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It was Shark Week and I was watching one of the programs. I'm not sure the title exactly, but on the screen were these giant 14 foot long great whites just going past. And there was close ups of their body. And you could see that while from a distance they looked just impeccable. As you got closer, you saw on some of the sharks the pockmarks all across their bodies. I mean, just rabbits, just holes. It looked almost like the surface of the moon. And the narrator said, commenting on these sharks, we know these are females. We know these are females that are sexually mature. And I thought to myself, how do you know that every great white shark I've ever seen looks exactly the same? How do you know that? Right? And as though the narrator could read my mind, he responded by saying, the presence of scars tells us that they are females. Only the females have these scars. And then he said these three words. Scars mean sex, Scars mean sex. He said, the males have to hold on somehow. And consequently female sexually mature sharks have scarring all across their sides, their dorsal fins and even their gills. I hit pause on the show, no longer interested in Shark Week because I needed to grab a piece of paper to write down three words that hit me like a thunderbolt. Scars mean sex. My mind began racing through different people in my life who I know have scarred tissue. Some healed and healthy, others infected and ugly. And person after person that went through my mind. Sex was a common denominator. Scars mean sex. There was the marriage that was blown up when an affair came to light. Scar the person who was sexting and it was discovered, not confessed. Scar the car crash that exposed the unfaithfulness because the visit was after leaving a prostitute. Scar the friend of mine who was given HIV by a girlfriend who knew she had it but was scared to die alone, so wanted to pass it on to someone who could suffer with her. Scar. The naked pictures that were spread across school turning a teen's life to hell. Scarce the child molested by a family friend. Scar. The family that was shattered when the father's infidelity and sexual addiction was revealed. Scar and the young girl assaulted sexually in a parking lot by a stranger. Scar. Friends, where there's smoke, there's fire. And often the presence in our world of deep emotional scars traces back to sex on some level. Road rash from a sexual crash. Missing flesh where there was the presence of a sexual appetite. In the Bible, Samson the judge is living proof of how this can happen. He let lust sink its teeth into him like a shark. He had selfish, hungry appetite for what he could get with no regard for God's reputation and ended up living in the passion of lust, like the heathen who don't even know God. And for one night with Delilah, it cost him his eyes and his hair, which was the symbol of his power. We come this week in our series Killing youg Softly to what Billy Graham called America's greatest sin, the sin of lust. The title of my message, Drop dead Sexy. Drop dead sexy. You see, sexual temptation is always enticing at first, pleasurable in the middle, but destructive before too long. Lust has been defined as the idolatry of sexual pleasure. It's where our craving for sex becomes deformed by selfishness that makes it self destructive. So again, lust is the idolatry of sexual pleasure. It's not loving sex, it's loving sex too much, turning a created thing into an ultimate thing. And that always deforms both the experience and yourself. We need to have our eyes opened to the monster that we will become if we don't take this sin seriously. And to guide our time, let's turn in our copy of the Scriptures, if you have one, to First Corinthians, chapter six. This is a powerful, perhaps one of the most powerful guides on how to live with our eyes on God in a world that's doing everything. But what God says is how we should approach this gift of sexuality. Now, last week we talked, if you weren't with us, about gluttony. Got a lot of complaints about that one. But way I reckon it, if you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that yelps the most is likely the one that got hit. So we just take that in stride. But it's a perfect turn from gluttony to lust. Because really, in our world, are not those two categories blurred? Is there even a distinction between sex and. And appetite eating anymore? I mean, when you watch a Super bowl commercial about food, why is it like a girl in lingerie selling the hamburger? You know, same thing, like eating. And so really there's sort of a normalizing as what you crave sexually, as what? Just another appetite, Just another appetite. And we think that's new. Like, oh, we're liberated. We have a whole different way of looking at stuff. Listen to what Paul says to the church at Corinth. Now this, by the way, comes right after he says, look, I can do a lot of things, but they wouldn't be helpful for me. So even things I can do, I'm not gonna do always because I don't Wanna be brought under anything's power. That's kinda how we look at fasting. I could eat, but I'm choosing to just try and pull things away for a while so I can find out what makes me cranky, what makes me freak out. And then it's surfacing. What has more control over. I can stop at any point I want. So prove it. Do it for a little bit. And then you find out, like, wow, that's shockingly hard. Right? That's what Paul was saying. But then he. For the first. And we could do a whole series on this. For the first of four times he quotes popular Corinthian slogans. Okay. It's awesome how he does this. He takes what he knew were, like, the big statements in Corinth, and he brings them up to examine them. Okay. Notice what, when we think about, oh, sex is just another bodily appetite. It's totally normal. You just gotta give in whatever you feel do. Which is the message of our culture. Right? Whatever you feel do. And then he says this. He says, foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods. Now pause right there. Your attention, please. This was like the creed of the Corinthians when it came to indulging every sexual appetites. Why you should probably know this. Just a little historical context before we finish our passage. Corinth was the sexual capital of the ancient world. So think like Las Vegas added to, like, New Orleans during Mardi Gras, plus Rio during Carnival. Right. Like, all mixed together. It was absolutely rampant. The city was known to flaunt the fact that it had a thousand prostitutes, which was a big deal, and the temple to the goddess Aphrodite. So they literally worshiped sex. And it got so bad in Corinth, which was all. It was also like this bustling trade route. So kind of think like a New York City. It was this money coming and going. No one was from there, but everybody wanted to be there at some point, right? And so you would go there knowing you're gonna make some money, you're gonna do some deals, and you're gonna probably get laid as well. It got to the point that to say to Corinthianize was slaying all around the Roman Empire for sleeping around to where we would say, like, oh, he's a player. Or we'd say, oh, she sleeps around. They would just say, what are you from Corinth? Like, that was their way of describing that kind of a lifestyle. And whenever they were just kind of leering about it coming back from a visit to a Prostitute or going to an orgy, which would just happen at a dinner party. And they would just say, hey, look, food's for the stomach, stomach for the foods, right? They would just say it is what it is you get. They would say when you're hungry, you eat. And when you're horny, you hook up. What's your big deal? Prudish Christians. And imagine getting saved in that context and then trying to grapple with the biblical ethic on human sexuality. And so Paul takes their statement, food for the stomach, food. And then he, as Paul tends to do, tends to like complete it. Jesus did the same thing. You've heard it said. But I say, this is how it was. I bring a new truth to you. Here's, here's what you think. And guess what, you're wrong. So Paul said, food for the stomach. Oh yeah, I know your hot, you know, motto. And then he continues it. Look at it. This is true though. Someday God will do away with both of them. But you can't say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord. And the Lord cares about our bodies. And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead. Don't you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never. And don't you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the scriptures say, and this is the passage of primary reference on human sexuality comes from Genesis chapter two. The two are united into one. But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit, with him run from sexual sin. No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. I spoke to a friend who was a pastor. He told me he had come from a hospital visit. We often as pastors are called into the dead, the dying, the sick. We're there for life's greatest moments often and life's most difficult moments. I asked him how it was and he said this was a 78 year old man, he was on hospice and he was literally on death's door. And when the pastor got there, the man had just a few moments of Lucid conversation. And the man wanted to use that time for confession, as people often do. In those last moments, you're not thinking, more money. In those moments, you're not thinking, I wish I could go get one more outfit. Right. You're thinking about, I'm about to stand before God and what regrets do I have with the people that I had in my life? And this man began weeping uncontrollably and then said these words, words that have stuck with me to this day. This was 20 years ago, this conversation. The man said, I'm 78 and I've loved Jesus almost my whole life. But I never got victory in my battle against pornography. Scar. My scar too. I was in sixth grade. Next door neighbor took me into his garage, said, look what I found. Opened an entire box of Playboy magazines, his dad's whole collection. And it was like biting into heroin. I mean, which I had never seen. And I didn't know my eyes were open to no good and evil. It's been 30 years, and if I let myself, I could probably still see pictures from that moment. They don't tell you it takes two minutes to look at porn, but Mom, 30 years, counting to forget what you saw. I think about how that started or sparked the fire of a decades, decade long addiction for me that even loving Jesus was hard to conquer. Even going to Bible college and feeling such shame because I knew there was a call in my life. Yet I still found myself once and then again and then again falling back into this snare. And that made it even worse. And the shame drove me even deeper into this sinful behavior. I stand before you now, grateful to say to you, God has given me victory and he can set you free too. I preached today not to shame you for your past, but to fight for your future. And I've been so grateful to watch what was sin in my life that I've been set free from and am daily being set free from, be used to help and point people to God's better plan for sex all around the world. And if lust is a problem for you today, I want to tell you what I've learned and what scripture has to say. I First thing I need you to know about sex is that it's not the problem. Jot it down, if you will, six takeaway truths today. The first is sex is actually not the problem. There's a thing. There's a thing under the thing, right? So when we think about our struggle with lust, we are tempted to think sex is bad. Sex is the enemy, right? And that's why we mistakenly do sex education with our kids. Wrong. By telling them sex is naughty, dirty, gross, so save it for your spouse. One day. Doesn't seem like a good gift. And yet sex was a gift. Sex is God given. God given. It's good because God is only good. God is only capable of doing good. God is only capable of inventing good. And God invented sex. So sex is good. Sexual desire then is not bad. It's how you were made. It was sin that spoiled that. Do you hear me? You have a God given sexuality and desire and sin spoiled it. So if we were doing math, you could even write it down in your notes. This way the equation would be sex plus sin equals lust. It's the sin that tarnishes the sex. It's not a problem to have a sex drive. It's not a problem to have a strong sex drive. Listen to me. It's a problem when you let sex drive. When you let your desires disordered by sin just do what they want and run roughshod. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is rampant in our world. Immorality is everywhere. As a child of the 80s, after that experience, knowing now this existed and wanting to get my hands on more of it, it was really challenging. We had to be so sneaky and connive ways to get our hands on physical magazines that were pornographic. Now it's difficult to avoid. In America today, 80% of teenagers 15 to 17 have had multiple exposures to hardcore pornography. And now it's not just images, it's. It's videos. They had a city with a thousand prostitutes. Well, we got a world with a billion pornographic websites. And it's not just, you know, flaunted, it's, it's reveled in, you know, people showing off their money they make on only fans, people posting, oh, this is my husband's reaction when we watched the Hunting Wives. And I can't believe that he, he was into it as, as he was. I mean, you have to realize the eyes are the window to the soul. So what we take, you know, it's not. I would never do it. I just watch it. It's a harmless. No, no, listen to me. What you take in, you're giving material to your imagination. And one theologian describes sin actually as an inflammation of the imagination. So what we begin to crave is this vision in our mind and what we feed into it, whether we feed in God's word or we feed in this world's garbage that's gonna paint the picture of our imagination and what we imagine is gonna bring us happiness. We begin fantasizing about craving, seeking out, prioritizing. And this will dehumanize us, and it will dehumanize others who are on the receiving end of this sinful, disordered sexuality. One author wisely pointed out, this is why strippers always have stage names like Candy or sparkle. Right? Because nobody wants to know. It's actually Susan, who's a single child at home waiting for her to get back from the shift. And her mom was an alcoholic, and she actually wants to be a dental hygienist because that would just sort of take the magic right out of it. Because we don't want a human being created in the image of God. We want just a piece of meat for our sexual gratification. Why? We've been dehumanized, and we are now dehumanizing another. What do you need to know? Sex is not the problem. It's good. God given, therefore needs to be God governed. And you need to know this. Lust never stays small. Once you get just a teeny little bit of it, it's always gonna say, thank you so much for giving me that teeny little bit. Now I'd like to grow, and now I'd like to grow. And you'd say, that's not the deal. And it goes, I don't care. I lied. Cause I'm a liar. Cause I'm from the devil, right? It doesn't play fair. But you promised. You said, just once more and then I'd be done. Oh, yeah, I remember saying that. Guess what? I don't care. And I hate you. And I want to murder you. And you're like, that's not nice. I'm calling my lawyer. And it's like, I hate your lawyer, too. You see what I'm saying? You can't logic with your sin. You can't reason with your sin. You can't make deals with your sin. You know the only thing you can do? Crucify the flesh with its passions that you may live. You gotta put to death the deeds of the body that you may live. Lust is like fire. Do you put it out by fueling it? No, it just gets bigger. Everything you give to your deformed, selfish sexual desire just makes it grow. So you think, I'll appease it. I'll appease it. I'll appease it. And if I give it just a little bit more, it'll be happy Tonight. I won't do it tomorrow. Tomorrow it's back with 10 of its ugly demonic friends. It Never says enough. It never says, we're good here. That's why Jesus connected lust to adultery. He said, you lust in your heart, that's the gateway drug. That's where you're moving. That's why it's a capital sin or a deadly sin. It's not just one bee. It's a whole beehive. Soon it's trying to grow in your life. It gets more intense. Pornography always gets more hardcore, often more violent and twisted. And here's the craziest part. As the darkness of the porn and the experience and whatever you're doing to now get fetishized and get off, as that grows, pleasure actually diminishes. You're getting less and less joy from more and more stimulation. Psychologists call this arousal addiction. You weren't actually addicted to the experience. It was the novelty at first. It was so new, so forbidden. So, oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. And. And that has to change for you to get the addiction to the stimulation of arousal. Contrast to that, every study conclusively shows that the greatest way to have escalating sexual pleasure is monogamy. Is consistent exposure to only one. It almost as though God's plan was better. You know what I'm saying? Like one man, one woman, one lifetime coming together, enjoying this gift. Go nuts. Right? You see what I'm saying? Like that? It's almost as though he knew how to get the best use out of something he invented. Imagine that. Not so with lust. One author, Naomi Wolf, pointed out that enough porn and soon real naked people just are bad porn. How can you be satisfied with one aging human body when you have so much more to compare them to that are not real? And that's why, indeed, you will see, the more the rampant immorality grows, actually the more actual sexual plummets. There's no need. I can just go into my VR room with my AI robot and, you know, you see what I'm saying? That's where the world's moving it to. And it well should. Because if we don't have God's plan, we don't even need another human, do we? And even if there's a human there, they're just a barrier to us dehumanizing them so we can get what we want. What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say our culture's obsession with sex actually ruins it. Tim Keller put it this way. God did not forbid immorality because sex is bad. He forbade immorality because sex is so good, and he wanted to protect It. He wanted to gatekeep something so awesome. Third thing, jot it down. Lust isn't loving. Oh, the slick PR and marketing campaign of lust is awesome. It just feels so good. Like an affair. Oh, my gosh. Doesn't an affair seem like such love when you're in the midst of it? Right? Like, I'm not talking from experience, but I'm talking about how I've talked to a lot of people with their heads not connected to their body anymore. This is true love. I fell out of love there, but I'm in love now. True love. God would want me to have this, right? You build this narrative. This is real love. There's never been a love like our love. Here's a news flash. Lust isn't even a first cousin to love, but it's an identical twin to hate. Can I show you in two places? Jot it down. Read them all on your own. I'll just Summarize them here. First, Genesis, chapter 39. The second would be 2 Samuel 13. Here's the deal. Potiphar's wife, Genesis 39. She has eyes for Joseph. You know the story. And she says, I want you. I want you. She grabs him one day, have sex with me. Have sex with me. And you know the story. What does Joseph do? You. He jumps out of his jacket and he flees the temptation like Corinthians. And Timothy says, we're out. We ought to. You know, the cool thing is the word flee in the Greek fugo. Because sometimes fu. You just gotta go. He had to get out of there. He had to go. He couldn't stand and reason with her. He knew he would have given in. He couldn't say, let's pray about this. You're my boss. Let's have prayer. It would have turned into praying in tongues, if you know what I'm saying. Like, he had to get out of there. So he jumped and he bolted and he ran, right? You know the story. So. So. So it's crazy, though, because back home in Israel, Joseph's dad, Jacob, thinks that Joseph's dead. Cause he got mauled by an animal. A wild animal. Truth is, he's in Egypt getting attacked by a cougar. It is what it is. So Potiphar's wife, lie with me. Lie with me. She. She would say, I love him. I love him. I love him. But is it love when he says, no one leaves? She says to Potiphar, he raped me. And you know what Potiphar's job is? Executioner of the household of Pharaoh. What did she think was going to happen when husband got home? Off with his head. Was it love? How did it turn to hate so quickly? How did it turn to murder so quickly? Lust and hate are identical twins. Lust and love. They're not even second cousins. Second text, second Samuel 13. The man name is Amnon. Amnon is obsessed with his half sister Tamar. Loves her. Everyone he talks to. I love her, I love her, I love her. This is crazy, too, because, by the way, he's following the footsteps of Daddy David, who treated Bathsheba the same way. Newsflash. What we don't treat, we will transmit. So he now is doing what dad did, giving into his every instinct, letting sexual drive drive in his life. And he rapes her, takes her by force and rapes her. And the Bible says the moment he climaxed, he hated her more than the love he ever had for her. In one moment, the Tinder encounter was over and he was back on Tinder, looking for someone else. Hater. Because it's an identical twin to lust. So lust isn't loving. Young men, young women, if anyone ever tells you, you gotta send me nudes or you gotta sleep with me to show me that you love me, they don't love you. They lust you. And they love themselves. Your daddy loves you. Your Father in heaven loves you. And he doesn't want anything from you. He has everything for you. He spread out his arms on the cross to die for you, to save you, to heal you. You're better than that. There's worth. There's value. I don't care what you've been through. I don't care what you've done. You're not damaged goods. You're not too far gone. He can save you, change you, and redeem you in a moment of time. You have worth more than diamonds. So you hold out for honor. CS Lewis compared lust to someone who eats a feast, but then thinks about it and doesn't want the calories to stick to their frame. And so two fingers go down and they vomit the food out. That's crazy, right? Why would CS Lewis compare sexuality to what we call, in our medical language, bulimia? He says, because when you give in to sexual immorality, it's passion without the purpose. It's wanting the flavor of the food without the commitment of the covenant marriage is meant to be. I have sex with you. To say with my body, what I've said with every other form of currency in my life. I am one with this woman. Financially, I am one with this woman. Spiritually, I'm one with this woman. Relationally, I'm one with this. There's not Jenny friends and Levi friends. Like, you get Jenny, you get, hey, Soloscos, yo. That's what you get, right? We rocking up together. We are ride or die. She has my passwords. We are one in every sense of the word. So every time we make love, we are saying with our bodies, I'm gonna swallow these calories and put you on my frame. So to have the sexual taste of food is to say, I want all the joy of you without actually taking you on. I want what you have that can gratify me without actually giving myself in. Promise to you, number four. Remember? How do we fight this? Remember the resurrection? I had you circle it, didn't I? This is the hope. This is the power. This is the change. Remember the Resurrection. I'm living in Corinth. It's crazy. How do I navigate all of this? He goes, remember the Resurrection. Remember what's coming for you. Not just Jesus. Resurrection, homie, yours. You're coming out of that grave, and when you come out of that grave, you're coming out with your resurrected body, and you're gonna live in that body forever, reconnected to the source like Adam and Eve were. Someone said it was Thomas Aquinas. I think that Adam and Eve, their sexual rapture before the fall, couldn't be compared to what remained after the fall in a world fleshly, in a world fallen. Because the greatest highlight of their day was not actually being naked and ashamed of knowing each other. It was when God walked with them in the garden in the cool of the day. And to be with God. Oh, to be with God. To see God. He dwells in unapproachable light. To be with God. His eyes burn like fire. To be with God in his presence. His fullness of joy at his right hand, pleasures evermore. To get the intoxicating taste of the presence of God while we're still here, but then to see him. Oh, you who? I don't have a spouse. I don't have a spouse. I'm missing out. I'm missing. You're missing out on nothing. Marital bliss is actually just a hint of the glory that is awaiting us in the presence of God, where Jenny and I will not be married to each other. We'll be married with each other, to our bridegroom, Jesus Christ. And an orgasm. Here. Pretty good. I like it. It's awesome. One of the greatest, arguably, like, moments of pure ecstatic rush. Ephesians 5. You think this is like a rated r sermon? Ephesians 5 says that's just a hint of what it's like to have a moment with God. It's a great mystery. But I speak concerning what it's going to be like to stand before him, to be with him, to be joined with Him. So every time you're tempted to give into some lesser sin, which is eating through the garbage, remember the feast at his banqueting table, at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Beloved, remember the resurrection. Remember what your heading towards. And does not our language betray this? How is the Sports Illustrated model described in a bathing suit to leer over? Oh, she's a goddess. And what do we decorate? Victoria's Secret image bearers wearing underwear for us to ogle over. Oh, angels, are we not revealing our need for something eternal and transcendent? Are we not admitting our craving is actually for God? And until our hearts find rest in him, they will always remain restless. No matter who we and we have and what we do on this earth. It's not eat, drink, it's not just be merry. It's wait for God, hold out for God, Love God, glorify God. That's the true treasure. Remember the resurrection cause you were made to crave. But not the next person you can sleep with, the Lord Jesus Christ, who can only fill the eternal void inside your soul. Number five. God lives in you. Paul says God lives in you. How do we make our. How do we navigate the daily bombarding of temptation and trial? By remembering functionally. Oh, God lives in me. Did you know the reason McDonald's put kiosks instead of human beings to take your order? Do you know you go yeah. Speeds things up. Actually, they've found it slows things down. But the Average order is 15 to 20% more expensive when. When it's done to a computer screen and not to a human. Because all of us feel ashamed to order four Big Macs to a human being, even if we don't know them. So we ran it in, but they found to a screen I can let my freak flag fly. Would I like an extra apple pie? Yes, I would. Right, because no one's there to judge me with their eyes of oh wow, what a big order. Oh, wow. Anything else? When it's to a robot, we're like great inhibition down. Listen to me. Someone watching makes a difference is the point. And guess what? If God lives in you, someone's always watching. Beloved, I want you to know something. You are in Christ, the holy of holies, that sacred space in the temple where the high priest could only enter one day a year, on the day of atonement. And even so, he had to have a rope tied around his ankle in case he entered in an unworthy manner. He would drop dead. The bells on his garment would stop ringing. They would yank out BO and then say, hank, you're up. Hope you had your quiet time. And that guy is confessing sins he didn't even commit before he goes in. And the equivalent New Testament flash forward is you to that sacred space. And if the eyes are the window to the soul and your heart is Christ's home, watching porn is an abomination of desolation. Hey, Jesus, know you're on the couch, but could you close your eyes for a minute? And if that don't wake you up, I'm terrified for you. Terrified for you, for what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of a living, living God who burns for the consuming fire and is holy, holy, holy. And if you're not striving to fight for your life, your heart to be holy, I wonder if Christ is in you. And what a motivating proposition to know. My heart's his home. He lives in me. This is why I don't want even a hint of sexual immorality in my life, which is not fit for God's holy people. How can I just give in every base impulse like the heathens who don't know God? I know God, you would say. But I would ask, does it make a difference? Because if it doesn't, can we say we do? So what do we do, Levi? What do we do if we say I have it in my heart? I have my heart, I would say this. Turn the lights on and do it now. Last point. Turn the lights on and do it now. How did a young Levi begin to walk in victory? Listen to me. Through the blood of Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit, confession to God's people, radical repentance, and an unwillingness to make provision for the lusts of my flesh to have their desires. And I would say, those are not things that I did once. It's one. Those are things I learned to do, dying daily to this day. And should I give the mouse a cookie? Should I let the enemy open the door an inch? I know full well that, like the dog that returns to his vomit to eat, I could find myself in a heartbeat running back to those old idols. And so I would say to you, that's the path forward. Turn the lights on. You are only as sick as your Secrets. The moment you confess to one another, to other people, your small group, those on your team, your pastor. This is not a church community where we shoot our wounded. To admit you have a problem is a powerful sign of strength in God's family. We're gonna rally around you and going, yeah, I get that. I feel that. I've been there. Me too. And pray for you and care for you and walk with you and hold you accountable so much as you are willing to invite that into your life. And should you from this moment vow to go forward, walking in God's plan for your sex life, and then fall, I'm going to say to you, get back up and get back up again and get back up again and get back up again. If you fall seven times, you can get back up. God's righteousness is not based on you. It's placed on you. So we don't seek to live right, so we can have a standing before God. We live right because we do. And it's a huge privilege. Once I got the robe on my shoulders and the fatted calf on my table and the ring on my finger of the father, it makes me want to take a bath. Not to get love, but because I got love. I got love. I got love from my father. And now I want to show that love back to him. We began with Samson scars, sex. But do you know that even though the scars remained in his life, Judges 16:22, his hair began to grow back. His hair began to grow back. What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say that the devastation of your sexual scars are no match for the healing scars of Jesus Christ. By Isaiah 53. Five, his wounds, we are healed. So, beloved, your scars don't define you, his do. And so, Jesus, we pray for help and healing and power. I'm gonna ask in this moment of stillness before the Holy Spirit, if you would say, I have sin to repent of, I have sexual sin to repent of, or I have damage done because of the sexual sin of others. Could I ask you to raise up a hand? Raise up your hand. This is the first step towards turning that light on. And there will be others. First, it's to God for forgiveness, and it's to people to be healed. Thank you, Jesus. I pray your blood would wash down upon my brothers and sisters. And I pray your Holy Spirit, like oil, God, and like dew and like rain would fall upon them. I pray that you would. It would. They would feel you grabbing their chin and picking their head up and that wants to put it down in shame and saying, I love you. I love you. I love you. I'm for you. I've got more for you. I've got more for you. See your father hugging you. See your father not with his arms crossed, but his arms around you. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Now give us strength for the next steps and the next and the next and the next. 30 years into it and I still. One day at a time. I'm trusting you for power. You can put your hands down. I want to now invite anybody who's not trusted Christ to make the most important decision of your life. Giving your heart to him. If that's you, you've never trusted Christ. He will live in you. If you invite him in, you can become the holy of holies today. Say this with me, church. Say it with us. Dear God, I'm a sinner. I need your forgiveness. And the cross and the resurrection are the only way. Thank you for new life. I give you mine in Jesus name.