Clear Thinking About Sex
1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 – 3 God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin. 4 Then each of you will control your body and live in holiness and honor – 5 not in lustful passion as the pagans do, in their ignorance of God and his ways. 6 Never cheat a fellow believer in this matter by taking his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. 7 God has called us to be holy, not to live impure lives. (New Living Translation)
How to Stay Pure in a Sex-saturated World
1. Make a ___________________________ to God’s standard
Psalm 119:9 – How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word. (New Living Translation)
God created sex for three purposes:
(1) __________________________________________
(2) __________________________________________
(3) __________________________________________
2. Manage my __________________________________
The road of immorality is a process –
(1) __________________________________________
Proverbs 4:23 – Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life. (New Century Version)
Psalm 101:3 – I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar. . . . (New Living Translation)
(2) __________________________________________
(3) __________________________________________
2 Timothy 2:22 – Turn your back on lustful thoughts and give your positive attention to goodness, integrity, love, and peace. (Phillips Translation)
(4) __________________________________________
Jeremiah 17:9 – The human heart is most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? (New Living Translation)
3. Minimize my ____________________________________
- I admit that I can be ____________________________
1 Corinthians 10:12 – So be careful. If you are thinking, “Oh, I would never behave like that” – let this be a warning to you. For you too may fall into sin. (The Living Bible)
- I closely watch my ______________________________
- I choose my ___________________________ carefully
1 Corinthians 15:33 – Don’t be fooled . . . for “bad company corrupts good character.” (New Living Translation)
- I monitor my ____________________________ intake
- I decide to live a life above reproach
Ephesians 5:3 – You are God’s people, so don’t let it be said that any of you are immoral or indecent or greedy. (Contemporary English Version)
4. Magnify the _____________________________________
Proverbs 6:32 – But if you go to bed with another man’s wife, you will destroy yourself by your own stupidity. (Contemporary English Version)
Proverbs 6:26 – For a prostitute will bring a man to poverty, and an adulteress may cost him his very life. (The Living Bible)
Hebrews 13:4 – Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. (New International Version)