Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, is casual sex worth it? Now, hopefully you read that title, and if you're with children, I would encourage you not to listen to this episode in their presence. If you're with teenagers, you make your own choice, but I would encourage you to listen to this in their presence. I'm taking this from an article recently in the Washington Post looking at the recent accusations of an ex-girlfriend of Graham Platner, the Democratic Senate candidate in Maine, who says that he removed condoms without consent during sex. Her charge is that when they were having consensual sex, sex, he decided to have, make that sex unprotected when she was not aware or was willing. Now, Platner's campaign denies the claims, but what's interesting is they don't deny the relationship. In other words, no one's arguing that Platner had a relationship with this woman or that they had sex. The nature of the argument is over whether or not the decision to remove the condom was consensual or whether he removed it in the first place. There's actually a title for this, believe it or not. It's called stealthing, which is removing a condom when the woman isn't looking. You know, when I read this article, I don't think this is fundamentally about politics. I don't think Democrats are making poor sexual choices and Republicans are making great ones. I actually lived in D.C. for a while. I'm well aware of the lifestyle that many of them live. I think what I wanna say, I've done this before on this podcast, is talk about the kind of behavior that shouldn't engage in. I've told you before that political, candidates who are accused by multiple women of inappropriate behavior, inappropriate relationships, shouldn't be candidates. And every time I say that, I get pushback from people saying, well, being accused is not the same thing as being guilty. And I've never said that it is. I've just simply said a man who's accused by multiple women has at least made some questionable decisions of judgment. Maybe we shouldn't give him the keys to the United States government in any capacity. But I'll also say this in the truth is the Bible has a lot to say about fornication, having sex outside of marriage. I know it's not culturally popular to say this, but Fornication is an offense to God and it's an offense against other people. The Bible says when we have sex, two people become one. That oneness is part of the marriage covenant. It's part of a, lifelong commitment to love and care for the other person. In fact, the covenant is what keeps sex from being transactional. Transactional is exactly what casual sex is. You know, the so called sexual revolution of the 1960s told us all that we would be so much happier if we were having sex as often as we wanted with anyone that we wanted. I, think it's pretty clear they were wrong. We're not any happier. And what's also clear is it has opened up a category for these kinds of conversations. You know, Platner might not be guilty of stealthing, I don't know, but he is guilty of fornicating. And of course, the problem with fornication is who knows? I don't know what he did or didn't do. I don't know who's telling the truth. I don't know. I know that his life would be better, his political prospects would be better, and the world would be better if he simply had reserved sex for the marriage covenant. You know, James warns us about this in James, chapter one. He says that each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. And than desire when it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death. That's what happened to Platner here. He was led by his desires, sexually committed fornication. That sin incubated, and now it's caused the death of his political career. Listen, that's what fornication does. Casual transactional sex hurts people. It offends God and it's wrong. And to be honest with you, our country would be a much better place if the people who led it were the kind of people who could discipline their own sexual desires, who identified and responded positively to the call of God to reserve sex for the marital union. Fornicators don't make great leaders. That's what this story shows. And I get it. I know that's simple. And will be seen as regressive and countercultural. M I don't care. I'm an evangelical Bible believing Christian. Here I stand. I can do no other. But fornication is wrong. This story proves it. It hurts people, it ends careers, and it invalidates leaders. And it should. Fornication is a plague on our society. I know. It's in books, it's in movies, it's in music. I get it, I get it. But that doesn't make it right. And I just want you to see stories like this as examples that it isn't that God is prudish. God invented sex, for your information. It isn't that God is against sex. God gave it to Adam and Eve as a gift to enjoy. It's that God actually knows how life works best. I bet in a vulnerable moment today, Graham Platner wishes he had never met this woman, and especially wishes to he had never slept with this woman. He might say, how could I have known? Well, the answer to that is pretty simple. You could have read the Word of God in which God would have warned you and told you this wasn't for you, it was against you and it would only harm you. It's too late for Platner in this way. Not too late to repent. Not too late to meet Jesus, but too late to get his political career back. But let's use his story as a warning. And casual sex destroys people's lives. Let's you and I not head down that path to destruction. Hey, thanks for checking out Wake Up, Look Up. For more content, be sure to visit the Christ Community Chapel app or website, ccchapel.com.

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