Forward to Zion: Ohio Hometown Camp Meeting 2016: Sharing the Truth in a Dangerous World

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Forward to Zion

Danielle Harrison

Spiritual Reflection

This evening, I'm gonna be sharing a presentation that I think is very long overdue.

I think to our detriment, we have avoided the topic of sexuality in our churches.

You know, there's a large extent to which we, I think most of us believe that in skirting the issue that we're actually protecting our young people because We're not awakening an interest in them for sexual things by keeping the information from them.

But unfortunately, the world isn't waiting to give them that information.

If they don't have a good, biblical, sound foundation to walk upon, then they're easily led astray.

And so I think that we're facing the repercussions of that in a lot of different ways in our churches.

And for some, it may be a little bit uncomfortable to breach this topic, but I believe it's very, very necessary in the time that we live in, especially.

So we're gonna be taking a look at sexual purity tonight, and I call this presentation Spiritual Reflections.

And in essence, I'm just trying to capture the thought that there are powerful object lessons that God wants us to learn from true sexuality, the way that he designed it.

And just as much, there are consequences if we venture outside of the way that he designed it.

So those are the things we're gonna be looking at this evening.

Before we get started, I'm just going to say 1 more word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you so much for the people that you've brought tonight.

I'm grateful that you brought me here to this little camp meeting.

And Lord, the conversations that I've had and the messages that I've heard have been so powerful, Lord.

And so I pray that this evening that you would speak through me in a powerful way, Lord, and that you would minister to each and every person here.

Like we heard in the introduction, Lord, you know exactly what I'm going to cover, and so does the enemy.

And so we're told in the spirit of prophecy that every time God's people gather together that there are your angels there, Lord, but there are also evil angels that come in and they strive to distract in the moment that the message that needs to be heard the most is being presented.

And he does that individually for each and every 1 of us, Lord.

And so I just pray that you will keep us all focused and attentive, Even if we feel like we already know the information that's being presented, Lord, I just pray that each and every 1 of us will be able to glean something that we can personally apply to our own lives and also that we can share with our young people.

I pray this in Jesus' name, Lord, for his honor and glory so that he can be glorified and that his coming can be hastened, Lord, in his name, amen.

So God has taken me, yes, on a long journey through life.

And how many of you were not here last evening to hear my testimony?

Okay, so there's quite a few of you who weren't here last night.

And I talked in depth about my testimony, which some people say that I have an extreme conversion story, but I think that just as much as a testimony like mine is valuable because it shows the redemptive power of God, and we're thankful for the redemptive power of God, amen?

I think that other testimonies of people who have not walked out into the world like I have, those kind of testimonies in a way are even more powerful than mine because they show the keeping power of God.

And at the end of the day, that's what we're all searching for, right?

We don't want to be drug through the mud and then be redeemed at the end of the day.

Really what we want, more than anything, is to be kept away from those things that devile and wound us.

And so each and every 1 of us here have a testimony that's very powerful and it's very important.

So God has brought me through a lot of different things so that I can understand some of these topics.

And I think that God really designed each and every thing that we experience in this world to teach us an object lesson.

Everything that we interact with in this world was designed to teach us who God is, to teach us about the great controversy, and to teach us about our place in the great controversy.

And of course he teaches us other things through those object lessons as well, but I think when we really boil it down, those are the things he is really striving to teach us the most.

And so, of course, the enemy has come in and he's done everything that he can to create as much confusion as he can about the things in this world that we interact with.

Because he knows that if we misunderstand the things that we interact with in this world, then we're going to misunderstand the character of God and we're going to misunderstand the great controversy in our place therein.

And I think this is especially true when it comes to courtship, marriage, and sexuality.

The enemy has done everything that he can to pervert these things that God intended to be a blessing for us.

But in the world that we live in, it's strange how there's a garb of sanctity, I would call it, that has come over these perversions.

And they're presented in a way that makes them look like they're safe, or that they're beneficial, or even that they're natural, and they're what we should do.

And so I'm gonna share this quote here to kind of bring that fact home.

This is in Testimonies on Sexual Behaviors, Adultery and Divorce.

It says, corrupt imaginings are followed by defiling practices like those in which the Sodomites indulged.

But the most terrible part of the evil is that they are practiced under a garb of sanctity.

And our youth will be defiled, their thoughts degraded, and their souls polluted unless they are barricaded with the truth.

And you know, I think when we consider the fact that some of the old folks in the Bible, right, they lived for 900 years, so we're all really you, right?

And we are all in danger of being deceived unless we are barricaded, barricaded with the truth.

And so we're seeing this coming more and more into our churches and yay into the Adventist churches where, oh no, certain things are okay within certain contexts right certain sins are okay within certain contexts and and this is this is false of course we know that But this is especially true with the issue of homosexuality.

There's a lot of people who are saying, oh no, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was actually pride, And God says that it's okay for us to be homosexual if it's monogamous because it was actually promiscuity that God was displeased with.

I mean, these are the kind of lies that are floating around and these are how some of these groups are popping up in Adventism that are supporting the idea that you can be gay and you can be a Christian.

And so we really have to come to see these things from God's perspective.

And that is what I had to do in my life in order to walk away from the things that I was indulging in in my life, I had to come to see the issues in my life from God's perspective.

And every single time that that shift has taken place in my life where I've really started to see it from his perspective, then I've started to have victory in my life.

Because when I see it from my narrow point of view, it's easy for me to excuse what I'm doing or to just walk in this direction, even though I might know that it's not quite right.

But once I really see the big picture and I see it from his perspective, it's easier for me to walk away.

And so, like I mentioned before, diverging from God's plan for sexuality is sexual sin.

Anything outside of God's plan is sinful and there are consequences.

So we're going to look here at some of the consequences.

You'd be surprised at how many young people in our churches wonder what's the big deal with masturbation, like why is that sinful, why is it harmful?

But God gave us a sexual hunger that is only to be awakened inside of the confines of marriage.

And so when we start indulging in in this kind of stimulus with ourselves, then it's awaking this spiritual hunger before it's designed to be awakened.

And so this cultivates damaging habits, of course, and also lustful thoughts that stain the heart, the mind, and the soul.

And it creates this self-focused gratification.

Now, I've said this in the past, that sex, the way that God designed it was meant to be a ministry.

And I actually had someone come up to me afterwards and say, I don't think you should refer to sex as a ministry.

That just made them really uncomfortable.

But if we think about the essence of what ministry really is, when you go somewhere and you're working with a ministry, you're striving to help that person, right?

You're striving to serve that person, and you're striving to help them to learn about God, right?

So what if our sexual experiences were more about that?

More about serving the other person and more about experiencing and learning about God through that experience?

And I think that we don't have that kind of mentality even in the church.

And I think that's why we see so much pornography addiction, and we see so much adultery, and things like that, because we're not really looking at sex as a ministry, going into it as to how I can serve this other person.

So when you're indulging in masturbation, you're cultivating this self-focused kind of gratification instead of your spouse-focused kind of love experience.

And so you don't have that intimate kind of bonding.

And it creates future challenges for married couples because of these dynamics that I've explained here beforehand.

And there is so much pornography addiction in in our churches and and you know God tells us in his Word in Matthew 5 27 and 28 that when we're committing fornication that we're sinning against the body.

Actually I'm sorry I'm getting those those quotes mixed up there.

Just want to make sure that I'm getting this right.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery.

But I say unto thee that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." So we are committing adultery when we're looking on someone and we're lusting after them.

So that's really what we're doing when we're indulging in pornography.

And 1 Corinthians 6.18 tells us that we are sinning against our own body when we are committing fornication.

And so we have to consider these things when we're approaching these.

Now, some people are shocked when I say that, but have you considered that you are purchasing that person for your own consumption?

And so it really is a form of prostitution.

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