God and Sex - Part 4 - Benefits and Battleplan

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God and Sex    part 4

 

 

Benefits of Following God’s Plan

 

 

A.     Protection  (“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?” Deuteronomy 10:12-13.)

 

·         Protection from all kinds of bad things (shame, poverty, diseases, broken hearts, ruined relationships, children raised in broken homes, wrecked marriage, injury, death, memories).

 

·         A precious gift for your spouse (“An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones” Proverbs 12:4.  “An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels” Proverbs 31:10.)

 

·         A precious gift to your children.

 

B.     Pleasure (Proverbs -19, Song of Solomon)

 

C.     Purity

 

·         Useful to God (“Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart” 2 Timothy -22.)

 

·         “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” Matthew 5:8.

 

D.    Knowing God better

 

·         Marriage is a small picture of God’s covenant love for His people.

 

·         The intimacy of sex within the protection of marriage is a small picture of the intimacy believers will one day have with God. (“And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest” Hebrews .)

 

·         The pleasure and joy of sex withing the protection of marriage is a small picture of the pleasure and joy believers will experience in eternity with God. (“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” Psalm .)

 

E.     Gospel witness

 

·         “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.  This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” Ephesians -32.

 

 

Battle Plan

 

for fighting lust in our hearts and pressure from the world around us

 

            (or the person we’re in love with)

 

A.     Remember I Corinthians 6

 

12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything. 13 “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 immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin  a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

 

 

·         I am a servant of Christ, and should not be a slave to anything else (verse 12).

 

·         I am an eternal being (verse 14) and so is everyone else.

 

·         I am one spirit with Christ (verse 17).

 

·         I am the property of Christ (verses 19-20).

 

You are NOT your own.  So, glorify God in your body.

 

B.     Get to know Jesus better.  “The true knowledge of Christ serves to prevent sexual corruption” (John Piper).

 

·         Romans 13:13-14

 

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

 

·         I Thessalonians 4:3-5

 

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;

 

·         1 Peter 1:3-4

 

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the

 

 knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to

 

us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

 

 

C.     Avoid idolatry

 

·         Romans 1:22-25, 28

 

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.   Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies  among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. … And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

 

 

D.    Don’t see how close you can get to sinning.  Pursue holiness.

 

 

·         2 Timothy  
Now flee from youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith,
love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure
heart.

 

 

·         Replace lust with righteousness, faith, love, and peace.

 

 

E.     Focus on the cross instead of on the sin you are tempted by.  Remember that Christ suffered and died under God’s wrath as a punishment for the sin you are committing or are thinking about committing.  Jesus Christ suffered to make you pure.

 

·         I Peter 1:18-19, 2:24 “…you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. … He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

F.      Memorize Scripture

 

·         1 John 2:14:  I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

 

·         Psalm 119:11:  Thy word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against Thee.

 

·         Proverbs 6:23-24: For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

 

G.    Pray (“And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” Matthew .)

 

 

H.    Don’t let your guard down (“Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” 1 Corinthians .)

 

 

A few more steps you can take to fight lust and other sexual immorality:

 

·         Be accountable to someone or to a group.  You are not supposed to be in this fight alone

 

·         Don’t masturbate.  It doesn’t really solve “sexual pressure.”  It becomes habitual (and we are to be slaves to nothing but Christ).  It is almost always acompanied by lust.  It does not help you know God better and actually hurts your relationship with Him and with other people.

 

·         Don’t start something you are not allowed to finish.  Kissing and sexual touching are designed to be part of sex.  Your body isn’t meant to stop once it gets started, so don’t get started.  This also includes “starting something” (lusting) in your mind.

 

·         Men, according to 2 Timothy 5:1, you are to treat young women as sisters, “in all purity.”  The only young woman who you may treat differently than you would a sister is your wife.  If you are not married, then you treat even your fiance in all purity.

 

·         Remember that you are responsible for Christ’s reputation in the world.

 

·         Spend time with Christian friends.  They should keep you accountable.

 

·         Again, guard your eyes!  Avoid whatever sexual stimulation you can avoid.  Flee youthful lusts!

 

·         Seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness, and He will give you whatever else you need.

 

·         Don’t spend time alone with a person of the opposite gender.

 

·         Get married.  Work toward being someone who would make a good spouse.  Don’t date someone unless you think there’s a possibility you will be married within a year.  Dating is not helpful in preparing for marriage.  It does not teach you to be committed but rather to expect to break up.

 

 

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