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Hey everyone, welcome to Pastor Rick

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Warren's Daily Hope. Now we're going

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to continue our series today called

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Building My Life on Values That

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Last. And Rick will press on

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and show us how we benefit

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when we apply the biblical principles

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of trust, self-control, balance, respect, forgiveness,

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moral purity, fairness, honesty, and love

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to our lives. And now let's

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go right to Rick with the

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final part of a message called

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Maintaining Moral Purity. Yesterday

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I was reading this magazine, Marriage Partnership.

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It's a Christian magazine I highly recommend

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that you subscribe to this magazine. It's

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a terrific magazine, Marriage Partnership. And then

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there was an article called, It Doesn't

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Just Happen, A Lifetime Prescription for Sizzling

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Sex. It says, Do

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you remember the anticipation of

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going on a date with your future

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spouse and how desperately you desired one

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another and how the sexual tension seemed to

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mount as you moved toward marriage? Today

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you may be wondering, where's our energy and

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desire for sex now? After

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20 years as counselors, we're convinced that

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good sex in marriage doesn't, quote, just

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happen. Couples who keep

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the sexual spark glowing through the changing

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stages of marriage are those who deliberately

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set about their sexual relationship.

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And it talks about in different stages. It says, you know, during

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the marriage's middle years, you

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may feel as though you're merely surviving

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sexually. The demand of

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life uses up your energy and

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your primary desire is often for

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sleep, not sex. I

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saw a few elbows and a few amens just then. But,

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but you must keep the pilot

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light of your sexual relationship lit,

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even if you don't have the time and energy to

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turn the flames up as high as they used to

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be. How do you do

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that? And here are some suggestions for maintaining your

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marriage. From Christian biblical

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counselors. Kissing, passionately

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every day. Kissing is

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the barometer of the state of your

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sexual relationship. Keep open

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by sharing every day. Keep

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committed to sex in spite of all the

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distractions. Your marriage and sexual

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relationship must continue to be high priorities.

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Be cautious of commitments that rob you

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of time for sex with one another.

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Keep physically fit, keep well groomed.

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Keep your sexual feelings turned toward

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home. If feelings,

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sexual feelings are triggered in response to

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somebody else other than your mate, immediately

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put your spouse in the picture and

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bring that spark home. Keep

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it scheduled. Just as you

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need to schedule quality time with your

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family and you need to schedule individual

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time with your children, you need to

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schedule time for your sexual relationship with

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your spouse. I know

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some of you are going, schedule sex? I

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thought I was supposed to be spontaneous. Who said?

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In the Bible, God says that anything that's worth

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doing, you need to plan. The

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Bible says that planned giving is better than

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spontaneous giving. The Bible

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says that planning your worship, planning your

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day off, your Sabbath, is

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important. Planning time with your kids, planning to

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study the Bible, because it's important. And planning

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to make sure that you have time for

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sexual relationship in your marriage. Because if you

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don't make time, you may

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not take time in today's world where

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everybody's just busy all the time. Keep

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sex positive. Keep learning

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about your body and your mate's body and

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keep coming up with surprises to keep sex

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from becoming boring. That's

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what it talks about. That's what it means to maintain

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your marriage. What I'm saying is this. The

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grass is not greener on the other side of

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the fence. And

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the grass is not greener on your side of

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the fence, necessarily. The

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grass is greener where you water it. And

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if you spent half the time working on

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your sexual relationship as you do complaining about

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it, or fantasizing

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about something else, it'd

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be a whole lot better. Get it? Good.

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Good. Oh, let's try that again. Get

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it? Good. Good. Number

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six, if I want to remain

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pure in a

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polluted society, I need to magnify

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the consequences of sin. I

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need to magnify the consequences of sin, of

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sex outside the parameters that God has set

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up. Having been

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a pastor for many, many, many years and

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having counseled thousands of people, and I have

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heard the heartache with

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the unfaithfulness, the illicit relationships,

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the sexual escapades

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outside of marriage or whatever,

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and I've seen the broken hearts, and

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I've seen the rejection, and I've

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dealt with the split-up families, and I've dealt

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with devastated children, and I've dealt with people

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who picked up sexually transmitted disease from an

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unfaithful spouse when they were faithful, and

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I've seen the damage that it does in hearts

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and souls and minds. I

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want to say that nothing damages

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your emotions more than

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sexual sin. Why? Because

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God made you to be a sexual

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being. He made you a woman or

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He made you a man, and

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God says that's good, and

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He made men to be men and He made women

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to be women. Since

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your sexuality invades every single part of

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your life, it's not just a physical

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act. When that is violated,

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something in your mind, no matter what you say,

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well, everybody else is doing it, goes tilt because

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you're violating the very nature which you were made, and

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the sense of loss affects everybody, the shame won't

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go away, and the scars seem to be permanent,

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and I've talked to so many people who say, you know, I wish I

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could just roll back the clock. Now,

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the Bible says this. Anyone

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who commits adultery doesn't have sense. He's

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destroying himself. The

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Bible says in Proverbs 6, 26, immorality

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may cost your life. And

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you know, today folks, that literally can be true with

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AIDS and other sexually transmitted

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diseases. See, the

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point is that Hollywood sensationalized and glamorized

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sex so much that

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it rarely shows the lives that it destroys. But

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the truth is, when sex is not

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used, but it is abused

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or misused, it

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always causes implications that we

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are even unaware of because

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it's more than physical. And

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everybody loses, and God wants to spare you this pain.

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Regardless of what's happened

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in your past, God

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gives you a new start today, a chance to start

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over to come clean, and be pure the

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rest of your life. You

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know, I've been married to Kay, and by

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the grace of God, she is the only woman

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I've ever known. And

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by the grace of God, I intend for that to be

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true the rest of my life. I intend

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to be faithful to her for my

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entire life. Now,

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why in the world would I make a commitment like that? When

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everything and everybody around me, and

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91% of the things I see on TV are saying,

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you're a fool. Why not

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just go to bed with anybody you want, as

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often as you want, wherever you want, in

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any way you want, you're an adult, you can

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make your own choices. Why would

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I do that? For

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three reasons. Number

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one, I love

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Jesus Christ. And

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he gave his life for me, he died on the cross

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for me, and I owe him everything I've got, and one

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day I wanna go and be with him in heaven. And

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Jesus says, if you love me, keep

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my commandments. Number

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two, I love my

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wife and my kids with

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all my heart. And

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the thought of the pain that

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it would bring to them if I were sexually

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unfaithful, and the scars that would

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bear on my wife and my children and

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that shame is

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a thought that's almost unbearable to me to

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even think of, it is so painful to

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consider what that would bring

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upon the people I love the most. Number

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three, because I fear

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the judgment of God. And

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it's a healthy fear, and I would suggest that

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if you don't, you better get it quick. Because

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the Bible says in Hebrews 13.4, God

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will judge the sexually

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immoral. Don't

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think you're gonna get away with this. Don't

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think that you're gonna say to the creator

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of the universe, yeah, you made me, but

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forget you, God. I know better, I know

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more about sex than you do. And God's

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going, what? Say

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that again? Oh yes,

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God, I know you gave me this gift, and

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you laid out parameters for it, but you don't

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know nothing, God. I'm gonna choose what

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will make me happy and what will meet my needs. God

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says, you don't do that and

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get away with it. This

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is a serious issue, folks. This is what Jesus Christ

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died on the cross for. Now

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God's standard has never changed.

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Premarital sex is

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unacceptable to God. It

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always has been, it

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always will be. Living

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together without getting married is

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unacceptable to God. It

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always has been, it always

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will be. Adultery,

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having an affair, being unfaithful to somebody

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you're married to is unacceptable to God.

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It always has been and it always will be. Pornography

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is unacceptable to God. It

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always has been, it always

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will be. And every one

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of those things bring a judgment. Now,

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if you have been guilty of one or

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all of these things, I've just mentioned, you

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come to the right place. Because

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this is what Saddleback's all about, a place

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for healing, forgiveness, restoration.

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God says, I wanna give you a chance to come clean and

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start over and make the rest of your life the best of

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your life. If you're a

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single adult to remain a virgin from this

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point forward until if and when God brings

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a person in your life that you make

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a marriage commitment to. And

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you could do that. What's the pathway back to

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purity? Well, it's there on your outline. Number

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one, I repent. You

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know what repent means? It's the word for

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change your mind. That's all repent means. It means

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I change my mind and say, you know, you

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were right, God. It was wrong. You call it

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what it is. It's sin. I

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don't rationalize it. I don't excuse it. I don't

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just say, well, everybody's doing it. I say, it

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was wrong. David did

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this in Psalm 51. He could good song

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for you to go read. It's his prayer after he

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committed adultery with Bathsheba. But the

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important thing is that you do it now. If

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you're in the middle of a fair right now, this

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is it folks. It's over. It's

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dead. It's done today. You quit cold Turkey right

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now. You don't go home and say, well, I'll

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phase out of this in three months. You

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go home, you make one phone call or have one

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meeting and that's it. I will never see you again.

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This is over. It's wrong. It's dead. And

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you cold Turkey. You don't

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phase out a sin. You just

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stop it now. And

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number two, you receive

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forgiveness. And

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God says, I'm waiting. I'm

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waiting to forgive and to

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cleanse and restore. And

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I want to release you from the

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shame and the regrets and the hidden

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hurts and the pain and all that

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stuff that you're going to carry into

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your marriage or you have carried into your marriage and

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it's affecting your marriage today because of things you've never

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dealt with in the past. Some of them

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you've even.