This is part 2 about the implications of having a biblical theology about sex. This week, Kent covers how we relate to each other and how we relate to our own identity. If you’ve ever struggled with sexual sin, you need to tune in today! When you give at Harmony, you are investing in life change and are Advancing the Kingdom! GIVE TODAY, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give .
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OPENING: Previously on: “Kent preaches a sermon on sex” last week, if you were here, we talked about how God created sex to be something that united us to one another in one flesh. We talked about how this is actually the point biblically where you become married.
Genesis 2:23-24 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
We talked about how even science backs this up – brain scientists have studied what happens to our brains when we have sex. Our brains release a cocktail of hormones that make us feel good and feel connected to one another.
If you missed the sermon, you should really grab the podcast and give it a listen…
Sermon Part 2What does this mean for us? (The Implications of a biblical concept of sex)
Implication 1: The demotion of Sex by the world where God elevates
ILLUSTRATION: About 10 years ago I started to notice a trend when people came to me to get married. Most of them had had more than one sexual partner and all of them (except for one couple) were already living together and already having sex with one another. As a matter of fact, for some of them, they had been in this arrangement for a long time and had been having sex for the majority of their relationship..
This is a complete cultural shift from say 20-30 years ago. My guess is, most of you if you are under 45 – this is how you did it. You didn’t even know there might be reasons to do it any other way…
Let’s ignore for a moment the biblical idea that when you’ve had sex with a person, you have united yourself with them.
Let’s just think about it rationally.
If you have had sex with someone, let’s say after the 3rd or 4th date, or maybe even a couple of months in. You like them, they seem nice. They make you feel good and you decide to have sex. Now your brain is flooding itself with chemicals that are designed to cause you to want to recreate the act and specifically recreate it with that person. You have unintentionally flooded your brain with chemicals that are designed to help you desire and want your spouse.
Sex was meant to be God’s gift in the married life
It was meant to be the thing that draws a man and woman together and highlights their two fleshes becoming one.
But what happens instead? We become roommates who share our beds, a dog, and a washer and dryer set, but nothing else about our lives.
We live together “trying out marriage” But you can’t actually make a wise decision-I tell all these people coming in for pre-marital counseling that they are going to experience all kinds of “roommate” issues in their marriage
-they keep their money separate, they keep their food separate, they each pay their own bills, etc.
And instead of drawing together into a committed relationship
We live with the fear that the other person could leave any time the relationship becomes inconvenient…
Where our society has downgraded sex to just a bodily function, we should have elevated it. Sex is the most amazing gift of a God who loves us and wants to help us to continue to desire one another.
This is part of the reason the author of Hebrews says in
Hebrews 13:4Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
The way we handle and think about sex matters
Implication 2: The elevation of sexuality where God places it in its proper context
ILLUSTRATION: Watch any modern TV sitcom and they will do two things with sex. They will demote it to just an action. You’ll see characters have random sex with people, moving in with each other with no possible consequences to any actions. They will treat it like it’s just a physical desire like hunger. But there is this weird thing that happens where it will simultaneously be elevated to a place of it being all they think about and talk about.
There is a subtle message in our world that you are primarily a sexual being.
When sex loses its purpose and context it can be elevated to a place it was never meant to hold
Here’s the problem with believing you are primarily a sexual being-You will believe your inclinations are natural to who you are – there is no victory over them or changing them-You will believe what you do is your business only – excluding God and His design from the equation-You can begin to confuse your identity with your sexuality – believing that your sexuality/gender/bias’ define WHO you are
Your primary identity is not as a sexual creature, but as a spiritual creature with s sexual nature
Genesis 1:26-27 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
You were created to reflect God’s image
ILLUSTRATION: I have seen this idea free a lot of men from addictions to pornography and help people overcome sexual addiction. If you believe you are just a sexual being primarily, then it feels like you can’t do anything to overcome it. You are stuck.
Putting sex and sexuality in its proper context gives you the freedom to let God write a different story with your life – a story as an image-bearer of God!
I love Romans 8:29-30 (The Message Version) 29-30 God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
CLOSING ILLUSTRATION: Some of you know that I didn’t grow up as this good kid who just loved God and did everything right. I tell my kids “I was a bad guy”. I can remember the first time I got drunk and looked at my buddy’s dad’s porn stash. I grew up with a mixed-up sense of what sex was. There was a period of time where I thought maybe I was gay because when I saw a girl’s butt, I would think “dude, she poops with that”. I was all twisted up because what I knew about sex and sexuality was from the world and it was perverted. It has only been through God’s grace and learning that I have found healing and hope. You can too. The good news is that Jesus died to rescue all of us from what this world had given us. A dysfunctional way of life. Jesus gives us real life. What if today you could have a new life. You could take your story of disfunction to Him and find new life. If that’s you, in a moment, I’m going to pray a prayer and invite you to bow your head and pray with me.
