Like fire, sex must be treated with a healthy fear. Mess around with one flame and you might get hurt. Mess around with one night and you might get hurt worse. This message explores the Bible’s loving warnings about sex, showing God's loving and fatherly heart when he restricts sexual pleasure to the commitment of marriage.

Too many people expect sex to be easy, just like it is in the movies. But that expectation leads to pressure, frustration, and disillusionment with others. God, on the other hand, expects sex to be the result of a process of love and respect. Paul’s classic words to husbands are wives aren’t mainly about sex, but they are the key to true intimacy. Love like Christ. Respect like the Church. That’s where love grows. “One flesh” love included.

Sex was not patented by the Devil. Rather it was invented by God himself! In the beginning, when everything was very good, there was sex. God’s idea. God’s invention. God’s gift to husband and wife. In a world where too many of us have been victims of sexual sin or victims of an anti-sex church culture, we need the reminder that sex, by God’s design, is still very good.

Sharing the good news about Jesus is an obvious way to produce joy in other people’s hearts. But Paul was convinced that it was a key to producing joy in our own hearts as well. He prayed for his friend Philemon to be active in sharing his faith in order to grasp all the good things we have through Jesus. The same is true today. A “go root” produces incredible fruit!

Everyone wants to “reap generously” and enjoy the blessings of God. But we often forget Paul’s classic line that only those who sow generously will reap a generous harvest. Paul was unashamed to say that being financially generous was a key to joy, blessing, and so much more. In the same way, many Christians have learned that it is more blessed to give than to receive, that having a “give root” actually produces incredible fruit!

Fake news. Feuding religions. Personal interpretations. How does a person have any peace in a world where everything seems so uncertain? Peter’s answer was—Grow. Although he admitted the Bible was a hard book to read, he knew that it produced knowledge and grace to keep us secure in our faith until Jesus returns.

You are not an accident. You are not a slave. That’s what God wanted his people to remember every single week of their lives. The Sabbath Day commandment proves that knowing God as your Creator and Savior was one of our Father’s highest priorities for our weekends. In the same way, we gather each week to celebrate those same timeless truths—God made us. God saved us. Those facts produce joy and peace deep in our hearts, “fruit” that feeds us throughout our week.

Even pastors know sixty minutes on Sundays have their limits. Some fruit only comes through personal, vulnerable, doing-life-together community. The early church knew that, and their “group root” produced the fruit of love and generosity and kindness. When we are personally know and are personally known in a spiritual community, we find our spiritual and physical needs being met.

These words from Jeremiah 29 are found on coffee cups and Pinterest art. They remind us that God has plans to bless and proper his suffering people. But make sure to read the context. Jeremiah spoke these words to people who had been taken captive in war. And they were not about to go home. God had great plans for his people, but they didn’t involve a quick fix to all their earthly problems. In the same way, God’s plan to prosper your spiritual life might not be the path you prayed for.

The Bible does not talk about God not allowing you to be tempted “beyond what you can bear.” But make sure to read the context! The Apostle Paul wrote those words as both a warning and a comfort, a warning not to rely on our own spiritual strength and a comfort to rely on the God who can sustain us in all kinds of temptation.