Equipped 2026: Youth: "Strength in the Face of Sexual Pressure" by Corey Sawyers

Good morning. Good morning. Morning. I want you to fall asleep before we get started.

I am thankful to be here and thankful to be a part of this series of lessons.

I have been very blessed to be able to learn so much from Genesis and so many Godly men.

I was actually, when I looked at the schedule of who all was speaking this hour,

I was really figuring no one would be here because there are so many good sessions going on.

I was hoping we could go somewhere else.

I am thankful that you are here.

I am worried about this group up here in the couch.

They may slow off a little bit here in a minute.

I am thankful you are here. I am thankful to be in the barn.

I hate to brag, but I am from the country, so I have spent a lot of time in barns.

I feel comfortable here.

I know you look at me and the gray hair in my beard and you think,

Man, that guy is so old.

I went to school in the late 1900s, if you can believe it or not.

I have raised three boys in the process of raising another one.

I know a little bit about some stuff that we can talk about hopefully and certainly from God's Word.

The schedule actually said Genesis 37, but 39 is where we are going to be at.

We will turn over to Genesis chapter 39.

Genesis 39 · chapter mention

We will start with a little bit of a quiz right off the bat.

Who is the strongest man in the Bible?

Samson, right?

Samson is the strongest man in the Bible.

Who is the wisest man in the Bible?

Jesus.

Well, outside of Jesus, who is the wisest man in the Bible?

Solomon.

Solomon, that is right.

Who is the godliest man in the Bible?

Jesus.

Let's ask Jesus.

David.

David has the God's own heart, right?

You know how many times I have told this to my three boys?

All three of those, the strongest man, the wisest man, the godliest man,

you know what they all had in common?

They struggled with sexual temptation.

They all struggled with women issues.

And I would tell my boys, you're not the strongest, you're not the wisest,

you're not the godliest.

So you're probably going to have some problems, too.

And reality is that it all is.

I was talking with my friend Brad Toy.

We went to school together at Bear Valley many years ago.

And he was asking, he says, is this just for teens?

I said, actually, no, it's not just for teens.

And it's not really just for sexual temptation, what we're going to talk about.

But it's really going to fit into a lot of things.

Now, I'll tell you a story.

I remember one time a tale about this worker at a factory.

He's leaving the factory one day, and the security guard stops him

because he's pushing a wheelbarrow with a box in the wheelbarrow.

And he says, the security guard says, wait a minute.

What have you got in the box?

He said, you saw this.

You saw this all this.

And he said, well, I don't have a chance.

He opens up the box and runs his fingers and says, you saw this.

And he says, all right, I'm going to let you go.

The next day, the same guy comes out.

He's got a wheelbarrow.

He's got a box in it.

And the security guard says, what's in the box?

And he says, it's just sawdust.

He just can't tell what's in it.

He says, I don't know.

He opened up the box.

And he runs his hands through it.

It's just sawdust.

He says, well, you guys, we didn't see the same thing happen Thursday.

The same thing happened Friday.

It was the same guy with a wheelbarrow with a box.

He said, what you got in the box?

He said, nothing, just sawdust.

And he said, listen, you've been doing this all week.

And I can't help but think that you're trying to sneak something out of here.

You're trying to steal something.

I'll tell you what, if you'll just be honest with me, then I won't say anything.

I'll just tell you the truth.

If you don't say anything about what I'm doing, the security officer said, no.

He said, just tell me what it is you're sneaking.

The guy said, wheelbarrows.

So sometimes we're looking at one thing and maybe it's something different.

That's kind of the idea, I think, with what we're going to talk about today,

with having the strength in the face of sexual pressure.

Maybe you're thinking about one thing in particular.

There's lots of different ways that we have sexual pressure.

Obviously, the physical relationships between others.

There's even more, though, now in the sense of what's available online, on the Internet, on apps,

conversations that you have.

There's so many different ways that Satan tries to tempt us with sexual pressure.

The idea behind what we're going to try to look at today from Genesis 39 is one that,

how can we figure out a way that we can stand up in that

and do the kind of things that God wants us to do,

to not do the things that God doesn't want us to do,

and to be the kind of people that He wants us to be.

When I tried to get back over to Genesis 39, I said,

you know, your phone is probably like mine.

It's got one of those little things that pops up every now and again

that tells you your weekly report.

Have you all seen that on your phone?

It tells you how many hours.

I think it's from the devil because it plays with my mind a little bit.

It'll pop up your weekly report, and I'll look at it,

and it'll say you spent six hours a day on your phone last week,

and I'm thinking, that can't be right.

Six hours a day?

I've got a job.

I've got family.

I go to school.

I've got a life.

I can't have spent 42 hours on my phone.

And then you start doing the math, and you think, yeah.

Because not only does it tell you how many hours you spent on your phone,

it tells you where you spent your time on your phone.

Apps that you went to and websites that you went to

and those types of things, the late-night scrolling,

all of those kinds of things.

And, in other words, it reveals to you where your life is spent

when nobody else is watching.

And if our phone is keeping up with it,

it thinks it's important enough to keep up with where we're spending our time

when no one is watching,

don't you think that God does?

And don't you think that we should?

Because in those times that maybe we're not paying attention

or we're not focused,

that's when we're really showing who we are,

when we're being formed to who we are.

Genesis Chapter 31 or Chapter 39, rather,

Genesis 31 · chapter mention

it's not about a public failure.

It's about a private moment.

There's no crowd.

There's no accountability.

There's no one around except for Joseph and a decision,

a decision that was made in private,

but a decision that was made in private

that shows what his character,

the decisions he had already made about himself,

truly was.

And isn't that true for all of us?

That the decisions that we make in private

is what really shows our character,

the decisions that we've already made in the past.

See, the battle that we face

where we're talking about sexual pressure

or any other kind of pressure,

and I forgot to hit my button there about the screen time,

but the pressure that we face when it comes to this,

so many different things,

it's not necessarily things that are public things.

Some of the biggest spiritual battles that we'll have to face

aren't made at church.

They're not made with the youth group.

They happen when we're alone.

And the reality is,

today, you don't have to go looking for temptation.

It knows your phone number, don't it?

Joseph didn't have a phone,

but Joseph had something equally as powerful.

He had opportunity, he had privacy,

and he had no accountability.

So if you look in Genesis chapter 39,

Genesis 39 · chapter mention

let's set up the context first.

Verses 1 through 7 kind of sets up the context,

and after that, we're going to talk about

three different points, three different decisions

that we need to make,

and at the end, we'll get some good news.

But in Genesis chapter 39, verses 1 through 7,

Genesis 39:1–7

you've got Joseph's already been sold into slavery by his brothers.

He's been sold and brought to this Egyptian master

that now he's working in his household,

and he does a good job,

and his master trusts him

and puts him over things in the household.

But the problem is,

if you notice at the very end of verse 7,

it says that Joseph is a good-looking guy.

And because of that, Potiphar, his master's wife,

begins to make advances towards him.

And Joseph isn't just a random example.

He's a contrast to everything that we've seen before

in the book of Genesis.

Genesis is a book full of people

who didn't handle sexual pressure or temptation very well.

By the time you get to Genesis 39,

you're not expecting purity.

You're expecting another failure.

And that's what makes Joseph stand out so much.

He could be described like a lot of you teens

in the barn here this morning.

He's young. He's alone.

He's successful. He's trusted.

Joseph isn't weak and isolated.

He's strong and unsupervised.

And that's where temptation often hits us the hardest.

When we're alone,

when we maybe feel like we're strong enough to handle it

and don't have the accountability that we should.

And what we find in the story of Joseph

is that strength is choosing God in private.

Strength that we need to face this sexual pressure

is found in making the right decisions

before we ever get into the moment.

And what I want to do again

is talk about three decisions

that you need to make this morning.

And then at the end of the lesson,

we'll give you some good news.

First of all,

the first decision that we need to make

from verses eight and nine

is you need to decide who you belong to.

You need to decide who you belong to.

Genesis chapter 39 beginning in verse eight says,

Genesis 39 · chapter mention

but he refused,

this is Joseph refusing Potiphar's wife's advances,

said to his master's wife,

behold, because of me,

my master has no concern about anything in the house.

And he's put everything that he has in my charge.

He's not greater in this house than I am

nor has he kept back anything from me

except you because you are his wife.

How then can I do this great wickedness

and sin against God?

Notice that Joseph's reasoning

of why he can't commit this sin

is identity based.

How can I sin against God?

Don't miss that.

He doesn't say I might get caught.

He doesn't say it would ruin my career

or it would ruin my reputation.

He says this would be against God.

And the reality is

is that your awareness of God

determines your response to sin.

We've got to make our relationship with God

the foundation of our lives

and our decisions,

not rules,

not reputation.

And don't misunderstand what I'm saying.

God gives us rules that he expects us to live by.

And God wants us to do the right thing

and to refuse the wrong things.

But if all we're doing is trying to be a rule keeper

and I get it, I'm a rule keeper.

I want some kind of rigidity in my life

that tells me do this and don't do that.

But if all we're doing is trying to meet the rules,

the obligations of the rules

or keep a good reputation in front of everybody,

the point is going to come in our life

and that doesn't matter as much to us.

It's not about rules or reputation.

It's about relationship.

That's what we have to have

in order to stay faithful and true to God.

Have you ever noticed how people act differently

when they have something different on?

Like you put on a jersey

or suddenly you're a different person

or when you're little,

maybe you put on that Superman shirt

and suddenly you felt stronger

or you got the new shoes on

and you think you can run faster or whatever it is.

Take a guy on an average Saturday

that is normally a calm and reserved and polite guy

and you put a Tennessee jersey on him

on a Saturday afternoon

and suddenly he's hollering at 19-year-olds on television

like he's the defensive coordinator.

Or even in your life,

you put on your school uniform

or your team stuff

or school colors

or maybe a shirt from your youth group or whatever

and all of a sudden you're not just representing yourself anymore,

you're representing something bigger.

And because of that,

there are certain places you won't go.

There are certain things you won't say.

There are certain actions that you won't do.

Reactions that you won't make.

Not that you can't do them,

but you don't do them.

You could,

but you realize there's something bigger

and more important that you're representing

than just yourself.

My boys used to leave the house and I would tell them,

don't forget who you are and whose you are.

That's exactly what's happening

in Genesis chapter 39.

Genesis 39 · chapter mention

Joseph doesn't say, I might get caught.

Joseph says, how can I do this

and sin against God?

In other words, how can I do this

because that's not who I am.

I'm a child of God.

I'm a son of God.

Joseph had already made the decision

of who he belonged to.

So the decision that he had to make in that moment

was already made.

Sometimes we think, well,

I'm just going to live my life

and not think about those kind of things.

And when I get in the moment,

then I'll rise to the moment.

But my experience has been in my own life

and in others,

is that we don't usually rise to the moment,

but every moment we fall to our identity.

Who we are determines what we do.

Whose we are determines what we do.

And if your identity is just,

I'm just trying to stay out of trouble,

you're probably not going to last.

But if your identity is, I belong to God,

then even when nobody's watching,

you'll know who you represent.

In Genesis already, in chapter 38,

Judah acted on impulse.

But in Genesis 39,

Joseph acts on identity.

You'll only say no to temptation

when you've already said yes to God.

Strength is choosing God in private.

Decision number two,

you've got to decide what you do with temptation

before you get into the moment of temptation.

You've got to decide what you do with temptation.

Notice beginning in verse 10,

it says,

And as she spoke to Joseph day after day,

he would not listen to her,

to lie beside her,

to be with her.

But one day,

when he went into the house to do his work,

and none of the men in the house

were there in the house,

she called him by his garment,

saying,

Lie with me.

But he left his garment in her hand

and fled and got out of the house.

Notice it says that she approached him

day after day.

This wasn't one moment.

It was pressure over time.

And that's the way that Satan works.

It's not just one moment

we've got to be aware of and watch out for.

Satan is constantly,

you know,

you stay in the book of Job

and one of the things you find out,

we probably learn more about Satan in the book of Job

than anywhere else in the Bible.

How persistent he is.

He's got this bulldog mentality.

This doesn't work,

well, I'll throw something else at Job.

This doesn't work,

I'll throw something else at him.

That's the way God,

what Satan works on you

to try to pull you away from God

a little bit over time.

Notice also, though,

it says that Joseph would not listen to her.

He would not entertain her.

He would not pay attention.

Sometimes our problem is

that we want to get just as close to the guardrail,

just as close to the edge as we can

and think that we won't fall.

But notice also what it says about Joseph.

It says he fled and got out of the house.

Joseph ran.

He didn't pray more.

He didn't study more.

Don't misunderstand me.

You need to pray and you need to study.

I'm not saying that.

But there comes times

when we try to over-spiritualize things

that if I'm just involved with this

kind of like a weighted balance

that if I do this much,

that teeter-totter will drop to my side.

There's times when we just need to give away.

It wasn't that he prayed harder

or studied more.

He ran faster.

He ran away from it.

I've noticed something about boys

because I raised boys

and maybe it's true of girls I guess,

but I know the experiences with boys

that when they're playing a game

and you're playing a first-person game

and your character is about to die,

the health bar is flashing red,

the alarm sounds are going off,

everything on the screen is telling you to get out.

But instead of running, what do you do?

You're like, no, one more hit

and the big boss and I win.

One more, I can make it, I can make it.

And then what happens?

You die every time, right?

And the crazy thing is

you knew exactly what to do.

The game is telling you,

the screen is telling you,

your instincts are telling you

that what you need to do is get.

But you stayed

because you thought you could handle it.

Genesis 39 is the opposite of that.

Joseph doesn't stay and fight.

Joseph doesn't say, I've got this.

Joseph doesn't say, I can handle the pressure.

Joseph says, I've got to get.

If you stay, you're already losing.

I'm behind on my slides again,

but day after day,

he says no until he realizes

I've got to get going.

Strength is choosing God

whenever we're in those private moments,

making sure that we understand

that it's the staying that really hurts us,

that really gets us.

Sometimes our problem isn't

that we're losing because we're weak,

because we don't have enough strength.

Sometimes we're losing

because we're staying too long.

We're staying in the conversation.

We're staying in the app.

We're staying in the moment.

We're staying in the text thread.

We're staying in the house.

We're staying in the car.

We're staying in the situation

that we know we don't need to be in.

As I thought about

what to talk to you teens about today,

I thought there's probably nothing

that I'm going to tell you

about sexual temptation

that you don't already know.

Because we know what we need to do

and we know when we're in the danger zone,

but if we know we need to get out of there,

we need to get out of there.

Joseph doesn't prove his strength by staying.

He proves it by leaving.

So how do we handle sexual pressure?

We leave.

We close the app.

We walk away.

We don't linger in the situation

that we know we don't need to be in.

See, in Genesis,

we've already seen Eve

stay and talk in Genesis 3

when she should have just walked away.

But Joseph refused and fled.

If you stay, you're already losing.

It's kind of like there was a...

I thought I had a slide up here,

but obviously I don't.

There was a test that was done

at a facility that was done back in the 1960s

and it was repeated recently

and they actually filmed it.

You can go to YouTube and find videos

about the marshmallow test.

And what they would do

is they had a big, empty room

kind of like this.

They had one table

and they would put a marshmallow on the table

and they would bring these little children in

one by one,

sit them in a chair at the table

and they would show them this marshmallow

and say, here's the deal.

You can eat this marshmallow

or if you don't eat it,

when I come back,

you can get two marshmallows.

And the adult would leave the room.

And they had cameras hidden.

The child thought that they were alone

and one child after another.

It's crazy to watch all the different things

that they do.

You know, they sit there

and some of them would turn their chair away from it.

They're kind of looking over their shoulder

and some of them would kind of reach

and they'd pull.

Some of them would sit on their hands,

you know.

But guess what every child did?

They ate the marshmallow.

You know what none of them did?

Got up and walked out of the room.

If they got up and walked out of the room,

would they have been tempted to eat the marshmallow?

Of course not.

And as cute or as silly or as funny

as that might sound for young children,

sometimes as we mature and grow,

we kind of do the same thing.

I can sit in the room

and it won't bother me.

I can be in the situation or in the app

or with people or whatever

and think it's not going to affect me.

I'm strong enough to handle it.

But Joseph shows us

that strength is choosing God in prayer.

Decision number three.

You've got to decide whose you are.

You've got to decide

what you're going to do with temptation.

And decision number three,

you've got to decide

what matters more than comfort.

I just got through listening to a session.

My friend Keith Kessargen

preached about suffering and trials

and why we have them in this life.

And the reality is that we do.

If you notice what happens here

in verses 13 through 20,

and we're not going to go through all this,

but I know you, young people,

you've probably heard sermons

where along the line

you've got a preacher or a teacher

or an elder or whatever

that gets up in front of you

and says,

now, if you just choose God's way,

everything will come out all right.

Have you heard that before?

We do that sometimes.

And I think this is where

a lot of youth lessons fail

is we don't help you to see

that sometimes you've got to count the cost.

We're not going to go through

all these verse by verse for time's sake,

but if you notice what happens to Joseph,

verses 13 through 15,

Potiphar's wife makes false accusations

about Joseph.

And then in verses 17 through 19,

there's more false accusations

made about Joseph.

And then in verse 19,

King Potiphar's anger is raised against Joseph.

And then look at verse 20.

It says,

And Joseph's master took him

and put him into the prison,

the place where the king's prisoners were confined,

and he was there in prison.

So verse 20,

false imprisonment for Joseph.

Doing the right thing

costs Joseph more

than the wrong thing might have.

Let that sink in for just a minute.

But I know all of you teens

are smart enough

that you already know that.

When we preachers say something like,

just do good and everything will be alright,

you know,

you're quietly thinking,

well, in real life,

it doesn't work that way all the time, does it?

It's like if you've ever been

in a group chat

with a bunch of your friends or whatnot

and things start going sideways a little bit.

It starts normal with memes and jokes

and whatever is going on

that you're talking about.

And then somebody posts something

or says something

or shares something

that they probably shouldn't have.

And at that moment,

you've got a decision that you can make.

You can either just go along with it

or you can tell them,

you know,

we probably shouldn't be sharing that.

We probably shouldn't be talking about that.

We probably shouldn't be discussing

that particular thing.

This isn't right.

And you can quietly

back out of that group chat or whatever,

but here's what you already know.

If you do the right thing in that moment,

it usually doesn't go well for you.

Now you're that person.

Now they're texting about you

in another chat

with everyone else.

Now you're not getting invited to stuff.

Now things are just awkward.

That's Genesis chapter 39.

Genesis 39 · chapter mention

Joseph does exactly what is expected of him by God.

Joseph does exactly what God would want him to do

and it costs him everything in that moment.

It costs him his reputation.

It costs him his position.

It costs him his freedom.

Doing the right thing costs Joseph more in the moment

than what doing the wrong thing would have.

And doing the right thing

may cost you more in the moment,

but doing wrong will cost you more later on.

Some of you already know that thing

because you've tried to do what's right

and it didn't make your life easier.

It made it harder.

And the temptation for us then is to think,

well, what's the point?

What's the point of doing right

if bad things are going to happen,

if I get punished for doing the right things?

Genesis chapter 39 answers that question.

Genesis 39 · chapter mention

The point is not what you keep.

The point is who you become.

Joseph lost his coat,

but he didn't lose his character.

You may lose a relationship.

You may lose a reputation.

You may lose a moment of popularity.

Purity may cost you something now,

but compromise will cost you more later.

There's the martial artist.

Strength is choosing God in private.

Now let's talk about some good news.

Here's some good news.

Notice in verses 21 through 23,

doing right cost Joseph.

His coat is gone.

His freedom is gone,

but notice what 21 through 23 says.

But the Lord was with Joseph

and showed him steadfast love

and gave him favor in the sight

of the keeper of the prison.

And the keeper of the prison

put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners

who were in the prison.

Whatever was done there,

he was the one who did it.

The keeper of the prison

paid no attention to anything

that was in Joseph's charge

because the Lord was with him

and whatever he did,

the Lord made it succeed.

Catch that again.

It says that the Lord was with Joseph.

In fact, if you go back to chapter 37

and all the trouble that Joseph

goes through with his brothers,

chapter 39,

all the trouble he goes through with Potiphar

and while he's in Egypt,

one of the things you'll notice

as you study chapters 37 and 39 of Genesis

is that over and over,

this phrase is repeated.

The Lord was with him.

The Lord was with him.

The Lord was with Joseph.

The Lord was with Joseph.

Over and over again.

It didn't feel like that to us

while we're reading it.

When we see what Joseph is dealing with,

he refuses sin,

he honors God,

and instead of being rewarded,

he's sold into slavery.

Instead of being rewarded,

he's falsely accused

and thrown into prison.

Sometimes doing right

doesn't lead to an immediate reward.

It leads to resistance.

Faithfulness doesn't guarantee fairness.

And yet,

the Lord was with him.

Did you know you can be in God's will

and still be in prison?

That's what Joseph chose.

But even then,

if you look at the text,

verse 21,

God gives him favor.

Verses 22-23,

God gives him responsibility.

The prison didn't cancel God's presence

in Joseph's life.

You can lose a lot of things doing right,

but you won't lose God's presence doing right.

But think about the good company

that Joseph is in.

Joseph resisted

and was falsely accused.

Jesus was perfectly pure

and condemned.

Joseph points us to someone

who is a greater,

who didn't just resist sin

but died for our sins.

The reality is

that some of you today

are fighting temptation

maybe on a daily basis.

Some of you are dealing with regret.

And you need to know

that failure isn't final with God.

That strength isn't being never tempted.

Strength is choosing again and again

who you belong to

when no one else is watching.

So let me give you a few suggestions

for just a few moments

on some things.

There's some parents in here.

There's some ministers in here.

There's an elder in here.

And I want to talk about things

that we can all do together

to help give strength to our young people.

First of all,

we sometimes have this,

because it's awkward to talk about sex,

because it's awkward to talk about sin,

we don't want to talk about it.

And the problem with that is

is that we've not talked about it so much.

Even when we do want to talk about it,

we'll say sometimes in the Bible class today

we're going to talk about sex.

You know, we have to lower our voices

when we say it

because we've made sex become something

that's not,

we're not able to talk about

and that means that the world

has gotten to frame the conversation.

Sex isn't something that's dirty.

It's not something that's evil.

It's something that God gave

as something for a husband and a wife

to share together.

But because we haven't talked about it,

we've let the world frame the conversation.

We need to learn to talk about it.

We need to learn to have conversations

with mamas and daddies and teens

and ministers and teens

and elders and parents and whatever.

We need to talk about it.

Number two, we need to provide

positive home life.

This isn't just a preacher

trying to be preachy.

Did you know the Center for Disease Control

says that teenagers

that are in a home environment

that is positive

are far less likely

to be sexually active

before they're married.

It's not just biblical.

It's been proven by science

which of course is proving

that the Bible comes from God.

But the reality is

is that when in our homes

we provide for our children

encouragement and love,

discipline,

when we show them a good example

of what it means

to be in right relationships

with each other,

then that's not something

that teens tend to turn to

quite as much.

Provide positive home life.

Number three, monitor media choices.

Whatever we put into our brains

is going to affect us.

And so what we watch,

the websites we go to,

the movies,

the television shows we watch,

the music we listen to,

if it's saturated with sex,

and I don't have to tell you

that our culture right now

is saturated with sex,

but if we're constantly

looking at things online

that we shouldn't,

if we're constantly

watching things on television

or the movies we shouldn't,

then we're going to be

thinking about those things.

This isn't just

Mama and Daddy being a fuddy-duddy

or the preacher and the elders

wanting to rob you

from having fun.

It's the fact that

what we're looking at

is going to affect us,

and that includes social media.

You get on Instagram

or you get on Facebook,

and again,

you don't have to go

looking for it.

Things will just pop up,

but you can set parameters

for how that goes.

Number four,

keep busy and good.

You've heard maybe that

an out of line

is the devil's workshop.

It is.

And if we're putting ourselves

in situations

when we're alone

with someone of the opposite sex

with nothing else to do

than temptation,

that's when it's going

to creep in.

Be involved in good things.

Go with people

to places

that you ought to be at.

Go and serve

and worship

and love

and do the kind of things

that God wants us to do,

and as we're doing

the good things,

we find less time

to be involved in the bad.

Study God's design.

Study the book of Proverbs

and all of the passions

particularly in the first 10 chapters

when he's giving

those long speeches

to his son

about the importance

of being pure.

Study the song of songs,

and I know that there are some

that have different interpretations

of the song of songs,

but I take a literal view

that God's talking

about a man and a woman

and the relationship,

the beauty of wedded love.

Talk about what God

intends for that.

Study God's design about it.

And then a reminder

for both the older ones

and the younger ones.

Sometimes when you're young

and your parents want to talk

about relationships or sex

or the websites

or your phone number,

our response sometimes is

that's none of your business.

Or maybe even as parents

and elders and ministers

sometimes we say,

well, that's none of my business.

So a reminder for us all,

it is your parents' business.

It is our business, parents.

What our children are living

and where they're going

and what they're involved in.

And we need to help them

to make right decisions.

But for today,

I hope you remember

these three decisions.

Decide who you belong to

before you ever get in the moment.

Decide that I belong to God.

Decide what you're going to do

with temptation.

And then decide

what matters more to you

than comfort.

One of my very best friends

is named Jamie Smith.

Jamie is an elder now

at a congregation close to us.

But Jamie and I grew up

in Grand Central Tennessee

hunting and fishing together

and playing ball together

and going to school together.

And I was in his wedding

and he was in my wedding

and we've just been

close through the years.

One of the things that's funny

that happened to Jamie

was his wife, Dina,

who's a precious, godly woman.

But she was in a class beneath us

and he got to talking to her

and called her a few times

and finally he asked her

out on a date

and she accepted,

much to our surprise.

And she went on this date with him.

Jamie goes to her house.

He walks up to the front door

and knocks on the door.

He meets her mom and her daddy.

They walk back to his truck

and as soon as they got in his truck,

he said,

she didn't buckle her seatbelt or nothing.

He said,

she turned in her seat toward me

and she said,

we need to get something clear here.

I'm a Christian.

I'm a child of God.

Serving God is the most important thing in my life.

My relationship is the most important thing to him.

I am not having sex until I get married

and if you don't like any of that,

you need to tell me right now

because I'm going in the house.

Jamie said,

I didn't know what to say.

I said,

we're just going to go eat

and go to the movies.

We're not going to get up.

But she said,

I'm not saying you need to necessarily do it.

You may scare someone off,

but it's good to already make up your mind.

Know who you are.

Know what you're going to do with temptation

before you get there

and realize that yes,

it may make me uncomfortable

and it may put me in some situations

that I didn't necessarily want to be in,

but I'm going to do what God wants me to do.

Of course,

what Jamie said was,

when she told me all that,

she was afraid she was going to run me off.

And that's why it made me fall for her even quicker.

See,

sexual temptation

and any kind of temptation is there

and it's real.

And honestly,

all of us that are adults

would tell you,

we would not want to be in your shoes today.

There's no new thing under the sun,

but it's sure a lot more easily accessible

and it's sure pushed down our throats a lot more.

And those of you giving up a Saturday morning

to be here to study God's Word,

tell so much about your heart already.

What we want you to do

is we want you to be God's children

and understand how much He loves you

and cares for you.

And if you're dealing with temptation,

know that there's people,

there's elders and there's ministers

and there's preachers

and there's your parents

that want to help you.

Surround yourself by good and godly people

in a youth group

that will encourage you.

But if you're dealing with guilt,

then understand that

that doesn't mean that God's done with you either.

God still loves you

and He's willing for you to come back to Him.

And our goal is,

hopefully through this lesson

and all these lessons,

is to encourage you

to not only build your relationship with the Lord,

but know that you've got people around you

that want to help you

with what we know

is a very difficult thing

that you're dealing with,

the pressure of sexual sin.

It's not about having the strength in the moment.

It's about having the strength beforehand

to make the right decisions

of who you are and where you're going to be.

I appreciate your patience.