Purity & Faithfulness
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Introduction
Introduction
We are going to talk about marriage
Who here is married?
Who here thinks they might get married one day?
Some of you maybe be thinking “why is is talking to me about marriage?”
others are thinking: “yeah, I've been thinking about this basically since i got to camp”
Either way, I am going to ask something difficult of you at the end of the lesson this morning.
Besides a decision to trust Jesus, the decision of marriage is the most important, the biggest decision you can make in this life. It will influence everything about you. It is so important, I want you to start thinking about it now.
Some of you maybe be thinking “why is is talking to me about marriage?”
others are thinking: “yeah, I've been thinking about this basically since i got to camp”
Either way, I am going to ask something difficult of you at the end of the lesson this morning.
We’re not talking about who to marry this morning, although that is very important.
More important than the question of who, is the question of how. No matter who you marry, you must follow God’s design for marriage. Otherwise you will inevitably find yourself despising a person you used to love.
Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting,
but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised.
Better to live in a wilderness
than with a nagging and hot-tempered wife.
Who can find a wife of noble character?
She is far more precious than jewels.
But the truth is that there are likely many good christian young men or women whom you could marry, and have a wonderful relationship for the remaining 6 or so decades you have left.
More important than the question of who, is the question of how. No matter who you marry, you must follow God’s design for marriage. Otherwise you will inevitably find yourself hateing a person you used to love.
An example in scripture is Issac and Rebekah.
Issac is one of the few people in history who had his wife hand picked by God himself. You can find the story in ,
Issac sent his best friend back to his homeland to find a wife for him, and God brought Rebekah to him. Issac could not have been a luckier guy.
Both Issac and Rebekah showed great faith early in their lives, but something went wrong. Near the end of Issac’s life the twin boys were grown men, the family was the definition of dysfunctional.
Issac and Rebekah each had their favorite kid, there was arguing and Rebekah helps her son steal his inheritance from her blind husband… It was bad. Jacob, the younger son, had to run away because his brother was trying to murder him.
But a different example is David and Bathsheba. Thier story start in 2 Sam 11.
This marriage started out really bad. David was the King and Bathsheba was already married.
In short, Bathsheba got pregnant and David had her husband killed in battle to cover it up. David had other wives at the time as well.
However, David repented of his actions, and chose to follow God with all his heart. Near the end of David’s life, the relationship was a good one despite problems. It was through Bathsheba that the family line of David continued to someday include Jesus.
The Bible has a lot to say about marriage. There are 67 marriages total in the Bible, and many examples both Good and bad.
So you are still young, What do you need to be thinking about marriage?
First, let’s answer the question: What is marriage?
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said:
This one, at last, is bone of my bone
and flesh of my flesh;
this one will be called “woman,”
for she was taken from man.
This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.
Jesus quotes this passage in when answering a question about divorce. It is first important to understand that Marriage is God’s idea.
Different cultures have different ideas about marriage, but God is the one who defines it. What sets apart the marriage relationship as unique from other relationships is the physical relationship. Sex was designed to exist only in a marriage commitment between one man and one woman. This is what scripture calls “one flesh”.
It creates a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bond between two people. Faithfulness is keeping and protecting this bond all kinds of threats. It is keeping the promise you make at your wedding, even if it is still in the future.
What are we protecting exactly?
look at the things the physical bond creates in the marriage relationship:
Oneness -
Understanding -
· Understanding -
Protection - Corinthians 7:3–5
Comfort -
Satisfaction -
Children -
But what if we go against God’s design? What if instead of using physical intimacy in marriage, we use it outside those boundaries simply for pleasure? There are still physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual consequences to our actions.
Isolation
Confusion
Vulnerability
Emotional wounds
Longing
Children
Just because you aren't married now doesn't mean you cant protect you future marriage. All of your consequences from sin, bad habits, and emotional scars go with you into marriage. I learned this the hard way. They don’t magically go away at your wedding, even in the best marriage they take time to heal. With the rest of our time, let’s look at 2 ways to be faithful to your future marriage:
Faithful with my body
Faithful with my body
The biggest way to protect your future marriage is by saving your body for your spouse alone. It is the most wonderful gift you can receive to know your spouse has saved themselves for you and you alone. What does scripture say about this?
Flee sexual immorality! Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.
1 thess
For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God.
For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God. This means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you.
Can a man embrace fire
and his clothes not be burned?
Can a man walk on burning coals
without scorching his feet?
So it is with the one who sleeps with
another man’s wife;
no one who touches her will go unpunished.
Sexual sin is worthy of the same punishment as stealing a cookie. Death. We spoke about this last night. Jesus’s death means we don’t have to face death because of our sin. However that doesn't mean we don’t have to face the natural consequences of our sin. Sexual sin is unique because you are sinning against your own body. There is a huge list of awful diseases and problems that can happen because of sexual immorality. The emotional walls this lifestyle makes can take years to reverse.
When you look it this way, what seems like strict limitations on pleasure are actually walls of protection. Protection for one of the most precious things you possess.
Now lets look at the other part of this idea of faithfulness.
Faithful with my mind
Faithful with my mind
Being faithful with your mind means protecting it from things you watch, listen to, read, and imagine.
remember that Jesus said:
But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Sexual sin always, always starts in the mind. Pornography is just as mush a sexual sin as adultery. It can actually be worse because it is so easy to hide. Scientific studies have shown pornography to be as addictive as drugs because of how it physically changes the brain over time. It enslaves your mind, and changes the way that you think. An easy lie to believe is that you aren't harming anyone else by what is in you mind. Why should other people care what what you see? This is why: because though always leads to action.
Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap,
Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
Don’t lust in your heart for her beauty
or let her captivate you with her eyelashes.
For a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread,
but the wife of another man goes after a precious life.
Can a man embrace fire
and his clothes not be burned?
Can a man walk on burning coals
without scorching his feet?
There is a way that seems right to a person,
but its end is the way to death.
Ben, you are giving
That battle in your mind can be very difficult, since you cannot seem to drive through a city or walk through a mall without big posters that seem to suggest that a woman’s body is nothing more than a pleasure object. I think such posters and advertisements are very disrespectful of our women.
Any picture or video you see like that, that is a person. Created in the image of God. Jesus died for that person because He loves them. Sames as He did for you.
Sexual sin in the mind is not any less damaging than if you were using your body. You cannot walk on fire without being burned.
I plead you to flee this sexual immorality. I can promise you it it will cost more than you are willing to pay.
Redemption
Redemption
“Hey Ben, these are some strong negative words here.” yes! Because this is so important, and the bible is very strong and very clear. I am begging you to hear God's warnings.
You may be thinking: “yeah but, I’ve already messed up!”
There is Hope in Jesus Christ!
Our God is a God of salvation,
and escape from death belongs to the Lord my Lord.
No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide a way out so that you may be able to bear it.
If you are here today trapped in sexual sin, there is hope. You cannot succeed alone though. tells us that God has chosen to use your brothers and sisters in Christ as the primary way to give you blessing and help.
The hardest thing is to have the courage to ask for help. That is the one thing Satan doesn't want you to do.
Because if the church starts showing you the love of Jesus in your time of need, and you conquer sin in your life by the power of the Holy Spirit working in you, then you become a powerful worrier working against the darkness.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, equipping the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.
You are God’s unique creation, you are worth protecting.
If you start now preserving yourself for your future spouse, then you can know God’s wonderful blessings He designed in marriage.
Then you can one day tell your spouse that on this day you made a commitment, and on this day forward you were faithful to them even though you didn’t know who they were yet. What a wonderful give to be able to give.
I loved my wife very much when i married her. But for four years we have searched God’s word to know how to how to do marriage His way. There has been work and healing. Today I can confidently say I Love my wife more than on the day I married her.
This is because God has changed my heart. God loves you, and He can change your heart.
I challenge every one of you to make the commitment today that you will be a faithful husband or a faithful wife. I promise you will not regret that commitment.