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🎵Music🎵 You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. It's great to see everybody here tonight. We go ahead and find our seats. We will go ahead and get started. Once you find a seat, grab a hymnal. We'll go to song number 21. Song number 21. Everybody follow closely. There's a pause that's not written in here. At the chorus so we can catch a breath and sing it out together. Song number 21. Everybody sing it out together on the first. Christ has for sin atonement made. What a wonderful Savior. We are redeemed. The price is paid. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. I praise Him for the cleansing. What a wonderful Savior that reconciled my soul to God. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. He cleansed my heart from all this sin. What a wonderful Savior. And now He reigns and rules therein. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. He gives me overcoming power. What a wonderful Savior. And triumph in each trying hour. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. To Him I give in all my heart. What a wonderful Savior. The world shall never share a part. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. Great singing everybody. Let's open up the service with a word of prayer. Lord, we love you. We just thank you again for Steadfast Baptist Church. We just thank you for a place to gather with such great people and under such great preaching. We love you. We just ask you to fill this church with your spirit and bless it and all that it does. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 55. Song number 55. When the roll is called up yonder. Sing it out if you know it well. Song number 55 on the first. When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more and the morning breaks eternal bright and fair when the saved and the first shall gather over on the other shore and the roll is called up yonder I'll be there when the roll is called up yonder when the roll is called up yonder when the roll is called up yonder when the roll is called up yonder I'll be there Oh Oh Let us labor for the master from the dawn to setting sun All of life is over Oh Oh If you don't already You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You And make some other announcements here on the front we have our Bible memory passage Psalm 59 verse 16 and Then we also have an inside our service and soul winning times It's not in our bulletin, and I wish I had added this last Sunday, but this upcoming Sunday morning is Me and my wife were wanting to celebrate our 10-year anniversary as a church so our church started in August of 2014 and So my wife and I wanted to offer a gift to those who came in attendance to service on Sunday as well as just recognized Some of our church members that have been here since 2014 and so I did want to put that out there, and I tried to message that as well, so looking forward to this Sunday and The celebration of this church's existence 10 years a long time and so it's definitely Something to commemorate and to think about and to be appreciative of the Lord giving us this church and allowing us to be here For 10 years, and so I hope that you will celebrate with us on Sunday on the right we have the list of our expecting ladies other upcoming events August 24th is gonna be another baby shower September 1st is the ordination of brother Salvador Alvarez and then September 8th dr. Phil Stringer He's gonna be coming out and guest preaching for us October 4th through the 6th is our heritage of the Lord conference and The spelling bee words have been completed I just haven't uploaded to the website So I'll do that to either tonight or tomorrow And I'll put that out there, and I'll just send out an email letting everybody know but especially by the weekend It should be up there, and you can look at it It's pretty much the same list as last year, but we've added some new words and some kickers in there So you never know what's gonna be on the list? also The baby shower details are there below our competition results are down below if you wanted to read them We'll go to our prayer list for a second and we go over this in the midweek service We've been praying for the names for their grandmother for her vision health and salvation Also, we've been praying for the Carlson's mother miss Rebecca for her health Also, miss Miller had a couple prayer requests in there for health brother Scott. We're praying for his nephew We're also praying for the Garcia's daughter who's pregnant. That's that's exciting Also, we're praying for the Foley's for their visa We've been praying for the Guzman's for her mother's salvation and also he had additional prayer requests for Dr. Gomez who's been struggling with health issues, and then we've been praying for James and John for their job We've been praying for the weathers for one of their friends whose daughter is in the ICU so and if you have oh There's another one if we pray for brother rich For some work, and so that's pretty much all I have is in the bulletin We'll just say a quick word of prayer as a church Thank Heavenly Father so much for this evening and for our church I pray that you would just bless steadfast Baptist Church and that you would just bless all these ladies are expecting Please help them during their pregnancies and give them an easy delivery I pray that you can also just help our church family and friends that are struggling with health right now Those who have cancer or illness or sickness I pray that if possible you could just give them a miracle and a full recovery Please definitely give them just peace during this time of tribulation and difficulty I pray that you could give favor unto our church members that are needing Needing some blessing with their jobs or interviews or work or promotion I pray that you could also just help us to be a bold witness to those that Do not have the gospel and haven't been saved yet They give us the opportunities you'd soften their hearts, and you would help remind us of the right words And we just thank you for all you give us and it's Jesus name we pray amen We're gonna go ahead and sing our psalm of the week some 149 it's in our special handouts Psalm 149 All right that was Psalm 149 Psalm 149 Singing to the Lord, a new song in his praise, in the congregation of saints. Let his real rejoice in him that made him. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their need. Let them praise his name in the dance. Let them sing praises unto him with the temple and clark. For the Lord, take his pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, in the two edges stored in their hands. To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people. To bind their kings with chains in their noble groves. The fetters of iron, to execute upon them the judgment written. This honor have all his grace in the Lord. Great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter number three. That's the book of Ecclesiastes chapter number three. This is the book of Ecclesiastes. This is the book of Ecclesiastes chapter number three. Ecclesiastes chapter number three. The Bible reads, I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made everything beautiful in his time. Also he hath set the world in their hearts so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life. And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God. I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it, and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. That which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been, and God requireth that which is past. And moreover, I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there, and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there. I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work. I said in mine heart, concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts, even one thing befalleth them. As the one dieth, so dieth the other. Yea, they have all one breath, so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast, for all is vanity. All go unto one place, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his portion. For who shall bring him to see what shall be after him? Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for another day of life, Lord, and let us be in church. I just pray that you be with Pastor Shelley, bless him, fill him with your Holy Spirit, and help us to receive the message. Praise in Jesus' name, Amen. We've been going through the book of Ecclesiastes, and it says to everything there is a season. And sometimes there is a season to go to a different chapter, and so I want to go to chapter 9 and look at verse number 18. I see that, one second. I see that, one second. So I want to look at Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 18. The Bible says, wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroyeth much good. And I want to just focus my sermon here on this last part of this phrase, one sinner destroyeth much good. And I want to talk about the concept of this passage with fornication in mind specifically. And unfortunately, you know, it's really easy to destroy a lot of things. It's hard to build things. It's hard to create things. It's hard for things to be done in this world. It's very easy to destroy them. And I want to go to a lot of passages this evening. I want to go to Genesis chapter 2 for a moment. Why is it that one sinner destroyeth much good? It's because destruction is easy. Building is hard. Creating is hard. Doing what's right is difficult. Doing what's wrong is easy. Destroying things is very, very easy. If we think about fornication specifically, and what's the goal? The goal should be for every young person to be a virgin until they get married. Let's just think about this logically for a second. To be able to be a virgin on your wedding day, you have to successfully avoid fornication for 18, 19, 20, 25 years. We're talking 365 days a year for 18, 19, 20, some amount of years in order to be successful in this capacity, whereas it takes one moment to destroy that. It takes just one moment, one bad decision. In many cases, it might take thousands of good decisions to stay a virgin, but it just takes one to destroy that. And so it's so much easier, there's so much opportunity to just destroy things in this world, that we have to take a lot of care to making sure that our young children stay virgins if we really want them to be virgins. If you really want your children to be a virgin on their wedding night, you must provide accountability for your children. You must, and in fact we all need accountability, but especially in this area. Now the Bible has a built-in accountability brought up. Look at Genesis chapter 2 verse 21. And the Lord God caused the deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her under the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall the man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked of the man and the wife and were not ashamed. According to the Bible, it says in verse 24, Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. I want you to notice something about this passage. Number one is that the man has accountability in the first part of this verse. Who is it? It's his mother and his father. Then immediately after this, he still has accountability in his wife. So this particular man never goes without accountability in his life. He goes from father and mother and then he goes unto wife. And the reality is for most people, not saying everyone, but for most people, if they don't go from mother and father to wife, they will most likely commit fornication. And even if someone decides to not take this advice or to not stay with their mother and their father, if they go out and they're in a situation where they have no accountability whatsoever, they have no other person that's really there to help them or give them any kind of check, then they'll probably commit fornication again. We have to just realize that people need accountability in this area because it's too strong of a temptation. Now, of course, if you just don't care what the Bible says and you just want to live whatever you want, you can leave whatever you want. But for those that actually care about the Bible and care about God's commandments, and if you actually genuinely love your children and want them to be a virgin on their wedding night, you must provide accountability for them and do not be stupid about it. Do not think like, well, my kid's really godly. Well, that's a dumb thing to say because it's not about being godly in this area. It's about just being realistic because, frankly speaking, I don't care how godly you are. If you don't eat for two weeks and we put a steak in front of you alone in a room and say, don't eat it, everyone's going to probably eat it. It's not about just saying, like, you're just so godly so you can't be tempted in this area or you can't make a bad decision in this area. The reality is this is something that's actually natural. People want this. People desire this. You can't even help it. Every single man, every single woman, virtually speaking, desires this part of the relationship. This is why people get married. Revisiting a sermon I preached already is the main reason why men get married. And listen to that sermon and then maybe you'll understand that there's a reason why men get married. And it's not that what they desire is bad or wrong or there's something evil about it. It's just wrong outside the bounds of marriage. And it's something that we have to keep ourselves in check and use some self-control. But I don't care how much self-control you think your teenagers have, they don't have it. And I'm not saying this because I think your kids are bad. I'm saying it because it's just the reality. You need to provide accountability for your children if you really want them to avoid this sin. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. I know, you know, when I was a young person, I lived with my parents all the way up until I was 19. And it was my first year of college. My first year of college, I lived with my parents. And I'll be honest with you, I didn't really do that many bad things while I was living with my parents. But as soon as they kicked me out literally and I was living on my own, that's when I made a lot of bad decisions in my life. Now again, I'm not saying I didn't make bad decisions before that. I'm just saying when I was not under my parents' roof, I made way worse decisions. And that's just me personally, me anecdotally. Maybe you can say, well Pastor Shelley, you're just a wicked heathen. Okay, say that. But most people, it's the same case. And most people when they go off to college and they're away from parents, they're away from home, they've got a roommate or whatever, they start making really, really bad decisions. Why? Because they're still not very mature. And generally speaking, we just all need accountability. We just all need accountability. And your roommate is not typically a very good accountability partner, especially when you get a random one assigned in college. Now obviously, you know, it's possible that two young men that love God could be somewhat of an accountability check for each other. But even then, it's sketchy. And most of the time, there's not really a replacement for parents in this particular situation. Now look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 18. This is the second point I want to make this evening, is what the Bible says about fornication. Verse 18, flee fornication. Now there's not a ton of sins in the Bible where it's just like screaming at you, stay as far away from this sin as possible. You want to know why? Because the temptation factor is extreme. That's why it's saying flee. It's saying don't even kind of mess around with this. Don't even think that you're strong enough. Hey, when Joseph was caught by Potiphar's wife, he ran and he didn't even take his shirt with him. He literally sprinted out of the building without his shirt on because the temptation of fornication is so strong. And so we just can't play with fire and just think that this is okay or think that people can just handle, I'm tough, I'm strong, I don't even feel that way. You know, that's just not the right attitude towards this. We have to just say, you know what, I'm going to be tempted just like every other person in the Bible is tempted. And so I need to just stay away from it. Just put myself in a situation where it can't happen. That's what it means by flee fornication. Don't put yourself in situations where it can happen. If you're not in a situation where it can't happen, then it won't happen. If you put yourself in situations where it can happen, it probably will happen. Almost every time. Now again, if you find yourself in a bad situation and you're thinking like, what did Pastor Shelley preach about this? Don't think like, I said it's inevitable. No, run still, okay? In fact, just literally, just open the door of the car and run. Run, Forrest, run, okay? Just run out of the house, call somebody, do something different. Literally just get out of that situation. I'm not trying to make excuses. Please don't hear me wrong. I'm just trying to say, don't even put yourself in the situation and flee it. What does the Bible say? Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that comitteth fornication sin it against his own body. This sin is grievous unto yourself. It will harm yourself. It will damage yourself. There's consequences. Go to Ephesians chapter 5. I'll just read for you in the book of Acts 15. It says that you should abstain from meats offered to idols and from blood and from being strangled and from fornication. Now that's kind of a strange coupling when you think about it. He's saying like, don't worship idols and eat meat sacrificed into idols and blood. It's like all these things that we would think are so grotesque and evil and satanic. And then he's just like, oh yeah, and fornication, by the way. Now, that's because it's a serious thing. I mean, there's pretty much only just generally two things being brought up in the book of Acts. Like, tell the Gentiles not to do these things. Eating meat sacrificed into idols and fornication. Why? Because they're just really, really common. They're very, very natural. Look up statistics on it. Now, again, statistics change, and I think there's been a little bit of resurgence of virginity in the last maybe five years or so. But if you go back to 2010 and you look at statistics, 95% of young ladies are not a virgin when they get married. 95% of women. And it's estimated about 98 to 99% of men. That's just the statistics. So unless you think your child is one out of 100, you're really rolling the dice here. And I guarantee those one out of 100, those few that did make it, they probably never had the opportunity. They probably had the accountability. You know who it usually is? It's Mormons. It's usually, unfortunately, Mormons whose parents are very strict and don't allow for there to even be dating. They're courting or they're in really specific dating situations where they never have the opportunity. That's the majority of that statistic. And you know what's sad is that it's Mormons. It should be a little bit more like fundamental Baptist, too. It should be Christians in general. But this is a sin that permeates society. It affects virtually everyone. Now, what does the Bible say in Ephesians 5 verse 2? As Christ also had love to us and have given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, notice this phrase, let it not be once named among you as become a saint. I mean, do you care what the Bible says? The Bible says don't even let this be named one time among you. And, you know, if you're a young person and your parents are not providing accountability for you in this area, ask them to provide accountability for you in this area. Just say, hey, you know what? I don't want to do this. Mom and Dad, will you provide accountability for me in this area? Will you not allow me to get in these situations? Or ask other people. You know, ask people. Just be humble enough and be realistic and say, I am not going to be capable of doing this on my own. Will you help me? Will you check on me? Will you make sure that I'm not making bad decisions here? Because otherwise, it's going to happen. And look, the Bible's telling us to try our best to let it not be named once among you. Now, what's the sad thing is almost virtually everybody's already failed. If we were to ask the adults and the people, they probably already failed in this area. And I'm not mad at you. I'm not trying to, you know, throw shade at you. You know, what's done is done. But for the young people, can we please stop the pattern of 98%? Can we stop the pattern of 95%? Can we bring it down a little? Can we try to be a little bit different than the world? I mean, the world constantly is saying the church is a bunch of hypocrites. Well, you know, if we're at 98% or 95%, I could see that. It would be nice if we could bring that down a little bit and actually have plenty of marriages where it's the case for the both virgins. And look, I'm not trying to put shade on just women. It's men, too. They both need to stop. And frankly speaking, I think that teenagers are too stupid to make the right decisions. I've heard people, I know people that disagree with me on them. They say, well, I think that, you know, some teenagers can handle it. I personally just don't agree, and I don't believe it. And I'll never preach that I believe that. Now, again, am I saying that there isn't a Joseph out there? There is, of course. You know what? I'm not going to parent and hope that my kids are Joseph. I'm going to pretend like they're, you know, Shechem, okay? The son of Hamor. And that's who I'm going to pretend that they are, and then when they get married, then I'll believe that they're a Joseph and I didn't need to. But I would rather be more careful in this area than be like, oh, man, I thought you were a Joseph. Go ahead to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. The Bible also says in 1 Thessalonians 4, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication. You know what the will of God is? For children to abstain from fornication. That is the will of God. That's what the Bible says. I mean, how many verses do you need for it to be clear? And most of us are probably thinking about ourselves, but we as parents need to think about our kids, and we need to provide accountability, and we need to help them flee fornication and not put them in an environment that's just rampant with fornication. That's why I'm pretty negative on college in general. Not that I'm against education. I like education. I'm pro-learning. I think for some careers, you probably have to go to college in order to get that career, whether it become engineering, accounting, in the medical profession, if you want to become a lawyer. I mean, there's a lot of professions out there, and I'm not against those professions. If you want to get into those professions, you just have to go to school for that. But you know what? I would try my best to go through school while married or with my parents and not go and just live on the campus and live in a dorm room and join the frat house and join the sorority house and go down this path, because you're probably just going to make so many mistakes that you'll regret later in life. Most people regret their college years and decisions that they made, and they have a lifetime of baggage. You can pay off student loans, but you can't pay off that kind of baggage. Now, when it comes to children and the age upon which they should get married, there's going to be a little bit of variance of opinion here, and that's okay. I'm not trying to say my opinion on this specific point is the end-all be-all, but I do want to at least address how our society thinks on this issue, and frankly speaking, if you live in America, if you live in the state of Texas, until you're 18, you are not allowed to get legally married. There's an exception for parents to sign off, but according to the state of Texas, you don't have the mental capacity to make that decision lawfully, and so you're not able to get married until 18. Now, the Bible doesn't give an age, but the Bible does give a similar concept. Look at what it says in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 36. So the Bible says, basically, there is a point in time when it's okay to marry. What is the description? When you pass the flower of her age. When we think about a plant, what does a plant do? Well, first, there's germination, and then in the germination process, essentially, it conceives, and then it starts sprouting, but you usually can't even see that yet. It's still all underground. Then it'll sprout through the ground. Then it starts growing and growing and growing, and then once the plant kind of reaches maturity, it starts going through what's called a flowering phase, and most of the time, it's from the seed. It starts producing seeds or some type of process that's going to allow it to reproduce, but then those seeds may end up flowering, and that flowering process will start growing the flower, and then the petals will finally release, and that's when you get to see the flower, and sometimes even that release takes a little bit of time, but basically what we're describing is a process of full maturity, full maturity. So I believe if we were to try and take this phrasing and put it in a little bit more modern vernacular, it's basically saying once they've passed full maturity, they can get married. That kind of makes sense to say that, hey, children should be able to pass maturity. It doesn't say during the flowering part of their age. It doesn't say before. It says once they've passed the flower of their age, meaning it's like once they've fully developed and become completely mature, now they can get married. Now there's nothing wrong with it. Let's talk about men and women. They age differently. They mature differently. In fact, girls actually go through a growth spurt before boys do, generally speaking, and according to modern science, you can look up all kinds of articles you want, but they basically say that young ladies will often reach their final height at ages 14 and 15. So girls will actually physically develop around 14 or 15 years old as far as their height. That doesn't mean, though, that they've stopped maturing, physically even, but specifically they definitely haven't stopped maturing mentally, and that's what I think some people don't understand is that young women that are 14, 15, 16 years old, while they may have matured physically, they have not fully matured mentally, and so I do not believe that that is an appropriate age for them to get married yet or to be even necessarily getting really serious about marriage. To me, if you can't get married, which this is my personal opinion, if you can't get married until 18, I don't think you should be seriously dating until you're very close to the age of 18. Now, again, I'm not against children having some light dating and whatever. You can do whatever you want. Some of you may disagree with me. I don't really want my kids going on serious dates or any kind of light dating even until 16, but even at 16, I don't want my kids calling each other on the phone every single day and hanging out and holding hands and doing all this stuff when they're 16. They're still two years away from getting married, in my opinion, and they're not really mentally mature yet, and so I believe they still need that time to grow and develop mentally as well. I just typed in something online, and this is what it says. It says, on average, females begin puberty around age 10 ½ and complete around age 15 to 17. Now, listen to what this said. Complete at age 15 to 17. So if we go with the conservative number here, they're done at 17. So if we were going to take my interpretation of this passage, it would be past the age of what? 17, which would be what? 18. And look, I didn't cherry pick this. I literally just typed in and just took the first thing that came up. There's probably a bunch of other articles that have varying opinions, but I'm just saying this is basically what I'm saying as well. It says, for males, they begin puberty around 11 to 12 and complete between ages 16 and 17. So they start a little later and maybe finish a little bit later. But even then, even young men sometimes, we still develop for a while. Now, I'm not saying that we're all aging at different processes and becoming more mature over time and everything like that, but at least they're at a young adult stage when they're around 18, 19 years old. Look, I have no problem marrying 18-year-olds if that's really what needs to be done. But at the same time, I'm not even saying the clock strikes 12 at 18, let's get married immediately. I'm fine with waiting. I'm just saying we need to have at least a boundary. And that boundary needs to be real. It needs to be real in the sense that technically I would marry someone right over the boundary and that I wouldn't right over, because then it's a real boundary. If I said, well, it's 18, but I'm not going to marry anybody until they're like 18 and a half, well, then that's the boundary. I'm saying 18 is a real boundary. I will marry someone on their 18th birthday, and I will not marry you on your 17th, 364th day. All right? Now, is that my recommendation? Is my recommendation as a pastor to say, like, let's see how close we can get to every boundary in Christianity? No, I'm not recommending that. I'm just saying that is a legitimate boundary. But I'm also saying this. For the young men out there that are considering dating, maybe you're a teenager, you should consider not only your age but the age of the person you're dating and think, you know, if this person isn't really someone that's ready for marriage or close to that age, I should probably take it very lightly and maybe not even date them yet, wait and give them a little bit more time so that when we start dating, you know, if we really like each other, marriage isn't that far away. And, you know, once you start liking somebody, you can't really help all the emotions and all the feelings and all the affection you're going to have towards that individual. And so sometimes it's good to take it a little slow, especially when people are still maturing and still growing. Go to Romans chapter number 12 for a moment. Go to Romans chapter number 12. Now, again, young men are still very dumb at 18 years old. That's why when it comes to car insurance, you pretty much don't even get a discount as a young man until you turn 25. That's because a lot of young men are just still very foolish and very immature at that age. And, you know, for I think young women, they get a discount sooner than men do in that particular category. Additionally, most car rental places, at least in times past, they would not rent to somebody under the age of 25. Now, I think some cases it's lowered to 21 and there's other apps and other avenues, but they were just thinking like, you're just too immature for me to allow you to even rent a car. Now, at least we should take that in consideration and say, if these people will not even allow me to rent a car, maybe I'm not mature enough to be alone with someone that I'm not married to and handle that situation either. If they're saying you can't even handle a car alone, what makes you think you can handle a young lady alone that you like? You know, maybe you should take that into consideration and say, hey, if I'm under the age of 25, I probably should have a chaperone. I should probably have someone providing me some accountability because I'm just not mature enough to handle that particular situation. And it's tough for teenagers to hear because teenagers have already understood everything that could possibly be learned. I mean, teenagers are smarter than their parents. They've already figured everything out. They're the greatest thing since sliced bread and, you know, in fact, they know how to use their cell phone better than their parents, so therefore they're smarter. They understand how to go like this on TikTok or something or they understand you like double tap and it does something weird or whatever. So they think that they're smarter or something even though they're like 16 or 17 years old. But let me explain something to you. You're very foolish. And I guarantee when you're older, you realize, wow, I was dumb at that age. Wow, I didn't know anything at that age. Wow, I wish I had known all these other things. And you'll hear a parent say to them like, why didn't you say that to me? And they're like, we were, you just weren't listening. You weren't paying attention. You know, if you're a teenager, pay attention to what your parents say. They're way smarter than you think. Whatever, however smart you think your parents are, it's 10 times that. At least you should listen to your parents, teenagers. Romans 12 verse 17 says this, recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men. You know, as a Christian, of course, the most important thing is serving God. And, of course, going to church, reading the Bible. Then it's loving the other members of your church and your congregation and your family. But there's other things that also extend in Christianity where we're not only to be an example to the saved and to our fellow man and to God. We're supposed to be an example to the entire world. And one of those, notice what the text says, is providing things honest in the sight of all men. Meaning, as a church, we should hold a high level of truth and accountability for the members that are at this church. And one of those areas that the church has been doing really poorly in is in the area of exposing people when they commit grievous sin. They just don't do it. And, unfortunately, we've seen a lot of cover-ups. We've seen people doing really bad things and just kind of getting away with it. We've seen pastors like Robert Morris, literally a pedophile, getting away with his pedophilia and pastors just sweeping it under the rug. And you know what? This church is not going to be like that. Now, I don't know if you know anything about Steadfast Baptist Church, but we've had our share of public exposures in this particular area. In fact, that's the reason why I'm the pastor of this church anyways, is literally the pastor was caught in grievous sin and it was exposed. And, you know, instead of just saying, let's fold up the church and quit, it's like, no, let's just get in there and provide things honest in the sight of all men and let's just deal with the ugly situation and move on. And what other churches do, you say, well, I've never been to a church like that. Well, you know what they do? They just sweep everything under the rug. It's like, I like this person's house. It's clean. Well, is it clean because they swept all the cockroaches under the rug? Or is it because they took all the cockroaches and killed them and threw them in the trash? And here's the thing. They probably left all the cockroaches under the rug. Every once in a while, one's going to sneak out again. And you'll be like, whoa, what is that? And it's like because they didn't deal with the cockroach problem. But you know what? I don't care where you live, ladies. Cockroaches exist, folks, okay? Don't get mad and think like, what ghetto did you drag me into to live in that there's cockroaches? We need to buy a new house. It's like, let's go to the fanciest part of South Lake and I guarantee I can find a cockroach there, okay? There's no way you're going to get rid of cockroaches. There's no way you're going to get rid of mosquitoes. There's no way you're going to get rid of flies. There's no way you're going to get rid of ants. Everybody has critters, everybody has bugs, everybody has trash. Don't get mad at me for actually dealing with the situation. Don't get mad at a church that actually says, you know what, let's clean up the trash around here. Let's actually exterminate every once in a while. And of course, there's always varying degrees of situation. There's situations that are really bad. There's situations that are moderate and there's situations that are mild. And that's for us to apply the Bible with discretion and make the right decision. But you know what, this will not be a church where I don't deal with issues. I will deal with issues. I've done it in the past. I've done it in the near past. I've done it in the present. I'm going to do it in the future. Like, I don't know what I have to do to get it through your head. I will deal with issues. I always have and I always will. It's crazy to me when people think that I won't or something. Or think that I'm just playing church or something. I'm not playing church. This is church. And I will do what the Bible says on these issues. Now, that being said, I don't act when I don't have to. I basically like this sprung up hammer. Okay? And I'm just kind of... And it's just like, do I have to? Nope. Do I have to? Nope. This is BAM! And then I deal with it. Okay? So it's like, if you can avoid dealing with it, me having to deal with it, I'm going to do that. And look, people make bad decisions all the time. I get up and preach ad nauseum, all the things I'm saying. Hey, avoid fornication. Don't let your kids go out by themselves. Hey, don't date around these ages. Don't do these things. But then people just do everything that I said not to do. Now, you know what I'm not going to do is I'm not going to follow you around and be like, did you not hear the sermon last night? What are you doing? I'm not going to follow you around. I'm not going to bother you. And this is what people come up to me and say, so and so is not doing what you preached. What about you? Let's talk about you for a second here. Okay? It's like, I'm not a helicopter mom. Okay? I'm not going to follow you around. I'm not going to enforce the preaching unless I have to. Now, sometimes I have to. Okay? And sometimes you can even see. This person's playing with fire. And I'm like, hey, stop playing with fire. But then they keep playing with fire. And then they get burned and I have to deal with it. But I'm not, I can't just, I can't go over there and tackle them and wrestle them down and rope them up and be like, you're not going to play with this fire. No. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to let people play with fire. Everyone smile. But you know what? If you get burned, you know what? That's your fault. I can't, I can only do so much. And we sometimes have to let people make bad decisions. Now, I want to warn you young men, because here's the thing, and women, if you commit a crime in any area, I will report it to law enforcement if you tell me. Here's the thing, even if you don't tell me, but multiple people in the church find out and they tell me I have multiple witnesses, I will also tell law enforcement. Because I'm a mandatory reporter. So if I find out about these things, I have to let them know. And I'm not willing to risk the church based on your criminal activity. Now, again, is there exceptions to this? Yes. If they say you can't go soul winning, I'm going to go soul winning. Okay? I'll go to jail with you. All right? I'll go soul winning and then I'll call them and I'll say, hey, I went soul winning. All right? So I'll be the first one to fall on that sword. Okay? But I'm just saying, when you commit a crime, whether I agree if that's the perfect biblical solution or they're going to handle it perfectly right, it's just going to happen. And, look, there's some things about this that make me really upset. Because, you know, in certain situations, you know, if a young man is with a young lady and it's a violation of the law and I find out and I have to tell law enforcement, you know who gets involved a lot of times? It's CPS. Let me explain something. I hate CPS. I think CPS should be disbanded tomorrow. Okay? And I want nothing to do with them. But, you know, if you make that mistake, I have to go down this road. And I don't want you to have to go through that. So just don't go down this road. Let me read for you Texas section 21.11. It's called indecency with a child. A person commits an offense if with a child younger than 17 years of age, whether the child is the same or opposite gender and regardless of whether the person knows the age of the child at the time is an offense. So according to the Texas Penal Code, if someone commits fornication with someone under the ages of 17, it's automatically a crime period. I just, I hope that you're not being stupid. Now, when I was younger, they had a term for this. It's called jail bait. Okay? And I'm just using that term loosely. But I'm just saying, like, this is something that young men, maybe they didn't learn anything or they had no one tell them something or they're just completely ignorant of the law. But it's like, this is a serious crime. No, no. Stay away from it. Do not go down this road. Serious consequences. Let me read something else. In Texas, clergy members are required to report suspected child abuse or neglect even if the information was shared in confidential confession or past oral communication. This requirement applies to all individuals, including those who communications are usually privileged, such as attorneys, medical professionals, social workers, and mental health professionals. So it's not even just me. If you tell an attorney, a medical professional, a social worker, a medical health professional, they have to report it. Okay? In Texas, a pastor who knowingly fails to report suspected child abuse or neglect can be charged with Class A misdemeanor. This offense can result in a fine of up to $4,000 or imprisonment for up to a year. If the pastor also tried to hide the abuse, the charge could be upgraded to a state jail felony. So it says, if in any way the person knows and then tries to cover it up, it's now a felony. I am not willing to risk felonies for your criminal activity. Okay? So I'm just trying to make this really, really clear. Go to Genesis chapter 34. Go to Genesis 34. Look, our church gets thousands of people saved a year. We're reaching hundreds and hundreds of people with our church services. We're reaching thousands with just our sermons. We're making documentaries. We've got multiple people on staff. We're supporting a missionary in the Philippines. I mean, the works that are being done by this church are enormous. People are getting counseling for all kinds of issues. People are making all kinds of friends. People are making all kinds of life decisions. People are getting married. People are being buried. I mean, there's all kinds of things happening with Steadfast Baptist Church. I am not going to risk all of that because you made a bad decision. And don't even ask me to do it because I won't. Don't even think for a second. And you know what? You should appreciate that you go to a church where the pastor's not just going to risk the entire ministry on something stupid like that. And you would, I mean, have you ever been around our church for five minutes? It's like, how long would it take for information that's salacious to be spread to the wrong person, to make all these YouTube videos, and we have all these haters and all these people constantly reporting us to everybody? So if there was any level of truth to anything, you know it's very likely that something could come and fall down hard on us. I'm not willing to risk that. Let's just deal with the situation and move on. Now, Genesis chapter 34 brings up another point about fornication that's really important. It's that sin takes you farther than you want to go. So we've addressed a few points. Number one, we all need accountability in this area, especially for our children. Number two, we need to flee fornication. Number three, we should allow children to reach full maturity before even allowing them to really get serious about these kind of relationships. Number four, we need to provide honesty in the sight of all men in this category, if there's a mistake especially. And number five is that we should realize that sin is always going to take you further than you really want it to go. People just don't get this point. They think, well, I only want to sin this way, but sin isn't going to allow you to stay over here. Sin's going to take you further than you want it to go and have worse consequences than you thought. Genesis 34, look at verse 1. Now, this is my personal opinion. My personal opinion on that was sin number one. Sin number one was just allowing your daughter to just go out unsupervised, unchaperoned, away from mom and dad, to just do whatever you want. And look, is this always going to turn into a bad thing? No. But what is my point? Sin takes you further than you want it to go. What is verse 2? Hey, my daughter's a good girl. I'm going to just let her go hang out with her friends or go hang out with these girls or go hang out with the neighbor girls. Or just go do her thing. And then it's just instantly over. That's why I was saying, one sinner destroys much good because of why it's so easy. You could go 18 years of perfection, and then you're just like, all right, go out with your friends that one time, and it's all over. It's all over in just an instant, in a blur. There's a reason why I believe that fathers or men were paid a dowry for their daughter being a virgin, because it was hard work. It's hard work. And you say, what you're saying is a burden. Yeah, it is a burden. You know what's also a burden? Your daughter being a whore. You know what's also a burden? Your daughter getting pregnant out of wedlock. That's also a burden. And you know what? When she gets married, that burden's lifted. When she's a whore, it's never lifted. When she got pregnant out of wedlock, it's never lifted. So just choose your burden. Do you want a burden now until the end, or do you want a burden for the rest of your life? And let's think about it. For most people, they probably didn't even have to do much for the first, I don't know, 10, 11, 13 years or something like that. You've already gone 13 years deep. Can we just go another five or six? I mean, just still pretend they're in diapers or whatever and spank them and burp them or whatever and hold them tight until better end, until you walk them down the aisle. Just don't get lazy. Don't get complacent. Don't give up. Just say, hey, I've already invested so much time and so much energy into you. I'm going to make sure you cross the finish line. You know why I'm preaching this? Because I want there to be a plethora of people that meet this criterion and not just me and my family or something. I always thought, I want my kids to have someone to marry, and I want my kids to have someone to be excited about in marriage. You know, it doesn't just take one for marriage. It takes multiple. And we're not in New Jersey, so we're not going to marry our brothers and sisters, okay? Go to Proverbs Chapter 30. Go to Proverbs Chapter 30. I have two more points, and these are very important points, but it's hard to stress to young people because, again, they're just so immature. But whoredom is just stupid. It is a stupid decision. It is stupid to commit whoredom. It does not profit you. It's very destructive, okay? Now, the Bible says in Proverbs Chapter 30, Verse 21, For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear. For a servant when he reigneth, or a fool when he is filled with meat. Notice this one in Verse 23. For an odious woman when she is married. Now, I want to unpack this for a second. Odious means extremely unpleasant or repulsive. So it's saying an extremely unpleasant woman getting married. What could be a context of this? Well, here's the thing. When a woman commits a lot of whoredom, she becomes not desirable anymore. She becomes less desirable. She becomes a very unpleasant or repulsive person to people, to where they don't want to marry. And he's saying, This is crazy when an odious woman gets married, meaning that it's not happening often. If you kind of just read between the lines of what this passage is saying, it's basically saying, Hey, the earth gets upset at this, and it's like crazy when this thing happens when an odious woman ends up getting married. Why? Because for the vast majority of the time, people just aren't marrying odious women. And you know what that means? Whores. Women that have gone out and just done the most debasing, degrading type activities, no one wants to marry them. People are not interested in them, and they become odious. And the reality is you're destroying your own value, young ladies, when you decide to commit whoredom. Go to Ezekiel 16. The Bible says this, The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people's grass. The Bible says the people is grass in this parable. And what does it say? The grass withereth, the flower fadeth. So let's just insert this. People withereth. People fadeth. You know, the Bible says after 60 years old, a woman's not required to get remarried. But let's just be honest. Most of the time, people aren't getting married in their older age. And, you know, I'm not trying to throw shade on anybody, but let's just be honest. Most people, their beauty fades over time. Now, this is what's not fair, okay? Young ladies, you basically start early in your age at the highest level you'll ever be, beauty-wise. And it slowly goes down over time. Now, there's a buildup. There's a buildup. There's a climax of whenever you're the most attractive, and then it goes down. This happens earlier in your age. Men, same thing. But for men, it's a lot slower buildup. It's just like a slow buildup. And then it kind of goes down a little bit at the end. But, I mean, think about just some biblical examples. I'm not trying to be graphic, but think about a few biblical examples. King David is 80 years old with a young, fair virgin, okay? Why didn't they pick, like, an 80-year-old lady for King David, okay? Well, here's the thing. Men stay attracted to women at their peak, and men peak really slowly. Now, I've preached this, and I should probably preach a whole sermon on this, but basically women age like cars, and men age like houses, okay? And if you buy a house, it usually goes up in value over time. If you buy a car, it typically goes down over time. Now, again, that's in the perspective of the new buyer. If you buy your first car, it's a classic to you. It's your car. You love it. Like, it could be even more precious to you over time. But if you had to sell it, well, the next person's not necessarily going to have all the same memories and cherish it the same way that you did, and the value on it's pretty low. That's why when I looked at things like my truck, like, my truck was really precious to me, but if I were to sell it, someone would give me, like, maybe a nickel, and it's just like, a nickel? I mean, this thing is wonderful. This thing's awesome. You know, like, to many men, their car is like a classic to them. They love it. They cherish it. It's precious unto them. Why? Because they married it, and they've been with it their whole life, and they have so many memories with it, and it's special to them, and they like the rust on it and everything like that. You know what? To the new buyer, he's kicking the tires and checking everything, and he's just like, well, you know, it's not a brand new car anymore, whereas for some reason, houses are not the same way. Houses over time, they somehow just go up in value, and it's not fair, but I don't want young women to be stupid and not realize the reality. It's kind of like you win the lottery. Now, who's won the lottery here? You better tithe. No, I'm just kidding. If you win the lottery, you know, there's mega millions. Let's say you win like $100 million in the lottery. That would be impossible for me because I don't even play, let alone even if I did. But when you win the lottery, they give you two options. They say you can take the lump sum or you can take the cash payout. Now, the lump sum is usually about half or maybe even slightly less than half whatever you want. So they'll say, like, we'll give you two options. You can get $45 million right now or we'll give you $25,000 every month for the next 25 years. Now, that's a tough, it's a tough dilemma. It's not like an obvious option. People actually have genuine, like, I don't know which one to pick. Well, this is like how it is with your value as a person. Women, they're the lump sum. Men, they're the payout, okay? And what many young women in our society don't realize today is that they're the lump sum, and they're getting that $45 million, acting like they think, like, I'm going to keep getting more money over the rest of my life, realizing you're getting nothing else. It's over. As soon as you spend that, it's gone. And instead of giving that $45 million under their husband and having a treasured life with him, they start just handing out cash and partying and having fun with all these people, but they don't realize that their value keeps going down. And I'm just telling you, when you commit whoredom, you're destroying yourself and you're destroying your value. It is a dumb decision, and you're basically just ruining whatever potential spouse you could have in the future. You're making it lower quality, and the more time you wait, the more suitors you look over, the more boyfriends you have, the more relationships you have, the worse it's going to get, and let's just be real, you're probably going to get worse options over time, not better options. Now, again, I'm not saying that when you're 18, just marry the first guy that says, but, you know, it's just how life works. Now, as a guy, you can wait. You can wait to be 20, 25, even older, and sometimes it doesn't even hurt you in that area at all. In fact, maybe you actually have more muscle and you're stronger and you're taller and you have a better job, and it's like, now your value in the marketplace is way higher than when you were 19. And I'm not saying this because... I'm not saying this because I care. I'm saying this because it's just reality. This is just how life works. And do you like it? I don't know. But that's just how it works. The grass, wither it, the flower, fade it. And you can't pick when you get the flower. You can't pick when you get the grass. You know, maybe men would wish, I wish I got the lump sum. Well, you don't. You get a slow payout over time, so you might have to wait. And, you know, for young women, you get the cash payout. You're like, I'm not responsible enough with this. Well, that's just how it works. Maybe you should ask your dad to help you with that lump sum payment. But don't kid yourself and not realize you are going to fade. You're going to be less desirable. And when you become an odious whore, well, you're just not, people just don't want you anymore. You could be ruining yourself permanently. I'm going to read another verse or two before we get to Ezekiel 16, but the Bible says this. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that fearth the Lord, she shall be praised. You know, if you want a successful marriage, love God. Don't be a whore. Don't think that your beauty even matters that much because it's going to fade over time anyways. And most of the time, if you're really attractive, this is sad, but, you know, I hate to warn you, young ladies that are actually attractive, most of the time you attract the worst guys. You know, there is a benefit to not being that attractive as a young lady is that the guys that are interested in you are probably actually interested in you. Now, again, not when you meet at the bar. I mean, they don't care what it is. But I'm just saying, like, generally speaking, if you're meeting them in a well-lit room at a library or a church or something, like, that guy probably has serious interest in you. Now, if you're an attractive lady, you need to be very careful because you're going to attract a lot of people, and you don't want to just say yes to every yahoo that comes along. You want to genuinely be concerned about those type of people. And, you know, his beauty and everything is going to fade, too. Psalm 39, look at verse 11. I didn't have you turn there. Keep in Ezekiel. When thou with rebukes dost correct men for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth, surely every man is vanity to see. This is a really interesting verse, and maybe I should have had you turn there, but just to say it again, the Bible says when God corrects people for sinning, He makes their beauty to consume away like a moth. It's almost like God's even saying, like, the more you sin, the uglier you're going to get. And sometimes that's the case. And people that are, like, smoking and drinking and committing rampant fornication, they often look horrible, horrible, not soon after. I mean, look at people like Britney Spears now. Look at people... There's another one I saw. It was, like, Amanda Bynes. Some, like, former... It's all these, like, former Disney Channel people or whatever, Mickey Mouse Club people or something. There's all these young ladies that were considered very attractive young ladies, and now they're so odious and so hideous, it's just, it's hard to even look at. It's just like... They get so much Botox and all this other weird stuff going on, and they just get a fat, puffy... It looks like they were attacked by yellow jackets or something. And then they went crazy with a crayon all over their face or something, and it's just like... Joyce Meyer is ugly, okay? I'm telling you, you know, staying... You know, eat healthy food, go to church, exercise, read your Bible. It'll somehow make you more attractive. You go live a hard life, and you're just gonna look worse. You're just gonna look uglier. Sin just makes you look uglier. On top of that, for some reason, a woman that's loud and obnoxious just looks ugly. And a woman that's just, like, really quiet and sweet and feminine just looks way more attractive. It's crazy. There's all these, like, before and afters that are being posted online all the time of, like, a conservative woman then going liberal or, like, a liberal going conservative, and you'll think... It's like night and day when you start making the right decisions. Now, here's another warning about the stupidity of whoredom. Look at Ezekiel 16, verse 25. Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to everyone that passed by and multiplied thy whoredoms. Did you notice what the Bible says? You've made your beauty to be abhorred. Why? Because you're a whore. You could be the most attractive woman, but if you're a whore, you're just basically hated, and no one wants you. No one likes you anymore. You can literally just ruin yourself by committing whoredom. And, you know, whoredom, it's an ugly word to describe an ugly sin, but for many women, that wasn't even necessarily their intent. You know what happened? They allowed a scumbag to get around them and to flatter them and to tell them they're beautiful and to lie to them and say that they love them, and then they basically allow themselves to make a bad decision with that young man one time, and now they're a whore. And usually that guy drops them like a bad habit, and then it's a vicious cycle where they rinse and repeat with a few more boyfriends, and now they're in a cycle where they can't even get out of it. They're damaged. They don't even know how to have a real relationship. They don't even know what a good man looks like at all. And it's just that one, that first relationship where that flattering scumbag came along and told them all the things they liked to hear and took advantage of them. You know, there's a scumbag like this named Tristan Tate, Andrew Tate's brother. Tristan Tate, Andrew Tate's brother, bragged about how he loves taking young ladies' virginity. Young ladies' virginity on purpose. It's like a goal for him. It's like a game to him. It's like a prize to him where he just goes and just preys on young ladies. There's all these videos of him just talking about how he's just basically a predator and just taking advantage of so many sweet young ladies because they're just too stupid to realize this guy's a scumbag. And you know what? He is a scumbag. I don't care what you say about Andrew Tate or Tristan. They said something like, work out. They're amazing. Well, they're scumbags. I don't care what he said that sounded right. He's still a scumbag. And you need to be careful, men, who's coming around your daughter and why he's coming around your daughter and why he's interested in your daughter. And you know what? You young ladies, you should just make it abundantly clear to any guy that's interested in you, I'm never going to be alone with you. I don't trust you until we get married. And just make it abundantly clear. Say, I don't trust you, and if you even do anything that I don't like, I'm going to tell my dad about it. And you know what? The scumbags will just run away like the little chickens that they are. But you know what? Don't play games. And you know what? The guy that really likes you will say like, oh, I totally get it. No problem. I won't go there. Let's go get a Coke. Let's go hang out with your family. Let's play games with your family. You know, if a young man really likes you, he'll play games with your family. He'll go zoning with your dad. He'll hang out with your little sister and brother. He'll go on walks. He'll be in accountability because he just genuinely likes you and he wants to be married to you. He'll do that. If you think, well, he doesn't want to hang out with me because my dad's just so strict. He's a scumbag. Just get away from that guy. Don't let the flattering trick you into thinking like, well, if we could just get away where dad's not around or brother's not around or mom's not looking or something, it'll be cool. No, he's just a scumbag. And maybe he can mature and grow up, but most of them will probably never change. The Bible says in verse 26, Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians, thy neighbors, great of flesh, and hast increased thy hoardings to provoke me to anger. Behold, therefore, I have stretched out my hand over thee and have diminished thine ordinary food and delivered thee under the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way. Notice because of this now, no one's taking care of you and you don't even have good food. There's so many baby mamas out there. There's so many women today that are on WIC. It's called WIC. It's called Women, Infant, and Children. When you go to a poor grocery store and you see, why is this item not in stock? And you see a WIC sign below it, that's because of WIC. I've been in grocery stores where it's just like you go and every WIC item is gone. And what it is is the government just gives free food to women, infant, and children. And you have to qualify for this and it's typically all these women that got knocked up by some scumbag and now they have no one to take care of them. So now it's daddy government. And of course they vote Democrat. Thank you, America. Thank you, America, for that, right? And look, you're like, oh, sweet, free food? It's all the worst stuff. It's like the extra GMO. Instead of having like a non-GMO warning sticker, it's just like extra GMO and pesticides. My wife says they put like paint thinner in there. I don't know. Whatever. She's like, don't get that stuff. It has paint thinner in it. It's like who knows what they're putting in this kind of stuff. It's cheap. Yeah, it is cheap. And you know, that's what you're going to be eating. You're not going to be eating Outback. You're not going to be eating steak and ribs and all the stuff that you actually want to eat. You're going to be eating junk food because of your junky lifestyle and your junky decisions. And you say, well, I don't want to live that way. I don't want to eat that junk food. Well, you know what? Keep your legs closed until marriage. And if you're not smart enough, ask your dad and your parents to help you with that. Look at verse 38. And I will judge thee as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged, and I will give thee blood and fury and jealousy, and I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place and shall break down thy high places, and they shall strip thee also of thy clothes and shall take thy fair jewels and leave thee naked and bare. They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones and thrust thee through with their swords. This is what happens. Harsh punishment. Go over to Revelation 2, and we'll finish. Harsh, harsh punishment. You know, it says, and they shall burn thy house with fire and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women, and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no higher anymore. We need to make sure that we are avoiding fornication. Why? Because it's so destructive. How are we going to do that? Number one, we need accountability. Number two, we need to flee all situations where fornication is capable of happening. Number three, we need to wait for children to become mature before we allow them to even start getting serious about dating. Number four, we need to make sure that we're providing things on us in sight of all men here. Number five, sin's going to take you further than you want to go. Number six, whoredom is just stupid. It's just throwing money into the trash. You're just destroying yourself. And number seven, God punishes this harshly. And if you think I'm mad, you haven't read the Bible. Let me read another passage while you're in Revelation 2. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ. And the Bible says that God just straight up killed 23,000 people for committing fornication. Just killed them. If you think I mean you have not met the God of the Bible because he just kills people for things. And you know, some people in the Bible, like there's just a one person example or a few people die. Like Onan's just like the one guy to die from that thing. Or, you know, Amnis and Sophia are kind of like the couple to die from wine. God killed 23,000 people for fornication. That's serious. And then he's like, let me repeat that in the New Testament and explain to you that I'm still serious about this. Like, do you even care about your young children at all? Like if you care about your children, why would you want to allow them to go down this road and to make these decisions where God can get so angry that he might even just slay them and kill them? You say, well, how do I avoid fornication? Get married. What does the Bible say in Revelation 2, verse 20? Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which called herself a prophet, is to teach, and has seduced my servants to commit fornication, and eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. Point number one, notice God, even if someone does this, he can still be merciful, he can still be on suffering with you, he can still even give you space to repent. But don't allow that grace that he's giving you, don't allow that time to be making this bad decision to go unnoticed. If you're in a bad situation, if you're making bad decisions, repent immediately. Who knows if God's timer has run out? Who knows if God is sitting up in heaven, just barely holding back some harsh punishment? Verse 22, behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds, and I will kill her children with death. And all the churches shall know that I am he, which searcheth the reins and hearts, and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. God will sometimes judge us very harshly, a fiery indignation. The Bible says that God will judge his people. The Bible tells us that we're not supposed to be doing things despite the spirit of grace, that we're not supposed to just tempt Christ and go against him, because while God will send the wicked into hell, he will punish us severely on this earth. And fornication has serious consequences. STDs, you know, in some cases you'd probably rather die than get AIDS and slowly die. And some of these STDs are just so... You know, all the fun that you get in that part of a relationship of marriage could be taken away like this with an STD. Because now you have a sore all over your body and the most sensitive parts of your body. You can't even have fun in there, you can't even enjoy it, and nobody wants to be with you because you're defiled and diseased. Not only that, there's so many bastard children in this world who don't have a loving mother and a father to do good unto them because people aren't getting pregnant within the boundaries of marriage. It's so frustrating. It's so frustrating. And I know so many people that have children today that are not being raised by a loving mother and a loving father, and it's evil. And these children are not being taken into the church, and these people are living shameful lives, and they won't get right. And you know what? If you've messed up in this area and you've got it right, praise God. Praise God for you deciding to get it right. There's never a bad time to get it right. But what I notice is when people screw up in this area, they just decide to just throw their whole life in the trash, and they just stop even doing anything worthwhile. This is a serious sin with serious consequences. I can't get up and scream about it enough. I can't be angry enough about it. And I'm not doing it because I hate you. I'm doing it because I just don't want to see it happen. I don't want to see the consequence. I hate it when someone comes to me and they're like, this is my consequence. I'm just like, argh! And you know what? For you that are out there that are assisting and aiding these people, shame on you too. You know, don't be the cool big brother that just lets your friends stay at your house with their girlfriend. Well, I know they don't have mom and dad, but you can come stay with me, live with me. And you know what? Bring your girlfriend over. You all go do whatever you want. I mean, in many cases for someone to sin and destroy their lives, it took multiple people to make bad decisions. Multiple people just enabling people to make all these different bad decisions after bad decision, and then people find themselves in this area and it's like, how did that happen? Because one sinner destroyeth much good. It just takes one person to make the wrong decision and put people in bad situations and making bad decisions. And you know what? I can't preach enough about it. I'm not going to helicopter parent you. I'm not going to follow you around. And God isn't either. He gives you free will. But when you're looking at God's commandments and you're following them, you're going to be safe. When you say, you know what? I don't care. My kids are going to live on their own and they're going to date whatever they want and they're going to do whatever they want. No one's going to tell them what to do. Well, expect to have a bunch of bastard kids and STDs and all kinds of train wreck relationships. Just expect it, because it's going to happen. You say, I don't want that. Well, you know what? It's so easy to screw up, it's so hard to not. If you want your kids and you want yourself to not make the decision, you're probably going to have to make a series of really tough decisions and you're going to have to put a lot of accountability in your life. And you know what? Us parents, can we please burden ourselves with our children's virginity? Can we please burden ourselves with that so that when they're finally married, then we can be like, okay. Just like our lives. We work now, we rest in heaven. There'll be a day when they're all married and you're like, praise God. But you know what? You're going to be frustrated by not having made the right decisions in the past. I've seen adults crying and weeping because they just didn't make good decisions for their kids. And they're like, I wish I could go back. I wish I could have been a better parent. I wish I had done the right thing here. And you just can't take it back. There's all kinds of people in my personal lives and all kinds of things that I know that have had serious mistakes in this area and it just, it's permanent, permanent damage. It's ruined people, it hurts people. Sin, and sin doesn't just hurt you, it hurts tons of people. Now of course, sometimes sin, God can be merciful and he can restore, he can repair. I've seen people that commit fornication. They get caught, they get married, and they move on, and their life's fine after that. But it doesn't mean that we should just say, oh, well that, it worked out for this one person or God was gracious unto this one couple, so therefore the rest of us can just play with fire. No, don't play with fire. And even those people, they still have some scar tissue, they still have some permanent damage even in their situation. Make sure that we take this sin serious because it's a serious sin. And we as a church need to take it as a reality check and be careful about the decisions that we're making. And you know, if you have problems, if you have issues that you want to talk to me, I'll listen. But if you report crimes to me, then I will report them. If you have a question about it, just let me know. Otherwise, let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us these strong warnings so that we don't destroy ourselves, that we can take our children's future seriously. I pray that you would just, as much as possible, just impart as much wisdom as you can into these young people and these teenagers and these children. But I pray that you would help us parents not be naive, to not be foolish, to not be lazy, and to realize that our children sometimes are not capable of always making the right decision and that we need to still provide them accountability. We need to still provide them the ability to help make the right decision for them and that they can thank us later. And I pray that you would just help us to be different from the world, to actually separate ourselves, to take this sin very seriously. I also pray that anybody that's screwed up in this area or has made bad decisions, that you just be gracious under them. Please be long-suffering under them. Please give them more space and please help their hearts to repent and make the right decisions in this situation. And I pray that anybody that's screwed up, I pray that you could also be gracious under their future relationships and to help them. But I pray that we wouldn't take your grace for granted, we wouldn't take it as an excuse, but rather we would fear God and we'd try to keep your commandments. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, in closing, let's go to song number 116. Song number 116. He leadeth me. We're going to sing it out on the first. He leadeth me, O blessed, the whole world, with heavenly comfort and thought. What e'er I do, where e'er I be, still to His God's hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand He leadeth me, is faithful from where I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me, sometimes it seems of deepest worth, sometimes where Eden's powers prove, by water still o'er troubled sea, still to His hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand He leadeth me, is faithful from where I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine, nor ever murmur or refine, content whatever lot I see, since tis my God that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand He leadeth me, is faithful from where I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. And when my task on earth is done, when by Thy grace the victory's won, in best old way I will not cling, since God drew joy in me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand He leadeth me, is faithful from where I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. Great singing everybody, you are all dismissed.