sleeping together? Because if you want to do marriage God's way, those things are gonna have to change. But I will tell you what's been so cool to see in that is there are there are couples who have responded to that in obedience, and I would love for them to share their testimony sometime because they will tell you it was the best thing they could have ever done. But it's an act of faith at the same time, isn't it? It takes faith for us to say, God, your way is better than my way. It takes faith for us to say, I've been messing it up and I really like the way I'm doing things, and it feels good. It takes faith to say, but God, I'm gonna listen to you and obey you, even if it costs me something. It costs Jesus' life to follow God. If it costs us a few things far less than that, I think we're gonna be okay. All right? So it's not just about don't do this, don't do that. It's also about what we get to experience. And that's what verse 17 tells us. But the one who's joined with the Lord is one spirit with him. That's the real gift here. That's the real prize. As Christians, it's not that we get to get married and have access to a great sex life, although don't get me wrong, that's nice. The real gift of being a believer in Christ is that we get to be one spirit with the Lord. We get to experience oneness with the creator of the universe. If that doesn't stop and make you pause for a minute, then I just challenge you and tell you that your focus and your your thoughts are way too temporary and way too uh earthbound. Okay? They're way too, we're not thinking about the things of God, we're thinking about the things of earth when we think that all of that stuff is meant to satisfy us more than Him. Are you with me on that? Okay? Now, there's a unique component about being married that says you get to have an amazing human relationship that's probably that is unlike any other on the planet. But again, God meant for that to be in a marriage, not with anybody, wherever, whenever, however. I think we're robbing ourselves of God's best when we seek sexual satisfaction outside of marriage, whether that's before, during, outside, whatever you want to call it, we're robbing ourselves. We're buying a lie that the culture says is like being at a buffet line. Okay, going back to our food analogy, I think Paul was trying to say, look, you don't just have free reign to eat whatever you want to eat. Okay? We don't have just free reign to do with our sex life, whatever we want to. So, where do we go from here? What are we called to do? Well, I think that the last three verses of this passage really give us a clear direction of how we should think and how we should respond. So look at verses 18 through 20. Run from sexual immorality. Amen, and we're done. Run. Another translation says, flee from sexual immorality. Notice this next section is in quotes again. Every sin a person can commit is outside the body. Man, they must not have sinned a whole lot. Hey, I when I sin, I know I experience that not only externally but internally too, right? So Paul refutes that. On the contrary, the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body. You're tearing yourself up. You're doing things that are going to cause pain and hurt, whether you feel them right now or not, when you sin sexually. Don't you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. Our bodies were meant for God's glory. Our sex was meant for God's glory. Anything less of that is cheap and is not going to be as satisfying as God would create it to be or intend for it to be. So your next fill-in-blank. What should our attitude or posture be towards sexual immorality? Run. Flee. Get the heck out of there. Okay? This is where I think our conversation gets even more challenging, is because I'm going to call out not just men, but women also. If you're doing things sexually that are dishonoring God, you're dishonoring your body, you're not glorifying him. Men, if you're looking at pornography, you're dishonoring God. Okay? Women, if you're looking at pornography, you're dishonoring God and don't think that you're exempt. I'm going to share some numbers with you here in a minute that are going to open our eyes to the fact that this is a human problem. It's not just a man problem and it's not just a teenage problem. This is a human problem. Why is it so significant that our sin is not external but internal? Because the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. Okay? Because Christ gave up his life to redeem us from that sin. I mean, listen to the language that Paul uses here. He says that the body is a sanctuary, it's a temple. Right? That implies holiness. He reminds them that the Holy Spirit lives inside of them, that God is the one who has gifted them with the Holy Spirit. He also goes on to say that because of this gift, they don't belong to themselves. They don't have authority over their own bodies anymore to do as they please. He reminds them that their salvation came at a price, the cross of Christ. And he then finishes with the command to glorify God in your body. All of these statements are very personal. He uses the pronoun you about ten times here. But what's interesting is that that pronoun you is not just understood to be singular in the Greek language, it's also understood to be plural. It's the same way I could look at you, and you would know I'm speaking to all of you. Alright? So I'm gonna reread this section here, but I'm gonna phrase it in such a way to for us to see this collective you. Alright? That this is about the church as a body, not just the individual as a body. Don't you all know that you as a church body are a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit? Point community church, don't you realize, believers in the room, that we as a church body are a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit? That individually we possess that, but as a church body, we possess that? Okay? The Holy Spirit who is in you, in us as a collective body, whom we all have received from God. We are not our own. You, church, are not your own, for you all were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your church body. The reason why this was so important for Paul to say this is because it wasn't just an individual problem, it was a church problem. He's telling everyone in Corinth in the church, this is a problem for you as a church, and it needs to be dealt with. It's an us problem. Sexual morality is not just an individual problem, it's also a church problem. And if we're gonna get serious about this and about walking in freedom, we're gonna have to encourage and build up one another, but we're also gonna have to rebuke one another. We're gonna have to call out one another. We're gonna have to love and disciple one another and exhort one another. It's gonna take all of us to do this. It means that sexual sin is gonna have to be taken out of the darkness and dragged into the light and dealt with. For too long, the church's stance has just been kind of, well, we'll just kind of hope that nobody steps on the landmine publicly so that, you know, okay, we won't have a pastor or a church leader that's like some of those guys that have really blown it here. We hope that's not us, and we've not really ever dealt with the fact that this is a problem that is bigger and more extensive than we might think. It's an us problem. Purity is not just about youth, it's not just about individuals, it's about everyone. So let's talk about some of the numbers. Okay? We're gonna start on the low end, and uh I think you'll be surprised at what you hear. Five percent, okay? Five percent of Christian women ages 25 and up intentionally seek out pornography at least once a month. Okay? So if there's 200 people in the room roughly, and I was a math teacher, so you can trust me. If there's 200 people in the room and there's half men and half women, and there's a hundred women here, five of you are looking at pornography at least once a month that are in the 25 age range and up. You may think, well, up 5%, that's pretty low. It's one out of every 20. I'd say in the church, that's still way too high. It ought to be what? Zero. Good, you're good students. Good, you're listening. All right? It gets worse the younger we get. Okay? 13% of Christian women ages 13 to 24 intentionally seek out pornography once a month or more. That's one out of every eight. Okay? And we're not even talking about unintentional. We're not even talking about, I was checking my email and this thing popped up or whatever. We're not even talking about it, we're talking about intentionally seeking it out. Okay? I'm not even gonna tell you the numbers for the culture because this isn't a Us comparing ourselves to the culture. Okay? We can't keep saying, like we've said in the past, it's a them problem, and they're the reasons why we're struggling. They've saturated the world and they've done all this. No, no, no. This is an us problem. It's a human problem. Alright, men, put your seat belts on. 23% of Christian men ages 25 and up intentionally seek out pornography at least once a month. That's one out of every four. That's devastating. And it gets worse the younger we get. 41% of men ages 13 to 24, same thing. Two out of every five. We have been way too comfortable with this issue for way too long. And it's gotta change. If your heart doesn't break over hearing that, then maybe we've just become too numb. This last stat is just crazy to me that this could be the case, but when I said it gets worse the younger we get, the prevailing mindset is changing the younger we get. So just listen to this. It's gonna you're gonna have to think about it for a second. Teens and young adults at a rate of 56% view not recycling as more immoral than doing pornography at a rate of 32%. So that's our generation right now. That's we're responsible for that. Parents in the room, dads in the room, we are responsible for this shift in this mindset. 56% of kids today think it's worse if you don't recycle than it is to look at pornography. That's how comfortable we are. But, young people, I'm not just here to bash on you, although I do want to say something to all of us in the room here. God cares just as much about our purity and your purity, young people, as he does about mine or your parents or your grandparents. And I know you were sitting there going, why did you have to bring up my grandparents? They're having sex too, okay? Let's just go ahead and say it. All right? They are. Can I share what you were telling me earlier? Okay. Nick Nick shared with me something this morning that floored me. He was talking with a pastor friend of his who's up in North Austin and said that the biggest issue that they're facing in their church right now is impurity among people ages 60 and up. And he said that STD, uh, the presence of STDs in that group of our population is skyrocketing because elderly people are living in nursing homes and they're still hooking up. And while we might think that that's humorous at first, let me just do a little more math for you. 60 and up, if you're 60 years old, you were born in 1957, you were a teenager in the 60s and 70s that populated in birth this free sex movement. I'm not putting that on your shoulders, I'm just telling you, you can't think that this is just a young person's problem anymore. This is a cultural problem for everyone. That's sad to me. That hurts my heart to hear that that's the main issue in their church. We've got to do something about it. Sexual immorality is a human problem. It's not just a male problem, it's not just a teenage problem. God wants to see all of us set free from the enemy's traps and deceptions. So you may be saying, okay, well, let's talk about Johnny and Sally again. I mean, you're not, what are we gonna do with them? I think you probably know what I'm about to do with this, okay? So the first example, Johnny and Sally decided to remain sexually pure and they broke up and they went their separate ways, and there was, you know, minimal harm. Maybe a little bit of emotional harm and having to kind of deal with some trust issues, and how do I rebuild that? But but no physical harm necessarily. But Johnny and Sally in our second scenario have joined themselves together physically, they've decided to have sex together before marriage, and now they've decided that they're at the same university, but things just aren't working out, and so they're gonna break up. So now when you separate them, it's a completely different picture. And Johnny and Sally will continue to go on and make the same the same thing. This is just a visual illustration. And it's not okay, young people in the room, for you to say, well, but we're engaged, we're gonna get married anyway. That's not how God defines it. That's not what he says. And I know I keep telling you all morning, okay, there's hope for you, so that's where I want to end on. All right, let's end on a positive note here. Because the truth is, this isn't just about young people, and it's not only just about physical purity, this is about our mental purity, what we're doing with our thoughts. Men in the room, I'm speaking especially to you. Let me read a quote from uh from Jim Anderson's book. This is the guy who's gonna be here next week. I don't read very much very quickly, and I read this in like a week. It was awesome. But this is what he says, okay? There are many Christian young men and women who are technically virgins, but who walk in a high level of seduction and impurity. On the other hand, I have met redeemed prostitutes who walk in a level of purity that far outshines technical virginity because of God's restoration in their lives. God is not impressed with technical virginity. Purity is a matter of the heart and the direction in which it is pointed. The question is not how much can I do or how far can I go and still be considered a virgin. The real question we need to ask is, how may I please the Lord? And I would say, how may I glorify the Lord with my life and my sexuality? Purity is a matter of the heart. So maybe this is you. Okay, maybe you're in the room you're saying, well, Matt, I've already blown it. I've already done that, been there, done that. Okay? I'm gonna share a passage with you that demonstrates the grace and the love that Jesus has towards you. Okay? You can turn there if you'd like. It's John chapter 8. And just listen to this. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn, he went to the temple complex again, and all the people were coming to him. He sat down and began to teach them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in a sinner. Teacher, they said to him, This woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say? They asked this to trap him in order that they might have evidence to accuse him. Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger. When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her. Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left with the woman in the center. When Jesus stood up, he said to her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? No one, Lord, she answered. Neither do I condemn you, said Jesus. Go and from now on do not sin any more. The call for all of us in the room this morning is to recognize that Jesus' posture towards us that have blown it sexually, that have broken our lives in this way, is that he offers hope. He does not offer condemnation towards us, but let me say with great clarity that he does not offer for you to stay there. Okay? He does not say, I don't condemn you either. Have a good life and walk away. He gives a very clear action step. Go and sin no more. So if you're a Christian in the room and you've blown it and you've already made this mistake, I don't care if it's been once or a hundred times. And like I said, if we're honest with ourselves, probably all of us in the room on some level have made this mistake. Jesus even said, if you've looked at a woman with lust in your heart, then you've committed adultery with her. So men in the room, again, that whole technical virginity thing, women in the room, technical virginity, God's not impressed by that. All right? But the call is that we can say, okay, God, you don't condemn me. What do I do? How do I trust you? And he says, here's your first step. Turn from that sin. Repent from that sin. Go and sin no more. We cannot mutually live in fellowship with God and in sexual sin. It's never meant to be that way. Practically, I'm thankful to be a part of a church family that has strong leaders who are willing to say the things that need to be said and be truthful, but with great grace and humility come alongside people. This is a safe place for you to be real and be honest with where your struggles are. And I'm not telling you you've got to stand up in the middle of all this and say, here's where I'm at. What I am telling you is you need to talk with somebody and you need to have conversations with somebody who can walk with you through this because we take the same approach that Christ does. We don't offer condemnation, we offer hope, but we also don't want to see you stay where you are. We want to see you set free. That's your last fill in the blank. Jesus wants to set us free from sexual immorality. The woman at the well, you've probably heard that story. She had five husbands and she was living with a man who wasn't her husband. And Jesus calls her out and she gets excited about it and goes and tells everybody, come meet the man who's told me everything about myself. That is our God. That is Jesus. He knows us personally, he knows us intimately, and he cares enough about us to see us live a life that is glorifying to God, especially in regards to this area of sex. Let me pray for us. We recognize that you are God. There is no one like you. And we just humbly come before you today and we submit ourselves to you, and we we ask for your forgiveness in this area of sex and how we've messed it up. But we also ask for restoration and redemption for new life. I pray that uh just as we sang earlier that we would experience uh your gracious redemption, that there would be no guilt, no shame, no chains, but that we would see you as redeemer, and that that would be thrilling to us. That we would be set free from sexual immorality. God, we desperately need that, and we know that you are the only one who can give it, it takes faith to believe it, and I pray that as you're moving in the room today that we would be faithful to step out and respond appropriately, to be honest with where we are, but to accept your your free gift of grace and the offer of restoration that you provide. I thank you that you don't look at us in our sin and just condemn us, but that you offer hope. We cling to that today, and we thank you for it. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.