Fight Sexual Sin with Thanksgiving

Lift up a shout of praise to Jesus Christ. He is worthy. Amen. go ahead and have a seat and grab your Bibles. Welcome to Gospel City Church once again. And let’s open our Bibles this morning to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. What a pleasure it is to lift high the name of Jesus with God’s people. Thanks for being here with enthusiasm today.

But I pray that last week you were just encouraged by the deep, deep love of God for you. We learned that we are called to be imitators of God, but God has not called us to something that He has not empowered us or enabled us to do. We said that we are God’s beloved children, adopted by a good and gracious Father. Amen. and that’s where our hope is found.

And then we saw the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, that He laid down His life for His friends. It was a fragrant offering to the Lord. Last week we said that imitation is the purest form of worship that redeemed sinners can give to a perfect Father as we follow Christ and as we learn to walk in love as He has commanded us to do.

So today’s text is going to challenge us with the opposite of what it looks like to walk in love. The title of today’s message is “Fight Sexual Sin With Thanksgiving.” And as we press into our text today I believe that all of the behaviors that Paul is bringing to our attention can be traced to a worship disorder in our lives. If imitating God is pure worship, then our giving into sexual immorality in the world is impure idolatry. It is misplaced worship.

And any misplaced worship in the life of a believer, in the life of anyone, it ties back to a root of thankfulness. It’s a thankfulness issue. When we are not thankful for what we have or for who we are or for what God has done for us, we take that which does not belong to us and we aim to gratify the lusts of our flesh and the pride of our life. Thankfulness to God can protect you from all kinds of evil, especially sexual immorality.

So the big idea that I want to give you today is this. Failing to be thankful is often a root to all kinds of sexual immorality. Failing to be thankful is often a root to all kinds of sexual immorality. I want you to get your eyes on a copy of God’s Word this morning, and we’re going to allow His Word to speak to us as we look at Ephesians chapter 5 verses 3 through 6.

For context I’ll read the first two verses so that we get started. Let’s honor God’s Word right now together here. Hear the Word of the Lord.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. (Ephesians 5:1-6)
And now before we dive into our text this morning, I want you to imagine a scenario with me, ok? It’s a cool, crisp night on the Appalachian Trail. And you’ve been hiking all day with a friend or with a spouse or with a family member, and it’s time to set up camp for the evening. And so you stop and you find a good space in the middle of the woods.
And you gather some rocks and you build a firepit and you load that firepit up with some wood and you set it ablaze. You cook dinner over it, and dinner passes and the sun goes down. And there you are in the middle of the woods under the stars sitting next to your fire, and it’s a beautiful thing, right? There are few things that I love more than sitting by a bonfire. I love the smell. I love the sound. I love sitting under the stars in the cool, crisp air. I love where my thoughts go whenever I’m sitting by a fire.
Let’s just pretend that a few hours go by and it’s time for you to turn in for the night. And you don’t bother throwing water on the flames because you’re by yourself and it’s wearing down. And so you jump in your hammock and you fall fast asleep. And as you’re sleeping, some wood in the fireplace pops and a red hot ember bursts out of the firepit and onto the leafy, dry around and begins to catch the ground on fire. As you’re sleeping, the fire begins to spread.
And after some time, you wake up in a panic to the destruction that is all around you as the leaves burn and as the trees go up in flames. And you jump out of your hammock, you run out of the forest only to stand by in horror as the flames begin to set the forest on fire.
What happened? The fire, which is a fun and beautiful and useful tool, got outside of the boundaries of where it was meant to be. A fire inside of a fire pit is a beautiful thing. But a fire outside of the pit is out of place and leads to all kinds of destruction. And the same is true with sex. Contrary to popular belief, sex is not everything. Sex is not for you. Sex belongs to God. sex was God’s idea. And biblical sex brings God great glory.
What do I mean by biblical sex? Sex is a beautiful gift given by God, meant for the intimacy of marriage between one man and one woman for a lifetime. Sex is not entitled, rather it is sacrificial. Meaning it’s not about what you can get, but it’s about what you can give within the boundaries of intimacy in marriage.
Ultimately sex is about intimacy with God because within God’s divinely designed boundaries of the marriage covenant, sex is a wonderful thing. And sex is worship to God, not yourself. So while the world says glorify sex and while the world and your friends around you say, “Seek sex,” what does the Bible say? Seek first the kingdom of heaven. Ultimately we are called to seek Jesus with our whole heart and mind and strength.
And any sex outside of its God-designed, God-given boundaries is destructive as a fire outside of a fire pit. It may start seemingly manageable or subtle or small, but its destruction only grows. And its destruction is ultimately a clouding of your mind from exalting Christ over your feelings, over your pleasure, over your desires. And God’s Word says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
So I have two points for you today that I want to look at from Ephesians chapter 5. The first is this: there is no room for sexual immorality among those who walk in love, because it is idolatry. There is no room- not a little bit of wiggle room, not a little bit of justification, no room- for sexual immorality among those who walk in love because it is idolatry.
Now verse 2 of chapter 5 that we looked at last week told us to walk in love as Chrsit loved us and gave Himself up for us. Isn’t it interesting that in our culture today the world’s idea of love is often tied to sex? This is of course not what Jesus is talking about. The world’s view of love is based on feeling; it’s based on desire. It’s based on you getting what you want. And this is not love at all.
In fact, it’s the opposite of walking in love that we looked at last week.
Jesus laid down His life, His preferences, His desires, and Chrsitians are called to die to themselves and the passions of their flesh that they might imitate God on the earth. So after calling Christians to imitate God and to walk in love, Paul goes to the extreme opposite behaviors in Ephesians chapter 5. Look at verse 3.
He says, But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Now as we study our Bibles this morning, I want you to understand the color that is behind these words that Paul is using in the Greek. I don’t feel the need to bring all of society’s brokenness into the pulpit this morning. The Bible is plenty clear. But the words that Paul uses under the inspiration of the Spirit of God are plenty clear to convict each of us with our dealings with sexual immorality this side of heaven.

So the first word as he begins his list is “sexual immorality.” In the Greek it is porne. This is a broad word that covers many different types of sexual immorality such as prostitution, fornication, unchastity, incest, sexual urges outside of marriage, homosexuality. It’s obviously where we get the word “pornography” from. If you pair the word grapho in the Greek with the word porne, you get the word “pornography,” which speaks of sexual immorality through the form of media.

So just for your knowledge, I know that you know this is a rampant problem in our culture today. But Barna Research says this: young adults surveyed in 2016 ranked not recycling as more immoral than viewing porn. 80% of adults said they do not even feel guilty after viewing porn. 66% of professing Christians said they do not feel guilt either. And only 9% of adults surveyed say they have even ever tried to stop viewing porn.

Those are sobering. Statistics won’t change you. That’s why we’re here seeking Jesus today. But beyond pornography, porne involves anything outside of the boundaries of intimacy in marriage. So research tells us this, that 83% of Americans say that casual sex non-married and consenting adults is sometimes or always acceptable. And 56% of people who identify as Christains agree. The Center for Anxiety Disorders in 2014 said that 41% of marriages reported that at least one of the spouses had admitted to infidelity and the number grew tremendously from about seven years prior. And I would say it continues to grow in our culture today.

Sexual immorality is a mountain of sin in our culture today. It was for Paul in Ephesus and in Corinth and in so many of the cities that he was taking the gospel to. But if sexual immorality, if porne, was not enough, Paul moves on to say, “But sexual immorality and all impurity.” If porne asn’t clear enough, Paul casts an even wider net with all impurity. Anything outside of God’s design and desire for sex and sensuality. It’s unclean. It’s not worthy.

And then he moves even further. He says, “covetousness.” In the Hebrew it means an ungoverned and selfish desire that threatens the basic rights of others. Sometimes you see the word “covetousness” in this big list and you think, “That seems out of place. I don’t struggle with that.”

But take it back to the root. In Exodus 20:17 the tenth commandment says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house and you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.” And in Matthew 5:28 Jesus adds, “Everyone who looks at a woman with a lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

So the word translated “covetousness” can also be translated “greediness.” And in the context of this, it is the opposite of love. Any type of sexual immorality is not love. It is the opposite of love. It is greedy and it is selfish and it is taking that which does not belong to us.

Paul continues. And he’s not just referring to all sexual immorality and every kind of impurity that is physically committed. He is even talking about sexual immorality in the heart and in the thoughts. But notice how he closes verse 3. He says, “these things (sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness) must not even be named among you, as is proper among the saints.”

Sadly, I think the mentality that I think so many people have when it comes to sex is, “How far is too far?” Right? This is not as bad as that. No one will find out. How close can I get to the line before I sin? I’ve only viewed porn two times this month. I’ve heard these types of arguments. I’ve felt some of these rationalizations in my own life. And yet Paul is crystal clear that there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality or impurity or covetousness among those who are called to walk in love and imitate God on the earth.

Sex outside its boundaries, any unclean, impure sensuality, even a greedy, lustful heart must not be named among you. No room for it. No justification for it. No shifting culture that allows it. Those who imitate God only make room for what glorifies God.

Now I believe that Paul casts the net even further as you jump into verse. Let’s read it. Verse 4 he says, Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place.

Paul’s lists are no joke. The Bible absolutely cares about how you live and about how you act and what your lifestyle looks like on the earth. We often view Paul’s sin list in Scripture as moving from worst to better or from bigger problems to lesser problems. But the reality is Paul’s lists almost run backwards, showing the spread and destruction of idolatry and sin in our lives.

You may feel safer or more justified with your crude joking or your foolish talk, but what does Paul say about these things? They’re out of place. Paul treats it like a red hot ember outside of the fire pit. So the locker room talk, the sitcoms that casually glorify perversion, the romance novels and the risque social media accounts, they may seem small or ok but they often sear the conscience, harden the heart and lead to all kinds of impurity and sexual immorality. And for the believer who is called to imitate God, it’s all out of place, must not even be named among you.

Now we’ll come back to verse 4 in point number two, but I want you to see why there is no room for these kinds of things in the lives of God imitators. Look at verses 5 and 6, ok? Ephesians 5:5-6. It says this. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Paul sums up the sexually immoral, the impure, the covetous, as idolaters. People who live and operate in a continual pattern of sexual promiscuity have constructed idols in their heart. Jesus is not on the throne of their hearts, but ultimately themselves, their passions, and their need for sexual fulfillment.

Paul got really clear with this in 2 Corinthians 6:18-20. It’s on the screen. Look at this. It says, Flee from sexual immorality. That means run the opposite direction. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. So he’s showing us that sexual immorality is different than all of the other types of sin. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Now I want you to see. Just take verses 5 and 6 for their word, for what they say. What’s it say? There is no inheritance in the heavenly places for the sexually immoral, the implore and the covetous. It’s a serious statement. Verse 6. The wrath of God comes upon who? The sons of disobedience.

Now this is familiar language to us by the grace of God in the book of Ephesians. I want you to see Ephesians chapter 2 where we’ve seen this phrase “the sons of disobedience.” Look at it on the screen. Ephesians 2:1-4 said, And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— (there it is) among whom we all once lived (all of us, the believers who have been changed). It goes on, We all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Say it with me. “But God.”

Aren’t you thankful for that this morning? While there is very hard and very bad news in chapter 5 verses 5 and 6, there is actually good news if you’ll think deeply and if you’ll think with a gospel lens. And if you’re thinking of anybody else right now as I’m preaching his message, I want to encourage you to turn your finger back on yourself for a moment. You are a sexually broken individual, but God. I am a sexually broken male, but God. You may be stuck in sexual sin even here today, but God.

God, who is rich in mercy, and because of the great love with which he loved us, changes everything about us! Because of the gospel, we once were dead but now we are alive. Because of the gospel, sons of disobedience become beloved, adopted children of God. Because of the gospel, idolaters surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ. But because of the gospel and because the old has gone and the new has come and you are a new creation, in Christ Jesus it is imperative that believers not walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds because saved people do not walk like dead people.

Redeemed people walk worthy of their calling from a holy and blameless God. and even a hint of sexual immorality is unworthy of your wealth if you are truly in CHrist. So does it mean that nobody who is truly a Christian struggles with sexual immorality? No. I want you to hear that this morning. If you are truly a blood-bought, redeemed Christian, your battles with sin will not drag your soul to hell. Jesus is a far greater than you are a sinner.

But do you persist in your sin? Do you persist in it? If yes, the Bible gives reason to question whether or not you are in Christ or whether or not you’ve truly surrendered to the lordship of Christ. One commentator, Hughes, says this. “Do Christians fall into these sins? Of course! But true Christians will not persist in them, for persistence in sensuality is a graceless state.”

So there are many fighting hard to win this battle even here today, to get victory over sexual sin. And my encouragement to you is to keep fighting. Christ will help you. And through His sacrifice on the cross you have been forgiven. You can be forgiven. But there are many who live with hidden sexual sin because you’ve sinned against your own body. It is embarrassing. It is hard to bring it into the light. It is hard to tell people about the things you’ve done or the things you know you shouldn’t have done or the things you’ve done behind closed doors.

There are many who confess Christ with their mouth but their lives are full of continual secret and sometimes outright sexual immorality. And this is contrary to God’s Word. This is blatant idolatry. This is an affront on the holiness of God, and God’s wrath is set against it. So bring your sin into the light and repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Are you convinced from God’s Word this morning that there is no room for sexual immorality among those who walk in love? You’re convinced? Now there is always hope because of Jesus Chrsit, and I want to take you to point number two this morning, and it’s this: thankfulness is the weapon for waging war against sexual immorality and sins like it. Thankfulness is the weapon for waging war against sexual immorality and sins like it.

I want you to go back to verse 4. We skipped over a phrase that Paul has fit into this very convincing and challenging passage. Verse 4 he says, Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

Some of you are in sexual sin even here today because you have slowly constructed idols of the heart that overshadow the beauty of Jesus Chrit in your life. To some degree as we read God’s Word today, all of us should be called into account. All of us can probably identify hints of sexual immorality in our lives because apart from Jesus CHrist, our hearts are idol factories. We are prone to wander. We are prone to leave the God we love. All of us have constructed idols through our sinful tendencies and our sinful patterns.

But the only way to tear those idols down is to put thankfulness back in its rightful place.

SPLIT HERE

And Paul, he continues to follow his pattern of put off a behavior and put on a behavior, all attached to a theological reason. Remember we talked about that in Ephesians chapter 4.

So Paul is telling believers to put off sexual sin and immorality. He’s telling us to put on thanksgiving. I love how he says, “But instead, let there be thanksgiving.” He gives us a list, sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthy talk, crude joking. Instead of those things, let there be thanksgiving. Put those off. Put on thanksgiving. And the theological reason is verses 5 and 6. God’s wrath is against the sexually immoral, and they will be judged and sent away from the kingdom of Christ and God.

So the question you should be asking right now, you’re probably thinking, “How is thanksgiving, how will thankfulness help me overcome sexual sin?” I want to zoom on the word “thanksgiving” for a moment. In the Hebrew it’s the word toda, great word. In the Greek it’s eucharistia. THat was an awesome accent I just did. “The act of offering thanks or being thankful, usually to God.” It’s often connected to provision, to deliverance, or to God’s character.

So think about that. If you are singing a song of thanksgiving, if you are praising God, if you are worshiping God, if you are thankful to God for His provision, don’t you think that God can provide all that you need? Don’t you think that God can provide a way of escape? Don’t you think that God has you right where He needs you to be in this life? And if you’re thankful that He is the provider, you won’t have to go and take that which is not yours.

If you’re thankful that God is the deliverer, don’t you think that God can deliver you from temptation and sin? Don’t you believe that God is powerful enough to bring deliverance in your battle with sexual immorality? And so if you’re thankful for His power and HIs deliverance, you won’t have to give in to the temptation of sexual immorality.

What if you’re thankful for God’s character? We talked about it last week. His love, His mercy, His judgment, His forgiveness, His love, His perfection, His holiness. If you are thanking God regularly for His character, you will try to imitate it, not run from it and take that which is not yours. Thankfulness that wages war against sexual sin is a continual position recognizing the Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want.

Therefore, I don’t have to give in to my sexual desires. I don’t have to gratify the lusts of my flesh. I don’t have to have that which the world glorifies or the way the world glorifies it because my God shall supply all of my needs according to His riches in glory.

So what can each one of us do today? This might be helpful to you on the screen. What is Ephesians 5:3-6 commanding us to do today? Number one, identify sexual sin and behaviors that lead to it. And number two, replace them with thankfulness to God.

And you might be thinking, “I thought you were a good pastor. That’s not helpful at all. That sounds way too simple.” But God’s Word is pretty straightforward and God’s Word is pretty simple. We tend to mess it up regularly, don’t we? Identify sexual sin and behaviors that lead to it and replace them with thankfulness to God.

I want to show you a few things from Scripture. Thankfulness is often a weapon of warfare for God’s people. In 2 Chronicles 20, Jehosophat stood before the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem and they were under attack from the Moabites and the Ammonites. He didn’t know what to do; he’s nervous. They’re bigger; they’re stronger. He bows his head to pray. In verse 15 of Chronicles 20, it says, Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s.

Verse 17. You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf.

Verse 20. Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.”

And then in verse 21 the battle is about to start and the singers…why the singers? They went to the front of the army. What did they sing? Lord, deliver us from this battle. Lord, crush the enemy. No, they sang, “Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (2 Chronicles 20:15, 17, 20-21)

The battle cry of Judah and Jerusalem heading into the battle was, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His steadfast love endures forever.” did they have to fight? No. God fought that battle. But what did they have to do? They had to believe, they had to stand firm; they had to bow their heads and worship the Lord. And God cna do the same thing for you in your battle with sexual sin. He’ll fight for you all day long. You just have to look to Him. you have to trust in HIm. you have to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. And you have to give thanks to the God of glory.

Where there is a lack of toda, sexual sin will always creep in. where there is a lack of thanksgiving for God’s provision or His deliverance and for His character, sexual sin will creep in. I want you to see that this is also in Romans chapter 1, which is a chapter that sort of spirals on sexual sin in the world. Romans 1:21 says this: For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Verse 24 says, Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.

So there’s absolutely a connection between a lack of gratitude toward God and sexual sin against God. failing to give thanks to God is part of what leads to giving yourself over to the impurity and the lusts of your flesh. And so Ephesians chapter 5 says identify sexual sin and behaviors like them and replace them with thankfulness to God.

I want to be as helpful as I can to everyone in the room today because it’s convicting, it’s challenging, and I would venture to say the statistics that we see, many of you struggle with this battle of sexual immorality in your life. All of us are faced with it every day. So I want to close with five ways to kill lust with thankfulness. Five ways to kill lust with thankfulness.

How can thankfulness, how can thanksgiving replace the sexual brokenness, the sexual sin that I am facing? Let me give you five ways. Let’s sit in these for a few moments, ok? Number one is this. Thank God for punishing Jesus in your place. Thank God for punishing Jesus in your place.

1 Peter 2:24 says, He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

This is of course the power of the gospel that Jesus died on a cross in your place for your sins, for every sin, for every time that you’ve given in to sexual immorality, Jesus had to die so that He could not only pay the penalty but so that He could wash you clean forever.

And if you are regularly thanking Jesus for His brutal death on the cross in your place, it will be harder for you to give in to sexual sin. Realize that every time you partake in sexual immorality, it’s like nailing Jesus to your own cross. That’ll make you think. That’ll make you stop. That’ll make you flee when temptation comes knocking at your door, and it’ll always come knocking at your door.

The second way to kill lust with thankfulness, thank God for His intricate involvement in your life. Thank God for His intricate involvement in your life. God is good and He is intricately and intimately involved in the deepest facets and questions of your life even here this morning.

Psalm 139:3 says, You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.

It’s beautiful that God is acquainted with all of your ways, but it’s even more beautiful that He’s already searched out all of your paths. He’s gone so far down the road before you, and He can see what you can’t see. And He might be protecting you. He might be saving you from something that you can’t see on your own. And so thank God that He is intricately involved.

You know, I’m not very good at math. I’ve never been. I’m not very good at equations. But there’s this equation in Scripture that I get wrong all the time. In 1 Timothy 6:6 it says, But godliness plus contentment equals great gain.

And you know what I tend to do with that equation? I tend to say, “Godliness plus great gain will equal my contentment.” The antidote is that great gain comes through contentment and contentment is rooted in thanksgiving. So would you thank God for your circumstances? Would you thank God that He’s big enough and sovereign enough to get you where you need to be? Would you thank God for protecting you from what you can’t see? Would you thank God for forming you into HIs likeness through your current trials and reality? He is working in your waiting.

So Psalm 37. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. (Psalm 37:3)

The third thing I want you to thank God for as you’re in this battle over sexual sin, thank God for His purposeful design in sexuality in marriage. Thank God for His purposeful design in sexuality in marriage. Scripture is very clear. God created male and female, and God’s command to male and female in GEnesis chapter 1 was be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth.

God’s clear biblical design for being fruitful and multiplying is a holy covenant known as marriage. And in marriage a man is called in Genesis chapter 2 to leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife. And the two shall become one flesh. And that happens through sex. And that sex is within the boundaries of intimacy in marriage. And that kind of sex brings honor and glory to the God who designed and created it all. It is pretty simple.

And yet when my desires get in the way and when the darkness of this world get in the way and when I stop thanking God for His purposeful design, you can see how it becomes as destructive as a forest fire. Anything other than this is a misrepresentation of what God designed sex to be. So Christian, glorify God in your body.

And get this. If you’ll thank God for His purposeful design in sexuality and marriage, then you will seek to understand it. And in your understanding of it, you will see God’s deep, deep love for us, whatever sexual brokenness we bring to the table. But we’ve gotten so far from the center of this in our society because not only have we failed to thank God for His purposeful design in sexuality in marriage; we have sought to become the designers. And it’s led to all sorts of skewed thinking, perversion, brokenness. And we will live with the results. But God, who is rich in mercy, can help us.

Now number four is this. Thank God for your spouse every day. Obviously I am talking to those who are married, and there are some of you here who are waiting patiently for a spouse. And you would say, “I wish I had a spouse to thank God for.” And I want to point you back to number two. Thank God for His intricate involvement in your life. You can trust Him. he is so good. He is so patient. He is so loving. He has got you. He’s walking with you. And single people, you want strong marriages in the church. You want strong marriages in the world. And so pray for the marriages that are around you.

But those that are married, thank God for your spouse every day. Begin to thank God every day for the spouse that you entered into a holy covenant with. God is able to restore the brokenness that sexual sin has caused in your marriage. God is able to restore your lost affection and attraction to the only one your eyes are meant for. God is able to stoke intimacy that leads to sex in your marriage so that it glorifies God again and not yourself. And all of this is to be had through daily thankfulness for the one that you married.

So every morning husbands, wives, it’s an opportunity men, to drop to your knees, to give glory to God, to ask God to fill your life and your day, but to thank God for the spouse that He has given you. And through thankfulness God can re-stoke the love that was once there in your marriage. We all need this.

And number five, five ways to kill lust with thankfulness, thank God for His church that can restore sexual brokenness. Thank God for His church that can restore sexual brokenness. I want you to hear this today that you are not abnormal if you are struggling with sexual sin. And hear this. You are so much more than the sexually broken act that you’ve committed or that has maybe been forced upon you at some point in your life.

You are not outside of the reach of God’s saving grace and healing hand, but you will continue to fail if you walk alone. You’ll continue to fail if you fight this battle on your own, if you fight this battle in the darkness, if you fight this battle in isolation. So God has given you a family. God has joined you to a Body. and this family and in this family we become known. We get intentionally intrusive in one another’s lives. We confess sin to one another, knowing that God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we as falsehood is removed from our midst, we build one another up in love as imitators of God.

2 Timothy 2:22 says this. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. You’ve got to pursue righteousness. You’ve got to flee youthful lusts and passions. But what did it say? You do it along with those that call on the Lord from a pure heart.

The church is a place to bring sin into the light. You won’t be condemned. You won’t be judged. The people here, the pastors here, the elders here, the members here, want to love you in your sexual brokenness. They want to put their arms around you and show you Jesus, because Jesus can change everything. Jesus can help you today. So come to Him. run to Him. replace your idols with Jesus Christ as Lord.

I want you to stand to your feet and we’re going to respond together. Don’t rush past the moment. Don’t rush past what the Spirit might be doing. If you would, maybe open your hands to the Lord for a moment. And as you’re thinking of the things that you know you need to remove, and as you’re thinking of the things that you know you need to give thanks for today, would you sing that simple bridge as a prayer?

In everything with everything for everything, thank you Jesus. Everything with everything for everything, thank you Jesus. His character, His love, His deliverance, His provision is so much greater than your sin. So call upon Him. thank Him for His steadfast love, for His grace, for His mercy. Everything with everything for everything, thank you Jesus.

Father God, we come and we call upon your holy name. And Spirit, we need Your help here in this place even now. And so Lord, as You’re moving and You’re convicting and as You’re dragging sin into the light, Lord, we don’t want to hold onto it, we want to behead the idols. We want to crush the idols, for they are worthless. But You are holy. You are just. You are good. You are Savior.

And so Lord, we replace our idolatry. Forgive us for our idolatry this morning. And God, as we fight in this battle of sexual sin, by the power of your Spirit would You help us to overcome? And as we replace the broken things of this world that we so often try to grab onto, would You help us to replace it with the name of Jesus? Lord, we give You glory. We give You honor. We respond knowing that You can tear down every stronghold. So we speak the name of Jesus in this place. Amen.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.