Breaking the Stronghold of Sexual Sins
Pastor Fernando Cabrera
I Corinthians 6:12-20
In order to break the stronghold of sexual sins, you need to…
1. Evaluate it
“All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable…” (6:12)
Sexual sins do not benefit you because you have more to loose than to gain
If you give in to sexual sins, it will…
• master you
“All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything” (v.12)
“For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner?...he will be held with the cords of his sin.” (5:20-22)
Sexual sins is a mean master (v.12), who will keep you longer than you want to stay, cost you more than you want to pay, take you farther away from God that you want to go
• mark you
“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me” (Psalms 51:2)
This was a Psalm of David after he had fallen in sexual sin with Bethsheba
The father of sin is the devil, the mother of sin is lust, and the offspring of sin is shame and death…is this the family you want to join?
• mess you
“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! (6:15)
Sexual sins bring disorder, chaos, confusion, disarray and pain
It brings disorder in the body of Christ (what you do affects the rest of the body of Christ), because you are united to Christ
“Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her For He says, ‘The two shall become one flesh” (6:16)
It brings disorder in the marriage relationship (breaking the oneness)
GOD PLAN FOR YOU IS TO GAIN
2. Confront it
“Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord is for the body.” (6:13)
“It came about after these events that his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, Lie with me. But he refused and said to his master’s wife, Behold, with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God” (Genesis 39:7-9)
Get over your excuses
1st century excuse “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food” (v.13)
Perhaps you’ve heard these excuses tiptoe through your mind:
• Using pornography is a healthy sexual outlet for pent-up stress.
• It’s OK. I’m not looking at the really bad stuff.
• Talking with people in chat rooms helps me feel better about myself.
• Cybersex can add excitement to my sex life with my spouse.
• It’s a fantasy world. No one’s getting hurt.
• I give to others all the time. I need something for me.
• If my spouse were more responsive, I wouldn’t need this (Charles Swindoll)
You will participate in whatever you tolerate
3. Flee from it
“Flee immorality…” (6:18)
“Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house” (Proverbs 5:8)
Why Flee from immorality?
Because your body belongs to God
“Or do you knot know that your body is a temple of the Holy spirit who is in you, whom yo have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (6:19)
Your body has been lent to you from your heavenly Father, do you dare bring back damage?
Like the borrow car of your Father, he expects you to bring it back undented.
Joseph did flee and gained a kingdom, David didn’t flee and lost his kingdom. What are you waiting for?
4. Starve it
“For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body” ( 6:20)
“But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death” (James 1:15)
three conditions that make us vulnerable to temptation:
*accessability
“and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness…” (Romans 6:13)
Keep away from People, Places and Things
*secrecy
“…therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, …not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality…but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh” (Romans 13:12-14)
Sexual sin is a seed that grows best in darkness.
Bring it into the light of day, where your deeds are open for all to see, and the temptation loses its power.
Accountability software that lets your accountability partner know which sites you have visited
*Sinful desire
Human sexuality is not a sin, it is a gift from God
Be thankful for what God has given you.
The real problem with sensuality is Lustful Drive(Charles Swindoll).
That sin drive has its source in our sin nature or “flesh” and is called “fleshly lusts” (1 Peter 2:11) and “the desire of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).
Theologian Fredrick Buechner gives us perhaps the most accurate definition of lust: “Lust is the craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst.”
