Godly Sex

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word, providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. But this week, we're digging back down. We're going back into scripture here. And just our theme scripture comes from the first chapter of the Song of Solomon.

It says, Solomon's Song of Songs. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is more delightful than wine. Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfume. Your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens love you.

Why do the maidens love him? Because he understands human love. Why does his maiden love him? Why does she, this Shilomite woman who is in this relationship, it's a poem going back and forth. Why?

Because there's something about him when he walks in the room, he really understands human love. And that's what we've been talking about in this series. Understanding human love. Walking out human love. Walking out human love.

Understanding what it means to be in a relationship that is God honoring. God wants the best for our marriages, best for our relationships. And he gives us so much in this ancient poem. And the interesting thing about the Song of Solomon, like I've said every week, it is written as a poem. So sometimes it's hard to understand.

And me walking through this, hopefully I'm helping you understand this a little better. Take it in context of where it originally happened and how they wrote in those days. And in the first week, we talked about attraction. We talked about the right kind of attraction, that there's a deeper attraction that happens. And then last week, we talked about the right seasoning.

There's seasons in our relationships. There's the season of infatuation when you first date. And then there's a season of preparation. And then it rolls into a deeper season in which we are fully prepared to take on those seasons. So we see seasons in our relationship.

And next week is going to be a really good week because I think this is something everybody deals with. And that's about fighting, fighting right. Because there's going to be fights in our relationships. Our marriages, if there's a marriage that doesn't fight in here, there's something going on, okay? Because conflict has to happen in our marriage to solve problems, right?

So we're going to talk about how to do that the best way possible. And we see that happening even in the Song of Solomon. Today, we're going to deal with another subject here. And many of you are probably here for the first time because you were wondering why a church is talking about this. But this is the best place to talk about this, and that's sex.

We're going to talk about godly sex today. Today, intimacy, the physical intimacy in our relationships. And there are some ground rules today, and I think it's really important today that we understand these ground rules. The first rule is listen to yourself, not listen for yourself, not your spouse. That means this is about you.

This isn't about your spouse and what they're doing wrong. This is about you. So don't nudge your spouse and say, that's you, you know, or you need to work on that. Don't do any of that. That's our first ground rule.

The next one is because this content is so serious and sometimes it can get convicting, conviction can take place, I don't want you to feel condemned. You can be convicted without being condemned because guess what? Jesus is here today. You can take a start. You can make a start today.

Jesus is here to help you change, right? He offers a way out. He offers his blood for you, and you don't have to hold on to your past. Whatever you've done, wherever you are now up until this point, you can make it new today, amen? We can do that today.

So no condemnation. And the third one is, and this is really important, especially for today, this content is PG-13. PG-13 meaning that if you have kids under 13 years old, this might not necessarily be appropriate for them, okay? Because we're talking about some heavy subject here. So if you have someone under 13 years old, we've got a great kids' ministry, kids' environment back there.

They have an awesome time. You're welcome to take them back there. But anybody 13 years old or more, perfectly, perfectly fine because I believe this is a great subject. So godly sex. Let's talk about godly sex today.

Are y'all ready? Okay, we're ready. Amen. I'm glad. I'm feeling the energy now.

So I think just knowing where we're going here. Okay, so growing up, the church didn't talk a lot about this. In fact, I don't remember a sermon or a message or anything that talked specifically about sex. And when the sex subjects would come up, they were kind of overlooked or set to the side, or they gave you like a very weak answer for something very specific. And I think there were certain intentions.

Maybe the intentions were right, but they took them the wrong direction. Perhaps partly because people didn't know how to talk about it. They decided not to talk about it. And the other reason could have been it's such a fragile subject. It really is.

It's a very fragile subject to talk about because if we take it the wrong direction, if we teach it the wrong way, it could have some severe consequences if somebody takes it wrong. Amen? So it's a very precious subject. But because we've dodged the subject in the church, because the church has kind of set it to the side, the world decided, hey, I'll take that spot and I'll show them what it's about. So the world stepped in and took over the teaching.

And as a result, we've allowed several generations in our church to have the world to find sex for them. And the world stepped into that speaking role instead of the church, right? So we go into the public and it doesn't take much to see that billboards, magazines, media, media, social media, multi-million dollar industries are built on sex. They've sexualized everything. The world has taken on this opportunity with sex.

And they've taken something beautiful and they've perverted it. They've made it something that it isn't. And sex, so to speak, has been stolen by the devil. They've taken, the devil has walked in and said, I'm going to take this from God and I'm going to make it something else. But God is the inventor of sex.

He created sex. The devil didn't create sex. God created sex and he wrote the book on it. He has a very good book on it. And he's got instruction manual for us.

He's got the do's and don'ts about it. And what do most of us do when we buy a new product and we have a nice instruction book to show us how to operate that product? What do we do with that? Throw it away. Yes.

We get that new car and we've got this book about this big. How many of us have even looked? Are you one of those people that sits down and looks through the entire book? There might be a few of you there, you know, that do that. Stefan's an exception to the rule.

So I'm not going to use him as an example. But for the most part, I don't look at that. I try to put together stuff without even looking at the instructions. I get a new table and I'm like, I can do this. And then I end up jacking it up because I don't look at the instructions and I don't follow the instructions.

But God is the creator of this beautiful thing called sex and intimacy. And he created it in such a way that it's beautiful, it's enjoyable. And it's the best, and it can be the very best. And we want to look at the maker of it. What does he say about it?

He's got these areas that we do, and he's got these areas that we don't. So we want to take a very careful look at it. And God's not trying to be a cosmic killjoy. God's not trying to mess up our lives and make it boring. He wants us to have the very best life.

He wants for us to have life and life abundantly. So, he wants us to enjoy life. And he created it. I mean, he could have created sex in any way he wanted to. He could have made it just for procreation.

But he made it good. He made it enjoyable. And it's for us. And another thing I want us to understand is that men and women are completely different. We look at things in different ways.

We see things in different ways. We see the world in different ways. And God made it this way so that we can learn how to serve. We need to serve each other so we wouldn't be selfish. It's beautiful how God uses the opposite sex to build selflessness in our hearts, much like Jesus.

And the greatest relationships in the world are those that serve each other mutually. And when it comes to sex, there's a common saying that men are microwaves and women are crockpots. Right? And that seems to be the case. And there might be some exceptions to the rule there.

But that's, yeah, ding, he's got it. But men, in fact, they say that men can be ready as much of seven seconds of the time they come across something that stimulates them. Seven seconds. Women take a little longer. You walk into the room and you're like, hey, baby, let's go.

You know, she's like, how about you go take a shower first? And maybe put some candles on or some music and maybe then I'll be ready, you know? So it's a whole, it's a different journey. Now, I will say this about sex. Women enjoy it just as much as men.

That's a, yeah, listen to that. Can I get a good amen from the women? Okay. All right. You don't hear a lot of men teaching about sex.

Say that, right? But I'm going to tell you today that women enjoy it. Men, women enjoy it as much as men. But the journey is different. The journey is different.

So we need to explore the journey. So I want to give you four qualities to godly sex. Four qualities to godly sex today. The first one I want to give you, if you're following your notes, you've got a note guide there and you can fill it in and write some notes. Get prepared for your small groups because I know you guys have been talking about this stuff and some of you agree and disagree and that's okay.

This is where we grow, right? We get together and we grow and we talk about the messages that we have here in church and that's a part of us being equipped together. So the first point is godly sex starts long before the bedroom. Godly sex starts long before the bedroom. So we are entering in chapter 4 verse 1 and she has talked most of the time up until this point.

Let her talk, let her talk, okay? She needs to be heard. And he talks, and he talks for the next 11 verses in this passage. So it switches to him and he begins to talk. And he says this, how beautiful are you, my darling?

Oh, how beautiful. Your eyes behind the veils are doves. What is he saying here? He's saying, oh my gosh, your eyes are beautiful. I'm just looking at you and I'm just gazing in your eyes and they're like doves.

They're just so beautiful and they're so big and bright and wonderful. And then she says, or he says this, your hair is like a flock of goats. A flock of goats. Descending on Mount Gilead. Now this needs a little bit of interpretation, okay?

I don't advise you to tell your wife that her hair is like a goat, okay? But in Jewish tradition, women kept their hair up. That was a normal thing for them to keep their hair up in a turban-like situation. And it was a part of their culture. But what he's saying here, your hair is down and it's beautiful.

Because the goats that would come off of Gilead, they had long black manes and they were beautiful and silky manes. And he was looking at her and saying, oh my goodness, your hair is so beautiful. It's down and I am turned on. You're so beautiful. Yeah, and then it says this.

Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, okay? Coming up from the washing. Each has its twin. Not one of them is alone. This is a good thing.

What is he saying? Your breath smells good. Your teeth are white. And you have all of them. That's a really good thing.

And then he goes on. He says, and notice how he's working down. He's working down her head and her face. And he says, your lips are like scarlet ribbons. Your mouth is lovely.

And your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate. What is he saying here? He says, I love your lips. They're nice. And your cheeks are rosy.

And he's affirming her and her beauty through this process. He says, your neck is like the Tower of David built with elegance. What does he mean? The most noble place in the village and a place of respect in that time was the Tower of David in that era. And when you think of something of nobility, you think of David and the Tower of David.

He's basically saying, you have a place of respect, a place of honor. I honor you because of your beauty, because of who you are, not just what you look like. So he's working his way on the outside and then he goes into the inside. And then he says, on it hangs a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. He says, the way you carry yourself commands respect.

You are to be respected and honored. And I can tell you this. If you meet a woman who is confident in herself and proud in herself, that means she probably has someone in her life that has affirmed her and strengthened her and encouraged her in her beauty. And if you see somebody who's insecure, who just doesn't feel like they don't have that drive, they don't have that confidence when they walk into the room, when they don't have that commanding presence, there might be something there. I'm not saying in every situation, but there might be something that needs to be affirmed in that relationship.

And it's important for us to understand that in our relationships, whether you're male or female, it's important for us to affirm the other person because that happens way before the bedroom. Every part of our life is a part of our intimacy we have for each other. And remember, this girl didn't think much of herself. In chapter one, we learned about that, but here she is and she's confident in herself. And long before he touches her, he is affirming her and telling her how much she means to him.

Every little detail about her, he's affirming that. And then it says your words, it talks about your words being important and your spouse needs affirmation. OK, so that's what we're going to deal with here. Affirmation. Are you affirming your spouse?

The Bible says that words are like life and death. And those who hear. Eat of its fruits. So the things that you say about your other half are significantly important because they can produce, they eat that, and they can produce things that may not even be there about them. You're speaking to them.

You're speaking them forth. You don't degrade her. You don't talk bad about him. Make them feel special. Make them feel wanted.

Now men, they typically like to be affirmed on their accomplishments. They like to know that they're taking care of things, that you're secure with them, and you're providing, and we typically go that direction. If you don't want to tell him he's a no-good, lousy, you know, sit on the couch and eat potato chips all day kind of person, why don't you get up? That's not helping the situation. Even if he is those things, you're not speaking life into him.

You're speaking him to continue into that direction. And women typically like to, I've lost my place here. And women typically like to be spoken, like to be talked about, like who they are. Not anything else, but just speaking to them and share this. And that's what he's doing here.

He's speaking life into him. And if you learn anything from this today, you speak to who they become, not what you see. Okay? So if I look at my wife and I'm frustrated with her because, you know, she's not saying certain things or doing certain things or she's not dressing a certain way that I like or whatever. Or I don't speak to her.

I speak to who she can become. This applies even here in the worship service. When I preach, I don't preach. I could easily say, all you lousy sinners, you need to get up here this week because I know what you did this week, right? You need to get up here and repent and let's pray and let's ask God to forgive you because, but I don't do that because you already know you've done that, right?

And you're here today and I want to speak life to you. I want to help you. I want to coach you. I want to speak you into what you can become. And we want to speak to our spouse in that way.

To speak to who they become. This was true with Jesus. Jesus didn't speak when he met Peter. He didn't say, hey Peter, you're a lousy, no good fisherman that curses a lot. You're half naked all the time on your boat.

You need to shave too, you know. Got hair growing off your back, you know. And he didn't say any of those things. You're such a disgusting person. He didn't say that.

He actually looked at him. And, you know, Peter, warts and all, he was, he was, he was a messed up person. But he says, I'm going to call you Peter because his name was originally Simon. He says, Simon, I'm going to call you Peter and you're going to be a rock. That's what I see in you.

I see a rock in you. And upon your rock, I will build the big rock, my church. When he saw Paul on the road to Damascus, he didn't see a murderer named Saul of Tarsus. He didn't see a man who was, who was, had a heart to just take out every Christian in the land, a prideful heart, one that wanted honor and all this on his own right. He didn't see that guy.

He saw Paul, a man that was going to change the face of the church, a man that was going to go out to the Gentile nation and preach the gospel. He saw Paul. He says, I'm going to call you Paul. Go and wait for me because I'm getting ready to do something in your life. He didn't call him out for what he was.

He was calling him out for who he would become. And that's what we need to do in our relationships is to call people out for who they can become. Speak life into them. Verse five says this, your two breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies. Now we're talking about two fawns here, okay?

Now hunters in here, if you see two fawns, are you going to jump out of the woods and say, hey fawns, hey fawns, stop. Stop. Hey, you know, what are the fawns going to do? They're going to run. Your breasts are like two fawns.

Be gentle. Be tender. But be, which leads me into my next one. It happens long before the bedroom. But godly sex, number two, is passionate.

Godly sex is, can you say that with me, passionate. Song of Solomon 4.6 says this, until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of incense. He's still talking about, he's stuck on this breast situation here, okay? He's like, there's a, I want to go into this, the mountain of myrrh and the hill of incense.

What is he doing? He's being romantic. He's being romantic. Godly sex is not boring. It's passionate.

It's okay to be passionate. And some think that when we become followers of God, that somehow we become sterile and boring, you know? Like we don't want to, we become weird because our drives kind of go away. But that doesn't happen. God wants us to have life to the full, man.

He wants us to enjoy sex. He wants us to live passionately in those moments with our spouse, within the bounds of marriage. And even in marital intimacy, it's life-giving when it's done appropriately. Godly sex is passionate. But I do want to say this, passion just doesn't happen.

passion takes effort. Sure, when you first come into the infatuation stage, passion seems to be there and you have to control it. But when you get five, 10, 15, 20 years into your marriage, it becomes a lot harder. And you have to work on it. Many say, you know, I'm not in love anymore.

Many say I'm, that the passion is gone and she's just not doing it for me anymore. He's not, he's not the person he once was. And I'm just not, I don't feel like he's the one anymore. And the reality is, it's not that the passion isn't there. We're just not flaming the passion.

We're not doing anything to flame that passion. The grass isn't greener on the other side. We've got the grass on our side. We just need to water the grass. Amen.

We need to take some time to water the grass on our side of the fence. Well, she used to dress sexier. She used to entice me more. Or he used to buy me flowers and candy. And he used to do all these wonderful things.

He used to think about me all the time. He used to send me notes and leave notes and stuff like that. But if you want what you once had, listen, if you want what you once had, do what you once did. So instead of focusing on what she is not doing or what he is not doing, focus on yourself and start doing what you once had. Begin that up again.

Begin to flame that passion that we all want so desperately. It's like a fireplace or a fire in general. It takes a lot of work to put a fire together. You've got to go out. You've got to find the wood.

You've got to find the kindling. You know, you've got to, you've got to put it all together. And if you're a survivor person and you only have one match, you know, you've got to take that one match. You've got to figure out how to do it well so that the fire will flame up just right. And it can be cold and dreary, but you've got to, if you want that fireplace to be just right, you've got to go out and get those logs from out beside the house.

You've got to put that coat on. You've got to get to work a little bit. Man, and the same way it is with fire, or with passion, the sexual fire that I'm talking about. You've got to work on it a little bit. It's easy to lose that.

You get used to the person you're with, and you just kind of expect it to happen, I guess, but we fail to work on those areas. So, there's two things here, man. You need to watch your approach. You need to watch your approach. Like the Fonz, you know, you don't just jump out and go, well, Fonz, you know, you've got your approach, the journey towards it is significantly important.

When dating Miranda, it was very, very easy to think about her all the time, and want to do things, want to go out of my way for her. In fact, one Christmas, I didn't know what to get her because she just had so many interests, and she really didn't nail down one particular item. I went out, and I bought a basket, a really nice basket, and I bought like 50, 60, 70 things that I knew that she would really enjoy, and I filled those baskets with candy, with food, with certain types of things that she enjoyed, movies and songs and music, and all these little romantic things, little notes on them and stuff like that, and it was just, she got that present. She thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world, but when you get married, you don't think about things. It's like, oh, it's like a day out from her birthday.

I better, you know, figure things out. Christmas is almost here. Let me go out on Christmas Eve and come up with something right in the last minute, and you know what? Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, and we fail to think about those things. We need to flame those passions.

We need to work. It takes. So, man, watch your approach. Text her once in a while and tell her you love her. Sometimes I'll just stop when I'm working and just text Miranda and say, I love you.

I miss you. I'm thinking about you, and it goes a long way, I'm telling you. She just wants to know that you're there. Draw her a bath before she gets home. Light some candles.

Do something. Give her a massage. You know, work a little bit. I know we just come home. Let's just go to it, but there's got to be some work.

There's got to be some work involved. Do something special for her. And women, make an approach. Just make an approach. It's quiet in this room.

And the men, see, the women are amen, and the men are just like, I'm staying quiet because my wife is going to knock me upside my head. This applies to women, too. Like, my wife loves to wear flannel pajamas, but flannel pajamas don't do it for me, you know? It's like, sometimes I'm like, honey, put on something sexy, you know? Come on, you know?

Let me see you a little bit. Think about that, you know? Do something. Make an approach. Sweatpants and long t-shirts.

Maybe that works for some people, but maybe it's something else. And I think it's really important that you talk about these things because we don't talk about them when we just assume that they should already know, and then when it gets really bad, we blow up and we have the arguments, right? It's important to be open and honest. What do you really want? And I mean, go all the way.

What do you really want physically? What do you really want emotionally and spiritually? What do you want? And let me say this, too. I think this is important, and this kind of popped in my notes last night as I was praying and thinking about this message.

Don't over-spiritualize it or under-spiritualize it. And I'll get into the under-spiritualized part in point four, but I do want to mention over-spiritualizing. I think us as Christians, we tend to, again, going back to that, we don't talk about sex and this and that. We over-spiritualize our sex lives. And if we're extreme, we can break the passion, right?

And let's pray about this before we go into the bedroom because, you know, we need to let, this needs to be God-honoring sex, you know? Let's go to Scripture. Let's play some worship music in the background. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

You know, guys, I get it. Women, I get it, you know? You love the Lord, but there's a time. God wants us to enjoy each other. Don't over-spiritualize it, okay?

Next. Put on some Marvin Gaye. Let's get it on. Y'all were waiting for that, weren't you? Just enjoy each other, okay?

Just enjoy. Get in there. Be, she wants you to be who you are. He wants you to be who you are. To be exposed and vulnerable and intimate and be, and just set that side.

This is a time. God says, go at it. Go at it. Go. Do it.

It's holy. It's okay. And thirdly, godly sex is secure. And this kind of tags on to that piece. It's secure.

Verse 7 says, all beautiful you are, meaning, every part of you is beautiful. Every piece of you is beautiful. Oh, how beautiful. Every area of you is beautiful, my darling. There is no flaw in you.

Now, we know, technically, this isn't true, because she said in chapter 1 that she was flawed. She said she had dark skin, and what we know about dark skin in those days, it wasn't attractive. And she worked in the field. She had rough skin. And so she was flawed.

But here, he's saying, there is no flaw in you. Because he values her for who she is, not what she looks like. He sees her for who she is. And this is why she feels secure. She is secure because there's a deeper attraction for her.

It's not just physical. It's emotional and spiritual, as we talked about in week one. There's a deeper attraction here. And this is why pornography is so dangerous. And we have an epidemic today.

Just pornography everywhere. People are addicted all over the place. And it's ruining our relationships. Why? Because it places standards, and it puts pressure on the other person to be something that we aren't meant to be.

It's a false representation. It's a perverted idea of what sex should be. It should be, I love you for who you are, not what you look like and what you're able to do. And that's what media wants to do. That's what advertisement wants to do.

They want you to look at it the other way. It's not about what you, who you are. It's about what you look like and what you wear and what you have and how you present yourself and this and that. That's what they want you to see. And you're giving, you're putting a place in their life, a standard that they can never meet.

A place where they can never go. And it changes our thought process. And the eyes are windows to our minds, and our minds connect to our hearts. And when we allow things like that in our lives, it ruins something so beautiful. That can be great.

It can be better. It can be the best. And we settle for something temporal because it's our thinking. It's the way we think. It changes our thinking.

And we raise the standards. And men, we probably have the hardest time with it. I can't speak for the women today. My wife told me that she's out today. But she said, I wish I was up here with you, teaching it with you, because I'd like to give the women's perspective on it.

And maybe we'll do that another time. She's pretty, she's big on this subject. But men, and never say a negative comment about your wife's body. I don't care what they look like or what they've done or what they used to look like. They're your wife.

They're your spouse. Speak life. Speak into who they can become, as I mentioned earlier. Speak to that. Help encourage them.

Build them up. I mean, it's something that this visual. The idea that men have, we struggle with that, but godly sex is built on trust and respect. Trust and respect. Security is trust and respect, and we live in a culture of just tremendous sexual abuse.

We see it all over. In Hollywood, we've seen it all over the place lately. In media, we've seen it. Somebody just this past week just got accused of another sexual scandal. I think it was the owner of the Patriots or something like that.

We see this all the time, sexual abuse, and it's a result of lack of trust and respect for each other. And we have an entire generation that is insecure because of everything that's been placed before our eyes. It's changed our thoughts. It's changed our hearts. It's perverted something that's beautiful.

We need to change that thought to instead of that is the standard that you are my standard. You are my standard. You are going to be secure. You are my love, and I'm not letting any other standard come to my mind. Only you, my darling, my sweetheart, are my standard.

You are everything that I wanted, no matter where you are, no matter how much you weigh, no matter what you look like. It doesn't matter. You are my standard. In verse 9, it says this, and you have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride. You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.

How delightful is your love, my sister and my bride. How much more pleasing is your love than wine and the fragrance of your perfume than any spice. So what is he doing here? He's repeating back to her what she was saying in the first chapter. He's coming back and telling her how wonderful she is and how delightful she is.

And then the first physical act takes place in this whole talk. Up until this point, it's all been words. And here's what happens. Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride. Milk and honey are under your tongue.

What is that saying? He's French kissing her, right? And this was way before France was established, okay? So God had something to say about French kissing way before France had something to say about kissing. We can call it a Hebrew kiss.

From now on, it's like, can I Hebrew kiss you, my baby? So godly sex is passionate. We need to work on that and build towards that. And secure. It's secure.

We can be trust. We can have trust and respect. And if we have those, it leads into so much more. And then fourthly, and this is probably the biggest, godly sex is holy. Godly sex is holy.

It's set apart. It's pure. And it's different. Chapter 12, verse 12 says this, you are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride. You are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.

What he is saying here is she's a virgin. She saved herself for him and only him. And some of you might be here today and you're like, well, that's just old fashioned. That's just old stuff. We're in a new age.

We're in a new culture now. It's different now. Things, we think differently now. Can I tell you this? God's truth never changes.

It's the same yesterday. It's the same today. And it's the same forever. And not only is it the same, it actually works. It is, it works.

And we can stand on God's truth. We can trust that. It is secure. It is, it is something we can, as we sing about today, take courage, my heart, because I can trust and I can stand on this. Now, why do we save the gift loving for, and the gift of love making until marriage?

Because it's holy. Holy. Let me explain this. Now, again, I'm going to step back for a second. I do realize there's a lot of people that maybe this is jarring you a little bit.

Condemnation. No condemnation. But here, let me explain. Let me explain what's going on here. When we as Christians enter into marriage, we don't enter into a contract.

Because here's what a contract does. Contract says, okay, if we sign this contract, we agree that I give you this and I give you that. And if this contract ever fails, we're done, right? We don't go into that. Because that's doom for failure.

It's doom for divorce. It's doom for whatever. We enter into a covenant. As Christians, we enter into a covenant. That's why we say, until death do us part.

It's a spiritual agreement that we make between a male and a female when we come into marriage. And in the Old Testament, New Testament, and in any situation, we see this. Whenever God makes a promise, whenever God makes a covenant, he makes a covenant of blood. Of blood. We see this in the Old Testament.

Through lambs and bulls, sacrifice to God. He made a covenant with his people. Why? So that he could cover his people so he could make a promise to his people so that they could be covered by that promise that he made to them. It's a covenant agreement.

In the New Testament, we see Jesus. Jesus made a covenant. God sent his son as a covenant. A perfect, sinless man of God. Son of God.

God, perfect, sinless, was sacrificed on the cross for the sins of mankind. It was a blood sacrifice that was made. And he died and he rose again. A covenant that he made. God sent his son as a blood covenant so that we, whosoever has eternal life, whosoever believes in him, excuse me, whosoever believes in him will have eternal life.

That's a promise. And that's a covenant that he made. And any time in Scripture, in fact, we see this in Scripture. A man leaves his mother and his father and he becomes one flesh. We see that.

A man should leave his mother and be joined with his wife and they become one flesh. And this is an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual commitment that we become one flesh. We are no longer two, but one. And we come together and we are one flesh. And we are made one.

And in God's perfect world, this is what would happen. The man would enter into the virgin woman on the wedding night and there would be a shedding of blood. A shedding of blood. And a covenant would be established before God. This was symbolic of that covenant.

And every time we enter into a sexual, intimate act within the bonds of marriage that we are gifted with, lovemaking, it is a covenant. It is spiritual. It is holy. This is the part where I say don't under-spiritualize what's happening. It's a covenant.

Every time it's a reminder. It's symbolic of a reminder of what God has done for us and how he brings two people together. Godly sex is holy. Godly sex is holy. It's holy.

In verse 15, it says, you are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon. And every week we've ended, we've ended our scriptures with this. Don't awaken love before it's time. But today, awaken love. Because when it's done right, let's awaken it, amen?

So it says this, awaken, north wind, and come, south wind. Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into my garden and taste its choice fruits. So what's going on here? What do we see here?

We see a passion at the level that most of us have never experienced, amen? Because it's a God passion. It's God's way. And let me leave you with this, this one point. God's way isn't just right.

It's the best. God's way is the best. If you want to have a sex life that's far beyond what you've ever experienced, do it God's way. Because He's the creator of it. He made it.

It's His thing. He wrote the manual on it. And if we follow the manual, we can have a great marriage. And I'm not so naive to think that we have, you know, a hundred and something virgins in this room, okay? I realize that a lot of us haven't lived up to what God wants for us or God's best for us.

And we've all messed up. But can I say, yeah, you've messed up, but that doesn't matter. So that's the point of Jesus, you know? Holiness, being holy, holiness isn't perfection. I grew up thinking, man, I've got to do everything perfectly right to meet up to God's standards.

Because that's what holiness is. No, holiness isn't perfection. Holiness is forgiveness. That your past and your present can be forgiven. That's the beauty of it.

We all need forgiveness. All of us. All of us have fallen. All of us are sinners, right? All of us have went places that we shouldn't have gone.

I have. In my relationships, I went too far in places that I shouldn't have gone. But the beauty of God is that, hey, I could start new today. His blood changes me. That's the covenant that he made with me.

When Jesus was on the cross, he said, I make all things new through his blood. He looked over at a sinner on the cross. He said, I forgive you today. You'll be with me in paradise. That man was like, but I've sinned.

Can you remember me? I've sinned. Today, you will be with me in paradise. See, that's the joy of the gospel. God has a standard that we can't meet.

And that's the point. But through the blood of Christ, he can wipe clean everything. He can make it brand new. He can make you pure. And he's going to give you his Holy Spirit.

Did you know that? When you make a decision for him, he'll give you his Holy Spirit. And he will help and guide you into holiness. That's the beauty of the gospel. Condemnation.

There is no condemnation in those who trust in Jesus. Amen. And with all heads bowed and all eyes closed, I just want to give this opportunity today. There are those of you that have heard this message and you're like, man, I've just messed up so much. Maybe you walk with Jesus at one time and you turn from him and you've been walking far from him for a while.

Maybe you've never heard of this stuff. Maybe all of this is absolutely new to you. I get that. Some of you are new to this. Some of you have been walking with Jesus for a short while and you're like, gosh, I never even knew this was in scripture.

Guess what? It could start new today. God is a redeemer. He redeems things. He takes things that are broken and he puts them back together.

Amen. And you can have that today. If you're there and you want to know Jesus, he is available for you here today. And I'm not going to embarrass you. I'm not going to make you come up and be in front of everybody or anything like that.

But if you're here today and you want to give your life to Jesus or recommit your life to Jesus, if you would just raise your hand, I want to just pray for you. This is your day. Is that you? Is that you? Just pray this with me, whether you raise your hand or not.

Father, I believe that you are the son of God. And you shed a blood that day, a perfect sinless lamb so that I could be free, so that I could be covered. You made a covenant with me, Lord, a love covenant with me that day. I believe that you died and I believe that you rose again. So today I receive your blood over my life.

Come into my heart. Come into my life. Make me new. Starting today, make me new, Lord Jesus, in your name I receive you today. Amen.

Amen.