Sexual Purity in a Polluted Age - Pastor Daniel Batarseh

As we open up God's word this morning, I wanna begin by saying that my desire for us through this message specifically is that faith would replace discouragement in a certain area of everyone's life. I come to you this morning as I do every week as a brother, as a fellow soldier in the army of God. And every message, know this with confidence, is prayerfully sought after with the same desire every single week, and it is for this, that there would be strength and hope imparted, and that despair and condemnation would be a foreign response to any message of any subject, especially a subject like this one today. If I were to give everybody in here a blank piece of paper, and for the next five minutes, ask you to write a description just by words, one word after the other, just a simple list of characteristics that would describe our society, what things come to your mind? Would this one appear on that blank piece of paper concerning our society and our day?

Sex saturated. Or another way of phrasing it, hypersexual. Today's message is going to target sexual purity in a polluted age. Sexual sin has always been rampant throughout history, littered with it from the beginning of time. But what makes our day so unique is the overwhelming advertisement and accessibility to sexual stimulation that bombards us in a way like no other day has ever shown before.

And we have to be honest, our culture's standard of sexuality is not only confusing, it is all the more becoming more careless. There's no subtlety to it anymore. There's no sanctity to it anymore. It has been narrowed down to a recreational activity that can be exercised between consenting adults, and it's just that. It's a natural desire.

It's something that you move on based on impulse, and let's just keep it at that. That is the message in the cleanest way possible of how the world views sex. Now before we move on, I know that there are younger people in here, and if you feel like you were not, as a parent, wanting your child to hear some of the words that were gonna be said here, that's totally up to you and I wanna give you the freedom to be able to excuse anybody. But let me tell you something, they're hearing it already. And I believe it's the church's responsibility to speak about this with boldness and reverence or else they're going to hear it from somebody else.

The message of this world is not the message that our God teaches and encourages concerning sexuality. The world sends a confusing message to this generation that convinces people, even the people of God, that the Lord's standard of sexuality is worthy to be mocked and altogether ignored because it is according to their wisdom, a thievery to thrills and trysts that can be yours if you just step away from a book that was written by man. As they say, the world intensifies temptation. Not just preaches a message, but they intensify temptation from everything from pornography to the littering of sensual images that you can find even on social media platforms, even down to the encouragement of the way you and I should dress, which all the more adds even greater temptation. The world also reaches minds far younger than you and I could ever imagine.

Encouraging sexual activity and an absorption of sexual images and clips and conversations that is way beyond their capacity to be able to retain doing what? Creating long term damage in the end and polluting an entire generation. By nature, by the way, I'm a very passionate person. So as as we continue in this message, my voice may raise and I may go on little rants, but know this, before God I say this to you, that every single word is throbbing with love. And my prayer every single Sunday is that no matter how intense something is, you would know one thing, that it comes from a heart that loves God's people deeply.

This is the reality of the world that we live in. Guess what? We probably won't be able to change that message. But what we can do as the people of God, again with sobriety, with reverence, with seriousness, the church can proclaim God's message to God's people so that we can stand against darkness in this area. My prayer is that we would hear the word of the Lord tonight, rather this morning.

And you might be wondering what in the world does this have to do with Christmas and New Year's because we're in that season, are we not? Out of all the topics that you can speak about brother, you chose sexuality according according to God's standard and we're coming up on Christmas and New Year's. Here's where it can tie in if it ties in with anything. Again my prayer, that as we come into 2019, that this message by the grace of God would impart a fresh faith to be able to see victory in this area in the new year no matter what 2018 looked like. And my prayer also is this, as you hear the word of God, you would know for certainty that God's standard is to maximize protection, and here we go, you might be shocked by this word, and maximize pleasure in the area of sexuality if we choose to just take heed and obey.

Would you open your Bibles to first Thessalonians chapter four? First Thessalonians chapter four beginning in verse three. Sexual purity in a polluted age. Verse three of chapter four of first Thessalonians. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the gentiles who do not know God.

First thing that Paul says here that this is the will of God. This is God's desire. This is God's standard, and he hasn't changed his mind though culture may have concerning what sexuality is and how often and how it can be practiced. God says through his word, through the apostle, this is my will for you. It's my desire for you.

It's my longing. It's my yearning for my people to be able to take heed to what this word has to say. What is his will for you and me, brothers and sisters? Your sanctification. Sanctification.

Another word, holiness. What does that mean? That every aspect of your life, generally speaking, ought to be set apart to the glory of God. That you can say with every component of your existence that this is set apart for whatever Jesus wants from it. That's what holiness is.

Holiness is not necessarily you not dressing a certain way, you not going to certain places. It's about you knowing from the inside out that my whole life belongs to Christ, and so I walk with him wherever. And I consider him when I dress, and I consider him when I speak. That is holiness, and there's a beauty and a power about it that comes when you obey it. Holiness.

Holiness is the will of God for you and I. But not just holiness generally speaking, Paul now comes to a specific area of holiness and he's saying, holiness in the area of sexual purity. This is the will of God, your sanctification. What? That you abstain from sexual morality.

Hold on there. He did not say that you abstain from sexuality, that you may abstain from immoral sexuality. There's a big difference there because you and I might be shocked to realize that sex is a gift from God. A gift. Sex didn't enter into creation by accident.

Sex is not just some second thought that God had. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. They gotta procreate. So let's just it was intentionally designed by God to serve a specific purposes, plural, in the context of a God ordained, biblically described marriage covenant. It's a gift.

It's his will for us to know what that gift is, but there is a perversion of that gift. There is a tampering of that gift. There is something that the world is trying to convince us that God's idea of sexuality is not really a gift, it's actually him punishing you of all things by restraining you and holding you back from ecstasies in the flesh. But let me tell you something about sex according to the Bible. That God's design for it is intended for you and I to know maximum enjoyment of it.

We think sex according to the Bible, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, and when you do it, it's just for the purpose of procreation. We gotta have babies somehow, so keep it at that. That is one of the purposes. But would you know this, that sex created by God was actually intended for intimacy between a man and a woman? That the Lord in his wisdom has given something for a unique expression of love that can build a stronger bond between a husband and a wife.

It's a unifying physical act that creates an experience that two people who deeply love each other can share in. Listen, it's God's gift in marriage. I mean, you can look forward to marriage because you know that this gift is reserved for you in it. But not only is it God's gift in marriage, it is your gift to your future spouse and a gift that you are to receive from your future spouse. Why can we have confidence that God's design for sex, according to his word, is intended to know maximum pleasure in it.

How can we have confidence in such a statement like that? Because I hear something different from my friends when they go out and when they have their boyfriends and girlfriends. So convince me preacher that God's standard is better than the world's standard. Tell me why one man, one woman. Tell me why being exposed and experiencing something before one person is better than adultery and and all the fantasies that come to my mind.

Tell me why. Because it's designed by God. And any person who has designed something for someone else to enjoy or utilize oftentimes carries instructions with that designed object or thing or experience for you to be able to know its fullest potential. You buy something, and usually when you have to put it together, I hope you honor the instructions, lest you hurt yourself or you rob yourself from experiencing the fullness of what it can offer you. And God has designed this thing called sex.

And if we honor the instructions, if we honor the manual that he has given you and I, we can be assured that there is something to be enjoyed to the fullest and maximum way. And when we refuse to do that, the only person we are harming more than anything is ourselves. We are robbing ourselves from what God wants to give us because we have our own ideas, and we think that because we have urges we can just move on them. Oh, nothing could be further from the truth. Think of anything in life that has instructions, and if you don't honor them, you come out with something that was not intended to come out.

My brothers are here and when we grew up as kids, we used to go to our grandparents house often, and they lived in a very old home but they had this old school fireplace. It was an old school fire, real wood, real fire. You had that smell of wood just permeate the house. It was so warm, it was blazing. It was a beautiful we loved it.

In the wintertime, we we look forward to going to that fireplace, and if we were allowed to start the fire ourselves, we'd just sit by the fire. The warmth that it provided, the heat that it provided, the atmosphere that it provided, it was wonderful as long as it stayed in the fireplace. And yeah, you can warm yourself by that fire, and you can rest assured that you're safe because it's staying within the confines of that structure. But perhaps out of excitement, or just wanting to be creative, or wanting to try something new, we decided to take a fire and start it outside of a fireplace, maybe on the carpet or somewhere else. You might get warm for a second, but you will know this for certain, you're gonna get more burned than warm as a result of taking it out of its ordained place.

Think of sex like that. Think of any sexual activity as that. Now he says sexual immorality. How can we define that? Because that seems like such a general term.

Sexual immorality can be defined in a very powerful way, the giving up of sexual purity. Sexual morality is any expression of sexuality that is given outside of the confines of God's understanding and description of marriage. Any sexual act that is dishonouring within marriage that defiles that covenant that God has created is generally known as adultery. So how can we how can we understand this? Because we understand what sexual morality is, then we have this mental list in our mind saying, okay, this is this is sexual moral, this isn't this isn't this is kind of bad.

It kind of gets close to the full intercourse. So so I have my mental list. The Bible provides something that I believe is staggering and if we were to really trust it by faith, it would do us a lot of good. Turn your Bibles to first Timothy chapter five. Beginning in verse one.

Do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters in all purity. In all purity. What is he saying here? I want you to look at those that you know as your brothers and sisters in Christ, as family members. Your sisters in Christ, like your actual sisters.

Your brothers in Christ, like your actual brothers. Older ones as mothers in all purity. Why do you think he included that? We'll speak more about that later. And oftentimes you have people that come up, and I've had this too, sincere people, genuine people that want to honor and walk with God, who are in a committed relationship but are not necessarily yet married and the question often goes like this, brother is this okay to do?

And they begin to list certain things. Is that alright to do? And I usually answer that question with another question. Brother, would you do that with your sister? Sister, would you do that with your brother?

Would you do that with your mom? What are you talking about? That's disgusting. Because as long as she is not your wife or your husband, she is defined biblically as your sister. He is defined biblically as your brother.

Until you make that covenant, until you do so before God and before God's people and you make your vows, that person is your sibling. It's not very popular and I can hear the world saying, Exactly. Your God is trying to hold you back. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. And let me just go back to the point where I was making before that God has designed something and He wants to ensure maximum pleasure in this area of sex.

So I give an example of a fireplace, and here's another example. You think about a recipe that you want to make, and you have all the instructions about how you can make this recipe and you have all the ingredients and everything is perfect. You've honored everything up to this point. But because you're really hungry, you realize that one of the instructions says forty five minutes in the oven, but you're really hungry. So you put it in the oven and fifteen minutes go by, twenty minutes go by and you go, I'm not gonna wait.

And you pull that out and you just start eating it. You're eating something, but you're not enjoying the fullness of it. And that's why Proverbs six tells us, can a man cast fire onto his lap and not burn his clothes? You take fire out of its God ordained purpose and you do something with it that's not intended, you're gonna burn yourself. Proverbs six twenty seven.

You're insured to burn yourself. Song of Solomon eight four says this, I adjure you daughters of Jerusalem, do not awaken love before it's time. So I give you two examples. An example of fire in which you take something that can be so beautiful and beneficial and become so dangerous. Don't burn yourself.

Secondly, don't stir something else before it's time. And that's what happens in Song of Solomon. She says, my my friends, my sisters, you might have even the right guy, but don't eat the food before it's ready. Don't pull it out of the oven and start nibbling on something and just wait for it so that you can really know its maximum enjoyment. God wants you to know enjoyment in this.

That's his desire for your joy, to enjoy his gifts, including sex. I know that's a crazy idea, but it's God. It's God as a father speaking to his children saying I want you to know that I actually want you to enjoy this. Would you trust me? Would you trust me?

So Paul says in first Thessalonians four three, abstain. Hold yourself back. That's what the word means. Keep yourself from going into that direction. Why?

Here's a motive, because God wants you to know something of it. That will be beyond your expectations if you just trust him. But not just enjoying the maximum pleasure of it. God has given us his standard to know our maximum protection in it. Not just pleasure, but protection in it.

We often think and when we hear don't be sexually active with a a person, don't do this, don't do this before marriage. You know what comes to mind? Oh Oh, that's right because I don't want to attract any STD's. Oh, that's right because I don't want any unwanted pregnancies. But let's just be real, there are people who are sexually active that don't attract an STD and they don't get pregnant.

But there is an unavoidable consequence for every person that gives themselves to any level of sexual expression. That is undeniable. I remember when I was in college in my second year, I believe it was, and all the electives that I had to choose were blocked out and there was one elective left, love and sex. Now this is when I after I got saved, and I go, great. Love and sex.

Out of all the things that I can take as an elective, I gotta take I gotta sit through this, and here's somebody who doesn't believe about God, doesn't believe in the word of God about gonna tell me about love and sex. So there I am sitting in class and as you know, week after week the philosophy of love. Eros and all these people speaking about what sex is and how you should explore and I thought to myself, get me out of here. Finally, we had a final project. And the things that I learned in that final project, I'll never forget for the rest of my life.

This is not a religious class. This is not a religious school. It's secular. And so I needed to go through a secular approach. I needed to go through science to try to prove the argument of God's standard being the best standard concerning sexuality.

And I remember presenting in that class. It was like Daniel in the lion's den. I can guarantee you that. And so I studied. Studied, studied, studied, studied.

And I realized something about sexual activity. Not just full on intercourse. As you're hearing me, don't just think the full act, even things leading up to it, is proven by psychologists today. Hear me. There is a chemical in the brain that is released called dopamine.

You're probably familiar with it. It is the the internal pleasure reward system. In other words, let's simplify it. When you do certain things, dopamine is released, and it feels good. It makes you feel good wanting you to repeat the act.

Now dopamine is released when sexual acts are performed on any level, and it's equated to what drug addicts seek after when they're trying to find their next fix. Dopamine is released. There's an addictive aspect to it, and that's true concerning sexuality. Now that makes sense or else people wouldn't be doing it. But it's not just dopamine.

This is what blew my mind. There is another chemical, another neurotransmitter that is set in the body and this is God's wisdom. I praise Him. I, when I found this, I said this is amazing. It's called oxytocin.

Oxytocin. Oxytocin is another chemical that is released predominantly and primarily found in women. Men have their own set of chemicals. Pray for us. Okay.

Oxytocin is primarily found in women, and what this chemical does, it's known as the cuddle hormone or the love hormone. It is released when there is skin to skin interaction, and it's found even, especially when a woman breastfeeds her child. What happens when there's that that skin to skin contact? Something is being released in the mother that is binding her to that child emotionally. God has so wired the brain so that when that baby's being nurtured physically, when there's that skin to skin people in here who've had babies recently, don't they encourage skin to skin contact?

Yes. Because something is released. There's a connection that is made there in that physical touch. A lot of oxytocin is released when a person has sexual intercourse with another person. So when a woman gives herself on any level, whether it's intercourse and anything else leading up to it, what happens to her and even man on a different level.

This isn't a science class, so I'm not gonna go too deep into it. What happens is she begins to, whether she wants to or not, linking herself and connecting herself emotionally to that individual that she's giving herself to. It's a powerful chemical. It's a powerful thing, and it could be for awesome good or terrible disaster. Just depending how you use it.

Do you see God's wisdom? That you keep yourself, that you wait for that one person so all that oxytocin goes to your husband? All of those chemicals that bind you goes to your wife, and it makes you cling to her and stick to her. They did a study, and and I can't give all the details, but let me give you the general synopsis of it, where they took men who were faithful to their wives, and they they they put they did oxytocin, different things to them to have an increase of oxytocin, and they lined them up with different pictures, and there was an alarming rate that even when there is women more beautiful in terms of physical aspects according to whatever standard that is, the males kept going saying, my wife is the most beautiful out of all these. There was this magnetizing kept going back to their wives because what?

That there's some connection that was made in that intimate act. And God says, I want that for your spouse. This is so true on a psychological level because when you speak to anybody who has ended a relationship, it's usually more dramatic for someone who is sexually active than someone who wasn't. It's more damaging, it's more painful, it's more heartbreaking when somebody has given themselves over in whatever act because there's a connection and that rip is extra. And so God says, I want you to honor my standard because I want to maximize your protection.

There's so many examples of this, and some studies even show that perhaps this is one of the reasons why even women who are in abusive relationships find it so difficult to leave their abusive person or whatever, whoever they're with because they've given themselves an intimacy and that emotional bond has been created, that even in light of abuse, they go I can't leave that person. This is how powerful this thing is. I even had somebody told me about a couple that they knew and they weren't married. And the young man who was with that young lady was so in love with that young lady, he was terrified of losing her. So he goes to his dodo friends that aren't saved, and you know what they tell her?

Sleep with her. Get her to sleep with you and she'll be stuck to you. That's stupid advice. But guess what? Science can back that up.

There's something that is connected in those acts and there's an increase of it as it is continually entertained. And God says, I want you to reserve that for your future spouse. And you will know something about connection and you will know something about intimacy and you will know something about trust that is beyond what you think. Can I read a verse to you from Proverbs five eighteen? Just listen to this.

Proverbs five eighteen. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breast fill you at all times with delight. Be intoxicated always in her love. That's in the Bible.

Then he goes on to say, don't do it with random people. Keep it for your wife. Get drunk off of her love. Drink from her. Enjoy her.

This is the Bible. In light of a father speaking to his son, consume yourself with that young lady that is your wife. Enjoy her. God designed you to enjoy her, so don't sip from other cups. So what is God's design?

It is this, that you and I, if God brings you into a relationship at one point or not, if you are entering into a relationship, that if you honor his way, you have two people who are honoring God's standard walking into a relationship, and as you walk in, you are entering into a new journey where you explore and experience this gift together with a sense of security and trust as a part of it. Is it no wonder that in first Corinthians six eighteen, he says flee from sexual morality for every other sin is outside of the body, but this sin is against your own body and we just talked about what it can do to your mind. Do you see the wisdom of God? Do you hear the father's voice? In first Thessalonians four three, abstain yourself.

I want you to know maximum pleasure. I want you to know maximum protection is what it is in it. Please trust in me. That's what God is saying. Now at this point of the message, I wanna speak to two groups of people.

The first group I wanna speak to are those who have kept themselves pure up to this point. And here's my message to you as a brother in love. I wanna speak to you as though I would speak to a sibling, my own siblings. Don't believe the lies. Don't believe what the media says.

Don't believe what the culture says. And I know that's harder than you think because sex is everywhere. It's everywhere. We know this. Do we not?

Billboards, commercials for the most random products, health products, music videos. It's everywhere. And perhaps we have become so desensitized to it that we don't even realize that it is shouting at us, and it is definitely having an effect on this, the way we think. How many people are struggling just because of their Instagram account? Just their Instagram account alone.

And what I wanna say to you, please pay attention to me, is don't believe the lies, including the urges of your own self. But don't believe your dodo friends either. That as you sit together and they begin to talk about this and this is what happened and this is what happened, they begin to describe certain things and almost making you feel like you're missing out on something. You're not missing out on something. God is preserving you for something.

Trust God in the process. Trust God in the waiting. Trust that God wants your maximum pleasure and your maximum protection in it. So don't believe the lies because they're coming if they haven't already come. I fear for certain people.

My goodness. I remember first hearing about sex and all these different things, not just sex, detailed things when I was in grade three. That was in the nineties. What is it today? So I don't know what you're hearing.

I don't know what you're being convinced of. Don't believe it. And if there's anybody that would try to approach you in the name of love, young lady, even young men, but this is predominantly for ladies, tell that person to back off. If that person truly loves you, they will honor you. They will honour you.

If they truly love you and they fear God, I don't care if he calls himself Christian, but if he truly loves you, he will honour and you'll fear God and obey this commandment with his life. And I want you to be able to understand that what you have is a gift. Keep it for your future husband. Fight for your future marriage. You might not be married now, but you fight for that future spouse.

You offer that gift. You keep it. Abstain yourself from it. Think of it as a gift that you want to give to that one person one day. So I adjure you.

I exhort you. Don't believe the lies. The second group of people, those who probably feel pretty crushed right now. Because you're hearing all of this and you can admit that you have unfortunately given yourself to at one level or another in some way. And you're probably thinking I had done messed up, haven't I?

Here's my message to you in Jesus' name. The gospel. That this gospel is so powerful and Jesus Christ is so strong that he's able to restore you, renew you, put fresh faith and hope in you. And I encourage you as a brother that no matter what you've done in the past, even if it happened last night, that you would make a vow before God today that you will offer that gift, what you can give. And you might have some scars and you might have some memories, but believe this, that God can give you victory no matter what you've experienced.

God can give you victories in the days of hell. God does forgive you, but not only does He want to forgive you, He wants to empower you. This gospel has power even over sexual sin. This gospel has power even over regrets. This gospel has power even over anything, and trust that.

So don't beat yourself up. This is the prayer I believe that we should pray if anybody's fallen into that category. Lord, I I did. Things happen, but I give you my future. I give you my future, and it might be it might be difficult.

It might get tough. I might have some flashbacks that the person who hasn't done anything might not have, but I'm gonna believe that you are with me and you are for me, and I beg of you wait till the end of the message to hear what God has in store for you no matter what category you find yourself in this morning. God is with you, for you, and will empower you no matter what the past looked like. Believe it. So we're hearing this and you are either in one of those two categories, but I'm fully aware.

I'm fully aware that even a message like this can stir hearts for two, three days, maybe two weeks, And guess what comes back? Urge. Guess what comes back? Strong desire. Guess who comes along?

Cute looking guy with no standard. A good looking gal that wants to take that gift away from you. You know what we need right now? We need some strong practical truths to implement immediately. Immediately.

And the first one is this, though these are not limited, please understand that the Bible is filled with motivations to live holy in sexual purity. So they're not limited to these, but these are just a few for our message today. Please turn your bibles to first Corinthians. First Corinthians chapter six. Just a few pages behind first Thessalonians.

First Corinthians six thirteen. First Corinthians six fifteen says food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual morality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. What's Paul saying here? He's teaching on how to keep your body pure and holy before God.

And he uses this phrase, food is for the body or for the stomach and the stomach is for food. Now why is he speaking about this? Because that is true. You get hungry, you eat. Food is there to to fill you up, and it's quite possible that the reason why Paul is using this phrase is because the Corinthians have come to a place where they have equated an appetite for food on the same level as an appetite to fulfill sexual gratification.

So this is this is the mentality of some, that this is a natural desire. I'm hungry, so I'm gonna eat because food is provided there for me. If I'm craving food, guess what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna find something to eat. And they've used that same level of reasoning in their sexual urges.

Well, I'm this is a natural process, this is a natural desire, I can't fight it, it's a part of who I am. So the same way that I eat food when I'm hungry is the same way that I'm gonna fulfill this desire because I have these urges, and Paul says, hold up. This isn't his main point, but this is a very important point. You cannot, though sexual desire is a natural appetite, it is not on the same level as food and water. Why?

Because you can survive without sex. You can't survive with food and water, without food and water. That's a beautiful simple truth that can really save a lot in the midst of temptation. Because as strong as that urge is, as strong as that urge is, you know what you can tell yourself? I can survive without this.

I don't need to give myself into this. I'm not dependent upon this like I am dependent upon food and water to live. So next time those thoughts come, next time you feel your blood boiling, just tell yourself this. I don't need this to live. I can go my whole life without this and actually be healthy and perfectly fine.

Food is meant for the stomach. Stomach is meant for the food. Sex is meant for the body and the body is meant for sex. He says, you know, God is gonna destroy both his stomach and food. These are transit things.

These things are temporal. These things are not eternal. These things are limited to this life. And so what's the argument? Both food and your appetite for food and both sexual desires, guess what?

Life is not about those things. Last week we spoke about how Jesus says in Matthew six, is life not more than food and clothing? Let's add to that. Is life not more than sexual pleasures? Here's the number one truth.

This is a practical truth. Here's number one. Believe that God is better than any experience of physical intimacy. Believe that God is better than any act of physical intimacy. The body is not meant for food necessarily.

The body and life is not about clothing and neither is it centered upon you finding the next thrill in your sex life. Then what is it for? For the Lord. And the Lord for the body. What is he saying here?

Your body is a vehicle for God's glory to be manifested in the earth. That your energy, your muscles, your strength, your eyesight, your lips, your ears, everything about who you are, is set apart to be able to transport and advance God's message and God's purpose in the earth. That's why you live. That's why God has given you breath. That's why God kept you on the earth when you gave your life to Christ in this body, That you would be his representative and all the gifts and all the things that you can do with your body would be consecrated unto God.

This is what he's saying. Now here's the problem. People don't live for that purpose even under the name of Christ. So what happens when you don't live for that purpose? You find your fulfillment in food.

You find your fulfillment in clothing. And would you believe it? You try to find your fulfillment in sexual pleasure. When it's not reserved for what God ordained it to be, surely you're gonna try to find another purpose for your body. Do you know why this world is so crazy about sex?

Do we have an idea why this world is so saturated and confused and plundering into deeper and deeper darkness and twisted versions of it? Do you know why? It's because they have not yet realized the ecstasies of being joined with Christ in the spirit. That's why. They don't know the pleasure and the joy of walking with Jesus day by day.

They don't know it. So what are they doing? They're trying to find something to give him that same kind of ecstasy feeling, and Christ is saying, it's me. It's me. It's me.

It's me. And so GK Chesterton said this. Listen to this. The man who rings the bell at the brothel unconsciously does so seeking God. Let me say that again.

The man who rings the bell at the brothel where prostitutes hang out. The man who comes and rings the bell so he can get his next fist. You know what he's doing? He's unconsciously seeking after God because only God can fill that void. Let's modernize it.

The man who goes on that website and clicks enter unconsciously is one who's seeking God. The man who's going from one relationship to the other and giving himself or that woman who's giving herself is unconsciously seeking after the pleasures that are only found in the river of his delights. You and I must seek God in such a childlike matter and say, Lord, let me know your pleasure in such a way that it eclipses any other pleasure that any sexual tryst can offer me. If that is not the case, it can be dangerous. That is why I believe this world is twisting and turning and running around.

It's because only God can fill it and they're trying to find the next thing that could be close to that. And it's this strange, exuberant, ecstatic thrill found in this gift that God has given. Believe that God is better than any act of physical intimacy. If you don't believe that, it can get bad. But don't just believe that.

Believe that your actions with another does not just affect you too. Let's go back to first Thessalonians. Hear this as you turn there, sometimes the greatest motivation to deflate your sinful pleasure is to realize the pain that it will bring to others if you fulfill it. Sometimes one of the greatest motivation is to deflate your sinful pleasure is when you realize the pain that it will bring to others. Look what he says in verse six, that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter.

That no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter. What's being, what's being said here? This verse is talking about the believers in a church that are tempted to engage in an adulterous affair, that you would give yourself to somebody who's not your husband or your wife, or you would come and try to interfere with a covenant relationship. And what Paul is saying, listen, you think that this is just about you and another person having a good time, but you fail to realize that you're gonna affect someone else. In other words, what he's trying to say is, brother, that's somebody's wife.

Sister, that's somebody's husband. This is not just gonna affect you and that person. You're gonna damage a third party involved with this. And in the church context, man it does damage to the whole body. Are you really gonna cause so much pain for the sake of a night of pleasure or a moment of pleasure?

Don't transgress your brother in this manner. And we go, well a lot of us in here are single. Listen, that somebody is somebody's future husband. That somebody is somebody's future wife, and so let's step into the realm of spiritual maturity and not just limited to marriage and say, that is somebody's future husband. I will not violate her because of my future brother that will marry her.

That is somebody's future wife. That is somebody's future husband. I'm not gonna even get involved because that's my sister, first Timothy five says. Do you see that in others? God is able to change our minds concerning how we view one another.

And if we really love, we realize that I'm not gonna cause pain for the sake of my own selfish desires. Believe that your actions do not just affect you and another. Third point, believe that small actions can lead to bigger ones. If I've entered the realm of unpopularity, I'm definitely gonna enter into it right now. Paul is writing he's not writing to an unsaved people.

Paul is writing to a church. This letter isn't to the heathens of Thessalonica. This letter is written to the saints of the Thessalonica church, and this isn't just an ordinary church. We're not talking about the Corinthian church that is so confused sexually that boasts an even incest relationship according to first Corinthians five. Look at verse nine of first Thessalonians four just to see what kind of church we're reading about here.

Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. This church was madly in love with one another and God, and so powerful was their love, so so powerful was their family like congregation and relationship, that Paul has even the audacity to say, I don't even want to teach you about love. I can't because you've learned it directly from God. This is a powerful church. This is a sacrificial church.

This is a church that would lay down their lives for one another. And yet it is to this church that the Apostle Paul warns concerning sexual sin. Do you know why? Because even in such a church like that, things can go wrong. And I believe things can go wrong because of the closeness, because of the familiarity, Because of the family like relationship.

In other words, things can go sour because of familiarity. Listen, sexual acts don't just start like that, they happen in stages. And you know what the first stage is? I believe, and maybe you can argue this, but I believe it's one of them. One of the first stages of somebody getting into a sexual relationship, even if it's one act and never do it again, do you know how somebody gets there?

Let me tell you how. You get comfortable with the person. Really comfortable with the person. And things begin to go in a certain direction, and it all starts with small actions. And this is something that we have to understand.

If it's possible for people in a loving church to fall into sexual morality, how much more your school? Do you see people every day? How much more your workplace? Where you see people every day. Always keep your heart in check.

Always walk in wisdom and integrity amongst us and one another. Keep yourself in check. Always take captive your thoughts when you begin to entertain something about someone who is your brother or sister. Beware. Beware of even the simplest things.

Beware of flirting. Beware of touching and getting comfortable with that. Beware. I'm not talking about being friendly, I'm talking about being intentional with your words and actions to try to seduce somebody to be attracted to you in an inappropriate way. That's what I'm speaking about.

It can happen once you get too comfortable. Believe that small actions could lead to bigger ones, but I'll say this. Lastly, believe that God is willing and able to assist you in your pursuit of purity. Look at verse eight of first Thessalonians four. In his final instructions concerning this, he goes, therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

What is he saying here? Listen, this is not my teaching and I joined the Apostle Paul this morning and I say, brothers and sisters, this isn't something I came up with. I didn't sit in my room this week and say, I want to teach on a standard of sexuality just so people can feel like this is gonna be tough for them. That, that's not where it came from. It came straight from the word of God.

And so whoever sits here today and disregards this, you know what Paul is saying? You're disregarding God. You're not disregarding a preacher. You're not disregarding man. You're disregarding and he says, listen, God gave his Holy Spirit to you.

He's holy. He lives inside of you. He walks with you in this life, And though I believe that is one of the points, I believe that there is a hopeful truth in this verse. A hopeful truth in this verse. What is that hopeful truth?

Read it now in this way. Whoever disregards this, disregards not man, but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. In other words, don't dismiss this. Don't lose hope in this. Don't be discouraged in what you're hearing this morning.

Why? Because he gives his holy spirit to you. He wants to empower you. He wants to renew your mind. He wants to give you power over those urges.

This is his desire. The The Holy Spirit, in light of all these instructions, he now comes to this crescendo statement. He's here to help you. He's here to help you. Believe that.

God is not setting up a standard and saying, now good luck. He's saying, here's my spirit. Here's my Holy Spirit. Doesn't matter how tempting it is. It doesn't matter how attracted you are.

It doesn't matter what promises these people are giving to you. You can trust that God will give you strength, will give you strength. I know a young man who before he was saved was in this sin, and he would be able to say that he was bound to this sin. And he got saved. And when he got saved, it was a little rough at first, but sure enough he had come to a place where he just he came to a place where he just was just gliding with the Lord and he could say with confidence that he had victory over this.

That he had victory over this. Even victory over and I'm saying this in a veiled way and I hope that you would understand what I'm saying, even victory over self gratification. I hope you know what I'm saying when I mean that. And as he grew in the Lord, just within his first couple years, he began to meet other believers, and this young man began to grow discouraged quickly. And one of the discouragements was that other brothers would come up to him and confess just as what brothers do, and would say, brother, I'm struggling with this.

I can't stop watching this. I can't stop meeting with this person. And the discouragement was not that because of them, but because of him to some degree, he felt like he couldn't share the victory that he was having for different reasons, for reasons that he thought maybe they'll be discouraged or maybe they won't believe me. And so this young brother went to his mentor one day with this swirling in his mind and saying, listen, I have friends that I love that that to tell me that they're showing with this, but I can testify that Christ has set me free and I have victory over this. I have power over this.

That I really believe that what he has to offer in the spirit through his word, walking with Jesus experientially daily fulfills me. Oh, yeah. I have temptation. Oh, yeah. Thoughts come.

In fact, when I first, when I got saved there was more girls after me than before I was saved. I can't share anything because it just seems so unrealistic. It seems like the norm is the opposite, not this. And that leader looked at him and said, you better not hold that to yourself. You better share those things when somebody confesses because what you are showing them is that first Thessalonians four eight is a reality.

That the Holy Spirit is given to give you strength and give you power to have victory over this. You will have temptation. You will have strong impulses. You will have invitations even, never mind temptation. But God is with you and I'm here to testify to this day that even years, and I've I've known this person for years, even to this day, that person has still remained in victory and that person's not even married.

They could testify to victory, to this moment. And so I come to stand before you to say, it's possible. It is possible. What do we say to all of these things? Do you feel condemned?

I hope not. Do you feel discouraged? I pray not. Believe that God is better than any act of physical intimacy. Believe that your actions, if you so choose to, even in light of this message, to go in that way and to begin to explore, does not just affect you and another person.

Believe that small actions because we love to justify don't we? Well it's not this, it's just this. And I get some gratification even if it's not that. Those things will lead to it. I'm not trying to be legalistic here if you're hearing me.

I'm trying to give you all the things that this word can offer so that you can protect yourself. And lastly, believe that God is willing and able to assist you in your pursuit of purity. How do we end this message? Because it's a heavy one, isn't it? It's a heavy one.

But it's necessary and it's God's word. And God's tone with this message is just come to me. Come to me. I've given four. We can spend the next forty five minutes to go on to another 10 different points and maybe we'll leave that for another message.

But just let's just stick with these four. It's a matter of the mind. It's It's a matter of the mind. It's a matter of perspective. It's a matter of faith.

When you are tempted, when you come to those places, preach to yourself the truths of this word and tell yourself, no matter what I feel, no matter what I want, God is better. God is more satisfying. And I wanna experience the fullness of his gift, so I'm gonna honor the manual and the instructions. Please hear me. And if you're in it today, on any level, whether it's with a screen, with person that you're interested in, a person that you're not interested in, a person that you're planning to get married to, I would love for us to respond.

Not just to jump in two songs and end and do offering and walk, but right now to say, God create in me a clean heart. Create in me a clean heart. Desperately pray that in your seat today because we know ourselves, don't we not? We're gonna go back into the real world and different voices and different things before us are gonna pull us into a different direction. So now let's ask God for a mighty intervention in this aspect of our lives.

This is what church is about, to meet with God as a response to hearing from his word. I come to you as a brother today. I hope you know that. I hope you know that. And then I'm here to pray with you and for you no matter what.

And that's what we're gonna do right now. Bow your heads with me, please. I'm gonna say this. I'm not trying to say this in intentionally attempting to be prophetic or anything like that. I'm just saying this to say it.

If you are right now in a situation, if you're in a relationship right now and you are being tempted and lured to go into a different direction that would lead you to faithlessness, This is God speaking to you through his word today. If you are a person that is not in a relationship and somebody is giving you attention that you know will lead to decisions that will fall into the category of what we just spoke of. This is God pleading with you this morning. Don't take it lightly, please. Don't take it lightly.

Really believe that the word of the Lord is for your specific life, if that's you.