Ask Me Anything: Live Panel | Crossroads Student Ministry

You were great back there. You weren't so bad yourself. It still isn't over. Aren't you the sweetest space toy I ever met? I love you. Well, good evening, Crossroads students. Hey, if we haven't met, my name is Jason. I've got some special guests on the stage today, and I'm excited today because today is going to be different. Actually, at all of our locations, they're watching this live, and here's why. Because in this series, we were talking about what is love. And as many as questions we could answer, we answered in a series. But also, we recognize that you probably have some very specific questions. So I asked two really good friends of mine, who are students just like you, to ask us some of the questions that you submitted. So you submitted hundreds of questions. We cannot possibly get to them all, and yet, we wanted to get to as many of the most important and broadest ones possible. So we didn't answer your question. No worries. Chances are, we bundled it up in one of these questions that we're going to ask. So we're going to do as many as we can until time runs out. But to introduce my good friend, Hannah. This is Hannah. You might know her as Shep. Hi, guys. She's a teacher-pastor around here. So glad to be here. And I'll have my good student, my friends on stage that are students, introduce themselves and tell us, what side are you guys from?

Yeah, I'm Ethan, and I'm from Oakley. Yes. I'm Hope. I'm from Lexington. I know. It's kind of far away. I'm so pumped to be here tonight. And we're lucky she has shoes on. Kentuckyans. We're lucky you have shoes, too. Well, it's not from Kentucky. Don't you dare disparage the great commonwealth of Kentucky. Okay, well, let's jump right in. We sent the questions to these guys. They're going to ask them whatever order they want. And go ahead. What's the first question on your guys' mind? Yeah, we're going to dive right in. If you're next to your boyfriend or girlfriend, you're about to get real uncomfortable. Let me tell you. You picked the right service. What does God say about sex? Okay. Okay. We're going there. What does he say? It's a great question. At Crossroads, we believe in unfiltered talk and truth. And if you have this question, we're going to try and answer it to the best of our ability. Hannah, go ahead.

Yeah, I think that when we think about what God has to say about sex, one of the things that we're often asking coupled with that question is, is sex for marriage? And then the question that's also kind of underneath that is, what does it look like to please God with our bodies, to honor him with the cravings or the things that we feel like he gave us, just like we crave food and water? Sex is also a natural bodily desire. So that said, sex came from God, which means that sex is good. And just like anything, anything that was created that has the potential to be good, when it's- Chocolate chip cookies? Yeah. Amazing. Keep going. Nutty buddy bars? Mountain dew? Not the generic ones. At midnight? Mountain dew at midnight? You lost me on mountain dew. Relax. Those things, anything that has the potential to be awesome and amazing, when it's used and abused outside of the context for which it was created, it is harmful. That's true of a fire, sitting around a friend's with fire at a little campfire, maybe making some s'mores. That's a good time. Maybe leaning in, cozying up. Okay, relax. I'm not going there. Sorry. That fire's awesome.

You put that fire in a living room, we got a problem. An ax, when it's used for its purpose, to cut down a tree, to help maybe make wood for set fire, it's fantastic. When used as a weapon, not so much. And those are maybe two violent things. Here's a thing for all of you maybe health nerds out there. A banana is a good thing. It's a fruit. It's considered healthy. High potassium? It's full of potassium. But guess what? Potassium in excess can cause cardiac arrest. So anything, when it's used outside of the context for which it was created, is harmful. Sex is the same way. Sex is actually assumed in the Bible, Ethan, to be considered. It doesn't even really address it for outside of marriage because it's almost assumed that it's happening within marriage. And that's because the best place for it is in marriage. The Bible, the only standard of sex that the Bible upholds that we see is sex in marriage between a man and a woman. Now that's incredibly unique because you might imagine that, well, we have all sorts of other forms of sexuality and sex that we see in the world. And here's just the bottom line truth. To decide if you believe that sex is for marriage, you have to decide that you believe that God is Lord and authority in your life. And if he is Lord and authority, then he gets authority not just over what you do, necessarily, not just over who you are,

he tells you your identity, but also your body. Also the thing that he created can come into subjection, which just means it bows to or it obeys his lordship. And that's hard. And that's hard because it sounds almost impossible, but I'll tell you where you've already practiced it yourself. Have you ever had to pee so bad, and you just told yourself, I am not peeing in that freaking public restroom, I will hold it. Yeah, you've done that, because let me tell you about those public restrooms, they're disgusting and no one cleans them. So you're not trying to do that, so you tell your body come into subjection. And that's kind of how sex is. And the Bible has some really good things to say about it. If you want to give me 1 Corinthians, I know you were jazzed about that. So the Bible's our standard of truth around here. So anything that Hannah and I say up here, that's not explaining the Bible or trying to unpack it, is just our opinion, which honestly, probably isn't that helpful. This is truth, it's our standard of truth, and these are God's words for us. So how do we have a relationship with God, how do we discover, what does God think about sex, it's all in here. So 1 Corinthians 7 says, it is good for a man to not have sexual relationships

with a woman, but because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman have her own husband. Yeah, and I think what that scripture's getting at is when I answer your question, Ethan, like what does God say about sex, I'm not saying he says, get married. That's not what God is saying. What God is saying is that when you come under his authority everything comes under his authority, including your sexual desires, sexual behaviors, and sexual acts. In 1 Peter 3, it says, for he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. Sex outside of marriage, like I already said, is one of those things that it's possible for you to do. You might be considered, thinking if you're having sex right now, you might be like, well, I'm kinda unscathed. Well, I'll tell you what, sex outside of marriage just brings consequences because of its original design, which was for intimacy and oneness. And so if you don't have any desire to be one with the person you're having sex with,

then that eventually, if not yet, will cause harm. Which means that God's laws are only put into place, and I'm wrapping up, are only put into place to bring peace to you, shalom. That's the only reason. It's not because he's like a mean God, because he's like withholding good things from you because sex is good, no. But because he wants you to have peace. Sex outside of marriage does not lead to peace. It sometimes can lead to harm. Again, not pushing you to get married. My whole desire here is to see, Ethan, that what God has to say about sex is what he says about everything else in our life, that it should come under his lordship. Yeah. I think the important part about that too is practically how that looks at my life is my wife and I waited to have sex before we were married. Meaning, we did not have sex until after we were married. I'm not saying I was sinless going into marriage, but I was sexless going into marriage. Why is that? Why is that? Well, number one, my primary motivation is I wanna honor God with everything. And my wife's primary motivation was she wanted to honor God with everything, that the world tells us that there's a way,

and that way is just however you're feeling today, and God says there is a good way, that God's plans for you are to flourish you, and his ways lead you to life. And so my wife and I decided it might not be the easiest thing to do, but we decided we wanted to go on the narrow path that leads to life instead of following whatever desires that we could. I'm not saying that makes me better than anyone whatsoever, but what I am saying is it caused a beautiful moment where my wife and I got to discover what sex is and how it works and all the details of it together and not separate. Yeah, so you say that you and your wife waited till marriage. What did that look like? What conversations did you have? What boundaries did you have to put in place to ensure that you guys would wait till marriage? Because it's a hard thing to do, I mean, I'm sure. What did you guys have to do there? Yeah, it's super difficult. I'm not saying I wasn't tempted at all. I'm not saying my wife wasn't tempted at all. For us, it looked like having very clear boundaries that we agreed on personally and then together as a couple. And so for me in my life, having those boundaries was important that we would never dishonor those.

And honestly, the closer we got together, the more we had to move those boundaries. Hanging out alone in a car at night was okay in the beginning. And further into the relationship, it was not okay. Why? Because there was too much temptation. And so we had to constantly be having conversations about those. Boundaries and again, that was the context of me and my wife dating to marry It wasn't the context of me just dating to fool around or dating for companionship or dating just to have a social status Oh, this is what you do. You take cute pictures and you throw them on Instagram It was intentional for marriage and so we just specifically designed rules for our lives about where we needed to be and who needed to be around to make sure that We were never one terrible decision away from crossing that line Yeah, and maybe maybe you're in this room or at any of your sites and you have had sex before marriage Maybe you have made that choice. What would you say to that student in the crowd right now? I think I'm uniquely qualified to speak to that. So I did not wait to have sex before marriage There's a vulnerable truth there and I'm so thankful that I can say that with so much freedom and the reason that I can say that was so much freedom is Because I believe in the cross I believe in the work that the cross did which means that when I come to God with my sin He forgives me. That said I In having sex before marriage. I'm uniquely qualified to tell you don't freaking do it because the harm that comes with it I promise to God is not worth it. Now purity culture says oh just listen to Hannah She had a bad time. So you probably gonna have a bad time No what I'm getting at is I was actually trying to live a life that was pleasing to God and in having this sexual sin against

My own body this thing that kind of put really a distance between me and God It brought so much shame and so much not peace that what I had to do to fight my way kind of back into Wholeness, I would say it would have just been better had I avoided it altogether. So that's not I'm not just saying Oh, don't do it I'm just telling you my experience and then I would say if you are currently having sex the difference that once that happened once I made that choice I Made a different choice. I chose to turn away and I started practicing abstinence I started setting boundaries. I started realizing that hanging out in cars late night It was a bad call for me. I'm not saying that's for everybody So if that is you and you are currently having sex and you've not yet experienced the harm that comes with it My suggestion is and honestly my opinion and in the biblical standard is there's a simple turning And when you turn away the grace that meets you is just profound Because did God make me a version again? No, he did not. It's not a thing Instead what he did was lavish his mercy on me Helped me to understand that the best thing for me was to follow his way because it truly is better It is it leads to life and peace as I stated. That's good. Yeah. So awesome. That's awesome Our next question is in a God-centered relationship What is the line between lust and love look like because it's really hard to get those confused think they're synonymous It's a great question. It's a great question I think society right now will tell you lust and love are the exact same thing Oh you want to do something with that person? Oh, you're in love with them and that is the opposite of the case. Let's define our terms real quick. Lust is A sin that says I want to take from you the thing that would gratify me Right. It's it's almost predatory. It's saying I am going to subjugate you to my desires And it looks like saying You are no longer a person who's a creation of God You are only what you can give me to Satisfy my desires. And so again, we're gonna look to truth at this because this is super important I pulled three verses specifically for this and I want to read them and it kind of talks about this idea of What lust is and how we should do it now for the record? I'm not saying

Attraction is bad. There's a book called the song of songs of the songs of Solomon and it's all about there's a lot of sexual Attraction in there and so I'm not saying that attract. I am very attracted to my wife Michelle I am head over heels in love. I think she's beautiful, right? And so that's a good thing in the context relationship. You can have attraction and appreciate the beauty of the creation instead of Lust which is saying I'm gonna take from you and so lust and love are not able to exist at the same time You cannot turn someone into a piece of meat to gratify you and love them at the same time It is the opposite so you can be attracted to them, but you cannot be in lust with them You understand what I'm saying? And here's why the Bible defines love and it talks about what love is and what love isn't When it says what love is in first Corinthians, it says love is patient. Love is kind Love is not self-centered. Lust is all of the opposite of all those things. Lust is unkind And it's very definition is impatient. If love is selfless, then lust is selfish. And so someone cannot be lusting after you and in love with you at the same time. Why, because lust turns you into a piece of meat. Okay, so back to what do we do in these situations? We have a God-centered relationship and I'm trying to figure out where the line is. And so this is what the Bible says, the advice that God, I would say, God's followers have written down for you and me to follow. First Corinthians 6, by the way, all the verses so far are in First Corinthians 6 and 7. So it's a great read on your own time. First Corinthians 6, 18 says, run from sexual sin. Run from sexual, so there's this story

and I don't have time to tell the whole thing, but it's this guy named Joseph and he's the second in command of this household and one of the richest guys in Egypt and the wife of the guy in charge is coming on to him. And she's saying, lie with me, Joseph, lie with me, Joseph. And what does Joseph do? He runs out of the house, flees away. All right, sorry, that was, okay, next verse. Second Timothy, Second Timothy was written from a church elder to a church starter, a young male leader of the faith and it says, run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. James talks about this arc, the book of James in the Bible talks about this arc of where our temptations come from. And it says, desire gives birth to temptation. Temptation gives birth to sin and sin leads to death. And it's not talking about you die physically, it's talking about that time in your life where you succumb to temptation and you felt that shame and that guilt and that death kind of enter your life. And so what do we do? We run from temptation. And so what does running look like in my life?

And I'll let Hannah answer as well. For me, it looks like things that I don't do. Any rated R movie with nudity in it, I run from that, I don't watch them. I'm 36 year old, I've been married for 16 years, I can't do it, I'm not strong enough to watch that and honor God with my thoughts. Honor God with my eyes, honor God with my actions. It looks like apps that don't exist on my phone. Why, because I'm running from it. And so I think in the context of relationship, I think each individual has to say, man, what are the things that I need to run from in my life? Not because it's not convenient, but because it's the thing that is gonna bring glory and honor to God and it's gonna put me back on that path that God has for me towards righteousness or being in right standing with God. Yeah, I think for me, practically, and we want this to be practical information. One of the things I do is I do have some rules for myself. Similarly, my eyes, I eat with my eyes in the sense that I'm a kind of a creative person and so everything I intake really has time to kind of ruminate. So I'm very careful about what I watch, what I read. The other thing I do is I just have a rule around texting men after a certain time, because I'm married. So you ain't gonna never catch me,

we could be dead middle of a conversation. If it goes eight, 59, 59, the conversation even moves to email, which is a more public platform that people can easily access, especially at my workplace. That conversation moves to email or it waits till tomorrow. And that's just a rule that I have because I'm running. I don't necessarily have any desires or anything linked to that, but in the event stuff got weird or squirrely, and I'll tell you what, I made that decision at y'all's age. That is not a new decision for me. I did not text men after nine o'clock. Didn't happen. Married men, it was just because of me, not because of them, it was because of me. So that was the decision I made and that's what it looked like in my life. It looked like running. Yeah, good question. Moving out. Yeah, third question. The Bible talks about this weird thing about being equally yoked in the relationship. I don't know about you, when I hear yoke, I think of the little yellow part of an egg. I don't think that's what we're talking about. It's not. But what does it mean? What does being equally yoked,

and what even is being yoked mean? Well, first of all, the only way to eat an egg is over easy. So the yolk is runny, for the record. That's the only way to eat it. Go ahead, Hannah, equally yoked. Oh, okay, so the Bible uses equally yoked to talk about who you are joined with is incredibly important, and that the person that you're joined with should be equally yoked towards you. So Hannah will break that down for us. I think we have a picture, too. You can go ahead and throw it up. So a yoke is actually Y-O-K-E, right? Not Y-O-A-L-K, egg yolk. And this is not something- No, I learned just now. I learned just now. They're spelled differently. That's on me. Okay, you need to relax. That's what college education gets you. I was homeschooled. I'm kidding, I'm sorry. He was homeschooled for so long, you can tell obviously. But a yoke is a term that we just don't see because we don't really have a farming culture right now in America, maybe your family does have a farm and you're watching this and you might know what I mean, but even modern technology takes away the need for a yoke. Now a yoke in the Bible, the Bible was always using,

like Jason said, just analogies, common references, so that, just the same way that when we're teaching up here we're using common references so that you can understand the truth. And so the demonstration of the yoke was that two things, two beings, often oxen or cows such as represented here, they had a work to accomplish for the farmer trying to tend the field. Maybe they needed to plow the field up and get the dirt kind of turned over. Maybe they needed to plant, maybe they needed to weed. And I'll tell you what, two animals have two different minds similar to how when you get in a relationship, you're like, man, we're so similar and yet so different. Well, there's two different minds there. And a yoke, what it would do, it would put everybody on the same playing field so that work could be accomplished. So when we're talking about the importance of being equally yoked, and a lot of you ask questions around that and you didn't ask like, Hannah, I wanna be equally yoked. You asked, how do I know if this person, they say they like Jesus, but not really. It's always me who brings up the scripture or the prayer or it's always me inviting the church. They never quite initiate that. It's always me sticking to boundaries. That was the type of questions that you guys asked. Well, a yoke in this, in our context,

when we're talking about being equally yoked, to answer your question bluntly, it's impeccably important if you wanna accomplish the work that you believe God has for you in your life. If you have accepted Jesus and are a follower of Jesus, your work is to do kingdom work. And kingdom work is to make followers of Jesus and to bring heaven to earth. That work can happen in a myriad of ways, through ministry, through being a doctor, through being an accountant, through being a gamer, through being even an influencer. It can happen in a myriad of ways to bring kingdom work. But if you are unaligned with someone and what your spiritual values are, that means you're unequally yoked. That means you literally cannot pursue the same work, which means you're starting at a different baseline. And so I think that means two things. When we find that we're unequally yoked, we kind of got a choice. And one of them is actually really difficult. The first choice is really, you can kind of keep doing what you're doing and just make a decision that you're not gonna be an effective worker. You're gonna be cut in half. You can make that decision. Or you can make a really difficult decision. And you can say, hey, there's nothing wrong with you,

except we're not doing the same work. I'm trying to do kingdom work and you're trying to do something else. I'm attracted to you, I like you, we got a lot in common, except that the yoke is uneven. And what's interesting about the physical yoke in that photo is when a yoke is uneven, those two animals, it's impossible for them to walk straight. They can only walk in a circle. So if you want a life that doesn't have a lot of impact, if you want a life that just feels like it's going round and round and loop-de-loop-de-loo, then yeah, you can stay in an unequally yoked relationship and probably be fine. But if you want kingdom work, if you want a life of impact, if you want a life that, again, is submitted to authority of Jesus, then yeah, being equally yoked is pretty freaking important. And that doesn't mean it's the one. No, it means that you guys have the same baseline, spiritual values, headed towards Jesus, looking to be a follower, growing, fruit-producing member of what God calls his family. That's super important. Yeah, I think we got one more question. Great. Yeah, we'll speed around it. Something that I find really difficult is knowing if I'm equally yoked with someone.

So how do I know if a person or relationship is from God? How do I know if a person or relationship is from God? Okay, this is a great question. I think this is probably the question I answer a lot, right? Oh, he's perfect and he's beautiful and he's tall. He's from Jesus. Maybe, maybe not, right? Let's do some math on it. Sounds like me, right? Why is it always tall? Shout out short kings. We see you and we love you. You have value. Don't applaud for yourselves. Okay, great question. Hold on. Okay. Everyone's shouting out their favorite short king right now. That's great, I love it, yeah. Fantastic. I love Mark! Okay, okay, how do we know if a relationship is from God? Here's what you need to know. There are two ways that you can honor God with your relationship status, and one of them is being single. Yeah, seriously. Being single, you can be single and you can honor God and accomplish everything that he has for you to accomplish. Now, I know you're like, okay, get to the very part.

I know, but I just needed to stop and say like. Hey, it's important, not important because it's Jason's opinion, because it's in the Bible. Singleness is talked about and it's celebrated in the Bible. I'll give you two examples. 1 Corinthians 7. This is what it says. So the person who marries does well. Okay, you're like, yes, that's me. No, no, no, hold on. And the person who does not marry does even better. And I know you're like, Lord, please not me. Give me a boo. Hold on, I got one more for you. Here's why. It goes into detail a little bit more. It says, I want you to be free. Oh, this is again, a church leader talking to church folks. I want you to be free from the concerns of this life. And an unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord's work. And a married man has to think about his earthly responsibilities. So in the same way, it's important who you join your life with through marriage. You know, God talks about in Genesis 2 that we become one with the person that we marry. We become yoked together forever with the person that we marry. In the same breath, you also have to decide, man, is getting married going to double my ministry or is it going to cut my ministry in half? And there's not many people who can be single and honor God well. And we need more examples of the world in the world of that. And also, I would say, okay, you're in a relationship. You're like, Lord, is this the one? Here's what I'll say. And this is maybe the context that I used however long ago with my wife. Does that person make you look more like Jesus? That answer right there to that question. And by the way, I just want to let you know right now, if you're in a relationship, you are unqualified to answer that question about yourself, right? Because you are in love. You are over the moon. The hormones are raging and you're building a wedding. You're picking out toddler shoes for the kids that you don't have yet.

And so here's what you need to do. You need to go to a coach or you need to go to your best friend who you can trust, who loves the Lord. And you say, hey, when I hang out with this person, am I looking more like Jesus or am I not? You also need to get your best friend and say, hey, I've been dating this person for three months. Am I becoming a person of higher character or lower character? Am I constantly increasing my potential in the kingdom of God or am I decreasing that? You're going to know pretty quick from those friends. Now, the temptation is going to be that coach is going to be like, no, they're awful. I told you that. You're going to be like, you don't know me. And you're going to go date that person for a year. You're going to break up and you're going to come crying back to that coach. And every coach in this room who's served on a ministry for longer than six months has literally had that happen. So here's what I'm trying to say. I'm not trying to shame you. I'm not trying to point you out. Here's what I'm trying to say. You can have a relationship that will make you look more like Jesus. I had this in my life when my wife and I were dating. One of the things we were reading the Bible together, we were reading that Jesus, when he was walking around on earth, he went to the desert and for 40 days, he didn't eat. And for 40 days, he didn't drink. And he was tempted by Satan himself. And Jesus responded to those temptations.

You know how he responded? By quoting scripture. Actually, he quoted the book of Deuteronomy, which is the fifth book in the Bible. And most of you probably haven't even read yet. He quoted that because he memorized it. And so my wife and I saw that and we're like, dude, we've got to memorize scripture. This is so important. And so I was like, all right, let's memorize a verse. And she's like, I wonder if we could memorize a chapter. And I was like, oh, I'm going to be this. I wonder if we could memorize a whole book of the Bible. She's like, yes, let's do that. And so we spent months memorizing the book of James. And to this day, I can quote giant passages from James. Why? Because my wife counted all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith. Here's my point. I'm not trying to brag at all. Here's what I am trying to say. If someone's not making you look more like Jesus, can I tell you, they're making you look like the opposite. And I'm not trying to shame them. And I'm not saying we have to like throw them to Satan. What I am saying is, is that how do you know that this person's from God? They're pointing you to God. And your spouse, no one else is going to have the influence that they're going to have on your life for your entire life. Don't you want somebody who's going to point you to the King of Kings

and the Lord of Lords, the source of peace, the source of joy, the source of all good things, the source of love? Like you want that in your life. Yeah, and I know we're kind of out of time here. Here's what I'll say to kind of wrap up, unless you guys have any more questions. I would say that tonight, the reason we want to sit up here and talk about this sort of topic and answer your questions for you is because they're real questions. And they're real questions because I got to tell you, it sounds impossible. You're like, wait a minute, I'm attracted. You're telling me there's biology involved. You're telling me there's cravings involved. And I'm just supposed to like put a stop to all that and figure it out. No, you don't have to. to figure it out. There is a thing, a being, a part of the Trinity, the covenant of Jesus, called the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is what pushes you, helps you, encourages you, receives you when you mess up, points you back in the right direction, gently nudges you away from that boy, from that girl, from that group of friends. It helps you. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, maybe you've gone too far before and you've had that little moment where you're like, that didn't feel right. You had a moment where you were like, ooh, I don't know if I wanna do that again. See, the more you listen to that tiny little voice,

the better and louder you hear it. The more and more you ignore that tiny little voice, the more and more you get good at going further and further and further until we end up into a place that really is no return and we end up with no peace and maybe some harm even done. Tonight, the encouragement is that this life, if you choose to set up boundaries, like you asked, if you choose to go a different way, like you and Michelle did, or if you choose to make a different choice tonight, like I did, you are not doing it by yourself. You have your coach, you have accountability in your C-group, and more importantly, you have the King of Kings, to your point, the Lord of Lords. If you accept Jesus living on the inside of you, pointing you towards him, he's not trying to trick you into messing up. He's not trying to bait you into doing wrong so he can shame you. He's trying to gently shepherd you into the best life possible. And that's one, where we follow his statures, where we follow his ways, where we have sex in the confines of marriage, where we practice dating in a way that's honoring, where we choose to practice love instead of lust. And I think that's all I got. Hey, can we thank Ethan and Hope Farno

for being our student representative, reading your questions online. Can we thank Hannah, who's on our teaching team around here at Crossroads? Hey, I'm gonna invite your student pastors at all of our locations to come up in a second. Here's one thing I do wanna say. Hey, listen, following Jesus is not about a whole bunch of list of rules. It's about a relationship with the creator of the universe. And so if you're walking in here today and you're like, dude, what is this Christian thing? Why are they talking about all these rules about? No, no, no, no, no. God wants your heart. And so in this moment right now, maybe the best thing for you to have a conversation with your coach about like, hey, I didn't know that there was people my age that went to my school that took this God thing serious. And maybe you need to have a conversation with them about how maybe you start a relationship with the creator tonight. And so I'm gonna pray for you. Your student pastor is gonna come up and dismiss you. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for today. Thank you for the gift of sex and relationships. Thank you for the picture of marriage and how it symbolizes how two become one, like we could become one with you.

And God, in this moment, I pray against any shame or any guilt that anyone is feeling. Right now that is from the enemy, it's not from you. God, you love each and every of these students and you loved them when they were at their worst and you love them here today. And God, I know that you care way more about tomorrow than the 16 years have passed that anyone is sitting in this room with. God, that new mercies come tomorrow and that forgiveness and healing and hope can come tonight and even right now. And I pray for boldness of students who need that and need to talk to their coaches about it. God, thank you for C-groups where we don't have to do life alone. God, you are good and your mercies endure forever. And God, we need you more than ever today and in this moment, in Jesus' name, amen.