The Consequence of Unwanted Pregnancies
There is also the consequence of unwanted pregnancies. There will be one million unwanted pregnancies this year, most ending in abortion. I’ve often thought, “What if we took the same mentality of sex education in our schools and the government as we do with our drug education?” What if we say, “Well, you know what, the kids are going to have sex anyway, go ahead and give them all the birth control devices. The kids are going to take drugs anyway, so let me show you the proper way to smoke dope, the proper way to shoot heroin. They’re going to do it anyway”. You see the mentality behind this? And they say now “safer” sex. Safer than what? Swimming in a tank with great white sharks? It’s not worth it. Just from a biological, physical standpoint. Let’s take the Bible for a nano-second and put it right there. It’s not worth it just physically!
The Cowboys have a game today at 5:18 p.m. If you talk with some of the Cowboy players, if you ever get a chance, they will tell you the typical story of an NFL player. They are gifted athletes. In fact, when they began Pee Wee football, their coaches said, “Boy, you’re going to be a great one day. Stick with it and everything will be AOK. One day you’ll be playing in the NFL. I’ve never seen a kid like you in my life!” Those Cowboy players have disciplined themselves, they have sacrificed, they’re focused, they can train their bodies to be what I feel is one of the greatest professional football teams in the last ten years. Now, they are preparing to play the ultimate game, the Super Bowl.
A guy like Michael Irvin or Emmitt Smith, they’re not going to waste their talents at the YMCA playing flag football, are they? Or in the backyard or in sand lots across the area? No. They are going to save themselves for the ultimate.
Physical Consequence
There’s another consequence that God wants to spare us from – it’s the physical consequence of premarital sex. There’s a physical consequence. In fact, I read recently that when God created man and when God created woman, He designed sex for the marriage bed and the act of sex, I’m talking about sexual intercourse, should reflect the image of God. Let me explain. When God made man, He stamped on man His masculine characteristics. When God made woman, He stamped on woman His feminine characteristics. Thus when they come together in the act of marriage, the image of God in its masculine and feminine aspects are blended and two become one. That’s why the math of marriage in the Bible is one plus one equals one. When you have sex outside the marriage bed, you’re making a mockery of the image of God and that’s nothing to play around with. Because we’re making a mockery of the image of God, there’s a physical price that we pay.
Think about sexually transmitted diseases. Forty-three million Americans have incurable, sexually-transmitted disease. Twelve million will contract a disease that’s incurable this year. We practice what our government and the public school education calls “safe” or “safer” sex. Folks, you’re playing genital Russian Roulette when you’re doing that. What if you signed up for a skydiving course and the skydiving instructor said, “Ron Jones, welcome to the skydiving school. Ron, you will have a one in six change of your parachute not opening”. Now, do you think Ron Jones will say, “Hey, I want to sign up for that! Yes, that will be fun!” No. He would turn and sprint away. He would run away. You can only get pregnant a couple of days of the month.
You can catch the HIV virus, for example, any day of the year. The HIV virus is 150 times smaller than one man’s sperm. Physical consequences.
A Culmination of the Entree
You see, when you’re prematurely bonded, and I’m talking about sexually bonded, you cannot accurately analyze the relationship. There is such a power, there is such an electricity of sex, it is hard to say, “Is this person really for me or not?” Oftentimes, we confuse the electricity of sex with true love. We date, not to mate. We should date to find a mate, and the courtship phase should be used to establish communication patterns, resolve conflict, share dreams and most importantly, grow spiritually.
Most people involved in premarital sex say, “Hey, forget that. That’s boring stuff. That’s entree stuff. I’m going to skip over that because I want the dessert”, and we get between the sheets and have sex outside the marriage bed and say, “Oh, I’m in love. I’m in love”. Then they get married and a couple of years down the road, they look at their spouse and wonder, “Who is this person? Who is this person?” The Bible says we need to become soul mates before we’re bed mates. Sexuality, has to flow from a lifelong commitment in marriage and it flows after we’ve done all the entree stuff in the dating aspect. Then when we get married, sexuality can be the dessert. When you go to a restaurant, do you say, “I would like cheesecake, hot apple pie a la mode”. Everyone would say, “Are you nuts? Let’s have the entree first. The dessert’s purpose is to really add to that. It’s a culmination of the entree”. Relationally, you’re going to be devastated. Many times I’ve talked to people and they’re blinded by sex. Blinded.
The relational consequences. You know what Superglue is, don’t you? Have you ever got some on your hands? I have, and to get the Superglue off, I had to rip the flesh literally. Aah! That’s what happens when you’re prematurely bonded.
God Wants to Spare You
Do it your way and you’re going to suffer consequences. You’re going to reap destruction. There are spiritual consequences.
There are also emotional consequences with sexual sin. Emotional. God wants to spare you from the damage to self-esteem you saw in our drama. The broken heart. The loneliness. The feeling of being violated. He wants to spare you from that emotional trauma. David knew all about emotional trauma and especially the emotional trauma of sexual sin. In Psalm 38 he says, “My sins hang over my head”. Do you feel like that today? “They are heavy and they begin to weigh too much for me”. I read recently that most of the calls that come into college suicide hotlines are from people who have just broken up a relationship where sexual intimacy was established. One of the biggest lies is this notion of casual sex. That’s right, casual, no-fault, non-binding, adult-consenting sex. That is a deception. There’s no such thing. When you have sex outside the marriage bed, you’re giving part of yourself away, giving part of yourself away spiritually, giving a part of yourself away emotionally, giving a part of yourself away relationally, giving a part of yourself away physically, and some people are here today and you’re wondering “What’s wrong with my life? Why isn’t it clicking? Why can’t I really discover what God wants me to do with my life?” Emotionally, there’s not much left.
Continuing in Psalm 38, David says, “l am numb. I groan because of the agitation in my heart. If eel like I’m ready to fall and my sin is continually before me”. How do you feel emotionally after the sexual sin? It can rob you. It can also rob you not only spiritually and emotionally, but relationally. That’s right. In relationships.
The Holy Spirit of God is Bringing the Sin
Here’s the spiritual domino effect that occurs if we don’t deal with sexual sin. First, you have the sexual sin. That’s the first domino. If it’s not dealt with, then you have the guilt that the Holy Spirit brings to the forefront of your mind. At this stage, it’s time to confess and to repent and to say, “I’m going to live a life of purity”. If you don’t, from the guilt phase, you pass to the hardness of heart. Hardness of heart is where when you sin sexually you no longer feel those guilt feelings. You rationalize guilt away. After that domino, the hardness of heart, you have apathy. Who cares? Then from apathy, the final domino is, sad to say, desertion. People spin on their heels and leave the church and who knows what happens to them in eternity? Sexual sin is unique in the fact that it is multi-dimensional. It does across-the-board damage when it’s outside the marriage bed. However, inside the marriage bed, it has across-the-board positive effects.
If we believe the statistics, many here are involved in sexual sin. It’s something a lot of people don’t know about. It’s your own little world and right now the Holy Spirit of God is bringing the sin to your heart, to your mind, and I want to encourage you to deal with it. Deal with it. Come clean. Get rid of it. Give the Lord the reins. Fortunately, we serve a God who specializes in rebuilding sin-shattered lives even lives shattered due to sexual sin.
It’s categorically impossible, ladies and gentlemen, categorically impossible, to have an authentic fellowship with God while involved in sexual sin. Impossible! Impossible! Isn’t it time you did things God’s way instead of snubbing at God and saying, “I’ll do it my way”.
Engaged Within the Body of Christ
There’s a lost and dying world that needs some fruit of the spirit. Your boss needs it, your neighbor needs it. Your children need it. “No, it’s mine! Give me some more.” You sit and you eat and you become spiritually obese, kind of like I feel right now after all these bananas. Just kind of gross. You feel like you’re pulling a barge spiritually. You think, “What’s wrong with me? I’m going to 25 Bible Studies a week and I listen to KLTY every day.” You’re not plastic. You’re the peel people. “Hey, here you go! Here you go!” Do we have some peel people here? People who are not really connected and engaged within the body of Christ. People who are not really using their spiritual gifts within the context of the church. People who aren’t really a part of God’s house. The peel.
The third group of people we have here would be the produce. I mean, you’re producing real stuff. This stuff is just coming forth in your life, and you see people need it. It’s as though spiritually, as you live your life, you’re walking down the street or in the parking garage and you’re just handing out fruit of the spirit. [Passing out fruit] Boom. Biff. Boom. Behind the back and everywhere. You’re just giving it to people, because that’s where they need it. You’re not a plastic person, you’re not a peel person. The peel person’s on the ground. You’re giving out the fruit of this spirit, and this is what God wants us to do and this is what God wants us to be.
He says, “Don’t become plastic and remain plastic, don’t become a peel and remain a peel. Become a farmer’s market Christian, someone who produces fruit and gives it out day in and day out, over and over and over again.”
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