It's Only Physical Series

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I spent 15 years or so talking to high school students. That’s how I got my start in ministry. So, I talked about sex a lot. I talked about it as much as I possibly could. One of my favorite things to do is I created a lecture that was for premarital sex. I would come in as a different character and I’d wear a lab coat and my name was Dr. Les [L-e-s] Doit [D-o-i-t], Dr. Les Doit. And I would come in and lecture to high school kids about why they should go out and have as much premarital sex as possible. And I was very convincing. It was scary. I could just see the adults going, "Oh my gosh, I never thought of that." And kids are going, "Well, yeah!"

I had one kid raise his hand [we did a question and answer] and he said, "You’re the first person I ever heard explain this the way I’ve been thinking about it." And then I would come back, hopefully, and correct all the errors I had created. It was fun.

And one of my favorite things would be to do this at a camp where I had multiple nights where I was gonna speak. So, I’d come in one night and just do the Dr. Les Doit thing and give these great arguments and statistics and illustrations about why you should have sex outside of marriage. I mean, you wouldn’t buy a pair of shoes without trying them on first. You know, stuff like that. Real meaty stuff. And then I would wait and come back the next night and say, "Y’all seem a little bit nervous in here today. And then I would come back the next night. So, I’d leave them hanging a whole day, and it used to drive the adults crazy. They’d go, "Look, you just, you can’t just let it lay there for a whole day! They’re gonna think that premarital sex is okay."

I’m like, "They already think that. That’s why we’re having the camp."

So I got comfortable, maybe too comfortable, talking about this and here’s the deal. After many years of that, and now I’m an adult pastor with adults and I’ve heard all kinds of stories and dealt with, I mean, just every imaginable situation. Here I am, you know, all these years later. I’m 48, and I’m absolutely convinced that what the Bible has to say about sex is not only true and it’s not only relevant, but beyond that, it’s kind of common sense. It’s just good advice.

But even if you don’t believe the Bible is inspired, as we’re gonna see today, there is something the Scripture says, in fact, there’s an insight we’re gonna look at today that modern psychiatrists and psychologists have their terminology for, but it was back here, 2,000 years ago. It’s so incredibly relevant that, as old-fashioned as it sounds sometimes, I just think it’s still worth talking about.

But, here’s the pushback. Every time I talk about this, whether it’s with high school students or adults or singles or whatever, I feel a little bit like an Old Testament prophet who’s sort of crying in the wilderness, "Don’t do it!" And everybody’s going, "Ah, get him out of here. Put him back in the well," or, "Where are you from, Rip? Have you been asleep for 200 years?" I mean, nobody thinks that way anymore. And I feel like it’s almost a total waste of time. I don’t think for a minute that after this message, and I’ll be as compassionate--I mean, passionate--as I can be. Actually, I won’t be very compassionate, just passionate, and I’ll give you my Scriptures and I’ll argue and be loud. And, most of us are just gonna walk out the door back into our culture and go, "That was interesting. What would you expect from the preacher?"

They just go back into this world that just totally thinks that what the Scripture says about this subject is impractical and irrelevant. But, I’m gonna tell you, I think in your heart and in the heart of most people, except for the most calloused of individuals, there’s something that rings true about this for all of us, as impractical as it is. And, so every once in a while, I feel like I’ve got to get up like the prophet and go, "Okay, let’s say it one more time. Here’s what the Bible says about sex."

Maybe the defining moment for me as I transitioned from working with high school students into working with adults was a conversation I had with a lady, and I’ve shared this before, I believe, but I’ll say it again. I had done a presentation for several hundred high school kids on this subject, and there was a lady who had just become a Christian and just started coming to our church. It wasn’t this church. Another church. And so, sometimes adults would come and stand in the back of our high school ministry ’cause it was fun and loud. And she had been married. She was in her early 30s, very much into the whole singles thing, and very attractive and just sort of in that world. But she had just become a Christian, just started coming to church. And, so, not the night I did the presentation, but after that, she tracked me down and she said, "Andy, Andy, I’ve got to ask you a quick question."