We just finished up a sermon series about hard things like sexuality and gender. For some of us we are figuring out how to love and interact with our child or grandchild without endorsing the sin of a homosexual lifestyle. Some of us are wrestling with whether to use the name of a loved one who changed their name to reflect their desired change of gender. Some of us are personally fighting the temptations of sexual immorality. Some of us are giving in to the temptations of sexual immorality. And the sad thing is, some of us are doing it alone. For some of us the sin or temptation is secret and we are doing everything we can to manage perceptions and protect ourselves from being found out. This is exhausting; I know that from experience.
We were not meant to be alone in our struggles and temptations. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!” When my sin was still in secret, I was alone. I had no brother to help pull me up when I fell. I had no brother that could reach out to me or ask me hard questions, because no one knew I was struggling.
If you are trying to fight a temptation alone, then I beg of you to find someone to confess to. Find someone who is close to you and ask them to help you. If you can’t think of the right person to talk to, then reach out to one of the pastors or try coming to Celebrate Recovery on Monday nights. Fighting a secret temptation or struggle is exhausting, defeating, and lonely. Don’t try to fight alone. Let’s “Bear one another’s burdens” as Galatians 6 says. Let’s “pray for one another, that we may be healed” as James 5 says. Let’s “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’, that none of us may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” as Hebrews 3 says. Let’s pursue authentic community together because “a man might prevail against one who is alone, but two will withstand him” (Ecclesiastes 4:12)
See you Sunday!
My Rightnow Media Pick of the month is “Sexuality” which includes several sessions from Christopher Yuan an author that Pastor Jack referred to several times.
- Pastor Kyle