Introduction:
Why I Want to Avoid Sexual Sin: (1 Cor 6:12-20):
- Because I want to be Wise . (1 Cor 6:12)
- Because sex is not merely a Physical Act . (1 Cor 6:13-14)
- Because when I sin, I am Dragging Jesus into it. (1 Cor 6:15-17)
- Because my body is Holy Property . (1 Cor 6:18-19a)
- Because I was Bought with a Price . (1 Cor 6:19b-20)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:40-00:44
Open up your Bibles with me please to 1 Corinthians 6.
00:47-00:49
1 Corinthians 6, are you there?
00:49-00:52
We are talking about sexual sin.
00:52-00:59
And we're going to cut a lot of time off of this because I know the audience that I'm speaking to, right?
00:59-01:05
I don't need to spend 10 or 20 minutes outlining for you what is appropriate, right?
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The Bible makes it clear.
01:07-01:13
Sexual sin is sin that is outside of the covenant of marriage.
01:16-01:18
Sex is only appropriate in marriage.
01:19-01:20
You know that.
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And I don't need to even convince you where you fail. You know.
01:28-01:28
You know.
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Whether you have some flirtatious thing on the side happening, or you're actually committing adultery physically with someone, and you're looking at pornography, you know where you've been.
01:42-01:44
And you know where you need to repent.
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And you see, I can give you the information.
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And I can even give you some strategies.
01:56-02:00
If you're like, "I'm really struggling, can I have some strategies?" Yeah, I can give you some strategies.
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But there's one thing that I really can't give you.
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And that's motivation.
02:10-02:14
Some of you are struggling with sexual sin and you've just resolved yourself to it.
02:14-02:17
Like, this is just who I am, I can't help it.
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And I'm praying God's Spirit shakes you out of that complacency.
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But listen, you've got to want it.
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You have to want it.
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Your spouse can't want it for you more than you do.
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I can't want it for you.
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have to get to the place where you're like, "This is destructive and it's robbing me of spiritual vitality and healthy relationships, and I gotta get out of this." You gotta want it. And we saw from David's life last week, the consequences are devastating. Right? We talked about that. You destroy your testimony, there's permanent consequences. You end up You're discipling your kids to sexual sin, and it always ends in - what did we say last week?
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Tragedy, right? It always ends in tragedy.
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And those are just the external consequences.
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Because the spiritual consequences have far deeper ramifications.
03:31-03:34
The spiritual consequences have far deeper ramifications.
03:35-03:36
Like, what do you mean?
03:36-03:36
Here's what I mean.
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Hypothetically, let's just say that right now you are involved in sexual sin, whether it's pornography, or you have this little affair thing happening on the side, on any level, emotional affair, physical affair, it's all violating God's Word.
03:57-04:03
But let's just say you have this thing happening, And for sure, no one is going to find out.
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Hypothetically.
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People are going to find out, by the way.
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We're just pretending.
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All right?
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So can we pretend for a second?
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They're going to find out.
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But let's just take this off the table.
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That somehow in your affair, you manage the impossible and you keep it a secret.
04:28-04:48
See, for the believer, and that's who this message is for, your motivation for repenting from sexual sin is so much more than just avoiding the consequences if I get caught.
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We have a holy motivation that even if nobody would ever know, We are motivated by deep spiritual reasons.
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And we need to truly understand, in order to get this motivation down, what is the purpose of sex?
05:15-05:17
So let me ask you, what is the purpose of sex?
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You don't have to shout out your answer.
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I just want you to think about that for a second.
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What is the purpose that God created humans to be sexual beings?
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What's the purpose?
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Well the answer is, what's the purpose of everything that God created?
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It's to glorify Him.
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And you're like, "Wait, you're saying the purpose of sex is to glorify God?" Yes, exactly, that's what I'm saying.
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God created us as sexual beings.
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Go all the way back to Genesis.
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It says, "Male and female, He created them." Genesis 2.24, "For this purpose a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." Somehow, in the very beginning of God creating man and woman, very first thing that he created was this idea of sexuality. He created that.
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Right? And sometimes I think people get this idea that the church is against sex.
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Like, "Well, the church thinks sex is bad." No, it is one of God's most awesome creations. The problem is sinful man has done such a lousy job with it, ruining it Just using it.
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That's the problem.
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You see, it all started when Adam and Eve sinned.
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Do you remember the story?
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When Adam and Eve sinned, what was the first thing that they noticed?
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You remember?
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What was the first thing you noticed?
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You can shout this one out. Go ahead.
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They were naked.
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Somehow, with sin, there is this shame associated with sexuality.
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Keep in mind, these were the only two people on the earth that had already seen each other naked.
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But when they sinned, all of the sudden, they felt this shame, this need to cover themselves up from the only other person on the planet who's already seen them naked, who they're married to.
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That's the shame that's come in with sin.
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And throughout biblical history, Beyond biblical history and until today, the record shows that man has misused and abused and perverted sex.
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So we're going to go to Corinth.
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Corinth was a city all about the worship of sex.
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Literally.
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In Corinth, in Paul's day, there was a temple of Aphrodite that had priestesses, and they weren't like sweet little old lady nuns.
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These priestesses were actually temple prostitutes.
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And the way that they would worship was through prostitution.
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That was how you worshipped at the temple of Aphrodite.
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And then Corinth, there were a lot of sincere Christians who were sincerely getting it wrong when it came to sex in the Gospel.
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That's why this passage is so relevant today, because there are so many people in the church today sitting right here watching this, that get it all wrong when it comes to sex in the Gospel.
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We think, "I believe in Jesus Christ, my sin's been taken away, I'm forgiven, and we trivialize sin." But God hasn't.
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Sin is still dishonoring to God, still destructive to us.
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So today we're going to get motivated.
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Why I choose to fight.
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Why I want to avoid sin.
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We already said we're not going to be moved by stats.
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Stats don't move anybody.
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We're not merely going to be scared off by consequences.
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We're going to get a spiritual understanding of God's intention for one of the greatest gifts He's given mankind.
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This passage will show us why sex is such a sacred thing.
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And it will give you a holy motivation to want to avoid sexual immorality.
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So on your outline, why I want to avoid sexual sin, number one, wow, was that a long intro.
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Verse 12, why I want to avoid sexual sin, because I want to be wise.
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Because I want to be wise.
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Paul says, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.
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All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything." We're going to see in this passage, Paul makes some quotes, and scholars sort of differ on where the quotes came from.
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Are they in the culture?
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Was it something like they said "in the culture" - they're little catchphrases or whatever?
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Some people say that these quotes were things that Paul actually taught when he was there, like these were parts of his servants.
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And it doesn't really matter.
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What does matter is apparently these were popular sayings in the church.
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Okay?
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And one of the popular sayings was, "All things are lawful for me." That was something he said, like, "Hey, you know what?
10:53-10:54
All things are lawful for me.
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All things are lawful for me." Now let me ask you this.
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Is that a true statement?
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Is that a true statement?
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Is that true?
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Here's the answer.
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Technically, yes, that's true.
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Technically, that's a true statement.
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Technically, yes, we can say, "Look, I have freedom in Christ.
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Nothing can separate me from His love.
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No sin that I commit is going to disqualify me from being a child of God.
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I mean, so technically that's true.
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All things are lawful.
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There's nothing that I can do as a Christian that's going to disqualify me from heaven.
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That's true.
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But the second part of the verse, he says, "All things are lawful for me." Look at this.
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He says, "But not all things are helpful." What do you mean, Paul?
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He means this, just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should do something.
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Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do something.
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True or false?
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Some of you aren't sold on that.
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Well let's run it up the poll here.
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Let me ask you this.
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Can I have cookies and beer for breakfast?
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Can I have cookies and beer for breakfast?
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A lot of you are like way too enthusiastically saying yes.
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As if actually Pastor Jeff, that's what I had for breakfast.
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Can I have cookies and beer for breakfast?
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I mean, I mean, God's not going to condemn me for that, right?
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"Really? Will that send me to hell?" "No." So I could say, "Well, I have freedom to have cookies and beer for breakfast." And you're like, "Wait, Pastor Jeff, wait, wait, what kind of cookies?" All right, do I have the freedom to play the lottery?
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I have the freedom to play the lottery.
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Yeah.
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God's not going to send me to hell for playing the lottery.
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Whether it's playing the numbers, or playing the scratchy tickets, or whatever, God is not going to send me to hell.
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Not for eating cookies and beer for breakfast, not for playing the lottery.
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So, why shouldn't I do those things?
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Well, He tells us right here, He says it's not helpful.
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Right?
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That's not wise.
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Paul's saying just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do something.
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And those are obviously more on the humorous side examples, but please hear me, if you're sleeping with someone you're not married to, or having a flirtatious thing, or pornography, or whatever it is, listen, those things aren't going to send you to hell.
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But to say they're not helpful is a huge understatement.
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Because with sexual immorality comes emotional damage, and disease, and unwanted pregnancy, and angry husbands, and shame, and the destruction of your testimony.
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So to say, "Well, you're not going to go to hell if you have this affair, but it's really not helpful." That's an understatement. "Not helpful." It's just not wise.
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Then he goes on to say, "All things are lawful for me, or not be enslaved by anything, or not be dominated by anything.
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And I don't need to give you a sales pitch on how addictive sexual sin is, whether you're addicted to pornography, whether you're stuck in that wrong relationship.
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I know I shouldn't be with her, but I just can't seem to tear myself away from her.
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I keep going back to her.
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I swear I'm not going to answer another text from her.
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I swear I'm cutting it off this time.
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And I keep going back.
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That's what an addict says.
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And that's the point.
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Sexual sin is addictive.
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Paul's like, yeah, okay, it might not send you to hell, but do you really want to get involved in a sin that's so addictive?
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So binding to your soul?
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So listen, church.
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You're either unregenerate, or you are a toddler Christian.
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If you think that freedom in Christ gives you the green light to do every single thing you want to do.
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And I think this is why Paul started here, because he wanted to get that argument knocked out first.
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And you're like, "Oh, come on Jeff, do people really say this?" I've had people say this kind of stuff to me. I have the freedom to have an affair.
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I have freedom in Christ to do... I've had people say that. People who call themselves serious Christians. And Paul's like, "Wow, that is really a mature thing to think that your freedom in Christ allows you to do something so horribly destructive and addictive and why would you do that?" That's just... that is That's like the height of foolishness.
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Hanging it on the freedom of Christ.
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Shame on you.
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So first of all, because I want to be wise.
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Second of all, because sex is not merely a physical act.
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Why would I avoid sexual sin?
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Well, I want to be wise.
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And secondly, because sex is not merely a physical act.
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Look at verse 13 and 14.
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Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food.
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another saying that they had.
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Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food.
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Paul says, "And God will destroy both one and the other." The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
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And God raises the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.
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So that was another saying that they had, was food is meant for the stomach and the stomach is meant for food.
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That was another one of their little, cute little sayings they had.
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And it was just pointing out the obvious. They're like, "Look, I have a tummy.
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I have a tummy and there is food. My tummy is hungry.
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Food is right there and that would make my tummy stop being hungry.
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So these two things go together, right?" Well, you can see where they take the analogy.
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to say, "I have other parts of my body that have other needs, and look, there is a woman who can meet that need." So those two things should just go together, right?
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Like a tummy in food, like my private anatomy, and this woman.
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It just goes together. It's just a perfect logical match.
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That was the analogy.
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I mean, when you think about it, When it comes to food and stomach, it's just natural and normal, right?
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I mean, no one raises an eyebrow.
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If you're hungry and you get something to eat, right?
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Nobody's like, you know, if you're like, "Man, I am so hungry, and I know that Jeff didn't eat all of the cookies for breakfast, and they're still in the cupboards. I'm going to go get some of those cookies." If you said that, nobody's going to be like, "We're going to pray for you, sinner." Like, no, nobody's going to think about that, because it's just so natural.
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See, that's the logic they applied to sex.
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We have body parts, and we have external things that meet the needs that the body parts have. So it's just a natural thing, as much as...
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Well, it breaks down though, right?
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Because as Paul points out here, food and stomach, okay, that's an appropriate match.
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But body doesn't match with sexual sin.
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Body matches with the Lord, right?
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Food goes with stomach.
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He goes, and what does body go with?
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Meaning, you know, that belongs to the Lord.
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And he says, and furthermore, the food for the stomach thing, that's temporary.
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Your body is the Lord, that's an eternal thing.
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And the point is this, church, the whole thing is breaking down, the whole analogy here, because according to your analogy, digestion is a bodily function, yes, and you're reducing sex to simply a bodily function.
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And that's the point here.
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You can't reduce sex to just a bodily function.
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You're not a dog, okay?
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That's what animals do.
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It is a biological function that I've got to fulfill.
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And he goes, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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Not for people.
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Not for humans made in the image of God and raised by God in Christ.
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We are not reduced to that, people." Like, what is it?
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Well, sex is the expression of intimacy.
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Something spiritual happens in sex.
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Whether you are consciously aware of it or not, or you can describe it in words or not, it's a mystery.
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That when you engage in the sexual act, you're drawing into a union.
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And that union is so much deeper than sharing a moment of physical pleasure.
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It's a uniting of the spirits.
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And see, this is why God gave this gift to humans to be shared and enjoyed in the covenant relationship.
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Because intimacy, the deepest knowing of another, is reserved for people only in the covenant.
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You starting to get it now?
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Because I think there's some people, even in the church that subscribe to this food and stomach thing.
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"A man has needs, a man has needs." No.
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Sex outside of the covenant takes this most beautiful and sacred gift and profanes it.
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You reduce it to merely this physical, and if we're going to be honest, it's a self-gratifying act and it was never meant to be that.
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God never gave us this gift to be used in that way.
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And that's Paul's point here.
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Sex is not merely a physical act.
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Thirdly, why would I avoid sexual sin?
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Oh boy, number three, because when I sin, I'm dragging Jesus into it.
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That's what he says.
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Look at verse 15.
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He says, "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
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to then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?
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Never!
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Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her?
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For as it is written, the two will become one flesh.
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That's Genesis 2.23.
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It says, "But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him." So he's shifting back to this concept of temple prostitutes.
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He says, "Here's what you're doing. You're taking a body, your body, which is actually the personal property of Jesus Christ, and you're going to get sexual fulfillment from a woman in the name of religion at the temple for money." And Paul's argument here, and you can...
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You spend as much time this week reading it as I did last week.
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This is what he's saying, church.
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He's saying doing this act is equivalent to making Jesus Christ commit prostitution.
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You're dragging Jesus into this.
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Now just try to wrap your brain around that for a second.
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You're dragging Jesus into it.
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You know, Mark Ward here is one of our elders.
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Would you call him up and say, "Hey, I'm going to the strip club.
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We're going to pick you up and we want you to go with us." Would you do that?
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You better not.
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What size shoe do you wear, Mark?
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You're going to have a size 10 on your backside.
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If you do that, you're not going to drag a man of God into immorality.
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You'd be like, "That's horrible. Who would do something so stupid and so immoral?" You see where this is going, right?
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Or would you say, "Hey, we're going to go hook up with some women.
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Call Dan Thompson and see if he wants to go.
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Dan's one of our elders and he's our youth leader.
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"Call Dan and see if he wants to hook up with some women with us." You're like, "I would never do that." Same principle.
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"Hey, somebody call Jesus. We're going to go get some prostitutes.
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Go call Jesus and see if he wants in on this.
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If he doesn't want to go, we'll pick him up and take him anyways." You're like, "That is so foul." You know, the whole prostitution thing, Jeff, that is so foul.
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I would never do something like that in the first place.
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What's the...
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There's an app on your phone that you can meet people just to have sex.
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What's that app called?
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That was a test.
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(Laughter)
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And you passed.
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(Laughter)
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And I'm so proud of you.
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(Laughter)
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I'm going to be honest with you, Jack.
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When I was up here, I'm thinking, I'm going to say, "What's that app?" and everybody's going to shout out the name of it.
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And I'm going to be like, "We just went into OT."
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(Laughter)
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Some of you, God bless you, might not even know this thing exists, but somebody had to explain it to me a few years ago.
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I was floored.
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I was like, "What? What?" And they explained to me that there are apps just for that purpose.
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How is that much different than prostitution?
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Same principle, right?
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How is that different than pornography?
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We're taking something beautiful that God's given us, and we're spending it on self-indulging, self-gratifying things.
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And Paul says, for a Christian, you should be so repulsed at the idea because you're in Christ, and Christ is in you, so it's reprehensible to commit sexual immorality because it's unthinkable to get Jesus Christ involved in something like that.
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See, you are one with Christ.
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So where you go, He's going, and what you do, He is doing.
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You are filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Christ is in you.
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So engaging in sexual sin, Paul's like, "You're one with Christ.
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You're going to drag Him into this too?" Number four, why I want to avoid sexual sin, because my body is holy property.
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Look at verse 18.
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It says, "Flee from sexual immorality." Flee. Get away.
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This is how you win the fight, by the way.
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You don't show up for the fight.
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That's how you win.
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That's how you win.
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We're going to talk more about this.
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This is the strategy.
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This is how you win.
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You don't show up to the fight. That's the only way to win the fight. I have never lost a fight against Mike Tyson in my professional career and You know what I've watched Mike Tyson beat a lot of people bad, but you know he's never beaten me Did you know that Mike Tyson has never beaten me?
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Please don't tell him I said that but he has never beaten me Do you know how I maintain this unblemished record?
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Because I've never shown up to fight Him.
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Because I know if I showed up to fight Him, I would lose.
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We'll talk more about that down the road.
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But the rest of verse 18, it says, "Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body." "Wait, wait, wait, other sins hurt the body.
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What are you talking about?
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There's other sins that hurt the body.
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Like alcohol, drugs, overeating.
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All of that stuff hurts the body.
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So how is sexual sin different?" You see, if you've been going through this whole thing with us, I think you're starting to get it.
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Sexual sin is not the worst sin, but it's the most unique in its consequences.
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There's a sense in which sexual sin is sinning against your own body.
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Because God created you to be a sexual being expressing that sexuality in the context of a right relationship, violation of that is sin against the very core of your humanity.
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No other physical act carries the spiritual weight that sex does.
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So no other sin brings the impact that sexual sin brings.
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That was a great spot for an "Amen," and you totally missed it, I'm going to give you another run at that one.
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I want to make sure you get this down.
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Listen, no other physical act carries the spiritual weight that sex does.
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So no other sin brings the impact that sexual sin brings.
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Alright, verse 19.
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"Cesare, do you not know," here it is, "that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?" from God.
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You see, humans have a unique capacity.
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God is in you.
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You understand that God has always lived in a temple, right?
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That's how He's chosen to manifest Himself among His people.
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In Old Testament Israel, the temple was what?
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It was a building, right?
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It was the tabernacle, which was a portable version, and it was the temple.
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you could point to this building and say, "There is where the unique presence of God dwells in the building." That's where He is.
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And then you get to the New Testament, John 1.14, "The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us." God's unique presence was in the person of Jesus Christ.
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You could point to Jesus of Nazareth and say, "Right there.
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That is the unique presence of God on earth, right there.
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There's the temple of God in that man." And you're like, "Well, where's God's temple today?" And if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, it's you.
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You are the temple of God. You are.
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So if you're like, "Well, where does God's unique presence dwell today?" I'd point to you.
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God's unique presence lives inside you.
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You are God's temple.
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You get that?
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And sexual sin offers that temple up to another.
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In other words, you're saying, "God, I'm going to sin in Your living room." It's unthinkable, isn't it?
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Would you have an affair in this room?
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This room right here, would you have an affair?
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You're like, "Not right now, probably." No. But I mean, hypothetically.
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Nobody's in the building.
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For some strange reason, the door's unlocked, and you're off on one of your little trysts, and you're like, "Hey, let's sneak into the church and have a good time." Would you do that right here?
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You'd be like, "Oh my gosh, I would never do something like that.
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No, I would never do something like that!" Well, I've got to tell you, this room is nothing special.
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I mean, besides the sub-zero temperature, this room is nothing special.
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You are the temple.
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You are the holy property.
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And God says, "This! This is where I live!" So sexual immorality should not be happening here.
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Because this, this is My house.
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Every time you commit sexual sin, you're doing it in God's house.
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The only thing that should be happening in God's house are the things that honor God.
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And finally, today, "Well, I want to avoid sexual sin, because I was bought with a price." He goes on, he says, "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price." "You were bought with a price." Verse 20, he says, "So glorify God in your body." You're not your own.
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You're like, "Well, how can that be? You have no right to yourself." What do you mean I don't have any right to myself?
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He tells you, you were bought.
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You were bought with the blood of Jesus Christ.
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And we live in a day, everybody is so concerned about their rights.
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Right?
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And I need to remind you as Christians, we don't really have rights.
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You don't have rights, because you're not your own.
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Like this body belongs to Jesus.
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This body was heading to hell to be separated from God forever, and He bought it back.
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He bought me back, and He paid for this with His life.
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So I belong to Him. I don't belong to myself.
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I was bought with a price. I don't have rights.
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Right now somebody's like, "I hear what you're saying, Jeff, but look, man, look, look, man.
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A man has needs, and I'm like, "Yeah, a man needs Christ." And you're like, "Hey, hey, hey, my body, my choice." And I'm like, "Yeah, Christ's body, His choice." We are wholly motivated.
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And our highest priority is to glorify God.
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And one crucial way we do that is by reserving sex for the purpose for which He designed it in the covenant of marriage." Quick callback.
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Earlier I said this, intimacy, the deepest knowing of another, is reserved only for those in the covenant.
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This is why the church is known as the Bride of Christ.
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You see, Jesus desires intimacy with His Bride.
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And if your mind right now is going to something sexual, I'm like, "You so have no idea what's going on right now." that this is so much bigger and more beautiful than just reducing it to an act.
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See, step back and look at the picture for a second.
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Jesus desires intimacy, a deep knowledge of His bride, so what does He do?
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He entered a covenant.
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And He keeps His covenant because He is faithful to His bride.
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And that is exactly what we are called to emulate as children of God.
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That we say intimacy is for those in the covenant.
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That is why I want to be faithful to reserve God's gift of sexual intimacy.
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I reserve that for the covenant of marriage.
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Because that's what He demonstrates.
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The reservation of intimacy for the coming.
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That's why I choose to fight sexual sin.
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You bow your heads and pray with me, please.
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Father in heaven, Father in heaven, We are so saturated right now.
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I mean, we're not even sure where the compass points, just by looking at the culture.
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Anything goes, regarding gender and sex, and what's appropriate, and marriage, and all of that.
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Father, we need Your Word.
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Because at the same time, Father, Watching a culture implode because it's misusing something that You gave us.
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It's taking this gift of intimacy and using it everywhere else but the covenant of marriage.
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We're wondering why people are so messed up about it.
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for us as your children, as people who are one with Christ, as people, God, whom you call your temple.
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I pray, Father, that you would bring a spiritual, deep understanding to our minds of the purpose of sexuality, and by the power of your Spirit, you would grant us the self-control, the ability to say no and flee from any temptation that would come to violate the covenant.
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It's for your glory and honor.
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Father, I can't motivate with any other words than the ones that you gave right here.
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So Father, I pray that they would sink deep and take root, and would yield a harvest of righteousness.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Of the 5 reasons Paul teaches to avoid sexual sin, which one motivates you the most? Why?
How is sexual sin different from other sins (1 Cor 6:18)? What does it mean “the sexual immoral person sins against his own body”?
How would you respond to someone who asks, “Why is sex only for marriage? Why isn't ok for 2 consenting non-married adults to have sex?”
Breakout
Pray for one another.