The Truth About Sex - Noah Herrin

Yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-yo! What is up, Journey Church? Whoa, the engine. Oh my goodness. I hope you felt that through the screen. We want to be with you. We love you guys. Love is in the air. Come on. Talk about it. I hope you had a great Valentine's Day. Hope so. Come on, with Jesus, with family, with friends. That's right. With your dog, with your brownies. With yourself. Okay, that was a call-out. I told him that I made brownies by myself. At 325. Come on. 325. Amen. Praise God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if we have not had the privilege and honor of meeting, my name is Gianna, and I get to serve here as a Journey College director and also one of your online coordinators. That's right. I love that. My name is Chantel, and I also get the honor and the privilege and the joy of being one of your online hosts.

Right. And being in the house of the Lord. Amen. Come on. If we have not had the honor and privilege, my name is Zion, and I have the honor and privilege of serving on your QC team in-house and being one of the team leads for your online community. That's right. Absolutely. And by the will of God, I, too, get to be a part of our online team. Amen. Come on. My name is Julian, and it's an honor to be with y'all today. Yeah. We also want to extend a very special shout-out to one of your online coordinators. That's right. I love that. My name is Chantel, and I also get the honor and the privilege and the joy of being one of your online hosts today and being in the house of the Lord. Amen. Come on. That's right. And by the will of God, I, too, get to be a part of our online team. Amen. Come on. My name is Julian, and it's an honor to be with y'all today. Yeah. We also want to extend a very special shout-out to those of you watching from correctional facilities around the country. What's up, y'all?

Yes, you guys. We love you, and we truly are so grateful that you get to join us today. Very happy. That's right, you guys. And we're so happy that you get to join us, because we would love to pray for you. And so if you have also any prayer requests or things that we can be lifting up, please put them in the chat so that our prayer team can be praying over your needs. Amen. That's right. That's right. And we are in this new setup, because we are actually in the sets of our After Talk podcast. And so if you guys haven't watched it yet, it's only available on our Jordan Church app, which is a reason why you need to get our app. But we want to open up for discussion, talk about what have we received, how has this blessed us. And online, let us know what you have gotten if you've been tuning in with us every week. That's so good. If you don't mind, I'll take it. Yeah. I'll take the reins. So yeah, I'll speak to the single gang, the single crew. So if you are getting okay in your singleness, I just want to let you know what I've gotten out of it. It's being okay with being single. I feel like my experience was being single was like, I don't know, there was something wrong with it. But now that I have Christ in my life, shout out to JC. Big B, okay? Big homie. The big one, not the little one.

Okay? Has helped me a lot in my life. And you know, just shout out to you guys and just keep your focus on him. That's so good. They're laughing. I'm laughing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can say it. Come on. I'm laughing. Yeah. I'm laughing because I'm in that season and that podcast has truly blessed me. Pastor JJ, while sitting in this seat, said a very powerful word. You asked what we learned and it was to be content with here. Because if you aren't content with here, then you'll never be happy there. And because you didn't learn how to be happy here, there eventually becomes here. And it just, it laid me down on the carpet in my living room. I was like, okay, that is so important because here could be anything. Here could be singleness. Here could be, if you are a widow, like whatever you're here is, we have to find the joy of the Lord here. Yeah, that's so important. And I love that you even mentioned widow season. Because I think that especially during this time of year when we're talking about love, sex, and marriage, there's a lot of reflection based on that. And so if you're a widow, we want you to know that we actually have a small group available here at Journey Church. It's a widow small group. And so we would love for you to go on our Journey Church app. You can find it and hopefully you're able to join in and get connected.

And there's a bunch of other groups that you guys could definitely be a part of as well. But I also love that Pastor is just going deeper in these different conversations. I love that he's bringing it back to, hey, it's all about the Lord, that our completeness is in the Lord, whether or not we're single, engaged, married. It's not about any of those things. Those things are additional. It's really about our first belonging, which is through Christ. So good. And speaking of engaged, are you guys not getting married in like less than 30 days? In a month. Isn't that crazy? So excited. Drop some rings in the chat, okay? So crazy. Our fellow leaders, okay? And I think there's just so much still to learn, even when you're engaged and when you're dating and when you're single. Like Pastor JG says something so sweet. He says there's never a point of arrival. And I pray that that blesses you guys because we could be like, yeah, when I get married, that's it. And it's like, no. We're doing premarital counseling and we're like, there's still more. There's still more to go. There's still more to grow in. And so I think that that's freedom in itself. It's like, hey, you don't have to have it all figured out. You don't need to be the perfect person. That's why Christ came because we're not called to do that, you know? Transparency.

okay so probably low-key it's it's it's the word expectation for me I just I've I've come to not like it because I feel like it's a thief of joy like and that's just my true output on it because there's certain moments and certain things in this life like the what's what what sprung that in my mind was when she was talking about our marriage counseling was that um they asked the question like what are you expecting marriage to look like and I was like expecting yeah that's a powerful word but and then the beautiful thing was like she was like oh I'm expecting this down a third not not anything wrong with it you're expecting because I love what you expect but that's right the thing for me was that I have no expectation because I grew up without an image of what marriage was so it was never this thing that I was looking for or I was like I need it like so when they asked it when they asked that question it triggered it triggered so much more thinking in my mind so to bring it back to the expectation of that like that that was such a beautiful shift in its own and that's why I really really love the Apple talk podcast there's a lot of conversations and things that just we need to talk about in here in terms of having a conversation like that and then putting it in a godly term like that's a beautiful thing especially about expectations absolutely you're right in my mind I was just gonna say online what season are you in we would love to know because I know already we asked for your prayer request but that could also be a part of the request so please let us know so in that same heart posture Ziya you're on fire if you don't mind can you lead us into worship and get us prepared Lord dear Heavenly King first and foremost we just thank you for this day Lord God we thank you for the breath in our lungs in this season I just pray that you just allow us to have a realization and a breakthrough in a and a mindful change of what love is and what love is to you Lord God we love you we thank you and in Jesus name we pray amen man we'll see y'all later come on soon let's head on into worship y'all come on God is doing it a new thing today if you believe that let's fill

this room with praise Oh come on if you know it's a there is revival right here and now there is a freshman and I can hear the sound something truly wonderful is happening difference inside of me more than a feeling this is a prophecy something really powerful it's happening come on do you believe that in darkness found out to the day mountains came up on my way breaking out of yesterday I got a new thing coming it's hell that's dying in my face you're not greater than my faith best believe me when I say I got a new thing, I got a new thing I got a new thing, I got a new thing come on sing it there's an anointing to destroy the old so tell every stronghold you gotta let me go something really powerful is happening there is a freedom that I have never known and out of the shadows into the overflow something really powerful is happening

oh in darkness found out to the day mountains came up on my way breaking out of yesterday I got a new thing coming it's hell that's dying in my face you're not greater than my faith best believe me when I say I got a new thing, I got a new thing you got a new thing we got a new thing oh come on God it's stirring something in our city we see it, we see it Lord cause I can see a cloud heavy with rain and it looks like revival is headed our way ♪ I can see a cloud, heavy with rain ♪ ♪ And it looks like salvation is headed our way ♪ ♪ I can hear a sound, the abundance of rain ♪ ♪ And it sounds like freedom is headed our way ♪ ♪ And I can hear a sound, the abundance of rain ♪ ♪ And it sounds like provision is headed our way ♪ ♪ I can see a cloud, I can see a cloud, heavy with rain ♪ ♪ And it looks like healing is headed our way ♪ ♪ I can see a cloud, I can see a cloud, heavy with rain ♪ ♪ It's like joy is headed our way, is headed our way ♪ ♪ Is headed our way, is headed our way, is headed our way ♪ ♪ Is headed my way, is headed our way, is headed our way ♪

♪ Is headed our way, is headed our way, is headed our way ♪ ♪ Is headed our way, is headed our way, is headed our way ♪ Come on sing it out. ♪ The darkness bow down to the day ♪ ♪ Mountains get up out my way, breaking through the city ♪ ♪ I got a new thing in my way, and tell this giant in my face ♪ ♪ You're my greater than my faith, let's believe in us today ♪ ♪ I got a new thing, I got a new day, I got a new day, I got a new day, I got a new day ♪ Come on declare that. ♪ I got that new mind, new heart, fresh faith, I got that new eye, and I'll work, I got a new thing coming ♪ ♪ I got that new mind, new heart, fresh faith, I got that new eye, and I'll work, I got a new thing coming ♪ ♪ I got that new mind, new heart, fresh faith, I got that new eye, and I'll work, I got a new thing coming ♪ ♪ I got that new mind, new heart, fresh faith, I got that new eye, and I'll work, I got a new thing coming ♪ ♪ I got a new thing, I got a new day, you got a new day, we got a new day, I got a new day, I got a new day, I got a new thing coming ♪ Come on sing that too. ♪ Cause I can see, cause I can see it loud, heavy with grace, and it looks like hell, is it always, I can see it loud, heavy with grace, is it always, and I can hear a sound, I can hear a sound, I can hear a sound, I can hear a sound ♪ ♪ And it sounds like freedom, it's heading our way, and I can hear a sound, the abundance of grace, and it sounds like provision, it's heading our way, it's heading our way, it's heading our way, it's heading our way, it's heading our way, it's heading our way ♪ ♪ It's heading our way, it's heading our way, it's heading our way, it's heading our way, it's heading our way, it's heading our way, it's heading our way, it's heading our way, it's heading our way, it's heading our way Season two- Come on, it's headed our way. Come on, it's headed our way. Come on, would you give God praise like it's headed your way. Come on, His provision is on the way. His healing is on the way. Come on, we receive it. We receive it. Come on, wherever you're at across the room, if you feel comfortable with me, would you just lift your hands to heaven? It's a sign of surrender. Father, we're here for you. Lord, we lay all of our burdens at your feet. Lord, we lay down all the things we came in here with today and we focus on you.

So, Father, would you lift our head to see, to focus on you, Jesus. You're all we want. You're all we need. We thank you, Jesus. You're all I need. All I need. Would you sing it with me? You told us to wait. The helpers on the way Will never be the same So meet us as we wait And fall, fall, fall on us again While the fire is spreading with the wind Having your way, fill this place Come on, we declare And fall, fall again Come on, we sing You taught us to pray Come on, you sound beautiful this morning church We'll thank you Lord We're baptized in your flame So hear us as we pray And fall, fall, fall on us again While the fire is spreading with the wind Having your way, fill this place Come on, we declare Come on, we sing Fall, fall, fall on us again We ask you Lord To fall, fall, fall on us again

Oh have your way, have your way Oh we sing There's more when two of us are here We shake the atmosphere It sounds a lot like hey There's power, there's power We lift a shout of praise And watch as you bring heaven Oh there's more, there's more When two of us are here We shake the atmosphere It sounds a lot like hey Oh there's power, there's power Power in your name We lift a shout of praise And watch as you bring heaven down It sounds a lot like hey Oh it sounds like hey It sounds a lot like hey So fall, fall, fall, fall on us again While the fire is spreading with the wind Having your way, fill this place Come on, we declare Come fall, fall, fall on us again We sing Fall, fall, fall on us again While the fire is spreading with the wind Having your way, fill this place Come on, we declare Come fall, fall, fall on us again

Oh there's more, there's more There's more when two of us are here We shake the atmosphere It sounds a lot like hey Oh there's power, there's power Power in your name We lift a shout of praise And watch as you bring heaven down There's more When two of us are here We shake the atmosphere It sounds a lot like hey Oh there's power, there's power Power in your name We lift a shout of praise And watch as you bring heaven down It sounds a lot like hey Oh there's more, there's more There's more when two of us are here It sounds a lot like hey It sounds a lot like hey So fall, fall, fall on us again While the fire is spreading with the wind Having your way, fill this place ♪ Fall, fall, fall again ♪ ♪ We ask you Lord to fall, fall again ♪ Amen. Praise the Lord. I love that song so much. I love that song.

It sounds a lot like heaven. Yeah. That's so good. And one thing that I do know is that when there's one, more than one or two of us together, the presence of the Lord is with us. Yeah, so that's so good. So in that same heart posture, we actually have a online prayer request that I would love to share with you guys. And it came from our online squad. So if you feel comfortable, please pray with me as we pray over this prayer. So it says, Lord, please help me to learn how not to allow myself to be taken for granted and set me free from anxiety and despair. You know the situations that I refer to. Guide me, Father, in all the things that we need you. Just give us a sound mind, not a spirit of fear, in all the things that we're going through. Allow our online team, all of our campuses, everybody watching online, to feel your presence right now in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. Amen. And if you have a prayer request or a praise report, we would love the opportunity to pray for your needs, like right here on a Sunday or just throughout the week on our Journey Church app. You can do so by scanning that QR code.

Well, welcome back into the studio, you guys. Welcome back. We're so excited and we hope that worship is blessing you. And we wanna get back there, so we just wanna share a couple things. Number one, my name is Gianna, and if I have not had the privilege and joy of meeting you, I get to serve here as the Journey College director and the online coordinator. That's good. That energy was top tier. How do I follow that? You know, just do your best. Bring it, girl. Bring this to it. My name is Chantel. I get the honor and the privilege and the joy to be one of your online hosts today. And I'm so excited to be in the house of the Lord. As you can see, I'm happy. Yeah. Well, I guess I'm gonna separate that a little bit. This is the quiet storm. Oh. I'm just playing. What's up, y'all? If you haven't had the honor and privilege of meeting, and I have the honor of being one of your team leads for the online community. I love it.

I love it. And my name is Julia, and I get the honor of being a part of your online team. You can't tell the joy of the Lord is in this. That's great. Come on. Yeah. We were just down there worshiping. It's been beautiful. Ear to ear. I hope that you're feeling it as well, wherever you're watching from. A special shout out, again, to the Pando Apples. Let's go. Love you guys. We love you. Another special because you want a shout out, right? That's right. And I love shouting these guys out because it's our F-T-G first time guys, welcome. Yeah, you are VIPs here. We're so excited that you landed on the limestream today, and we do not believe it's any coincidence that you are here today. We believe that the Lord has something for you, and we're so excited and glad that you're here. So if you want to connect and get more connected with our church since you're new, go ahead and scan that QR code below, and somebody will help you with that next step.

Well, the actual next step is next steps. Today is next step two. It's actually happening at 1.30 p.m., and we want you to be a part of it. It's an amazing way to connect with our online director, Jaylene, and also hear how you can serve and be the hands and feet of Jesus right where you are, but for Journey Church online. So you can do so by scanning that QR code or going to our Journey Church app. Something else that we would love to share with you is this Friday, let me hear, this Friday, February 27th p.m. Eastern time. Daylight time. Eastern daylight time, there we go. Our marriage night. We're very excited for it. We invite all couples, anybody who's married, engaged, not, I don't want to sound like a hater, not no 10-year engagement. Respect the date. Engaged, date on the calendar. Come get poured into it, and please allow your relationship and your marriage to benefit from what the Lord has for you. Absolutely, there's a very small registration fee, but most of that event is covered by generosity, and on the topic of generosity,

I want to tell you about our friend, Christian. Christian is from Jersey. Shout out to our Northeast people watching, but he moved down here to Central Florida during COVID, and he said it actually led him into a life where he was falling into the wrong habits in the wrong crowds, where he did not find a lasting happiness. And because he didn't feel that lasting happiness, he did try to get connected to his higher power and just overall help him with his life, so he started looking around for churches in the area, and he didn't have any luck until the Holy Ghost sent him to our Journey Church IG, and he saw us, and he went for the first time in 2023, and he's been coming ever since, and he said he felt like home, so glory to God. Yeah, God has been doing something so special in his life. He actually got baptized in 2024, and in 2025, he ended up joining a small group, going through Next Steps, joining teams, and now he gets to be the hands of you, Jesus, in our church and in the community. Amen. See, Christian found an amazing thing by giving a year of his life to Jesus. He ends up with a bigger sense of purpose, a bigger sense of community, and a bigger sense of calling from the Lord himself, so we're very appreciative for that.

100%, and Christian's testimony is just one of thousands made possible by the provision of God through your generosity. Journey Church. If you wanna continue to partner with us through your giving, however it gets put on your heart, just scan that QR code below to be a part of what the Lord is doing in this house. We're gonna actually go back into the auditorium for one more song of worship. We'll see you later, love y'all. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Let's welcome in all of our campuses, joining us in a time of worship. Can we give it up for our campuses? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dear Heavenly Father, we love you. We thank you. That in the waiting, the hardship, you're there with us. We thank you for who you are this morning. We thank you that you're present, that you never leave us, that you never forsake us. We thank you, Jesus. We thank you, Lord. Lord, if you know it, would you sing it with me this morning. ♪ Yeah, I don't wanna chase the wind ♪ ♪ And I was born to breathe you in ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, come and move again ♪ ♪ I know you love to make things new ♪ ♪ So make our hearts an upper room ♪ ♪ We wanna look just like you ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, you are all I want, all I need ♪ ♪ Come again and fill me with your power and your strength ♪ ♪ And I will wait for you, I will wait for you ♪

♪ Cause you're worth it, Jesus ♪ Come on, we sing together. ♪ Gift of Jesus, come on in ♪ ♪ Your power's never known a name ♪ ♪ You are a portion, you are enough for us ♪ ♪ You promised that you'd pour your spirit out ♪ ♪ Such a daughter's come to receive you now ♪ ♪ You are a portion, you are enough for us ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, you are all I want, all I need ♪ ♪ Come again and fill me with your power and your strength ♪ ♪ And I will wait for you, I will wait for you ♪ Oh, Holy Spirit. ♪ Holy Spirit, you are all I want, all I need ♪ So come again. ♪ Come again and fill me with your power and your strength ♪ ♪ And I will wait for you, I will wait for you ♪ ♪ I will wait for you, I will wait for you ♪ Oh, cause you're worthy, Lord. You're worth the wait. So I will trust you. I will trust you and pray. Come on, we sing out. ♪ And those who wait upon the Lord will not grow weary ♪ ♪ Will not faint, those who wait upon the Lord will rise and run ♪ ♪ And I will wait for you, I will wait for you ♪ ♪ And those who wait upon the Lord will not grow weary ♪ ♪ And those who wait upon the Lord will rise and run ♪ ♪ And I will wait for you, I will wait for you ♪ Come on, declare it over your soul. Declare it over your soul today.

Oh, let faith arise in the world this morning. Come on, we sing out. ♪ And those who wait upon the Lord will not grow weary ♪ ♪ Will not faint, those who wait upon the Lord will rise and run ♪ So I will wait. ♪ And I will wait for you, I will wait for you ♪ Cause you're worthy, cause you're worthy. ♪ And I will wait for you, I will wait for you ♪ ♪ I will wait for You, Lord ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, You are all I want, all I need ♪ ♪ Come again and fill me with Your power and Your strength ♪ ♪ I will wait for You, I will wait for You ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, You are all I want, all I need ♪ ♪ Go hear Your children, Lord, we cry out to You, we cry out ♪ ♪ I will wait for You, Lord, I will wait for You, Lord ♪ ♪ I will wait for You, I will wait for You, Lord ♪ ♪ I will wait for You, I will wait for You, Lord ♪ Church family, I was honestly struggling this entire week how I would present this moment, but I just wanted to testify to you. Many of you know my story, know my wife's story, but if you don't, just a few months ago, my wife was pregnant and at 23 weeks, her water had partially ruptured. So that put us in a situation where they had decided to admit us into the hospital. And though our baby was okay, and though the water would begin to still produce, we would have to stay in that hospital until our daughter decided she was to come.

And every doctor that would come into that room would tell us, hey, the ideal situation would be that she would stay in and at 34 weeks that she would be born. And the hardest part about that wasn't just the news, but what we had learned on the way was that the hardest part was to wait. The hardest part was to wait. Here's what I learned in that situation that I can testify to you today. God still does miracles and he's faithful because my daughter made it all the way to 34 weeks. She's eight months, she's breathing, she's living, she's growing beautifully. And I hope that encourages someone in the room today, but I also hope that this encourages you to anyone who needs it, no matter what you're going through. The past two weeks have been breaking for me and my wife. Two weeks ago, after 10 weeks of conception, we had found out at the appointment that our second child that was on the way had passed away. And so the truth is, is that we had a miracle in our hand with our daughter and we were expecting a miracle to come. And now all we have is questions. I don't wanna tell you today that we are doing now exactly what we did then and it's waiting. Though I may not have the answer, I will wait because I know God's promises. If I wait, he will renew my strength.

If I trust in him, he will give me hope. And if that's what you need today, I just wanna encourage you again, just wait, just wait on the Lord. Just wait, just wait on the Lord because he's faithful to completing. So if you would just lift your hands with me and come on, we'll be getting to this position of waiting and worshiping while we wait. Come on. And those who wait upon the Lord will not grow weary, will not faint. Those who wait upon the Lord will rise and run and do their thing. Come on. And those who wait upon the Lord will not grow weary, will not faint. Those who wait upon the Lord will rise and run and do their thing. And I will wait for you. Cause you're a mercy, Lord. And I will wait for you. Cause I've seen your faithfulness, God. I will wait for you. I'll wait, I'll wait. I will wait for you. Oh, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit. And Holy Spirit, you are all I want and all I need. Come again and fill me with your power and your strength. ♪ I will wait for you, I will wait for you ♪

♪ I will wait for you, I will wait for you ♪ So here we are Lord, waiting for you. Waiting for you Jesus. Come on would you give him praise. Father you're worth the wait, you're worth the wait. Thank you. Church family we love you. At this moment you can go ahead and be seated as we turn our attention towards the screen and prepare our heart for the message today. What's going on Journey Church? My name is JJ and alongside my wife Liz, we have the honor and privilege of serving Journey Church as its lead pastors. And if you didn't know that, that means you are a first time guest and we're so glad that you chose to make it to church today. Well, hey, listen, I have the privilege and I'm so excited to introduce our guest speaker for today. Pastor Noah Heron is, I mean, where do you even start? First off, he is the lead pastor of an amazing church called Way Church in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to that, he's a best-selling author of Holy Habits and Welcome to Manhood. He also co-hosts an amazing podcast called the Way Deeper Podcast. Him and his wife Maddie are amazing leaders and they are good friends. We're so glad to be able to have him here with us today.

And one of the things I love about Pastor Noah's ability to communicate the gospel the best is that he is able to talk about really sensitive cultural topics in a way that makes it understandable and transformational, which is why I asked him to bring the message on week three of our Love, Sex and Marry series, where we're gonna be talking about sex, that's right. So that means two things. That means one, if you're a parent who loves to bring their kids into service, maybe not this service. Maybe this service should bring in majority kids. We'll take care of them. You can walk out right now in the darkness of the auditorium and it'll all be good. But secondly, that's a really tough topic for any guest speaker to talk about. And so I want you guys to lean in. I want you to shout them down, really make them feel at home. Do me a favor, Journey Church, we believe in honor at all of our campuses. Will we please stand at our feet, put our hands together and welcome to the stage Pastor Noah Herring. Come on, Journey Church. If you love Jesus, can we give Him praise this morning? You can be seated. Turn to the person next to you, say, I'm glad I'm sitting next to you in church.

Come on, tell your second choice, say, I like you too. Well, I love Jesus, I love your pastors, and I love Steph Curry. And believe it or not, they're related, all right? I wanna just tell you, Steph Curry, if you don't know, one of the greatest basketball players to ever play the game and I was recently talking to a high school basketball coach who is a part of our church and he said, Noah, what you don't maybe understand about Steph Curry is he's not just a great player, but he's actually changed the way that basketball is going to be played forever. He said, in fact, on the high school level, just in the last five to 10 years, the game has completely changed because of Steph Curry. The high school players are taking more three-pointers, they're spacing the floor, they're playing faster, they're cutting more. He said, Steph Curry's impact on the game is generational. And when I think about your pastors, they're not just great leaders, they're not just great pastors, but they have actually changed the game for the next generation of pastors, for the next generation of church leaders, for the next generation of church planters. They're causing people like me to dream bigger, to believe for miracles like the one you're sitting in right now. This miracle of Journey Church,

this building of Journey Church, the locations of Journey Church, I just wanna tell you, as an outsider, sometimes it's easy to take what you are in for granted. This is not hype, this is a move of God that you get to be a part of each and every week. And it's because your pastors are just so fearlessly chasing the vision that God's put in their heart. Can we honor Pastor JJ, Pastor Liz? Come on, can we clap our hands? We love you guys. And I told him, I was like, Pastor JJ, you've got more faith than maybe anyone I've ever met. And he said, why is that? And I said, Journey Church and the fact that you would ask a guest to talk about sex, it's a lot of faith, it's a lot of faith. So we're gonna do that in just a minute. If you have your Bible, go ahead and turn it on. First Thessalonians chapter four, where are my paper Bible people? Why don't you just, yeah. Come on, let's go. First Thessalonians chapter four, as you turn there, just really briefly, statistics say you'll listen to me longer if I show you photos of my family. So I'm gonna do that right now. I'm Noah, I'm 31, I gave my life to Jesus in my college dorm room when I was 21. And that's the coolest thing about me.

The second coolest thing about me is this lady right here. This is Maddie Herron. This is my beautiful wife. About to celebrate seven years of marriage and she is the most like Jesus person that I've ever met. She is also from Alabama. And so when she talks, her accent sounds like it should come with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy. You ever met someone like that? That's my wife, we have three kids. Our oldest is our son, his name is Lion, Lion James Herron. And we named him Lion because Proverbs 28 one says that the wicked flee at the first sign of trouble, but the righteous are bold like a lion. And that little guy, he's responsible for more people coming to our church than anybody. He is an evangelist and he's gonna be the quarterback for the Tennessee Titans one day, I believe it. We have two little girls. This is Mila, our oldest girl. She can have whatever she wants and she knows it. It's dangerous, pray for me. And then we just welcomed our newest addition. This is baby Navy. She's six months old and our second girl. There's something about being a girl dad. I don't know, like my boy, he's my homie, he's my best friend, we wrestle every night. Like he likes it when I throw him. He's like, throw me higher.

I'm like, are you sure? Like you might break, but being a girl dad, any girl dads in the room, you know what I'm talking about? There's just something different. I remember I was in the hospital holding Mila, our oldest girl, with one arm. And then the other arm, I was on Facebook Marketplace looking up Rottweiler breeders. I was like, I gotta protect this little woman. And then we went to Chili's afterwards. We got out of the hospital, the first meal that we ate after the hospital with Mila is we went to Chili's. Anybody like Chili's? Sometimes I feel God in Chili's. And so we were in Chili's and I'm holding her and there was this five-year-old boy who kept looking at my little girl. And so I looked back and I went. My wife was like, relax, dude, relax. That's our family. And we live in Nashville. As Pastor JJ said, we started Way Church a little over two years ago. And whether you know this or not, your church was one of the churches that sowed financially into our church. And I wanna celebrate, I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful. I wanna celebrate with you guys. We just passed 1,300 first-time salvations,

first-time people putting their faith in Jesus Christ. Come on, we can praise God for that. So thank you for your generosity. It's making a massive impact here in the greater Orlando area, but it's also making an impact around the world. And I feel like I'm with family today. So today you can say amen, you can say hallelujah, you can say preach a white boy, whatever you wanna say. You can say it. And if you hear something you don't like, just email me at pastorjoeyatjourneychurch.com. I'd love to hear from you. Pastor Joey's my guy, that guy's awesome. He's amazing. First Thessalonians chapter four, verse three, it says this, God's will is for you to be holy. So stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and in honor, not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways. Never harm or cheat a fellow believer in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. God has called us to live holy lives. Everybody say holy. Holy. Not impure lives. Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules

is not disobeying human teaching, but is rejecting God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. The title of this sermon is The Truth About Sex. If you're taking notes, you can write that down at our church, we have the theology. We believe that note takers will get to eat first in heaven and so I would encourage you, whether it's a physical note or a digital note, take notes today. The Truth About Sex. And a few people are not gonna like this sermon. If you're here and it makes you uncomfortable to talk about bow chicka wow wow, you are not gonna like this sermon. You're not gonna like how comfortable I am talking about that. You're not gonna like it. If you can't laugh, you're not gonna like it. But if you wanna walk out of here a little freer than you came in, I think you're gonna like this sermon. Think you're gonna like this sermon. So let's pray and we'll jump in. God, we love you. We thank you for what you're doing here at Journey Church. God, I pray that today. Man, what an amazing worship team, what an amazing hospitality and guest experience team is here. I'm so excited to be here, but God, I pray when we leave here,

we wouldn't say, what a great team, or what a great speaker, we'd say, what a great God. We had an encounter with you. The only way to describe what happened at Journey Church is we met with the creator of the universe. We love you, we thank you so much for Chick-fil-A, and everyone said. Amen. Amen, amen. When I was in 11th grade, I had a moment that I just remember vividly. I was in 11th grade, I was sitting in recent American history class, the door swung open, and there she was. To this point in my life, the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen was standing in the hallway. I don't know where the spotlight came from, I don't know where the Justin Bieber acoustic music came from, but it was all there, and I could see the future. My mind immediately fast-forwarded to her and I standing at an altar. I just knew it, I just knew I was gonna marry this girl. We're standing at an altar, she's wearing a white dress, I'm wearing a swaggy blue suit, and then we're standing next to the wedding cake, the scene at the wedding cake that you know and I know,

where she takes a little icing, she puts it on my nose, and I go, stop. I'm picturing all of this. She walks in, and she hands our professor a note. It says that she's a new student to our school. She's gonna be joining our American history class, and our professor, his name was Mr. Chambers, he starts looking around the room. There was only one empty seat in the entire class, and it was right next to your boy. It was one of those moments I looked at God, and I was like, my guy. God, I knew you were a good God, but I did not know that you were a good wingman. And so the semester starts going on, and I'm not gonna be fake humble. I was spitting mad game in recent American history class. We're about halfway through the semester, and one of my friends, a girl, she was sitting next to me at lunch, and she said, did you hear the news? I said, what news? She said, a word on the street is that the new girl's got a crush. The next day, we're sitting in class, and she passed me a note. Yeah, see, the people making noise, they were in high school recently. They remember, they remember, they remember that note passing

is sign language for I love you. And so she passes me this note. I open it up. It says, do you want to go to Dairy Queen after school today? So we go to Dairy Queen, and we're sitting in the Dairy Queen booth, and she's looking at me, and I'm looking at my Reese's cup blizzard, and she says, no, I've been wanting to tell you something for a long time. I said, I know. She goes, I just get so nervous whenever I go to say it. I said, that's natural. She said, okay, I'm just gonna say it. I said, amazing, just say it. She said, no, I've got a huge crush on your best friend, Dylan. Yeah, yeah, welcome to my life. The next week, it was nothing but early 2000s R&B music. I mean, that was all I was listening to was R&B songs, and all I could think about was my friend who said, new girl has got a crush. New girl has a crush, because her sentence had just enough truth in it to break my heart. Did you know that the best lies always have just enough truth in it to break your heart?

Just enough truth. That's why Charles Spurgeon once said that discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. Discernment is knowing the difference between right and almost right. Because a half truth will ruin your life, but the whole truth will transform your life. The devil's entire strategy around the sexual conversation is to tell you lies with just enough truth inside of them that you will take his bait. Just enough truth inside of them that you will follow what the devil says about sex instead of what God in his word says about sex. The devil comes to us and says things like, the Bible is restrictive about sex. But the whole truth is that the Bible is restrictive about sex so that we can enjoy sex the way God designed. The devil comes to us and says things like, sex is just physical. It's no big deal. It's just physical. But the truth is sex is physical, it's mental, it's emotional, and it is definitely spiritual. The devil says stuff like, hey, sexual liberation will truly satisfy you. Look at all these happy people who are just doing what they want

with who they want, when they want. And the truth is, sexual liberation will satisfy you for a very short amount of time, and then all of a sudden, it will put back on the shackles. Jesus came to take off of you. The devil comes and says, hey, if you've gone too far in the bedroom, there's no recovering. If you've gone outside of God's design, you're never gonna bounce back. No one's ever gonna want you, no one's ever gonna want to be in a relationship with you, and the truth is that if you've gone outside of God's design, yeah, it's really bad, but you can meet a man named Jesus who makes all things new. He can redeem you, he can restore you, he can make you a new creation through Christ Jesus. See, a half-truth will ruin your life, but the whole truth about sex will change your life forever, change your life forever, and so I just wanna talk about some lies that the devil is telling us about sex, and I wanna talk about the truth so that when we leave here, maybe our toes were stepped on, maybe it felt uncomfortable, but we're gonna be able to live the next 10 years,

the next 20 years, the next 30 years free, free, free. Now, maybe you grew up in a house like me. The conversation around sex was really a really simple one. My mom would tell me all the time, don't have sex, you'll die. I was like, mom, I don't think that's how it works. She's like, well, if the sex don't kill you, I'm going to. I love that Paul doesn't talk about sex like that. My mom wasn't wrong. It leads to a spiritual death when we do sex outside of God's design, but I love how Paul talks about it because he actually starts in 1 Thessalonians 4 not by talking about the reasons you shouldn't go against God's design, but talking about the reasons you should. Verse 3 says this, God's will is for you to be holy, holy. Remember the context of 1 Thessalonians 4. We read the whole thing. The context is it is around a conversation about sex. What Paul is saying when he says that sex is to be holy, God's will for you is to be holy, is that there's actually a way to have sex that will lead to you thriving, that there is a best version of sex that you and I are invited into when we obey the Lord, that there is a way to have sex that brings intimacy between two people, is a lot of fun, it brings no shame upon your soul, no sin upon your life,

and it can actually bring glory to God. Did you know that your sex life can bring glory to God in the process? I learned this in my early 20s, and as soon as I learned this, I had never felt like worshiping the Lord just like that. I was like, this is fantastic news. Because every time I'd heard about sex talked about, it was always why you shouldn't do it, why you shouldn't have it, the rules around it, but God's word doesn't just give us rules around it, it gives us a vision for our sex life. Here's God's vision for your sex life. Holy sex is between one married man and one married woman who have committed to each other for life. And when we obey the Lord's commands around sex, when we enter into a covenant relationship, we actually get to thrive in our sex life. There's so many verses in the Scriptures that show us this. One of my favorite verses in the Bible that kind of epitomizes the fun that you can have in sex is Proverbs chapter five, verse 18 and 19. It says this, let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. She is a loving dear, a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her love. There are some guys today who just found their life verse. Going to the tattoo parlor right after church today.

We recently did an entire series at our church through Song of Songs. It's this book of the Bible where you get to see this relationship between a man and a woman as they're kind of courting each other and dating each other to then they get married and you get to see what that's like and then you get to see like the honeymoon life and then the post honeymoon life and we just kind of walked through it as a church and there was so many young people in our church who were absolutely shocked at how descriptive the Bible got and how much fun this married couple was having. They were like, man, we didn't realize how much life there was around sex. I'm just gonna read you a snippet of a conversation between a man and his wife. Song of Songs chapter four verse six. Before the dawn breezes blow and the night shadows flee, I will hurry to the mountain of Myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. Now, that seems like a very innocent sentence but if you look up the mountains of Myrrh and the hill of frankincense on a map of ancient Jerusalem, you will not find either one of those things, one of those places because they don't exist. They never existed. A couple of verses before, the wife tells her husband,

I've got some new perfume and I put it in a necklace around my neck and so when he says I'm going to the mountains of Myrrh and the hill of frankincense, he's not talking about a hiking trip. He's talking about bowtickle wow wow and it's endorsed by God. That's a good, I mean, you could just shout amen. Amen. It's endorsed. I'm trying to show you this, if you're here with your mom, you hate this but if you're here with your spouse, you're like, I like this preacher. I like this guy. Listen to what he says, are you listening? I'm trying to get you to see that the stereotypes around Christians and sexuality and marriage are not real. That when we actually do sex the way God designed, it's not just for procreation, it's actually to be enjoyed for recreation. Like we can have a fun time and I'm gonna make the case that it's actually the best time. It's actually the way that we were designed. Last summer, we came to Florida for vacation and my son really wanted to ride the water slide that was at the resort that we were staying at. And the problem was at the time, my son was two and a half years old, he was about to turn three and he was way too small.

It was like 48 inches to ride and he's like down here and he really wanted to ride it. So I took him to the top and I walked up to the lifeguard and I was like, hey, could I just hold him? Will you let me go down? It's like a 60, 70 foot water slide, it's pretty big, but I'm like, could you just let me hold him and go down? And the lifeguard was like 15 years old. He was like, bro, I don't even wanna be here right now, just do whatever you want. And so I go down and immediately as we take off, I mean, we just shot out like a cannon. And as we took off, I start to regret doing this because it was so much faster than I thought it was going to be. And I'm thinking in my mind, my son is gonna hate this. We crashed into the water and I'm fully expecting us to come out of the water and him be crying. And he was crying, but not tears of sadness or fear, it was tears of joy. He was like, this is the best day of my life, dad. This is amazing. I wanna do it again, I wanna do it again. And so we go back to the top, we get to the top, he says, no, I wanna do it by myself, daddy. And even the lifeguard at this point, it's like this is where I draw the line, bro. Like I gotta keep this job. You know, like I lost my last one, I can keep this. And so this is what I did, a true story.

I took my son back down to the gift shop at this resort and I bought a pair of floaties. And I walked him back to the top, he has little orange floaties. I mean, they're bigger than he is. They were these massive floaties for like a seven-year-old. And he's like walking up like this. And I walk up to the lifeguard and I didn't even have to say anything. I just stood in front of him and I went. And he looked at my son and he was kind of like, ah, like he was giving me weird looks. I kid you not, I literally $10, I went like that. And he goes. My son had the time of his life. For the next two hours, my son went up and down, up and down. It was just him and like a 40-year-old dude named Chuck having the best day of their life. Just up and down, up and down, up and down. Now, without the floaties, would have been a totally different experience. Without the floaties, my son would have hurt himself, our vacation would have been ruined. But with the floaties, my son was able to enjoy everything about that vacation in a way that he didn't even know was possible before those floaties. Listen, the world is screaming at us when it comes to sex, that no rules is the best way to go. That if you want real freedom, it's with no rules,

no boundaries, no attachments. But real freedom is not no rules. Real freedom is found in the strategic implementation of certain rules. So when God gives us rules in Scripture about the Bible or about sexuality, it's not because he just wants to tell us no all the time. It's because he has a better yes. It's not because he wants to keep us from something. It's because he actually has something for us. It's because his design is better. It's because he created us and he knows the interest that we have in him. It's because he has a better yes. It's because he has a better yes. It's because he has a better yes. He knows the intricacies of how we work so that when we step into his design, it leads to no shame. It leads to fulfillment. It leads to satisfaction. It leads to being a reflection of his covenant with his church. We are now a covenant with our bride or with our spouse. This is God's design. Now, I pastor a pretty young church. The average age person of our church is probably 27 years old. And young people have this phrase, their pushback on God's design is,

well, Pastor Noah, that sounds like a really long time. What if I get it wrong? What if I commit to someone and we've never had sex before and what if we're not compatible in the bedroom? What if I do things God's way and then we have sex that first night? And it's not good. I find it so interesting that we're the generation that can't be bought unless it's sex. Now, you can't buy me, but when it comes to sex, we're just cars. We're just cars. We're just cars. What does everyone say? You should test drive the car before you buy it. You can't buy me, but if it's sex, I'm a car. What make is it? What model is it? How many miles does it have on it? How long has it been sitting on the lie? When it comes to sex, what I've noticed about the next generation is we wanna know the features and we're not really paying too much attention to the fruit. And so we make this list in our mind of who we wanna be with forever and it's all features, no fruit. And let me just tell you that gravity and time are undefeated. And so what you're actually doing

when you live your life that way, I'm not saying that attraction doesn't matter. I'm very attracted to my wife. I'm not saying it doesn't matter. I'm just saying it shouldn't be the main thing when you're looking for someone to commit to for life. Because if you build your relationship on that and then you look up 10 years from now and gravity won, then your marriage is gonna lose. Did you know that a great sex life is way more likely to be found in someone with integrity who loves the Lord and a clean search history than somebody with abs and biceps? We're walking around going, I want biceps like Thor and a bank account like Elon Musk when we should be saying, I want someone who's gonna make me more like Jesus. I want someone who I'm gonna be able to follow. I want somebody that's gonna have the same goals as me. The world is saying test drive the car before you buy it. That's the safe thing. That's the wise thing. I recently was in the market for a new car and I had a crazy experience. I knew there were a couple cars I was kind of considering and I called different dealerships and every dealership I would call, they would all try to do the same thing on the phone. Every car salesman.

Hey, why don't you come in and test drive? Why don't you come in and take it for a spin? Why don't you come in and punch the gas on the highway? See what it feels like. There's a car salesman who goes to our church and I pulled him aside one day after church. I said, hey man, I got a question for you. I said, I just noticed this crazy thing. I've probably been on the phone with six or seven car dealerships. That was too much. If you didn't get it, it's okay. So I've been on the phone with a lot of car dealerships and every single one of them tries to get me to come in and test drive the car. I'm like, I'm just genuinely curious. Why do you guys do that? He goes, oh man, Pastor Noah. I said, I'll just be honest with you. He said, it's because test driving the car leads to more impulse purchases than any other thing. I said, huh, what do you mean? Now, I just want you to picture that this is the front seat of the car. Okay, it's a nice car, it's leather, so it's probably a Bentley, all right? Just come test drive the car. He said, what we want you to do is we want you to sit in the car to smell the new car smell,

to play with the dials, to turn the AC on, see that it has Apple CarPlay. We want you to lean back, we want you to rev the engine, because if we can get you to do that, you'll buy a car that you didn't research, you'll buy a car that you didn't even want, that you can't afford at an interest rate that doesn't make sense, and you'll do it all because this has such a crazy effect on your heart. I said, okay, how would you buy the car? He said, oh, that's easy, I've done this multiple times. He said, I research the car before I go. I talk to the dealership on the phone before I go. I negotiate the finances away from the table, and I don't get in the car a single time until I've signed a contract. I said, my brother in Christ, you just wrote my entire sermon on marriage. You just wrote my entire sermon on marriage. Listen. What if, what if we did sex that way? Hey, I'm doing research. What's the research? I'm looking at what God's Word says makes a godly man and a godly woman. I'm looking at what's gonna make it the long haul. I'm looking at how I'm gonna finish the race in a healthy and a biblical marriage, and then I'm looking around to see which lots have the car that I want.

You know a great place to look around? Journey Church, baby. Come on. I'm telling you right now. Some of you guys, on Sundays, you're like, man, I love Jesus, and this is my spot, but then you're looking for your spouse in all these other places. You're looking for your spouse in places where that's not the right car for you. That car's not going in the direction that you're going. And then when you find the right one, what do you do? You get to know them. You ask the questions. You try to see if you're compatible, but you do not get in that car until you put a ring on it. Because this is true. When you test drive the car before you buy it, it leads to more impulse purchases than any other. but when you test drive the car, when you have sex before marriage, it leads to more impulse marriages than any other thing. It does, it clouds our judgment. All of a sudden, we make long-term decisions based off of short-term attributes, and all of a sudden, we get into a marriage with someone who was good in bed, but they didn't follow Jesus. They were fine, but they were not faithful.

This is the enemy's tactic. What if we just stepped back and we just said, God, I actually trust you, I actually trust you. I actually trust that your design works, that my sex life is gonna be amazing if I just marry the right person. This is what Sue Johnson says, I love this quote. She said this, she said, hot sex doesn't lead to secure love. Secure love leads to hot sex, and a love that lasts. Love that lasts. I don't know about you, I wanna love that lasts. I wanna love that lasts. God's design works. Paul continues, he actually writes this in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18. It's another conversation around sex, and I love what he says. He says, run from sexual sin. No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. I love that it starts, run from sexual sin, not flirt with sexual sin, not fight sexual sin, flee from sexual sin.

Because I've never met one person who can consistently be tempted by sexual sin and not fall for it. And you might be here, you're like, well, you haven't met me. You're right, and you're a liar. Yes. Our strategy for other sins, stand and fight. Use the truth of God's word over the lives of the enemy. Sexual sin, flee, flee, flee. It's leading to death. Sexual sin is death spiritually. It's death against our own body. And I've never met a single person who said, today is the day that I'm gonna ruin my life. Never met a single person who said, you know what, looks like a great day to ruin it. Looks like a great day to ruin my relationship with my friends or my spouse. Looks like a great day to ruin my relationship with my calling. There's a lot of people who have made big decisions and they can simply be traced back to not fleeing from sexual sin. Reminds me of this story that I heard a couple years ago. A friend of mine sent me an article, real story about a man in South Africa who had a pet hippo. I don't know if they sell them at Petco in South Africa where he got it, but he got one. And for five years, every single day,

this man would feed his baby hippo in the morning, he'd go to work, he'd come home and he'd feed his baby hippo in the evening. He lived on this big piece of land with a river going through it. Five years in, he comes home one day, feeds his baby hippo, and his baby hippo drug him in the river and ate him. Your face was amazing right there. It's exactly, when I read it, I was like. And then I was waiting for the story to resolve, that was literally how it ended. It was just a Candy Crush ad next, that was it. And then I thought, man, that's exactly how sin works in our life. Because sin always comes disguised as a pet when it's really a predator. And what happens is you feed it, and you feed it, and you feed it in private, and then one day, the thing you've been feeding in private feeds on you in public. Listen, the Bible is so clear that all sin, sexual sin, it leads to death, that its consequence is actually death. It's not a stressed out life that it leads to, it's not a purposeless life that it leads to, it leads to no life, it leads to death. That's a problem that your favorite politician can't help you with, that's a problem your favorite influencer can't help you with, that's a problem that your favorite pastor,

Pastor JJ, cannot even help you with. That is a problem where you need somebody who walked out of a grave holding death by its head like a trophy. You need a champion, you need a savior, you need a man named Jesus, and the good news of the gospel is it doesn't matter how far you've run, you are not better at sinning than Jesus is at saving. You have not messed it up too much for Jesus Christ to redeem your situation. Here's the truth, you were bought with a price, that price was the body of Jesus Christ, which means that your identity is not based off of what you've done with your body, your identity is based off of what Jesus did with his body, that when he stretched out his arms, he paid the penalty of your sin, that you don't have to walk around in shame any longer because you know the King of kings and the Lord of lords. I love the series title that we're in, it's not you. It's me. Oh, come on, it's not you. It's me. It's me. And some of you, the moment you heard that I was gonna talk about sex, your head dropped a little. Yeah, because you're living in sin right now, because you've been living in sin in the past and you still feel bad. the way to that, and so you hear a sermon on sex

and you go, I don't even know if I should be here today. I don't even know if I deserve to be in the room today. You know what Jesus is saying? No, no, no, bro, it's not you, it's me. The reason you're here today is not because of what you've done, it's because of what I've done. How could I possibly have a future? No, no, no, it's not you, it's me. How could I raise my hands in worship with all this shame? No, no, no, it's not you, it's me, it's not your works, it's not your resume, it's Jesus's resume. Second Corinthians 521, he who knew no sin became sin so that you and I could become right with God. What does that mean? That means Jesus died the death that we deserve so that we could live the life that he deserved. It's a radical love, it's a crazy kind of love. Human love says this, it says this, it says prove to me why I should love you back. Jesus's love said, I'm gonna love you and hope that you love me back. I'm just gonna go all in for you. That's what Jesus did for you. Not when you cleaned yourself up, the Bible says while you were a sinner, Christ died for you. That means that he saw you in your lowest moment, that thing that you wish that no one else knew about, that thing that maybe you've kept a secret your entire life, maybe you're here and you have a pornography addiction

you've never told anyone about. That is sex outside of God's design. And you know it in your heart of hearts, you've been hiding it from your spouse, you've been hiding it from your friends. And today is the day to drag that sin into the light because we don't have a God who has his arms crossed. We have a God who said the right here, nail it to the cross, give it to me. I wanna pay for it. I wanna pay for it. This is what I wanna do, invite you to close your eyes. And if you're here today and you would say, there's some sexual sin in my life I need forgiveness from. I wanna make a resolution to do sex God's way. If that's you, we just slip up your hands so I know who I'm praying with at every location. It's amazing, thank you for your honesty. It's amazing, you can put it down. I just want you to know that in this moment, God is not ashamed of you. He's actually experiencing joy right now. The Bible tells us for the joy set before Jesus, he endured the cross. That he had joy as he was hanging on the cross. And the reason he had that joy is because he was thinking about this moment when you would trust him with the thing he came to die for. And so there should be no shame,

there should be no condemnation. Romans 8, one says that therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We get to boldly come in to his presence and ask for forgiveness. And the Bible tells us that when we ask for forgiveness, he is faithful to forgive us. I'm just gonna pray for you. The thing about repentance, that's what we're doing. We're asking for forgiveness, we're repenting. The thing about forgiveness is that I can't repent for you. And so I'm gonna pray for you as you pray for you, as you talk to the Lord. Jesus, thank you for these people who are deciding to trust you with their sex life, with their, maybe their past, maybe the things they're going through right now. God, I thank you for your forgiveness and your grace that covers us. I thank you for washing us clean. I thank you for loving us first. I thank you for dying on a cross for the things that we've been trying to carry. We give it to you. We say, thank you for your grace. Thank you for your mercy. With every eye closed, if you're here and you don't have a relationship with Jesus, I wanna take just a moment to give you an opportunity to make him Lord of your life.

It's something that this entire room, that every location, we would be so excited to celebrate with you. We had several people, dozens of people in the first service make a decision to follow Jesus. We would love if you would be next. If that's you, we just slip up your hand. I want a relationship with Jesus. It's awesome. It's awesome. It's amazing. It's amazing. Hands going up. You can put it down. I wanna walk you through a prayer. I'm gonna ask all of Journey Church to pray this prayer out loud, not because we have to, but we just want you to know that there's a family after this moment that you can follow Jesus alongside of. You just need to know it's not repeating this prayer that gives you a relationship with Jesus. It's believing this prayer that gives you a relationship with Jesus. Can we say this, dear Jesus? Come on, dear Jesus. Forgive me of my sin. The ones I remember and the ones that I don't.

Thank you for your grace and your mercy in the cross. I wanna follow you for the rest of my life. Be Lord of it all in Jesus' name. Come on, in Jesus' name. Come on, can we celebrate Journey Church? Come on, why don't you stand to your feet? Can we celebrate Journey Church, all the people who just gave their life to Jesus? Welcome back, guys. Wow, so good. Yeah, 100%. We're so excited that you guys are back. We wanna know what you guys got from this sermon. Go ahead and drop, you know, just kind of like maybe a multi-story of what you got from this sermon. 100%, and also, if you decided today to follow this, I just wanna be among the first to say, welcome. We are 100%. Heaven is truly rejoicing, and we are so excited to be here. be a very small part of that. If that's you, scan the QR code below so that we can join hands with you and pray with you. We're not gonna knock on your door. We just want to join you and let you know that you're now part of not just the kingdom of God, but also a beautiful heavenly community. That's right. I gotta send it over to y'all though.

What did y'all get from this word today? Yeah, I feel like for me, I thought it was such a beautiful message to really break down the lies that we are told by culture, even ourselves, that we tell ourselves when we are just in a season of doing things that maybe we shouldn't be doing and not knowing that we shouldn't have done them. And I love that our church is so bold to talk about sex and talk about how the enemy can use it as a tactic to keep you away from who you truly are and who your true identity has been. And I just am so thankful for Pastor Noah for bringing that to our attention. For instance, something that you mentioned, you said that he was telling us about the lies of the world. And there's one thing that Pastor Noah said. He said, sexual sin disguises itself as a pet when it's really a predator. And that ministered to me because I'm like, that's so true. That's how the world portrays it. It's just be you, do you. And the Bible and Jesus are very clear that it is dangerous if not done in the correct way. So yeah. And it's so many things, not just sex, but yeah. 100%. It's a whole pet store. A whole pet store.

One thing I was gonna say that I got from the message as well is just that God can use anybody to get something towards you. You know what I mean? And even if you just started watching for the first time and you don't know about Jesus or you don't know about why we're talking about sex, I hope that it really just pierced your heart today because it can minister to anybody really. Absolutely. New or old. Absolutely. And the ending of how he said it, I wanna remember exactly how he said it. But going back to, it's not about what our bodies did, it's what Christ did for us through his body. So what it was is that he said, dang, I just blinked now too. He said that what you've done with your body or what's happened to your body does not define your identity. But what happened to the body of Christ is what defines our identity. Yeah, it's so good. It was really good. We wanna hear what you guys thought of it. And we also wanna talk deeper on this topic. And the way that we can do that is through After Talk, which is only available on our Journey Church app.

And so if you don't have the app, it's a great opportunity for you to download it. So that way you can join our podcast hosts who are gonna be talking deeper in this topic. And that's today after all the services, correct? Yeah, but it does not get posted until this week. And so you gotta get the app to see it. Look forward to it. There you go, get the app. And we take, what is it, for iPhones? You know, the Apple Store. And then for the Google Play Store. There you go. I got you a link to pick it up. The old saying, whether your messages are green or blue, we got an app for you. For you, yeah. That's what I was trying to say. Get the Journey Church app. We got you. We got your Android people. That's what I was trying to get out. Amen. Amen. Another thing that we just wanna remind you guys is that if you are looking to get deeper connected within our church and our community, today is the day for that. Next Steps is at 1.30 today. Go ahead and tune in.

That will be online through our app, and you can get connected with that. Or you can scan the QR code that is on the screen. Help you get registered for that. Another thing that I wanna share with you guys, once again, don't forget. And another thing. Mary's night is this Friday once again. Yes. 7 p.m. this Friday. And another thing is, of course, we just wanna talk to you about your generosity. We appreciate everything that you guys have already done, everything that you've given. And we're not just talking monetary or financially. We thank you for all the giving that everybody has done as far as their efforts and their talents. A giving doesn't mean it has to be financial or a dollar sign. It really could be your services and your physical nature. So if you would love to give, please go to journeyorl.com forward slash give, or you can go to the gift section of our app or scan the QR code. What an amazing day today. I think that's everything. But I just, I love this amazing. The vibes, the vibes, people, the vibes. It's been really good. All glory to God.

Y'all, we love you. We are so excited that you got to spend today with us. And we can't wait to see you prayer service on Wednesday. On Wednesday. Get the apps, you know. Love y'all. Have a great day. Bye. Bye.