While we are all so focused on the COVID-19 pandemic that is changing the world as we know it, there is a much more deadly pandemic that is lurking beneath the surface. At first glance even that statement may seem alarmist but my prayer is that each of us would carefully consider the truths I want to unpack here.
A pandemic is defined as something that is prevalent over a whole country or the world. Normally a pandemic refers to a sickness or disease that is wreaking death, destruction and despair among people. The secret pandemic that I’m talking today is just as real as COVID-19 and the affects are destroying far more than this sickness ever can or will.
As we’ve watched over the past year, the coronavirus has touched every part of the world. Country after country has struggled to contain the sickness and care for its people. Millions of precious men, women, and children have been impacted by this terrible sickness. COVID-19 has forever changed the landscape of business, the world economy, how churches meet, and every part of society. This disease continues to cause panic, fear, and despair for countless people.
I can imagine your suspicion as I speak about this “secret pandemic” but just like COVID-19, it has permanently, almost irreparably, damaged and destroyed. The secret pandemic is really no secret at all, it’s sin. Sin in its most basic form is anything opposed to the perfect will of God. Sin, originally introduced into humanity in the Garden of Eden, is a deadly killer with a 100% mortality rate. In the very beginning of time the Creator of the Universe warned our ancient grand parents Adam and Eve: “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:17 NIV)
Although sin is the root problem of all sickness, death, disease, pain, and suffering in the world, I want to address on sin specifically today: sexual immorality. Recently I’ve been reading Every Young Man’s Battle which has shook me to my core. As I’ve read this book it reads like a biography of my life and sex. Page after page I see the mistakes of my past, my failures, my sin, the bondage that has help me captive for decades exploding off the pages. Simply put, this book has shown me that the secret pandemic is far more deadly than anything else we will ever see.
If you pause for a moment and honestly consider it, sexual immorality has driven more destruction among the world throughout history than just about any other sin. Maybe only pride and idolatry have had a more destructive consequence (although sexual immorality is often an outworking of pride and idolatry). Can I ask you an honest question? Have you ever really read and understood what the Bible has to say about sex?
Often sex is a taboo subject that is off limits in the church. We ignore it and hope that our kids and families will somehow learn the right way… but they don’t. So porn, sex before and outside of marriage, unnatural relationships, all the immorality the world has to offer takes the place of right Biblical teaching. The problem is that this secret pandemic isn’t simply killing lives (people are physically dying from the impacts of sexual immorality), it is destroying marriages, families, businesses, ministries, and lives.
Paul writes: But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. (Ephesians 5:3 NIV) If I’m being honest… even over the past 9 years as a follower of Jesus, there has almost always been at least a “hint” of sexual immorality in my life. I’ve struggled with porn, lustful thoughts, adulterous thoughts, and selfish fake intimacy in ways that shock me now.
Can you guess who taught me about sex? Truth be told… I don’t really know either. No one? Maybe multiple people who were never taught themselves? It certainly was not my mom or dad or any other trustworthy person. Once a dear friend told me: you can teach your kids about sex, or the world can. For most of us (I’d dare say the super majority) the world and society taught us about sex. The problem… they taught us wrong.
Again we find in Scripture a reminder: 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 (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 NIV). If I’m being honest… for the majority of my life I have not avoided sexual immorality, I’ve relied on it to be a place of comfort and consistency in my life. Like the most powerful seductress, it pulled me deeper and deeper into the darkness. It is only by the grace of Jesus that I have escaped the dungeon sexual immorality built in my life. It doesn’t have to be this way… if you know about the secret pandemic you can begin to fight against it.
The plain truth is that so many of us (even devoted followers of Jesus) are blissfully ignorant of how this secret pandemic of sin and sexual immorality is destroying the lives of those we love around us. Wives have no clue their husbands have a secret sin that imprisons them. Parents have no clue that their children are struggling to understand sex through the lens of a corrupt world where they have more access than ever to sex. Churches are fully unaware that leaders, pastors, deacons, and elders are held in bondage to this sin. It is destroying the power, intimacy, and testimony of the body of Christ. It has become an idol (something more important than God) in the lives of countless followers of Jesus.
So… now you know. You’ve made it this far so chances are you are personally struggling or know someone who is with this pandemic. It is robbing countless men and women of the future God created them to know. Many are stuck deep in the darkness being robbed of the freedom Jesus came to give them (John 8:36). Jesus is calling us to an abundant life (John 10:10) of freedom, holiness, peace, and relationship but this secret sin will prevent us from knowing the depth of that relationship.
Just a few thoughts and words of encouragement:
- Are you struggling with sexual immorality in your life (even just a “hint”)? Its time to step into the freedom Jesus died to give you (John 8:36)
- Have you taught your children about sex? If not… the world is going to. They need to hear from God’s Word concerning sex, they are depending on you.
- Are you creating a place of freedom where you spouse, children, and brothers and sisters in Jesus can confess this struggle so you can stand with them against it?
- Jesus will finish the good work He started in you (Philippians 1:6)
- You don’t have to kill this sin alone, Jesus will give you strength to do it. But its time for you to crucify these desires and leave them on the cross (Galatians 5:24-25)
Today I want to remind each of you that there is grace and mercy at the cross. Through our faith in Jesus we can know freedom and forgiveness. It is not God’s desire for us to continue struggling in the darkness. Its time for the church to rise up, confess this destructive pandemic, and face it in God’s grace. Remember: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9 NIV)
