NATIONAL COMMUNITY CHURCH
September 18, 2011
Slaying the 3 Headed Dragon: The god of More
Mark Batterson
“Once upon a time in a land far, far away lived a knight and a dragon. The dragon
had three heads with three different names. They were called Me, Mine and More.
The knight knew the danger this dragon posed but no one in this land believed it
could harm them. The people ignored the beast, unaware that every day it was
growing in strength and devastating power, until one day it could be ignored no
longer. The dragon attacked. It burned down their houses and destroyed their
village. The knight knew what he must do.”
And you get to watch that three times! You wish it was a four-part series don’t you? This
weekend, we continue the series ‘Slaying the 3 Headed Dragon.’ If you have a Bible, turn over to
I Corinthians Chapter 6 and we’ll get there in just a moment.
I think one of the greatest dangers we face is that God is so good at what God does that if we
aren’t careful, we will take it for granted. He blesses us and He graces us and He is so faithful
and we are in a season where God has blessed National Community Church in some amazing
ways over the last couple of years, far beyond any kind of material blessing or things like that is I
love where we are at spiritually. I sense a great spiritual hunger to keep pressing in and pressing
on and say, ‘God have your will and your way in us,’ so I love that. But I need to share another
blessing that is pretty remarkable.
Several months ago, I received a telephone call from a deacon of a church and he told me that
their church had been going through a dying process. They believed that they were to gift that
property to another church as a way of seeing it resurrected and see God’s kingdom furthered,
and after months of praying, we said if you vote to gift that property to us, we would receive that
gift. Last weekend, in a vote that was 11-2, Glen Echo Baptist Church voted to gift their property
to National Community Church. I want to say a couple things about that. Number one, this just
doesn’t happen. I mean, it just happened, but it doesn’t happen. Number two, we are humbled
beyond words. It is the kind of thing when that happens, the only reaction can be “Wow!” And
we better steward whatever is happening here. Then I just have to say that the courage of this
congregation to say that we have fought our battle and we believe we have served our mission,
and the humility and courage it takes to say that we think we are to gift this to you so you can
steward this, I don’t even know what to say. So last Sunday afternoon when I got the news, it
was one of those most humbling moments. I don’t know what to say or do other than I believe
that the Lord has orchestrated this.
A few years ago, I wrote a book called Wild Goose Chase, and we’ve been on one haven’t we. I
don’t think it is coincidental, if it weren’t for Wild Goose Chase, this would have never
happened. It was the book in the hands of someone who knew someone that sparked a wild
goose chase. And then some members of Glen Echo read Wild Goose Chase and somehow in the
infinite plans of God, we are in a position to receive and steward a gift.
And I have to tell you up front, it is almost hard to announce this because we have more
questions than answers, but what is beautiful is that there is no time pressure, there is no pressure
of any kind, other than, ‘God, how can we help serve your purposes? And how can your
kingdom come and your will be done around this metro D.C. area?’ So praise the Lord! Let’s
receive it with humble hearts, with grateful hearts. Let’s hold on to it and put it to prayer and
ultimately it will be exciting to see how God is going to further his kingdom through this. Praise
the Lord!
I Corinthians 6:12
“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right
to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 You say, “Food for the stomach and
the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” 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.” 17But whoever is united with the Lord is one
with him in spirit.
12
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.
We are going to unpack this passage of Scripture. I am going to talk a little bit faster than
normal. I was driving Josiah to a soccer game on Saturday morning and for some reason, he went
into this slow mode where he started to talk in slow motion. I had no idea what was going on, but
kids do that. So I started talking in a very rapid voice and we started doing this back and forth
deal. I’m just giving you a glimpse into my life! That to say, I’m going to talk a little bit faster
than normal because I’ve got a lot to say and I want to get through it. Here’s the cool thing, you
have the ability to listen and process much faster than I have the ability to speak. So if it feels
like I’m going a little bit fast, that’s because I am!
I love the declaration in this passage. Think of it as a declaration of independence, if you will. I
will not be mastered by anything. The word ‘mastered’ if you are taking notes, write this down,
is the Greek word ‘exousia’ translated ‘power’ in the New Testament but it is a unique form of
power. In fact, the best translation would probably be will-power. There are a couple of other
words that are translated ‘power’ from the Greek language. One of them is dunamis, which is
probably the most repeated word and a good example would be the series that we came out of
last, Acts 1:8 You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes. That’s dunamis. Dunamis in
that form of power is the ability to do things beyond your ability. It is supernatural ability. It is
the way God empowers us to do things that are beyond our human ability. Now, exousia, I want
you to get this and write this down, it is the ability to not do what you have the ability to do. That
doesn’t sound like an ability, oh really? I tell you what, this is a rare form of power, a different
kind of power. It is the power to not do what you have the ability to do. It is the power to say no
or more accurately, in the context of the god of more that we are talking about slaying this
weekend, it is the ability to say, ‘No more, no more.’ It is the ability to discipline yourself. It is
the ability to resist temptation. It is the ability to slay the 3 headed dragon. Here is what’s
interesting. This 3 headed dragon, the god of more, lust in particular, you can’t slay this
particular dragon with dunamis. That form of power is effective on lots of different fronts but in
this instance, you need exousia. You need this power, the ability to not do what you have the
ability to do.
I want to suggest that willpower is a lot like a muscle. In fact, maybe it is a spiritual muscle, and
the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. You have to consistently say no when you want to
say yes and you will become more adept at saying no. It is not easy but as you exercise it, you
cultivate self-control. You cultivate discipline and you cultivate willpower. And sometimes you
need to do it just to do it, to just make sure that nothing is mastering you. This summer, our
family fasted television. There wasn’t really any huge reason, we didn’t have any big issue with
television, it’s just that we didn’t want to waste the whole summer watching TV. So we
suspended our subscription and said for three months we’re not going to watch it. It was
fantastic! One of the things I discovered is that sometimes I allow TV to control my schedule.
Sometimes I allow TV to control my thoughts because what I’m consuming begins to dictate to
me what I’m thinking about. In fact, I would suggest that television can be a form of gluttony.
We are going to talk about gluttony too. It is entertainment lust. If you watch too much, your
soul will atrophy.
I believe that all of us, to one degree or another, have addictive personalities. I think some of us
are addicted to good things and we find a way to redeem that addictive personality in more
positive ways. But some of us, it is challenged in more negative ways. I want to talk about this
because we need to. Here’s the challenge we face – God has created us with lots of desires. They
are hard-wired into our genetic makeup and these desires are good. Let me mention a few of
them. The desire for sex, good; the desire for food, good; the desire for work, the desire for
money, I think all those desires can be tremendously wonderful desires but here’s where I want
to be careful, these desires were meant to be servants and they make great servants when you use
those desires to serve God’s purposes, but they are terrible masters. If we aren’t careful, those
desires can begin to master us. How? When you no longer control the desire and the desire
controls you. So, your desire for sex or your desire for food or your desire for money starts to
dictate your decisions in a way that you start making sacrifices or start making compromises that
lead you down a path that moves you away from a relationship with God. So instead of turning
to God, you turn to food for comfort, comfort food, or instead of turning to your spouse, you turn
to pornography or instead of turning to worship, you turn to money. And we allow those holy
desires to lead to unholy decisions and instead of being controlled by the Spirit of God, which is
ultimately the objective, the goal is to be in a position where our lives are completely controlled
by the Spirit of God, we allow something else to have a controlling effect upon us.
By the way, it is no coincidence that the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control, what came last? There is a little part of me
that things it’s the fruit that takes the longest to grow and it is the fruit that takes the longest to
ripen, but boy if you can get to self-control, then life tastes good because nothing is controlling
you save the Spirit of God. Here is the bottom the line, I think many of us have an Achilles heel
because of these addictive personalities. Many of us have a thorn in the flesh. Many of us have
something that would desire to master us and I know that many of you this weekend are
mastered by something. There is certainly a spectrum. Some of them are so destructive and no
one even knows about it. Some of them are relatively minor and less harmful but one way or
another, the objective is to get to the point where we are controlled by the Spirit of God. So how
do we make this declaration? I will not be mastered by anything. Then how do we live it out?
It is not easy but I want to throw a few things out. We are going to keep it very practical and very
biblical and see where it takes us. I think there are a couple of ways to slay this god of more, if
you will. I think one is, let me say it like it is, there are some addictions, there are some things
that have mastered you, you just need to quit cold turkey, and if you don’t, you will never master
if. You cannot overcome it. I think alcohol is a good example. I think there are people who can
drink in moderation but there are those who cannot. There are those people who have been
mastered by something and you just need to quit cold turkey because it is the only way you are
going to overcome that. I think there are some situations where maybe it doesn’t have to be cold
turkey but maybe what you need to do, stick with me, I think it will make sense, you need to
choose your poison. Let me say it this way, choose your addictions wisely. How many of you
know someone who is addicted to exercise or addicted to running? Now, that can be unhealthy.
So there are addictions that can further our health but you also have to be careful that those
things don’t supersede whatever else, like don’t get your high from a runner’s high, get your high
from worshipping your Creator. So even there, you’ve got to be very careful. But I think there
are situations where you can substitute.
I have a sweet tooth. I like gummy bears and in particular Haribo gummy bears. For several
years, I consumed them at an alarming rate. I had people that, for Christmas, have you even seen
a five pound bag of gummy bears? I’m not even going to tell you how long those lasted. It was
ridiculous. I couldn’t stop eating them. Then I discovered that it is about 500 calories of pure
sugar essentially in a bag of gummy bears. That’s about one-quarter of my allotted calories. So
one-fourth of my diet was gummy bears there for a while. I ate gummy bears like they were one
of the food groups, meat, vegetables, fruits and gummy bears! In fact, I remember a few years
ago we hiked the Grand Canyon, rim to rim, my son and I, and it was 130 degrees during the
day. For the trip, some people will pack their Clif bars or their granola bars, I packed a bunch of
bags of gummy bears! I knew there would be moments I would need a little extra energy to make
the 23.6 mile hike. Here is what’s crazy, it was so hot, at one point at the end of the day, we got
to the bottom and I took out my bag of gummy bears and it was liquefied gummy bears. It was a
liquid that had mixed together, but here’s what is so great, that night it got really cold as it does
in the Grand Canyon and it resolidified. So no longer did I have little individuals, I had one
gummy blob and I ate it! And it was good!
I am no longer addicted to gummy bears. Let me tell you what happened. I am now addicted to
tic tacs. Not any kind of tic tacs, wintergreen tic tacs and I’m like a crack addict. This week, I
visited seven different gas stations because they tend to have my fix, but they don’t all carry
wintergreen, and if it is not wintergreen, it is not working for me. My kids have literally said,
‘Dad, we think that you are addicted to tic tacs,’ and they are right. But those tic tacs only have
60 calories! I don’t know what else to tell you. If I’m going to be addicted to some form of
candy, then I feel like I've taken a step in the right direction from gummy bears to tic tacs. What
was the point of that again? Oh yeah, choose your addictions wisely!
In all seriousness, here is what I believe, I believe that in some instances, it is very difficult to
overcome addictive personality but I think that you can trade some sinful addictions for some
addictions that will actually nurture spiritual health and physical health. You can do this! But you
can’t just quit doing something, usually, you’ve got to substitute something in. You can’t just
flee from immorality, which we’ll talk about, we’ve got to seek God! You have to go after God.
You have to move in the direction of God and He will move you away from the sin you are
struggling with.
By the way, one other little idea, I actually think that substituting idea, some of you just need to
pray and say, ‘God how can I get rid of this? Is there something I can do that is going to fill the
gap?’ That’s why it is so important when you are fasting something, don’t just give something
up, add something into your spiritual regiment in a way that you are cultivating some, not just
good habit, but God habit.
Here’s another way not to let things master you. Find a way to scale back. Now, again, if it is
something that is sinful, I’m not going to settle for anything less than cold turkey. Cut it out!
Quit! But sometimes you have to move in that direction by beginning to scale back. That isn’t a
license to sin. In fact, let me frame it theologically. I think that Lent is a good model or example.
Lent is when you give something up for 40 days, well it’s actually longer than 40 days, from Ash
Wednesday until Easter Sunday, you give something up. One form of practicing Lent is you fast
for six days but Sunday is a non-fasting day. So whatever you’ve given up, say you’ve given up
meat, you can eat meat on that seventh day. For some, that may seem like a cop out, but it is an
interesting form of fasting and I don’t know that it is totally unlike the 6-1 pattern where you
work for six days and you rest on the seventh. In some ways, I think giving something up for six
days gets you a lot closet to making sure that thing doesn’t master you than not doing it at all. So,
I think it is scaling back for seasons at different times. Just like when we gave up TV, it has less
of a hold on me now. Of course, it’s football season so we turn it back on! But it has less of a
hold on me. What I’m trying to say, maybe think of it as six days of fasting and one day of
feasting would be a rhythm that helps break the control over your life.
I have a friend, Chris, a wonderful guy, a pastor in Houston. We were having dinner a couple
months ago and we have the same agent. He was telling me about his newest book. It is titled A
Place at the Table, 40 Days of Solidarity with the Poor. Here’s what I love, it is a book that is a
call to action. He challenges readers to eat like the poor for 40 days as an act of solidarity with
the vast majority of the world. Then use the money you save on groceries to do something to
help care for the poor. Chris practices what he preaches, so if I remember right, I think Chris ate
only rice for 40 days. So we were talking over dinner, about how he only ate rice for 40 days,
which was funny because you should see this guy eat! He can throw it down. But then Chris
went into his theology. He said, ‘As Americans, we are over-indulgent. We indulge on
everything until we don’t even enjoy the indulgence because we are always indulging.’ He said,
‘If we could recapture this idea of fasting and feasting in a rhythm of life!’ How many of you
know this to be true? After you fast, oh, the stuff tastes good! Even stuff you don’t like, you
love because you are hungry! The best meals, the meals I’ve enjoyed the most, the greatest feasts
always follow a season of fasting. The problem is, if you are gluttonous in the dimension of food,
you will no longer enjoy food. You don’t enjoy it anymore because it is no longer special
because you are indulging yourself all the time. So if we could recapture the idea of fasting and
feasting, but most of us are only good at one or the other.
Remember that old saying all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy? All fasting and no
feasting makes you a dull person. I believe that God has created food, and there is a reason why
He created all these different types of food for our enjoyment and I think it is a good thing. The
Bible says that when we eat, we are to glorify God and give Him praise and thanks. So I think
feasting can be a wonderful thing. What I want you to see is that feasting prepares us for fasting
and fasting prepares us for feasting. Are you with me? What I’m saying is this is one key to not
letting something master you. It is finding this rhythm of life where you are fasting and feasting
in a way that you are honoring God.
The problem is we want to indulge ourselves with whatever we want whenever we want it. It is
just the culture we live in. And I’m saying we are robbing ourselves. We are robbing ourselves
of the joy, because the god of more says more and then he says more, more, more, more and
enough is never enough and it satisfies less and less. In fact, the technical term is hedonistic
adaptation, that it takes more and more for you to be satisfied less and less. You need more of a
fix. You need a higher dose. Let me just come out and say this right now. I believe that one of
the biggest reasons why many of us are so frustrated in so many areas of our life, job, marriage,
whatever, is because we want something to completely satisfy us, food, sex, work, whatever. If
we could just come to terms with the fact that nothing is completely satisfying this side of
eternity, it is just not. So you can have an amazing meal or amazing sex and those are great
things in the right, holy context, but I promise you, the effect is going to wear off and you are
going to need to eat again and you are going to want to have sex again, because those things
don’t fully and completely satisfy and if we could just come to terms with the fact that the god of
more is a liar! The god of more says, ‘Just a little bit more and you’ll be satisfied.’ But we are
trying to fill the God-shaped vacuum in our hearts with something else. It doesn’t work. The only
thing that ultimately satisfies is the Creator who gave us these things for our enjoyment and to
serve his purposes, wonderful things, but when they become the master, we find ourselves in a
terrible fix.
So what I’m trying to say is, how do we slay this dragon of more? I think it starts with making a
declaration. I will not be mastered by anything. I’m going to tell you that one of the hardest
spiritual disciplines for me to practice is fasting. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I say
that it is probably the least practiced spiritual discipline that there is. Would you agree with that,
generally speaking? The reason is because we like food. Fogo de Chao, I’m like the Pavlovian
dog, I start to droll, 15 cuts of meat and I love it. And I’m strategic, don’t you dare go to the
salad bar at Fogo de Chao, I don’t care how good it is, that is poor stewardship! They’ve got 15
cuts of meat coming! You save your appetite for 15 cuts of meat! But I really felt like, because it
is such a hard one for me to cultivate because I love food, that a few months ago, I started fasting
much more regularly. I want to tell you something, here’s the only way I know to say it, this is
not going to happen if you just listen to a message. The only way it is going to happen is if you
make a declaration in your spirit and in agreement with I Corinthians 6:12 you circle it and
underline and make it a word for you, I will not be mastered by anything, and not by your own
power but by the willpower that is in you, the Spirit of God, that exusia that the Spirit of God
gives you, you say I will not be mastered by anything. I can tell you something that when I am
fasting and I start feeling hunger pains, let me tell you what goes on in my spirit, I start quoting
Matthew 4:4. I think about Jesus fasting for 40 days in the wilderness and He said when the
enemy tempts us, when the enemy said to turn these stones to bread, Jesus said man does not live
on bread alone. I love it! In your face! Man does not live on bread alone, so when I start feeling
hunger pains, I say man does not live on bread alone but by every word that comes from the
mouth of God. So I declare that I will not be mastered.
Here’s another thing I’ve learned. If you can master one of these spiritual disciplines, nothing
else is going to master you. In fact, I would even say this, there is a direct link between physical
disciplines and spiritual disciplines. You can’t tell me that someone who is disciplined in
exercise or disciplined in going to the gym, that it is not easier for them to practice spiritual
disciplines. I absolutely believe there is a connection between those two things.
In light of that, let’s go to the next verse because I think Paul makes a connection here between
spiritual things and material things. Verse 13
You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.”
The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the
body.
13
So Paul makes an allusion to food and I think it’s ok to talk about it because I Corinthians 10:31
says that whatever you do, whatever you eat or drink, do it all for the glory of God. So how do
you eat to the glory of God? Let me share a little theology of food and make a connection
between a couple of these things. It is important to realize that there is a distinction here between
eating to living and living to eat. If you are living to eat, then at some point, food has begun to
control you. But if you are eating to live, then you are still mastering that component. And there
is a difference between those two things. So, are you eating to live or are you living to eat? If you
can discipline yourself in that arena, it is going to help you in every other way. I’m not going to
make the mistake of reducing gluttony down to food consumption, and I’m not even going to say
that obesity and gluttony are one in the same, they aren’t. There are genetic factors and
metabolism factors and the truth is, a lot of us are glutton for clothes or glutton for gaming or
glutton for exercise or golf or facebook or email, so food is just the most obvious because you
can’t hide it as easily. But it is the invisible forms of gluttony that we’ve got to look out for. You
can be anorexic and it’s a form of gluttony. Gluttony is never satisfied. I have to lose more and
more weight. Gluttony is the god of more. Gluttony is a cousin to lust in that you are just never
satisfied and you hate it but it is controlling you. And you’ve got to break that control. So it is
not just a food issue. I think it is much bigger than that.
By the way, a little confession, the campus pastors and I went over to D.C. 3 over on Barracks
Row. I had no idea how many different kinds of hot dogs there are and how many different
things you can get on one. So I got a hot dog deep fried wrapped in bacon with Cheese Whiz!
Was I sinning? That’s really the question. But not only that, you can get fried pickles on it and
then for dessert, you can get fried Oreos. And it seemed like not getting fried Oreos would be
poor stewardship so we ordered them, but here was the amazing thing, we all only had one of
them. Actually one campus pastor had two. But I want you to know, in saying all of that, we got
up to the cash register and Pastor Mike can vouch for this, I said, “I’m going to get water
because I’m eating healthy.” Hey, it all works itself out!
But here again, are you eating that way every meal or is that an occasional form of fasting? I’ll
talk about that because in that instance, I don’t know, some of our campus pastors may have
been sinning but I wasn’t! I consumed probably more saturated fat in that one meal than I have in
the last month. What I’m trying to say is that we’ve got to cultivate these disciplines and when
you cultivate spiritual disciplines, I think it helps you cultivate physical and the two are interrelated. That’s why Paul is talking about food. If you aren’t careful, you will turn to other things
and at the end of the day, gluttony is the unwillingness to say no more.
I wonder if some of you are at that point. Are you ready to say no more? That is what it’s going
to take.
The next verse says to flee from sexual immorality. When we think about lust, we tend to think
about that but it is a much larger issue. The word ‘flee’ is the Greek word pheugo. It means to
disappear quickly or to become invisible or to escape. In other words, it says make every effort
to walk out of a situation. We talked about that last weekend. What is interesting is that it is an
active imperative verb which is not insignificant. In other words, now! Now! Not tomorrow, not
next week, yesterday! Active imperative, now! Flee now!
So let’s get practical. Some of you are in a dating relationship, the goal of this message is not to
break you up, but I’m not going to not say this, some of you are in a dating relationship and the
longer you date, the harder it will be to get out of a relationship that you know isn’t right. It is
not honoring God. It is taking you down a path toward sexual immorality. It is taking you down a
path where you find your resistance to lust is getting less and less and less and yet what do we
do? Instead of fleeing it, we flirt with it. We flirt with it instead of fleeing from it. I don’t even
know how to say this nicely or softly, so I might as well just say it bluntly, you need to get out of
certain situations in your life. I know some of you do. I’ve been in those situations. You just
need to flee it.
Let me back up because you might be like, ‘I appreciate you saying that but you have no idea the
complexities of my situation,’ but listen, all I know is I read the story of Joseph and I think to
myself that the whole story would have never happened if it weren’t for one defining moment in
his life that was pretty embarrassing, when Potiphar’s wife starts flirting with him, what does he
do? He doesn’t flirt back. He doesn’t even stay there. He ran out of there. He fled that situation
and it was that defining decision, and I think it could be for you too. I will not be mastered by
anything. I’m not going to flirt with this, I’m going to flee from it. It means to move in the
opposite direction. It doesn’t mean to inch closer and closer. No, it means you turn tail and you
run as fast and as far as you possibly can in the other direction.
I don’t want to get too in depth here but one of the things I determined when I first started in
ministry, because I knew that a lot of pastors get into trouble, and one of the reasons they get into
trouble is because they don’t keep themselves out of situations where they can get in trouble,
especially in the areas of sex and finances. There are a lot of churches where pastors have made
mistakes in those areas. So, listen, we’ve made decisions where I’m not going to touch the
finances, I don’t sign any accounts, I’m not even going to be anywhere in proximity to that. Not
that there is any temptation, I just don’t want to be in proximity to it. I want to move in the
opposite direction. And this is personal. I’m not going to prescribe this for anybody else, but I
made a determination that I would never be alone with a woman besides my wife. Are there
caveats there? Of course, I have meetings but never closed door meetings, never where any blind
is pulled or anything. In those occasional rare situations where I find myself in a situation with
someone of the opposite sex, sometimes that is unavoidable, I call Lora right before and right
after. It’s not a big deal, it’s almost second nature at this point, but I just never put myself in
those situations because I want to be moving in the opposite direction because I love my wife
and my family and I love my church and I don’t want to mess up. And I know I’m not beyond it.
In fact, I know when I preach a message like this, would you pray for me? Because when you
start to traffic in areas like this where you are challenging everybody, you better be the first
person who looks in the mirror.
Let me scale back and hang in there. Here’s why we don’t flee sexual immorality. Here’s why
there is so much sexual confusion and brokenness in our culture. I’m going to keep this short and
sweet. It is because we have a low view of the body and a low view of sex. It is because we don’t
understand that we were created in the image of God. We don’t understand this very passage of
Scripture when it says that the two will become one flesh. What a perspective on marriage.
I have the privilege of officiating a lot of weddings and sometimes I’ll give the quick quiz
question during pre-marital counseling, when do you think you are actually married? When you
say I do or when you sign the marriage certificate? It is not either of those things, which is good
because I have forgotten to sign the marriage license and send it in. But then I’ve always
eventually remembered, so if I married you, I promise you are legally married! But it is when
you consummate that marriage with sexual intercourse. I don’t know why God did it that way
but when the two become one flesh. Sex is a sacred covenant between a husband and a wife in
the context of marriage, period. That is a high view of sex. But because we have a low view, like,
we think we can have sex with anybody and it doesn’t really matter, but oh it does matter!
Because you are degrading something that was meant to be sacred, that was meant to be pure.
The Bible says keep the marriage bed pure. How do you do that? By making sure you understand
Sex is a sacred covenant between a husband and a wife in the context of marriage, period. And
let me say this, I think in the context of sex within marriage, I think there are two dangers. One is
lust, that you look outside, that you think you have to go outside the boundaries of your marriage
to be satisfied sexually, that is a lie. That won’t satisfy you, it will just tear everything else up.
But in the spirit of fairness, I think one of the other sins is sloth. I think sloth in the area of
sexuality in a marriage relationship is not healthy or holy. It is something like anything else, you
have to work at. You have to work together to cultivate that healthy dimension in your
relationship. So let’s stay away from lust and from sloth and let’s make sure we have a proper
understanding.
Not only that, it says
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.
It goes on to say do you not realize when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you become part of
the body of Christ and if you join your body in some unholy act with someone else, you are
prostituting the body of Christ.
Those are bold words, but it is because we are afraid to say it, we get this unspoken permission
for people to make those mistakes. Listen, no! We are part of the body of Christ. Christ lives in
me. Far be it from me to join the body of Christ is some way that it should not be with someone
else. Your body is a temple. You’ve got to treat your body like a temple, something sacred,
something holy. You need to take some preventative measures and make some pre-decisions and
establish some boundaries. There is no new sin under the sun, it is the desires of the flesh that
cause us to sin, but technology has given us a lot of new ways to sin. I think sexting is one of
them. It is so easy to hide behind this texting thing and then you cross the line and you begin to
flirt with something. That dishonors God and it is wrong. I would say you need to quit texting
altogether. Just cut it out. Flee from sexual immorality. Just get out of there!
Let me move towards a close. Ultimately, at the end of the day, this is where I stop preaching
and you make the decision. Am I going to do something with this? Am I going to open myself up
and listen to what he said and open myself up to the conviction of the Holy Spirit? Am I going to
dig deep and are there forms of gluttony in my life where I’m willing to say no more, or where
maybe I’m trying to meet some need with something else instead of pressing into the presence of
God? This is where you have to do business and you have to mean business. But it is going to
come down to a point where you say enough is enough. You say no more. You are sick of the sin
in your life. You are sick of something that is mastering you. For some of you, it has been years
or decades. He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world. Don’t you dare think you’re
not going to try because you think you can’t do it. Can you do it for one day? Yes! Then can his
mercies be new every morning? He will help you tomorrow. Fight, not in your own strength, but
muster a little willpower and say Holy Spirit help me. Then when you fail, don’t quit. The enemy
will want you to go all the way back and throw in the towel. That’s one of the enemy’s lies. No.
Move in the direction of living a life of holiness where you are not mastered by anything. Is it
going to be easy? No, it will be hard. But you have to come to a point where enough is enough.
A week ago, I was at the gym working out and someone from NCC came in, he was there
touring it deciding if he wanted to get a membership or not and the first person he saw was me,
my sweaty self on the elliptical and afterwards he caught me and he said, ‘It is no coincidence
that you are the first person I saw because some of your messages have been working on me.’ He
said he used to bench 315 pounds. That’s serious. This dude was in shape. He said, ‘I haven’t
stepped foot in a gym in 16 years until today. I walk in and the first person I see is you!’ He
said, ‘I felt like it was the Lord’s way of saying this is good.’ I’ve seen him at the gym since and
I was so proud of him. Do you know how hard it is to lose that battle for 16 years but then say I
can win! I can win! He said enough is enough. I don’t like the way my temple looks. I don’t like
the way my temple feels, I’m going to take care of it. It comes down to a decision where enough
is enough. Say no more and do the right thing.
The timing of this is interesting. Six months ago, I weighed 230 pounds because I stopped
exercising because I had a writing deadline. My body started falling apart. A bunch of physical
problems, my asthma got worse and I felt terrible. Then a month ago, I hiked Half Dome and it
was so hard because I wasn’t in great shape. We get up there and I see this thing etched on the
rock. You saw it, if you can do this, you can do anything. I figured that that day I burned about
10,000 calories in about 14 hours of hiking and I thought to myself, you know what, if I don’t do
this, I’m never going to do it. For five years, I have tried to get back to under 200 and I’ve not
been able to do it. When we went to the Grand Canyon, I wanted to do a mule ride but you have
to weigh 200 pounds but I couldn’t do it because I wasn’t even close. Then I hit a point where
enough is enough. If I can hike Half Dome, I can do this. This week, I tipped the scales at 199!
Part of the reason I wanted to do that was because I couldn’t do it for five years. At some point,
enough is enough. I’m not going to buy into the lie that I can’t do it. I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me. I don’t mean I can pray for someone who is sick and they can be
healed. Yes that can happen, but it’s like, He can give me the willpower to do whatever or to not
do whatever. I don’t care how addicted you are. I don’t care how much something has mastered
you, Jesus said I came to set the captive free. He whom the Son sets free is free indeed. The trick
is learning to discover and live in the freedom that He has offered you.
Step out of that sin. I will not be mastered by anything. Flee from any form of immorality. Step
into the purposes of God and live victoriously in Christ. Let’s pray.
Father, we come to You and ask You to help us. We can’t do it but You can do it in us and
through us. God I sure hope that this does not come across as some pep talk. Lord I believe for
many of us, this is a word from the Lord. This is an active imperative word from the Lord. Now,
right now, act on this. Today is the day of the Lord’s favor. Where sin abounds, grace does much
more abound. Would You help us God would You help us resolve in our spirits that enough is
enough. God I pray in particular for marriages that need healing. God I pray that You would
invade those situations and bring healing and wholeness and restore trust and restore a healthy
relationship in every way. God I pray for those who have struggled in secret for a long time
because the enemy has wanted them to keep the secret. God I pray that somehow this weekend,
they would come out of the dark and be courageous enough to make a confession, to repent and
to move into the grace of God. There is not one of us here that isn’t scarred. There is not one
person who doesn’t have a thorn in the flesh or some addictive tendency. I believe that there isn’t
a person here who can’t overcome in the power, the exusia, the power that you have given to us.
So we lay claim to it, we seize it, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Ministry Transcription
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