“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24).

There’s so much more I still want to tell you.  There’s so much more God still wants to tell you!  But I hope that what I’ve told you so far will give you a good foundation for everything else that God says about sex.

While there are many other issues that I could address here, and that God does address in the Bible, I feel that those I’ve covered so far will help to put many of the others into place.

The evangelist D. L. Moody said, “The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or to spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it” (Love is the Greatest, George Sweeting, p. 81).

I hope this book will serve as a “straight stick” for you as you come across other issues related to sex.

Here’s a recap of some of the main points I hope you’ve gotten from this book so far:

1. God created sex for the twin purposes of intimacy and fruitfulness.  God loves people and He doesn’t want them to be alone.  Through sex, He’s made a way to fulfill the desires of His heart, while at the same time fulfilling the desires of our hearts.
2. God wants us to stay pure both before and within marriage. God wants us to treat others as if they’re someone else’s husband or wife until the day that we marry them, because until that day, they still might be.
3. God wants us to flee from temptation.  God knows what it’s like to be tempted and He will always provide us a way out of temptation if we’ll look for it and take it.  God wants us to learn to control our bodies, to pray against temptation, and to run from it!
4. God wants us to confess our sins so we can become pure again.  God doesn’t want Satan to keep us down when we sin.  By confessing our sins to Him and putting our faith in Jesus, God promises to forgive us of our sins so that we can live the life He’s called us to live, both here on earth and on into heaven.
5. God wants us to know our spouse intimately and regularly. God wants us to take time to know the husband or wife He has created for us, both before and after marriage.  The better we know them, the better we can treat them as the gifts from God that they truly are.
6. God wants us to view children as blessings.  By asking God to give us His mindset towards children, we can’t help but experience His blessings, regardless of how many, if any, children God might give us.

Before I close, I’d like to share with you the most profound difference that God has made in my life when I finally put into practice what He says about sex.  There’s no doubt that God wants us to know what He says about sex.  But knowing what He says and putting it into practice are two different things.  Jesus said it this way:

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash” (Matthew 7:24-27).

Have you heard the story about the five frogs who were sitting on a log when one of them decided to jump off?  How many frogs were still left on the log?  All five!  One of them had only decided to jump off.

It’s one thing to decide to do what God says; it’s another to take the leap of faith and actually do it.  But when you do, hang on!  God will do for you more than all you could ask or imagine.

I know, because I’ve taken that leap myself.

The Difference God has Made for Me

I mentioned in the dedication of this book that my children might not be here today if it weren’t for the things I learned from God and have shared in this book.  I wasn’t kidding!

When I was living for my own desires, doing whatever felt good, I was on a path headed towards destruction and didn’t even know it.  I was just following my desires wherever they led me.

For a few years in college, my desires even led me into homosexuality, being sexually intimate with other men.  These relationships seemed to fulfill a valid need I had for close friendships with other men.  I didn’t realize that the way I was fulfilling that need wasn’t the way God wanted me to fulfill it.  I was just having fun, not realizing the danger that this presented to my life, nor the danger that this presented to God’s plan for my future.

The term AIDS was a new word at that time to describe the deadly condition that many homosexual men were contracting from their sexual activity with one another.  It never occurred to me that I could possibly get AIDS until several years later, just a few days after I had put my faith in Christ.  But that same week, someone happened to ask me if I had ever been tested for AIDS.  I hadn’t, so I went in for a test.  That’s when it hit me:  what I had been doing wasn’t just about fun and games, it was about life and death.  In the following week, as I waited for the results of the test to come back, I was afraid for my life.  I wasn’t afraid for my soul, because I had already put my faith in Christ.  I knew that God had forgiven me and that He would bring me to live with Him in heaven, even if I did die.  But I didn’t want to die.  I wanted to live the fullest possible life that God had created me to live.

You can imagine my relief when they gave me the results:  I didn’t have AIDS.  I don’t know why I was spared when others haven’t been, whether they’re Christians or not.  It certainly wasn’t because I deserved it.  But I knew that whatever the reason, I now had another shot at life.  I felt as if God had picked me up off the path of death and had put me on the path of life, and life abundant.

On this new path, God has given me a wife and six kids as a result of our sexual intimacy—life abundant!

What difference can it make to follow God’s plan for your life instead of your own?  For me, for my wife, and for our six kids who might never have been born, it’s made all the difference in the world.

God’s Blessing for You

The evangelist Billy Graham once gave a clear and concise summary of the difference God makes in our sex lives:

“Sex is the most wonderful thing on this earth, as long as God is in it.  When the Devil gets in it, it’s the most terrible thing on earth” (Just As I Am, Billy Graham, p. 244).

I couldn’t agree more.  If for any reason sex ever becomes, or has already become, one of the most terrible things on earth for you, I want to encourage you to keep turning to God and keep putting your faith in Him for everything in your life.  Ask Him to give you a new vision for how He wants you to view and experience sex.  There’s too much at stake for you to wait any longer—for you, for those around you, and for those who may not yet even be born.

Ask God to pick you up and put you on His path of life abundant, to send His Holy Spirit to keep you on that path, and to bless your life beyond all you could ask or imagine.

When you do, you’ll find that God is faithful.  When you delight yourself in Him, He will give you the desires of your heart.  That’s a promise straight from the Word of God:

“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).

And it’s my heartfelt prayer for you.

“May He give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
We will shout for joy when you are victorious
and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the Lord grant all your requests.”
Psalm 20:4-5

Review Questions

1. How would you summarize at least three things that God says about sex in the Bible? 

2. What did Jesus say the difference would be between those who hear what God says and those who do what God says? (Matthew 7:24-27)

3. What difference did it make in the life of the author to get God’s perspective on sex?

4. What does God promise to give you if you delight yourself in Him? (Psalm 37:4)