Welcome back to the Summer of Love, Jesus Style. Of all the important and valuable things in our lives, Jesus made love the main thing. So here at Pathway we are spending our whole summer talking about love, Jesus' style.

We believe there has never been a concept of love that is as psychologically healthy, emotionally fulfilling, and physically beneficial as the the biblical way of love.

We believe this is because of the second major premise: There has never been a concept of love that is as aligned with reality and truth as the biblical way of love.

And we believe that is because there has never been a concept of love that flows from the nature and heart of God other than the biblical way of love.

What I'm saying is that if you want a kind of love that is the most satisfying, the most beneficial in real life, and the most attuned to the heart of the Creator, then there is nothing even close to love, Jesus style, meaning love, as it is described and taught in the Word of God.

So, here's today's topic: Step Out of Broken Love

It's broken because this kind of love causes pain. And it's broken because this kind of love proceeds from pain. Unhealed, unresolved pain is driving a kind of love that is broken.

So broken love is dysfunctional. It is addictive. It is needy or desperate or exploitative.

Let me say really fast that I know this is a sensitive topic. There are about a thousand ways to mess up relationships. So let's just agree that nobody is perfect on this, except for Jesus. And last time I checked, you're not Jesus.

 

And I promise you, I'm not either.

So, let's open our heart to God's truth on this, even if it stings a little bit. Or a lot.

The Bible uses one all purpose word for all sexual activity that falls outside the biblical teaching on love. That word is right here. It is the word porneia.

I'm sure you cracked the code that we get words like porn and pornography from this word. We also get the word "fornication" which means premarital sex.

The ancient city that first received this writing was Corinth. Corinth had several pagan temples including the infamous Temple of Aphrodite Porneia ("Aphrodite of the Prostitutes"). Sexual immorality was part of the culture.

When the earliest Christians in Corinth first came to faith in Jesus, they were coming out of a highly sex-saturated culture. For their whole lives they had been programed to think about life a certain way. That is because they thought about their gods a certain way.

And that meant that they thought about themselves a certain way. They had identity problems. We'll come back to that.

But porneia is an all-purpose word for all sexual activity that God warns us not to do. Since, in this series, I've been going places that make us all feel awkward, why stop today?

Here is a partial list of sexual activity that the Bible says not to do. Also known as "Broken Love."

I want you to know I am not judging anyone. I am not here to condemn anyone. I want you to be whole. I want you to be healthy. I am praying for true and powerful love to be unleashed in your life like you have never imagined.

Also, I know that even mentioning things on this list can bring up memories of pain or guilt or shame or the past. I want to be sensitive, and I'm warning now you so you can raise your shields now.

We live in a real world. And if the church doesn't talk about these things, only the dark side will.

So here we go. When the Bible says to flee immorality, this is what you should flee... turn and run as fast as you can.

The List:
Adultery (sex outside of marriage, Exodus 20:14, Romans 13:9)
Fornication (premarital sex, Galatians 5:19)
Partying, Group activity, Revelings (1 Peter 4:3, Galatians 5:19)
Pornography, Fantasies (Matthew 5:28)
Prostitution (Proverbs 6:26)
Compulsive Masturbation or Porn (1 Timothy 3:2-4, 1 Corinthians 9:27)
Non-consensual sex (Deuteronomy 22:25-27)
Non-consensual withholding in marriage (1 Corinthians 7:5)
INCEL, MGTOW (Hebrews 13:4, Mark 10: 6-9)
Being a Tease (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7)
Pedo (Luke 17:2)
Animal (Leviticus 18:23)
Immodest Dressing (Proverbs 7:10)
Cross Dressing (Deuteronomy 22:5, or hair style 1 Corinthians 11:6,7)
Trans (Genesis 5:2, Psalm 139:13)
Same Sex Activity (Romans 1:26,27)
Crude or Lewd Humor, Dirty Jokes (Ephesians 5:4)

My talk is called Step Out of Broken Love. And all of these things are part of Broken Love. They come from the dark side of your soul.

Jesus died for every sin. Your Heavenly Father leans into forgiveness. That's the power of the Cross. That's why Jesus shed his blood.

But even more than that, God can change you, and he changes you by forgiving you and healing you.

Ultimately, every one of these actions, and all the ones I didn't list, come from pain. And they lead to pain.

Our key verse says that you—I mean anyone who does these things—is literally sinning against their body.

And Proverbs 6:32 says that you—I mean anyone who does these things—"destroys their own soul." Translation, this is how a person invites destructive chaos into their own psychology. There's the pain, the heartbreak, the confusion, the depression, the regrets and all the rest.

These two go together, but let's take these one at a time, and then put them back together.