In this message, Pastor Josh returns to our 1 Corinthians series and tackles one of the most uncomfortable but necessary topics in the church: sexuality. Looking at 1 Corinthians 5 and 6, he unpacks why God cares so deeply about sexual purity, what is really at stake when we compromise, and how the gospel offers more than just “try harder” but a whole new identity.

God's masterplan for sexuality

Why Talk About Sex in Church?

Coming back from a few weeks away, Pastor Josh picks up where we left off in 1 Corinthians, a letter written to a divided and confused church. The big theme of the series has been that love is the ultimate goal for God’s people, and Paul works through real issues that block that love from being lived out. One of those issues is sexual immorality.

Many of us grew up with the impression that sex is simply “bad,” something you do not talk about, do not think about, and definitely do not bring into church. But Scripture is clear that God created sex, God designed our bodies, and God gave desire. The problem is not that sex exists, but that we have lost sight of its purpose.

Today’s world is deeply divided by questions of sexuality. At the same time, many Christians quietly struggle: addiction to pornography, sleeping with a boyfriend or girlfriend, trying to hide desires and habits behind a church face. Pastor Josh reminds us, “Please don’t shoot the messenger.” The church does not get to choose the passage; God already spoke. Our job is to wrestle honestly with what He said.

Church Discipline, Leaven, and the Power of One Life

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul confronts a shocking situation: a man in the church is sleeping with his stepmother, and the church is not only tolerating it but somehow proud of their “open-mindedness.” Paul’s response is strong: the man needs to be removed from the community so that “his spirit may be saved.”

This is not punishment for punishment’s sake. It is discipline for restoration. Real love sometimes looks like a clear “no.” As Pastor Josh put it, sometimes breaking up a relationship is actually more loving than keeping it going if it is pulling you away from God and away from the future He has for you.

Paul then uses the image of leaven in dough: “Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?” Pastor Josh illustrated this with a simple story. One morning, he took out a beautiful loaf of bread his wife had bought, only to find a small spot of mold. Years ago he might have cut the mold off and eaten it. But now he knows that if the mold is visible in one spot, the whole bread is already contaminated.

That is what sin is like. It rarely begins with something big. It starts with “just a little curiosity,” a “small compromise” or “one more time.” Over time, that small allowance becomes a habit, then a master, then an identity. And it never stays private. Sin in one life affects the whole community.

Yet Paul does not simply say, “Stop it.” He keeps bringing the church back to their identity: “You really are unleavened bread.” In other words, “This is not who you are anymore. You belong to Christ. Why are you living like someone else?”

Who Do We Judge, and Who Do We Not?

Paul makes an important distinction:

• We are not called to judge those outside the church. If we tried to cut off every sexually immoral, greedy, idolatrous person in the world, we would have to leave the world altogether.
• But we are called to deal seriously with ongoing, unrepentant sin inside the church, especially among those who claim to be brothers and sisters in Christ.

This means you can and should have non-Christian friends whose values are different. You are in the world but not of it. However, if someone in the church claims to follow Jesus and yet stubbornly continues in sexual immorality, greed, slander, drunkenness, or deceit with no repentance, Paul says, “Do not even eat with such people.”

That sounds harsh until we remember the goal: clarity, love, and restoration. The church is not meant to be a place where sin is normalised and identity in Christ is ignored. It is meant to be a place where people are honest, where repentance is possible, and where holiness is taken seriously because God takes us seriously.

So Pastor Josh speaks plainly:

“If you are sexually immoral, you need to repent. It is a sin.”

Not to condemn, but to call us out of the half-life of guilt and secrecy, and into the freedom of being who we really are in Christ.

Will I Go to Hell? Wrestling with 1 Corinthians 6

In chapter 6, Paul lists a confronting set of categories: the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who have sex with men, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers, and swindlers. “They will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

That is not a verse you can soften easily. Pastor Josh does not pretend it is simple. He wrestles openly with the question in many hearts: “Does this mean I am going to hell?”

But Paul’s point is not that some people are especially dirty while others are fine. In reality, who can stand? Maybe you are not living in obvious sexual sin, but what about greed? What about the “small” slander, the casual deception, the internal lust? Jesus Himself said that even looking at someone lustfully is committing adultery in the heart.

The Bible pushes every one of us to a place where we realise we cannot enter the kingdom of God by our own righteousness. No one is clean enough. No one is pure enough. We all stand guilty.

And then comes verse 11:

“That is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

This is the turning point. Paul moves from behaviour to identity:

• “That is what you were.”
• Now, in Christ, you are washed, set apart, and declared righteous.

Pastor Josh links this to God’s first question to Adam and Eve after they sinned: “Where are you?” Not because God did not know, but because He was saying, “Why are you there? You are not meant to be hiding from Me.”

Jesus restores what sin ruined. The gospel does not just say, “Stop sinning.” It says, “Come home. Remember who you are now.”

Pornēa: What Are We Actually Selling?

To understand God’s master plan for sexuality, Pastor Josh zooms in on the word “sexual immorality.” In Greek, it is porneia, from which we get “pornography.” But the root idea comes from a verb that means “to sell off.”

So sexual immorality is not just “doing what you feel like with your body.” It is an exchange. You are getting something, but you are also selling something. You gain a moment of pleasure, but you trade away something far more valuable.

Pastor Josh uses a vivid analogy:

Imagine his son inherits a multi-million dollar house after his parents pass away. One day, someone knocks on the door and offers:

“I will give you every console in the world. PlayStation 4, 5, 6, 7, Xbox, the latest gaming tech. You can play FIFA all day. All you need to do is sign this house over to me.”

Only a foolish child would accept that deal. Yet spiritually, that is what sexual immorality does. You trade the inheritance, identity, and destiny you have in Christ for a brief dopamine hit. God is not denying that there is real pleasure in sex. But He is asking, “Do you understand what you are selling when you treat it cheaply?”

God has already made His exchange. He gave His own Son to secure your place in His kingdom. Sexual sin is us trying to trade that away for something that will not last.

Desire, Freedom, and the Question Behind the Question

Paul quotes a slogan from the Corinthians: “I have the right to do anything.” In other words, “I am free. I can do what I want.”

His response is sharp:

“Not everything is beneficial.”

“I will not be mastered by anything.”

Desire does not equal justification. Feeling it does not make it right. This has been true since Cain and Abel. Before Cain murdered his brother, God warned him, “Sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

Desire wants to master you. God calls you to master desire.

Pastor Josh compares it to food. Just because the stomach wants food does not mean every craving is healthy. A child may desire candy for every meal, but a loving parent says “no” not to crush desire but to protect the child. In the same way, God’s “no” to certain sexual expressions is not cruelty. It is love that sees further than we do.

The problem is that we often ask the wrong question:

• “How far is too far?”
• “What is the line where it becomes sin?”
• “What can I get away with and still be okay?”

He jokes about speeding: if your only reason for not speeding is the fear of police, then your heart is not actually submitted to the law. In the same way, if all you want to know is where the border of sin lies so you can stand right next to it, your heart is not actually submitted to God.

The better question is:

“How can I please God with my body, my desires, and my relationships?”

We are not created to hug the cliff edge and hope we do not fall. We are created to walk in freedom, pleasing the One who loves us.

Desire God More

Everyone agrees sex is powerful. The world’s story is: “Sex is good. Have it with whoever you want, as long as you are honest and do not hurt anyone.” The Christian story is: “Sex is good. God created it as a gift within marriage, a covenant where your body and your life are truly given to one another.”

From the outside, God’s boundary can look cruel: “You gave us desire and now You tell us ‘do not.’” But seen from the inside of the gospel, it is very different. God is not playing a game with us. He is calling us back to something bigger and deeper: a life where He, not our desire, is at the centre.

Sexual desire is real. Temptation is real. Addiction is real. But Pastor Josh insists that underneath all of that is a higher calling: to desire God more than we desire sex, affection, or the approval of others. That is not something we can produce just with willpower. It is something the Holy Spirit grows in us as we keep coming back to who we are in Christ.

Conclusion: Washed, Sanctified, and Invited to Walk One Step at a Time

Pastor Josh does not end with shame. He knows many are listening who watched pornography last night, who are sleeping with someone they are not married to, or who are trapped in patterns they hate. Others are just tired of carrying guilt and pretending they are fine.

The call today is not, “Be perfect by next week.” It is:

• Be honest.
• Stop calling wrong “right” in your own heart.
• Let the Holy Spirit put His finger on what needs to change.
• Remember who you are now in Christ: washed, sanctified, justified.

“Jesus wants you. Jesus is able to say ‘no’ to you so that you can say ‘yes’ to Him.”

There is no need to keep hiding. There is no need to live in constant fear of being exposed. Instead, we can come to God and say, “I am weak. I cannot fix this on my own. I need Your help.”

The Holy Spirit is not waiting for you to leap ten metres in one go. He invites you to walk one metre. Or even one centimetre. Step by step away from sin, and step by step toward a joy that is deeper than any sexual pleasure this world can offer.

The sermon ends in prayer and surrender, with space for people to repent, to bring hidden things into the light before God, and to remember that in Jesus they are already called holy. Next week will move into more practical steps for living out sexual purity. But the foundation is laid here: do not sell your inheritance for a moment of pleasure. You belong to the Lord, and your body is for Him.