Sexual Revolution

Well, good morning and welcome to Church at the Grove online.

My name is Nathan.

I'm one of the pastors here, and we're so thrilled that you are spending part of your Sunday morning with us.

For those of you that I don't know, I've been with Church at the Grove for almost 10 years now.

And in that 10 years, I have, you know, spoken publicly almost every single week.

And in that time, I've learned a few things about public speaking.

Public speaking was never going to be my thing.

Like in high school, I was never the kid that wanted to stand up in front of class, shy, super introverted.

Still to this day, I'm a little bit like that.

But as I'm speaking publicly now, there's a few things that like I've learned.

Like the first thing I've learned is like always make sure your flies zipped up on your pants.

Like that's something I checked multiple times before I walk up on a stage because I'm deathly afraid that that's gonna be happening to me when I get up there.

Or make sure your mic's off when you're not on stage.

I've had that happen a time or two where I've been singing on a Sunday morning and then I hear my voice coming through the speakers, and that's not a pretty sound at all.

If you're gonna tell a story about someone, always make sure you get permission first.

I've made that mistake with my wife a time or two, and that's not a good thing to do either.

Um, you know, make sure you have your notes.

I've had my iPad fail before and I had no notes and sailing blind, and that's never fun.

But then I've also learned that if you want people to, you know, like your message and if you want them to say positive things, shy away from controversial or difficult topics.

Like typically when you go into that realm, uh people will, you know, have very strong opinions one way or the other about the message.

Well, today I'm breaking one of those rules and we're talking about a very difficult message.

We're talking about a difficult subject that's controversial in a lot of ways and is a very sensitive subject.

And it's a subject that has plagued our community, it's plagued our country, it's plagued our world, and it's something that our world is not just against, it's not just in opposition to, but I mean, really, this view and what we're talking about today is in direct opposition and has been made a mockery of by the world today.

Today we're talking about this idea of sex.

Yeah, the big S-word, we're talking about sex this morning, and ultimately God's view when it comes to sex.

Now, the world that we live in today, they've abandoned the ways of Jesus and what the Bible is talking about when it comes to sex.

We've sunk into this kind of cultural cesspool of sorts and sexual abuse and divorce and single mothers and lack of commitment and more and more loneliness and heartache and heartbreak are rampant in our world today.

I mean, just listen to some of these statistics to show kind of the world and the culture that we're currently living in.

When it comes to pornography, every second there are 28,258 users that are watching pornography on the internet.

Every second,$3,075 is spent on internet pornography.

Every second, that's$97 billion a year.

That's more than the Major League Baseball, NFL, and the NBA combined.

Um, every day there are 116,000 inquiries related to child pornography on the internet.

35% of all internet downloads on the internet are related to pornography.

And this isn't just for men, this is for women as well.

33% of all internet pornography usage is coming from women.

Pornography is causing our brains to be rewired, which we'll talk about more in a minute.

And it's having people have a difficult time having real intimacy with individuals.

Family, look at our family life.

Over 50% of marriages end in divorce.

The main reason for divorce is infidelity and extramarital affairs are responsible for nearly 40% of all divorces.

Nearly one in four homes in America are fatherless homes, which leads to higher rates of school dropout, higher rates of incarceration, and higher rates of sexual abuse later down the road.

Sexual assault.

Every 73 seconds in America, another person is sexually assaulted.

One in every six American women have been a victim of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime.

One in six.

And so in the 1960s, there was this start to the sexual revolution, and the whole purpose behind it was that people wanted to have more experience and experience more freedom as a result.

But what we've seen through statistics and what we see in the world around us is that it hasn't brought more freedom.

It hasn't brought more enjoyment.

What it's brought is more pain.

It's brought more destruction in our lives.

Our society has come down into more and more chaos.

And that's not how God ultimately intended it to be.

That's not how God intended for our lives to be about.

He wants our lives to be full of freedom, not pain and trauma and heartache.

And as difficult as it is, and as difficult as it is to look at what the Bible says about sexuality, it's so vital for our flourishing in the world today.

If what the world was doing was working, if if their view on sexuality and marriage and relationships was working, then I think that we could justify some of the actions that are occurring.

But it's obviously not working.

So is there a better way?

Is the way of Jesus, is the message that's found in Scripture truly better than what our world is trying to sell us?

Well, that's what I want to talk about this morning, that ultimately sexual freedom is found in the radical pursuit of Jesus.

That sexual freedom is found in the radical pursuit of Jesus.

Now, you're joining us, and we're in the middle of this series called Say What, and we're looking at these radical words of Jesus that are found in Sermon in the Sermon on the Mount.

And the Sermon on the Mount is the greatest message, the greatest sermon that has ever been preached.

It's a message where Jesus is announcing his kingdom coming down to earth, and he's announcing this new way of viewing religion and viewing your relationship to God, and it's just this incredible masterpiece that's found in Matthew chapter 5 through 7.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

And we did a series a few weeks ago that was called The Blessed Life, and we talked about the Beatitudes where Jesus was telling us to be poor in spirit, to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and to be people of that mourn for the things that break God's heart, and so on.

And these traits ultimately, Jesus tells us, leads us to be the salt and the light of the world.

And now in this section of scripture, in this series, we're looking at these uh antithesis kind of statements, these things that Jesus is kind of pushing back against the world and the culture, and he's giving practical examples of how his truth and how his kingdom is lived out on a daily basis in our world today.

And so he's bringing up statements like, You've heard it said, but I say unto you, and look, we looked at this last week.

You've uh you've heard it said, you should not murder, but I say unto you, if you've looked at your brother in anger, then you're liable for judgment.

And so what Jesus is doing is he's kind of flipping the script of sorts, and he's saying, Listen, uh, the ultimate, my kingdom is not ultimately about your external behavior, but it's about the internal transformation that needs to take place in your heart.

And this went against everything that the world and the religious system taught in that day.

It was all about the external, it was all about what you looked like, it was all about what you did, it was all about the religious duties you performed.

As long as you checked off the boxes, then you were good to go.

And Jesus is saying, no, my kingdom, my way of doing things, my lifestyle is much different than that.

It's not about checking off some boxes and behavior modification, it's ultimately about an internal transformation that needs to take place in your heart.

And if our heart needs to be changed, that's something that we can't do on our own.

Even looking at last week, it says that we should not be people of anger, that if we've looked at people in anger, we've been guilty of murder.

I mean, when you think of it that way, man, we've all been angry, right?

We've all we've all struggled in that area.

We've all had issues against someone else, and as a result, the Bible says we've committed murder.

And so the transformation that needs to take place is not just an external transformation.

Um, it's not just about not drinking or not going here or doing this or being involved in a certain activity, it's ultimately about an internal transformation that needs to take place in our hearts.

And the only way that happens is ultimately through Jesus.

And so before we jump in and read the text and the scripture about sex and lust and adultery and all the stuff that Jesus is going to talk about with us this morning, before we jump into that, please hear me that this message is not about just trying to get you to change your behavior.

It's not just trying to get you to stop doing something or start doing something else.

It's ultimately about trusting Jesus and having him transform your heart.

And out of the transformation, transformed heart, then the behavior follows.

It's not the other way around.

So with that said, let's look at Matthew chapter 25, verse 27.

Matthew 25:27

It says this you've heard it said, you shall not commit adultery.

But I tell that anyone, I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out, throw it away.

It's better for you to lose one part of your body than for the whole body to be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away.

It's better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Say what?

That's the name of the series, but that's that's the question we ask.

I mean, Jesus has just said that if we've looked at someone in a lustful way, then we are guilty of adultery.

Like that's pretty severe.

Like in our world and our culture today, for the most part, adultery is still frowned upon.

It's still looked down upon.

It's not something that people would aspire to do, even though there are now websites that help married people cheat, and it's becoming more and more acceptable.

Adultery is still seen as a bad thing.

But I mean, lust?

I mean, that that's something that we all probably struggle with to some degree or another.

And lust is this idea that we want something that's not ours.

And so Jesus is making these statements, and I mean it almost kind of seems like Christianity gets this bad rap when it comes to sex and when it comes to our relationships with one another in the marriage context.

Christianity oftentimes gets a bad rap when it comes to talking about these subjects, but I want you to understand, I want you to hear that, man, God is not against sex.

God is not against this beautiful design that he has created.

God designed sex for procreation, but he also designed it for prep uh pleasure.

We cannot underestimate the importance of this point.

God is not against sex.

He created it.

He designed it.

In the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, he united them together as one.

It was this beautiful design.

They were naked and unashamed.

It was a place of perfection that they dwelt in.

And we've let the enemy, I think, a lot of times steal that perspective of God.

And we've had the world tell us, we've had the enemy tell us that God is against sex, that he's against the things that God ultimately has designed himself.

But that's furthest, there couldn't be anything further from that truth.

I mean, here is God that created and designed sex.

There's a whole book of the Bible, the Song of Solomon that's written about a couple that falls in love, gets married, and ultimately the sexual relationship that they have.

I mean, it's so explicit that young Hebrew boys weren't even allowed to read it.

And so the God that put the Bible together, the God that designed sex, is not against sex, he is very much for it.

And it's a beautiful thing when it's kept in the context for which he created it.

You know, as a student pastor, I remember giving the illustration one time talking to students about a fireplace.

And you know, fire in your house, in your living room is a great thing.

It's beautiful, it's warm, it is comforting just to be in a warm room with a fire blare uh blaring in the fireplace.

But now you take the fire outside of the fireplace and you put it in the middle of the living room, and it's no longer a beautiful thing.

Now it's a destructive thing.

And that's ultimately what sex is like.

Man, sex in the context of how God created it is a beautiful gift that should be treasured and enjoyed.

But when you remove it from God's standards and the boundaries that He set for it, it doesn't bring more freedom.

It brings chaos and ultimately destruction in our lives.

And so Jesus knows what he's talking about here.

And he says, listen, you've heard it said that you should not commit adultery, but I say if you've looked at someone in lust.

Now, lust is this wanting something that's not yours, this lustful intent.

It's a verb that means to decide desire or to yearn for.

Um, it's not just for men, it's also for women as well.

Lustful intent is looking upon someone sexually, but it can also be looking upon someone emotionally, where you're looking for someone to meet an emotional need that you might have and you're yearning after them.

It's ultimately desiring someone or something that God did not give you to have.

It's something that you did not covenant or promise to be a part of, and you're trying to reap the benefits of it without having a vow or a promise behind that.

And this is ultimately best played out in our world and our culture today in pornography and fantasy.

Um, pornography is running rampant in our world and our culture today, and it's beginning to create anything in our minds that's an alternate reality than what we're currently walking in.

Um, and this this could be a number of different things.

Sure, it can be illicit material or uh, but it's not just a dirty website that someone might go to.

It's also things that you see on TV, it's ads that you see on your social media, it's maybe relationships from a previous high school boyfriend or girlfriend that you start engaging in on Facebook.

It's movies, it's television shows, it's Magic Mic, it's Fifty Shades of Gray.

And to be honest, in the world that we live in today, man, it's hard to find media that doesn't fuel this lustful intent that is naturally found in this powerful force that's in our hearts.

You have Netflix that's producing tons and tons of content, and many of the things that they are producing are very explicit in their sexual nature.

And that's why as followers of Jesus, we gotta be careful.

We gotta be intentional about what we watch, what we consume, so that we're not awakening this lust within us.

Because again, Jesus is saying that this is a dangerous thing.

But pornography and fantasy are so dangerous and they're so destructive because they do several things.

The first thing they do is they dehumanize their objects.

Pornography and fantasy are devastating because they dehumanize their objects.

God's gift of sex was to unite two people together that had covenanted, that had promised, that had vowed to be together as one.

They are literally one soul.

But pornography and fantasy remove that.

They remove the covenant aspect of the oneness of soul.

The biblical view of sex doesn't demean, but actually elevates both parties.

But pornography and fantasy dehumanizes.

When you watch pornography or fan are engaged in fantasy and the thoughts of what could be, um you are making someone else or something the an object of your pleasure.

You aren't thinking about their souls, you aren't coveting with them, you aren't vowing yourself to them, you're not one with them.

You're just thinking about what you can get from it or from someone.

It's really a dark and demented thing.

To think of someone that you're looking at on a screen is potentially someone's son or daughter.

It's dark and disturbing.

We often think and we know that rape is wrong, right?

Rape is wrong.

It's one of the most devastating things that someone can possibly experience.

Not just from a physical standpoint, but also from an emotional, spiritual, just all-encompassing standpoint.

It's dehumanizing, it's making someone an object for your own personal pleasure.

And while we might not physically be violating anyone or assaulting someone when it comes to pornography and fantasy, we're still dehumanizing them and making them only an object of our pleasure.

And so it's so dangerous because it starts to dehumanize others and get us to stop seeing them as people that are created in the image of God.

But then pornography and fantasy also rewires our brains.

There's been so many studies and research that has been done that shows that pornography is literally rewiring our brains.

It's creating neural pathways where people have sexual needs, sexual desire, and as a result, they're fulfilling those sexual needs and desires through pornography and fantasy.

And so our brain begins to think that every time we experience things experience these feelings and have these needs, that pornography and fantasy are the only things that can fulfill them.

And so we continue to run to them, and that's why so many people have trouble with intimate relationships now, even in marriage.

John Mayer, the rock star, incredible guitarist, back in 2012, he had an interview with the Rolling Stone magazine, and he said this about pornography.

He said, But look, because of all the porn I've watched, I'm so enamored with what I call the third kind.

It's not male, it's not female, it's a new creation by way of all the pornography I have watched.

I'm now like an avatar.

Here's a rock star that has women fawning all over him.

And he's literally saying that he he finds more satisfaction with a computer screen or with a phone than he does in a real intimate relationship with a human being.

Man, pornography and fantasy is so difficult and it's so destructive because it begins to rewire our brains, but it also robs us of the intimacy that we are designed to have with our spouse.

Now, you might be married now, you might be married one day in the future, you might be divorced, and you might never want to get married.

But ultimately, intimacy, sexual intimacy was created in the context and for the context of marriage between one man and one woman for life.

That's how God designed it.

And so whether you're married or not, that's what God's design is ultimately for.

And He wants those things to bring intimacy into those relationships.

But pornography and fantasy, they rob us of the intimacy that's ultimately designed for our spouse and our spouse alone.

This is why God's design is that we date, we fall in love, we marry, and then after marriage is when the sexual relationship begins.

Because we know that the emotional and spiritual connectivity and the intimacy that happens there happens first, and then the physical comes later.

And pornography and fantasy robs us of that.

It begins to put intimacy in all the wrong places and allows us and prevents us from having intimacy with others.

And so the world would tell you that everyone watches pornography, it's perfectly acceptable.

You're not hurting anyone.

But Jesus knows what lust ultimately does for our souls.

And he's not trying to ruin our lives here.

He's not trying to be a killjoy.

He's not trying to do something to harm us or just to take away fun.

What he's ultimately doing here is he's trying to protect our hearts and our souls and allow us to walk in freedom.

This is why he gives such strong language in the passage that follows.

He says in verse 29, if your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out, throw it away.

It's better for you to lose one part of your body than for the whole body to be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, throw it away.

It's better for you to lose one part of your body than for the whole body to be thrown into hell.

So he gives this really strong language of saying, listen, you've got to make very dramatic decisions in order to overcome the powerful, powerful force of lustful intent.

He knows it's a powerful enemy, and so it's going to take severe consequences and severe decisions to be able to overcome.

Now he's not literally talking about gouging out your eye or cutting off your hand, but he is saying that you've got to make drastic decisions that are radical in order to overcome the obstacle of our heart having this lustful intent for the things that we weren't designed to have.

And so I know in speaking about this subject, there are many that maybe say, Man, I don't struggle with this, but I know that that's probably not likely.

If you're watching this, if you're coming to our church on Sunday morning, statistically, we know that this is not something that just a couple of people struggle with.

This is something that many, if not most, people struggle with at some point in their lives.

For me personally, this has been a struggle for me.

This has been something that really ever since being in high school and college and even as a young adult, this was something that I wrestled with and I fought through and had such shame and guilt over.

And it just had this addictive nature and bondage that had been put in my life.

But thank the Lord I'm able to walk in victory and I feel like I've overcome and I still, you know, I still struggle.

I I still, you know, can can can uh need I still need accountability.

I still have parameters and things that are set up in my life to help keep me.

Keep me holy and keep me pure.

But I feel like I'm walking in victory of that I've overcome and I've experienced the victory of Jesus in this.

And I want us to not just kind of talk about how lust is bad.

I want us to give us some practical handlebars for us to overcome that in our lives.

And so I'm gonna give you just really two big points and then some subpoints underneath that.

The first thing is this, this is the most important thing I think that we have to understand is that the greatest weapon you have in the battle against lustful intent is a vibrant, growing relationship, passionate relationship with Jesus Christ.

And that might sound trite, that might sound simplistic, but at the core of us fighting this lustful intent is a relationship that is active and growing with Jesus Christ.

Because remember what we said at the beginning.

This isn't about behavior modification.

This isn't about just changing some things or changing some of your behaviors or preventing you from watching something late at night.

That's not the ultimate goal.

The ultimate issue is our heart.

And we can't change our hearts on our own.

We need someone to come in and to change the root, to change the core problem, which is our heart.

And we need our hearts to be transformed.

And the only one that can do that is Jesus.

And so this is about a growing relationship with Jesus.

And please hear me.

This is not just like you pray a prayer and you come to know Jesus and then all of your problems just magically melt away.

That's not what I'm saying at all.

I've struggled more with pornography and lust after I came to know Jesus than before I came to know Jesus.

And so I'm not saying in any way that you just pray a prayer and it magically goes away, but I am saying that as you deepen your relationship with Jesus, you begin to have a heart transformation that takes place.

And this takes time.

I love what Jen Wilkins says about sanctification.

Sanctification is just this big theological word that means becoming more like Jesus.

It's that process of growing and becoming more like Jesus.

She says this sanctification rarely looks like an immediate ceasing of a particular sin.

It's more often looks like an increase in the distance between repeated sins and a decrease in the distance between committing them and confessing them.

God is so patient with his children.

And I know for so many of you, because I've been there, I know for so many of you, you're walking in this lifestyle, you're struggling with lustful intent, with pornography, with fantasy.

And just to be honest, you feel like God doesn't even want a relationship with you.

You might feel dirty, you might feel, you know, like the pain and the heartache that's there, and it's this Achille hills where you think, man, God doesn't even want to be around you, much less have a relationship with you.

But let me just tell you that there's nothing further from the truth.

That we have a God that is so patient and he loves his children unconditionally.

That Jesus didn't die for just some of your sins.

Or he didn't just die for the sins of your past, but he died for all of your sins, past, present, and future.

And there's nothing that you could ever do that would make him love you less or more than he does at this very moment.

And so that's a lie from the enemy that you've messed up so greatly that Jesus doesn't want anything to do with you.

That's a lie.

That is not true.

That is not found in Scripture.

That is not a biblical thought.

And so let's just let's just push that out of the way right now.

We have a God that loves and cares for us, and he wants a relationship with you and with me, regardless of what we have done.

And if you've never put your faith and your trust in Jesus, man, this is a great opportunity to start.

There will never be an inward change in your heart.

There might be some behavior modification, but there's never an inward change in your heart without a relationship with Jesus.

And here at Church at the Grove, we say turning and putting our faith and trust in Jesus is as simple as the ABC.

It is admitting we're sinful, believing Jesus is who he says he is, that he died on a cross, rose again on the third day, and that he says that anyone that puts their faith and trust in him will have newness of life.

And then we finally confess him as our Lord and our Savior, that he's calling the shots for our lives.

And when we do that, we're made into a new creation.

We're brought into his kingdom.

We're made into children of him, that we're sons and daughters of the king.

That's our new identity that we've now taken on.

And so maybe that's a step you need to take.

But for many of you, I know that you're watching this and you would say that you have a relationship with Jesus.

And I would just ask, is it growing?

Is it vibrant?

Is it something that you're pursuing actively?

You're never going to have victory over lustful intent.

You're never going to have victory over pornography or the other sexual desires that you might have if you don't have a growing, vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ.

The second thing I think we need is to win the battle with lustful intent.

We need to have wisdom from above.

And that's a broad category, but it's important for us to understand.

We need to have wisdom from above.

It's not just reading our Bible and having a relationship with Jesus, but we also need to have wisdom to do practical things to prevent us from falling into the traps that so easily ensnare.

James 1, 5 says, if anyone lacks wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

So there's the promise of Scripture that if we don't have wisdom, if we don't know what to do, we can literally ask God, and He will give us the wisdom that we need to do the things that we do need to do.

And so it's not just about knowing, though, it's also having the courage to do it.

And so just here's some things that I have found in my personal life that were practical, that were helpful, and me overcoming and seeing victory in my life in this area.

The first thing I did and the first thing I would encourage you to do is just look for patterns and determine where you are tempted and seek to remove yourself from those situations.

So if it's happening late at night and when you're by yourself and you're watching and flipping through the channels, man, go to bed early.

You know, if it's happening on your cell phone and you know it's when you're home by yourself, man, go for a walk, get out of the house, have somebody come over.

Don't be in that environment.

Look for the re way areas where you are tempted and then remove yourself from those situations or from those scenarios.

Get rid of maybe certain cable packages or TV platforms or streaming platforms.

Make difficult decisions there.

Set up internet filters.

Have someone that you know and love and that you can trust.

Set up parental controls on your computer or on your cell phone.

There's websites like Covenant Eyes that uh and other software that will monitor and help monitor your activity online and will send a report to an accountability partner or a spouse and they can see what you have been watching and what you have been looking at in a way to help provide accountability.

Have other people you love hold you accountable.

I've been in men groups where uh we met on a regular basis and we were asking difficult questions like this, like, have you been watching anything that's inappropriate?

And we had to confess to one another and hold each other accountable.

Maybe you need to do something drastic, like get off social media.

Maybe you need to quit your job if there's an inappropriate emotional affair that's taking place.

Maybe you need to quit your job and find a job somewhere else.

I mean, there's radical things that we have to do.

And this sounds radical, it sounds not even possible in some ways, but in order for us to overcome lustful intent, this powerful master that has its grip on so many people in our world and our culture today, if we're gonna live the freedom that Jesus ultimately wants us to live in, then we've got to take radical steps to overcome and to live in victory.

Paul says this to the church in Corinth and 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

He says, flee from sexual immorality.

All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body.

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?

You are not your own.

You are bought at a price, therefore, honor God with your bodies.

I'm telling you this morning that there is a way.

There is hope.

It's ultimately found in Jesus, but you can overcome and you can have victory in this area in your life.

It's not something for us to take lightly, it's not something for us just to push to the side and think that it's no big deal.

It's something that we should make a priority and we should work and fight to rid it out of our lives.

And so, with that said, I would love to have the opportunity to pray for you now.

And please know that we are here for you.

And that we we want to help you win, and we want to help you see victory in your life in this area.

And so please, please, please reach out to us, and we would love to walk through this with you.

With that said, let me pray.

Lord Jesus, I thank you so much, Lord, that you are a God that loves us right where we're at.

Lord, I thank you that you're a God that no matter what sin and what whatever mistakes we've made in our past, that you're a God that's still there with your arms wide open, waiting and wanting us to run back into your embrace.

And so, Lord, I pray that we would do all of that this morning.

Lord, I pray that we would be people that pursue after you, Lord.

We know that this idea of lust, this kind of sexual, biblical sexual ethic is a hard and difficult thing for us to grasp.

It's so drastically different from everything the world tells us, everything our culture tries to preach at us, everything that we watch and all the media that we consume, Lord, it's all telling us a different message.

But Lord, this morning we're hearing, Lord, from your word that it's not just about the external action, but it's the internal heart.

And so, Lord, I pray that you would transform our hearts to follow you all the more closely.

Lord, that you would transform our hearts to recognize our desperate need for you, that we would walk with you in a close and an intimate relationship.

Lord, I pray that you would give us wisdom from above to be able to make hard and difficult decisions, to be able to overcome the this sexual perversion and this uh pornography and fantasy and the other lustful intents that we might have in our lives.

Lord, I pray that you give us wisdom and the courage and the boldness to actually follow through on what you tell us to do.

And Lord, I just pray for the one that is struggling right now, maybe it's been for months or years or even decades.

Lord, I pray that you would help them to have freedom, that you would help them to have victory this morning.

Lord, that you would help them to reach out to other people in their life, that they would not feel shame, but they would feel love when they do, and that they would have people around them that can help them in this process.

And so, Lord, we pray that we would experience the freedom that ultimately you can only bring, because we know that sexual freedom is only found in the pursuit, the radical pursuit of your son Jesus.

And it's in his name we pray all of this.

Amen.