(The proportion of high school students who were sexually active has remained steady since 1997, approaching nearly 50% for all high school students)(Soul-owner points to God and/or those seeking to take the place of God, the idols or gods.)(License should be understood in terms of purpose, covenant and blessing.)The License of the Soul: A Rite of True Adulthood Scripture: Genesis 2:21-25; 1 Corinthians 6:18-20; Song of Solomon 8:6-7

There is a deep spiritual and relational dimensions of adulthood and sexuality. There is spirituality to sexuality, just like everything else. Brethren, let us begin this teaching with a strange and powerful image. Imagine, for a moment, that you are not your own. Imagine that your soul, the very core of your being, is not a freehold property, but a rented room. Imagine that the deepest part of you has an owner.In many cultures, past and present, the transition to adulthood is marked by a physical rite of passage—a test of endurance, a hunt, a scar, a ceremony. But what if the true, spiritual rite of passage into adulthood wasn’t about what you could do with your body, but rather, what you understood about your soul? What if, before you could engage in the most intimate of human acts, you had to go, not to the elders of the village, but to the “Owner” of your soul, and ask for a license?

The world tells you that adulthood is the moment you are free to do what you want with your body. It shouts that sex is a rite of passage you claim for yourself, a declaration of independence. But the scripture whispers a different, more profound truth. It tells us that the true rite of passage into adulthood is not learning to claim your body, but learning to steward a soul that isn’t yours.

(The Problem of Ownership)We must first ask: who holds the deed to your soul?The world operates on a model of self-ownership. “My body, my choice,” is the anthem of our age. And in a civil, legal sense, that is a protection against tyranny. But in a cosmic, spiritual sense, it is a dangerous lie. The Apostle Paul shatters this illusion in 1 Corinthians. He writes, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.”If you are a believer, your soul has an owner. It was purchased not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Your soul belongs to God. He is the original maker, the rightful king, and the loving redeemer. He is the “Owner” of your soul. And if that is true, then every function of your soul—including its most powerful expression, which is physical intimacy—falls under His authority. To enter into adulthood without understanding this is like a tenant redecorating a house they don’t own, running up debts in someone else’s name, and thinking they are the master of the estate.(The “License” from the Soul-Owner)So, what is this “license”? Is it a piece of paper? A magic word?No. In the biblical narrative, the license to engage in the sacred act of sex is not a permit; it is a Covenant. It is the vow of marriage.Look back at the very first wedding. In Genesis 2, God doesn’t just bring Eve to Adam and say, “Good luck.” He performs the first ceremony. He presents the woman to the man. Adam, recognizing the “Owner’s” handiwork, declares, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” And the text tells us the result: “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”The “license” is the “leaving and cleaving.” It is the public, covenantal promise made before God (the Soul-Owner) and the community. It is the moment the Soul-Owner looks at two of His beloved children, who have submitted their lives to Him, and says, “Now, in this safe, sacred space I have designed, you may experience the deepest knowledge of one another. Here is my license. Here is my blessing.”Without that covenant, without that permission from the Owner, the act of becoming “one flesh” is an act of trespassing. It’s taking something immensely precious and holy and trying to enjoy it in a place where it was never meant to be enjoyed.

(The Rite of Passage)And this brings us to the true rite of passage into adulthood.Adulthood, in God’s design, is not the age at which you are finally allowed to have sex. Adulthood is the maturity to ask for the license before you light the fire.The greatest love poem in the Bible, the Song of Solomon, is drenched in the beauty and passion of physical love. But it is also a song of boundaries. Again and again, there is a refrain: “Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.” It’s a warning to the young: don’t rush to the fire. Don’t play with the flame. Wait until the time is right. Wait until the Owner of the vineyard gives permission to taste its fruit.The true rite of passage is this: the day you look at the burning desire within you and say, “You are a good gift from a good God, but you are not my master. My soul has an Owner, and I will only enter this garden by His gate, with His permission.”That is maturity. That is adulthood. A child takes what they want, when they want it. An adult waits for the proper time and the proper place. A child believes that freedom is doing whatever they feel. An adult knows that true freedom is living within the loving boundaries set by the One who made them.

(The Danger of a Stolen License)What happens when we don’t wait? What happens when we try to issue the license ourselves?We see it all around us. We see passion that burns bright and hot, only to turn to ash. We see intimacy without covenant that leads to broken hearts, broken trust, and broken families. We see people who have given their bodies to one another, but never truly given their souls, because their souls were never theirs to give in the first place.When you use your body to give what only a covenant can protect, you are not just risking an STD or an unplanned pregnancy. You are doing something far more profound: you are handing a piece of your soul—a soul that belongs to God—to someone who has no covenant responsibility to protect it. You are asking them to be the owner of a house they haven’t paid for. It is spiritual and emotional foreclosure.

(Conclusion)My friends, as we leave this place, let us redefine what it means to come of age.The world will offer you a cheap, counterfeit rite of passage. It will tell you that adulthood is the freedom to explore your sexuality on your own terms. But that path leads not to freedom, but to a prison of the soul.The true, glorious, and demanding rite of passage into spiritual adulthood is this: to look at the Owner of your soul, to look at the one who purchased you at the ultimate price, and to say, “I trust you. I will wait for your license. I will only enter the garden of intimacy through the door of your covenant. I will not awaken love until the time is right, and the time is right when you say it is.”That is not a restriction of your freedom. It is the key to it. It is the path to a love that is as strong as death, a passion that burns like a blazing fire, and a union that reflects the very image of the God who owns our souls and loves us enough to give us the boundaries that set us free.May God give us the grace to seek His license above all others. Amen.Shall we war! Battles of intimacy without covenant, die in the name of Jesus. Pollution battles raging from my dreams backfire in the name of Jesus. Rites of passage to adulthood covenants I am accused to have violated Dark dedications making me unavailable to earthly spouse/marriage, be revoked by the power in the blood of Jesus. Sex magic, sex witchcraft, temple prostitution in my foundation, die to your root in the name of Jesus. Powers that have set me apart so that I will be unavailable for marriage, I break away from your altars in the name of Jesus. Who wants to marry my husband with me, you are not flesh and blood, fall down and die in the name of Jesus. And for this reason shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, my household cease to be an extension of my father’s house, in the name of Jesus. Every home being set to pull down my home, collapse and die in the name of Jesus.