Boys & Girls

You’re all thinking about this stuff, I know it! Boys thinking about girls, girls thinking about boys. All of you thinking about sssssssome other stuff. Got your boyfriends and girlfriends.

The world is telling you some lies…

Y’all need wisdom for this stuff! Godly wisdom! It can be dangerous when we don’t do these things God’s way…

I heard a story once about a boy who used a water hose as a snorkel. I’m not sure if it was true or not, but let’s go with it. So first a little biology and physics lesson…

So he decides he’s going to take a water hose and go walk around on the bottom of this pond. This works well for a minute, but then…

He was hurting himself little by little but never realized it until it was too late.

This is how misusing these gifts God has given us can hurt us. Sexual activity outside of marriage. Lust. Pornography.

God has given us a good gift in romance and sex, but it is dangerous to use them apart from his good design.

PRAY

What we know to start…

The people Proverbs was originally written for would have a certain understanding about all of this. They would have be taught about God’s design for these gifts…

So starting with that understanding, we can look at the rest of this.

Lust and sexual immorality are dangerous.

We will hurt ourselves in ways we don’t see coming and deeper that we would ever expect.

I’ve told some of y’all that I like to play Call of Duty. You can do something called cooking a grenade…

Well when you do that, you apparently only have so long you can hold it with some of them. So I’m playing with some friends one night, probably Coach Estes, and I’m thinking I’m being clever and I get a grenade out so I can sneak up on someone and throw it at them. But I wasn’t using it properly and instead of sneaking up on someone else I blew myself up.

Sex outside of God’s plan is dangerous. Proverbs is filled with warnings about this, giving warnings about the forbidden woman, the adulteress, and the prostitute. It seems like these are metaphors for lust and sexual immorality.

Proverbs 6:25–28 ESV

Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes; for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life. Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?

We have to be mindful, paying attention so that we don’t accidentally wander into temptation. Rather, we must flee from it.

Prov 7:4-10 “Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words. For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice, and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.”

These things, in all their forms, are dangerous…

You may think it’s not a big deal, and the world says it isn’t, but it is…

I’ve got a pretty good head start on life on y’all, so please trust me when I tell you it leaves you with regret. I have made mistakes and I have sinned in this area of my life. I won’t lie and say it’s not fun and it doesn’t feel good. If it didn’t, there wouldn’t be so many people falling to it. But I can also tell you that hurt comes later. Regret comes later…

Pursue God’s design.

He designed it, He knows the right way.

You ever get really frustrated with something because it won’t do what you want it to do and then realize later it was because you weren’t using it the right way? Like the video of the person who walks into a door and spills their coffee all over themselves because they thought the door was automatic?

Marriage is a good thing!

Proverbs 18:22 ESV

He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.

Guys, you want to be a good husband. The whole book of Proverbs tells us what a good husband (and good wife) looks like. A wise person.

Prov 3:3-10 “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.”

Ladies, you want to be a good wife. Proverbs chapter 31 is the famous chapter for this.

Proverbs warns against being picky and naggy and starting fights.

Proverbs 25:24 ESV

It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.

Yes this is written to a son about a wife, but the same thing is true said to a daughter about a husband!

And inside this biblical, covenant relationship of marriage, God’s gift of sex is safe and good!

Proverbs 5:18–19 ESV

Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

God’s design for romance and marriage and sex is good and wise! His warnings against sexual immorality and lust are wise and for our benefit!

So flee temptation to lust and sexual immorality and pursue God’s design. Pray that the Holy Spirit would give you strength. Pray for your future spouse. Honor God and live wisely with these things!

The reason this all matters is because of God’s design for marriage is supposed to be a picture of something greater: Jesus’ love for his bride the church…