 We're going to talk about culture or Christianity when it comes to relationships. You know in the schools many countries teach that we come from monkeys and therefore we are just the glorified animals. You have to understand one thing that difference between animal and an angel. An animal is ruled by their sexuality. An angel doesn't have sexuality. Animals are bodies without spirits and angels are spirits without bodies. So what happens is that when you go to a university or college or school and they teach you that you are an animal, guess what happens? People begin to act like animals. That's why in our schools we no longer teach abstinence, we hand out condoms because when you indoctrinate a generation that they are animals, now you have to come in and help them to behave like animals. Now in churches people many times teach that we have to be like angels, meaning we have to deny our sexuality, pretend that it's bad, you know reject it. But we are not angels, we have bodies. So we are somewhere in the middle between an animal and an angel, we're humans. We have a spirit, we are a spirit and we have a body. And the sexuality is not something that should rule us like in the animal kingdom and it's not something that we should deny like the angel kingdom, it's something we should control and something that we should rule. We are humans not animals or angels, we are to rule our sexuality. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 4 and 5 says the following, this is the will of God. So for those of you single people who are saying I want to know God's will for my life, it can't get more clear than this, this is the will of God. Your sanctification, you're like nah I wanted to hear something else like who should I marry, which college should I go to, which career I should choose, start with this first. This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you should know how to possess his own vessel, meaning your body in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who don't know God. So what Paul is teaching us is this, is that we have to live God's will for our life and that is to rule our sexuality, to possess your vessel with honor. Don't let sexuality rule you and don't try to reject it, control it and possess it. Mark Driscoll, a preacher once said sex is either God, gross or a gift. The world sees sex as God. Sometimes religion can view sexuality as gross, we don't talk about that. But God Christianity views sex sexuality as a gift to be enjoyed in the context of marriage. Culture versus Christianity, I would like to highlight certain beliefs culture has concerning love, sex and relationships in comparison to Christianity. Number one, culture says love is God, Christianity says God is love, big difference. In the culture, love is God. So if you love, if a man loves a man, you know, in like a sexual way, it makes it right. If a man loves an animal, it makes it right because love determines what's right or wrong. Why? Because love is God. That's culture. Christianity teaches us that God is love and God defines what's right, not our feelings or infatuations. Culture says fall in love, Christianity says walk in love, Ephesians chapter 5 verse 2 and Matthew chapter 5 verse 44. We are commended to love and that's not something that you can fall into. It's something that you choose. Don't fall into love, grow in love. Everything that falls gets broken and everything that grows gets stronger. See in order to fall, you have to be distracted. In order to walk, you have to be focused. And the culture says love is like a valley you fall into, you trip into it. But the Bible teaches us that love is like a path that you intentionally walk on. You choose your steps carefully. And so, love, loving another person, caring for another person, you don't fall into that. You choose that. It's a choice. Culture says find the right person, Christianity says be the right person. If you look at the Bible, the fruit of the spirit, the sermon and the mound, the teachings of Apostle Paul, you will see that marriage, success of marriage is not dependent on finding the right person. You will see that scripture puts more focus on you being the right person versus finding the right person. Culture defines happiness as make sure you find your sugar daddy, make sure you find your hot mama, make sure you find the right person who can solve all your problems and make you whole. The Bible doesn't have that focus. Jesus focuses make sure you are that person because you usually attract who you are, not what you want. Miles Monroe said, if you know you, the way you know you, would you marry you? If the answer is no, why would you want someone else to do that? So instead of building your expectation list, maybe it's time to improve on your preparation list. Culture says love is a feeling. But Christ, Christianity teaches us that love is a willing. Meaning love is a decision of the will. It's not a feeling. Now love has feelings, but these are the results of love. This is not the root. This is not the heart of love. The heart of love is a choice of the will. You may say, nah, that's not love is a feeling. Well, how would you explain that Jesus says the commandment that we have, which is to love God? If love is a feeling, it can't be commanded. You can't command someone to feel a certain way. Bible tells us to love our enemies. And if you read what love is, which we will in a second, you will see that it has very little to do with feelings. It manifests itself in feelings. But the root of love is a choice. And lastly, culture says, marry the person you love. Christianity teaches us to love the person you marry. That does not mean that you should not marry someone that you love. It just simply means that whoever you marry, the Bible teaches us that you have a choice to love this person or you have a choice to ignore, mistreat this person. Love is not sex. Otherwise, all the prostitutes would have abundance of it. Making love doesn't make it love. Love is a decision. Love is found in God. And marriage should not be a place you go to find it. Marriage is supposed to be a place where you go to share it. Where you find that love is in God. I'm going to read to you 1 Corinthians 13 verse 4 all the way to 8. It says the following, love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy and does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. There's all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. You're like, man, I want me that kind of love. That is God. Love is that kind of love. When you know Him closely, you then can love other people the way He loves you.