Sermon Transcript:

today I want to talk about some things that are difficult to talk about,

adultery and divorce, but we're I'm just going through the Sermon on the Mountain. That's where we are at. And so I'm not here to open any wounds or pick any scabs, but I'm here to preach the Word of God, amen. And so sometimes it seems like you know the pastor is speaking right to me? Well, it's the Holy Spirit that's speaking to you. He's the one that does the convicting and the convincing that this is the proper thing that we should do. So

a lot of times, these things have just been skirted by our churches across America. We just don't like to talk about these things, because we know lots of people that have committed adultery and have had a divorce.

But I'm here to say all sin is sin,

whatever that whatever you take from this message today. Oh, thank you, brother.

Now, now I can see you guys. Oh, good. But I just want

you to know if you've been divorced here, you're no longer you're you're no valued less from God than you were before you were divorced. He still values your life, and I want you to know things happen. We live in a real world, and we live as human beings, and situations come up, and it happens, but so let's take it from here, whatever your situation you're in now, how can we if you're married, how can we divorce, proof our marriages, if we have committed adultery in the past and we've been forgiven, how can we still commit

or commit to our spouses so that that doesn't happen again? See, my wife and I do a lot of marriage counseling, and we call it coaching, because we're not licensed counselors, and we've come into contact with people that have gone through that, and they've survived divorce and adultery are survivable. They can be overcome now. It takes a lot. It takes humility, it takes forgiveness, and it takes time. And so as we talk about these things, just remember, we're going through the gospel, according to Matthew, and it's Jesus's own words, the letters are in red. But if you have never been divorced, or you've never been in adultery, you know somebody that has right you do where we've all been

infected with that disease.

But I would be

not doing my job as a pastor if I would not say we need to still continue to check our heart last week, we did heart check. This is heart check part two, because if we don't, we can too fall into the ways of the world like brother was saying, supposedly, the church is dying. They

haven't been to Life Church.

Supposedly, things aren't going well. They haven't been they haven't been to a church that's alive and well, I, you know, I'm, I'm in the, I'm in the ministry of seeing all the different numbers and people examining things. And there are a lot of churches that are on the decline, or what we call plateaued.

But it doesn't have to be that way if we just talk truthfully about the gospel and people receive it. I believe everybody here has been very thankful that we've not skirted the issues when it comes to the text of what it is, and we just talk plainly and say, Well, what can we do about that? How can we apply that to our lives, and how can we be better people? Why is divorce and adultery so prominent today? It's a great question. I we're watching a show this morning, and they said that since 2012 to 2022 divorce has been on the decrease by 27%

I thought, Man, that's a good thing.

But then I know people that have never been divorced, but they are not actually with that person. They're still actually married. So I wonder where those stats come from, you know,

and so most of the time in adultery,

it can be avoided, because really, adultery starts with an innocent comment,

spending hours and hours with the opposite sex, maybe at your job,

but this, these innocent things that happen lead to other things, because we have this feeling or sensation of, hey, I could, I'd like to get to know this person better,

and we know better. So that's when it becomes innocent and it becomes intentional. Do you hear me? Church? You can go from innocent to intentional quickly, and it can happen. It can happen. You see, back in

the day, we used to do student menstrual student, pastor for 14 years,

I never missed an opportunity to talk about sexual purity, especially for teenagers that need to hear this.

Listen,

we are created as sexual beings. God created us that way. It's we want to do that. Can we just be honest this morning? Are we family today?

That's what God made us. We want to do those things. And so how do we take what God created in us and put it in the context where he created it for us, and that only context for sex is inside. The context of marriage. It's called a covenant relationship with your spouse and with God. So

we have to understand, how do we stay in our lanes? How do we keep our boundaries, so to speak, and

we used to tell the students until they say, I do. So

this is, this is what we used to teach teenagers, if they're attracted to somebody or they like somebody, and they would think that that would be, they want to make that their boyfriend or girlfriend. We would say, Don't get caught alone with that person. If you're attracted to them physically, go in group date settings and stuff like that. And I know that's kind of like, Oh, Pastor, you know, teenager here going, I don't want my friends at my date.

I'm telling you this for your protection.

When we put two young people in the same room alone with raging hormones, it's impossible to contain. They are going to do those things that we say they're not supposed to do. It happens because we've not made an environment that's safe for them to exist in. We've said, You go over there and do your thing, and we know what they're going to do. And then we tell them, but just don't have sex to get married. But we never put any parameters or boundaries for them. So then what ends up happening is they do get married eventually, and they take that same sort of upbringing that they had, and they take it into their marriage. And so adultery becomes part of who they are, because they went from boyfriend to girlfriend to boyfriend to girlfriend to, you know, all of those different things. And then they get married, and they think the magic words I do are going to prevent you from doing anything ever again. You've never had a boundary, you've never been in that lane, and now you're going to make it Okay, listen, I'm here to tell you, if you're not married and you're a young person, today's message is for you,

even if you've messed up, good God can forgive you.

And if you're here and you're divorced today and you're remarried, that's the person God has for you right now. You don't have to feel guilty about what happened. You just have to make where you're at in your lane now. But you can prevent those other things by doing some other things. What God's Word says, our hope is, what was always to produce a lifestyle of sustainability in young people, that they would take it into their marriage relationships, that they would understand how to respect their spouse, how to be in all in on just their spouse, and how to make that happen. You see

today seems like a pipe dream, right? Oh, come on, Pastor, no sex before marriage. Is that even possible? Absolutely, it is. Do you know that when we were in seminary, and I Lucy and I got married very young, we were not believers, but I'm going to tell you, when we were in seminary, we knew some young couples that they didn't even kiss until the first this is your bride. You may now kiss the bride they were dating, and they did things in such an honorable way. And even then, as a pastor, I was like, That's really weird. You don't even, like, kiss each other and everything. And the guys would tell me, I don't want to mess anything up. I want to make sure that my honeymoon is rememberable, and I'm not going to know about any other people. And so that was one of the questions young people would ask us. Well, how they how they how are they going to know that I'm good at sex? Well, if you don't have any experience with anybody else, you're going to be the greatest thing they've ever known, right? I mean, this just, let's just be honest, it's like, it's, it's not rocket science, how it works? Okay? Because you can figure it out pretty quickly. You're going to be the best at it, because you're the only one that they've been with that great.

Could you imagine your life with one person forever and never having to worry about it again? It could happen. We know people like that all over this place. All things are possible with God. It says in Matthew 1926 all things are possible with God. So I'm going to read the text now that I've kind of prefaced it for you again, I'm not here to make anybody feel bad. I'm here to talk to you about what the Word of God says. Okay, can we agree on that this morning? Alright? Matthew, chapter 527, through 32 please stand with me as we read from God's Word.

Jesus starts out by this. You have heard it said, and I told you this, there's like six or seven times in the beat or in the

sermon on the mount that Jesus says You've heard it said, and he says this in verse 27 You have heard it said, You shall not commit adultery. But I tell you, anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adult.

Tree with her in his heart.

If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It's better for you to lose one part of your body than to spend for you to have your whole body and be thrown into hell. If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It's better for you to lose one part of your body than lose or to have your whole body and go into hell. Verse 31 it's been said, Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce. But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery. Anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery, Father, speak to us this morning in this tough subject and Father, we just pray for grace and mercy over the words this morning in Jesus name, I pray amen. You may have a seat. Number one, I want you to know Jesus is serious about sin.

He didn't go to the cross and accept those nails and bleed his blood because it was just, I'll think about it. He was serious about sin. He said, I'm going to give my life as a ransom so that many could come to God through My Crucifixion, through my death on the cross. Sin is a serious thing, and I think sometimes we don't appreciate the seriousness that Jesus comes to that with and he says in verse 27 second time he says it, you've had it, you've heard it said, He names the Seventh Commandment, You shall not commit adultery, Exodus, 2014

what is Jesus doing as he's going through these Sermon on the Mount? And he's just like giving us this list of commandments, and it's like we know the 10 Commandments. What is he trying to accomplish by telling us something that we already know. If God said not to do it, then that should just be the end of it, right? We shouldn't do it.

Oh, he probably wishes we were that type of people, right? He probably wishes that we would just not do what God said not to do. But we're complex. We figure things out. We find out how to skirt the issues, to act like we've never committed that sin. I'm so grateful that Jesus said, Listen, you don't actually have to commit the physical act of adultery. If you look at somebody with a lustful thought, lustful thinking, lustful intentions, you've already committed adultery in your heart, because we're talking about a heart check this morning. We're talking about, where is our heart with God? Why are we looking at somebody that we shouldn't be looking at in that manner? And so I ask you again, have you committed adultery? Maybe not physically, but you might have committed it mentally and in your heart,

we know how to get around blatant commandments, and we say we didn't do it since there was no physical contact. Jesus takes this command of God and explains that there's more that lies beneath the meaning

committing adultery is not usually on most people's minds. We don't I just don't believe that. People say, I want to go do that again. It starts with something innocent and it turns intentional. That's why we have to protect ourselves from that. When it comes to sin, we all create barriers from the actual sin, but we have to keep keep our hearts in check. We have to continue to say what's truly inside of me. If I say Jesus is Lord, that's why I asked them this morning, have they confessed Jesus as Lord? Have they made Jesus the Lord of their life? And if they said that, then they're able to say, Now you take the next step of baptism. That buried with Christ in His death. The old person is gone, the new person raises to life, to live the life that Jesus has for them, but our hearts always have to be checked. That's the real message that Jesus is conveying. He's telling things to us that we already know. We know better not to commit adultery. We know better that divorce is not really biblical, but we also know that Jesus actually condoned and he said it was if Moses said, I'm going to get to that later to give him a to go ahead and give him a divorce decree. If people want a divorce, they can get out. But he says it should be for real intentions of something that was really hurt, hurtful to the marriage. And verse 28 he says, Jesus says, check your heart.

You look at someone with a lustful intention, you've already broken the rule of God,

do not commit adultery. God's very creative God, His beauty shows up in many ways, like in our looks. You know, I hope that you like the way your spouse looks, because you got to live with them every day.

You know,

you see your spouse through the eyes of God. A lot of times they go, what's their inner beauty? Listen,

let's be real. We need the outer beauty too. Okay,

so if you're here this morning and you kind of really don't take care of yourself, make up or whatever, I'm not telling you to do all those things, but you do have a spouse that would appreciate that.

Guys, same thing.

It. You know, I was wearing a t shirt this morning because I knew I was going to get wet, but I brought and to change it close so that I could come here and present the gospel. I know that it's important to present that in a manner that looks good. Our hearts need to be protected, because looks aren't everything.

When you tempt yourself over and over with commenting or committing a physical act of sin, and what happens is you set yourself up for failure when you're placed in situations to succeed. You see, many excuses have been uttered, and this is what people say,

it just happened.

Really. Are you telling me the act of adultery just happened? Like you weren't wanting that you didn't know that it was happening. It doesn't just happen. It's premeditated and it's intentional. Let's get let's be honest with God this morning,

you see Jesus says there's no way that it just happened. Your heart was massaged, it was manipulated, it was maligned. And it was you played the temptation game far too long, and he said, There's no way. He said he's serious about sin, and He gives us a solution. I love that about Christ. It's like God. What are we supposed to do about this? What are we supposed to do about this? Verses 29, and 30 an extreme, but only man is an analogy. Nonetheless, Jesus says we should do whatever it takes to get rid of our sin, anything that it takes to get rid of our sin. See, the main attraction for extramarital affairs is not this fattest that is dissatisfaction in the marriage. It's not the main reason is for emotional and physical attraction that may have nothing to do with how good your marriage is, right? Because you want something emotional and physical, that's why we need accountability partners. Jesus is serious about sin. We need to be able to discuss with people what we're going through, and not just our spouses, but men. You need men in your life, women. You need women in your life that are going to hold you accountable for what you're doing so you can I had a pastor one time, and we had a group of men, and they would get together and we'd talk about all these things, and then he would look right at us, he says, If what you just said that you did you lie about those things? Did you lie? And

it was one of those, you know, he was holding us accountable, because we can say a lot of things even in groups that aren't true. Lying has become such a okay thing with everybody. It's just like part of our language. Now, John 844 says, When you speak lies, you speak the language of the devil. That's his language, not our language. So if you're a child of God, rid yourself of that lying. Get rid of it. We need accountability partners so we can keep our hearts in check. In pornography, did you know that's basically emotional

it rewires the brain after viewing so much pornography online. You see, you may not be in a physical relationship, but you are sure are in an emotional relationship, there must be an A rewiring to fix it back to the way it was. This can't be fixed overnight. When you've been addicted for years to those things. It takes a lot to do,

a lot of things to do. So I want to ask you this morning, how's your heart

doing? Oh, you can be honest with me.

If you're at a point where you don't know what to do,

here's a few suggestions based on 29 and 30. This is where you said, Do whatever it takes to get the sin out of your life, pornography. Get rid of the internet. Get rid of your smartphone. Is it worth risking heaven and your relationships for your self satisfaction. Is it really worth it? I

don't mean that you got to get rid of it forever, but at least for a time for you to get your life in control. You're attracted to a co worker, get a new job.

Is joy. Is heaven and your relationships worth it.

Same sex attractions, listen

to get help from a Bible believing Christian counselor. And I know that there are many people today, and this is a hard topic to talk about, but I want to say if you're in a same sex relationship, that means you like the same sex a male and male and female and female. It's not biblical. God never created them for male and male to be together. He created Adam and Eve, a man and a woman to be in a relationship for a covenant relationship for life. Now I'm not any

I'm not naive to the fact that we have people probably sitting here this morning that are in those relationships, and I want to tell you this morning, God loves you.

God died for you, and he doesn't count your sin any worse off than any other sin that we commit, but he does call it a sin, and I'm going to show it to you in just a minute. And listen, I know that this is a hard subject.

To talk about, because even the church has given way to say it's okay, the Bible can never condone what it's already condemned.

You. Let me say that again, the dive the Bible will never condone what it's already condemned. Okay. We can't make it okay and say, well, it doesn't really say that. It does say that Jesus did mean that

that's the only way you can procreate, is with the male and the female. That's how we create our families. Listen, these are just a few radical ways. In some sense, I know some people would say I could never live without the Internet. Pastor, I got YouTube TV and Pandora and all the other you know, I get it. I'm right there with you, Netflix,

but you gotta figure something out to get yourself out of that. Jesus said, listen, it would be better to go to heaven with one less hand or one less eye or one less foot, if that's what it takes to get you into the kingdom of God, because He gave all of his life to you to get you there. And he said, If you want to go to hell with all of your everything intact, go for it.

He'll let you, because he's not the one sending you to hell. It's your sin that sends you to hell. And we said that last week, people don't send you to hell. God doesn't send you to hell. They say, Well, how could God be so mean man? God is the most loving God. He said, I'm going to send my only son on your behalf so that you can live your life the way that he wanted you to live.

Listen, conquering sin is difficult. It takes radical, radical transformation to conquer those things. Jesus is serious about sin. He's also serious about relationships 31 and 32 he said, It has been said, Anyone who divorces his wife must give him a certificate of divorce, but I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Marriage is a covenant relationship created in the

covenant with God for a man and a woman for life anything outside that violates the original intent. Can we agree with that this morning?

And I know we've again, if you're here and you're in your in a different you're not in your first marriage, you might be in the second one. I get it. I know in a perfect world, it would be great if everybody just got married and stayed married for life. But sin has entered in our into our world, and has made us a sinful people. That's why we need Jesus more and more. We need him more than we've ever needed him before. Verse 31 Jesus says those famous words, again, you've heard it said, Anyone who divorces his wife must, not should, but must give her a certificate of divorce. Where does that come from? I'm going, Jesus.

Wait a minute. That actually goes against your original tent of marriage

in Matthew chapter 19, verses, three through nine. You know, the leaders of the church, the Pharisees, the rulers of the religious at the time religion, they were always trying to trip up Jesus. You know, they always brought him these crazy scenarios. And so this is what He said in Matthew 19, three through nine, some Pharisees came to test them, and they asked, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason.

Could you imagine Jesus listening to those fools for any and every reason? And he says, haven't you read? He replied that at the beginning, the Creator made them male and female, and said, For this reason, a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh, so no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.

Then they asked this. Why? Then they asked, Did Moses command that a man give a wife a certificate of divorce and send her away and listen to what Jesus said. Such a beautiful reply. Moses permitted you to divorce. You're wise because your hearts were what hard?

That's the real issue with people today. They become hard hearted. We don't want heart checks. We don't want the pastor talking about adultery and divorce and any kind of sin. We don't want that.

But he says it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you, anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman, commits adultery,

divorce was never part of God's plan. God's plan has always been to be married for life.

Thank god I've been married to the same woman for 41 years. She you know that marriage is basically, listen,

not a perfect marriage, not an easy Did you know that marriage is basically one person putting up with the other? Yeah?

You're talking about two sinful people coming together to make a holy matrimony. That's why they call it. In holy matrimony, we join these people together. You know, I've done a lot of weddings, but I think about this, and I go, you're talking about two people that want their own way, and now they're supposed to do things together, even when you're like, I don't want to do that. I don't want to watch that rom com, you know,

I would I try to block the Hallmark Channel from my

Just kidding.

This is what I tell Lucy. She'll be watching it. I may walk into the room and I'll start doing something, you know, my computer or something, and then I'm sitting there before I know it, I'm watching this stinking thing on TV. You know,

listen,

I love my wife. I'm grateful that we have been able to make it through a lot of things. God has been faithful, even when you go into a marriage without Jesus in the middle. See, we both got saved later in life. I was 25 and she was 23

but God can redeem all that happened prior to Christ.

If you're here this morning and you you need that redemption this morning, God can fix it now.

Not Don't, don't get me wrong, coming up to the altar. I think that's great, but it's not an immediate fix. Now, it is when you ask Jesus to be the Lord of life, but you're asking God to fix something that had gone on for years. Well, it's going to take years to fix it, but the first step is to say, I want this for my life. Amen, I want this. You see, God has always had a plan for one person, for life of the opposite sex, always he never condone any other relationship outside of that. Sex relationships, or same sex relationships, have always been around. They're not new. You didn't invent it. If you're here and you're doing that, you're not the creator of that. You're not the cool one. Because I know sometimes it's cool to go, yeah, that's Oh yeah. That's who I am. Listen, God created you male and female. 23 chromosomes match up, and we have 46 but 23 pairs of chromosomes, did you know 22 of them are exactly the same, and the 23rd pair, that y and this, you know, the x and the y, that's where we get the male and female. It actually splits and creates who you are, male or female. Now the other ones all are exactly the same, but you can't tell me that's not God. Scientifically, they cannot even they can't control that, and that's what that's what people get mad about, is like, no, that's just why you've never been that. That's not who you recreated. You see, we want what we want, no matter what, and we want God to just put a stamp on and go

approved. He doesn't. He can't do that. That's not marriage. That's not a relationship. Marriage is out serving the other person. How

many of you all remember Promise Keepers? Back in the day it was a men's men's rallies, very few older guys like me,

we used to go to one time I went to Texas Stadium, when, where the real America's team plays in Irving Texas that didn't have a retractable roof like today, you just dealt with the elements. It had a hole in the roof so that God could watch his team play every Sunday,

but we would fill that stadium up with 60,000 men for Christ.

And the one thing that I can remember them saying, This guy came out, and I thought, Man, this is not going to go well. He came out, and he says, we're here to put women in their place. You could hear a pin drop, and I was like, what? And he goes, Yeah, in their place of honor, we're here to out serve our wives. Men, some of you men, sit around on the couch and you expect your wife to do everything. He said, we're here to put them on in their place of honor. We're here to out serve them. And you can ask my wife, I came home changed because I said, How can I out? How can I better serve my wife? That's what a relationship is. As you think about the other person first, it's not all about you. Marriage is being in a relationship about the other person.

So I do want to touch base on same sex relationships. I can't leave this message without saying this. And I want to listen. Listen to me. God loves you. If you have Jesus in your life and you're in that type of relationship, he still loves you. He still died for you. But I want you to understand the real truth about what it is. This is Romans, chapter one, verses 18 through 32

this is the Bible. These are the Bible's words. This is Paul writing to the church at Rome. So again, if you think you created same sex relationships, you didn't. They've been around a long time,

the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

Since what may be made known about God is plain to them, but because God, because God, has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse. You guys got that right. Talk about creation. We can look at creation and we can know that there's a creator. He's a he's a wonderful creator. Amen, verse 21 for although they knew God, I'm talking about us now, they neither glorified Him as God, nor gave thanks to him. But that, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal god for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, this is where it comes in. God gave them over to their sinful desires of their hearts, to sexual impurity, for the degrading of their bodies with one another, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator who is to be forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to their shameful lust, even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with the other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, just as though they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind so that they would do what ought not be done, they have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossipers, slanderers, God haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy, although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death. They not only continue to do these things, but they also approve of those who practice them. That's

the way it should be quiet.

Jesus is serious about sin.

God isn't just against sexual sexual immorality. He's against sin no matter what it that is, sin is not the problem.

Sin is excuse me. Sin is the problem, not people. Amen. He loves people. He loves you, He loves me. He wants the best for us. In mine, divorce is hated by God, but he knew that as humans, we would divorce, and so he allowed it. That's why there were exclusions like adultery. He knows that when we put our guard down, Satan steps in and gives us temporary happiness. Amen, that's what it is. It's temporary happiness. Malachi 216 says the man who hates and divorces his wife, says the Lord God of Israel does violence to the one he should protect. Says the Lord Almighty, we're here to protect our spouse. Guys, ladies, you're here to protect your husband. I'm here. We're here to protect our wives. Men, that's who we are. If

you're here today and you've been divorced and remarried, God still loves you just as much. I want to say that from the start, you are no less precious to him than when he first gave his life to you on that cross, all sins are forgiven, but not all consequences

are removed.

You hear me, see, a

lot of people want to come to Christ, and they don't want to ever deal with the consequences of this life that they built against God. There are still real consequences. Listen, in divorce, if you've had kids, there are children involved, you are always going to be tied to that other person no matter what. So my what I tell people is, make the best of it. Make sure that as you're relating to that child, you'll be you're friends with that ex spouse, because you have to for the kids, amen, you have to. They're going to always be part of the family. What does the Bible say about remarriage? First Corinthians seven.

First Corinthians 712, through 16.

He says to the rest, I say this. He says, I not the Lord. If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. And if a woman has a husband who's not a believer.

Her, he's willing to live with her. She must not divorce him, for if the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband, otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so the brother or sister is not bound in such circumstances. God has called us to live in peace, amen. How do you know wife, whether you will save your husband, or how do you know husband, whether you will save your wife? And that's the scary thing about being unequally yoked with a believer and a non believer. It's like, Well, eventually they're going to come to Christ. How do you know? Paul said it's plainly to the church at Corinth. How do you know that that's going to happen? That's why it's important for us to start in the right direction, to make sure that your spouse is a believer. First, that's the most important thing. Is like, I don't care how much you lust or love that person, if they're not a believer, they're not for you Christian.

And I know it's hard, well, I'm just going to bring them to church. The pastor's going to tell them all about it. They're going to get saved. It's not my job.

My job is to preach the gospel, tell the truth, and if people want to get saved, that's up to the Holy Spirit. That's not up to me. Second, Corinthians 614, through 16, don't be yoked with the unbelievers, for what you do with right. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Baal? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols. For we are the living temple of God. Y'all got that as Christians, we become the temple where the Holy Spirit resides, and we become the light to a dark world. We are the answer to the world's problems. We have what the world needs. We just don't like to talk about it,

noticing, I know many couples that have gone through adulterous situations and even those that have been divorced. It's not the end.

I want you to tell I want you to hear this from me. This, there's hope.

There is hope.

But I will ask you this, have you been in violation of God's ordinance and his alignment, the lane that he has created may not be divorced, divorce or adultery might be something else. Ask God to heal you, forgive you

and make amends with him today. Listen, he can make a path for you to get back in a right relationship with Him. He's willing and waiting for you.

Adultery and divorce, divorce are not unforgivable sins. There is no unforgivable sin,

not even suicided. I know people go, Listen. I'll

tell you this quick story, and this one's for free. Rick Warren's son, Rick Warren, who wrote The Purpose Driven Life, had very serious mental issues, and he committed suicide, but he had given his life to Christ early in life, and Rick Warren and his wife have created this amazing ministry to talk to people about mental issues. Listen, the only unforgivable sin is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Will we credit God for doing something that Satan did that is called an unforgivable sin? Everything else under God's green earth is forgivable. All sins are forgivable. So if you're in a situation where you say, God could never forgive me, yes, he can, and he will, and he wants to, I have been there. Many of you have been there, and you've asked Jesus to get yourself out of that. And he says, Come on, I'll do it for you.

He still says that I love you. And he still says that you can come to Christ no matter what is going on in your life. What better way to start? Because all the other solutions that you've tried haven't worked Amen. They don't guarantee anything. Jesus guarantees you eternal life, if you'll confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised them from the dead. He says you will be saved, not might be, could be. There's a part of you that no, he says you will be. Because it's with the mouth that we confess and it's the heart that we believe we're saved that's the only requirement for entrance into heaven. John 1010. Says, if you put your life in my hand, I have you in the palm of my hand. Jesus said, and nobody will be able to take you from my hand, out of my hand. And he says, me and my Father are One, and together nobody will be able to take you from our hand. You're double secure in Christ. You don't ever have to worry whether or not you're going to heaven or not, because he's made it available to all. And he says, there's no sin that I won't forgive. I paid the price for all.

Of it, he says, So this morning, as we sing this song,

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever should believe should not perish but have eternal life. And verse 17 says of John three, six, or John chapter three, verse 17, he says, Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world, but to save it. He's not here to condemn you. He's here to save you. So you come to Christ this morning. Say, Pastor, that's me. You come. Pastor, I've been disconnected from God for so long. Pastor, my marriage

is shaky. You bring your spouse, and you offer your marriage to him, and watch what he'll do. Don't call it quits this morning. If you're in a same sex relationship, you come and say, God, I don't know how to get out of this, but I know according to the Word of God, I'm not I shouldn't be doing this. Would you help me get out of this? Get yourself surrounded by Christian believers so that they can help you listen whatever God is asking you to do. This altar is open, Father God, we thank you for loving us, and I pray this morning, God

that they would come not to me but to you and Father God, as they come to you. Would you heal them? Would you forgive them? Would you give them eternal security in Christ's name? I pray amen. Let's stand and let's sing.