Let’s go to the first book of Thessalonians chapter number four. If you’d go there we’ll be in 1 Thessalonians chapter number four tonight. We’ll also be in James chapter number four.

But if you’d go there and we’ll be in just a moment looking here in God’s word at a truth that I hope will be a help to you. And 1 Thessalonians chapter number four.

If some of you seniors that raised your hand a moment ago are having trouble finding it, it’s right next to 2 Thessalonians. And so I’ll find it there in chapter four and we’ll be ready to roll. 1 Thessalonians chapter number 4.

We’re going to be looking at verse number 3. And tonight I’d like to deal with a subject matter that I hope would be a help to you. And I want to just try to help you with an issue that all teenagers face,

particularly in the world in which we live. We certainly are finding ourselves in the day that I think all of us would recognize has reached a level of depravity and degradation that some of us are a little older

and thought we’d never get to. And the tragedy is not just that our culture has slid, it has clearly affected Christian culture. And what I mean by that is a little bit what Pastor Gilmore said a moment ago,

that really the sins of our world have found their way at least in some measure into our local churches and particularly into our youth groups and even Christian schools, homeschools, etc. And so we really are living a day when I think many young people are really unaware,

really of what the Bible says and why it says it about the arena of moral purity. Tonight, a simple message, what is moral purity?

I know from time to time, I have seen young people will make the comment or a preacher may make the comment about a young person who gets into sexual sin and they will say they lost their purity.

And I understand what they mean by that. But I will say this, that equating purity with virginity is a mistake.

And what I mean by that is this, that you can still be technically a virgin and be extremely impure. The issue of moral purity is a way bigger issue.

So I think sometimes the terminology is unfortunate because moral purity goes beyond just that aspect of what the world would call virginity. And so tonight I’d like us to take a biblical look at what is moral purity.

Now let me just simply say, I know we have some adults in the room, I know there are some teenagers here, and I recognize tonight for some in the room You may simply say, you know, preacher, I failed in the past.

I can’t do anything about it. Well, let me just simply say to you in person, if there’s failure in the past, it is very important for you to take God’s side against yourself

because as Pastor Gilmore was saying a moment ago, that’s where cleansing takes place. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

But it starts with a very clear understanding that, God, you’re right, I was wrong. Now, the second thing is very important, and that is this. I hate to even mention it, but in the world in which we live, I find that you need to mention it.

There are undoubtedly in a room this size, I hope there’s not many, but undoubtedly in a room this size, there are young people, perhaps, or even adults, who have been molested or taken advantage of in the moral arena.

Let me just simply say, what I’m preaching tonight, I’m not preaching to you. You are a victim, not a perpetrator. Now, what I mean by this is this.

Let’s imagine tonight, I preached a message on, thou shalt not steal. And imagine you came up to me afterwards and you said, Brother Van Gilden, I’m so guilty. I am so guilty.

I said, okay, what did you steal? Oh, no, preacher, you say, I didn’t steal anything. I just, I just, I don’t know what it is.

I’ve been mugged three times in my life. I’ve been once in Milwaukee and twice in Chicago. And so, yeah, I’ve been mugged and I’m really guilty about the message you preached on,

thou shalt not steal. Now, would that be strange? I would look at you and say, you need to understand, you’re a victim of what I preached on.

You shouldn’t be guilty of all you’ve done as a victim of somebody stealing. And so it is in the moral arena. For whatever reason in this arena where people have been taken advantage of.

In a message like this they can go out the wrong window and experience guilt. When you literally really need to trust God for victory in a bitterness aspect. It would be a different topic and message.

Certainly my intent tonight would certainly to not be. I’m not after you. I’m simply trying to help young people in this room avoid the moral impurity of our age.

So I wanted to be clear on that as we begin the message. And I will say this for the young people in this room who have had failure in the moral purity arena. Yesterday’s failure is no excuse for tomorrow’s sin.

And really what you need to do is put it under the blood and realize the grace of God is sufficient. And you do not have to go on in your Christian life defeated in the moral arena. There is a way out.

And as I alluded to this morning, that way out is a person. His name is Jesus. He is the only way.

And so I want us to start with that premise, and we’re going to answer the question tonight, what is moral purity? We’re going to look right into the Word of God, and I want you to see that

what we’re going to deal with tonight is not my opinion. I’ll be honest with you, I’m not interested in my opinion, and I’m certainly not interested in anybody else’s opinion.

I certainly want to know what is God’s truth. So let’s deal with this subject matter, and I hope you’ll be willing and open

to ask yourself, okay, do I believe that moral purity is, that what the Bible says is something that I should embrace in my life. Now let me just simply maybe say this as well.

The world would have you believe that somehow that if you follow the Lord Jesus and are morally pure, and in other words that’s your heartbeat and you set your life in motion to be morally pure, that somehow you’re

going to miss out. Do you know that nothing could be further from the truth? Psalm 84 11 says,

no good thing will he withhold from them, that’s God, withhold from them that walk uprightly. Young person, God wants you to have the very best. A few years ago, the University of Chicago and the State University of New York at Stony Brook

jointly conducted a survey of sexuality, which U.S. News and World Report called it, quote, the most authoritative ever.

In their survey of sexuality, they found that the people who reported being most physically pleased and emotionally satisfied with the intimacy that God created for marriage and marriage alone, the people that were the most satisfied and the most fulfilled were the married couples.

They also found that people’s emotional and physical fulfillment was lessened the more sexual partners that they had. Quote, physical and emotional satisfaction started to decline

when people had more than one sexual partner, end of quote. That’s stunning. What they are basically saying is if you want the very best in the intimacy God created for marriage, here’s what you do.

You keep yourself pure, you marry, you’re faithful to your marriage partner, and that’s the best it gets. And anything less than that, you will diminish the fulfillment that God intended. In other words, you’re stealing from a future marriage.

You know what that means? God’s been telling us that for a long time. So do not fall under the lie that what we’re dealing with tonight is somehow God is not a cosmic killjoy trying to take blessing from you.

He wants to let the world is the liar and God wants to give you the very best. So all of us in this room tonight are confronted with a decision. Will we believe God’s holy word or will we believe Hollywood?

Because somebody’s lying to you. I’m telling young person, somebody’s lying to you. And you need to face the fact that either God is lying to you or the world is.

So we’re going to tonight take this, and it’s going to be directly at odds with what this world tells us. It’s going to be directly at odds with most Hollywood movies, a lot of television, and a lot of media that’s out there. And so we’re going to have to make a decision who we’re going to believe.

Because who you believe will drastically affect the outcome of your life. And so let’s begin by looking at 1 Thessalonians chapter number 4. And I want you to see verse number 3.

Here’s what it says. it says for this is the will of God even your sanctification that she should abstain from fornication now let me just give you a little grammatical point here in this passage of scripture

it says this is the will of God and is followed by five infinitives in the Greek language the first one is abstain to abstain from fornication but I want you to look if you would please at verse number six which is infinitive four and infinitive five all of these are the

will of God I’ve got a whole message on this passage tonight I’m not going to preach it but I do want to launch off part of it. It says here in verse number six, that no man go beyond and

defraud his brother in any matter because that the Lord is the avenger of all such as we have forewarned you and testified. So God says it’s the will of God to not go beyond and to not defraud.

Okay, these are two negatives. Number one, don’t go beyond. What does that mean?

And don’t go beyond simply means this, don’t go beyond the boundary. Could I put it in sports terms?

Don’t go out of bounds. You know, when you play a sporting event and you go out of bounds, it doesn’t work very well.

Some of you may remember back, and we have any Yankees fans in the building here that will admit it. Okay, we have some Yankees fans.

Great. You’re going to love this story. It’s great.

Okay, the Boston Red Sox were playing the New York Yankees. Okay, how many Red Sox fans we got in the room?

Okay, got a few Bo Sox fans, and you’re going to remember, well, you won’t remember this. Your I believe this was in Fenway.

And Carlton Fisk was a big, huge catcher. And he hit the ball. It was clearly home run distance.

There was no doubt. The issue was which side of the foul pole is going on. And there is certainly a vintage video footage.

And Carlton Fisk is facing the ball. And he’s kind of running down the first base line doing this, doing this. And all of a sudden, he jumps in the air like this.

So why do you think he jumped in the air? because the ball went on the right side of the foul pole and it was a home run.

Now, if it had gone on the other side of the foul pole, it would have been a strike. You know, that’s a big difference.

You see, boundaries make a difference in sports. Can you imagine playing a soccer game with infrared lines and only the referees could see them?

That’d be fun, wouldn’t it? No way, man. That’d be no fun at all.

You know, my friend, God is not up in heaven with infrared glasses with boundaries that you have no clue about. See, the boundaries that God

gives us are going to be very clear, just like in any sporting event. You step out of bounds, it doesn’t work.

It doesn’t help your team. It doesn’t help you advance. It certainly could help

you lose the game. We’ll understand that. Let’s imagine you were in some basketball championship

or a big game, and let’s imagine it’s down to the wire, and your team is down by two points, and you’ve got the ball in like three seconds to go. Now, your coach clearly knows about five of you guys are about to foul out,

so he knows you’ve got to go through the three-pointer because there’s no way it’s going into overtime you’re going to win. So he comes up with a play, and the ball is going to come to you

because you’re the best three-point shooter on the team. We’re just imagining, okay? And I saw some of you play out there, and we’re just imagining.

But anyway, so anyway, the play, let’s imagine, it goes off absolutely without a hitch, and you get the ball with about one second to shoot.

The only problem is they read the thing like a book, and they got three defenders right on you. The tallest guys in the team.

And so you are already at the sideline, and these three giants here, you have a second, so all you do is you step out of bounds,

you throw it up, nothing but net, right through. And you jump in the air, and you run over to the coach, and the coach is furious.

You say, coach, I scored, I scored. and the coach would say no you were out of bounds you see friends boundaries do make a difference in our world and certainly with God they make a difference as well and the thing I want you to see

here God says don’t go out of bounds so it says there that no man go beyond and defraud his brother the word defraud is a very interesting word it literally means quote to have more it means to have more than is rightfully yours to take.

Now think about this for a moment, if you would. Let’s imagine your mother sent you down to Walmart, and maybe you have one of those mothers that has all the prices memorized and the taxes, and she has a list, and she basically says,

get all this stuff, and she gives you a Walmart gift card for $100. She said, it’s going to come out to be $99.98.

And here it is. You have two pennies left on the card. So you go down there,

and you fill the cart, everything she said, the right brand names, everything, and you go to the checkout, sure enough, $99.98, there it is. You got two pennies to spare.

And while you’re in the checkout, you’re looking at the bubble gum there, you know, and you see Bubblicious or Bubble Yum or whatever has a brand new flavor, like Fruity Tooty, Mango, Kiwi, Strawberry, whatever, okay,

Coconut, Mango, whatever. And so you see, you’ve never had that flavor, and you’re like, oh, I really want that.

But you only have two cents. And you’re thinking, oh man, well, you think to yourself, and again, hopefully you wouldn’t do this, but you think to yourself, well, you know, I’m paying

a hundred bucks. I mean, after all. So you grab it, nobody’s looking, you stick it in your pocket,

you check out the grocery, sure enough, 99.98, you put the card in, they swipe it, and you walk out of Walmart. Do you know what you just did?

You just defrauded Walmart. Say, wait a minute, I didn’t defraud him, I gave him a hundred bucks, which you took, don’t miss this, you took more than was

rightfully yours to take. Do you see that? So what God is simply saying in the moral arena,

when you step over the line, you’re not only out of bounds, but you also are defrauding. And by that, you are taking more than is rightfully yours to take.

Can I say this carefully? You are a thief. Now, young person, I’m going to simply say this, whatever moral impurity is, it is out of bounds

and it is thievery. And until you see it as that, you won’t really deal with it in a thorough fashion biblically.

Okay, so we’ve seen that. Let’s now move to James chapter 4, because you’re probably thinking to yourself, okay, what’s the line?

Like I mentioned, God’s not a referee who has infrared glasses on with lines that only he can see. He very clearly is going to give us in his

word, a very biblical line. And I want you to see the line this evening, because I think you need to get it in your heart and soul that God has boundaries.

And if you’re in bounds, there’s moral purity, you’re out of bounds, you are into impurity and you’re into theft. You’re taking more than is

rightfully yours to take. Now, let’s look, if we could please, at verse number four. It says,

Now that’s very strong language. He is saying to his people, Now some commentators believe it’s literal.

I personally believe it’s what we would call spiritual adultery. If you’re saved and on your way to heaven, you are a part of the bride of Christ.

And the issue I want you to see about the bride is the bride is not yet married to Jesus the groom. Can I use the word engaged?

It’s not the Bible word, but to help us understand it. Okay, so here we are, part of the bride. We’re engaged to Jesus,

and there’s going to come a day when the bridegroom’s coming back, he’s gonna blow the trumpet,

and there’s gonna be a marriage supper of the Lamb. Now, years ago, some of you girls are gonna love this. In fact, I’m sure many of the girls

are gonna plan to do this. But there was a couple in the state of North Dakota who decided that they wanted to illustrate

Christ in the church. It’s the most literal way they could. So you girls are going to just love this.

So what they did is one day the guy, the groom, or the guy before he was the fiancé, he asks the girl, will you marry me?

And you girls are going to be shocked. You know what the girl said? She said yes.

I’m always amazed when girls, well, I shouldn’t say always, but a lot of times I’m amazed. I can’t believe she said yes.

Does she really know that guy? But anyway, so anyway, she says yes. And so the guy says, I want us to illustrate Christ in the church.

here’s what we’re going to do. I want you to get ready for the wedding, and then one day I’m going to call you up, and the day I call you up, that’s the day we get married.

Now, girls, wouldn’t you just love that? Wouldn’t you absolutely love the intrigue, the suspense?

You girls don’t seem too excited about this. So actually, the whole church got on board, and the point was, as soon as the guy

dropped the shoe, so to speak, the church would go into action, and it would happen. Okay, so there was a lot of people on board.

And I know the pastor in which the church occurred. This is a true story. And so, you know, she goes into it,

gets everything ready, you know. And of course, she’s just waiting. She doesn’t know what day is.

She’s just ready. She has her suitcase ready. She has everything, you know, in order.

She’s just waiting. And one day, I don’t know, I would think that videotape footage

of this moment had to be huge. I don’t know if they have it, but they should have. Okay, you can imagine six in the morning

she gets a call wakes her up she gets a call and it’s her honey hey honey today’s the day oh wouldn’t that be just choice at that moment you know her face is you know I mean you know what I’m talking about hair sticking out and uh I’m sure there’s no videotape footage but it would have

been priceless and uh so uh it was actually an evening wedding so she did have some time to uh to get things ready and so he comes over picks her up and and the church they it was a church that had no pews in the auditorium.

It was kind of a circular type auditorium and they’d taken them out and they put tables in. It was a banquet.

The wedding was a supper. And so they had them come in and whatever, they did what they were going to do.

Now that’s the picture here, friend. The picture is simply that we, as the bride, we don’t know when he’s coming back.

And so here’s the bride. Jesus hasn’t come back yet, and the bride, don’t miss this, begins to flirt with the world.

And God comes along and says, you’ve got a problem. You are two-timing it. Later in the passage, he calls it double-minded.

You are double-minded, and you are in spiritual adultery. Strong language, isn’t it? Now, I’ve got a question for you.

Is the bride and the groom, Jesus, married yet? And the answer is no. And yet God uses the strong language of adultery,

which teaches us something, young person, that you need to get in your heart. You can adulterate the purity of a future marriage.

That’s what he’s saying here. Now, understanding that for a moment, let’s use an analogy out of chemistry.

Some of you have heard me say this, but for some that haven’t, let me help you out with this. How many have ever taken chemistry?

How many have ever taken chemistry? Good, that’s not bad. How many has chemistry taken you to the cleaners?

Okay, a few, okay. Yeah, David, I expected you to raise your hand. Okay, but anyway, so here you are, you chemists here.

If you have pure gold, how many elements do you have? And the answer is just one. So if you adulterate the gold, how many elements do you have?

And the answer is more than one, two or more. Now, let’s, again, I’m not sure chemistry borrows it from morality or morality borrows it from chemistry,

but I want you to think about that for a moment. Okay, so purity then seems to indicate that it is all about one. And adulterating purity means it’s two or more.

That seems to be reflected in the passage, doesn’t it? Okay, so here it is, Christ and the church, and the church begins to flirt with the world.

Now we’ve got two, two spiritual loves, and God says out of bounds that’s spiritual adultery. You are adulterating the purity of a future marriage.

Now let me use another analogy, because this one is certainly far more common and tragic. It’s tragic, but it happens.

Here’s a soldier. He’s about to be deployed overseas. He goes to this young lady.

He asks her, will you marry me? The girl says yes. He says, okay, so we can’t set a date because I don’t know when I’m going to get back.

But you get ready, and when I get back, we’ll set a date as quickly as we can, and then we’ll get married. Now, this happens all the time.

Okay, so the guy is deployed. Imagine his deployment lasts a whole lot longer than both of them thought it was. And so imagine you begin to notice that the young lady back here in the United States,

you begin to note she’s flirting with other guys after a while. Then you begin to know she’s going out on dates. And then you begin to hear that things are going on that have no business going on.

Is that a problem? Yes, it’s a huge problem. In fact, even the world has a word for it.

I’ve already given the word, and that is the word two-timing it. Even the world would say that. Now again, our Bible word here is double-minded.

Okay, so you say, okay, preacher, where are you going with this? I want us to understand the line. What I’m trying to do right now is to get the line.

Okay, so here it is. Let’s go to verse number 8, because verse number 8 of chapter number 4 gives us the answer. If you hang with me, we’re going to get to application.

Verse number 8. Draw an eye to God, and he’ll draw an eye to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners.

And here it is. Purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Okay, I want you to think of this for a moment.

Here you are, engaged to Jesus, flirting with the world. God says, out of bounds, you’re double-minded. You are two-timing it.

You need to purify your hearts, ye double-minded. If you purified your heart, you’d no longer be double-minded. you’d be?

Let’s try that again. Here you are engaged to Jesus, if I can use that word, flirting with the world.

God says, out of bounds, you’re two-timing it, you’re double-minded. You need to purify your heart. If you purified your heart, you’d no longer be double-minded,

you’d be? Yeah, that’s it. That’s the line.

The line, young person, is this. Clearly the line is keeping everything God intended to be exclusive for marriage for one, in the bonds of marriage.

And when you mess with intimacy that God only intended for a husband and a wife, you are clearly out of bounds. You’re stealing from a future relationship.

And it’s clearly, it’s not only theft, it’s out of bounds. And God says, okay, it’s impurity. You’ve entered somebody into the intimacy God only intended for a husband and wife.

Are you tracking with me? Now, let me ask clear as a bell. Which means, young person, when you introduce someone into intimacy,

that God only intended for a husband and wife and you’re not married, you are adulterating the purity of your future marriage. And God says you’re a thief.

I’m talking to young men who look at garbage on the internet. I’m telling you right now, you are a thief. You think it’s cool.

You may laugh with your buddies in the locker room, tell your little off-color jokes in your Christian school and think you’re cool because you’re looking at garbage on YouTube.

I’m telling you, young person, you’re a thief. And it’s God Almighty who calls you a thief. You’re stealing from a future marriage, and one day you will regret it.

so you say okay preacher what does that mean i want you to see three applications tonight young person and i want you to get this because it’s here to be a help to you number one is what i’m going to call physical purity physical purity is keeping your body for one so what god is simply

saying is god is saying all that god has created uh for husband and wife in the physical realm God says all of it. He said I want you to keep it for one.

Now I want you to think about this. The Bible uses analogy for passion and he uses an analogy and it’s the analogy of fire. Can a man take fire into his bosom his clothes not be burned?

Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth into his neighbor’s wife shall not be innocent.

Whosoever toucheth her Did you catch that? Shall not be innocent.

I’m telling you, young person, you touch a woman, and that word touch we’re going to talk about in a moment, optimize the Greek translation of the Hebrew there,

the Septuagint. But you touch a woman that’s not your wife, God says you’re not innocent.

You are not innocent. When you touch her in a way that God only intended for a husband and wife, God says you are not innocent.

So fire, let’s talk about fire for a moment, then we’ll come back to the word touch, because it’s a very significant word.

But let’s talk about fire for a moment. You know, fire is a wonderful thing in the proper place, isn’t it? You know, we’re in Wisconsin.

We like fire. We would die without it. You know, think about it.

We didn’t have fire up here. We couldn’t, we wouldn’t make it. None of us wouldn’t make it.

You wouldn’t make it. We love fire. I mean, we love it in the fireplace.

We love it in the furnace. I used to say we love it in the hot water heater. I said that one time, and I just love teenagers.

you know teenagers so wonderful they’re so brilliant that they sometimes just just their wisdom they just just bring it out to you so i’m preaching one time he says man i love fire in the hot water heater teenager comes up to me afterwards a little hey preacher it’s not a hot water heater

it doesn’t heat hot water it heats water don’t you just love teenagers they’re so unbelievable just so wise you know and so uh okay i don’t care what you say i don’t like firing the hot water heater okay you you’ll understand what i’m talking about but you know um the only place i didn’t

really need fire in the hot water here was when I was in Ghana, West Africa. A lady back there can tell you, I mean, once in 115, who needs, you know, who needs hot water?

But anyway, so, but the point is, we like fire. I mean, we love it, you know, up November.

We love in December. We really love it in January and February.

And most of the time we love it March, April, May, June. But anyway, so, you know, we just absolutely love fire.

I love preaching down south. I said, you know, we love, up in Wisconsin, man, it’s just, it’s the garden state.

We garden for about two weeks. But anyway, so, but, you know, we love fire.

We’re into fire. We think fire is great. But you get fire out of the proper place and it’s a bad deal.

I was bringing my old clunker car about 10 years ago down to the Tim Eckman, some of you know Tim, down the street here. And I looked up in that apartment building,

was burned out. It was right there. It used to be right there.

And I said, hey, Tim, I said, what happened? He said, didn’t you hear about it?

He said, bad fire. He said, I think a bunch of people got hurt.

He said, I think some people even died. You know, that’s tragic when fire gets out of its proper place because it leaves scars, it damages, and it destroys.

I don’t know, a few years back, I was coming back to Wisconsin about this time of year for a wedding, and we were getting off an airplane either here or in D.C.

where I flew out of just a few hours ago, and we’re getting off on a One of my daughters was with me, and there was a lady about two or three rows up, and she was getting up off the plane.

She’d open the bin, and she was pulling something out of the overhead bin. And when she turned around, she turned around toward us so that you could see that every square inch that you could see on her face

and on her neck was a scar that comes clearly from fire. And I will tell you, friend, she probably was wearing a wig. And I say this as carefully and as kindly as I know how,

I suppose you understand, but every bit of her feminine beauty was gone. it was honestly grotesque it was hard to look at i’m gonna tell you why because of fire fire got out of its proper place and it’s scarred i’m telling a young person i’m not trying to be

unkind you can play with fire but you will get burnt you mess around with your girlfriend you mess around with your boyfriend you can do that kind of stuff you can do that but you mark my words god says fire can a man take fire in his bosom his clothes not be burned the answer is no you

can’t do that. Can someone walk on hot coals and his feet not be burned? No, you can’t do that

either. So he that goeth into his neighbor’s wife, whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent, and the point is, friends.

Every young lady you’re with, young man, is somebody’s future wife in most cases. God says, you touch her, you’re not innocent.

Which brings us to that great word opto. Opto is a Greek word, and one of the definitions is clearly the idea of touch, but it’s clearly a specific

the kind of touch. And it’s so helpful. The Bible is so, so up to date.

It’s the word kindle. So it’s a touch that kindles a fire. So what I would call romantic touch,

it’d be that touch that God only intended for a husband and a wife. God who said, whosoever touches her will not be innocent. That’s what it says.

In fact, there’s a verse of scripture in 1 Corinthians 7 and verse number one. It says, it is good,

for a man. Anybody help me off this verse? Not to touch a woman.

Do you know it is the middle voice of that same verb, opto? It’s optomai.

And the idea again is kindle. What God is simply saying, it is good for a man not to touch a woman in a way that kindles a fire.

You know, sometimes kids will say, yeah, it’s no big deal. Preacher, yeah, sure we hold hands, but you know, hey, there’s nothing there.

I mean, you know, we just hold hands. It really doesn’t, You know, if there’s nothing there,

then why don’t she hold on the one side of a stick and you hold on the other one? Well, the reason is there is something there.

Now, I realize in the world where we live that, you know, people skip all over those stages. But I’m preaching to you because some of you out here,

that’s where you’re going to fall for. You’re going to fall for some, oh, it’s not that big a deal.

Yeah, that’s just the rule of my college. That’s just BCM’s rule. Yeah, no big deal.

No, we’re not talking about BCM’s rule. We’re talking about God in heaven who loved you enough to say it’s good for a man not to touch a woman in a way that kindles a fire.

It’s good for a man not to touch a woman romantically. There’s only one woman you should ever touch romantically, and that is your wife in the bonds of marriage, not before.

That’s what it says. Now, young people, I want you to understand this. This isn’t BCM rules.

This is not Falls Baptist Church. This is the Bible. See, physical purity is keeping all aspects of touch that kindle a fire, all aspects of intimacy,

keeping them all for one in the bonds of marriage. You know why God tells you to do that? This is

going to shock you. Because he loves you. And he wants you to have the very best.

I remember a few years ago, a youth pastor came up to me at a camp I was preaching at, and he said, Brother Van Gelderen, can I talk to you? He said,

I don’t know. I just feel like I should tell you this. He said,

I grew up. My dad was nowhere to be seen. He said, my mom couldn’t control me.

So my mom basically said to me, gave me some basic rules in life, and she basically said, one, you give a girl pregnant, I’m going to

kill you. So he said, I knew I could not step over that line, but he said, as a result

of the freedom, he said, I was in and out of relationships and all kinds of different girlfriends. And he said, although I never

lost my virginity, he said there were a lot of things I did with a lot of different girls that I regret. I’m trying to be as appropriate as I can.

He said, I’ve been married one year now. And he says, you know, he said, I don’t know how to explain it. And he described it different than

I’m going to describe to you, but I’m going to use appropriate words here. He said, when I begin, I’m going to use the Bible word, begin to sport with my wife.

You remember when Isaac sported with Rebecca and the king looked out the window and said, that’s not brothers and sisters, that’s married.

They’re married. Okay, they were doing things that clearly were what married people do. So he said, when I began to sport with my wife, that’s not the word he used, but that’s the idea.

He said, when I began to sport with my wife, he says, you know what? He said, all those memories of all those different girls come back.

Now, young people, you hear me. It would have been completely inappropriate.

But you know, humanly, what I’d like to have done, take a picture, I’d taken a video of him saying that. And I’d like to show it tonight.

I can’t do that. It would be inappropriate.

But if I did that, you know why I do that? Because I would want you to see the regret. I would want you to see the remorse.

I want you to see like, why did I do that? You know what he’s saying to me? I’m a thief.

I’m a thief. Well, you say, oh, preacher, I’ve already blown it.

I’ve already done it. What’s the deal now? You can make it worse, bud.

You can make it worse. Just because you failed in the past, as I mentioned a moment ago, is no excuse for the future. So physical purity is keeping your body for one.

I was talking to a young man recently who has a heart for God, wants to be used in God. And I just began to notice some things in his life.

I pulled him in. I said, can I talk to you for a moment? I said, you know what your problem is, I think?

I said, I believe you have had by watching you, I believe you have not been careful with the opposite gender in your life.

I said, is that true? He said, yes, it is. You preach your boys.

You’re not going to be able to preach on this subject. Some of you got such a guilty conscience. You’re not going to be able to get up and preach on it

unless you start dealing with it like right now. See, that’s the issue. So physical purity is keeping your body for one.

All aspects of touch that kindle a fire, keeping them for one in the bonds of marriage. You know, that just sounds kind of obvious, doesn’t it?

Have you ever noticed how practical God is? He always draws line where it’s kind of like obvious. You know, like touch and no touch, that’s kind of obvious.

Seems to me real obvious. God draws lines where they’re really obvious. So you know what Christian young people,

well, you know, I think that preacher’s a little strict. I’ve had people, I think you’re a little over the top. Well, I didn’t get it from me.

I got it from the book. And so they begin to touch. Well, the point is, where are we going to draw a line

when you start touching each other? Where do you draw the line? See, that’s the problem.

There’s not an obvious line once you start. It’s like alcohol. Hey, preacher, Bible says don’t get drunk.

it doesn’t say drink it. Well, you know, if you don’t drink it, you’ll never get drunk. It doesn’t

take rocket science to figure that one out. I’m amazed how moronic people get on this stuff. So if you start drinking, how much can you drink?

There’s not an obvious line, is there? You know, God draws obvious lines, young people. So my point simply tonight is physical purity is keeping your body for one, but we got to move on.

Mental purity. Wow, here we’re on a tough one. Mental purity is keeping your mind for how many?

You tell me. What? There’s only one woman, young man, that you should ever think

intimate thoughts about, and that is your wife, in the bonds of marriage. And lady, there’s only one person you should ever think in

that realm, and that is your husband in the bonds of marriage. Now, we are living in a realm in a day when this is trampled

on. I’m telling you guys, you can look at your garbage on the internet.

Some of you kids that are not right with God looking at your YouTube videos think you’re so cool. Yeah, you’re stealing from your future marriage, and one day

you’ll realize it. you just realize you messed it up. You stole from a future marriage.

And so understand, mental purity is keeping your mind for just one. Now, you say, well, preacher, I can’t do anything about the past. That’s exactly right.

But I am here to say that some of you guys that struggle with this issue, you need to realize that God in heaven will give you victory. And there is victory, but it starts with really mourning and grieving over the past.

Now, God will forgive you instantaneously, 1 John 1.9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteous.

Thank the Lord. Aren’t you thankful that cleansing is instantaneous? The moment we say, God, you’re right, he forgives.

And he cleanses. But restoration takes time. You say, how do you know that?

James chapter 4. I understand the message that’s preached on that today. Be afflicted in the morning.

Weep. Let your laughter be turned in the morning. And your joy to heaviness.

That is talking about resensitizing your soul. There are guys in this room, you could not get up and preach on moral issues because you’re so defeated and have such a problem

and you’ve never really mourned over the garbage you’ve done. You need to mourn over it. Grieve over it.

Take God’s side against yourself. That’s not for forgiveness. We’re not talking about penance.

We are talking about resensitizing your soul to the filth so you, by God’s grace, learn to hate what God hates. God is big enough young man to give you a hatred for what you once did

and it will be completely grace so that you can get in the pulpit and preach with fervor and preach with conviction because you’ve taken God’s side against yourself but that’s the resensitizing that’s to be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter turn be turned to mourning humble

yourself on the side of the Lord and he’ll lift you up. But mental purity is keeping your mind for one.

Now young people, you know what that means? In the world in which we live, I’m

telling you this. Listen, if you’re a big time rebel out here and you’re going to do what you’re going to do, we are

living in a world where you can do it. It really doesn’t, I’m all for parents being strict and I’m all for homes being

careful and they need to be. And there certainly is way too much looseness.

I’m not saying that, but I’m simply saying we’re living in such a wicked world if you want to get the filth you’ll get it and so the issue here is your heart is getting it in your heart that you want to start even now laying a solid

foundation for a future marriage now a solid foundation for a future marriage begins with a very important characteristic you know what it is faithfulness you know what faithfulness is it’s keeping your body, I’m going to get ahead of myself, your mind and your heart for just one.

You know when that begins, it does not begin when you say I do. It began years ago. As a little boy or girl, when you had to start making decisions about whether you’re going to

be faithful to a future spouse. So mental purity is keeping your mind for just one. Now, if you want to keep your mind clean, the Bible tells us, you got to be careful what you

look at. The Bible makes a connection between our eyes and our thoughts. Did you know that?

Job 31.1, I’ve made a covenant with mine eyes. Why then should I think upon a maid? Jesus said in

Matthew 5, whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Do you see the connection?

Solomon said, lust not after beauty, eyes in thine heart. God makes a connection between what we look at and what we think about. God also makes a connection

in what we think about and what we do. As he thinketh in his heart, anybody know? So is he.

Proverbs 23, 7. Proverbs 4, 23. Keep your heart with all diligence,

for out of it are the issues of life. Mark chapter number 7. For within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts,

murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, and the list goes on. And basically Greek scholars tell us

that the way that’s constructed is all the sins in the list find their origin in evil thoughts.

So what you think about is, if left unchecked, is one day what affects your actions. So God says, it starts with what you look at,

then it’s what you think about, then it’s what you do, if left unchecked. So I’m challenging here,

is to recognize it starts with what you look at. Obviously, there’s not a whole lot you can do about the past, but there’s a whole lot you can do about the future.

And that means that some of you need to make strong, strict applications in your life. I don’t want to go there.

I remember years back, I had a young man traveling on our team, and this was 1988, and this is, he was the guy that would go into the gas station, and he would pay for the gas, and I need to say this for some of you,

there used to be a day, this is going to shock you, there used to be a day when you had to go into the gas station and pay for the gas. Can you believe that?

But that was, yeah, that was unbelievable. But anyway, so he was the guy, he’d go in, he’d pay for the gas, come back out, put the card in the bag, put the receipt in the bag.

That was his job. Everybody knew that was his job. He’d pump the gas,

do the rest. So one day he comes to me and he’s a little sheepish and he said, Brother Van Gelt, could I talk to you?

I said, sure, John. I said, what’s up? He said, you know, he said, before I

got saved, he got saved at 20. He was a teenage alcoholic. He got saved at 20.

God delivered him. He went immediately to Bible college. He was traveling with me his senior year.

He’d been saved about four years. He said, Brother Van Gelt, he said, every time I go into a quick stop, he said,

he said, I’m just going to be honest with you. He said, I’m tempted. He said, could somebody else

for the gas. So what do you think I said? Yeah, buck it up, kid.

Man, you can make it. No, I don’t say that. No.

I said, no, we’re going to get somebody else to go pay for that gas. You know why, friends?

Because that was a temptation. He knew it was a temptation.

I didn’t ask him what it was. I can only imagine knowing his past background.

I know there’s several things I’m sure that were a temptation in that quick stop. But the point I’m making simply is this.

He knew that he had to make a decision. He couldn’t do that anymore. Now, for some of you going into QuickStop, you just go and pay the gift.

You don’t even think about it. You’re not tempted. There’s no issue.

You’re not tempted. I’ve teased about this. You know, there’s no temptation.

It could be. Any of us could make wrong decisions to be tempted by a QuickStop. My greatest temptation at QuickStop is it says Coke 99 cents.

That’s mine. Yeah. You know, buy it.

Then, you know, take about 10 minutes off your life. You know, that’s about it. You know, they used to have a little thing.

Coke adds life. Don’t believe it. It’s not true.

Okay. But anyway, so. But the point I’m making, friends, is all of us have different areas.

There may be some areas you don’t struggle with at all, but other areas you do. The point, friends, when it comes to mental purity

is you need to take strong measures. If there’s an area that is defeating you, there’s some young men who need to sit down with your dad.

I hope you can do this and say, Dad, I’m struggling with my phone. Or, Dad, I’m struggling with stuff on the computer.

Or, Dad, I’ve been going over to a friend’s house. Or this, and you need to come clean. You know, my friend, the point is,

and I’ve had many young men tell me they never got victory until they thoroughly dealt with it.

They thoroughly got everything out on the table they were doing. They were completely honest about how they did it.

There were strong measures with all those ways they were doing it to deal with it

so it would be very difficult to do it again. The Bible very clearly tells us two are better than one

because they have a good reward for the labor. For if they fall, the one will help up his fellow.

But woe to him that’s alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up. accountability when it comes to sins you commit alone is critical in getting victory it’s critical

hopefully you can go to your father if you can’t or your mother but if you can’t then you have youth pastors and other people who can be accountability and help you people stronger than you you know sometimes teenagers say well I’m going to go to my friend I’m not trying to be in

kind but I have never met a teenager that is strong enough to be an accountability partner in this realm so don’t play games with yourself I’ve said this before if you’re falling off a cliff what do you want?

A 25-year-old weightlifter or a five-year-old? The truth is, if you pick the five-year-old, you and the five-year-old are going to die.

You pick the 25-year-old weightlifter, he’s going to take his little finger, hook it somewhere on you, and flip you over his head. And you’re going to be

rescued. See, accountability is finding someone stronger than you who will not let you get away with it.

You expose the ways you’ve been doing it. You take strong measures not to go back. You say,

I’m done. I do not want to go back that way. You let it, you do it.

You burn every bridge you can possibly think of. Now I’ve seen teenagers over the years do all kinds of things.

In fact, just like a few days ago, I mentioned this earlier, man, there’s a kid just a couple of days ago, man, he, he, he just was a movie watcher.

He just buy all these movies. And I’ve never, I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many movies thrown in the fires the other night.

He’s just pitching them in. He said, I’m done with this stuff.

Just pitching them in there. Took a whole series of the 70s shows. That was back a few years ago.

I think it was like a $75, $80 set. Every 70s show there was. Just took it and said, man, no Christian has anybody

that’s looking at this garbage right into the fire. Just… You know what he’s doing?

I don’t ever watch these DVDs again. Soon, I’m going to burn them. Well, you know, that’s pretty good

because it’s hard to watch a DVD after it’s burned. It’s really tough. They don’t have technology yet how to figure that one out.

The point is he’s saying, I’m done with it. That’s the idea. Mental purity is taking strong measures

to protect your eyes. strong measures we’re not talking about playing games we’re talking about I don’t want to go back I’m done with this stuff I do not want to steal from my future wife I’ve already done enough I’m

sick of it I want to deal with it and I’m going to deal with it tonight that’s the idea okay so number one physical purity number two mental purity and number three is what I’m going to call emotional purity so if physical purity is keeping your body for one and mental purity is keeping your

mind for one, then emotional purity is keeping your heart for? So how many people should you madly fall in love with?

And the answer is, yeah, one. Now, I know what somebody says, yeah, well, I know so-and-so, they were engaged before, so-and-so was engaged before.

Sure, good people sometimes make mistakes, but I will tell you, just because good people have made mistakes is no excuse for any young person in this room not to put it in their heart, by the grace of God, I just want to

have one love. That ought to be the intent of every young person in this room. I was in Canada a few

and a youth pastor said to me, he said, Brother Van Gomer, he said, I have never heard anybody preach on emotional purity but you.

He said, I’ve been thinking about this. He said, I’m thinking, I’ve been thinking for this a while. Mental purity is every man’s battle,

but emotional purity is every young lady’s battle. I thought to myself, I think he’s right. You say, what do young ladies fall for?

They’re into the romance. You know, I hate to tell you guys, but when a girl falls for you,

she’s not falling for you, she’s fallen for romance. so don’t you know don’t get thinking that she really you know she really is into you she’s not she just loves being in love that’s what girls are that’s why they marry some of the dudes they

marry like whoa that guy’s got two legs that’s it i mean there’s not much elves there man that guy is worthless what does she see in him well she doesn’t see anything she’s so in love she you know you know a few years back they had that you know that twilight series and i was preaching somewhere

and i said some of you kids you’ve been watching that twilight junk man you need to throw it on the fire on Friday. I just said it.

It was just one of those things. I don’t know where it came from. Half the stuff I say

I don’t know where it comes from. I’m just preaching. I said, some of you have that twilight junk

you need to throw in the fire. You know, the next night we had all these twilight novels thrown in.

Now this is going to shock you. None of the guys threw twilight novels in.

Like you guys, you know, you care less about vampires and romance? Like what?

That’s stupid. But girls are into this.

Oh, this romance. and some of you know the Christian romance novels, which, my friend, are often a Christianized version

of emotional adultery. Giving all these romantic thoughts about a faceless male who is clearly not your husband.

You know, we get on the guys for thinking mentally impure thoughts, and we should, but we kind of give the girls a pass

when they think emotionally impure thoughts. See, the point, friend, is emotional purity is keeping all of that for just one.

So what are you going to do? compare your romance with the Christian romance novel and thinking, yeah, I got a dud.

You know, he doesn’t do half what the guy in the novel did. Well, you know, guys are boneheaded anyway. I mean, give your guy a pass.

Don’t read all these, get these expectations. I mean, most guys, you know, if they’re not getting so many that’s a little seasoned

to help them out, you know, like, you know, my dad would say, okay, get her some flowers. Okay, do this, you know, because what?

I was clueless. I’d just say, I like this girl. I think she’s the one I’m supposed to marry.

So my dad was coaching me, okay? Here’s how you do it, okay? You know, someone’s seasoned, okay?

You know, the point is, your guy’s going to be boneheaded like that too, okay? So don’t read a bunch of romance novels

and get all these expectations because your guy’s going to fall short. And plus, some of that romance,

you have no business doing until you’re married. See, the point, friends, is simply this. Emotional purity is keeping your heart for one.

Just one. You know, it’s like some girls will say, yeah, my dad, he’ll never approve of anybody. I’m going to be an old maid.

He’ll never approve of anybody. You know, I tell the girls like that, well, you know, listen, I’ve got really good news for you. Because only one’s got to pass.

Just one. Just one. You only want one to pass.

The right one. See, emotional purity is keeping your heart for just one. I’ve said this before.

Some of you have heard me say it, but others haven’t. You know, you see this. Most places, even youth groups, you see this.

You know, there’s a 7th grader, you know, they meet each other, this guy, girl, and they fall in love.

Everything’s so cute. You know, this puppy love, it’s so cute. Last three months, you know what I’m talking about?

They’re so selfish, they made me make it three months, and they have a big breakup, and they hate each other, and they fight, and they both cry for a week, you know.

And it’s, you know, the whole youth group’s all caught up in the thing. And you know how that goes.

It’s like stupid. but so then about two years later, you know, the guy, he finds somebody else. Oh, this is it.

True love. You know, this will last six months, you know, and then the girl sees what he’s really

all about. And that one breaks up and they cry for two, you know, three days. Then senior in high

school. Yeah, I found it now. This girl’s going to do.

She’s one, you know, and that one goes for a year. Then they break up and he cries for a day.

Then he goes to college, sophomore year, finds his girlfriend and they get going and then they break up maybe you know another year and break up and now he cries for half a day then he gets married and gets divorced and he doesn’t cry

you think that happens listen there are young people out here you’re practicing for divorce I hope you don’t get divorced but you’re practicing for it in and out of relationships and you’re just getting your heart

harder and harder and harder. And you’re protecting yourself more and more and more. And you are not

practicing for a lifelong commitment. You are practicing for breakups. See, emotional purity

is keeping your heart for one. Listen, we all know this. You’ve been driving down the road,

you’re going in the country, and you come onto the railroad tracks, and it says, I love Sally forever. Spray painted right there on there.

Now, if you’re a girl and say, oh, isn’t that wonderful? You’re clueless. You’re just clueless.

You know, I love Sally forever, you know. But you come back three months later, poor Sally’s name’s been spray-painted out. Now it’s got Mary Jo on there.

And you know, when you look at that, you go, oh, that is so dumb. Why? Because that’s not true love.

True love doesn’t last for three months. It lasts for a lifetime. And you know, it’s the kind of love that we’re talking about lasts

so that when you have to get chemotherapy and your hair falls out, he still loves you. So what do you want?

A guy that’s in and out of relationships and will dump you for somebody else? Is that what you want? Or you want a guy who’s made a commitment,

you are my true love and to death does this part, and that is it. So all of you have to recognize that emotional, pretty young ladies is where your issue is.

Making a decision. I’m not going there. I’m not watching all that stuff on the television.

and not watching those movies that get me thinking romantic thoughts and all this vicarious romance. Why do you think many mothers push their daughters to get into the dating scene?

I’m going to tell you why. Because their happiest moments were an improper dating and they want to vicariously experience it again in their daughter’s lives.

So they messed them up. That’s the culture in which we live.

So you say, okay, preacher, I think we’re getting it. Now, I just want us to say here at the very end of the message.

You say, I want to just say one other thing that will tie it all together. We’ve obviously looked tonight at what is moral purity.

We’ve pointed out that it’s out of bounds, that impurity is out of bounds, and impurity is theft.

We pointed out that the line is keeping your body, your mind, and your heart for just one. And when you introduce somebody into the intimacy

physically, mentally, or emotionally that God only intended for a husband and wife, you are stealing from a future marriage.

Now one final thought. You say, now wait a second, Breacher. You have really laid before us an impossibility.

In the culture in we live, this is impossible. Now you might even be, I hope you’re not, you might even be one that would be on the other side

and you might even be mocking a little bit. I would not be surprised that somebody in this room is in that thing right now.

You’re the kind, as soon as you get with your buds in the bathroom, you’re going to say, hear what that guy said. so I got a verse for you go back to first Thessalonians chapter number four and I’m going to

close with this verse because this is right in the text that we were dealing with a moment ago and I want you to see what God says there about what we’ve talked about tonight now this is stunning and it’s confrontational but it’s obviously God loves us so he deals with here’s what it says

right to the end of this passage on moral purity he says this he therefore that despiseth despiseth not man but God who hath given unto us this Holy Spirit there’s two thoughts I want you to see here as we’ll conclude and that’s simply this tonight if you’re sitting here and you got

a little bit of a joke and you’re going to mock it and make fun of it I want to tell you something your problem is not with this preacher and your problem my friend is not with Falls Baptist Church and your problem is not with Baptist College of Ministry and your problem is not with McGowan

to go Baptist church or whatever church you’re from. Your problem is not with man. You despise

this. Your problem is not with man. You’ve got a problem with God.

And you can get in the restrooms and you can mock and you can make fun about all the junk you’re doing, but you hear me, your problem is not with me.

It is with God in heaven. The Bible says if you despise this, you despise not man, but God.

Now of all the places God, but this is the only place this is found in the Bible. Why does God not put this somewhere else?

Why does he put it here? I’m going to tell you why.

Because when you, as a preacher of the gospel, deal with the moral arena, you’re going to have people make fun of you. People mock man.

And when they mock man, you note this, that their problem is not with the prophet. Their problem is not with the preacher.

The problem is with God because he wrote it. You walk out of here and you say, hey, I’m going to do with my girl what

I want to do. I’m going to watch what I want to watch. You hear me, friend.

Your problem is not with me, but you have a huge problem with God. You can despise it, but it won’t work.

It will not work. You can look at your filth and you can go out and mess around, but you mark it, friend.

It will not work. I remember years ago, I was in a Christian school.

The principal came to me after I preached on moral purity. He said, Brother Van Gilden, I feel I need to tell you this.

He said yesterday or today, I think it was. He said, I had a man come to me. He’s got a boy who’s

a seventh grader. The man told me that a seventh grader was in chapel yesterday and heard you preach on moral purity.

He said, the boy came home and said, dad, could I talk to you? They sat down at the dinner table.

The father was going through a divorce. He was somehow, I’m not sure whose fault it was or what the issues were, obviously mutual issues, I’m sure, but they were going

through a divorce. And the boy looked at his dad and said, dad, I heard a message today on moral purity, I’ve got a question for you.

He said, Dad, could I ask you why my birthday is less than nine months from you and Mom’s wedding day? The dad looked at him and said, well, son, I knew one day

you’d figure it out. And that seventh grade boy looked at his dad and very respectfully said, Dad, You think if you’d have waited, you and mom might not be getting a divorce?

And his dad looked at the son and said, son, you’re probably right. You know, it’s stories like that that give me motivation. Some of you can go out and mock and make fun, but there’s some of you who get in your heart,

and you may avoid 25 years from now sitting in the divorce court with tears streaming on your face because you believed God and dropkick Hollywood because they’re lying through their teeth. He therefore despiseth not man, but God.

And then notice that last phrase, which hath given unto us his Holy Spirit. Now I want to conclude with this.

If you’re out here thinking, how can you live this in 2015? How can you live this?

Well, I got really good news for you. Somebody lives inside of you. He has a first name and a second name, a last name.

His name is Holy Spirit. Did you catch his first name? And I will tell you, the Jesus that lives within you,

the Holy Spirit that lives within you, I am telling you, you may recognize, I can’t do this,

but inside of you is a Holy Spirit that can enable you to be holy. And I want to just simply,

because we’re going to deal with this tomorrow, so I’m not going to fully develop it, but I want to let the seed thought in your mind tonight,

and that is simply this. That if you’re out here saying, how can I live this?

I see it, it’s in the Bible. God says to keep yourself pure. Keep your mind, your body, and your heart for just one.

How in the world can I do it in such an impure age? And the answer is, inside of you is the pure Spirit. And he can enable you to be pure.

And I can say this, that your commander is your enabler. And the same Jesus that teaches us what we just heard in his word is the same Jesus that lives in me and can strengthen me

and enable me to see victory where I’ve been defeated. There are young men in this room who know what I’m talking about. You came to college here and you have a defeated in your life.

And some of you who have seen remarkable progress forward in seeing victory that you never thought you’d see. And I will tell you, if you’re honest,

you know it’s Jesus enabling you through his power to have victory you never thought possible. Because he says, I can do all things through Christ

which strengtheneth me. So for all of us tonight, that comes down to the issue. Moral purity.

What is moral purity? We know what it is. The question then is,

we’re going to embrace it or despise it? Could I ask every head bowed, please, and every eye closed? Heads are bowed and eyes are closed.

you’ve done a good job tonight listening and I appreciate it so much there’s some young people out here who have not

gotten into garbage and some of you that have made poor choices in your life and have gotten right with God

and seeing a measure of victory I hope you pray right now that God will do something in the hearts of young people not to make those same choices that you have made

or if they have made those choices tonight make choices to deal with it biblically. Now I know this is a sensitive subject and I know it’s not an easy subject to deal with but it’s an

important one because it’s why many of you are discouraged and defeated and why for many of you God seems like he’s so far away and the Christian life doesn’t seem to work. The flesh seems so

powerful. Now heads and bowed and eyes are closed. Just a moment we’re going to have an invitation.

It’s going to be a backwards invitation. In other words, if you respond, I want you to go to the back.

If God’s dealt in your heart in these moments, I’m not going to have a hand raising. But if God has dealt with you and you say,

Preacher, I need to do some business with God. It may be a young man who just realizes, I have not really seen it like God sees it.

I’ve not mourned and grieved over the fact I’m a thief. I’m an absolute common thief. But I don’t know what your issue is,

but if God’s dealing with you tonight, I’m going to invite you to go to the back and there’ll be someone who will pray with you

and open God’s word and help you with the issue at hand. I’m sure God will lead you to the right counselor. We have some of our student leadership here,

some of our staff here that will open a Bible and help you and give you hope that Jesus can enable you to have victory

you never thought possible. And it starts with getting dead honest with God and becoming accountable to some spiritual leader

in your life, hopefully your parents, but somebody in your life saying, I’m done with it, I don’t care, I gotta see victory.

some of you need to stop playing games because it’s killing you it’s absolutely killing you you can go on in your defeated christian life playing the christianity game totally powerless and everybody knows it you just acted like you fool people when you know you have it

and i’m hoping tonight that there’ll be young people who for the first time in their life will take a step of faith because i’m talking to young people who have done this i have seen young people even in this room who had some pretty big issues in their life but they came clean they got in it

and they begin to see progress in their life they never thought possible it always starts young and with getting honest with God. The heads are bowed and eyes are closed.

Just a moment, I’m going to ask the piano to play. And when the piano plays, if God’s dealing in your heart, I’m going to invite you to stand your feet, head to the back.

We’ll link you up with a counselor who will pray with you. Open God’s word and give you a Bible plan. They’ll get you accountable.

They’ll determine who you need to become accountable to. They’ll give you some great pathway and continue to encourage you if need be.

But I realize this is a tough invitation. I realize that. But you need to make a decision tonight.

You’re going to deal with your filth? Some of you internet pornography guys, it’s time to go, buddy. It’s time to stop playing games.

It’s time to get out of here, get with a counselor saying, I’m done with it. I am sick and tired of it.

Every week I see young men who say, I’m done with it. I don’t care what it takes. I’m sick of it.

I’m done with this garbage. I’ve got to see victory. For the sake of my future wife and kids, I’ve got to see victory.

My heads are bowed and eyes are closed. In just a moment, we’ll have the piano play. And when the piano plays, if God’s touched your heart,

just stand your feet, open your eyes, head to the back, And let us open God’s word and encourage you. We’ll get in a place where you’ll not be seen

and just get alone with God and get alone with the counselor. And ask the counselors, give them some time

to talk to God about it first. And then you can back it up with some Bible verses to be a help.

So if God’s touched your heart, as soon as the piano begins to play, I’m gonna point the piano in just a moment.

You stand, open your eyes and head to the back. Now, young person, what are you gonna do about it? Because some of you in this room have got issues

and you need to deal with it. So let me encourage you to do it as the piano plays.