Confronting Sin in the Church — Shane Idleman

The title of the message this morning is Confronting Sin in the Church. Confronting Sin in the Church, and I probably should have renamed it to This Sermon is Illegal in California Now. I don't know if you've been paying attention to the news, but they did pass legislation, I don't know what's going to happen there, it's an assembly bill, where you cannot say that certain sexual sin is a sin.

You have to actually embrace it and encourage people in their sexual sin, or you'll be penalized. Christian counselors, pastors, California has lost its mind, and so has the rest of the nation. What they're saying is it's because of the high suicide rate.

The high suicide rate is because you're not giving people hope. Hope in Jesus Christ. But I struggle with sin, well welcome to the club. But you point them to the cross, to the redemption power of Jesus Christ.

So this sermon is going to be illegal in California, so grab the CD on your way out, it might be a keepsake someday. Confronting Sin in the Church. Let me just tell you what we've been doing. We've been in the book of 1 Corinthians, and we're in chapter 5, and Paul had a lot of words for the church, a lot of words for the church today.

So here's the context of chapter 5. The church is allowing sexual sin, I'm going to give this the PG version, if there's kids in here. They're allowing sexual sin into the church. And what he means by that is the leadership knows, the people know that people are living in sexual sin.

And they're not doing anything about it. They're not confronting it. It's almost like they're just, well God's grace will change them, and they're not doing anything. And God has actually given the church the voice to let people know, hey you're on the wrong course, here's the right course.

So that's the context of chapter 5, verse 2. And I should clarify this, what is sexual sin? Any sexual activity outside of the boundaries of marriage. And now I have to say between a man and a woman. That's what God's word says.

And if you go on the bulletin, you can see I debated a liberal professor on Fox News this week, and she says that we are to just encourage people in their sexual sin. She told me we don't need some angry pastor yelling at people, telling them it's a sin, and being mean to them.

And no, we need them to encourage them and tell them what sexual sin is. So any sin outside the bounds of marriage, and then young adults of course are going haywire and crazy with hormones, and what do we do?

And that's why we offer hope through Jesus Christ, and we point them in the right direction, and we encourage them towards Jesus. We don't encourage people in their sin. So that's what this whole controversy is about, is sexual sin, anything outside of the bounds of marriage between a man and a woman.

That's how God created it. And as many of you know, it's not fulfilling outside of marriage. Just like fire is wonderful in the fireplace, but if that gets on the living room floor, we've got a problem.

So God has created the male and female relationship to come together as one flesh, and then to allow and bring in godly offspring, and the family is resembling, the marriage is resembling Christ, the bride, groom, and marriage supper with the lamb.

Marriage is a beautiful picture of Christ with the body of Jesus Christ with the body of the church. Now, Paul says it's a mystery, so I'm not even going to attempt to explain it, but that's what sexual sin is.

It's any type of sin outside of marriage, and that's why pornography is a great sin destroying our nation because people are sinning mentally, but they don't think they are physically, but still they're being pulled and united with pornography, and that's why marriages are crumbling.

That's why people come home and say, I just don't love you anymore. My feelings have vanished. I don't feel for you anymore. I don't have a love for you. Well, you used to. What happened? Sexual sin took them away.

So it's very important to address this issue. I've taught on pornography before. You can find that on our website, and I know it's a delicate issue. Some people don't like me talking about this, especially when kids are present, but I think our kids know a lot more than we think they know.

If they have a phone, I guarantee they know a lot more than what you think they know, and the church needs to have an answer, and we need to explain what's happening in their bodies and why sex is God-given.

There's two views out there. Sex is bad and evil. Run from it, or cave in, do whatever you want. No, God says it's wonderful. God created it. Did you forget that? God created it within the correct context, and then when something goes out of whack, it's referred to as perversion.

Perverting something means taking what is straight and then perverting it and twisting it. So that's why when you hear the word perversion, it comes from twisting the truth. So Paul said these things, and you are puffed up, so he's upset at the church, and you have not rather mourned.

So see, sexual sin should make us mourn. We should see what's going on in our culture, and doesn't that break your heart, and you should mourn over it. You see the transgenders reading to kindergartener kids.

I see a transgender, it's on the media, now she's acting like a lion or something on all fours, and all these teenage girls and boys are clapping, oh, this is so cool. No, that is a perversion of the truth, and almighty God, his heart breaks for that, and the church needs to be that voice of truth saying, no, that's not right.

There is a better path. There is a narrow path. And so Paul's saying, church, you're not mourning, and that is the danger in this area because what used to alarm us now amuses us. Do you know what pops on your screen at home sometimes on television?

If you would have put that on the screen 50 years ago, people would have blushed. Jeremiah said, you know, you've even, you've forgotten how to blush, and we become desensitized. You know what that is?

It's, it's what used to affect us doesn't affect us, and I pray against that all the time. I see homeless people, God, give me that brokenness again, because sometimes I get a hard heart, and I've, you've seen it so much, God, and you see sexual sin and say, and so I go, whatever, and you become hard to it, and we should be mourning.

We should be mourning. That's my heart for the church. I mean, the church should be crowded at prayer meetings. Why? Because we're mourning over the condition of our people and over the church, and then we leave built up and encouraged.

Don't worry, I don't want to leave you in a mourning state. It's very healthy to mourn and to labor, but you've got to give birth at some point. And once you give birth, you get back up and you say, God has created me and called me to fight again.

And me and my wife have had discussions recently on this new law, what are we supposed to do if you go to jail? I'm like, well, I don't know. God's going to provide, and I'm not worried about that. I think God has plans.

I think our God is bigger than what people, because fear is going to take us down. Fear and discouragement will silence the church. Fear would have had me change my message this morning, and discouragement, but God says, I'm just looking for people to be bold, but be loving, but be bold.

And where does that boldness come from? And I appreciate so many prayers for me and people email me and thank you for your boldness, thank you for your boldness, but I need to confess to you that it's not me.

Shane Eidelman is a very scared individual, a very weak individual, people pleaser. I struggle with that. Wanting my dad's affirmation and people's affirmation, it's still a struggle. What you hear is the spirit of the living God who has set me on fire.

So please give him credit. Thank him. Thank him for the boldness. I do. Oh, thank you, God. If it wasn't for the grace of God, where would you be? And that's why I'm very loving on this topic, because you can tell people caught in sexual sin.

Hope, Conviction, and the Cross

Look to the cross. God reached down and saved me and grabbed me, and he can do the same for you. See, it's not a message of condemnation. Why are those caught in sexual sin, even the LGBT community and the gay community, why are they struggling with depression?

See, 50 years ago, it was because nobody accepted them. You can't say that anymore. Now, everything, corporate America, the fire departments, the police departments are passing out rainbow flags to put on their uniforms.

City officials, Hollywood, school districts, everyone's for it. Why are they still convicted? Because conviction doesn't leave until you go to the grave. It's the Holy Spirit of God convicting people in all sexual sin.

Let me clarify right now, if a person's caught in pornography or fornication or adultery, there's not levels of sexual sin. And it's all sexual sin in God's eyes, because it's a disordering of the truth.

So Paul said, I better hurry up or I'm not going to get through this. You are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. So what happened in the church, there's somebody who's actually married to or sleeping with his stepmom.

And the church is, oh, it's no big deal. For I indeed, I'm absent in the body, but I am present in the spirit. I have already judged this matter as though I were already present. And I've judged him who has done this deed.

Well, wait a minute, aren't you to judge not? No, the church is to judge with righteous judgment. See, that's how judgment works. Jesus even said, go to a brother, he doesn't listen, bring to, he doesn't listen, bring it to the church.

If he still doesn't listen, then you treat him like a tax collector and like a heathen. Why? To be mean and condemning? No, for the hope of restoration. See, so you judge with righteous judgment. It comes from a heart that's broken and loving.

Pride, Judgment, and the Consequences of Rebellion

So are these people puffed up because of grace, puffed up because of knowledge? We don't know why, but they are puffed up. They are prideful is what puffed up means. They're prideful because of maybe what the church is, maybe it's growing.

Maybe they're just, well, let's let God change them. And we don't know, but we do know that pride is a problem. So Romans 121 says this. Here's the verses that's going to be illegal at some point, the whole chapter.

Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God. So is anyone wondering why sexual sin is, why is it just skyrocketing? Especially in LGBT and bisexual and gay and pervert type of, why is it, what's going on?

Well, here's what happens. Because although they knew God, people know about God, obviously. Look, his invisible attributes are clearly seen. They did not glorify him as God. In other words, they didn't say, you are God.

We glorify you, we magnify you, we repent of our sin. But they were, nor were they thankful, but they became futile in their thoughts. And their foolish hearts were darkened. They suppressed the truth.

Therefore, God gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies. So sexual sin can be viewed as a judgment upon God to rebellious and prideful people. And the item of paraphrase is this.

God says, you want it, you got it. You want to suppress my truth? You want to suppress the conviction? I'm going to give you up to your perversion, your sexual sin. Even the man caught in adultery, the woman caught in fornication.

It's the same sin, sexual sin. God's giving them up to a debased and corrupted mind. The Bible goes on to say that women burning for lust for other women, men burning for lust for other men. Where is this coming from?

The farther you get from God, the more sexual sin will begin to grow. And the closer you get to God, the more you begin to repent and cleanse your heart of sexual sin. And then verse 4, he says, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Church Discipline and Restoration

Paul's getting serious. When you're gathered together along with my spirit with the power of the Lord, Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Now, if anyone wants to tackle that one, good luck. Because commentaries are divided. The Greek word means this, and this person thinks this, and this church father said this. And delivering up to Satan, it appears, again, the item in paraphrase.

It appears that once a church takes a position, it says, this is wrong. We're not allowing it. You can no longer attend this church. We're going to be open and loving about it, but we're going to rebuke you in the presence of people if you continue to do this.

We're allowing you to come in and act as if nothing is going on. We're approving of the sin. We're no longer going to do that. And it appears that when a person is in church, they're in fellowship. There's a covering, a covering of prayer, of accountability, of God's blessing is there.

And I believe this parallels a little bit to what Paul said in Corinthians. That we'll see that when a believing spouse stays with an unbelieving spouse, she sanctifies that home. Isn't that interesting?

There's a blessing of God on a home where a person's a believer. There's blessings that flow into the lives of even those who are unbelievers. Sometimes from a believer. When a believer is blessed, others within that sphere of influence are blessed.

So the only thing I can really gather from this is deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh is when the church says, we love you, but you're no longer welcome here because we cannot allow that lifestyle.

You're no longer under our covering, under our protection, under our accountability. We're delivering you over to the deeds of your flesh, over to Satan. And then Satan, after Satan gets done with you, you run to the cross sometimes.

You say, oh, this is the wrong taskmaster. This is an evil little minion. He wants to destroy me. And you run back to the cross and you repent and let almighty God save you. And then you're saved, Paul says.

Saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a good encouragement for us. If you know someone who is going through hell, trust that God is often doing the work there. Often when you see your prodigal as far away from God as they can get, oh, get encouraged.

Because what I've noticed is you've got to eat with the pigs before you come to yourself. I had to lay in my own vomit a few different times. I had to lose everything and be so depressed. You get to the end of your rope, that's where the saying comes from, and you say, God, I can't do this on my own.

So I'm not discouraged when people are so far from God because I know it's hell, it's misery. And they're close to fully repenting. I'm worried about the one kind of going to church, riding mom and dad's coattails, nothing bad's really happening.

They'll kind of sing some worship songs, but then they'll look at pornography. They'll go to youth group, but then they don't really want to go to church. What's going on? Be encouraged. When you deliver that person over to Satan, meaning Satan will buffet them and fight against them and try to destroy their soul, but that person hopefully will cry out to God.

See, that needs to be the message. That's my message to people who struggle with all types of sin. Cry out to God. Yes, you're in bondage. Cry out to the chain breaker. Yes, you're in bondage. Cry out to the way maker.

Yes, you're in bondage, but cry out to the one who can speak a word and the demon has to leave. Cry out to the one who has more power, more authority than all the demons put together. That person is Jesus Christ.

That's why when you exalt that name, when you praise that name, people will either get excited or they'll say, I need to run to the restroom and not come back into this building because it's Jesus Christ.

Associating With Sinful Professing Believers

So let's fast forward in 1 Corinthians 9. I'm going to come back. Paul said, I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Well, that's pretty mean, Paul. Yet, I certainly did not mean the sexually immoral people of this world.

And you can read the rest there. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral. And he goes on to list covetousness, idolatry, reveling, drunkenness, extortion, all these different things.

What's Paul talking about? Here's what happens, and I've had to do this a few times. Because we hate to be the confronter, right? You might say, Shane, I bet you love confronting. No, it's way, way down here on my list of things I enjoy.

But it's when a church says, you know what, we've talked to you. You know this is wrong, and you still come in high, your head high and lifted up, arrogant. We're living in your sin, and you're just going to still sit at the pew, still go to lunch and buddies, act like nothing happened.

Paul says, no, you have to say that's wrong. I don't agree with that lifestyle. Because approval is agreeing with the lifestyle. So if nothing changes, if you know a person, let's say you know a person.

They've left their spouse. I know a person who did this recently. Many people, actually, that don't go here. And I've tried to talk to them. They left their spouse, and they meet someone else. They're still married.

They have kids. And they want to go to lunch or play golf. Or just, hey, can we act like nothing is happening? Don't give me a guilt trip, Shane. Can we just be friends and not go there? No, we can't.

Because not going there means I approve of that lifestyle. So I've got to go there, and I've got to dig deep, and I've got to lovingly confront you. And then I've got to say, I love you so much to tell you I cannot fellowship with you.

This breaks the heart of God. And you disconnect fellowship. Did you know Jesus said that as well? Matthew 18, 17. And if he refuses to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

See, they're not being mean-spirited. It's tough love. And you know that sometimes with parents, with older kids. All right. Come on back in the house again. Here's $100. Don't go buy heroin this time.

Enabling. Enabling. Enabling. Enabling. Sometimes parents have to pull out that tough love card and say, I don't agree with this lifestyle. I can't allow this to happen in my home. I'm going to have to pull a hard one here until you know.

But sometimes parents, I've counseled them the other way as well. Sometimes it's okay to leave that home open and say, we love you. We love you. There's always a bed here for you. We're not going to give you money.

We're not going to enable you. But we love you. And I don't know. That's a hard balance. That's why each parent has to take that to the Lord and say, what is God putting us, what is God putting on our heart?

Because often, if you keep enabling, and they know there's a warm bed, they know there's a warm meal, they don't feel the pain of the damage they're doing. So that's what tough love is all about. And I wrote an article, Sin in the Camp, How to Handle Church Discipline.

Principles for Wise Confrontation

And I want to just clarify a few things on this. Number one, examine your heart first. Amen? Let's highlight that. Examine your heart first. And I've been in ministry long enough to see both sides. The first side is, and I love this group of people, but they're like, well, let's just not say anything.

Let's hope God convicts him. Okay, what do we do after a few weeks or months? Or, well, let's just pray God, and there's churches like that. They won't say anything. Let's just hope they open the Bible to a certain passage and get convicted on their own.

We're just called to love them. No, actually, you're called to convict them, too, if you want to be honest. So you have these people they don't want to convict. But then you have this group, the sin sniffers.

Sorry, you guys keep being the sin-sniffing side. But they just find it. I mean, if they find something that day, oh, did you hear that? We've got to handle it right now, right now, handle it. Well, the best thing you can do with these kind of issues is examine your heart first.

Lord, why am I rushing to this? Is there a plank in my own eye? You know, you've got to love the person that wants to confront someone, but they're still struggling in their own sin. You know, they're still giving in to besetting sin, yet they want to go lash out on someone.

So it's a process of examining your heart first. And then number two, never forget this one, Proverbs 18 .13. What's it say? Research the facts. Proverbs says actually hear both sides. Do you ever hear one side and get so mad?

Just me. Man, I've had somebody tell me, oh, you should, I'm like, whoa, wait till I talk to them. And then you talk to them, you're like, oh, hold on, partner, you didn't tell me about half of this stuff.

And you hear both sides. And you don't make a foolish reactionary decision, you hear both sides of something. I'll give you an idea, just a couple things have happened in the past, nothing really recent.

But we've talked to people about living together because a person wants to condemn them. Hey, they're living together, they're in your church, you need to meet with them later today and kick them out.

Oh, well, who are they? By the way, we get letters like that sometimes. Weekly, sometimes, recently. And I would say, unless you tell me your name and phone number and I can contact you, I'm throwing this in the trash.

Because you're a coward. Or you're trying to cause problems and conflicts. They don't put their name, they don't put a contact information. If they email the church, you try to email them back, it says server down, oh.

See, we don't take any of that seriously. So if you have an issue, come to us directly and let us know. But we've talked to a couple before in the past. And you find out that if two people are living together, actually they're living, let's say, at a parent's home.

And they help their girlfriend out because they're on the street, they're homeless, they're in separate rooms, they're not doing anything. They know they want to make things right soon. Okay, you can work with that.

But if it's somebody saying, I don't care what the Bible says, yeah, we're going to live together. And we're going to serve as children's ministry helpers. No, I don't think you are. We've got to lovingly confront.

So see, it all depends on the facts. And you don't want to win the battle and lose the war. What I mean by that is you can go so strong at someone, you blow them out of the water, and then there's no hope at all.

You lovingly come alongside and you say, hey, how can I help you in this? Here's what God's Word says. I want to encourage you. I'm not trying to discourage you. But this is wrong, so we've got to fix it.

I've known people who would marry people that week. Just have a quick ceremony. Tony Evans, I heard him on the radio. He does this often. You just go, well, you want to get married, do it right? Yeah, okay.

I pronounce you by the power vested in me in the state of Texas, I pronounce you man and woman. Say your vows, boom, boom, boom. You fix it. But they say, oh, no, we don't want to do that. Maybe someday we're trying it out first.

You know, we're doing a test drive. It's a long test drive. Very long test drive. And then number three, don't move too quickly when confronting. Now, of course, there are exceptions. There's an exception to every rule.

But for the most part, you don't move too quickly. You pray about it, you weigh it, and you seek God's heart on it. And then also lovingly confront the person. There's a loving confrontation that takes place.

Most of the time, they're not going to be open to it. They're going to be upset. I'm very surprised when a person is, here's, I'm very surprised when I hear, I know, it's, I'm living in sin. I need to repent, get right with God.

I'm like, oh, praise the Lord. Rarely will you hear that. Because usually sin is blind to them. And they don't want to confess. They don't want to admit to sexual sin. They want to hide it. And they think God doesn't notice.

And then also, you can see up there, offer a solution. So you don't just kick someone to the curb. Right? You offer a solution. Okay, here's how you get through this. Here's what we want to recommend.

It's interesting. At the church, we'll sometimes say, okay, if you're repairing something, I want to see you in the men's accountability group. And I want you to contact this person, meet with them weekly.

And I want you to read this book. And the first couple, and if they don't want to do any of that, guess what? The heart's not right. Because the person who's truly repentant wants to fix what they have hurt or broken.

And then also remember, healing takes time. Healing requires time. Now, back to verse 6. Paul is saying to this group, your glorying is not good. In other words, you're boasting in this sin. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

The Seriousness of Sin and the Leaven of Compromise

Pay attention. Young adults, adults, pay attention to this portion. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? And I wish, if I could change sermon titles right here for a brief sermonette, it would be this.

It would be this. The seriousness of sin. What also happens in a culture like ours is we dumb down sin. We forget that it actually put Jesus Christ on the cross to be beaten, to be whipped, to be mangled.

His body was mangled. All for the sin that we enjoy and we play with. The seriousness of sin. So Paul says, any bakers out there that put a little bit of leaven? How much leaven do you need in bread? Or yeast would be a good example.

Just a little bit to make it expand. So Paul's saying a little bit of sin in your life that goes unconfessed and unrepentant of, a besetting sin, is going to affect your whole life, is going to affect the life of the church.

If we said, yeah, I know that person's in sin. I know that person's in sin. I know that. But I'm just going to preach and God can deal with them. It'll begin to affect the services. God's anointing. His power won't be as strong.

Deliverance won't be taking place because we start to compromise. So I don't know. I know it's a little bit heavy. But think about this. A little leaven leavens a whole lump. If there's a little bit of sin in our life, sexual sin, other sin, that we're allowing and we're not confessing, it will begin, if it hasn't already, it will begin to affect your life.

I believe that's why many people are not worshipers. Sold out to God, filled with God's spirit because that sin has taken hold. And they're doing just enough to maintain their relationship with God. Church now and then, I'll put on a little worship on my radio.

I'll try to read a Bible, the Bible if I can for five minutes now and then, because that sin is taking control and it pulls them away from God. So Paul says this, In other words, you're truly followers of Christ.

You've been bought at a price. You've been set free. So Paul says, So this is very simple advice. Small compromises open the door to bigger compromises. Have you ever seen, if you're a nurse, maybe this isn't a good analogy, but an open sore that goes unclean, that's what sin is.

Unconfessed. It's like an open sore. And it starts out little maybe and it begins to rot, begins to work up your body, your arm, and begins to take over. So Paul says, Here's what is beautiful. This is the beautiful thing.

The seriousness of sin. There's people dealing with sin, besetting sin in their life, that you need to confess and repent of this morning. But God says, That's the purging. David said, See, all cleansing is is repentance, turning from the sin and giving it to God.

Purging Sin and Restoring Worship

And like Hezekiah, I love his story of Hezekiah. You know what he did? He cleaned out the garbage in the church. People are starting to put their garbage in the church. His dad was a wicked king. They would put their trash in the church.

Can you believe that? Worship is halted. They're worshiping false gods. It's like sin has polluted and King Hezekiah comes in there. He says, Just like cleaning sin out of our lives. Then what did he do?

He restored worship. The Bible says those two words. Restored worship. So that's what happens when you cleanse out the sin, when you purge the sin, you restore worship. If some of you, if you've got shackles on your hands, if you've got handcuffs on your hands this morning, if you can't worship and you're bored to death, is it because sin might need to be purged from your life?

And then when that purging takes place and that cleansing and you remove that leaven, then you begin to restore worship in your heart again. Worship is sweet and the songs, the lyrics, begin to make sense.

Here's what happens in the heart of someone who has embraced sin. I can tell he's a personal testimony. When I would sit at church, I would look at those songs. I would not be singing those lyrics. I would be moving my lips, but I'm thinking about the Dodger game.

I'm thinking about that cold 40-ounce beer when I get home. I'm thinking about that lunch that's later. I'm thinking about all these problems. How can I make more money? And I'm just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, going through the motions.

But when you restore true worship to the heart, when you purge yourself of that sin, God begins to work in your heart in an incredible way. That's why I'm so passionate about this, because that's how you restore worship.

Don't raise your hand, but how many of you are dead this morning? Dead to the things of God. Dead to church. A prayer meeting? Shane, I'd rather go have a root canal. What's wrong? What's going on? I'll tell you why.

There's probably sin that has to be purged, because that little leaven, that little thing that you said, oh, that's just my one little vice, has taken over, and it begins to control, it begins to consume.

Anybody ever got hooked on a television program they shouldn't be watching? Mm-hmm. I have. And it begins to zap your energy, zap your strength. I'll never forget. Somebody, I've told you this story before.

It was a while ago. When 24 came out, Keillor Sutherland, I didn't know anything about it, a friend from church gave me the DVD series. Ooh, we were hooked. But I'm having nightmares about terrorists breaking in my house, and I'm like, I don't want to pray in the morning anymore.

I don't want to listen to worship. I just want to go push play on that DVD player, and just want to, the next series, the next series, the next series, you get hooked. And these things begin to come in and drain you of spiritual power, of spiritual fire.

I think even Chip and Joanne Gaines can drain my spiritual power sometimes. Fixer-upper number two, number two, number two. Now, I'm all for good entertainment, but when it begins to be an all-consuming passion, an all-consuming desire, it begins to take you away from God, we have to be careful.

Taking Heed to Doctrine and Persevering

So 1 Timothy offers great advice. Paul, writing again, he said, take heed to yourself and to your doctrine. That's a good word for some of you this morning. Take heed to yourself. What does that mean?

It means this. Listen. Listen. What a great analogy would be this. If I could go down and shake each one of you on the shoulder. Listen, listen. Are you listening? Look me in the face. Listen. Take heed to your doctrine and yourself closely.

Why? Because there's an enemy. Why? Because he wants to go about seeking whom he may devour. There's an enemy that's after your children, after your heart, after your relationship with God, after your testimony.

Shane, I don't want to hear that. Well, you need to hear it. You have to know these things. Take heed to yourself and to your doctrine, meaning what do you believe. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

Wow, where's he going with this? Well, let's talk about this for a minute. Take heed. Because I know many of you need help in this area of sexual sin or maybe sin in general. But he's saying pay attention, listen.