Unmasking Sexual Immorality and Pursuing Christ Together

The Present Situation

Why are we having this be the lesson: Sins within our ministry, Universal struggle, especially aimed at us and the generations coming after us. Because we can’t do this on our own and need each other.

Outline:

Define why we are having this lesson:

Pressing need for our generation

Statistics about pornography and sexual immorality

Go into the truth about the sins amongst ourselves (Many of our own have fallen into sexual immorality this year as well.

We need to see Lust for what it is and that’s why we are having this lesson.

Key Point #1 we need to understand what our body is how we should use our bodies.

Key Point #2 Sexual Immorality is a very heinous sin against Christ, his body, and our body.

Key Point #3 Sexual Intimacy was only designed to be experienced in Marriage. This isn’t a low view of sex but a High View

Key Point #4 Sexual immorality is too strong to fight, we must flee.

Key point #5 Our weapons in this fight are our identity, truth, and the Blood of Christ

Key Point #6 Purity and holiness are the path to true joy in our Fellowship with God. It’s not a fight against, but a fight for joy, love, and intimacy with God.

Script:

Men, I’m glad we are all here. We have a very important topic tonight, we are going to talk specifically about sexual immorality and purity.

In college ministry in my experience there is a conversation that happens more often than almost any other in ministry. And it’s the conversation where a young man comes to me and tells me that they fell into sexual immorality, whether through fornication or pornography.

It’s extremly prevelant in our societey.

I want to give you some statistics on the moment in time we find ourselves in todays world.

According to Pew Research and Fight the New Drug,

According to a 2020 study, approximately 91.5% of men and 60% of women view pornography monthly.

84.4% of 14 to 18-year-old males and 57% of 14 to 18-year-old females have viewed pornography.

In more committed relationships, only 46% of women accurately reported how much their partner consumed porn with nearly 40% of men reporting more consumption than their partners believed was occurring, according to a 2017 study.

In a 2016 study, researchers found that 46.9% of respondents reported that, over time, they began watching pornography that had previously disinterested or even disgusted them.

1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys aged 13-17 report sharing their own nudes

1 out of every 8 porn titles shown to first-time users on porn home pages describe acts of sexual violence, according to a 2021 study.

Pornography is the second most common form of sex-trafficking

Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with nine women with experiences in pornography production in Sweden. Participants identified young age, financial insecurity, earlier exposure to sexualized violence, and poor mental health as typical antecedents to entering the pornography industry.

Once in the industry, women risk manipulation and coercion by pornographers and porn buyers, making it difficult to maintain personal boundaries. Women are regularly harassed by porn buyers who send requests to purchase specific sexualized acts online or offline. The greater a woman’s vulnerability, the more difficult it is to resist pornographer’s and porn buyer’s demands.

Data from the 2002 survey indicate that by age 20, 77% of respondents had had sex, 75% had had premarital sex, and 12% had married; by age 44, 95% of respondents (94% of women, 96% of men, and 97% of those who had ever had sex) had had premarital sex. Even among those who abstained until at least age 20, 81% had had premarital sex by age 44. Among cohorts of women turning 15 between 1964 and 1993, at least 91% had had premarital sex by age 30. Among those turning 15 between 1954 and 1963, 82% had had premarital sex by age 30, and 88% had done so by age 44.

Half of Christians say casual sex – defined in the survey as sex between consenting adults who are not in a committed romantic relationship – is sometimes or always acceptable.

Specifically with evangelical Christians this is 36%

There has never been more widespread access to pornography, child sexuallly explicit images, and human trafficking in the history of the world. What used to be centerfolds in playboy magazines has turned into just a few buttons away from the most graphic and extreme forms of pornography.

We live in a world that is awash with sexual immorality. Both through pornography, and fornication. We live in a broken world, and one of the clearest pictures of this is the view of sexuality our world has today.

This hasn’t spared the church. Over half of practicing Christians report using pornography with 32% watching it at least monthy. 15% of all Christians view pornography every week.

As cited early, over half of Christians say that casual sex is somettimes or always acceptable.

Some studies show that among unmarried evangelical Christians 80% of them will have sex before marriage.

80% of Christians.

Guys, the reason we are doing this lesson is because we too will not be spared from the pollution of this world. This semester, we have had to deal with this sin in our ministry from multiple people.

And it’s more than just those who have confessed and brought the sin to the light. I’m sure there’s ways you and I have struggled with this that we haven’t brought to the light.

But it’s a scary thing when sin is in a ministry or church to the level that we have seen it here, because it means that which is meant to be holy, is impure. That which is mean to be uncommon, is common. That which is meant to be light is darkness. And the Lord will purify his people, either through repentance leading to purification, or the expunging of the sinner from the community.

Why then are we having this? Because we want to address this sin that is in our midst. We will not dtry to hide this fact in the dark that we as a group are struggling, but we will bring this to the light! Not to shame each other, but to support each other. Not to condemn each other, but to hold each other accountable.

I want us to first look at what the scripture has to say about sexual immorality.

I think one of the primary reasons we fall into sexual immorality is that we aren’t thinking about it the right way. As the scripture says, we need to be transformed in our mind (Romans 12:2) and we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind (Ephesians 4:23) which means we need to think about sexual immorality the way God thinks about it.

Which, is where I want us to look at first which is unmasking sexual immorality.

Get into the primary Scripture: (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)

English Standard Version Chapter 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 dominated 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.

The Corinthian Church shows us something very important in the life of the early church, which is that it struggled with Sin. So we can take comfort in that, our ministry, our Christians, you and I are not the only group to ever have sexual immorality be a struggle in our walk. Since practically the beginning of a church this has been an issue that has needed to be addressed. In this section of his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul goes into particulare detail here.

Briefly exegete 12-13

Paul begins with this phrase “All things are lawful for me.” You’ll notice this is a quote.

He is quoting the Corinthian church. They had a wrong view of what their sexuality was and how it tied to freedom in Christ. They viewed it as something they were permitted to do.

Paul is destroying arguments for the day as to why sexual immorality is permissible.

Sexual immorality is not helpful for you. And it becomes a controlling influence on your life.

“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food.” This portrays the idea that sex is merely some appetite that can be fulfilled.

Well, my stomach is meant to have food in it and digest it and food is meant to be eaten and digested, and so in the same way that is natural, isn’t my body meant to have sex? And so therefore it must be good for me to have sexual satisfaction because that’s how the Lord designed our bodies.

But Paul ties these things back to God. Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food and that’s true. But both of these things were created by God who knows what his intention for his creation is for and how it works and designed the process of digestion.

This shows us the first point of understanding sexual immorality. We first need to understand God’s original design and intention for sex and the body.

The corinthians thought their body was created for sex. And this is a way our culture today thinks. “Well, since your body was created with sexual urges it is only natural to satisfy those.”

But Paul and most importantly to that says NO! Your body was created for the Lord.

Verse 13 “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

In the same way that food and stomach have a mutual relationship, the Lord and the body have a mutual relationship.

Our bodies were made to honor Jesus, and Jesus is also meant for our bodies.

This is profound, and it’s kind of hard to grasp at first. But Jesus is good for our bodies.

Think about it, who feeds, and clothes our bodies, who creates and heals them. Who designs them in specific way to be healthy and to live a wholesome physical life. The answer is Jesus.

Jesus’s commands and intentions for how we use our body are the best thing for our bodies. And in this context. He knows that sexual immorality is extremely damaging to us. Not just to our spiritual life, but to our actual physical body and brain.

.… continue here tomorrow.