Ed Young Ministries

We don’t realize our napping until we wake up.  Parents, we say, “I’m going to put my kids down.”  We’re going down.  We’re going to sleep.  We’re going to look around. And when we look around in that Timnah town, we’re going to get found.  That’s the progression of missing potential, of missing it.  And that is what Samson did.

You know, when I study Scripture I have always tried to think about and imagine what people in the Bible look like or just what their stature was, how they carried themselves, how they looked, how they processed the stuff that God had for them.  And also the stuff that they missed.  And Samson is definitely one of my favorite characters, because his life was such a tragedy.

But it continues.  Samson, he is at this wedding feast and if you read the word and study the word “feast” in the Scripture, do you know what it means?  He is at this big wedding feast.  It means a drinking bout.  He is messed up on the Nazarite vow again.  He has touched the dead carcass.  Now he has gotten drunk at this festival.  He gets really big and bad and bold and tells this crazy riddle. And they finally figure it out and he gets all upset that they figured it out, because they used his fiancé to get to him to discover the answer to the riddle.  And so he catches a bunch of foxes and ties their tails together, lights them on fire and burns up all of this grain in the Philistine country side.  Now the Philistines were after him.  PITA was after him.  It was a bad situation for the biblical body builder.

Now, for the woman to get to the man, or for the man to get to the woman, they’ve got to crawl over the hobbies, and the career, and the crib; and she’s got to crawl over shopping bags and girls night out and the career, and … It’s a fragmented family, a family that’s out of balance.

Well, here’s the question.  How do you put the child in the right spot?  And how do you join the husband and the wife?  How do you make the marriage the top priority? [Ed first answers this question sarcastically—referring to what many couples erroneously do to fix the problem…]Well, I know what you do!  You turn to our culture.

But wait a minute! Our culture doesn’t say that the marriage is the top priority.  What kind of vibe does our culture give us?  “It’s all about the kids.  Let’s do it for the kids.  It’s about the kids, kids, kids, kids.  It’s about the super mom. It’s never the super wife! It’s about the kids.

When we think about God’s positioning though, something changes.  Because obviously, the culture is not working, our ways aren’t working. But God comes along and God wants the best for the family.  God knows the family is the structure.  It’s the epicenter.  It’s the foundational piece that can change communities and cities and states and nations and the world.  God knows the potential of a great marriage and of great kids. He knows, and he wants that to be experienced in every single family team and every single family arena known to man.  That’s what our great God wants. But it’s going to take a fight.  It’s going to take a struggle.

Or what if you saw this: What if you saw the flagrant face mask and you saw the referee, you know, throw the flag, but what if he didn’t take away any downs or penalize the team with yardage?  What if he said, “You know, I threw the flag, but, just…I almost took away a down.  I almost took away some yards. But, but I’m not this time.   One, two…”

We laugh at that, but sometimes as a parent I fall into that.  I’ll see my kids misbehave, step over the line, and I know they have committed a penalty, a flagrant face mask, but we’ll sometimes cave in and just, ya know, “It’s okay. Don’t do it again.”  Or maybe we’ll throw the flag and get right next to them and think about taking away yardage or whatever, but we won’t do it.  Parents, we’ve got to be referees.

And a great referee does what?  A great referee calls a consistent game.  You show me a great ref, and I’ll show you somebody who’s consistent.  Parents, we cannot be inconsistent. We cannot be cruel, we cannot be condescending. We’ve got to be consistent.  God is consistent in his refereeing.  God’s consistent.

For example, sin has to have a payment.  I can’t pay for my own sin. Well, I guess I could in hell.  But God did something for me.  God sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for my sins to pay, to do all the work for my iniquities. And then he offers me eternal life.  That’s how consistent God is.  As parents, we have to be that consistent.  And it’s difficult to be consistent.  It’s difficult to say, “Okay, here’s the line. You can step over the line, but I’m going to throw the flag and I’m going to back it up with consequences.”

We have twins who are fifteen months and they play in our driveway constantly.  The driveway slants and if they don’t watch out, the twins playing in their little cars could start going down the hill, and while they can stop at the top of the hill pretty easily, further down the hill they would get in trouble.  We have to run and grab the car so that the car will not go out in the alley where either one might get hurt.

When sexual temptation starts, the best time to stop is when it begins.  It is to turn away from the temptation.  It is not good to entertain it, to focus on it, to play with it, to send it on down the hill and then when you are half-way there declare that you need to stop.  More often than not things are going too fast, and it is difficult to stop.  David sent someone to find out about her and he found out her name was Bathsheba, and he found out that her husband was named Uriah.  Uriah was one of David’s main men, one of his hand-chosen thirty five, a man who had been in every battle with David.  Uriah was a man who loved David, who was loyal to him, a man who was, at that very moment, on the battlefield.  Then David sent messengers to get her and he slept with her.  You read the life of David.  David prayed about everything, he prayed before he walked into battle, he prayed before he developed a friendship, he prayed before he established a capital city, he prayed before he chose a leader.  He didn’t pray about one area of his life and this area took him down, his relationship with women.  In all of David’s writings, in all of the Psalms, you read about him throughout the Old Testament, he never prayed about his relationship with the opposite sex.

Give me a break.  Was she doing some nude sunbathing as well?  That is kind of odd, isn’t it?  There are not very many people who take baths on their roof tops.”  It was common in Biblical times for women to take baths on top of the roof in the afternoon, because most of the men were either in battle or they were in the fields.  Cisterns were located on the rooftop to catch rainwater which the afternoon sun would warm.  It was like taking a hot bath.  David should have been in battle.  And the Bible says that he saw a woman bathing.  The temptation was just beginning to crystalize itself.  David hadn’t messed up here.  He just saw a woman.  And we see many members of the opposite sex who are attractive.  That is not the sin.  Here is where the sin began to occur.

“The woman was very beautiful.”  This word beautiful in the Hebrew is a very interesting word.  It comes from two Anglo-Saxon words which are rendered Sharon Stone.  Just kidding.  This word beautiful, honestly, is an intensive Hebrew word.  It is found only this one time in the entire Bible.  The woman was very beautiful.  And here is where David started getting into trouble.  He saw her.  He should have turned from the temptation but he looked again and saw she was very beautiful.  He began to paint pictures in his mind of this woman, then of this woman and King David getting together sexually.  That is when the sin began to occur, in the mind.  She was beautiful.  “And David sent someone to find out about her.”  He could have stopped at any stage here but he played with it, he thought about it, he focused on it.

Now Jericho was locked down, I mean there was nothing going on.  The people had heard the Israelites were getting ready to cross the Jordan.  The Jerichoites were about to lose their minds.  Everything was locked down but there was a house of ill repute.  But there was the red light district.  But there was a place where the women of the night kind of cruised around if you understand what I’m talking about.  And the two spies cruised into this house and the woman, I mean the madam, was named Rahab.  In today’s culture we would call her a ho.  But I have good news for you, God can take a ho and give her hope.  Isn’t that great?  God can take a ho and put a P‑E on it and give her hope.

And some of you right now are going “I’m a ho.”  You know what, just say it with me, hope.  Because God in his grace and love is all about that because God, check this out, is going to use Rahab, this ho, in a phenomenal way.

Rahab is a part of lineage of Jesus.  Rahab was instrumental in this whole deal.  So don’t let the enemy or anyone else say you’re used up.  You can’t do it.  You can’t make it.  At Fellowship Church we don’t want to ever confuse acceptance with approval.  We accept everybody, fornicators, adulterers, liars, murders, homosexuals, sinners.  We accept you.  We love you.  We don’t approve of your behavior.  We don’t go way to go adulterer, all right homosexual, yeah.  Way to go murderer and liar.  We don’t do that.  We accept you and we’ll show you what the Bible says about your behavior.  God wants to use you and he’s going to use Rahab because Rahab hides the spies.

This “I am” statement is the ego ”I am.”  It’s the name that God called himself to Abraham in the Old Testament.  God said, “I am.”  Jesus used this same name — I Am. In John 20, we meet Thomas.  We get close to Thomas.  Thomas, the modernist, the quintessential rationalist, heard the talk. He heard everybody saying, “Hey, Jesus has risen from the dead!  He has conquered death!”

Thomas said, “I don’t believe that.  I won’t believe it until I see it.  When I can touch those nail prints and I can see him, then I’ll believe it.”  Jesus appeared to him and what did Thomas say in John 20:28?  He said, “My Lord and my God.”

Also, the Spirit is God.  Acts 5:3-4, “Then Peter said, ’Annias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit… you’ve not lied to men but to God.’” See the linkage?  Holy Spirit-God.  God-Holy Spirit.  Each person is fully God.  The Trinity is three persons, but each is fully God.   Each has all the attributes of God.

Here’s a third big honking statement about the Trinity.  God is one.  God is one.  The Trinity moves in concert together.  It’s unified. There is a oneness, and that is mysterious. Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Hear, o Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.” Now, when I pray, I conclude my prayers by saying, “In Jesus name, amen.”  Why do I do that?  Is that Christianese?  Do I do it because I am a pastor?  No.  I do it because Christ is my advocate.  He is my mediator.

Seven things that will happen in your marriage during this sexperiment.  Do you want to hear about them?  Do you really want to hear about them?  I do.  I want to hear about them.  Because we’re going to have to expand the nursery after this series, in about nine months.

Number one, we’re fulfilling God’s purpose.  When we make love in marriage, we’re fulfilling God’s purpose.  You see, the stanchions are down; we have the freedom to make love.  We’re fulfilling God’s purpose.  The Bible says this in Genesis 2:24, you have probably heard this before in you have hung around church.  “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”

Kids leave, spouses stay.  They will become one flesh.  Look at your spouse for a second.  Your spouse should be a sexpert.  So say, “Baby, you’re a sexpert!”  But only if you’re sitting next to your spouse.  Let me qualify that. Because remember, when we said “I do” we said, “I’m only going to do it with you.”  When I said “I do” to Lisa, I said, “I’m only going to do it with Lisa for the rest of my life.” And she was making that same decision, that same commitment.

Now, after about 2 years, most marriages go, “I only get to do it with you for the rest of my life?!  Wa wa wa.  That sounds boring.  I’m not so sure.”

And then what do we do?  We begin to look around and we have these mobile eyes and we plagiarize and fantasize and then we get all fouled up, and we rationalize.

The Bible says, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.”

When you hear me say the Counselor or the Holy Spirit, what is that?   Who is the Holy Spirit?  What does the Holy Spirit do?  The Holy Spirit does a lot of things.  Let me list some activities of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit teaches us lessons, convicts us of sin, leads us to wise counsel, and keeps us from doing things contrary to the will of God.

Sometimes people walk up to me after a message and they will ask, “Ed, have you been like following me around?  Have you been reading my mail?”

I say, “No, that’s simply the Holy Spirit of God.”

The Father is not the Son.  The Son is not the Spirit.  Here is something else.  The Spirit is not the Father.  1 Peter 1, “To God’s elect… (that’s those of us who are Christ-followers.) who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ in sprinkling by his blood.”  (I know we have many here who are investigating Christianity.  You are not part of God’s family, yet.  You are welcome here.  Check it out.  Listen to what I am saying because you need to know who it is you are seeking.  )

See this first big honking statement about the Trinity.  The Trinity consists of what?  Three persons.  Here’s the second big statement about the Trinity.  Each of the persons — God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit  –is fully God.  Each is fully God.

The Father is God.  2 Thessalonians 1:2 says, “Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Son is God.  John 8:58 says, “I tell you the truth (here is what Christ said) before Abraham was born, I am.”

You know, though, when this young girl, who teared up toward the end of the interview… obviously the Holy Spirit was working on her; it was a total God thing. When she walked out of the church, she turned to her boyfriend. Again, boyfriend, agent, former porn star who’d been in the business for a long time. She turned to him and we heard her say this as she was leaving, “What if he’s right?”

I thought, “Wow, is that powerful!”

So if you have your Bibles, underline this verse. Psalm 34:8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Again, this is not talking about an appetizer. This is a warm invitation. This is to experience and engage God. When we taste the bread of life, we’ll see that God is what, Plano, Miami, Downtown, Fort Worth, television audience? Good! God is good. We’ll see that.

And I’m so thrilled to know that so many of you are here at Fellowship Church for the first time; you’re occupying this chair and you’re here because someone has loved you enough to invite you. We’re showing you how much we love you and how crazy we are about you.

Because at this church, we have kept this chair, the chair…. What chair am I talking about? This chair; the chair of people who are far away from God. We’ve kept this chair, the at the forefront. We’ve kept the chair at the forefront. Say it with me, “We’ve kept the chair at the forefront.” Because Jesus did so. Because Scripture commands us to do so. Taste and see that the Lord is good and then Jesus said in John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of God.It’s not just to sit there and eat. It’s to eat, to get the nourishment and then to do the will of God.