The Vow of Purity

All right. We are in week four of our series. In fact, it's the final installment of our series called Vows. But I do want to plug in next week.

We are beginning a new series that takes us through Easter. That new series is called Miracles. And a lot of people, even in our church traditions and things, we have a hard time believing in miracles. And we want to talk about that. Miracles are still happening today.

And why is a miracle not happening in your life? Well, we want to look at that and see just maybe, just maybe God is moving in your life, getting ready to do something. And we're going to talk about different miracles in the Bible and look through the life of Jesus. And it's going to carry us all the way to Easter. And it's going to be an exciting series.

I'm excited about that series. And I want you to come out. I want you to invite a friend, a neighbor. This is going to be a powerful series. And you are going to love it.

So we just, we're excited about that. But entering into our last installment of the Vows series, we have this scripture. We've been kind of resurfacing every week. So you kind of get it in your head, this beautiful vowel in the Song of Songs, chapter eight, verse six and seven. It says, place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm.

For love is as strong as death. This type of love is as strong as death. It's jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love.

Rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth in one's house for love, it would be utterly scorned. So we see here in this beautiful scripture, this letter, this love letter to this beloved, that's kind of the way it's poetically written, this maiden and her beloved, her husband, her love. I want you to take this love that you have for me and make a vow, a seal over your heart and on your arm. And, and, and make this, this is, this is a love that I want you to hold.

I want you to cherish. It's a love that I don't want us to separate from. I want you to make that vow for me because this type of love that we have, this type of love that we have, no water can, can run it away or rush it away. No river, no stream, no flame, no anything. And even all the wealth in the world, it says, if one were to give wealth of one's house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

All the wealth in the world would not be good enough for this type of love. This love is so cherished. And we all want to love like that, right? All of us want this type of love. So we are trying, uh, in this series, our, our intentions are to help you build a solid foundation on vows.

God was a vows God. He made promises to us and he's standing on those promises because he believes that, uh, because he's never changing, right? And he loves you. He cares about your future. He cares about your past.

He cares about your presence and every, everything that he has done, he will fulfill. He's a God of promises and he wants us to experience this in our marriage marriages. He wants us to experience this in our everyday relationships, these promises and these vows that we carry with them. And in a world and in a culture where promises and vows aren't really kept, um, we want to, to, to pull back from that. We want to take hold of that.

We want to do it God's way because the world's way isn't working. When we see all the broken relationships, when we see all the confusion, when we see all the upset, you know, just, just a division. I mean, you can just cut on the TV and see how terrible, even, even, you know, closest friends, how they react to each other with social media, how people are on there and they just, just the things that come out of people's mouths. And we don't want that, do we? We want, we want to love each other.

And it starts with our marriages and it starts with our relationships in our marriage. So let me ask this, let me just set this up. How many of you are married or hope to be married at some point? I mean, okay, just about everybody in here is married or hope to be married, right? Well, let me ask you this.

How many of you plan to commit adultery one day? I didn't think I would see any hands go up unless somebody was just being silly, right? Well, how many of you plan to, to be addicted to porn? Nobody in here. Nobody in here.

How many of you, a plan, plan to be involved in an emotional affair with somebody else other than your spouse? Nobody, nobody in here. Nobody plans to fall into these things. Nobody plans in, in marriage to eventually have an affair or, or be addicted to pornography and, and nobody intends to hurt their number two. Nobody in their relationship intends to, to, to, to really affect emotionally or hurt or break the heart of their spouse or their husband.

Nobody goes that direction. Nobody walks into marriage intending to do that. However, it happens all the time. It happens every day. And it's difficult to build a life of righteousness as believers in Christ.

It's difficult to build a relationship based on the goodness and righteousness of God, a good and righteous relationship when our foundations are built on anything else but God, when they're built on sin. So let's look at the scripture we've been looking at every week and we've been kind of adding a piece to it here and there throughout the series. In Genesis 2, 24 and 25, it says, this is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites to his wife and they become one flesh. So we talked about united one week and we talked about one flesh last week. This week, we're heading into verse 25, Adam and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame.

They were naked and they felt no shame. The word shame comes from the root word bush, which means to be ashamed, to feel completely worthless. So in the case of Adam and Eve and Genesis 2, there was no worthlessness in their hearts. There was this beauty and this intimate relationship with God. Nothing separated them from God.

In fact, it used this poetic language where they were walking in the garden with God and they were communicating with God because there was nothing that separated them from God. They were not ashamed. They were, there was nothing there. I mean, just a beautiful, beautiful picture of what one day it will be like in heaven. No shame, no crying, no sorrow, a loving father, a loving God who spent time with them, who loved them and had this just beautiful, beautiful relationships.

Ship there. And the reason for this is their eyes were not open. And I'll get to that in a minute. And sometimes I think about that, you know, that we use the statement ignorance is bliss. That's kind of what was going on.

They were ignorant of the things that could possibly be out there because God had not yet allowed their eyes to be opened to what's going on. Sometimes I feel like in this world, especially when I see the evil of the world and I see all the things going on out in the world and the sin in the world and how it's hurting people and how it's affecting environments and communities and even countries and just the attitudes and all the things that are out there, sometimes I'm like, man, I just want to be ignorant of this at times. Why can't I just, like, be that person that has no clue? You know, just the innocence of it. And the truth is, one day, one day, all of that that we see in Eden at the beginning will be restored.

That's the glory of it. God is currently redeeming the world through His plan and through His glory in a way that we often can't see. He's doing something in the background. And He also wants to do something in redeeming relationships through the act of marriage. I think of children and the innocence of children and how, you know, in their minds and, you know, daddy getting angry at them or yelling at them is something really, really bad.

But everything else in the world is all good, right? Because their eyes haven't yet been opened. And I think about nakedness, you know, like the shamefulness of nakedness. Kids have no shame being naked, right? My little daughter, man, she'll pull off her clothes and run through the house.

Look at me, I'm naked. You know, she's running around. And it's like, and we're all laughing because we know it's innocent. But when you get older, when things like that happen, I don't think we think that's innocent or funny or it changes a little bit. It changes a little bit because we know more, because we understand and we see the shamefulness of it.

In Genesis 3, we see this happen. As we know, Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan, and when he came into the garden, they ate of the fruit, and sin came into the world. And let me explain what happened here in Genesis 3 and 7. It says, then the eyes of both of them were opened. And the eyes of, so they had, their eyes were not yet opened.

They were living in the bliss, in the ignorant bliss of God and everything. And the serpent, Satan, tempts Eve, says, you know, there's some things that you just don't know. Your eyes are not quite opened yet. Well, is God keeping something from me? Well, we know now, because those eyes were opened and they realized they were naked.

So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. But the Lord called to the man. He said, where are you? He answered, I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked. And if you'll underline this, so I hid.

I hid. Kids hide all the time when they're guilty. I think it's interesting, even with kids who really don't, in their innocence and in their not understanding of all the evil that's out there, they kind of understand what it's like to hide. Let me use my, poor Savannah, she's going to remember this one day because I use so many examples for her because she's so easy. My son, it's funny, he hides too, but in a different way.

He's so, when he comes home and he's in trouble and the teacher has written him up in his little report when he gets home, he comes through the door. And the first thing he says, he's so honest. He says, me and Wesley, me and Wesley, Wesley's his little friend. Wesley, me and Wesley, me and Wesley, we weren't, we weren't doing what Miss, you know, was doing. And I'm like, what are you talking about?

Well, well, I got a blue and I'm like, what is it, what is he, and I pull open his report and he's like, I didn't, she didn't know, you know, he's already trying to explain his way out of it because he knows he's in trouble. I mean, he's so open about it, but yeah, he kind of tries to justify and hide behind, you know, what really happened to make him feel better to make, so that he could cover that. As for Savannah, she's just outright doesn't tell you. And she hides, and when she's quiet in the house, you know something's up, something's going on, she's hiding. And when we grow up, we do the same thing, don't we?

When we're hurting, when we're divided on things, when it hinders our relationships with God or what have you, grownups that hurt hide. We do something, we feel the shame of it, that nakedness, that worthlessness that I was talking about, and we connect that to our identity. We allow that to fester in our hearts and, man, you know, I failed in that area, and we hide. We don't tell others. We hide from people.

We keep it a secret. We believe the only way to be safe is just to connect, disconnect, and not tell anybody, to keep it quiet. And this includes our spouse, the people that we need to be most vulnerable with. And we keep those things stirred up in us. And I can't let him know.

I can't let her know my secrets. And we go through our marriage, and we go through our life, and we keep things away from it. Here's the deal. If you're following your notes, this sentence is key right here to set us up. Secrecy is the enemy of intimacy.

Secrecy is the enemy of intimacy. We can't have a close relationship with someone, certainly not God, when we have secret things happening in our lives. So our vow today, and I want us to roll through our different vows from each week to kind of set us up for this last vow. The first vow in week one is, I promise God will be my first priority, and my spouse will be my second. Can y'all say that with me?

Let's just repeat that week after week. Let's get it in us. I promise God will be my first priority, and my spouse will be my second. So we talked about that in week one. We're going to make God first, and our spouse second before anything else.

Week two, say this with me. I promise I will always pursue my two, right? We're going to pursue our two. Number three, last week we said, I promise our marriage will be about we and not me, right? It's about we and not me.

This week our promise is, I promise to confide in you and not hide from you. I promise to confide in you and not hide from you. I promise to be open with you. I promise to share every thought, every life, every sin, every attitude, good, bad. I open it up to you.

I want to confide in you. I don't want to hide from you. We need that kind of relationship with our spouses. And there's this idea in Scripture that kind of pertains to this subject. The idea of light and darkness is kind of a big thing in the Bible.

We see it over and over again, light and darkness. And in Ephesians 5, 8 through 11, it says this, For you were once darkness. It doesn't even say in darkness. It says you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. And then it says this, and if you'll underline this, if you're following.

You are the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you're the one that you If you're reading your notes or you're following your Bible or your app or what have you, live as children of light. So he gives us instructions, he commands us, Paul commands us to live as children of light. For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Now who doesn't want goodness, righteousness, and truth? So it consists of goodness, righteousness, and truth.

And find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. He says to expose them. So I love that statement, live as children of light. And the idea of light suggests this, that we need eye adjustments.

Think about it, when you go from a dark place, when you go outside and you go into the light, right? What happens? It's just a lot, right? Wow. Your eyes kind of have to adjust to the light.

And you can never find healing in the dark. When you're in a dark, nothing really prospers in dark places. Everything needs light. And shame grows best in the dark. So when we hide our shame, our hurt, our identity, our false identities, they grow in the dark.

So things need to come in the light. Healing and fruitfulness always comes in the light of things. And Paul gets very serious about this as it pertains to relationships and sexual purity. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Like sexual purity, purity to confide and not hide.

And in Ephesians 5-3, he gets really down and dirty about this. And he says, but among you, there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity. There should not even be a hint. There should not even be a thought. There should not even be a piece of that.

It should be shunned. Why? Because impurity is poison. Impurity is poison. And what do we do with poison?

We stay away from it, right? We don't flirt with it. We don't look at a bottle of poison and say, hmm, I wonder if I take a little dab of this, you know? Maybe it will do this. Maybe it won't.

You know, maybe if I just take a little nibble of this. Maybe if I just put a little bit in my food or whatever it won't. We don't do that, right? I mean, it just doesn't make sense, right? We see the skull and crossbones on the bottle.

And what do we do? We turn and go the other direction. Let's get that away from the kids. Let's get it up in a high cabinet. It's, you know, or throw it away.

Let's get it away from here. Impurity is the same thing. Impurity is poison. And there's this thing that we do in our lives. We got this thing called the line, the line we set in our lives, the sin line.

And we're always like kind of, everybody has a sin line that they kind of place in their life. And perhaps many of us have our line in the wrong place. Perhaps we're putting our line in the wrong place. So we decide, you know, what do we need to stay out of? What do we need to go with this?

And we put our lines in places and we say, well, that's how far I'm going to go into this. I'm not going to go over this, but we've got a lot of things going on on this side of the line that may not make that line very effective. So where are, so the question is, where are we putting our lines in our life, our barriers, our boundaries, whatever you want to call those in our lives to keep away from the poison that's on the shelf? We say, well, I'm not going to commit adultery or have sex before marriage, but we put our barriers in different places. We ask questions, we have to ask the question, okay, where do I stop?

And should I be alone with this coworker, you know? Should I be having dinner with this person of the opposite sex when my wife is away or my husband is away? Am I letting my thoughts run array at work, you know, or wherever I am? Where are we drawing the lines? Is it okay to get this far?

And where are we putting our lines? That's the question we have to ask ourselves. Where are we putting our boundaries? Well, the Bible says, and Jesus says this, he says, you should, you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. We all get that, right?

We should not commit adultery. That's pretty easy. Stay out of the bedroom, stay away from, you know, those who you're not married to do all that. But he says this, but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery. With her in his heart.

So he takes it to a whole nother level. Not only are you to stay away from that person or put lines in your life physically from that person. But here, emotionally, spiritually, are we putting lines in our life to keep us pure, to keep us whole? The line of sin has to stop at our desire, at the desires that we have. We have no idea our eyes have adjusted to the darkness in the world.

And a lot of times we put our lines in the wrong place because of that. Because we've become so adjusted to the darkness. Our eyes need to be adjusted. Our eyes need to be adjusted to where we put our lines and our boundaries and our lives. I was talking to a friend of mine who's an elderly man in the community.

I don't believe he follows Christ or anything. But we have some great conversations. And we were talking about the culture and how much it's changed and how the environment has changed. And I'm not even 40 years old yet. And I'm talking like an old man, you know, with his legs crossed and coughing.

And he says, yeah, you know, I remember the day, you know, when we had more clothes on and blah, blah. You know, you kind of get in those conversations. And, you know, the culture's changing and people are thinking different. And we've just gotten so callous. And he was talking about, you know, he's up there in age and he's been around for a while.

And he was talking about, you know, at one time, you know, when I was young, women completely covered everything, you know. And they had full, you know, I'm not suggesting, okay, guys, I'm not suggesting all the women need to start wearing those really, you know. My grandmother, you know, you could barely see her ankles when she dressed. But he says, I remember the day it was like that, but we still had the same issues. And he said, even then, if you saw a woman's ankle, you're like, whoa, look at that ankle over there, you know.

And then the 50s come and, you know, you have the poodle skirts, you know, and they're dancing and they're throwing, you know, all this, you know. You like that, huh? You know, all that. Fun times. And then, you know, those poodle skirts, man, I tell you, you know.

And he said that was kind of how we were. And then you get into the 60s and 70s and God knows what happened during that period of time, some of you who grew up during that period of time. And now we're in the 90s and 2000s, and it's almost as if, you know, people don't wear clothes anymore, you know, pretty much. But the same issues have always existed. But it's like, and in his opinion, it was like we all still have the same problems.

But from my understanding and my standpoint, looking at it from a spiritual direction, I believe we've adjusted to the darkness. We've put lines in our lives and we extended those lines to the point where we're just completely out of whack with what God's best is for us. And we've gone through life and it's a continuing, it was a gradual, gradual progression. And as a result, we don't know our limitations and perhaps our lines are just all over the place in our relationships and in our work lives and in our home lives and television, whatever it might be. We've done that before.

We've just compromised so much on this thing called purity, this thing called righteousness, this thing called goodness, this thing called holiness. It's almost become a scary word for us. And we need to get back to that. And I know it sounds a little old school, but I guarantee you, if you get back to this in your relationships, you're going to experience so many improvements in your marriages. You're going to experience so many more things in your life that there's some blessings in your life that you haven't experienced ever in your marriage if you've allowed your lines to be drawn in the wrong places.

See, here's how sin works. I love how James puts it, the preacher James, hardcore. I did a series on James last summer and just some hard truths in it. And James says this in chapter one, verse 14, but each one is tempted when by his own desire or own evil desires, underline that, own evil desires. See, we're talking about that desire, that desire.

He is lured away and enticed. And after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. So the desire is not necessarily sin. We have the desire that steps in. How does that come through?

Through our eyes, through our thoughts, through the things that we see every day. And then that desire has conceived and it gives birth to sin. And then when sin is fully grown, when it's not been addressed or it's not been stopped, it gives birth. And this is the hard truth. It gives birth to death.

It gives birth to death. So we're heading down. If we allow sin to continue down the path, it gives birth to death. It's all about drawing lines. Where do we need to take this line?

We need to take it all the way back to the beginning. Now, let me just say this. You can't help what you see. You're going to see things. It's about those thoughts.

Where do we process those thoughts? What do we do? Where do we draw the line with those thoughts? Do we throw those thoughts out right away? Or do we sit on those thoughts for a little while?

It's very easy to accidentally or run into something that may spur up some thoughts. For me, the other day, just watching TV, just watching a program on TV with my wife, right in the middle of a Victoria's Secret commercial comes on. And a lot of you will say, well, that's not a big deal, Leon. You know, it's just a commercial and this and that. But for me, it is a big deal.

Because what it does, it starts stirring up some things, you know? And if I don't cut it off or turn my head, and what I do immediately is when those Victoria's Secrets commercials come on, and some of you are probably laughing, it's just a Victoria's Secrets commercial, but it's not. Guys, y'all know that, right? Amen? Y'all agree with me, man.

It's not just a Victoria's Secrets commercial. It's something that could put thoughts into the minds of men. It can carry, we can carry it to, and that desire becomes real. If we don't make decisions, if we don't draw lines right there, cut off the TV, cut it down, walk out the room for a second. What I did is I immediately turned my head and started looking towards the kitchen.

I just started, you know, just for the next few minutes, just allowed it. I have to do that. We have to do that. And it's really important that we do that if we want to maintain a life of righteousness. Singles, where does your date begin, and where does it end?

Lines are really important, even in your dating situations, who you're dating. Where does it begin, and where does it end? Married people, everyone, where, you know, you say, I'm not going to commit adultery, but you're lusting after the person perhaps in the gym, or not pursuing a person at work, but you're fantasizing in your heart about that person, or you're not acting on it. It's okay because I'm not acting on it, right? But maybe you're reading a romance novel.

Some of you women probably do that. Some men may do it too. I don't know. But you may be reading those things, and you're, well, I'm not acting on it. It's okay.

But you're placing those desires in you. Teenagers, this isn't just a message for adults. Where are you drawing the lines? Don't, you know, here's just some suggestions. I was a youth pastor for quite a few years, so I did a lot of talks on this.

You've got to, you've got to, I know where you guys are coming from. It wasn't that long ago. All of us, all of us adults have been teenagers, okay? We know. We know how hard it is.

Yeah, sometimes some things you forget, you have to go back to. And I know how hard it is being in the world today, and all the comparison games, and all the things going on, you know, and relationships, and oh, you're different, but it's good to be different. It really is. It's a good thing. Because normal isn't really working, right?

So let's be weird. Let's be good. Where do we, some practical advice. Are you alone, you know, when you're dating, or when you're watching a movie, or in the house, are you going in rooms alone by yourself, or do you have people around you? Hey, invite your friends over.

That's a great, that's a great way to kind of keep things from getting tough, or getting hot and heavy, that is. Date around places that are popular. There's a lot of population, or a lot of people around, so that you can, you know, know, and familiar, and have timelines, and things like that. This is a hard one. Refrain from kissing.

There's a great book called, I Kissed Dating Goodbye. And when I was a teenager, I hated that book, because I wanted to kiss, you know? But there's good practical stuff in this, because what does kissing lead to? Get a little hot and heavy, and go a little far, you know? There's things, there's boundaries we have to make.

This seems extreme, but these are things. It was really cool, like in the youth group that I was pastoring, there was a group of guys who really had a hard time with pornography. Pornography is just such an addictive thing these days. You can access it anywhere. It's really heavy.

People are all up in this stuff, and they, you know, it's just, it's just an addiction. It's like a drug. And half the guys in the youth group had real issues with it. I mean, I would say probably all the boys in the youth group had issues with it. And I love what they did.

They made packs with each other. I loved it, because they really knew that they wanted to live a pure life. They wanted to get the sin out of their lives, and they made packs with each other to keep each other accountable. Some of them even got software to put on their computers so they can keep up with what each other were doing on their computers, their search history, and all of that. I mean, these guys are so radically interested in being pure and getting away from that so they can have the best marriages, because we talked a lot about their future and their relationships.

I can tell you, even at your age, everything that you do impure affects your relationship in the future. I remember when I was young, I was, back then, the internet was just getting started back in the early 90s. And, you know, how, you know, when you're on it. And that's what the internet sounded like, you know. It was a mobile, mobile dial-up, you know.

And things would download, and they, you know, they're coming, they're coming. And that was just normal. I thought it was the coolest thing. I could search, you know, I could do this. And I was doing a report on Robert Frost, because that was my report for my school.

We had to kind of pick a poet or a writer and talk about him. And I'll never forget, Robert Frost. It wasn't Robert Frost. Something else came up. And for a minute, I started getting caught up in that.

Like, oh, my God. Oh, whoa, you know. Ah, wow. And I started playing around with it. Oh, what else, what else, what else is there?

I mean, I'm like 12 years old, guys. 12 years old. And I started noticing, you know, as a young boy, I didn't know what was going on. And, you know, this stuff started. And what I didn't know is that it was under my dad's account.

And then he started getting emails from these X-rated companies the next week or so. And I remember, my dad's a professional, he's a pastor, but he's also a professional psychologist, has a Ph.D. in counseling and psychology, and counsels a lot of people, particularly marriages and stuff. And he looked at me, he says, Leon, you know, he sat me down and he shared this with me.

And, you know, obviously, I was doing, I mean, and it happens all the time, right? And then I was just, I was just like, just felt so bad. He says, it's okay, it's okay. But I'll tell you this, I'll tell you this. I see it all the time.

I counsel a lot of people, but everything, every decision you make right now about this kind of stuff, if you allow this stuff, it has the potential to ruin future relationships. It has the potential to ruin your marriage in the future. Leon, I'm just telling you, this is the time to make a decision to cut it off right now. I'm telling you, if you are involved in any of that, make the decision right now to cut it off. Cut it off.

Cut it off. Even Jesus was extreme about this. He says in Scripture, he says in Proverbs 5a, excuse me, I'm jumping ahead here. He said in Matthew, he said, if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. He says, if your arm causes you to sin, cut it off.

Now, that doesn't mean we attend small groups with one-armed cyclopses, you know. We're not doing that. But, I mean, he wasn't being literal, but he was trying to figuratively point how serious the sin that comes into our lives can be to our potential marriages and our potential relationships. In fact, he says this, keep to a path far from her in Proverbs. Do not go near the door of her house.

Proverbs, wisdom. Do not. Cut it off right away. No secrets, whether it's in your relationships, if you're not married yet, and in your marriages. Don't be alone.

Don't travel alone. Make access to everything to your spouse. Miranda and I have our passwords. We have everything. We don't have codes on our phones.

We have everything available to each other. Anytime she wants to go into my phone, anytime I need to go into her computer, we have complete confidence that nothing is going on because we are completely open. We share our money. We share our accounts. We have everything.

Nothing is separate. Those are just good practical things we need in our marriages. We need to confide in each other and not hide from each other. We need to be together fully in our relationships. So I'm running out of time here because I see I've got about five minutes left, and I've just been really digging into some stuff here.

So here's practicality. Here's the advice I have for you. How can we stay pure? Psalms 119 says this. The psalmist wrote this in 119.

How can a young person stay on the path of purity? This is key. By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart. Do not let me stray from your commands.

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. So number one, here's some practical things. If you're following your notes, number one, we have to be a student of God's word. Because if we're a student of God's word, if we're seeking God, if we want to know him more, and we go to pursue him more, we become passionate about pleasing him. And if we're passionate about pleasing him, we want to be pure.

And we don't just have to be pure. We want to be pure because we have such a heart and a desire to please God. It doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, the taste, it, the taste of goodness and purity becomes sweetness to our mouths. And we want a relationship pure and intimate. We want total trust, no fear, friendship, intimacy comes out of the word of God, the trust we have in our Savior.

So we need to go into the word of God. We need to know God. We need to know him and know his word. The second thing we can do practically is play forward the consequences. If you're following your notes, play forward the consequences.

It's a smart thing to do a evaluation in your head of where this may go if I take it down this course. So if I dip into this sin, if I have dinner with this woman that, or this man that may not, that is not my husband or wife, where could this potentially lead? If I'm confiding in someone else outside of my wife or my husband, where could this lead? Could this become an emotional thing? If you start sharing secrets, Proverbs 28, 13 says, whoever conceals their sins does not prosper.

And again, the intention of having relationships or going into marriage is not to say, I want to break that person's heart. The intention is never that, but it happens. And when we play it forward, where could this lead? It helps us define the lines and the barriers that we need to place in our lives. We don't want to break the heart of God.

Here's what I do as a pastor. Whenever I think about those things, like, what if I were to commit a moral failure? Well, what consequences would it have on my life and my family and my ministry? First of all, it would break the heart of God. And I would be dragging Christ's name through the mud because I'm a pastor, I'm a minister of Jesus Christ.

And one day I meet him face to face, I'll have to hold an account to him. Secondly, I would lose my reputation as a minister. People's lives would be damaged. People could possibly walk away from the church, never to be a part of a church again. Spiritually, it could be damaging.

I would lose Miranda's unconditional trust. I would, it would bring conflict to this trust issue that we, that happens in marriages that go that route. And imagine, and I imagine if I had to sit down with my kids and tell them what, what happened, what, how it happened. The things, the consequences that it could have, it just doesn't affect me. It affects everything, everyone around me.

So it's, it's important that we play for the consequences. Number two and number three, confess your sins to one another. Confess your sins to one another. First of all, we need to confess it to God because God is faithful and just to forgive us, right? And then we confess our sins to one another, as the scripture says, so that we can be healed.

Whoever conceals their sin does not prosper, but whoever, when one confesses and renounces them, finds mercy. We need to confess and renounce so that we may find mercy. We are children of light, no longer in darkness, no longer in darkness. We are children of light, no longer in darkness. I think about...

I'm using a Savannah example, but it's a good example this time. But just the other day, she was in the back room of my office, and I kind of, I didn't see her there, and I switched off the light. It gets really dark back in that area. It's a garage area that's been made into a room, existing room in the house. And it got really, really dark in there.

And as I'm walking away, I can just, she starts screaming and starts crying. I'm like, I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared. I'm like, oh, I'm sorry I didn't see you there, and I'm scared. And she just starts, you know, just pouring her little eyes, you know, just, I'm scared, Daddy, I'm scared. I didn't, I don't like it, because it's dark in here, it's dark in here, it's dark in here.

So I just grab her, I cut on the light, and I grab her up, and I hold her tightly to my chest. And I mean, she's grabbing on to me, and she's putting her, I mean, with everything that's in her, she's holding on to me. And I was thinking about that picture. You are no longer in darkness, but you are now in light. That's what God does to us.

Some of you here right now, you're crying out, you're in tears, and you're in darkness, and you're like, God, God, I can't hide anymore in this darkness. I can't grow in this darkness. Nothing's happening here. I'm hurting. God's like, I'm right here.

Receive the light. No longer be a child of darkness, but be a child of light. And some of you here today, you've walked into this place, and you're like, you know what? I'm in darkness, and I want this thing that God has. And I've been hiding forever.

With all heads bowed and all eyes closed, I just want to give you an opportunity. See, it's not about getting right a relationship with the Savior of the world, the one who pulled you out of darkness into light. If you're that person in darkness, and you're like, no, Pastor, I just can't. I can't live in this darkness anymore. And you're ready to make a decision for Jesus, to have a relationship with Jesus.

If that's you today, if you would just lift your hand and just say, Pastor, I'm making that decision today. It's time. Is that you? Is that you? You're crying out.

Just be bold enough. I'm not going to embarrass you. I'm not going to ask you to come up to the front. I just care about, and God cares about you coming to know Him and having a relationship. Is that you?

Is that you, anyone? Give your life to Christ. Give your heart to Christ. Whether you decide it or not, I want you just to pray this prayer with me. Father, in the name of Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God.

Lord, you died on the cross for my sin. Come into my life. Come into my heart. I receive the light, Lord Jesus. Cover the darkness.

Light always takes over darkness. Cover the darkness over my life. Be my Father. Be my Savior. Change me from the inside out.

In your name. Amen.