Purity-4-Life 2013

In a depraved and wicked generation, people don’t like being told what to do. In fact, people don’t ever like to be told what to do, which is why so many of the prophets had tragic experiences with the children of Israel. The same is true of our current generation. People don’t like you to tell them how to act, what to say, and most certainly to stay away from something pleasurable. So, the question remains: what do we do about sex?

Last night, in youth group, the response to my question on how today’s teens view sex was, “They think it’s the greatest thing ever.” While still being a 30-year-old virgin, I’m not inclined to disagree. From what I hear, it is amazing. And, the general consensus is that it’s amazing. Some people would even go so far as to rate the importance of sex over the second coming of Jesus – as if anything could replace the importance of His return.

One thing, however, that we don’t often consider is God’s original plan for the marriage relationship. When we are continually exposed to thousands of sexual references a month, bombarded by people who say that it’s fun, and desensitized to the call of Christ, we forget that there is a bigger plan for our lives than the momentary pleasure of sex. We forget about our future spouse and we forget that God intends – truly intends – for us to have an amazing relationship with our spouse. We forget, because we are distracted by the pleasure set before us.

A Chinese proverb talks about sin very succinctly: “He who would not enter the room of sin must not sit at the door of temptation.” We have been standing at the door of temptation, saying, “I’m not sinning,” but still not recognizing how close to sin we are and thinking that it’s alright to toe the line. Instead of coming as close to sex as we possibly can without “crossing the line,” we should be looking at how we can live our lives to fully honor and glorify God.

See, we are so distracted by trying to get away with things that we have been blinded by the fact that Satan is keeping us from glorifying God. Satan doesn’t need to make us sin sexually, because the temptation alone has taken our eyes off of God. Instead of looking to see how much you can get away with, why not start thinking about how your life can more appropriately reflect the image of Jesus Christ.

When you change your perspective on sex and start to put it back into the context of marriage where it belongs, you stop paying attention to the distractions that Satan is putting before you. We’re getting ready to have our 3rd Annual Purity for Life Conference and the foundational understanding has to be that of a biblical perspective. Rather than continually arguing about what is and what is not appropriate, we should start considering what does or does not please our Savior.