Seven Deadly Sins: Lust | David Marvin

[Music] all right well hey welcome everyone tuning in from around the country man we are uh so hopeful and expectant and uh looking forward to the day that we can all be together but we're thankful for technology that allows us to be together now we know that everyone is is walking through lots of challenges right now you're not alone god sees you he hasn't left you and forsake about you or forsaken you he cares about you we care about you and uh we're excited to continue this series tonight on the seventh deadly sin uh i've got a few friends in the room what's up guys who uh are a part of our team that are here and um and so we're gonna have some fun for the next 30 minutes or so but let me bring everybody into my world a little bit i was asked this weekend if i own a gun and i said yes and uh and so i'll show you that this is not a political statement or an attempt but there is a gun that is not loaded doesn't even have a magazine in it that if i can get it out this is a beretta 40 caliber gun like i said there's no magazine there's nothing in it and it's a gun that stays in a safe in a very removed up in my shelf in our master bedroom place so that none of my children can get access to it because while this thing has great benefits and is a uh it can provide or do great things in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to use it it can be incredibly destructive particularly as it relates to children that the idea of my children stumbling on or finding that thing would be incredibly destructive because they don't know how to handle a gun they don't know what it's for they wouldn't be able to use it and if they did use it it would likely be very very destructive now what does that have to do with anything we're talking about tonight well just like that's something that i know because if it falls into the hands of a person who doesn't know how to use it or doesn't know what it's for or doesn't approach it with the same um awareness of how destructive it could be i protect it or i keep it away i keep it in a place where someone cannot easily access it there's something else there's a deadly sin that in all of our lives is something that for most of us we were exposed to well before we ever knew exactly how to handle it what it was for what to do with it and that's the sin of sexuality or that's sexual sin sex in general is not a sin but for most of us at an early age we bumped into an older sibling or a friend at school or somebody who began to tell us what sex is about what sex is like maybe somebody showed you pornography maybe you didn't stumble in your dad's closet and find a gun but you stumbled somewhere into your house and you found a playboy magazine or you stumbled in and you found somebody's search history and and uh you saw explicit content that was there well before you ever knew what it was for and it began to shape and it shaped all of us as it relates to how we think about sex so we're going to spend the next 25 to 30 minutes talking about this issue because just like stumbling onto a gun and not knowing how to use it or what it's for handling it with the caution it deserves many of us throughout our life stumbled into sexuality and we weren't taught what it's for and how to handle it appropriately so we're gonna look at god's word what i mean by most of us someone in like maybe all of us have different experiences that shape the way that we think about sex maybe you bumped into a friend at school and they showed you pornography for the very first time they showed you uh you know a video that to this day you can still see some of the images maybe it was a person in your family and they didn't just show you a picture there was abuse that took place and it's impacted you maybe it was a friend on the bus on the way to school you don't know anything about what oral sex is and they told you all about this is what oral sex is like i don't know what your initial exposure and experiences that relate to as it relates to the topic of lust or sexuality but i do know that chances are you do and you remember it i remember the first time that i saw pornography it was 12 years old it was on a mission trip with our church think about that we were in a hotel and somebody put on one of the channels that had pornographic movies taking place and i can still to this day i can see the images that i saw that day it took me 20 seconds to see it and 20 years later i still can't forget it whatever your initial and early introduction to sexuality is it shaped you it marked you and god in his word over and over lays out the destructiveness of sex and understanding there's an appropriate context to take place in it's not a bad thing in general more than a gun is a bad thing in general but it hands the wrong person or the hands of someone who doesn't understand how to use it it can be incredibly deadly and destructive as a society we are so sexualized it's crazy in terms of just the number of people who will get married and have slept with eight or more people already by the time they get married it's just around fifty percent the number of people who will get married and have never slept with anyone is between three and five percent a very very very small minority the number of people who have a sexually transmitted disease among young adults those who are listening is one in three if we were sitting in a packed room that would mean every single person or someone to their right or to their left has a std it's no wonder that uh the metoo movement exploded when you come to grips with things like we're losing the lights for some reason the reality that every 98 seconds somebody is sexually assaulted this was like a this was all part of an illustration here just like the dark keeps that's not at all true we're having a technical problem but it's no wonder i mean think about that every 98 seconds in america according to our rain someone is sexually assaulted you add on top of that the porn industry 30 percent of the internet is pornographic 30 a third of everything that is online the porn industry globally is a 97 billion dollar industry making more than the mlb major league baseball nba nfl combined child porn is a 3 billion industry 8 out of 10 men between the ages of 18 and 30 view pornography monthly one in five women view pornography monthly this is not in other words just a male problem this is a problem that is affected and impacted all of us and our understanding and the way that we think about sex has been shaped for most of us by things other than god's word and as much as we allow the world to speak into how we think about sex and how we should operate on sex the consequences will always be deadly and destructive because the world doesn't know how to think about sex god created sex he's the one who designed it and he gave it for a particular purpose so tonight we're going to look at that we're going to specifically talk about lust and by lust i mean sexual desire or actions that are outside of god's design so all sexual sense that includes sexting that includes uh uh pornography it includes having sex oral sex anal sex any type of sex outside of marriage homosexual sex heterosexual sex all of that would be included it includes the idea of lusting after someone in the gym when they walk by and wearing lululemon pants who's going to spin spin class and sitting in the back so you can get a better view of the people in the room all of which would fall under the category of sexual sin i think for most of us we think that's not that big of a deal god in his word says it is a huge deal not just because he's against sex he's very pro-sex but because the ways it has destructive consequences and will have and is having in our lives so we're going to look at the cause of sexual sin or the cause of lust the cost of lust and then the cure that we can find for lust thankfully we're not the first society that was hypersexualized this may shock you like people think the bible is outdated they're like ah the sexual stuff that we have today like the bible's just so old-fashioned and crazy there was a city when the bible was written that looks or makes what we do today or makes the sexual kind of nature of our society looks so tame compared to the way that they operated back then and that city was the city of corinth corinth was a port city that had uh just over 100 000 people it was a city that was similar to if you put new york and las vegas together it was a port city so lots of people came and go went they had a lot of money it was one of those cities that hey what happens in corinth stays in corinth why would that be the case because they had a temple there called the temple to aphrodite aphrodite's the goddess and greek literature greeks at the time believed he was a goddess of love and sex she had a thousand temple prostitutes who would have sex all day long 24 7 or the temple was open 24 7 and they would collect dues from anyone who wanted to have sex so people would frequent the town of corinth to go sleep and essentially live out any of the fantasies that they could ever imagine this was a city that because of the sexual nature of it one scholar said it was the sexual capital of the ancient world and because of the sexual nature of it the term corinthian became synonymous or associated with a girl who was like a call girl or a prostitute think about that like hey you don't want to mess around with her you know she's a corinthian at that time they're singing songs like man i'm in love with the corinthian because they associated just the sexuality of that town with anyone who lived there now the apostle paul loved this town he spent more time in this town than any other town or as much other than one other town in corinth and while he was there different pagans or people who didn't know god had spent time with the prostitutes they trusted in christ and now they're trying to live out their faith and paul writes multiple letters to them saying this is how it what it looks like to live out your faith in christ and into an incredibly sexualized city he writes how they are to think and handle sexuality tonight we're looking at a passage in first corinthians chapter 6 starting in verse 13 where he addresses and writes to a group of people who was so messed up sexually here's what they were doing i'll give you some of the punch line that we're about to read and go through they weren't having sex with their wives they would just go and have sex with the prostitutes and they didn't even think that this is that big of a deal they didn't totally understand it and paul writes and says no no you don't understand what sex is they thought like a lot of us think hey it's not that big of a deal if i look at pornography it's not hurting anybody that's how they thought about prostitution and paul writes no no you don't understand what sex is so we're going to dive in and look starting in verse 13 and what he says to this group we're jumping in in the middle of the letter in conversation so i'll explain what he's saying you say paul writing food was made for the stomach and stomach for food so paul's quoting one of their sayings of the town this is true though god someday we'll do away with both of them but you cannot say our bodies were made for sexual immorality or sexual sin it's just the word porneia where we get pornography from it's the whole bucket of anything sex or sin which is sex in any way outside of marriage you can't say that your bodies were made for that they were made for the lord and the lord cares about our bodies god will raise us from the dead by his power just as he raised our lord jesus christ from the dead so paul says hey you you don't understand sex you think it's just physical and he uses one of their own sayings that clearly they had associated in the same way they thought about sex in other words they at that time thought hey the food or the stomach is made for food food for the stomach when i'm hungry i have a stomach organ and so i go and i have that appetite and i feed that appetite which was also the way they thought about sex just like i have a stomach organ i have a sexual organ so not when i'm hungry when i'm horny i go and i have sex it's not that big of a deal it's all just some physical thing and paul says that's because you don't understand what sex is but inside of this passage he lays out and describes what was true then and is true now the cause of sex is an appetite they were wrongly handling that appetite they thought it was like food if i'm hungry i go to this if i'm horny i go have sex with the prostitute paul says no no no that's not what it is but the cause of lust or sexual sin the first point is that there's an appetite or a desire inside of every person and every time we act in a way that's outside of god's design with that sexual desire lust occurs outside of god's design for sex and lust to take place in the context of marriage here's one of the things that like a lot of christians or a lot of people just think the bible is anti-sex god invented sex he's all about it on the very first page the very first command that god gives as it relates sexuality as it relates to humanity not even sexuality is hey adam eve i created you here's what i want you to do rule number one be fruitful and multiply make babies on page number two from the very beginning god is pro sex we're told that he formed adam and he formed eve and he has them there together and they're standing in front and adam wakes up and he sees his new wife there and he's like oh man we're told he bursts out into song and he begins to talk about this naked woman's body in front of him it's it's before john mayer was ever around he goes into your body is a wonderland that's essentially what he does and he begins to describe this person like god and god looks and he says it was good it's not anti-sex it's incredibly pro-sex proverbs chapter 5 verse 18 and 19 says this let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you rejoice in the wife of your youth she's a loving deer or a graceful dough let her breasts satisfy you always may you always be captivated by her love that is a command in the bible for you to always be captivated by your wife's breast think about that people think god is approved he's not a prude he wants to protect you from the danger of allowing that desire or that appetite to be used outside of his design to be used like someone who doesn't understand how to use a gun because it can be incredibly dangerous or destructive to you and i now that desire gets twisted and we begin to want to take sex and and lust after people who are not our wives are outside of the context of marriage and that always brings forth something that james chapter one tells us every person is tempted when he's carried away and enticed by his own lust that lust takes him someplace when lust has conceived it gives birth to sin and when sin is accomplished it brings forth death what does lust look like for us so he says hey lust takes you on a path somewhere lust in our context it can look like sexual thoughts fantasizing about somebody at work checking somebody out as they walk by and they're in some sort of leggings it can look like going explicitly and looking at pornography but you don't even have to go to porn sites you can find on instagram snapchat tick tock movies netflix sexting sexual sin or lust and that category is any type of sex outside of marriage like i already said masturbation and that desire is an appetite just like the food that they were eating was an appetite and you know what happens when you feed an appetite it grows and we're going to talk about that more here in a second but paul's saying hey the cause of lust inside of you comes from an appetite or desire that gets distorted a desire that's not used in line with how it was designed to be used and really just like corinth like here's the truth about all of us man we're all in this together we live in a culture that is constantly since the day that we were born been feeding us and fueling the distorted desire of sexuality feeding every time that i've seen pornographic images or every time that i watch a movie in like 15 minutes in the couple's shacking up and sleeping together it feeds something as you relate to or as you begin to think about sex the culture around us continually feeds this it feeds us this through the music that we listen to i mean think about so many of the songs that come out that's what i like by bruno mars yummy that's coming out you have that yummy and they got a good beat but they're feeding something inside as it relates to sexualizing savage netflix has a new show called too hot to handle about couples or about people and like whoever cannot have sex first gets a million dollars think about that game of thrones everywhere that you look it's just being bombarded what's crazy is how desensitized i've become we've all become to what a hundred years ago would have shocked someone like you think about when people go i'm not trying to hate on anybody at the swimming pool when you go to the swimming pool and you see bikinis people 100 years ago like your great grandparents would have been like why is that girl walking around in her underwear right now and to us it's totally normal and my point is not you know right or wrong or whatever my point is we've become desensitized not only that we have robbed from people the ability to even have the privilege of hey the first time i ever saw a woman in her underwear was my wife or a guy in his underwear was my husband because you can't turn on the tv without seeing a victoria secret commercial that comes through you can't drive down the highway without seeing some guy in nothing but his underwear or in a shirt i mean or just in pants like we've taken that because around us has just fed it and fed it and fed it and things that would have shocked people before have just become normal and my point is not you know even to zoom in on those i'm just saying we've all become so desensitized to it it's like when i get a hot tub at uh anytime you get in a hot tub would take my house and i have a hot tub but anytime you get in one it's first really hot isn't it and then what happens you get used to it and you go from like oh man this is so hot too this isn't that hot at all and that's just what happens it's sexualizing or sex has just been thrown in front of all of us it's also impacted the way that women think about how to attract a guy like i mean my heart breaks for ladies who are told from the moment that they were born hey the way that you can catch a guy or you need to find your value and how you look and how many curves you have or what your curves look like and they're told this is how you should catch a guy and you may not even realize it but by throwing on instagram pictures of you in this bikini or you know the picture behind or here's my leg gap you're feeding into what it looks like as it relates to sexuality and dude my heart breaks i have a daughter and i know all of those same lies and everything that is thrown at you is going to be thrown at her but as a bigger brother in christ here's an encouragement that i would give you if you catch a guy with your body because you got that leg gap because you got that boo those boobs you will lose him when you lose that leg gap which is going to happen you will lose him when gravity takes over because you're catching like like when i go fishing i was talking to a friend earlier did you know that like there's certain fish that will eat anything do you guys know this like most freshwater fish they'll eat anything then there's other fish like saltwater fish like mackerel they're very selective of what they eat so you don't throw the right bait out there they're not going to eat it if you want to catch a guy with your body you're going to catch somebody you're going to catch a body snatcher that's what you're going to catch that's the type of guy you're going to catch you're not going to touch a mackerel who's like no i'm looking for a godly girl and if you're the person who's throwing out and trying to use your body to catch someone you're not going to catch the type of godly man i think that you want because godly man will see men there's a woman who's not being modest with her body right there she's not mature in her faith and you're throwing bait that's not going to catch the type of god that you want but all over our world sexualization has taken place furthermore if all of that wasn't enough being thrown at us constantly what causes lust is oftentimes just our personal experience our story some of you were sexually abused as a child it wasn't your fault and you've struggled with same-sex attraction ever since you were exposed to pornography and that led you on a path where your friend just showed it to you one night on a sleepover and you began to look at it and look at it and look at it and you have never gone a day since or very few days without seeing it just our experience in life fuels and can feed and cause this paul is saying it's an appetite and he's about to tell him do not feed that appetite outside of god's design and here's why verse 15. don't you realize your bodies are actually parts of christ should a man take his body which is part of christ and join it to a prostitute never don't you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute he becomes one body with her for the scriptures say the two are united into one but the person who's joined the lord is one spirit with him i wish we had time to go into all the different incredible things that he's saying right here but he says hey don't you realize that when you go down you have sex with the prostitutes in the temple you are joining infusing your body together with that other person you do not understand exactly what you're doing run from sexual sin no other sin so clearly affects the body as does this one for sexual immorality is a sin against your own body paul lays out and goes into the cost that lust or sexual sin has inside of our life and he says hey look unlike the world or you think you just slept with the prostitute it's not a big deal i'm hungry i eat when i'm horny i have sex he says no no it's a way bigger deal than that you don't understand what sex is like and he uses a word for joining or you're fused together that's the word of gluing every time you have sex with a prostitute you are gluing yourself to that person every time you have sex outside of marriage or inside of marriage you are gluing yourself to that person you are fascinating and eventually if you guys break up or if the relationship work out you're gonna rip each other apart and leave a little bit of you with them and a little bit of them with you he says you don't understand sex it's not some flippant thing the bible teaches it's a at a soul level that two people are bonded together in the act of sex and so he's saying man you guys are crazy you can't go down there without experiencing consequences and sleep with prostitutes how does it have a cost inside of our own day and age today in dating relationships here's how it's going to cost you sex inside of the context of a dating relationship is going to keep you in a relationship you should not be in it's going to keep you much longer in that relationship because the relationship that you know had you not had sex you would have dated maybe two months and been like i think we're done this is over you're going to date two years and you're going to keep having sex because you know what er the reason that is is because sex is bonding it's sticky it bonds you together it makes it harder to leave even a relationship that everyone's saying hey this is i don't think he's really good for you or i don't think she's really good for you because sex is in there it bonds you to that person and keeps you in that relationship longer and it doesn't end after two months with like oh nice to know you and moving on it ends two years later with heartbreak and heartache and pain and regret because sex is sticky it was created to be which is why it's such an amazing thing in the context of marriage because it continues to bond these two people who have promised and pledged their life to one another hey till death to his part i'm in it with you and it bonds every time you have sex it bonds you to that person but that's also why it's really dangerous outside the context of marriage because here's what sometimes people think they're like they hear from pastors or maybe even pastors have told them like hey you know what sex outside of marriage is not nearly as great as inside of marriage and it's just not going to be that fun so don't do it that's not what the bible says the problem with sex outside of marriage is not that it's bad it's that it is so good because sex is so good so you're gonna experience sex and be bonded with someone who is not your husband or who is not your wife and you're gonna be glued in some way to that person the problem isn't that it's so bad it's going to be good because sex is good the problem is because it is so good it bonds you to that person who almost always ends up ripping because the relationship doesn't work out and you end up ripping a part of you and they get a part of you and you leave with the part of them and the problem over time becomes like this this is duct tape if i take this duct tape and i put it on my arm this is going to hurt it rips off hair and if i continue to do that and i take it on another person and i put it on their arm and i attach it and i rip it off and i attach it and i rip it off every single time that i do a little piece of that person is coming with me you know what happens over time it eventually stops being sticky anymore that's exactly what happens in the context of sex that's why so many people have sexually dysfunctional relationships because over and over and over they've bonded themselves to so many different people now god can heal and do anything because there's no sin that's more powerful than jesus including sex but apart from his spirit is any wonder when you look around at our world and no relationships just don't seem to last could it be because of so much sex that has taken place outside of the context of marriage and some of that bonding has no longer had its stickiness or bonding present in there it'll harm your future marriage because however many sexual partners you've had your spouse is going to know them probably want to know them find themselves insecure comparing themselves wondering what you're thinking about them compared to other sexual partners you've had in your past and you're harming and there's a cost that comes every time sex is introduced and when you introduce it you make the relationship less likely to go the distance or in the long run not more likely there's a cost that comes with lust and sexual sin to our world i mean just think about like you take the bible throw it away and you just then begin to go like objectively like huh if i was god what would i teach about sex would i just say hey free for all everyone sleep together all the time or would i say no sex should take place in the context of marriage well even if you look around and you're like well what happens there's a byproduct of people sleeping around it's not that big of a deal do you know how many lives are lost every year because of sex outside of marriage at least a million there were a million abortions last year that's around 3 000 babies a day those are not happy couples white picket fans that are getting an abortion it's people who got pregnant and didn't want to have the baby and out of lust a life literally was lost 3 000 babies today think about the fact that stds now one in three people have an std after years of his decline chlamydia gonorrhea syphilis are all back within a vengeance the vast majority of which being contracted by millennials 10 million millennials this year or young adults from the ages of 18 to 30 are going to contract an std that's in addition to the ones that got them last year ones to get them in next year one in five people are living with hiv and have not been diagnosed 75 percent of women with chlamydia don't even know it 35 of americans who have herpes don't know one in eight people have herpes if you were god truly what would you do with sex knowing all the pain knowing all the emotional pain that has caused in people's lives knowing all the shame and guilt that people carry for the rest of their life because they had an abortion knowing all the different ways that it's impacted and destroyed relationships destroyed marriages when it's taken outside of his design in marriage what would you do and could anyone claim god was good if he didn't say sex was designed in the context of marriage it has a point and a purpose and it is powerful and it is a gift or it can be a curse if it's in the wrong hands like a gun in the hands of a child and as bad as you think you are and no this guy doesn't know what he's talking about like you know i need to find i'm sexually compatible you're a child that's holding a gun you do not know what you are doing you're not responsible or mature enough to handle it and you should give it to an adult who knows what to do with it the cost is clear all over our world the cost of pornography what is the cost of pornography emotionally it compromises you because it trains your body not to bond with a person but with yourself it trains you to want variety which doesn't prepare you for monogamy and i need a blonde brunette a redhead multiple and eventually it's an appetite that you just continue feeding and it grows john mayer did an interview with playboy magazine and he talked about pornography and here's what he said john mayer despite having slept with some of the most beautiful women in the world says pornography honestly real sex doesn't do it for me anymore pornography is what i go to here's what he said internet pornography has absolutely changed my generation's expectations you seem very fond of pornography playboy said when i watch porn if it's not hot enough i make up backstories in my mind this is my problem now rather than meet someone new like a person i'd rather go home and replay the amazing experiences i've already had what that explains is i'm far more comfortable in my own imagination than i am with actual human discovery that over time that appetite got fed and fed and fed and it made him less human it made him less prone to experiencing god's design for sex and now he just has to come up with fantasies and make them up in my own head because they're not explicit enough and that's tragic and sad and there's still hope even for john mayer god can heal anything there is no sin that is more powerful than jesus which is why jesus said or what paul said earlier in the verse i mean i'm sitting in my notes but if you go back it says and jesus will raise from the dead your bodies if god has power over a dead person's body how much more power does he have over a living person's body that he can heal restore bring freedom to but there's clearly a cost that our world is experiencing and it's like there's sex everywhere but almost all of it if we follow it and act on it leads to death it's like this these are two pictures of water they look very similar one is regular fresh water this one is salt water can't really tell but that's what's inside they look strikingly similar in so many different ways seventy percent of the world is covered in water do you guys know that seventy percent you know what percentage of the world of that water is drinkable 1.2 percent in other words there's a lot of salt water everywhere around you there's very little fresh water what's interesting about this is i don't know if you realize it if you drink salt water it won't quench your thirst it just makes you more thirsty and eventually it'll kill you like truly one of the most the leading cause of people dying when they've studied uh people who get shipwrecked or they're on a raft and they're floating through the ocean the number one reason they die is not because they ran out of water or it didn't rain and they couldn't drink something they got so thirsty they eventually thought i'm gonna drink the salt water and that salt came in and it dehydrated them further and they got thirstier and thirstier and the salt came in it acted against toxins in there and it killed them they're surrounded by water in the middle of the ocean yet all of it will kill them if they drink it it's really a great analogy for what sex in our culture is like there's water everywhere as tim keller said but not a drop to drink there's one and they look so similar you're like man sex and married sex outside of marriage it looks really similar right but one leads to pain and death and heartbreak and one leads to life and god says i love you i'm not anti-sex i'm pro-sex i made sex that's like steve jobs being anti-iphone that's insane he's pro-you so we want you to experience and drink the one that will always lead to life not the one that's going to lead you to pain and shame and regret and hurt but to life finally paul lays out really the cure as it relates to sexual sin in lust run from sexual sin verse 18 no other sin so clearly affects the body as does this one for sexual immorality descend against your own body so run from sexual sin don't you realize your body is a temple of the holy spirit who lives in you and was given to you by god you do not belong to yourself for god has bought you with a high price so you must honor god with your body he says you're not your own your body is god's honor with your body i'm going to come back to that in a second but he says you were bought at a high price don't sell yourself short don't sell the worth and the value that you have short to someone who doesn't appreciate and know and understand what sex is for then he goes into uh an additional and i've never connected this until i was reading it this week like right after he goes into hey don't do that but here's what you should do it says this in verse 2 of chapter 7. at the end of chapter 6 and remember when the bible was written there weren't chapters that number went exactly there those were added later to make it easier to flip around so paul finishes honor god with your body and then he goes right into this because there's so much sexual immorality each man should have his own wife and each woman should have her own husband the husband should fulfill the sexual needs of his wife and the wife should fulfill her husband's needs the wife gives authority over her body to her husband and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife do not deprive each other of sexual relationships so paul says when it as it relates to sexual sin sex outside of marriage run from it flee from it other times paul is like hey resist the devil stand firm be on guard when it comes to sex he says run run so he says run from it and then he says understand how valuable you are and then pursue christ and pursue marriage the cure for sexual sin or cure for lusts involves that we would flee how do i flee how do i honor god with my body if you genuinely want to be free from pornography i need you to listen the next five minutes if you genuinely want to experience freedom from a sexual relationship that you know is toxic and you don't want to be in that relationship you don't want to keep slipping up you want it to work but you keep finding yourself crossing boundaries and his hand going up your shirt or your hand going down his pants going farther than you wanted to go here's what you have to do i'm going to be really clear i'm going to spell it out there's three words or three letters c p r if you want to bring life into places where because of sexual sin there's death that is there it involves you taking action and doing the following three things cpr and it will breathe life is the first thing confess james chapter 5 verse 16 says therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed confess at a thought level hey i had lustful thoughts today there was someone a co-worker that walked by she bent over and i took a second look and i wanted to take a third will you pray for me because i don't want to keep going down that path i clicked on an image on instagram there's somebody who followed me and honestly i was like who is this and she just had a lot of cleavage and i wanted to see it i need to confess that and get that out there i clicked on pornography and i need you to know that i need you to pray for me and i want to take steps to get rid of that me and my boyfriend went farther me and my girlfriend farther than we wanted to go if you want to experience freedom you've got to bring it into the light to other believers if you want to experience healing it involves you bringing that into light to other believers the second thing is pursue so see confess p pursue what do you pursue pursue christ pursue healing like some of you need to take six months and you don't need to date anybody at least maybe a year and you need to get healthy you need to prioritize your relationship with jesus first and foremost what else do you pursue a marriage others of you you're in a place where you you've been walking with christ and you're doing well and you need to just get married there are so many godly guys and so many godly girls out there and you probably need a disco fan i'm gonna make the decision i'm going to move in the direction of marriage it's one of the things that paul says is a protection and gift to god gift from god in our lives against sexual immorality is marriage for everybody no should everyone that's listening right now get married no a lot of you guys are not healthy but some of you are so you pursue and then finally our remove access this is the run jesus said something very similar as it relates to hey fleeing sexual sin getting rid of it go into extreme measures remove access to that relationship to however you're accessing porn maybe you need to get off social media you need to stop watching netflix jesus said in matthew chapter 5 you've heard it said you shall not commit adultery but i tell you anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart if your right eye causes you to stumble gouge it out it is better for you to lose one part of your body than the whole body to be thrown in hell and if your right hand causes you to stumble cut it off and throw it away if you want to heal and experience freedom from pornography this will be the test this is the thing that will do it and i know a lot of people listening they don't but there's a lot of men who are saying i'm sick and tired of this i don't want to do this anymore you probably need to get rid of your smartphone and if you don't you need to get covenant eyes and block everything you need to have somebody in your life that takes away the ability to download apps takes away the ability to access social media you take away safari you get covenant eyes which is a software that filters in an accountability system just go to covenanteyes.org i cannot encourage it enough i've spent hundreds of dollars over the past 12 years involved in covenant eyes and some of the best 9.99 a month that i could spend others do you need to get rid of netflix because you're going on and you're watching things and it brings nudity and it just triggers something in your mind triggers you and you go back like a dog to his vomit but you've got to remove access if you were coming if we were in person and you told me hey i just don't want to look at porn i feel like it's been a big struggle and i asked you the question how are you accessing it and you said your phone and then you pulled out your phone and it's a smartphone you are not taking extreme enough measures how badly do you want to get well because if you do it's possible in summary the cause of lust is disorder desire the cost of lust is life and love and the cure for lust is allowing the holy spirit to bring cpr into your life that you would confess pursue and remove access you know what's funny about a safe is people keep guns in safe safes it's really not the only thing they keep in there what else do we keep in there things that are valuable money maybe an heirloom maybe a watch maybe something that was handed down we keep things that are valuable because we know that not just powerful things need to be protected things that are valuable need to be protected far more valuable than anything you could put in a safe is your life and a crucial part of your life is your sexuality if you don't get this thing right there will be all types of aspects of your life where if you're not sexually healthy you're not going to experience what god has for you and you can always get another watch you can always get more money you can always get any of the valuable things you would put in here that you tried to protect equally as important is that you would protect your sexual life your sexuality that you would preserve and protect it for the context of marriage and i know a lot of you you're listening and you're like you know i've already messed up so many different times and i know this is a huge lie i've talked to so many people and they're like hey once you have sex you know it's kind of like it's done for me i'm over it it's not done it's not over whatever's in the rear view mirror god is not done with you yet and he offers forgiveness and restoration and whatever is behind you you don't even need to worry about it anymore but today you have the decision am i gonna protect myself am i gonna pursue healing protect my sexuality i'm not sleeping with anybody else until i get married i'm not looking at pornography ever again i'm making the decision i am not going to be influenced by what the world says i'm going to follow what god invites me to an experience in the context of marriage what he designed which is intimacy and sex and lust to take place you are so valuable in this passage i'm planning here paul says you were bought with a price you begin to wonder like what's he talking about why did you use that imagery and what price you know right outside of corinth there was a slave trade or a prostitution place where you could go and they could buy and purchase prostitutes he uses the imagery that his audience would have known and been familiar with of oh yeah you were bought with a price just like you can go over there and you could buy one of the prostitutes people could go they could purchase a prostitute which had to have been seen as damaged goods and you know what they could do they could set them free they could make them their wife they could do anything and paul invokes this imagery and he says this is what god has done with you you were someone who didn't deserve to be purchased you were like the damaged goods of prostitutes you and myself and every person ever lived and despite all of that god gave his life because that's how valuable you are to him that he was willing to purchase people who didn't deserve it and he didn't just purchase it with some cash from a safe with his own life you are so valuable you can get another anything you would put in here you do not get another you are you going to choose to protect your sexual life or not one of the lies you're gonna have to get over is the fact that you're done or god's done with you or because of what you've done he would be done with you the reason we know that doesn't have to define you is how this passage started in other words here the verses right before this passage are paul reeves he you've probably heard this before if you've been a church this is right before he goes into now stop sleeping with prostitutes those who indulge in sexual sin who worship idols or commit adultery are male prostitutes who practice homosexuality our thieves are greedy or drunkards or are abusive or cheat people none of these will inherit the kingdom of god if paul stopped there it'd be no hope for me for most of us listen if you've done any of these you don't get in look at what he says next some of you were once like that but you were cleansed you were made holy you were made right with god by calling on the name of the lord jesus christ and by the spirit of our god think about what he is saying he's about to talk to men who are sleeping with prostitutes and he says hey you were sexually moral now you're righteous now you're cleansed now you're holy that's you are wait a second paul you're about to tell them to stop sleeping with prostitutes they're righteous holy cleansed yes because they called on the name of jesus their past their sin all of it doesn't define them jesus does what he did on the cross did and does and it doesn't define you now is that paul saying hey just you know keep sleeping with prostitutes no his point is sexual sin hurts you every single time you don't stop sleeping with prostitutes because it'll keep you out of heaven not accepting jesus keeps people out of heaven you stop sleeping with prostitutes and you stop having sex outside the context of marriage because it only damages you it hurts you every time that's his point the point is that those things don't define you they don't have to define you if you have trusted in jesus and now he's invited you not to go and continue to live a life of sin paul says in romans chapter six shall we continue to sin so the grace may have bound by no means the people who love god they turn from those things because they know it's drinking poison but if that's a part of your past if it's a part of your present if you've trusted in christ you were washed you were cleansed you were made holy and now he's invited you to the life that you want to the future marriage that you want to experience cpr and breathing back into life through confession pursuing jesus and to removing access and repenting and the choice is yours and choice is mine what am i going to do let me pray father i pray for every person that is listening to this message right now and that we'll listen in the days ahead that has been deeply wounded as it relates to sexuality as it relates to relationships where sex was a part of it and it really scarred him i pray for every person who's seen images that we don't even want to see we just can't even get rid of in our head those who are sexually abused and hurt wounded you right now by your spirit would bring healing would breathe life would perform cpr on your people to help us god to be marked by a life that resembles our savior that doesn't pursue purity because it gets us into heaven but pursues purity because it's accessing life would you form amazing marriages the lives of people in this room and people that are listening outside anchored together with other people of god and would you make us all more like jesus would you help us i pray for anyone who feels shame and guilt and emotions you don't want them to feel you want them to be led to recognize they just like all of us we're unworthy prostitutes unworthy of being loved and cared for and you purchased us you brought us into a relationship with you you set us free and we can walk in that christ's name we pray amen

Channel: The Porch

Views: 13,259

Rating: 4.9268293 out of 5

Keywords: the, porch, dallas, watermark, community, church, christian, christianity, ministry, movement, fort, worth, faith, sermon, dating, truth, bible, advice, biblical, counsel, jonathan pokluda, the porch, watermark community church, young adults, fort worth, david marvin, todd wagner, the bible

Id: -AFRiKfLdyg

Length: 49min 4sec (2944 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 01 2020