Episode Transcript
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My father in heaven. We thank
you that you, though infinitely transcendent,
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came down into our world in time
and in very particular space to take on
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a humanity, to take our side
of the Covenant and fulfill it for us.
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Lord, we thank you that,
as we look to the cross,
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we are humbled by it, seeing
all of our countless sins. They're seeing
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the reason why Jesus had to suffer
and die, but also seeing on the
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cross great love and mercy, a
love which has the power to lift US
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up, I'm not only out of
poverty but out of death itself, to
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bring us into a resurrection and a
resurrected life that is new and is full
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of love and peace. Lord,
we ask that you would help us to
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look to Jesus, and look to
him alone for that, for our salvation
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and also for all of our actions
in this life. May We learn to
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follow him as we ought. Please
give us this wisdom, give us this
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word as we hear your reading and
preaching today. Bless us in it,
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and we pray this in Jesus name. Men, please remain standing if you're
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able, and let's turn to First
Corinthians, chapter six. For Scrinthians,
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Chapter Six, verses nine through eleven, and returning to this passage this week.
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This is another passage which speaks to
issues of greed, among other things,
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another passage which reminds us of the
Great Salvation we have in Christ and
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all the things that he saves us
from. Today I'm going to be focusing
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on a sexual or morality that is
listed here. So, First Corinthians six,
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verse nine. Or do you not
know that the unrighteous will not inherit
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the Kingdom of God? Do not
be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral,
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nor idolaters, nor adulters, nor
men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves,
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nor the greedy, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit
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the Kingdom of God. And such
were some of you. But you were
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washed, you were sanctified, you
were justified in the name of the Lord
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Jesus Christ and by the spirit of
our God. Amn. Please be seated.
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The Bible, and First Corinthians included, is full of these names of
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people, Paul and Sasthenes, a
polus and Chloe, these various names which
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speak about very real lives, real
people just like you and me. These
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are people that, if you could
travel back into a time machine, you
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could meet and then you could come
back to us and you'd say this is
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what their hair color was and this
is what they kind of clothes they like
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to wear, and these are the
people they were related to and this is
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how they came to know Jesus.
They you'd be able to tell their story
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and these names remind us that there's
a backstory here. When Paul talks to
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US and says to the Corinthians in
the first place that such were some of
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you before you were washed and sanctified
and justified, it tells us that,
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by the marvelous welcoming grace of God, the Church had welcomed into its midst
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the sexually immoral idolters, idolaters,
adulters, men who practice homosexuality, thieves,
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greedy people, drunkards, revilers,
swindlers, people that would not inherit
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the Kingdom of God except that they
were brought in to the community of the
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people to hear the Gospel and the
good news, that they didn't be come
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members of the church until they were
washed, until they were baptized, until
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they had received Jesus by faith,
but they heard the Gospel, they heard
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the good news of the church.
They saw it in the lives of the
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people. They saw others who would
likewise been changed, who had likewise been
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one thing and had become another.
People, sinful, people, bound and
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enslaved by their sin, just like
Jesus met with them, tax collectors and
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prostitutes and self righteous people, all
kinds of people enslaved by their sin that
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Jesus brought and spoke with and told
them about the Kingdom of God. It's
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coming. He said, it's wonderful. He said, repent and believe in
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the Gospel, he said, and
we say the same thing. Rather than
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ignoring the enslaved and just letting them
store up wrath for themselves, or treating
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them or falling into their lies and
believing the lies that they did and do,
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the church loved these people. They
loved their enemies, they loved their
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former selves in a sense that they
pitied them and they desired to see their
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salvation. The Church did not fall
into the lies of the world, nor
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did they fail to deeply love the
people that were enslaved. To the world,
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the Church was, as we are, a pilgrim people of another kingdom,
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living here among our neighbors and inviting
them in to the Kingdom of God.
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As we do that, of course, that requires clarity about what the
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Kingdom of God is, the things
that keep us from inheriting the Kingdom of
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God, how it is we come
to receive the Kingdom of God. And
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as we speak those truths, as
we speak those true things into the life
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of our friends and our family and
even our enemies, the word of the
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Lord begins to do its work.
He does his work and lives are changed
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and people who then were once dominated
by the lies and the sins of the
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world become free, no longer pure
and defiled, but holy, washed,
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justified and inheritors, rightful, inheritors
of the Kingdom of God, instead of
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being separated from God and living in
a world of sin, that now they
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are living under Christ and by the
power of the Holy Spirit. It's a
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beautiful thing, and Paul is saying
remember this, remember this, that you
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might be humble and that you might
give praise to God. Paul also wants
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them to remember, for other reasons, and as he will get into in
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other places here in Chapter Six and
seven, chapter eleven elsewhere, is that,
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as pilgrims in this world, there
is a constant calling and a tugging
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from the world, calling it's back
into its brakes embrace, and that includes
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sexual sins, which will focus on
today. Remembering what God has done for
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us should be a strength for us, and if you are on the outside
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of that, if you're sort of
looking into the life of the church going
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wow, that looks good, know
that this is what God can do for
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you as you put your faith in
him. As we will see, the
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remembering the truth gives us thoughts,
thoughts that are the fuel of repentance and
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faith, things that are true about
God, things that are true about ourselves,
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things that we ought to remember that
help us in our lives as Christians,
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in our lives as people that live
in this world but are not of
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the world. As we begin to
think about these things, I want to
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remind you that the call of the
world, specifically as it relates to sexual
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matters, is very strong, very
enticing and very deceitful. The call and
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a sexual sin is a strong one
and we have to be wise about it.
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There has to be an exercise of
wisdom. Our brains need to be
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turned on, our hearts need to
be calibrated and understand some of that.
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I'd like to turn your attention to
proverbs Chapter Seven. Turn with me there,
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if you will, proverbs Chapter Seven. I want you to hear how
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wisdom expresses it here. So this
is a father writing to a son,
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and father says, my son,
keep my words and treasure up my commandments
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with you. Keep my commandments and
live. Keep my teaching. Is The
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apple of your eye. Bind them
on your fingers, write them on the
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tablet of your heart. Say to
wisdom, you are my sister, and
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call in sight, your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman,
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from the adulteress, with her smooth
words. Now he's going to describe
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a scene in very vivid details to
help get us in the moment, in
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a way, to help us picture
and see how these things happen, how
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they play out, how foolishness and
sin comes about. This is so helpful
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and and powerful. So proverb seven. Now Verse Six. He continues.
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But at the window of my house, I have looked out through my lattice
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and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived, among the youths,
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a young man lacking sense. Right. So the scene is set.
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He says, I'm looking out,
I'm looking out onto the city. There
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and bunch of kids, bunch of
youths, and that guy doesn't know what
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he's doing, a young man lacking
sense, very say, passing along the
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street near her corner, taking the
road to her house, in the twilight,
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in the evening, at the time
of night and darkness. And behold
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the woman meets him, dressed as
a prostitute. Wily of Heart, she
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is loud and wayward. Her feet
do not stay at home. Now in
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the street, now in the market
and in every corner she lies in wait.
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She sezes him and kisses him and
with bold face, she says to
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him, I had to offer sacrifices
and today I have paid my vows.
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So now I have come out to
meet you, to seek you eagerly,
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and I have found you. I've
spread my couch with coverings, colored linens
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from Egyptian Egyptian linen. I've perfume
my bed with mirror aloes and cinnamon calm.
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Let us take our fill of love
till morning. Let us delight ourselves
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with love, for my husband is
not at home. He's gone on a
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long journey. He took a bag
of money with him. At full moon
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he will come home. With much
seductive speech. She persuades him with her
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smooth talk. She compels him.
All at once, he followers, follows
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her as an ox goes to the
slaughter, or as a stag is caught
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fast till an Arrow pierces its liver, as a bird rushes into a snare.
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He does not know that it will
cost him his life. And now,
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O sons, listen to me and
be attentive to the words of my
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mouth. Let not your heart turn
aside to her ways. Do not stray
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into her paths. For many a
victims she has laid low, and all
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her slain are a mighty throng.
Her house is the way to Sheoal,
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going down to the chambers of death. How is the young man lacking,
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since persuaded? Well, we're told, with seductive speech. She persuades him
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with smooth talk, she compels him, she paints a picture, both with
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her body and her with her words, that says this is good and you
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want this. But it's lying.
That's the thing. It's lying. It's
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just, to be really simple,
it's saying something that is not true.
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It's acting as though one thing is
true when something else is and it's worth
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noting, to be as clear as
the proverbs are, that this makes her
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an ally with the devil. John
Forty four says of other, of another
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kind of person. You are of
your father, the devil, and your
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will is to do your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning.
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He does not stand in the truth
because there is no truth in him.
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When he lies, he speaks out
of his own character, for he
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is a lie and the father of
lies. This is very important because that's
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the whole thing. There is not
just here a physical thing going on,
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but there's a spiritual thing going on
here, in this picture that the father
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paints for his son, and proverbs
seven, the God pains for us.
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There is a spiritual warfare going on
here. As she lies, she lies
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after the father of lies, who
is a liar from the beginning. And
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that's why the father, as he
speaks to his son, says you need
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to pay attention, you need to
know the truth. It's so important.
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Cling to it, treasure it,
because there is going to be a persuasive
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factor to the lie. There's going
to be something about it that seems very
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good, very true. If you
go back to chapter five, for example
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this a similar theme of proverbs comes
up and he says in verse three of
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Chapter Five, for the lips of
a forbidden woman drip honey, and her
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speech is smoother than oil, but
in the end she is as bitter as
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wormwood, sharp as a two edged
sword. Her feet go down to death.
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It says in Chapter Seven. Her
steps follow the path to Sheol.
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You may be mighty in your ways, but she has slaid a mighty throng.
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Now's important to point out that these
things are not speaking about women in
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general, nor is it limited to
women in particular. All of sexual immorality
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is included in these kinds of verses. God is not against sex. God
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made sex, he designed humans for
it, in both their bodies and in
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their souls, and it works really
well when it's used for its intended design
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and purpose. And this is true
with everything that is designed right. If
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you get a smartphone and you use
it to share photos and make calls and
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keep it in touch, keep in
touch with other people's, it's great,
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but if you use it as a
hammer or use it as a sandwich for
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your lunch, it's not going to
go very well. It's not designed for
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that. It's going to break and
it's going to maybe cause you pain,
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or at least a pain to your
check book. It's similar with everything else
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that God, with all that God, has designed. So here the father
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speaks to his son about one common
danger. But God knows, and of
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course we know, and the scriptures
tell us in many other places, that
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there are more dangerous than one.
The devil doesn't know just one lie,
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he knows many and he offers many, and so the point can be expanded
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to all of those lies God designed
for sex, for a specific purpose and
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to be used in a specific way. And when we don't, things go
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bad. But there's another step here. That Satan wants things to go bad
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for you. He will lie and
use others to lie in order to trick
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you, in order to get you
to eat your phone or do other stupid
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things. And if you think that's
so obvious that you'd never fall to it,
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your eyes are opened yet, because
that's the whole point of these proverbs.
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It's saying there are if you're you
have to pay attention, you have
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to treasure these things. If you
have a mindset that goes at that's for
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other people, you're already on the
wrong path. Wisdom is being alert,
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wisdom is knowing the truth. Wisdom
is being awake to these things. Well,
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going back to Corinth, the Corinthians
were not unlike you and me.
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They lived in a culture that was
preoccupied with sex. Their thought life,
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their cultural thought life anyway, and
probably individual lives as well as with ours,
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saturated with it. When we go
back and look in those early in
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those years, both before and after
this time in Corinth we find it everywhere,
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in their poems, their philosophy,
their plays, their comedies, in
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their art, in their laws,
in their language, like they're like our
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own language. Their language had all
kinds of words, a very rich vocabulary
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within the domain of sex, to
describe all kinds of different things. They
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thought about it, what a lot. They knew it, or at least
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they thought they knew it well.
But despite all the attention, decite the
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fact that it was everywhere, all
around you, all the time, and
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all aspects of life, despite the
promise that everyone could just be free and
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happy and it would be wonderful to
live as we plea, live as they
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pleased, the Corinthians and that whole
world, as is true for ours,
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found out that that was a lie. It's complicated and the world is much
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more broken sometimes. One of the
great lies, the evil you one uses
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is that if we just go with
our feelings, if we just go with
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what we want, everything will be
fine. Today that's tied very much to
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selfhood and identity. It's we can
become our real selves, are true persons.
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We can find fulfillment for this moment
and for our whole lives if we
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would just gratify the desires and the
things that we want. That's the message
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that we get all the time,
in our movies and our TV, in
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our poems and songs and advertising and
casual conversations. It is everywhere. And
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yet, though, that's the lie, the under Curti alls. You have
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a bunch of broken people who are
hurt all the time. And of course
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there's always double standards in these things. In Ancient Corinth there was this idea
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that everyone could be free, as
long as that meant you were a man.
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Women were expected to be honoring to
their husbands and chaste, which of
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course is a great thing, but
for men, they the standard was very,
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very different. Augustine law forbid anyone
to have intercourse with a married woman
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other than her husband, but the
same rules didn't apply to men. This
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wasn't a good thing. The idea
isn't to set women free here. When
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half the people are cheating in the
game, you don't make the game better
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by allowing the other half to cheat. Follow the rules. That's what makes
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the game fun. And our world
is just like that. It's saturated with
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messages about sex, lies about sex, and it's not just this or that
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message. They're woven together into a
world view, a framework for understanding really
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all of life. If you think
I'm exaggerating this point, I can get
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into some details and point you to
some resources later, but I'm not and
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I hope you, I hope you
can see it. The world will tell
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us that our sexual desires on the
most important thing and failure to fulfill those
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will make you less human, less
than yourself. And then if you say
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something is forbid and either to you
or to anyone else, then that's a
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direct assault on their personhood, that
you are denying the fundamental reality of just
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them. The world will tell you
that if you pursue sex outside of marriage,
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it's not a big deal, it's
fine, you'll be more fully human
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and alive. But what do we
see? Do we see a world full
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of free people, excited people,
happy, healthy people, or do we
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have me too movements? Do we
have whole people, industries, culture at
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every place that are just broken and
saying I've been hurt and hurt and hurt,
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and we're being hurt and hurt and
hurt, and families that are falling
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apart and all kinds of terrible things. Sometimes it's the very same people who
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promote the lie who then promote and
tell us about all the suffering that's caused
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from it. This is how broken
our world is. If we are too,
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if we are to make progress in
any of this, not cultural progress,
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but in holiness, to live as
citizens the Kingdom of God, we
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have to know the truth. So
let me tell you the truth about sex.
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God designed sex to be to bring
two very different people together in the
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Union so close, a union of
love, so close that it can be
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described as being of one flesh too, people, different people, becoming one.
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You know how Paul describes it?
A great mystery. That's how he
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described it. was like. This
is mind blowing right. This is hard
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to understand, but isn't it amazing? A wonderful thing. When two people
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come together in joy and fellowship,
in a context of covenant and commitment,
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giving themselves deeply and personally and intimately
to one another. They are bound together.
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Their souls are knit together, their
minds are knit together. This bond
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is strengthened love flowers and though there
are significant differences between male and female,
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those differences don't separate them from one
another but join them together as one.
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Sex between a married and a man
and woman creates a bond. It also
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creates a bond when people are not
married, and that's the problem. Sex
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is really powerful. It does powerful
things and if it is not honored,
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it can destroy. If it is
honored, it can bring wonderful things.
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It can create children, families,
whole societies. It builds trust, commitment,
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it gives pleasure and joy. Going
back to proverbs five, we read
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in in this these chapters, this
this excitement and joy of marriage and of
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sex. The father rights to his
son. Let Your Fountain Be Blessed and
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rejoice in the wife of your roof, a lovely dear, a graceful joy,
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a dough. Let her breasts fill
you at all times with delight.
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Be intoxicated always in her love.
Why should you be intoxicated, my son,
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with a forbid and woman? The
point isn't that she's a woman.
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The point is that it's forbidden,
and anything that's forbidden out by the Lord
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is something that leads us to destruction, and that's important to mention as we
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come to for to First Corinthians,
chapter six versus nine through eleven, and
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think about something like homosexuality. The
opposite of homosexuality is not heterosexuality. Hear
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what I'm saying. He's not saying
that this is bad, but any form
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of this other thing is okay.
The holy thing or the thing that God
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has designed us for, or sex
for I should say, is between a
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man and a woman in the context
of marriage. That's very specific thing and
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that's what God is after her.
This is what God is designed for.
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Now the proverb speak very and very
wonderful and elevated ways right about all of
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this. Be intoxicated with her love
right, elevated lift up this sort of
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feeling of delight and joy, and
that's all wonderful, but it's important to
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say this doesn't necessarily make sex the
most important thing in the world, but
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it does tell us what it is
for what it's designed for and how God
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intends it to be used. So
what happens when we use a powerful force
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intended for good and we use it
for evil purposes? Well, all hell
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breaks loose, as we see in
our world. The work of the devil
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and the work of unclean spirits goes
about in the world and there is destruction
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and division and strife and hurt.
I'd be willing to bet that every single
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person here has been hurt in one
way or another by it. We live
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in a broken world and the world
that prizes and in forces complete disregard for
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God's law. It makes things tough
sometimes, it makes tongues tough to get
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your head screwed on straight about what
is and what isn't, about how to
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think about things, about what's right
and what's wrong. When we give ourselves
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over to the lives of the world
and live our lives practicing the things that
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make sense in the world, we
deny ourselves the possibility of something greater.
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And I'm not just talking about sex
and marriage, but I'm talking about the
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Kingdom of God itself, because that's
what Paul says in First Corinthians. The
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Kingdom of God, which includes the
forgiveness of sins, which includes freedom from
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the enslaving power of sin, which
includes everlasting good life and joy and pleasure
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and communion, things that sex is
just a shadow of heaven being so wonderful
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we can can't even begin to imagine
it. That Kingdom of God, Union
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of God with man. That's what
we don't get, that's what we don't
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have a right to inherit when we
put on the lies of the world.
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Think of it this way. To
just give an example, imagine that.
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Imagine that a man puts on a
virtual reality set, you know, those
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sort of giant plastic things that go
over your eyes and plug into a computer
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and you can see a new world. Now, maybe this is just me,
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but when you look at this person
right holaring one of these V are
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SOS, they always look ridiculous.
Right. They're standing there, you know,
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doing these motions and it doesn't make
sense, and they got this giant
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thing on their eyes. It's kind
of funny. But of course, if
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you're the one who's playing the game
or doing whatever, it can be fun.
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You look at this person, the
same man doesn't matter. But you
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look at this person, he's got
a vr set on his eyes and there's
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a plant in the corner, he's
standing on a rug, there's a picture
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on the wall, maybe some snacks
on the table. There's this reality that
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he is in right this you can
see it with your own eyes, this
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true thing, that is really true. The light is coming in at a
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certain time of day, which indicates
that as a certain time of year.
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But this person, for this moment, either for good reasons or bad,
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has chosen not to live for this
moment according to reality. They've put on
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these these these goggles, to live
in a fictitious world, maybe, where
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he can walk on water, fly
or Mary, whoever he wants, or
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take whatever kind of job he wants
or really do whatever he wants without any
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kind of consequences. But imagine this
isn't just a kind of fun game.
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You're not just doing fighter pilot stuff
or something like that. But imagine that
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this person decides, you know what, I'm going to live the rest of
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my life like this. This world, this virtual world, is just too
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good. I get whatever I want, I can do whatever I want.
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They seemed to be no consequences from
my actions. This is a better world.
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I prefer it now. This is
actually true. I mean people do
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do this, and increasingly so,
and is likely something will continue to see
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expanding in a problem will face more
and more regularly people choosing to live in
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virtual worlds instead of the real world. But I want you to think of
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it not only as like that actual
thing that happens and could be very concerning,
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but also as an analogy for this, for living in the world but
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not being of it. When you
take on the virtual world, the lies
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will call it, of the evil
one, and you this world view,
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in this set of presuppositions about what
sex is and what life is and all
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of these things, and you take
it on. You take it's like putting
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virtual reality set over your eyes and
you take it on. You say,
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I'm going to live this way,
this is great, this is better.
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But what happens to that person in
that room, that man who's got those
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goggles? Eventually real life is going
to catch up with him. He's gonna
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have to actually eat real food,
he's going to actually have to sleep real
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sleep. He is in a real
world, whether he would pretend to see
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it or not. The VR world
is not a neutral world. The actions
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that he takes in it will have
consequent has for his real life, for
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real reality, and not only that, but the consequences will have at caught.
355
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The actions will have consequences for the
life to come as well. That's
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why Paul says don't be deceived,
because if you take on all the presuppositions
357
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and the lies of the evil one, these lies that floor around and culture
358
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that say do whatever you want,
feel whatever you want, go after that
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and define yourself by it, you
will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
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That's the consequences of living a lie
in the real world, a world that
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God has designed, a world that
God has made, and you can see
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how this would play out. How
can you learn self control if you live
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in a world of belief that says
expressing yourself and living into your desires is
364
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the most important thing? Self control
doesn't make sense in that world, any
365
00:33:08.210 --> 00:33:12.329
more than trying to stay on the
ground make sense in a world that is
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infinite in any direction. It just
doesn't make sense. How can you turn
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away from evil when it's good in
your virtual world? Right? If you
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00:33:22.799 --> 00:33:28.109
have those glasses on, if you
are living in that world, you will
369
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make particular choices, you will do
particular things, but they don't. They're
370
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not without consequence. So Paul says
to us in First Corinthians six. Don't
371
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be deceived about two things. The
first thing is that the people that practice
372
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these things do not inherit the Kingdom
of God, and also remember that such
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were some of you. The thing
that I'll say as we close is that
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as we consider the real reality,
as we consider wisdom, as we can
375
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look out on the world as it
actually is, there is another truth that
376
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God expresses to us, that God, the Holy Spirit, teaches us in
377
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this passage and that that God has
entered into that brokenness, into that world
378
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of wise and confusion, all that
sort of stuff, and he speaks,
379
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and he speaks through his son,
who is the very word of God,
380
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who is God himself, and he
shines Jesus says that truth will set you
381
00:34:47.699 --> 00:34:52.570
free. God speaks the truth in
our he cut your were. Imagine Yourself,
382
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you're wearing these these this virtual reality
set right. That is all of
383
00:34:59.690 --> 00:35:02.010
you know, Satan's lies. It's
this whole world view and narrative and way
384
00:35:02.050 --> 00:35:05.769
of thinking and living and all that
sort of stuff, and somebody comes up
385
00:35:05.769 --> 00:35:09.840
at you and says that's not the
real world. That's not the real thing
386
00:35:09.920 --> 00:35:16.679
here. Feel this book, See
your honor ground. That's essentially what I'm
387
00:35:16.760 --> 00:35:21.750
doing right now, is I'm trying
to tell you about the real world,
388
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about what God has done. And
you know what, if you take off
389
00:35:25.630 --> 00:35:30.550
the glasses, if you trust the
word that is being said to you,
390
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Oh man, it's going to be
good. The your world is going to
391
00:35:36.940 --> 00:35:39.900
change, your perception of it,
your feeling of it, your actions and
392
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at the consequences that all of it
will change. And the truth that is
393
00:35:45.340 --> 00:35:51.570
spoken is not just that our world
is actually broken and there are lies and
394
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there are tricks and deceptions and all
of these things lead to death, but
395
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that God has entered in the world
not just to tell us that that we
396
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are condemned under the law, but
that he has fulfilled the law on our
397
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behalf so that we can have life. He comes into the world and says,
398
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I will set you free from the
things that enslave you. And that's
399
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exactly what happened to these people,
people who formally practice these things because they
400
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made sense in that world of lies. They don't do that anymore because they
401
00:36:29.150 --> 00:36:36.019
were washed, because they were justified, because they are sanctified and because of
402
00:36:36.260 --> 00:36:40.340
God justifying them through the work of
his son on the cross, because God
403
00:36:40.659 --> 00:36:46.530
died in the real world to save
us from our sins. Those people are
404
00:36:46.690 --> 00:36:52.250
forgiven. They have a right to
inherit the Kingdom of God, not because
405
00:36:52.289 --> 00:36:58.289
they finally started acting right, but
because Jesus fulfilled the law on their behalf.
406
00:36:59.610 --> 00:37:02.599
And now, knowing that of that
fulfillment, knowing of their justification,
407
00:37:04.119 --> 00:37:07.440
knowing who they are as citizens of
that kingdom, now, of course,
408
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they act differently, and the same
is, of course true for us.
409
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We live in the world as it
is. If we are truly Christians,
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we live in a world that is
broken and sad and lost in so many
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ways, but a world that God
has also entered into to bring us life
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and joy and peace in our relationships
here and now, to bring healing amidst
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all kinds of brokenness, unto untake
things that were once awful and terrible and
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turn them into something beautiful and good. This is what our Lord does for
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us, this is how he loves
us, and so trust him, believe
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him, listen to him, watch
him and as you do so, know
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that you will inherit the Kingdom of
God. Let's pray and ask that God,
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would help us to see our heavenly
father. We asked that you would
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give us a wisdom for this life, that we might hold fast to the
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truth of your word and and and
be saved by it. Yes, we
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desire to fulfill your law. Yes, we desire to be obedient, but
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we know that, because of the
flesh that wars within us, that gives
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assent to those lies that follows after
the evil one, we know that there's
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nothing that we can do, even
as those who are sanctified, that can
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earn our place before you. Know
we trust in Christ and in him alone,
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who took a people and made them
into a spotless, perfect and beautiful
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00:38:52.210 --> 00:38:59.960
bride, who joined them with himself
to create even one body, one flesh,
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00:39:00.119 --> 00:39:06.960
in some mysterious, wonderful and beautiful
way. Lord, we ask that
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you would help us not to put
our hope in the things and the foolish
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things of this world, help us
not to put our identity and our hope
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and in foolish passions and and in
the fulfillment of our desires, but instead,
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let us find all of every all
that we need and all that we
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are in you and in you alone. Lord, we asked that you would
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humble each and every one of us
here, as we consider our own sins,
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as we consider the many ways in
which we have offended you, the
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ways in which we have contributed to
our own brokenness and the brokenness of others.
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00:39:42.170 --> 00:39:45.809
We humble ourselves before you and we
do as you call us to do.
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We repent, filled with sorrow and
anger, even at our own sins.
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We embrace we embrace you as you
reach out to us and draw U
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see and for the forgiveness of our
sins, for resurrection, life, for
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justification and sanctification and glorification as well. And Lord, it is in your
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love that we now walk. It
is in your love that we now fight
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against sin and temptation, the lies
of the evil one. It is in
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your love that we now turn to
love others, and we ask that you
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would do that work in us.
May Our lives, like those in the
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Church of Corinth, be those that
are increasingly ones marked by you, that
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the world might see us and hear
and know the Truth About your love and
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what you have done for us.
Lord, we ask that you would strengthen
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us in these things, strengthen us
in the gospel of peace, unite us
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to yourself, that you might be
glorified and your name might be praised,
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and that we might have communion and
fellowship with you forever. We pray this
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in Jesus name. Men,
