True Love Waits Series

Intro

• We live in a world today that has truly given itself to its lustful desires.

• Think about it, one cannot go a day without being confronted with the sexual lusts of this world.

• When you turn on the TV, good luck finding something to watch that doesn't have scantily clad women or nudity in it.

• Even if those things are missing, then we are confronted with people having any and all kinds of adulterous sex.

• The TV though is just one of the avenues that we are confronted with the sinful sexual desires of our world.

• We find it at the movies, on the internet, ads on billboards/buses, in magazines and newspapers; anywhere you can think of, we are confronted with the sinful sexual desires of this world.

• The message of our society runs against the message of Christianity.

• Our society encourages premarital sex, adulterous affairs, sexual rendezvous; it encourages sex with anyone or anything at anytime.

• Is it any surprise then that Christians have fallen prey to this onslaught of sexual frenzy?

• Remember, if Satan can discredit Christians, then the lost will see them as "just like them."

• And if there is no difference between Christians and Non-Christians, then what's the point of accepting salvation in Jesus Christ?

• That is exactly where we are as a society and as Christians today.

• As Christians, we are called to live in obedience to God through His Son Jesus Christ but many are following after their own sexual desires.

• One of the ways that we can obey God, is by obeying His command to save ourselves sexually for marriage.

• For many years, I have led youth groups through True Love Waits and many have followed through with making a commitment to remain sexually pure until marriage.

• I have had some that would not commit because they were brokenhearted over already losing their virginity, some thought they were too cool to make such a commitment and some didn't commit because they wanted to have sex. --> Pray for our Youth

• True Love Waits is not just a program to keep youth from having premarital sex; it is a commitment that all Christians should make!

• Today we will see that in a relationship, we have a #1 Desire For One Another but we must #2 Resist Sexual Temptation and #3 Protect Our Virginity.

• Prayer

#1 Desire For One Another

• Song of Songs 2:8-14

• We have already seen that this man and woman have a joyful love for one another and so it is natural for this love to deepen in love into a desire for one another.

• She had already warned the chorus of Jerusalem girls in v7 to "not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time."

• She was saying this as a warning to them but it was advice that she would have to listen to herself.

• In the very next verse, v8, we find that she is presumably home and in her own room when she hears her love approaching and then sees him approaching as well (Listen; look).

• In v7 she challenged the chorus of Jerusalem girls "by the gazelles and wild does" and by doing so she is painting a picture of the female as being beautiful, vigorous and sexually active.

• She now applies similar terminology to the man in v9, "gazelle or young stag"; the same meaning applies to him as well.

• The picture that we get in v9 and v10 is that the man has come to the window of her room at night and possibly act on their desire for one another. "Come away, my beautiful one" v10

• In the ancient near east, the windows of a home were covered with lattice work much like shutters.

• This lattice work was closer together than some of ours today; It blocked out the sunshine but allowed air to flow through the home.

• What we have here is her standing on one side of the lattice work in her room while her love is "behind the wall, gazing through the window" v9

• He likens their relationship to the season of spring.

• In springtime, everything is fresh and new; the dullness of winter gives way to the vivid colors and life of spring.

• In the same way, when two people fall in love, it is springtime for them; everything in life seems fresh and new; life is full and vivid.

• One can almost picture the intensity between these two as they talked lovingly through the window's lattice work; their desire is strong.

• Even though their desire is strong and they are only separated by a window, the might as well be miles apart.