Understanding Kingdom Sexuality

Of all the sins you sin, this sin is in a unique class by itself, because every other sin comes to you. This sin comes from you. Dr. Tony Evans says the answer to sexual sin doesn't start with what you do, but who you are. As long as you own you, you will battle with you about you.

But once you stop owning you, God can take over management. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. The world works overtime to sell us its broken version of sexuality, making it harder than ever to maintain personal morality in the midst of a culture that's rapidly redefining right and wrong. Today, Dr. Evans offers help as he talks about healthy sexuality from the kingdom perspective.

Let's join him. One of the battles that rages in our world today is the self-destruction that is occurring because of an errant view of sexuality. Sexuality is a sensitive discussion to have, but yet it is one the Bible does not shy from talking about. Rather than being a special, uniquely applicable area of life, it has become common ground for selling products, for seeing on television and computers. It's kind of been cheapened like fast food, drive-through pleasure.

Sometimes it's like a 24-hour open stop and go. Stop, get what you want, and leave. The consequences have been devastating, whether it's teenage pregnancy or increased abortions or single parents, too numerous to number, whether it's the increase of diseases or broken hearts and relationships. This issue of sex and sexuality is bringing about all levels of self-destruction.

And now our whole society has changed the standard, dumbing down decency. Churches are full of people struggling in one way or another in this area. And yet when God wants to talk about it, He talks about it quite bluntly, unapologetically, for the benefit of pulpit to pew and pew to pulpit, for us to understand His view of this and to help His people to understand it, too. That's why when we look at 1 Corinthians 6, we read these words. Verse 9, Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, or homosexuals, nor thieves, covetous, drunkenness, revelers, swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. They talked about a number of things, but a large part of what he talks about has to do with sexuality.

And that's the one thing he's going to spend his time talking about as opposed to all the other areas he describes, the area of sex and sexuality. He says these kind of people do not inherit the kingdom of God. He's talking about people who are defined by this lifestyle.

There's nobody perfect. Everyone sins, even though sin, whether one or a million times, is wrong. But he's talking about that which characterizes the lives of these people.

Please notice what he says. He doesn't say these people will not have entered the kingdom of God. He says these people will not inherit the kingdom of God.

There's a big difference. You see, these Corinthian Christians are already saved. They're already on their way to heaven.

How do I know that? Because of verse 11. Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. He says this is what you used to be, but you've been washed, that is cleansed by the blood. You've been justified. You've been declared righteous. You've been sanctified. You've been spiritually set apart as a unique, one-of-a-kind person.

He says that's who you are. So even though they were saved, their position wasn't agreeing with their practice. In other words, they were on their way to heaven, but they were still functioning as earthlings in this particular area. So it is possible to have a position of salvation and a position of sanctification, yet be practicing the very opposite to the position, operating different than your position calls for. Now, a casual reading of the book of Corinthians will let you see these Christians had a whole bunch of problems in a whole bunch of areas.

One of the dominant ones was in the area of sexuality. To give you the backdrop of this, there's this big hill in Corinth called the Acho-Corinthus. On the Acho-Corinthus was a temple, the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. In the temple was a place where you could worship. On one side of the temple was a place where you could eat. They would sacrifice, then they would take the meat after the blood was drained, and they would cook it and serve it so you could eat, so you could worship, you could eat.

But on the other side of the temple was a brothel with over a thousand prostitutes. They were shifting over to operating the way they used to operate before they were saved. So Paul knew he had to address this problem of sexuality in the church from a kingdom perspective. He says, I want you to know that those who operate this way, define this way, he says, I want you to know that they are jeopardizing their inheritance. They're already saved. You're already washed, justified, and sanctified. He wants to bring some clarity to this because they're living in a secular world where, like our world today, sex was available at bargain basement prices, like marking down something that's couture and now making it cheap, available at no cost or low cost. Other than salvation, be worried about anything that's free. So he wants to deal with this problem head on.

He doesn't want to skip it or dumb it down. He clarifies it in verse 13. 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. Here's how they were operating. They were saying, I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I haven't eaten in a number of hours. I need something to eat. And so food is for the body. In other words, I've got this hunger. God's provided food. God's given me a stomach, a container for the food. So since God has provided food and God has provided the stomach and the stomach is for food and the food is for the stomach, when the stomach wants the food, let me go get the food so I can satisfy the hunger that's in the stomach because of its craving for food.

Sounds logical. But they took it one step further. They were saying, when the body craves for sexual gratification, God has given us vehicles for which that is to be satisfied. So what they did was they treated sex like food. And He wants them to understand, first of all, sex came from heaven, not Hollywood. He says, verse 13, the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

When God created the issue of sex, He created it for the purpose of His covenant. And He used a very interesting word. It says, Adam knew Eve and she got pregnant. The word to know meant to be intimate, yada. It was that word that spoke of in-depth intimacy to express the physical union of Adam and Eve. What's interesting is that that's the very same word used of our relationship with God.

God speaks of us knowing Him, and He uses the same word yada. So God wants the same relationship with you that a man has with a woman, and vice versa, when they are intimate in the context of marriage. He wants that same level of depth and intimacy with us, so He used the same word for sexual intimacy to spiritual intimacy. That's because when there is physical intimacy between a man and a woman, God wants you to experience Him then. So in this era of sexuality, it was never to be separated from God, nor was it to be separated from the kingdom, but what Satan does is he always takes something that God makes good and messes with it. One of the things you have to know is that Satan and his demons are very interested in sex. The Bible says in Genesis 6 verse 1 that the demonic angels came down and inhabited ungodly men who had relationships with women, producing a demonized race, so God has to destroy the whole world with the flood. All because demons use sex to contaminate the world. So this is a big deal spiritually, not just hormonally or physically.

This is a big deal because it has to do with how both groups, God and the devil, perpetuate their covenant and cause us to gain or lose our inheritance. But he goes deeper, verse 15. Do you not know, he wants to explain, that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Because those are the thousand prostitutes in the temple.

May it never be moi geneta, which means absolutely not, it's unthinkable. Now why? He says, do you not know that your members belong to Christ? Okay, what does he say? He say, every time you have sex, Jesus is having it too. Every time you're physically intimate, Jesus is being physically intimate with you because he's attached to you. So the question on the floor, is he having as much fun as you are?

Is he comfortable as comfortable as you are because you have brought him into the relationship? Because you are in union with Christ. So whatever you do, Christ does because you're attached to Christ.

So is he happy with the attachment you are making since he's attached to you while you're attached to somebody else? Dr. Evans will have more to say about the power of that attachment when he continues our message in just a moment. First though, I want to let you know that this is the final message from Tony's current series, The Kingdom Family. And that makes this your last chance to take advantage of a special double offer that includes all six messages in this collection, along with The Kingdom Family devotional, a 52-week journey through the most important concepts of the Christian faith. Each week covers a different topic like salvation, spiritual warfare, prayer, forgiveness, discipleship, and more, with specific inspiration and instruction for each weekday. Both of these resources are yours with our thanks, The Kingdom Family audio series and The Kingdom Family devotional, when you make a contribution to keep the alternative coming your way each day on this station. Again, this special double offer runs out today, so get the details and make your contribution online at TonyEvans.org right away. Or call our resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 any time of the day or night. Team members are standing by to help you, again at 1-800-800-3222.

I'll have that contact information for you once again after part two of today's message and this. Power, significance, influence. Every man wants to live that kind of life. And in his brand new book, Kingdom Men Rising, Tony Evans shows you how to break free from the helplessness, boredom, and regret that many men experience and embrace your highest potential in Jesus Christ. Take the next step toward a life of bold intentionality and influence.

Get Kingdom Men Rising today for you are a man in your life and become part of the global movement of men rising up and reclaiming our culture for Christ. If a mother, a pregnant woman, has a drug problem, she has a drug problem, that baby couldn't be born a drug addict. Not because the baby was trying to be a drug addict, but because the baby was partaking of its connection to the mother.

Through the umbilical cord, there is a transfer of the drugs to the baby so the baby becomes an unwilling participant in the activity of the mother by virtue of their attachment. God says by virtue of our attachment to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ's attachment to us, he becomes a participant in whatever we choose to do or watch. It is an inseparable tie because we are members of each other, he says. We are intimately connected.

Or do you not know verse 16? He goes deeper. That the one who joins himself to a prostitute, because that was on the temple, is one with her, and he says the two shall become one, but the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. He says with sexual intimacy, adjoining occurs.

Adjoining. And he uses marriage language. And the two shall become one flesh. Well, that's marriage language. What he says is when you church members go to be with the prostitutes at the temple, don't you know you're marrying her without marrying her?

In other words, it's an illegitimate covenant, but it is a covenantal act because that's what the sex is designed to do, establish or renew a covenant. He says, don't you understand that what you're doing is you're marrying without getting married? He says, therefore, flee immorality.

Verse 18. He says run from it. I've only done skeet shooting once in my life. You know, you say pull, and there's this clay bird that they shoot across the sky, and you get a shotgun. And every time I aimed it at the bird, I missed. That's because by the time the pellets got to it, it was gone, because it's flying across real fast. So I had to be instructed, you got to get in front of this so that by the time you shoot and by the time the bird flies out, they meet each other. In other words, if you're going to hit it, you got to get in front of it.

You can't just aim at it. What he is saying is, I want you to get in front of this thing. He says, I want you to flee immorality. Now, what is immorality? It is any sexual relationship that occurs outside of marriage.

Not play with it, run from it. Why? Verse 18. Because every other sin that a man commits is outside of the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. He says, of all the sins you sin, this sin is in a unique class by itself. Because every other sin comes to you, this sin comes from you.

Why? Because we are built as human beings, as sexual beings. We are built with hormones. We are built with the urge. So the sin is already built in, which is why it's the most natural sin. Because you don't have to go buy it.

It already belongs to you. He says, every other sin is not like that. This one is born from you and to you and through you and comes out of you.

Other things may invite it and call for it, but that's because it's already built in there. And because it is attached to the inner person, because it's built on the inside. It is attached to the soul, and now he attaches it to the spirit.

And that's why it can breathe so much pain. And then he comes with a zinger. He says in verse 19, Or do you not know? He says, let me help you out. I've already told you, you're members of Christ, so whatever you do, Jesus is doing with you. But now he goes to the Holy Spirit and he says, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. A temple is a place of worship, so every time you have sex, you have church. He says, every time you are physically intimate, it is a worship experience. Because, he says, your body is a church house, is a temple, it is a place of worship. Because what sex was supposed to be with Christians is a worship experience. It is supposed to be literally a worship experience, and if something is a worship experience, that means God is in the middle of it. It is worship.

God is supposed to be right smack dab in the middle of physical intimacy when it is done his way because your body is a church house. It's a temple. So the question is, what are you doing in church?

That's his question. What are you doing in church? Your body is the temple of God.

Now, that raises the question, doesn't it? Because we're still human. So does God expect us to not be what he made us to be? I mean, how can I deal with this when I've got human reality and human needs, but he tells me I can't look at it like food? He makes a little simple statement here that changes everything. He ends verse 19 with, and you are not your own, for you have been bought with a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body. What he says is the problem is you still own you. As long as you own you, you will battle with you about you. But once you stop owning you and God can take over ownership, he can then take over management.

He says the problem is owning. I own me. This is my body. This is my passion. These are my eyes.

These are my hands. I own me. When I give up ownership, he can now control management.

But as long as I own it, and then I must manage it, and this is a difficult one to manage, that is why it's the number one addiction, because it's hard to manage, because the problem is in me and in us. Dr. Evans will have a closing thought about solving that problem when he comes back in a moment to wrap up this final message in our current series, The Kingdom Family, an in-depth look at God's original plan for life in the home and why following that plan is so vital for our society. As I mentioned earlier, we're offering this six-message audio collection on CD or digital download as our gift when you support Tony's ministry with a financial contribution. And through the end of the day, as a special bonus, we'll also send you a copy of The Kingdom Family devotional. Just visit tonyevans.org to get the details and make the arrangements. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or let one of our friendly team members help with your request when you call 1-800-800-3222.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, a longtime listener of this broadcast recently sent us a voicemail commemorating 40 years of God's faithfulness to the urban alternative. And we wanted to share it with you. Hi, my name is Matthew Greenwald, and I wanted to mention that I've been listening to Dr. Evans since he was on AM radio in Houston back in the early 80s when I was just a young boy of 12 years old delivering the penny advertisement papers on my bicycle. His was the only station I could get on my AM radio while I did that. And his voice came across like God's then, and it continues to do so today, and I wanted to let him know that he has been an absolute instrumental voice in my life, now more so than ever as I am 51 years old.

But I did want him to know that he has touched the other little boats in his world that he may not even know exist. So thank you so much. God bless. And thank you, Matthew. Dr. Evans and all of us here at the Urban Alternative are so thankful for the lives God has allowed us to touch and the encouragement and support you've given us in return. On Monday, a loving parent protects their children by establishing rules and boundaries. Jonathan Evans says God does the same for us, and only in our obedience to God's rules do we truly experience freedom.

Right now, though, Tony's back with his final illustration for today. In the winter, it's my day to take clothes to the cleaners, and I take the dirty and pick up the clean. I go to the cleaners because it's dirty. The shirt's dirty, the suit's dirty, whatever it is I'm taking, it's dirty. It's dirty, and I need a professional to clean it up with the equipment and all that's needed to steam it and to do all the things to make it wearable again. I take it to the cleaners. When I pick it up, it's been cleaned, it's been ironed, because I've taken it to somebody who specializes in collecting dirty things and making it wearable again. Jesus has a cleaning service. And he says, yeah, you shouldn't be dirty, it's bad to be dirty, you shouldn't be in the mud, you shouldn't be over there, but my service can take care of small stains, or if you've been rolling in the mud, I got a service that can take care of your dirt.

Let me explain something. A dirty diamond is still a diamond. It just doesn't look good because it's been in the wrong stuff. So if you are a dirty Christian, that doesn't change the fact you're a Christian, it just means you got to get that thing cleaned up by coming to Jesus' cleaners, repenting of sin and giving God the freedom to clean you up. Because the beautiful thing about it is when I take my clothes to the cleaners and they give it back to me, I don't remember my dirt. I'm so enthralled with how good it smells and how nice it looks that the cleaning overcomes the dirt that I started with. May God help us not to succumb to the culture, but to raise the standards, because we represent a king and a kingdom, and because we no longer belong to ourselves. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.