1 Corinthians 6:12-7:40, “What’s Your Price?”

1st Corinthians chapter 6 starting verse 12 all the way into chapter 7 hear the word of the Lord All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful

All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food and God will destroy both one end the other

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body and God Raise the

Lord and will also raise us up by his power Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute never or do you not know that?

He who was joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her for as it is written the two shall become one flesh

But he who was joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him flee from sexual immorality

Every other sin a person commits is outside the body But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God?

You are not your own for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality Each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband

The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights and likewise the wife to her husband for the wife does not have

Authority over her own body, but the husband does likewise The husband does not have authority over his own body

But the wife does do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a limited time

That you may devote yourselves to prayer But then come come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self -control

Now as a concession not a command. I say this I wish that all were as I myself am but each has his own gift from God One of one kind and one of another to the unmarried and the widows

I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am But if they cannot exercise self -control

They should marry for it is better to marry than to burn with passion to the married I give this chart not

I but the Lord the wife should not separate from her husband But if she does she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband and the husband should not divorce his wife

To the rest I say I not the Lord that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live

With him he should not divorce her if any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her

She should not divorce him For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband

Otherwise your children would be unclean but as it is they are holy But if the unbelieving partner separates let it be so in such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved

God has called you to peace For how do you know wife whether you will save your husband or how do you know husband whether you will save your wife

Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him

This is my rule in all the churches Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised?

Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised

Let him not seek circumcision for neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision but keeping the commandments of God Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.

Were you a slave when called do not be concerned about it But if you can gain your freedom avail yourself of the opportunity

For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed man in of the

Lord likewise he who was Free when called is a slave of Christ you were bought with a price do not become slaves of men

For brothers in whatever condition each was called There let him remain with God Now concerning the betrothed.

I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy

I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is

Are you bound to a wife do not seek to be free? Are you free? From a wife do not seek a wife

But if you do marry you have not sinned and if a betrothed woman marries she has not sinned

Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles and I would spare you that This is what

I mean brothers The appointed time has grown very short from now on let those who have wives

Live as though they had none and those who mourn as though they were not mourning and those who rejoice as though they were not

Rejoicing and those who buy as though they had no goods and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with It for the present form of this world is passing away.

I Want you to be free from anxieties The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the

Lord how to please the Lord but the married man is anxious about worldly things how to please his wife and his interests are divided and The unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the

Lord how to be holy and body and spirit But the married woman is anxious about worldly things how to please her husband

I say this for your own benefit not to lay any restraint upon you But to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the

Lord if anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed if His passions are strong and it has to be let him do as he wishes.

Let them marry it is no sin But whoever is firmly established in his heart being under no necessity

But having his desire under control and has determined this in his heart to keep her as his betrothed

He will do well so then he who marries his betrothed does well and he who refrains from marriage will do even better a

Wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes only in the

Lord Yet in my judgment, she is happier. She remains as she is and I think that I too have the

Spirit of God May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word.

Well, the following sermon Is rated pg -13 Children and Baptists are strongly cautioned sex

Perhaps the main competitor of Christianity today, at least in this country is not Islam or Buddhism It is not atheism or Hinduism.

It's not rationalism or even terrorism It is eroticism the uninhibited search for fulfilling sexual passions and and whatever form we please

That eroticism has triumphed in our culture following the so -called sexual revolution every every revolution

Overthrows some kind of old order of the American Revolution overthrew the British order of the rule of the

King of England The sexual revolution overthrew an order of restraint on uninhibited pursuit of sexual pleasure.

Um, it overthrew a morality that are sort of modesty about sexual things that even though it may often been very hypocritical and it was because there were plenty of People during that time who were immoral still it honored in public a modesty about sexuality

They can hardly be imagined Maybe at least a bit about the younger people today, you know people younger than I I can just barely remember

Growing up watching TV in the 70s You know just just like today you see reruns from the 90s right in the 70s.

You see reruns from the 50s I remember old old TV shows from the 50s

Watching when I was a kid, they usually even as a kid I understood show really kind of absurd scenes, but it's the modesty

So absurd scenes of married couples supposedly sleeping in two separate beds in the same room You know that that was because that was what they were supposed to That was the best that was the most they could show on television.

That was the establishment and it was overthrown in the sexual revolution

Replacing it with a rampant eroticism Now the philosophy is if someone wants to do it and it doesn't hurt anyone else

Then why shouldn't that let them do whatever they want to do. So we now live in a sex soap culture

Every second at least the latest statistics. I was able to find every second $3 ,075 and 64 cents is spent on pornography every second

Right now right at this moment. There are twenty eight thousand two hundred and fifty eight internet viewers watching pornography

And from this moment to about the time I finished the sermon a new pornographic video will be created in this country

Of course, that's just a hardcore stuff milder, but still and intentionally Erotic images and ideas are really just everywhere now and you only need to glance at the magazines on the on the and the checkouts

Stand at the supermarket or turn on most any television show Especially, you know popular shows on sitcoms and that kind of thing and just you know, there it is

You can't can't get away from it eroticism has won the revolution. And so we have a culture soaked in sex words and images and Knowledge about sex but no wisdom about it

What are we going to do about it? Well first we're paying a high price The Internet often all online affairs attracting women and online pornography attracting men is now responsible for more and more divorces

The technology and now the smartphones it both isolates people Oh, you know always people's always staring into their little screens and and at the same time as it teases them

With the unrealistic and twisted versions of sexual relations that leave them wanting a relationship

But with no idea of what one is like I think that's at least one factor why we are creating this our culture is creating so many angry lonely

Desperate young men at least a few of whom resort to violence. So we're paying a high price the good news though is that eroticism is an enemy an opponent that Christianity has fought before and defeated

Corinth was a society much like ours Sure, they didn't have the technology to kind of put it in your hand at any time

But they had the same kind of sex soaked Culture it's the same kind of values if it feels good do it

Corinth was a major seaport and with so many people passing through Transient people people with no worries about keeping or losing a reputation sailors looking for a good time

There was a lot to make them happy It was also the center of the temple to Aphrodite in which one way to supposedly worship the goddess was by employing one of the temples prostitutes literally a religion of Eroticism Corinth even had a reputation as a center for immorality sort of like our modern -day,

Las Vegas to Corinthian eyes With slang for to be moral what happened in Corinth stayed in Corinth I guess so cut loose was the attitude there and finally there was the

Greek culture itself which was thought that little of the body thought that the body was just a cage were trapped in and Thought even littler of what we do with our bodies you want to afflict it and be strict with it

You okay, you can do that or you want to cut loose and you know, follow its every passion chase whatever sexual titillation thrills you

Well, then just have at it and that was Corinth how many of the Christians there had fallen up for these errors

Either the cheap grace of anything goes probably like the man who's you know, living with a stepmother. He's probably that same attitude well, you know

We love each other whatever their excuse was But the attitude yeah, I'm free to do with what I want with my body or maybe on the other side people reacting against that this excess

Rigorous overreaction that thought to avoid falling for immorality then while just stay away from sex entirely

That the church was paying a high price for their confusion Paul here addressed this giving us giving them and giving us four ways to live as temples of the

Holy Spirit in a culture of eroticism first Flee to be free

Second Mary to be moral third stay to serve and fourth dedicate to devotion

Flee to be free In the first section chapter 6 verse 12 to 20

Paul addresses their underlying confusion That what they believed and assumed about the body

Was wrong. They appear to be taking some phrases of Paul's teaching all things are lawful for me the food is meant for the stomach of the stomach for food and They took those and they mixed them and they twisted them around and in their own way of thinking

And Paul probably really did say all things are lawful for me That we are free from the

Mosaic law. We can eat pork now. We can eat oysters If it's edible really we can eat it

And so some of them ate anything and isn't probably they're like Americans as much quantity as they wanted in a culture of self -indulgence

They use their beliefs to justify Self -indulgence so they took

Paul's motto all things are lawful for me By which he was trying to show that because Jesus paid the price for our sins because he was that final

Passover lamb He paid the price on the cross that we don't have to try to pay it anymore by our law keeping that's what he meant so since Jesus has paid the price men were free all things are lawful for me and They took that and instead of celebrating the price paid for by Christ to free us from the law

They then took it To have implied it to sex Okay, the stomach is for food

That's what Paul said, right? That's why I can eat pork. It's for the stomach. So I'll eat it We're free to give in to its every craving.

Well, the stomach is for food Guess what? The genitals are for to that Paul Cuts no slack and at the end of verse 13 the body is not

Meant for sexual immorality But for the Lord sure the stomach may be for food, but your body is not meant for sexual immorality

You've got it all totally wrong. He is saying it's an invalid comparison He is saying that yes

The stomach is made for food and we are now free to enjoy all kinds of food that we want

But our bodies are not made for sexual immorality We are free to enjoy any kind of food we want but we're not free to enjoy any kind of sexual relationship

We like and as much as many some people may be overwhelmed with some urges That simply is not what they or we were designed for if it feels good

Do it is not a good principle to live by We were made for the

Lord if we are not using our bodies to serve the Lord, then we are not using them rightly

The word there for sexual immorality Greek is Pornia. So where we get the word pornography from pornography literally means immorality writing

It's a general catch -all word for just all kinds of general word for all sex out of a proper marriage

Any sexual encounter that we have with anyone other than our wedded husband or wife in a covenant of marriage is

Immoral and not what we were meant to do. Our body is not made for that and no urge otherwise

Changes that But what probably shocked the Corinthians most and perhaps us to that phrase from from the end of verse 13

The Lord is for the body God is pro body

Our physicalness was created by him and in church history this has often been forgotten with large movements and prominent theologians teaching that our bodies are to be ignored or even combated and Overcome and yes, but and sometimes our bodies are filled with desires to do things that we must say no to But we do it.

We sometimes say no to the body to save the body for the resurrection in verse 14

God raised the Lord Jesus That's already he's already done that and he will raise us raise our bodies by the same power

So we are between resurrections Jesus's is already and Ours is not yet.

That's where we live. We live between resurrections. That means that in eternity We will be in a body

Being physical is not like a just a temporary thing for this life and we're gonna be a spirit floating around somewhere

No, we are not spirits trapped in the body. Our body is part of who we are It is here in verse 15 our our bodies notice that verse 15 our bodies are members of Christ We probably heard and assumed

Well, yeah, I'm a member of Christ like my spirit is united or joined with him that we're part of the spiritual body

But here it is notice clearly in verse 15 our bodies That are members of Christ.

In other words this stuff right, this this flesh and bones and skin and and hair and and fluids is part of Christ So did so what we do with this body we are doing to Christ himself

This is why to be free We have to flee from sexual immorality

In sex we become one with our partner We might not want to believe it or admit it but it's true

And so no matter how casual we think our sex will be it is still uniting here in verse 15 verses 15 and 16

He even says that sex with a prostitute Which perhaps, you know is the most frivolous you would think empty sex that one can can engage in it's still becoming one flesh still uniting

Still for a Christian joining the members of Christ with a prostitute it is sin with our bodies

Which is a temple of the Holy Spirit if you're a Christian and in immorality for Christians we desecrate

That temple to be free we must flee

We must flee because we are not our own Not our own just to do with our bodies as whatever seems right to us

Whatever feel good feels good to us. If we are true Christians, we've been bought with a price the price of the literal body of Jesus being beaten and cut and Punctured and racked that's the price he paid for us.

That's the price that we owe Because of our sins and he paid that not only for our spirits for our hearts for our minds

But also for our bodies That's the price it cost to buy our bodies.

So we now Must glorify God With them with our bodies to be free

We have to flee sexual immorality Think of what he's assumed by by flea

Flee from it. This is didn't just say avoid it stay away from it. He says flee Think of what's assumed by that first assumes that sexual immorality is is pursuing us

So we have to run away from it takes exertion takes effort And take and it shouldn't it should inspire some fear in you but flee as if like from an angry bear

You're afraid to be Pounced upon by second it implies flea implies that avoiding sexual morality requires positive action

It will take some Take some energy. It'll take some work. It will take us to be intentional not to be caught

We can't just be passive and hope that it will hopefully it'll just pass us by we have to take the initiative and Apply ourselves and those convictions are what really what drives the rest of this passage all the way the end of chapter 7

The sexual immorality is an enemy that is chasing us and to avoid being trapped by it

We must actively do something So in those eight verses at the end of chapters second half of chapter 6, he shows us the reason we should flee to be free

Because we've been bought with a price We should pursue purity with a passion Not because we're afraid of AIDS or STDs or the long -term emotional hang -ups that come with immorality all of which is true but you know

Some doctor somewhere will promise that science can can cure it all and besides really none of that I don't think those kind of fears is going to be effective at keeping us from immorality when the temptations come hot and heavy

We should pursue purity with a passion not because we're afraid of being caught but because We've been bought

That's the principle Then in chapter 7 he applies that principle to several different kinds of situations

Several different circumstances and first he shows us that most people need to marry to be moral

Marriages is a dam Against the flood of immorality where most adults are in healthy happy marriages sexual immorality is held back

From overcoming them and the rest of society for Paul Concerned mainly about maintaining the purity of the body of Christ Then marriage is useful for discipleship as a way to flee immorality and not sin

Against the members of the body of Christ in the first five or give me a chapter 7 they proposed to him

You know he and he initially accepts. I think that's what he's saying at the beginning of chapter 7 Where he says it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman literally is for him not to touch

A woman that's what some of them were saying. He says, you know, basically he says sure

Sure, that's good. It's great. If you have the self -control and can live without sex, but then quickly he says most don't and Because most don't have that special gift

We calls it a gift of celibacy and verse 7 because most don't have it Then he says each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband

Paul recognizes the plain fact that if people aren't married most people there's exceptions, of course like himself

But if most many if they don't have a wife or their own husband Many of them will give in eventually to sexual temptation.

And so in verse 2 he prescribes marriage to be moral

This is one one of the purposes of marriage To keep you from sexual immorality as the traditional wedding vows of the

Anglican Church puts it that marriage quote was ordained for a remedy against sin and To avoid fornication that such persons as have not the gift of continence

In other words self -control might marry and keep themselves undefiled members of Christ's body

Once I was interviewing for pastoral position in front of a whole congregation about 15 So so years ago more than that actually and someone asked me there

You know Q &A ask anything someone asked me What was my biggest temptation when I was young and how did

I overcome it and I replied lust and I got married That doesn't sound very spiritual or very romantic, but it's true

It's real Then Paul describes exactly how marriage is a damn against immorality in verse 3

Notice verse 3 some of you may think I'm making this up where it says right there in verse 3 that it how does marriage?

prevent hold back sexual immorality And he says in verse 3 is frankly by having sex and that is often as the neediest spouse needs

So it's not sex itself. That is immoral or wrong. It's sex outside of marriage That is there was no idea as it rose later in church history of a supposed

Spiritual marriage in which two people will live together, but stay celibate There's also no idea as we have in some parts of the church today of speaking of marriage without any reference to sex

You know like those shows from the 50s that I used to see when I was a kid Two single beds

Separated in one room a portrayal of marriage as if it were sexless Once I read two different articles on how

I'm quote on how to a fair proof your marriage Okay, sound like a good topic how to a fair proof your marriage

One of which one of the articles was supposed to be Christian, but both of them were nearly hilarious for the way

They missed the obvious Seems to be the end The first answer is pretty obvious to me How to a fair proof your marriage and if you saw an article on how to keep your husband or wife for me eating out

Too much. Well, you think the answer would be pretty obvious Prepare meals at home Why is it that two separate articles on how to a fair proof your marriage neither mentioned that you might ought to try?

I Don't know maybe sex with your spouse ever thought of that Some people have it

Paul is not so otherworldly. He's not so unreal He even gives a reason for it When we are married our bodies are not our own in the traditional wedding vows when we put the you know

Put the ring on each other's finger. We are to say with my body. I'd be honor as Christians our bodies are members of Christ and when married our bodies are not our own anymore to do with this

We please that's why the spouse has a right to say what we what we put on or take off and how we let it go

This is totally contrary to the the modern view, you know proclaim so loudly particularly on the issue of abortion today

You know, my body is my own to do with as I please Even after I've surrendered in in marriage now

Paul says no it isn't Your body belongs to him and vice versa if you're married notice that in verse 5

Even if we want to dedicate ourselves to a time of special prayer What what we would think is the most spiritual pursuit gonna be abstained from sex and pray

We need your you need your spouse's permission to do that You can't go off into prayer and away from sex

Because you decide to and even if it is granted should only be for a limited time He says so this

Satan may not use one spouse's spirituality to lead the other into immorality We have been bought with the price and marriage is a way to be moral to be what we were bought for So then

Paul deals with several cases of marriage under attack for whenever possible Marriages should stay together in verses 10 and 11

Paul says the Lord commands made of which Jesus himself commands he's taking this from the teachings of Jesus about About marriage and divorce and the

Jesus himself commands that wives don't separate from their husbands and husbands don't divorce Even if one is an unbeliever

They should not separate he's not a believer. She's not a believer That's not a reason. It's not cause for divorce or separation.

The marriage can still work as a dam against immorality and perhaps there's no guarantee but perhaps

The unbelieving family member will be converted says you being there with makes the family holy

There's that influence so whenever possible the marriage should be held together But sometimes sadly is not possible in verse 15

If the unbeliever leaves I'm believing partner leaves and in that case The abandoned believer is not bound to continually try to be winning the separating

Separating unbeliever back a marriage with any life left in it is to be nurtured

But when an abusive unbeliever just abandons a believer that they can find that kind of marriage can finally be

Ended for the sake of peace We marry to be moral

Christ bought our bodies With his blood and marriage helps us to glorify

God with our bodies So we flee to be free And we marry to be moral and we also stay to serve in verse 17

And he's beginning with marriage But then he goes out into every area of life if you've come to the

Lord is is married or single be content in that condition

Don't make getting married the pursuit of your life Don't be like, you know, you were saying

Jerry Maguire Finding that one relationship it completes you complete me

And don't be like that So you can't be content and you tell you you find it. Don't think

I'll serve the Lord later After I've gotten my career together or my business is successful or I've got all the money

I think I need or after I've gotten married then I'll Serve the Lord sadly, there are people especially young adults who are waiting to start what they think is their life

You know after they got married and maybe maybe then after they had the children I'm maybe after they have enough money in the bank

They think when they get a wife or a husband or kids or a good job when they've settled down then you know, they'll go back and do the church thing and then they'll get involved and then they'll serve the

Lord and That's the wrong order Bosses don't think like that What they end up doing courses that they often end up paying the price and they find themselves

Often married to the to a wrong ones out of the Lord the Lord who they never got around They may never get around to serving the

Lord and they often will see their children growing up without the faith that they sold away

In their younger days, they were told that they were bought with a price in verse 23 That phrase is repeated again notice comes from verse chapter 6 now it is in verse 23 chapter 7 verse 23

You were bought with a price, but they couldn't stay and serve serve the

Lord in the condition you are in Right now other words right now.

There should be nothing between you and serving the Lord nothing You're waiting on nothing. You're waiting to accomplish some landmark.

You're waiting to pass you thinking about well I want to but first let me get this no nothing else comes first serve the

Lord now be content in whatever Condition you are in now and don't make an idol out of a relationship now

That doesn't mean you have to stay lonely with no future even slaves here are told that if they have an opportunity

They can take advantage of it. They should be be content in the situation you are in But if you have the opportunity to comes around slave get free take advantage of it

So do you single people be content in your singleness use the advantages you have of more free time?

that you don't have to accommodate someone else's schedule that all the responsibilities of Being married that you don't you don't have those you want to worry about them use that not just for your personal convenience

But to serve the Lord, but if the opportunity comes as you're serving the Lord someone Lord bring someone into your life

Well, that's great. Then you can get married We were bought with a price and so we stay to serve stay and the condition you are in now

Serve in the condition serve the Lord and the condition you are in now

Finally We are to be dedicated to devotion In those last 15 verses he bring kind of bringing all the threads together

He's laid out with us before we are to flee to be free So we run away from whatever could make us vulnerable to immorality we're to marry to be moral if If in this case, there's an arranged marriage

If I say we don't have any of those today, but actually we do we keep it Persons here today.

We actually we even have one in our own congregation If there's an arranged marriage and the couple doesn't have the gift of self -control, they should be married

But he most of Paul most highly extols the advantages of staying to serve So the conclusion is above all

Be dedicated to devotion a married person has no responsibilities at home.

I Said that wrong. I shouldn't say no married person has responsibilities at home.

I supplied them. No, don't hear me wrong You have a married person and that's that's his warning by the way

That's why he has a kind of bias against marriage That's why I'm saying I you know If you can stay unmarried is better for you

Not because anything to do with sex like he thinks is contaminating or unholy. No, it's just because Being married you have responsibilities

It takes time away from you and he wants you to use that time for the Lord All right You understand a married man must as a matter of duty be interested in how to please his wife

Some of his interests must as a Christian be dedicated to her Married people can't give their time completely to working for the sake for the spread of the gospel or for serving in the church

They have a duty to their spouse whom they married Hopefully they married to help him or her to be moral but single people if they're content in the situation they're in their own in their condition as Single they're not just frantically always looking for mr.

Or miss, right? They're just desperate always thinking of the next date or the next boyfriend or the next girlfriend not thinking

They won't they're the kind that think they won't be complete until they're married until they're married till they have that soul mate and Because they're like that so they're unable to do anything in the service of the

Lord If they're not like that if they're single people content in this and the service of the

Lord content of the Lord as they are They can have an undivided devotion That is useful.

It is sought after by Paul here. It's useful for the kingdom of God Once again in first Corinthians Paul stresses, you know where we are at in the history of God's work

Has it changed since his time to ours and chapter 6 verse 14. Remember we are between resurrections

That's the present distress. He mentioned in chapter 7 verse 26 in light of the present distress.

He says Distress means you're being torn like between two things Now Christ has been raised in the past later

We will be raised now in verse 31 the present form of this world is passing away

It's not gone yet, but it's on its way out So even we who are married must be prepared to live as if we were not to live with undivided devotion to the

Lord to live in our bodies so that the so that we tell the world that God is more important than All our bodily cravings that he paid the price for us

The specific case in that last section chapter 7 That's why it sounds kind of weird to us.

Sometimes it's foreign to us. It's about Betrothal and it's just kind of strange.

I mean your means you're basically in an arranged marriage, but you're not Actually been married yet. Otherwise, you've been told families.

You're gonna marry him vice versa, you know, and you're not really married yet So you're just waiting but the overriding prince unless hardly any of us experienced that but the overriding principles

How to live between the resurrections? to flee to be free

The married to be moral stay to serve dedicate to undivided devotion.

Those are the principles They are as relevant to us as ever. And so if we want to attain the goal of this passage to glorify

God in our bodies Then we better apply these principles To our situation, right?

We don't have a situation where most of our marriages are arranged in patrols today. We have a system from the world of dating

Particularly now after the sexual revolution and nothing in that system cares about discouraging

Immorality, in fact it it encourages it and so we need to apply these principles to our culture and like Paul I have

Seven Paul takes those those principles and applies it to their culture We're going to take those principles and apply it to our culture for this culture of dating between resurrections after the sexual revolution seven of them first Parents ought to be careful not to over emphasize the importance of marriage

Children should not get the idea from you that they aren't complete until they're married

Because if they do get that idea then eventually they may be desperate and their longing for somebody

Will collapse into a settling for anybody Second those who are not able to marry not yet anyway, because they're too young or they're just too busy

They don't need to be pressured to have a boy or a girlfriend, you know, because everybody's doing it This is the cool thing and those relationships the temptations to sex are far greater and if they can't get married yet Then we ought to be very careful about encouraging to have boys or girlfriends once what's the use if you can't get married yet?

third when we do date We need to understand is for a greater purpose than just having some good times

I'm going to go to the movies with or whatever. Yes, it's great If we could have some good times, but we need to be intentional. See see the purpose in this to find someone

Who can help me? To marry to be moral to glorify God and so we ask ourselves.

Will this person? Help me to flee To seek God's will to be free

Or will he or she be a trap? If that means practically the dating relationships don't need they don't need to go on for very long

They only need to last for as long as it takes to answer that question Right if after a couple of years a couple can't decide to get married then it's time to break it up Even if no one else is on the horizon

Studies have shown the couples that date and are engaged for just for many years Because you know there they can't think of a reason to break up But they can't think that they're really not that passionate about getting married yet.

So they just kind of Stumble along they tend not to be healthy and genuinely in love and if they were they couldn't wait so long to get married

Some couples just drift for years There's no purpose for our purpose

That is a problem because being so close for so long with no clear goal is fertile ground for immorality fourth

Dating Christian couples need to decide on their physical limits before they're alone on the couch or in the parked car

If you wait until then and the heat of the moment, you're much more likely to decide in favor of immorality

We need to have convictions about what we will not do Allow to be done what situations we will stay out of convictions developed with Cool reasoning based on the commitment to flee to be free

Fifth pace yourself like in a distance race

One of the things that strikes us older people I think is most bizarre About the younger culture now is the way the younger people are so are so quick To jump to the conclusion that you know, this is the one

He's the one she's the one after a date or two As though all you as though you think you need to have get an engagement ring on the first date

How does that work? You know dating is a process of finding out whether this person is someone you should marry

It's a marathon and as a distant former distance runner. Anyways, one of the strategies of a good distance run is start slow start with a pace that you can maintain for Mary and I we've been acquainted with each other for about a year and Didn't she began to help me on a major project?

I was doing and so we were spending a couple of hours together most days before finally I decided

I wanted to take this a step further and ask her to go with me to Santa Barbara, California Which is a beautiful city on just north of Los Angeles on the beach just spectacular shoreline and There I asked her to be my girlfriend and she said yes, and then

I asked her if I could kiss her and she said no And then we were dating. I didn't have any rights over We weren't engaged we were just exploring and it would take almost a year and a half later in Which I asked her on the other side of the

Pacific Ocean to marry me but today it seems like we have these couples who go on a date or two and they act like they own each other and They'll ignore all their other friends

They'll spend all their time together and sometimes move closer to be with each other Sometimes change colleges or change churches just so they can spend all their time together.

That's just crazy You aren't engaged Until you are engaged.

Okay, you have a ring on your finger and a wedding date set until then slow down Six Christians should avoid prolonged proximity to members of the opposite sex

Maybe in where you live or in work situations or if you're alone together with someone or in or in Suggesting in protracted engagements

I think co -ed dorms or sharing houses or apartments with non -family members of the opposite sex is just foolish

It's just foolish, you know, if you want to discourage opportunities for morality if you want to encourage them

Okay, am I understand that makes sense unrelated people of the opposite sex should not normally be living together under the same roof.

Oh Some will protest. Oh, come on. Don't be so dirty minded We're just friends or we're just helping share the rent or whatever the excuse, you know, you have a sexual nature

You don't know that you're out of touch with yourself And that sexual nature will it may draw you together

That means that as you say a dating couple there is a moving closer to an engagement Spending more and more free time together then be ready once you cross that line

And again back into the running analogy once you cross that line into engagement Speed up you sprint to the finish line, which is at that wedding altar.

You're aren't you aren't engaged Until you're engaged, but once you're engaged

You're almost married. So flee to avoid sexual immorality flee to the safety of Marriage like in a long -distance run start slow

But finish as fast as you can Once you can see that finish line once you've decided to get married

Then get married as soon as you practically can and engagement should only last as long as is necessary My opinion to plan a wedding and you make the arrangements to live together, which you do after you're married

Flee the greater temptations to immorality that are in the prolonged proximity to each other flee to the safety of marriage

Don't act like the world Which handed us this dating system understand the situation we are in I'm not like some don't date and you know, try to we'll all try to arrange marriages.

I don't think that's practical We have this dating system, but by itself it encourages sexual immorality

To avoid that we have to apply our principles We are supposed to flee it flee sexual immorality

That will mean then fleeing circumstances like having a single girl or guy Sharing a house with you or sleeping across the hall like once you have decided to be married getting married as soon as circumstances will allow

Mary to be moral fleeing to be free means living differently than how the world says

Finally seventh and this was not a suggestion but a command in Scripture We need to make sure the

Christians clearly understand is in verse 39 We can marry only in the Lord You're a

Christian you marry only in the Lord the Situations in the middle of the chapter of a Christian being married to a non -christian come when one person in the marriage is converted after being married and Then they are to stay in the marriage and pray and work to convert the other partner, right?

But there's no allowance for Christian intentionally marrying a non -christian house If someone is they've already done that we're not gonna know the marriage or try to them to get divorced but no, it is now it now we want to nurture it, but Don't don't go into it like that.

I personally will not perform a wedding between a professed Christian and non -christian I once had a one of my own family members asked to perform her asked me to perform her wedding

But when I found out the groom was not a Christian I said no you professed to be a Christian he doesn't

I'm not gonna do The wedding we I don't even go to it But I'm not gonna be responsible for the one to put you two together

I was criticized for it my own family and pressured some but when a couple of years later They were divorced the same family member that tried to pressure me to do it said said she was glad I didn't okay

I might perform a wedding between two non -believers Actually have Which was a Chinese restaurant in in Yancey Ville and two of the workers there want to get married

So I showed up at the restaurant right there. You want to marry her? She wants to marry you you want to get married? Okay. Yes, you're married.

That's done like just like that Sure marriage is for everybody but will not knowingly marry a

Christian to a non -christian that being the command because it's a command from God That the suggestion then from me is that there would be no reason

If we're not if we can't marry them why we would intentionally date a non -christian Why would we do that such a person won't help us serve the

Lord sure we could say well, I'm free to do that Maybe so But is it helpful?

We are fleet we are free if we are born again But our freedom did not come for free.

It cost Christ everything and with that with everything We were bought we weren't set free to follow every desire

It just sweeps us away to eat and drink as we feel like it to date as we feel like it to have sex as we

Feel like to marry for ourselves. We were set free to glorify God some so -called

Christians set free Thinking they're set free. Anyway have have used their freedom to go back into bondage perhaps to some food or drink or some physical appetite perhaps to lust or pornography or to an actual sin against the body and Now is the time between resurrections

Christ behind us and our still ahead to live in our freedom, but we will have to flee sexual immorality

To be free so resolve now to break the bonds that have held you

Be willing to pay the price the high price of breaking your addiction to sin

Because Christ paid an higher price for you some of you though May not have not yet really been set free at all.

Oh You may be moral as the world is concerned You may not be in heaven ever indulged in sexual immorality, but you're not really free

Until Christ that price has been applied To you the price that he paid you have you're not free unless you have experience you in your experience

Your sins have been paid for but the sacrifice of Christ on the cross you have not yet in your experience

For some maybe been bought All the Lord Jesus has paid the price

You know, there's nothing more he needs to do. There's nothing more. He needs to pay

There's nothing we can do to add to it, but it has not yet been exchanged as a transaction for your life

If that's you Really all the advice on how to live sexually pure Well, it may save you some heartache and even exposure to some diseases.

It won't bring you Peace, it won't reconcile you to God. It won't get you to that final

Resurrection it won't make you one who was bought with a price your need now is

Not first to resolve to be more moral is to cry out to the

Lord for mercy To ask him that that high price that Christ paid that that be paid for you