Adultery

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. I never want to play chess or strategic games with your Pastor John. Look at what he strategically did for this Sunday. So, you're going through the commandments, and he looked at that and he went, Oh, adultery. Carl! I'll give it to Carl. That's what I'm doing. I honor you, John. This is well done. But not only that, right? He goes, Oh, and it's push the clocks forward Sunday. I'll give them tired and I'll give them adultery. Well done, John. Yeah, thanks. In all seriousness, thank you for the privilege. If you're a guest or visitor, as noted, I am just sort of woven in to give John a break and some time and give you some chance to appreciate John's preaching, right? At least it's not Carl. So there we go. So here we go. Faithless here. Let's see what God's word has to say to us today. The power of fidelity. And again, this is kind of John's title, and I couldn't agree with it more. We're going to talk about do not commit adultery. And we're going to get into that in lots of biblical detail. But this is really not about not committing adultery. It's really about the power of fidelity, its opposite and its absolute incredible power. So, again, I'm starting out the morning with kind of all these asides. So in 2011, or was it 2014? This was a movie called, remember? The Help. And the movie itself was staged in pre-civil rights era, late 50s, this kind of thing, early 50s maybe. And this is about a group of black women who are servants in some wealthy white families. And it's about their journey toward recognition. They're treated horribly with prejudice, unfairly in their jobs. And it's a very interesting movie, and I recommend it if you haven't seen it. Be prepared for some spoilers in here. But it's 2011, so by now I can't hold back on the spoilers. So Minnie, this is Minnie. Minnie makes the best chocolate pies on the planet. She makes absolutely delicious. She's known far and wide for her chocolate pies. And doesn't it look good? I mean, it's a little bit early in the morning for a chocolate pie, maybe. If it can be too early in the morning for a chocolate pie. But, right, it never can be really too early. Minnie's chocolate pie is famous, delightful, delectable. And just look how good that looks. A dollop of whipped cream in the middle. It's amazing. We're going to leave it right there. We're going to come back to Minnie's amazing chocolate pie. Because there's an issue with an amazing chocolate pie. And what I'm going to make an effort to do is tie in that chocolate pie to where we're going. You can feel it already, can't you? Here we go. You should not commit adultery. Exodus 20. That's the simple commandment. And in the Hebrew, it's a root verb, so there's nothing else. There's very little beyond it. It says, don't do it. And adultery is stepping outside of your marriage. So, I've often said to Mary Louise and to anybody who would ask, over 40, almost 47. I got that right, yeah. It would be 47 in May. My lips have not touched the lips of another woman. So, I look at that commandment and I go, got it covered. I have been faithful. Then Jesus says, yeah, Carl, you have heard that it was said you should not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. How? I have not committed adultery, but I thought about it. And on occasion, I've harbored that thought. I've heard people talk about emotional affairs or lustful thinking, being too close to other women. So, no, I have not committed adultery. And you know what happens when congregations go through a pastor that has? Oh, oh. That happened to a congregation that I was serving and I was the third pastor since that pastor had committed adultery and the echo of it was still in the hallways. It was still, its impurities and distrust was still around and woven into some of the dynamics of the congregation. So, it's ugly. And it's intergenerational. It's children that have been affected by adultery that will have impact on them physiologically, psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually, sometimes for generations. And if that's been you and your world and your life, you know that. I'm preaching to the choir here. It's that empowering, that powerful, that difficult. So, Jesus pretty much covers all the bases. And for those of us who have been faithful physically, I certainly have not been emotionally, mentally, spiritually. So, I want to get to a wider context about enjoy the created while honoring the creator. The basic principle that I want to kind of make sure that we kind of grasp together is that God has provided, as a creator, a lot of fruit of things to enjoy. The fruit of the vine, wine. There is nothing wrong with drinking alcohol. Nice glass of wine. Nice red. Yours might be a nice cold beer. Those are good things. W...