INTRO.- ILL.- I remember when I was only 17 or 18 years old and working as a stock clerk in a grocery store in Webb City, MO. I was stocking merchandise one day when suddenly the manager came to me and said, “Steve, follow me. I want you to witness something.” I could tell that he was angry. His face was red with anger and I had no idea what was going on but I followed him to the back room of the store. Personally, I thought I might be in trouble for something I did or didn’t do!
When I got to the back room (actually the break room) the story became clear. The manager had caught a young boy stealing from the store. I don’t remember what he stole but the manager wasn’t about to let him get away with it. I don’t remember everything the manager said that boy but he gave him the worst chewing out I’d ever heard at that point in my life. He let that boy know in no uncertain terms that it was wrong to steal and that if he ever caught him stealing again he would call his parents and the police.
That boy sat there petrified. I was somewhat petrified myself. The best I remember, I don’t that boy ever darkened the door of our store again. He learned a lesson the hard way but I’m sure he never forgot it. I doubt seriously that he ever stole again, at least, not in that grocery store!
If this incident had happened today most store managers probably would have called the police immediately. That boy got off lucky, in a sense.
Stealing anything from anyone is sinful. Stolen watermelon is not sweet. We might think it is, until we get caught.
Stealing damages relationships and especially, our relationship with God. And stealing another person’s mate is a big sour note with God! How do we know this? One reason is because of what this text says! And what God says in His Word in other books.
I Corinthians 6:13-20 The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 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; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
This text pretty much tells the story about sexual immorality in any form. And sexual immorality in all forms (homosexuality, adultery, pre-marital sex, etc.) is rampant in our world today, but it shouldn’t be for the person who is in Christ.
PROP.- This whole chapter contains the wisdom of God about marriage and avoiding the adultery trap. What’s the message?
1- Drink your own water
2- Rejoice in your wife/mate
3- Consider your ways
I. DRINK YOUR OWN WATER
15 Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. 16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? 17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
Drink your own water. Drink water from your own cistern.
ILL.- Many years ago I planned to attend a National Christian Convention in Denver, CO. I lived in southern IL at that time and Denver was 1,000 miles from there. Our family had two cars but we were having mechanical problems with both of them. I wasn’t sure we could trust either car to get us that far.
One of our good church members called and said, “Why don’t you drive our Dodge custom van to Denver?” Well, I had never borrowed another person’s car before except for maybe just something in town. The owner of that custom van (which was several years old) insisted, however, that we take it on our trip because he wasn’t driving it and it was just setting in the garage. He and his wife had a car that they drove locally and they were both retired. After their insistence, I borrowed that large custom van. We were gone one week and had no problems whatsoever but we drove it 2,000 miles. So when we returned home I had the oil changed and I also washed it for him.
Was there anything wrong with what I did? Not at all, however, there are some people who are quick to borrow, take or even steal anything from anyone else. I have heard stories of people borrowing something in good condition from someone else and then returning it in poor condition. THAT’S ESSENTIALLY STEALING and especially, if you don’t return it in its original condition or get it repaired.
Most people have at one time or another borrowed something from someone else and that’s not wrong where there’s an agreement between two parties. But our text is talking about taking another person’s mate!
I’ve heard of wife swapping or mate swapping but according to God’s Word in this text and others, IT’S WRONG! It’s still wrong even if both parties agreed to it.
ILL.- Do you remember Anthony Weiner? He was former member of the United States House of Representatives from New York City, who was involved in two sexual scandals related to sexting, or sending explicit sexual material by cell phone. The first, sometimes dubbed Weinergate, led to his resignation as a congressman in 2011. The second, during his attempt to return to politics as candidate for mayor of New York City, involved three women that Weiner admitted having sexted after further explicit pictures were published in July 2013.
Basically, Anthony Weiner was stealing or trying to steal water from another man’s cistern! I suspect that if he’d had the chance his lust for the opposite sex would not have stopped at sexting or sending sexual pictures. He would have done the real thing!
Mark Sanford, one time governor of SC, apparently left home in a black SUV on June 18, 2009, and stopped answering his cell phone and responding to text messages and e-mails. He was AWOL for the better part of a week. When a reporter cornered Sanford at an airport in Atlanta on June 24, however, the governor revealed that he'd been in Buenos Aires. With South Carolina's capital, Columbia, buzzing with talk of impeachment, Sanford, 49, held a press conference to explain himself: he'd gone to visit an Argentinian woman with whom he'd been having an affair. He was drinking stolen water.
15 Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. 16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? 17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
II. REJOICE IN YOUR WIFE/MATE
18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. This life is not without joy. We do find a certain amount of joy in this world. God has blessed us and we should rejoice in these gifts and be thankful for them.
James 1:16-17 “Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
In what do you find joy? A certain amount of joy can come from God’s various gifts.
ILL.- Several years ago I started to have some glitches with my 10 year old HP desktop computer. I took it to a computer shop and after examining it, they said the hard drive was going out and it wasn’t worth fixing. The cost of a new hard drive was more than the computer was worth. THE SOLUTION? I asked if they had any good used desktop computers. Eureka! They had an old Windows professional XP for only $75. I bought it and have found it to be best computer I’ve ever had. PRAISE THE LORD! A reason for a certain amount of joy.
ILL.- In 2010 I noticed that one car dealer in Memphis, TN, was offering $5,000 on the sticker price on a new Nissan Maxima. They were selling a $31,000 dollar Maxima for $26,000 and I thought, “Now that’s more like it!” I’ve always thoughts that giving over $30,000 for a car was ridiculous and would be poor stewardship for me. I checked with the local dealer and after driving a used Maxima I decided I would try to deal for a Maxima. And sure enough, they took $5,000 off the sticker price. They also gave me a decent amount for my trade-in car and suddenly I was the owner of a new Maxima. WHAT A DEAL! And a reason for a certain amount of joy.
In what do you find joy in this life? God is very good to us and we should rejoice and give thanks for all of His good gifts. One sure place should be our mate.
18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
ILL.- I have a good preacher friend name Bob Stacy and his wife’s name is Nell. Bob is originally from Tonawanda, NY and Nell is from the small town of Cabool, MO. How did they ever get together? I believe they met and married while attending Ozark Christian College many years ago. Bob and Nell have been married almost 60 years now and Bob constantly praises Nell and gives thanks to God for her.
Bob has often said that Nell is a hard worker, never complains about anything, is always sweet, etc. OH WOW! I would say that Bob is rejoicing in the wife of his youth even after these many years. And I suspect that Nell is also rejoicing in the husband of her youth as well!
III. CONSIDER YOUR WAYS
21 For a man's ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths. 22 The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast. 23 He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
ILL.- It is said that counterfeiters are gaining on the Federal Reserve with the rapid growth of desktop publishing and imaging systems, says a recent report by the Rochester Institute of Technology. Joseph Noga, head of RIT’s graduate program in printing technology, says new systems make copying currency, stock and bond certificates and passports a piece of cake. “What would have taken hours or days to produce can now be done in ten minutes,” he says. Even though counterfeiters are getting smarter and better at what they do and perhaps don’t get caught as often, this is not true for man when he sins against God.
ILL.- Once when Lord Moynihan, great British surgeon, had finished operating before a gallery full of distinguished visiting doctors he was asked how he could work with such a crowd present. He replied: “You see, there are just three people in the operating room where I operate—the patient and myself.” “But that is only two!” his questioner commented; “Who is the third?” Moynihan responded, “The third is God.” No matter what we do in life, God is watching!
21 For a man's ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths. If God examines our lives shouldn’t we also examine our own lives?
II Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test?”
We all need to examine ourselves daily. We need to examine our lives and our walk with God.
ILL.- An old Arabian story tells how a royal prince once seized the land of a poor widow and made it part of his palace garden. The destitute woman complained to the chief judge of the country and asked for justice.
The judge was sympathetic and fair, but he faced a very difficult situation. How could he condemn the rich powerful prince who ruled the land? However, the judge had courage, and he was a staunch champion of the right. He decided on a daring step. He came to the palace of the prince with a large sack in his hand. To the amazement of the prince, the judge asked permission to fill his sack with earth from the palace garden.
Deeply mystified, the prince agreed and the judge laboriously filled the huge sack to the brim. Then the judge asked the prince to lift the sack to his shoulder. The prince protested that the sack was too much too heavy for one man to lift.
“This sack,” firmly replied the honest judge, “which you think too heavy to bear, contains only a small portion of the land which you took from the rightful owner. How then, at the day of judgment, will you be able to support the weight of the whole?”
If a little sin is too big to hold onto before God, what about a bigger sin? What about sexual sin?
CONCLUSION----------------
ILL.- Zig Ziglar tells of a thief, a man named Emmanuel Nenger. The year is 1887. The scene is a small neighborhood grocery store. Mr. Nenger is buying some turnip greens. He gives the clerk a $20 bill. As the clerk begins to put the money in the cash drawer to give Nr. Nenger his change, she notices some of the ink from the $20 bill is coming off on her fingers which are damp from the turnip greens.
She looks at Mr. Nenger, a man she has known for years. She looks at the smudged bill. This man is a trusted friend; she has known him all her life; he can't be a counterfeiter. She gives Mr. Nenger his change, and he leaves the store. But $20 is a lot of money in 1887, and eventually the clerk calls the police. They verify the bill as counterfeit and get a search warrant to look through Mr. Nenger's home. In the attic they find where he is reproducing money. He is a master artist and is painting $20 bills with brushes and paint! But also in the attic they find three portraits Nenger had painted. They seized these and eventually sold them at auction for $16,000 (in 1887 currency, remember) or a little more than $5,000 per painting. The irony is that it took Nenger almost as long to paint a $20 bill as it did for him to paint a $5,000 portrait! It's true that Emanuel Nenger was a thief, but the person from whom he stole the most was himself.
What does this story have to do with committing adultery? The person who steals another person’s mate is actually stealing from himself or herself. You not only hurt others but you also hurt yourself. And you really hurt yourself by hurting your relationship to God.
Galatians 6:7-8 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”
Is there hope for someone who has stolen the mate of another person? Yes, but only in Christ. Only in Christ is there forgiveness of sin, of all sin.
II Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
I John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
