Introduction:
Genesis 2:24 - Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Enjoying Your Gift from God. (1 Corinthians 7:1-7)
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Married? Enjoy God's Gift for MARRIAGE. (1 Cor 7:3-5)
3 Laws of Marital Intimacy:
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The Law of DEBT. (1 Cor 7:3)
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The Law of OWNERSHIP. (1 Cor 7:4)
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The Law of HIATUS. (1 Cor 7:5)
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Single? Enjoy God's Gift of SINGLENESS. (1 Cor 7:6-7)
Matthew 19:10-12 – The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:36-00:41
Open up those Bibles to 1 Corinthians 7.
00:43-00:51
And as we said last week, it's going to continue for the next few weeks because we go where the text goes.
00:54-01:00
And today we're going to be talking about the relationship between a man and his wife.
01:03-01:44
discretion advised. We are going to be direct, but you know some pastors want to be like edgy by kind of pushing the envelope there and that's I don't think that's cool, but I do think we need to teach the Bible straightforwardly. So we are going to be direct but not explicit, okay? So whether you're sitting here or streaming this from home, parents you decide. If you saw last week's message that would be a good gauge as to whether or not your kids should hear this one.
01:44-02:01
But again I'll remind you that somebody's talking to your kids about this. I think you should really consider you know whether it's time for them to hear this from God, what He says about these matters.
02:02-02:17
Alright, so with that said, let's just bow our heads. I'm going to ask that you would please take a moment and pray for me to be faithful to clearly communicate what God said and I will pray for you to receive what it is that this passage teaches today. Let's pray.
02:23-02:28
Father in heaven, we are once again turning to Your Word for wisdom.
02:33-02:38
And we're dealing with what is going to be for many here a sensitive subject.
02:38-03:05
And I pray, Father, against distractions, and I also pray that our hearts and minds are open to what You actually say in Your Word. Not our opinion or not what we think your word might say about these matters, but to examine what it is that you have said, and that we would be faithful to apply.
03:08-03:53
Come meet us now, Lord, through the proclamation of your word, we pray in Jesus' name, and all of God's people said, "Amen." Amen. Many years ago, I was leading Bible study the prison, and one man raised his hand. He said, "I have a question. I have a question about what happens when we die." Well, I was ready for this. You should have heard. You should have heard the sermon. It's probably the best sermon I ever gave. It was just both barrels, and I explained to him, "Okay, first of all, let me explain how death came into the world. We went through Genesis chapter 3. Death We need Jesus Christ.
03:54-03:56
Jesus died on the cross to take our sin away.
03:56-03:59
He rose from the dead to give us eternal life.
03:59-04:00
We all need the gospel.
04:00-04:05
And if you've received Christ, when you die, the Bible says you are in the presence of the Lord.
04:05-04:10
Okay, and someday he is going to come and he's going to take his people to be with him.
04:10-04:12
John chapter 14, we talked about the rapture.
04:13-04:17
But if you have not received Christ, I talked about the tribulation that's coming after the rapture.
04:18-04:21
There's seven years of just hell on earth.
04:21-04:26
and then Christ returns, and I talked about all the millennial kingdom, right?
04:26-04:41
And then after the kingdom, there's the great white throne judgment, and at that point, you know, if you die and you're not in Christ, you do go to a place of suffering, Luke 16, but then you're thrown into the lake of fire at the great white throne judgment, and you should have heard it.
04:41-04:44
It was comprehensive.
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So I got done, it was about 20 minutes.
04:50-04:57
I got done and I said, "So, does that answer your question?" He stared at me blankly.
04:59-05:01
And he goes, "No."
05:02-05:03
(congregation laughing)
05:04-05:25
I said, "Why not?" He goes, "I just wanted to know "if we become angels when we die." And I said, "No." He goes, "Okay, thanks." And I learned that day to answer the question that's being asked.
05:27-05:30
Well, the Corinthians, they had a lot of questions.
05:31-05:35
They had a lot of questions about marriage, about idols, about women in church, about the Lord's Supper.
05:36-05:38
Look at chapter 7 verse 1.
05:39-05:45
Paul says, "Now concerning the matters about which you wrote," stop there, we're entering a new section, okay?
05:45-05:49
He talked about the church unified, chapters 1-4.
05:50-05:55
He talked about the church purified, chapters 5-6.
05:56-05:58
And now you can see there's a shift.
05:59-06:06
He says, "You sent me questions and I'm going to give you answers now to the questions that you sent me." Do you see that?
06:07-06:09
And first up, marriage.
06:12-06:13
You're going to be shocked.
06:13-06:14
I'm glad you're sitting down.
06:15-06:17
But the Corinthians had a lot of problems when it came to marriage.
06:20-06:28
But you know, the problems that we bring into marriage are our own doing, because the Bible was clear on marriage.
06:30-06:34
Genesis 2.24, this is the most important verse in the Bible about marriage.
06:34-06:38
I know this because when asked, this is the verse that Jesus quoted.
06:39-06:42
When writing about marriage, this was the verse that Paul kept quoting.
06:42-06:55
The most important verse in the Bible about marriage says, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." It's clear.
06:55-07:00
You leave, you join to your wife, and then the two become one.
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Jesus was asked about marriage, divorce, all these matters, Matthew 19, we're going to talk about this later, but Jesus made, it was very clear.
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Jesus said marriage is between a man and a woman.
07:15-07:19
Jesus said in a marriage, it's two people that are brought together by God.
07:19-07:24
Jesus said it's two becoming one, and He said it's meant to be unbroken.
07:24-07:25
That's God's design.
07:28-07:32
Bible's clear about marriage.
07:32-07:38
But in Paul's day, the Corinthian culture, there were basically four different ways to get married.
07:38-07:51
I'm just gonna, I don't usually like to preach my homework, But this might be helpful to give us some context as we go through this section, because there are a lot of ways that people got married in that day, all right?
07:52-07:54
So one way was for slaves.
07:54-07:56
Slaves weren't considered people, they were considered property.
07:57-08:02
So for slaves, the owner had the right to just pronounce them married.
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If there were two slaves that wanted to get married, it's like, okay, you two are married, so you go stay over there or whatever.
08:09-08:09
And that was it.
08:11-08:14
There was also, in that day, common law marriage.
08:14-08:20
People that were living together unmarried for a year were considered married at that point.
08:21-08:23
A third way is a father selling his daughter.
08:26-08:30
And then the fourth way was the sort of the official Roman way.
08:32-08:37
Interestingly, it's through the Roman customs where we get our customs for marriage.
08:37-08:38
Did you know that?
08:39-08:44
from veil to flowers to vows to ring to cake, all came from the Roman culture.
08:47-08:49
So here's the point of all that.
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In this section, Paul is teaching the sacredness of marriage no matter how you got there.
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Okay, because there's going to be a lot of people that could raise objections, "But I was married this way, but I..." Paul's like, "However you got there, we're dealing with from here forward.
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Let's talk about the sacredness of marriage.
09:12-09:14
They were a culture that had a high divorce rate.
09:16-09:28
They were a culture that had homosexuality, a culture of affairs, a culture of, believe it or not, feminists, and a culture of - we talked about this recently - prostitution.
09:30-09:32
So it's a culture a lot like ours.
09:32-10:03
There's nothing really new here as far as the kind of sin that they had to deal with with the same stuff. So the question is, "Well, what about sex and marriage?" Well, again, you're going to be shocked, and I'm glad you're sitting down, but the Corinthians had something else that they were divisive over, and that is this. Should you get married, or should you be single?
10:06-10:08
Which is the godly path?
10:09-10:10
That's the issue on the table here.
10:11-10:13
Which is the godly path, married or single?
10:14-10:20
Because some people said that righteousness is everybody must get married.
10:21-10:22
That was the Jewish mindset, by the way.
10:23-10:24
Everybody must get married.
10:24-10:27
You're not really fully righteous unless you're married.
10:27-10:30
In fact, you couldn't be a member of the Sanhedrin unless you were married.
10:31-10:38
So the Jews especially said, "Look, what's right is everybody has to get married." But then there's the other camp.
10:40-10:42
And the other camp said, "No, no, no, no.
10:42-10:43
No one should get married.
10:43-10:45
I mean, have you been paying attention?
10:46-10:48
Sexual sin is completely out of control.
10:49-10:50
Marriage is hard.
10:50-10:57
So being single and never touching a woman, that's the godly way.
10:57-11:00
In fact, you want to be godly.
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If you're married and you want this godly path, you're just going to have to get out of your marriage.
11:04-11:05
Both of you be single.
11:06-11:07
That is more spiritual.
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That is more devoted to God.
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If you're single, you are more devoted to God.
11:13-11:17
And you know, there's people today that still hold that mindset, like in the Catholic church.
11:17-11:18
All right?
11:18-11:19
Priests don't get married.
11:19-11:20
Nuns don't get married.
11:20-11:20
Why?
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Because you're devoted to God, and you can't really be devoted to God if you're married.
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Well, what does the Bible say about that?
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Well, let's see how Paul answers this under inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
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Look at verse 1 again.
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"Now, concerning the matters about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman." Okay, stop there.
11:48-11:50
He goes, okay, first of all, it's good.
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He didn't say it's the only good.
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Okay?
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Paul's not saying singleness is better than marriage.
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He's not saying it's worse than marriage.
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All he's saying in verse 1 is, "It's not wrong to be single." It is a fine option if you're single.
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But there's another option.
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Look at verse 2.
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He says, "But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband." So Paul says, "The other option, which is marriage, is good too." I mean we saw this, right?
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Chapters 5 and 6, there was so much sexual immorality in the church.
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They tolerated sexual sin.
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They excused sexual sin.
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There was no sacredness for marriage.
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Huge problem.
12:49-12:56
So you see, in Corinth and here, it is hard to be pure because of temptation.
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That's what Paul is teaching here.
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Because there are so many ways to sin sexually.
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So Paul here says, because of the temptation to sexual immorality, get a spouse.
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Notice he says, "Get your own spouse." design. It's one man for one woman and that one woman for that one man. That is how God designed it. Get your own.
13:30-14:11
So Paul is saying physical desires are natural and should be enjoyed the way God designed them to be enjoyed. All right? So we're gonna play a quick game here. We're gonna play a game called "Which is Good?" I'm gonna give you a list of two options and you're gonna shout out which is good. You ready for this? You ready? Come on, don't lay an egg here. I need you. I need you. I'll start over. I mean I'll start way over at the beginning. We'll bring the worship team up. We'll start the whole thing over. All right, so you You ready to shout it out?
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Which is good, country music or rock music?
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Rock.
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The answer is both.
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All right, which is good?
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You ready?
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Try again.
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I'm gonna give you another chance.
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Which is good, pancakes or waffles?
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Both.
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Both are good, okay?
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All right, I think some of you are getting the hang of it.
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Let's try one more.
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Which is good, baseball or football?
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(congregation exclaims)
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I'm sorry, the answer is both.
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All right, one more, you ready?
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Which is good, being single or being married?
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Both.
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Both.
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Both.
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The answer's both.
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Paul says here - look, if you don't get that, you're going to miss the whole sermon, so you've got to get this.
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Paul says here in this passage, look, what you have, church, you have two good options.
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Okay? You have two good gifts from God.
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You can't have them both at the same time, by the way.
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I think I don't have to explain that.
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But you have two good options, two good gifts of God.
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Single is good.
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And married is good.
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That's Paul's point here in these first two verses.
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expounds on each. So on your outline, draw some things down here. Enjoying your gift from God. Number one, married. Are you married? Are you married? Well, enjoy God's gift for marriage. Okay, now Paul here starts with marriage because it's the norm. Most people are married. Again, one's not better or worse. Most people are married, so that's where he And again in Corinth, many thought you had greater devotion to God if you avoided physical relations.
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But there's a problem.
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There are some people that thought you have greater devotion to God by avoiding physical relations even if you're married.
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And all the men said, "What?" And it's good to not touch a woman even if you're married, and especially if she's not a believer, or vice versa.
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If your husband's not a believer, they believe that, look, if you're married to a non-believer, you definitely should not be engaging in any kind of relationship that way.
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That was what the people thought.
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So here in these verses, Paul's saying, look, are you married?
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Then you should enjoy regular times of intimacy.
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You should enjoy regular times of intimacy.
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And you're like, "Oh, isn't that obvious?" And the answer is it must not be because God spent some time here in His Word explaining some things.
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So I don't think it is so obvious.
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So what we have here are three laws, three principles for married couples regarding God's design for healthy marital relations, okay?
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So we're just gonna break these down by calling them the three laws of marital intimacy.
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The three laws of marital intimacy.
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First of all, letter A, let's talk about the law of debt.
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If you're married, if you're married, You should be enjoying your spouse physically.
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And here's the three guidelines, three laws for that.
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The first one, the law of debt.
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Look at verse three.
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He says, "The husband should give to his wife "her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband." Stop there, that's the law of debt.
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You're like, why do you say debt?
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Because do you know in the Greek, it's literally the debt.
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literally in the Greek, it says the husband should give the wife the debt.
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And the wife should give her husband the debt.
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That's what it says.
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Also in the Greek, it's a continuous verb, meaning, Paul's saying husbands and wives, you should continuously be paying a debt to one another physically.
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Now listen, the physical part of your marriage is not the most important part of your marriage.
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But, it is a very important part of your marriage.
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Okay, I'm gonna say that again.
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I don't know if I've ever been so careful about the way I worded things in a sermon.
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Because I don't want anybody to misunderstand, and I know there's a lot of things that can be easily misunderstood here, so I'm gonna say that again.
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The physical part of your marriage is not the most important thing, but it is a very important thing.
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And Paul here says, "You owe it to your spouse to allow your spouse to enjoy this." Listen, this is a very sensitive subject.
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I know that.
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Because there are people that have endured abuse.
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There are people who are emotionally scarred.
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There are people that have health issues.
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And these things make regular, normal relations more difficult.
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It might require extra work.
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It might require coming to see one of our pastors for counseling.
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We can help you with that.
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If this is an issue in your marriage, we can help you.
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But the principle here is very clear.
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If you're married, you are expected to go after this.
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God's design is that husbands and wives enjoy meeting each other's needs.
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There's a book in the Bible all about that, by the way, right? Song of Solomon. That's what And I know there's some scholars that are like, "The Song of Solomon, you know what the Song of Solomon is about, Pastor Taylor?
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You know what it's about.
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The Song of Solomon is about the love relationship between Jesus and the church." Spoken like someone who never read the Song of Solomon.
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It's not about that.
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It is about a couple enjoying the physical aspect of their relationship, their love for another and all its expressions of that love, that's what it's about. God wants you to enjoy each other. I've heard stories of couples that only come together for a physical relationship when it's time to procreate, almost like it's some business exchange. And look, if that happens. If that happens, awesome, awesome. We'll always make room in the nursery. But to reduce the purpose of that just for procreation is still missing the point. The purpose of sex in marriage is intimacy. That's the purpose. It's not just a physical act. It's an act that strengthens love and is an act that sustains love.
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But I know, listen, somebody can read this verse, "The husband should give to his wife the debt." Likewise, the wife give to her husband the debt.
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Somebody can look at this verse and say, "That sounds so violating.
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You mean to tell me…." Is that what you're saying?
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I can't… What a patriarchal, male chauvinist church this is, that you're telling me that I can be forced to pay the debt.
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Right?
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Is that what you're saying?
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Not even close.
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And I would say that if that's your takeaway, then all due respect, you are completely reading the verse wrong.
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Listen closely.
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He's not saying that we go into our marriage relationship saying, "You owe me!" No, no, no, no.
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Not lording it over.
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It's not "You owe me!" It's the mindset of "I owe you." It's submission.
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Notice he says to give the debt.
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He doesn't say take the debt.
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Do you notice that?
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He doesn't say, "Husbands, go take what she owes you.
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Wives, go take what he owes you." He doesn't say that.
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He says in mutual submission, you have to give what you owe your spouse.
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That's what he says.
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A healthy marriage always focuses on the other person's needs.
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And that applies also specifically here to intimacy.
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That's what we're saying.
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Give your wife, give to her what you owe her.
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Wives, give to husbands what you owe him.
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It's mutual submission.
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All right?
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So that's the law of debt.
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Secondly, we have letter B, the law of ownership.
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Law of ownership, look at verse 4.
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And he goes on, "For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.
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Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does." Stop there.
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Again, please do not read it wrongly.
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Don't go through this and totally miss what he's saying because it would be easy to do.
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This is not a pass for abuse.
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This is, listen, this verse is not allowing for any kind of situation where someone is being forced into something in any way.
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It is not saying that whatsoever.
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You're like, "Well, what is it saying then?" In marriage, listen, when you make the decision to marry someone, you have released the authority of your body to your spouse.
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And again, in the Greek, that's continual.
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What you have in marriage is an exclusive claim.
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It's saying no one else owns my body the way that my spouse does, and that includes me.
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That's what he's saying.
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He's speaking again of a mutual love and selflessness.
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That's what he's talking about.
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He's talking about a mentality of a husband going before his wife and saying, "Hey, hey, this is all yours.
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This is all yours." And then the wife in turn turns to her husband and says, "Yeah, and you know what, baby?
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This is all yours.
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So have fun." That's what he's saying.
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There's the law of death, there's the law of ownership.
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Letter C, there's the law of hiatus.
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The law of hiatus.
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Look at verse 5.
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He says, "Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time that that you may devote yourselves to prayer, but then come together again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." The law of hiatus.
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Again, he goes, "Stop depriving.
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Stop depriving." Again, the Corinthian culture, "Oh, it's holy to deprive my spouse." No, he goes, "It's not holy.
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It's just not.
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Do not deprive each other, husbands and wives, do not deprive each other.
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He says there is an exception.
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There are rules for hiatus.
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There are rules for hiatus, right?
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First part of the rule, number one, is agree, right?
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Agree.
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That means consent.
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That means it's not just one person making the decision.
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It's not the wife saying, "You know what, honey?
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I've really been thinking about this, and I decided we're taking a hiatus." And the husband's like, "Wait, what?
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That's not how it works.
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There has to be an agreement on that, all right?" And also number two, it says for a limited time.
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a limited time. It's temporary. Again, that time should be agreed upon. You're like, "All right, well, why are we taking a break?" Well, he says very specifically, "If you two decide to take a break for a time from having normal relations, it should be for prayer." And he's not talking about prayer in general. I think he's talking about praying for something specific.
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Maybe there's something in your life that is so burdening, so distracting, that you probably can't even enjoy intimacy in that season.
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Do you know what I'm talking about?
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Maybe you have a child that is really sick and in the hospital and like, "I can't." Obviously neither of us are in the mood for this right now.
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We need to pray.
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there's the looming threat of a job loss and the stress that comes with, you know, what am I going to do to provide for my family? And you know what, sweetheart, I think we should take a break from this for a season and focus on praying for God's provision in this way. But you agree upon it and you set the boundary of time, but when you're like, man, I just can't get into it as I should, then you take a hiatus, you agree to pray.
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But Paul says, "Then, then you have to come together again," he says, "so that you don't get tempted." But the first part of that verse says, "Do not deprive each other.
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Stop depriving each other.
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Husbands and wives, you cannot use sex to manipulate.
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Or more accurately, you can't withhold sex to coerce or punish the other person.
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Listen, when you do that, when you use that as coercion or punishment, what you're doing ultimately is only hurting your marriage.
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That's what you're doing.
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Notice he says, "Come together again." Why?
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Why should we come together again?
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may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. In other words, closing the kitchen makes you a partner of Satan. All right? Because the urge is still there, and now all of a sudden the person who is supposed to satisfy me absolutely refuses to do that.
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And then what happens?
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Bitterness is resentment.
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Then the evil thoughts start to creep in, right?
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I'm so sick of not having my needs met.
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I'm so sick of the bedroom being so cold.
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And eventually that leads to adultery.
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to physical, you find somebody that's scratching the itch that you have, whether it is that emotional itch for affection, whether it's a physical itch.
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And then it's justified because, and I've heard it hundreds of times over my ministry, justified because I'm in a loveless marriage." You know, marriages struggle and ultimately individuals walks with Christ struggle because they're so frustrated physically.
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It's like I have this appetite and it's just not being met and nothing good comes from that married people.
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Alright?
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So this is from the Lord.
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Enjoy each other as much as possible.
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Okay?
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It's fun.
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It's God's idea and in this passage he reminds us it is the best help in avoiding temptation.
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It's the best help in avoiding temptation.
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Think about it this way.
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Just imagine this scenario.
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Imagine this scenario.
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Husband wakes up and he comes downstairs and he sees that his wife is baking chocolate chip cookies.
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Seven in the morning she's baking chocolate chip cookies.
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What a great wife, right?
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Oh, it gets better.
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He's baking chocolate chip cookies and he sees on the counter, she's obviously been at it for a while because there's a plate and there's a stack of them. And his wife says, "Honey, have all the cookies that you want." And like the dutiful husband that he is, he sits down and he has one, three, six, ten of them! And you know how you feel after eat a dozen chocolate chip cookies, right?
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Just me?
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(audience laughing)
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You know how you feel after you eat a dozen chocolate chip cookies, right?
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Your wife says, "Sweetheart, before you go to work, "I want you to have as many of these cookies as you want, "and I wanna tell you something else, honey.
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"When you come home, there's gonna be more." So, you indulge.
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Let me ask you something, when you get to work, are you hungry for cookies?
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No.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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One of you is on board now, the rest of you will catch up.
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No.
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You get to work, you're not hungry for cookies.
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So what happens when the co-worker comes over to you and says, "Blink, blink, blink, blink, blink.
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Would you like a cookie?
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What do you say?" You're like, "I am full.
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You wouldn't believe how many cookies I ate before work today." Well, you probably wouldn't say that.
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We need to cut that one.
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(audience laughing)
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You would say, too much Taylor?
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Too, oh, okay.
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You would say, if she says blink, blink, blink, would you like a cookie?
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You would say, no, thank you.
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I'm full.
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I have all the cookies that I wanted.
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And you know, if you go a long time without cookies, self-control is much harder when someone else offers you one.
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So if you're married, enjoy the wedding present that God gave you.
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Alright?
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Number two, single?
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Enjoy God's gift of singleness.
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I'm going to touch on this quickly.
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Why?
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He goes way into more detail later.
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But right now, understand the point of what he's saying now.
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The point of what he's saying now is two good options, right?
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Two good options.
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Marriage, good option.
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And he's like, let's talk about the other good option, being single.
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Look at verse six.
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He says, "Now as a concession, not a command, I say this." In other words, he's like, look, I'm not commanding everyone to get married.
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I'm just putting this out there because of human needs.
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Right?
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Verse seven, he says, "I wish that all were as I myself am, but each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another." So Paul says, "I have this gift and I wish everyone had this gift." Paul's like, "You may not have this gift." Bible's clear, God gives different gifts to different people and some people are uniquely gifted by God for singleness.
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Some people are.
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Like that is from God himself.
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Quickly, Jesus, Matthew chapter 19, again, we referenced this earlier.
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He was speaking of marriage and divorce and adultery.
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Look, Jesus, this is where Paul gets this.
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Paul's just repeating what Jesus was saying here about singleness.
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Like I said, Jesus just got done talking about marriage and divorce, and the disciples said to him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry." But Jesus said to them, "Not everyone can receive this saying, but only to those to whom it is given.
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For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.
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Let the one who is able to receive this, receive it.
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Same thing, same point.
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Some people have a gift of singleness given by God.
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If you're sitting here, you're like, "Man, I couldn't do it." Well, then you don't have the gift.
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That's just all there is to it, right?
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If you're sitting here and you're like, "You know what?
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am single but I really don't want to be, then you don't have the gift. Because it's a gift from God to be single and content.
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It's from God to be single and content, not single and consumed by lust. You don't have the gift if that's the case. Not if single and constantly tempted, you don't have the gift.
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Not if single and constantly preoccupied by the fact that I am single, you don't have the gift.
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Right?
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But for some, it is a gift.
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And there are definite advantages to this gift that we're going to talk about very shortly down the road, he picks up on that really in verse 32.
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So Paul is saying to the Corinthians, "God's Word preserved by His Holy Spirit saying to us same thing." Look, don't judge the single people, right?
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Don't judge the single people.
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Maybe they have a gift from God to be single and content, to serve Him in a unique way.
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Don't judge them.
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And on the other hand, don't judge the married people either.
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God has given the gift of marriage, and each side here, the single, the married, each has a gift, so enjoy yours how God intended." Our worship team would make their way up.
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You know, in talking about this subject, it's hard to not think about how I heard of this subject when I was but a wee lad.
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And you know, growing up, I thought, I'm just gonna be honest with you here, I thought sex was a bad, dirty thing.
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Growing up, I thought sex was just this really, it was this really secretive, dirty thing that adults kind of whisper about, and you're like, "Why did you think that?" Because that was the only way it was ever presented.
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And you know, so much church, so much church is, "Don't do this, don't do that, don't do this." So much church is, "Let me tell you everything that we're against." And too seldom does the church say what we're for.
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But listen, sex is not a bad, dirty thing.
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You realize God created it.
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You realize the whole thing was His idea.
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God is 100% for husbands and wives enjoying the heck out of it.
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That's what he intended.
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Sex to be one of life's greatest pleasures for a married couple.
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So it's a gift for the married and the unmarried get the gift of not needing that wedding gift.
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So, which is good?
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Married or single?
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Both are good.
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Enjoy.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, every good and perfect gift comes from above.
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And I pray, Father, that you would give us eyes to see the way that you have blessed and gifted us and that we would use the gifts in a way that honors and glorifies you, whether it's single, to serve you in a unique way, whether it's married, to enjoy this picture of Christ and the church to enjoy the intimacy that comes from knowing somebody so deeply.
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Whatever it is, God, let us recognize and enjoy.
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And thank You and praise You for all of Your gifts.
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We praise You in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 7:1-7
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Explain the “3 Laws of Marital Intimacy” in your own words (1 Cor 7:3-5).
What does it mean that “the wife doesn't have authority over her own body, but the husband does, (and vice-versa)”? Is this making allowance for some kind of coercion to intimacy? Why or why not?
How would you respond to a single friend who asks, “How do I know if I have the gift of singleness?”
Breakout
Pray for one another.