Sexual Imorality
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Parents:
Parents:
This message is going to get a little spicy today....if you have kids here, I’d highly recommend taking them to the kids department…Dont blame me, Paul wrote it all
ANNOUNCMENT: Men & Women Pot Luck Ax Throwing This Coming Saturday Sign up on our website
and today if you would pull your notes out you’ ll notice, I am giving you the bulk of your notes right up front so that you will even understand what we are about to read…
4 Threads
4 Threads
1st Thread
Turn with me to Exodus 12:12
“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.
Over the summer we did a huge series on this: About God taking his people out of Egypt
There were these ten plagues that happened in Egypt that eventually resulted in Pharaoh’s heart being changed and letting Israel go…
So 9 of these Plagues were done to the Egyptian people to show the favor that the Hebrew People had with This mysterious God YAWAH…
But the 10th Plague was different. It affected the Hebrews as well…
If they didn’t take special care to follow instructions they would not have survived this plague
Read: Exodus 12:12-13
“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
Passover is where God spares his people…
There is a sacrifice involved. Because they made the sacrifice and put the blood on the door, God passed over them and saved their lives
Read: Exodus 12:14-17
Exodus 12:14–17 (NIV)
“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.
“Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
The festival where you eat bread without leavened…The stuff that causes bread to rise…They did not bake their bread with yeast for two reasons.
It takes a long time to cook bread with yeast and God is literally saying
I want you to be able to get up and move when you need too…
It’s a sign of how ready they were supposed to be when Pharaoh let them go Yeast is a symbol of sin. Jesus said just as a little bit of yeast works its way into all of the dough so a little bit of sin corrupts the whole body
Thread One: The passover was about removing all sin and leaving it in behind in Egypt
Thread One: The passover was about removing all sin and leaving it in behind in Egypt
2nd Thread
You must Purge the Evil from Among you
(Worshiping Other God’s)
Deuteronomy 13:5 (NIV)
That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.
(Bearing False Witness) Deuteronomy 19:19
Deuteronomy 19:19 (NIV)
then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. You must purge the evil from among you.
(Disobeying parents) Deuteronomy 21:18-21
Deuteronomy 21:18–21 (NIV)
If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
(Rape, Premarital sex) Deuteronomy 22:23-24
Deuteronomy 22:23–24 (NIV)
If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
(Kidnapping) Deuteronomy 24:7
Deuteronomy 24:7 (NIV)
If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.
The idea of purging evil is just like the idea of running around your house and throwing out the yeast after the festival of unleavened bread at the Passover
You want to get rid of anything that can corrupt the whole thing.
What God is saying here is that when you give a pass to sin in the community then what you are really doing is giving permission to the whole community to live in sin....
Thread two: You must purge the evil from among you
Thread two: You must purge the evil from among you
3rd thread
Don’t sleep with your step mom…Hopefully this is an obvious one for all of you
A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonor his father’s bed.
“Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he dishonors his father’s bed.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
Because of the high mortality rate and because men wanted children they would often marry way younger.
Sometimes they would divorce or the wife would die and the men would re-marry…and there were times that the age of the second wife was very close to that of the son.
So God knows this and therefore the Biblical law is dont sleep with your step mom...
The idea is dont break marriage covenants! Your marriage covenant is sacred so don’t break yours or someone else's.
Thread Three: Sexual immorality is sinful and damaging to the marriage relationship
Thread Three: Sexual immorality is sinful and damaging to the marriage relationship
4th Thread
So one of the tough parts about reading scripture is that as Americans we have individualistic mentalities.
This is such a modern thing its crazy. We can probably trace individualism back to just around the late 1700’s when Jean Jacques Rousseau began writing....He wrote about the inner life of man and man’s feelings…He wrote about finding identity in feelings...
And of course our world today has taken that to a crazy place...
But people thought that this man had gone mad.
Basically to take hundreds of thousands of words of Rousseau and break it down to one idea, I’d have to take this one idea:
“The particular object of my confessions is to make known my inner self....All I need to do, as I have done up till now, is to look inside myself.”
Likely: You just heard me read this and you thought so what…Sounds normal to me but in 1769 when he wrote this it was radical and explosive...
He was basically saying that you can find truth from looking inside yourself and BAM individualism was born
And you need to know: This is a lie: You can not find truth from looking inside yourself.
Truth is a person and his names is Jesus.
When I look at myself I just see a person in need of real truth from my creator!
Ok so why this tangent on thread 4?
Individualism is new...
And before that for thousands of years there were Honor/Shame Societies…Where if one person in your community sinned then you deeply felt that in your bones…There was nothing hidden from your community
It was actually very shameful to act in this individual way to bring attention to one person over the whole family
This is an honor and shame society, where the worst thing you can do is bring shame to your community…
The worst thing you could do is to stand out and to be an individual…
The best thing you can do is to bring honor…
ALL OF THIS TO SAY: There is this idea in the Old Testament that the entire entity of Israel is held responsible even when just a few people were sinning
So Turn to Joshua 7:1
Joshua 7:1 (NIV)
But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.
Ok what is happening here?
God commands Israel that they must destroy all of the things inside Canaan that they take and not keep it at all
So later God causes the Israelites to lose a battle and when Joshua tears his robes and asks God why, it is because one guy got greedy and stole a few things and did not destroy it…
And guess what, God’s anger wasn’t against just one person it was against all of them
Why? Because they were complicit…Surely not everyone knew…But enough people knew and did nothing
Thread Four: There is both an individual and corporate responsibility for sin in the church
Thread Four: There is both an individual and corporate responsibility for sin in the church
Ok lets review: 4 Threads
Passover/Unleavened bread…Remove sin from your house! Leave it behind
Purge Evil
Don’t sleep with your step mom
Cooperate Responsibility of sin
Ok now turn with me to 1 Corinthians 5
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
So these verses are so explosive that I didn’t want to read everything with you at first but to break it all down
Ok do you see some of these threads?
Dont sleep with your step Mom?
So Paul says it is reported that there is Sexual Immorality among you and even the pagans dont tolerate it
The Greek word that Paul uses here for Sexual Immorality is “Pornea”
Ok go back to thread 3, Sexual Immorality is a sin
Pornea is a sin
Pornea…Its where we get the modern word Pornography.
I’ve had men try to make the case for me that Pornography isn’t a sin because its all mental and not physical...
And what I literally have told them is oh…So your like the only guy then who doesn't master-bate when they watch porn? So you’re the guy who gets playboy for the “articles”
Dont fool yourself its all physical. Men, If your involved with Pornography that is Adultery. Wives, dont you dare buy into the lie that its going to help your sex life, ultimately it will sideline your sex life...
So Paul says there is sexual immorality among you that Pagans dont even tolerate…A man has his father’s wife...
The Romans called this incest and just about 10 years before the time of Paul’s writing this there was a Roman emperor named Caligula who was trying to make an Heir to the throne with his sisters...
It was a major scandal because Incest was highly looked down upon...
The Romans hated this
And there was a man in the church of Corinth who was sleeping with his father’s wife.
I think what Paul wants to know is church how are you going to reach this culture for Jesus if your community looks disgusting to the Romans!
What you have to understand is that in this world of high mortality, when a man would get re-married he would often marry a young woman so he can have more children.
Unfortunately for the ladies at this time, they didn’t always have a say in this arrangements...
And look at verse two!
Paul says....AND YOU ARE PROUD? shouldn't you have gone into mourning? and put this man out of your fellowship?
Church you have the wrong reaction to sin
So Paul Says…Hey I am not even there but since I planted this church I am there with you in Spirit...
Cast this man out to Satan…So that he might be saved...
This is a phrase that is not used much in the Bible and I want to help us understand what it means:
What we have to understand is that in Paul’s world view, the land of Israel is holy ground, it is where YAHWEH chooses to dwell
Now in Jesus, there is a new dwelling place for God and that is in the church…He said it in chapter 3
So the pagan world…everything outside the holy ground of the church...belongs to Satan...
So Paul is saying…Listen…If you have people who won’t repent of sin…That sin is going to infect everyone…Cast this person out of the church so that they will realize that they are missing the community of God and come back and repent of their sin
But its actually for their salvation…That he might see this life outside the church and want to be saved
Ok now lets look at
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Ok Go back to Thread ONE...
Paul is saying..>Remember at Passover we get rid of all the yeast and we move forward with our lives!
Don’t you know that Jesus is our passover lamb...
Once you find Jesus and are redeemed in him, dont go back to the old yeast!
The whole point of the exodus was to leave the yeast in Israel!
This is common…Have you had freedom from some sort of sin or behavior then let it back in?
Dont let it back in!
And you have to see what happens next…Because it is something that I think we at times get very backwards:
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
Look at what Paul is doing...
And guys this is really easy for a church to slip into..
Its really easy for a pastor to slip into...
To pointing out there and saying…see the problem is with all of them…The problem is this world the evil is coming from this group or that group
And Paul says Hey! Don’t judge the world, they dont live by the same set of standards that you live by!
They dont have their faith and confidence in Jesus
If anything, Have compassion on them because they are missing life with God
Go after them and tell them about Jesus!
But you have to handle the sin that is in the church
Because the church is supposed to be a witness to the world
The church is God’s community to reach a broken world
We need to show radically different lives so hold the church accountable to the scriptures!
Paul doesn’t call us to judge the world, but to accountability within the church.
Paul doesn’t call us to judge the world, but to accountability within the church.
Response:
Maybe your here today and one of these 4 threads is you
I want to hold us accountable today:
Thread One: The passover was about removing all sin and leaving it in behind in Egypt
Thread One: The passover was about removing all sin and leaving it in behind in Egypt
Maybe your here and your response is that there is sin that is like yeast that is working its way into your life...
You know its time to remove it
You know its holding you back from a deeper walk with Jesus
You know its harming your relationships...
Come to the alter leave it here
Thread two: You must purge the evil from among you
Thread two: You must purge the evil from among you
You know what this means
Maybe your here today and there is evil in your life and you just need to throw it away…make a declaration between you and God right now that that will no longer rule you
This time is for you
Thread Three: Sexual immorality is sinful and damaging to the marriage relationship
Thread Three: Sexual immorality is sinful and damaging to the marriage relationship
Maybe your here and there is Pornea in your life…This can be devastating and damaging
Paul will continue to deal with sexual sin in this letter and he wants the church to be free from it
If your tangled up in it…I know it seems so deep…Confess it…It will be painful but its the only route to healing
Thread Four: There is both an individual and corporate responsibility for sin in the church
Thread Four: There is both an individual and corporate responsibility for sin in the church
The totality of this chapter is that sin devastates
And Paul is not looking at the broader culture in corinth and saying…Look its all the prostitutes
Look its the pagan worship
He is saying CHURCH
YOU ARE THE SET APART ONES!
YOU ARE THE ONES CALLED TO BE HOLY!
YOU ARE THE ONES WHO ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
LIVE LIKE IT!
Pray
Song
Communion