IT’S COMPLICATED

Part 3: Dating, Sex, and Singleness

October 4, 2026

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James 1:23–25 (NIV) Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

 

Psalm 119:105 (NIV) Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

 

Don’t let desire become your authority.

 

• Your feelings are , but they’re .

 

Proverbs 14:12 (NIV) There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

 

Galatians 5:17 (NIV) For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.

• if it’s allowed.

 

1 Corinthians 6:12 (NIV) “I have the right to do anything,” you say, but not everything is beneficial.

 

• Anything you can’t has begun .

 

1 Corinthians 6:12 (NIV) “I have the right to do anything”…but I will not be mastered by anything.

 

2 Peter 2:19 (NIV) People are slaves to whatever has mastered them.

• Your for the Lord.

 

1 Corinthians 6:13 (NIV) The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

 

• Sexual intimacy , not merely bodies.

1 Corinthians 6:16 (NIV) Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”

 

• Your body is the of the Holy Spirit.

 

1 Corinthians 6:19 (NIV) Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?

• Your to the One who redeemed you.

 

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (NIV) You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Honor God in the Season You’re In

 

1. If you are , prioritize over .

 

2 Corinthians 6:14 (NIV) Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.

2. Establish before .

 

1 Corinthians 6:18 (NIV) Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.

 

1 Thessalonians 4:3–5 (NIV) It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable.

3. If you’re , don’t your .

 

1 Corinthians 7:32–35 (NIV) An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife—and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.

 

Colossians 2:10 (NIV) In Christ you have been brought to fullness.

4. If you have , receive grace and .

 

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (AMP) Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate [by perversion], nor those who participate in homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers [whose words are used as weapons to abuse, insult, humiliate, intimidate, or slander], nor swindlers will inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God. And such were some of you [before you believed]. But you were washed [by the atoning sacrifice of Christ], you were sanctified [set apart for God, and made holy], you were justified [declared free of guilt] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the [Holy] Spirit of our God [the source of the believer’s new life and changed behavior].