Theology of Sex+ Week 3: Sexual Idolatry
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Well good morning my name is Chet I'm one of the pastors here grab a Bible go to Genesis chapter one we're going to be in Genesis 1 and 2 and then we'll be in Romans 1. but this sermon is a little bit different this whole series is a little bit different than what we normally do we usually work through books of the Bible so we just finished Exodus we're going to start Malachi as soon as this series is over and then we're going to be in Philippians next year and the reason we do that is that we believe that the Bible all of it is helpful and all of it is needed and that we.
Often if we just pick on our own ask the questions we want to ask we miss things that the Bible needs to tell us but we don't ask the right questions it's it's one of the reasons why you don't let elementary students pick the topics they're going to learn it's because they won't pick the topics they need to learn there'll be things that they would pick that they're interested in like if you let my third grade son choose what the school curriculum was he would know a lot about dinosaurs and wrestlers and Pokemon.
But he would never have been like teach me math he just wouldn't have asked for it and we believe that that's how we would approach the Bible that there are some questions that we ask that we're interested in that we want to know answers on but there's a lot that we should that we don't ask but in this series we're just taking a moment to say look our culture has a lot of training that it is giving us on sex and gender and sexuality that every single day.
If you ride down the road and look at Billboards if you stand in line at a grocery store and glance at the magazines if you watch your television or listen to the radio you're going to be coached up on some amount of how you ought to think about sex and gender and sexuality and we're taking some time to say hey what does the Bible say does it help us out and can we get our footing so if you came in a little late and you smuggled in a fifth grader or down I would encourage you unless you want to have interesting conversations.
For the rest of the day you may want to take them to kid city that is up to you but we are talking through what the Bible says about sex and we're talking about what our culture says about sex and so it just depends on where you are in those conversations as to where how much you want to be here this morning with those at that age I've that's probably covered it all right here we go um we have said so far in this series we've said we are created image bearing embodied and distinct people made.
For complementary co-rule with God we took the first two weeks to try to flesh that out and say this is the way God designed us and now we're going to take a moment to say where are we culturally in our thought processes what's going on around us and so this sermon even as this series is distinct this sermon will be a little more distinct because we're going to talk a little bit about what the Bible says but we're also going to try to take some time in the middle to Define where we are culturally.
But let's start with the Bible Genesis 1. verse 28. we've read this every week so far he says and God blessed them that's humanity and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it so the First Command that we see here given to humanity is to be fruitful and multiply that that part of this design of God that men and women would be complementary to one another is a reproductive design that we for Humanity to move forward need one another we need men and women to be able to reproduce and that was part of the way.
God designed this and that he built this and blessed it sex is not something that Humanity discovered it is something that God designed on purpose and blessed and made it the way he made it on purpose or Genesis 2 verse 24 and 25 it says therefore man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed that verse 25 naked not ashamed we said points to the fact that they existed in their own bodies comfortably and that sin has broken that we no longer exist in our own bodies comfortably like we once did.
But that God designed sex and sexuality and he blessed it and he brought them together and that they will come together and they will become one flesh and that's this picture of sex it's also this picture of reproduction that in children you have legitimately taken two sets of people two people and made one new person that is the image the United image of those two people who have come together that God did this on purpose Tim Keller who's a pastor in New York recently passed away.
But he says this he says in Genesis 1 28 God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply so procreation is obviously a large part of God's design for sex but he also made sex feel good and the Song of Solomon is full of references to the rapturous pleasure found in a sexual relationship between man and wife sex and the pleasure that comes along with it are designed to reinforce the connection between a husband and wife creating a stable bond.
For a family in a safe atmosphere to raise children the pleasurable chemicals released during sex are meant to remind the participants of their wedding vows that they belong to and are attached to one another that they mutually serve one another if the Covenant of marriage is that all of me belongs to all of you for all of our lives sex is meant to be a covenant renewal ceremony a covenant remembering ceremony it's meant to be that same thing that we're giving all of ourselves to one another and that.
God designed it that way on purpose and made it enjoyable on purpose Tim Keller goes on to say that this is one of the reasons why we uh when we enter into sexual relationships to people we aren't married to it's one of the reasons why we stay in bad relationships longer than we should because we've been telling ourselves through our physical acts that we belong to each other in a covenantal way and it's one of the reasons why when we break up it hurts more than it should.
Because we've been enacting covenantal relational activities rather than keeping that where it's supposed to be so one of the the general views of the way Christians think about sex and sexuality is that we think it's dirty and bad and wrong that the Church teaches sex is dirty and bad and wrong save it for your spouse that's not the Christian teaching on this we actually believe that sex is more beautiful and more powerful than our culture does and therefore it ought to be guarded and not be in the right place and it's to be celebrated and enjoyed in the right context we don't agree with our culture that it is the the only way to have.
A happy life and the only way to to exist the Bible celebrates celibacy and singleness as you are a full human I know culturally we're told if you if you've never had sex you're only like a half a person you don't really exist until you've done this you don't really get to be a real person until then that's not true it is it's a gift but it's not ultimate and you can see how if this is our approach to sexuality We Stand contrary to our culture this and our culture doesn't really like our position on sexuality and this isn't new this is uh C.S Lewis talking 80 years ago in in a completely different continent.
He writes this Chastity that's this approach to sexuality is the most unpopular of the Christian virtues there is no getting away from it the Christian rule is either marriage with complete faithfulness to your partner or else total abstinence he says that's Christian's approach to sexuality and people don't like that he actually goes on to say it's difficult so difficult and contrary to our instincts that either the Christian rule has to be wrong or we have to be wrong and we've we've made it worse.
Because we've added either marriage between one man and one woman to further differentiate and clarify our position with complete faithfulness to your partner or else total abstinence and if you're familiar if you've been in the United States for more than about 30 minutes you realize that's not the cultural approach and so we stand contrary to our culture and we say a thing that's not very popular and most cultures have rejected this approach to marriage because our approach to sexes wrong as C.S Lewis would put it contrary to this ideal that.
God gives us an interesting thing it used to be that as Christians held this position the culture around us viewed us as more moral than them that we were prudish or we were too strict but that this position was more moral so they might would make fun of you or they might would exclude you from things but they didn't see you as less moral they saw you as more moral but recently the cultural position on the Christian view has shifted so the Christians are.
Now likely to be viewed not as more moral but as less moral that our position is actually harmful that our position is actually oppressive that's interesting and I want to take a moment to try to understand how we got there and why our culture views thus that way because the Christian approach to this hasn't changed my grandad's name was Chester Phillips he was a pastor and when he taught on the Christian approach to sex he would have taught this marriage with faithfulness or total abstinence we haven't thrown a curveball in here we've clarified a thing.
But we hadn't we hadn't changed our position but the culture shifted around us so that their view on our position has changed and that's interesting we need to figure it out first I want to explain one quick aspect of where this is and then we're gonna have to spend a little more time on another one the first one is this we've bought into the idea of the pursuit of happiness and honestly we're kind of built that way as humans and God actually designs us to have ultimate happiness in him and he assumes that we're going to pursue things that are good.
For us and things that we see is valuable this is one of the reasons why he'll tell us to pursue treasure in heaven rather than treasure here it's not that he says treasure is bad he says to get your priorities straight understand where you'll have the most Joy the most Delight so we've got this idea of pursuit of happiness but here's the problem when we use the word happiness we often mean two separate things there's happiness as in joy as in contentment as in everything is good and I don't need anything else and there's happiness as in pleasure which is this is really good I want some more.
And if you in the book The hacking of the American mind there's a pediatric endocrinologist who wrote the book and this pediatric endocrinologist argues that we have subtly in the U.S swapped out the word happiness for the word pleasure we've just taken happiness and filled it with the word pleasure and he says the reason that is is that pleasure is controllable and sellable we're consumers we're designed to be consumers that's what America runs off of you buying things and it runs off of you buying more shoes than you have feet like we're designed to own too much stuff as an American Consumer the the culture around us doesn't want you to say I'm happy.
I don't want any more I'm at peace also just so you know that version of joy happiness is harder to attain it's less controllable by you I want to feel content is way harder Target to hit versus the pleasure button y'all sugar caffeine caffeine with sugar in it we know how to press this button and that's our approach to sexuality is just pleasure not contentment stability enjoyment Joy we just know how to press the pleasure button and so we've been sold on happiness as a Pursuit pleasure as a replacement.
For that because that's the one that's controllable and sellable and sex is one of the primary ways to accomplish that and that's where we are culturally that's what pornography is that's what a hookup culture is it's the ability to go after pleasure because pleasure is in some ways controllable attainable sellable achievable and we hope that if I mash the pleasure button enough I'll get the contentment but our skyrocketing addiction and depression shows us that just mashing the pleasure button doesn't make us content all right we need to understand that's going on in our culture.
But the next thing we need to understand and the reason why because that was already happening the reason why our culture has shifted its view on our view is because of this I want to read this quote to try to help you understand kind of where we are this is from Carl Truman and Strange New World and he does a really good job of trying to articulate this but he says this indeed it can seem as if things that almost everybody believed as unquestioned Orthodoxy meaning truth reality the day before yesterday that marriage is between one man and one woman.
For example he says things that we used to believe that we were all on the same page with we were all because of the day before yesterday but give you an example you know how political positions shift depending on what everybody thinks um if you didn't know that there you go uh when Barack Obama ran for president in 2008 that was his official position the marriage was between one man and one woman that's not to take a shot at Barack Obama and try to help you understand how quickly we've shifted our position on this that that idea.
For example are now regarded as heresies advocated only by the dangerous Lunatic Fringe he goes on to say when I was young religious people were often regarded as foolish or hypocritical by The Wider culture but I do not recall any widespread belief that they were as a class dangerous hate-filled bigots who represented a threat to civil order he used to be viewed as more moral now we're being viewed as less moral why the reason why is this we are currently in what some social scientists and philosophers would call the age of authenticity or the age of expressive individualism what started with Renee Descartes saying I think.
Therefore I am placing existence inside of us and then Rousseau who took that and ran with it Russo at one point says I'm going to do something that's never been heard of I'm going to do something that'll shock the world I'm going to write a story but I'm just going to talk about what's going on inside of me is that shocking to us no that's a diary man like that's just that's the way that's the way we think about the world is that I'm the main character and what's going on inside of me is primary and it wasn't something that was new uh Saint Augustine had already done it Christians believe that you have an.
Inner man we're not against this idea but that the seat of reality exists inside of you is new but what we've done is we've said that the primary thing that matters is who you are on the inside so we say things like you have to be true to yourself you need to just believe in yourself we talk about you can't argue with someone's lived experience if they've actually experienced it you can't tell them they're wrong we say things like this is my story this is my truth.
Because it's seated in us there's a Canadian philosopher his name is Charles Taylor and I thought he put it well he says this expressive individualism believes each one of us has his or her own way of realizing our Humanity and it believes that it is important to find and live out one's own and that's what he's talking about one's own way to live out your Humanity as against surrendering to Conformity with a model imposed on us from outside by Society or the previous generation or religious or political Authority I give you the plot to most of the movies you've watched in the last 30 years that's the books we read That's the movies we watch.
That's what we believe is that you have to figure out what's going on in you and you have to express it you have to impose yourself on the rest of the world and that anybody who tells you you're wrong is the enemy you see what we've become to believe and usually that other what we've come to believe is this we can't really know right or wrong we can't really know things about God we can't really know things about eternity we can't really know any of those things objectively all we really know is who we are and what we want and what's going on inside of us and since we can't really know things outside of.
Us but we can know what's inside of us then we might not have right and wrong but what we can have is power and oppression what we can have is someone else who imposes their will on yours and anyone who poses their imposes their will on yours is oppressive and abusive and harmful anybody who tells you that you can't be the you that you want to be is oppressive and abusive and harmful and the Church has been the bad guys from Footloose onward probably before that that's just the one I know about that's what the Church does is it comes in and says no there's actually something wrong inside of you and you need some.
Objective reality to guide you to change you you need to submit your will to something outside of you that's not the stories we tell that's not the advice we give it sounds weird to us to give the exact to say the opposite like if you were coaching someone up and you said look don't be yourself yourself is bad so stop it you go out there and you be what your parents expect you to be high five don't be yourself don't follow your dreams your country needs you submit to the will of your country don't be yourself don't find out what's true to you and express it do not sing a song into a.
Well look at me do not sing you do what your ancestors want from you you do what your religion tells you to do that sounds like a monologue of the bad guy that's what we've been trained in now Christianity believes that you have an inner self and Christianity believes that your inner self you have value and dignity and worth that you are an individual you're not a cog in a machine that you exist individually and personally the Christianity agrees with those things.
But then Christianity steps in and says but there's something wildly broken and wrong and sinful in your heart and you cannot trust yourself which puts us completely sideways with our culture and once you take our culture's approach to pursuit of pleasure and sex and our culture's approach to individuality and self-expression and for lack of a better word marry those things together we have what we have now which is the Church is oppressive and abusive I want to read this this is Carl Truman talking about that coming together he says this in short the sexual Revolution does not simply represent a growth in the routine transgression of traditional sexual codes or even a modest expansion of.
The boundaries of what is and is not acceptable sexual behavior not at all rather it is the repudiation of the very idea of such codes in their entirety so what what he's saying is this the sexual Revolution wasn't saying hey we've made the line too too rigid too too narrow on what good sex is and we need to move it out we need to be able to talk about it a little more we need to be able to change the boundaries what he says the sexual Revolution is is any line drawn is bad we got to get rid of the lines and we currently really only have like one cultural lines left pedophilia and bestiality.
And we're wavering on both of these and you're actually going to start hearing the arguments for why those are bad not based in they are morally repugnant and intrinsically Wicked sins against your dignity as a human it's not what you're going to hear we're going to start hearing more arguments about the problem is consent because we only understand how to talk about power and oppression and it has to do with individual expression and so the issue is not that these are bad on their own.
But how are you going to define consent okay he keeps going more than that it has come in certain areas such as that of homosexuality and transgenderism to require the positive repudiation of traditional sexual mores okay so not just we got to get rid of them we actually now have to announce that any of those lines were actually evil they were bad they were oppressive that's what positive repudiation means it's come to we have to do that to the point where belief in or main maintenance of such views trying to keep the line has come to be seen as ridiculous and even a sign of serious mental or moral deficiency the Church is oppressive.
Less moral he says and to understand this how we got here we need to see the sexual Revolution as a particularly sharp manuscript manifestation of the characteristics of expressive individualism if the individual's inner identity is defined by sexual desire then he or she must be allowed to act out on that desire in order to be an authentic person so when the Church says we think you're wrong this desire is bad the Church is articulating we see you as separate from your sexual desires.
But our culture no longer does that our culture says sexual desire is identity and even when we talk about it one of the reasons you feel uncomfortable is you've been coached by our culture and how to think about this and the younger you are the more coaching you've received this is why people who are older than you can say things that make you go oh you can't say that this is why if you go back and watch old episodes of sitcoms you'll go oh you can't say that and they weren't they're not that old.
But you'll be going and you realize oh I've been trained for example if I said there are most people and they're Chipotle people and chipotle people are wrong you would first of all probably agree with me who wants to pay for chips I don't get it but you would not hear it the way that you would hear there are straight people and gay people and gay people are wrong because Moe's and chipotle is a thing that you desire it's not who you are do you.
See how we've shifted to Identity and Christianity says no no who you are is an image Bearer made in the image of God who you are has desires who you are needs Jesus and we love you enough to wherever your desires are crossed Away With Jesus to say oh please come to Jesus and not because he hates you and not because we think we're better than you but because we think that what you're chasing is harmful and that Jesus is better.
But that's not the language or culture speaking so we come across and are seen as oppressive and abusive because it's a personal attack you are wrong at the core of who you are and anybody who's out there saying you are wrong is equivalent to a racist is equivalent to someone who is saying just by the nature of how you exist you are wrong and it's seen as wickedness and we're right about racism culturally and we're wrong about this so because of this and this we are more sexually liberated than we've ever been in this country you are more free to pursue sex to pursue pleasure and we're told that.
If you can freely nobody's going to put any restraints on you and if you can freely pursue pleasure you'll be happy that's what we've been sold on you gotta get your parents to not tell you what to do you got to get Society to not tell you what to do you got to get religion to not tell you what to do if you can have all those things you'll be happy is our culture happy has it worked we're told that pornography.
For a long time it's just a normal thing it's a social good it'll reduce people who would otherwise commit sexual assaults it um it's a normal craving it's in the privacy of your home like we've been told all these things this is fine this won't hurt us it's good it's a desire it's a it's like an appetite you can just you know you get hungry you eat this is this is fine for us but has pornography been a public good for us we have an increased amount of addiction we have an increased amount of abuse and addiction and depression we have an increased amount of young men who are.
Now having to seek medication because they no longer function properly sexually because of their pornography addictions it's increased depression it's increased social anxiety because it's a very bad representation of how men and women should interact it's increased the objectification of people it's increased the commodification of people the buying and selling of people we have hookup culture which is just find as many people to sleep with and that's a that's a route to Joy visit has it been has this been a good.
For us we have stories now of people who are using apps to to sleep around and they've met somebody they sleep with them and they're in the bed with them and open the app back up because it doesn't lead to satisfaction we were told that if we had the pill and if we had contraceptives and we had abortion we could help cut down on the number of children that are born out of wedlock and the reason why we want to cut down on the number of children who are born outside of a married couple is.
Because all of their statistics are bad they're worse you can you can succeed from that position but your chances for poverty for violence for abuse being abusive and being abused all increase we were told though if we had the pill if we had free sex if we could just get it to where it wasn't we would fix these problems we now have the highest rate of children born out of outside of wedlock in the U.S we've ever had it's nearing uh it's 40.
So it's almost half of all children born or born into a situation that's worse for them we have sexual assault and rape which we've always had the world has had that forever but it's on the rise and we're told culturally that what we need is more we need more freedom we need to get rid of where people are still saying things like we got to get to where we can talk about sex without it being taboo is that our problem that we don't talk about sex enough we're not free enough with how we talk about it every single show we've watched every single movie you've watched every single everything you've participated in has sold you.
On the idea that that sex is free and easy and simple and if you could just have more of it you'd be happy and we're told we need more that this is freedom and this is satisfaction and I think we ought to look around and say if this is freedom and this is satisfaction we don't want it and I think we ought to look and say thankfully that the Bible looks at this and says this is not Freedom or satisfaction this is called idolatry and slavery those are the words the Bible is going to put to this.
So go to Romans 1. because God loves us he helps tell us that things are bad for us I love my children which means that I often stand between the pleasure button and shoe them towards Joy my kids are convinced if they only ate Candy and didn't have a bedtime their life would be magical they're convinced that they could speak to their parents however they wanted to their life would have more freedom they're convinced that if they had to go to school and weren't forced to brush their teeth life would be good and I'm.
Well aware that all of those things will mash the pleasure button and will never ever head them towards Joy and God stands in between us and our Twisted desires in his infinite wisdom and love and says no no no that'll match the pleasure button but it'll never ever head you towards Joy Romans 1. we read some of this earlier we read all this earlier we're going to pick up in verse 21. this is talking about Humanity it's talking about what all creatures under the Earth have done and how this has worked out it says.
For although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish Hearts were darkened I want you to understand one of the things that Christians believe is that we have foolish hearts you have lied to you more than anyone else has you have caused you more problems than anyone else has you have caused yourself a problem and then lied to yourself about it we have foolish hearts it says their foolish Hearts were darkened claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal.
God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things so rather than submitting to God worshiping God delighting In God we said no we want something else and we swap it out that's idolatry the idea that I'll be the person who decides what's right I'll be the person who's in charge is not new it's actually quite old that's the thing we did in the Garden of Eden that's Genesis chapter 3. that's where they say no we'll choose right and wrong we'll be in charge of Good and Evil thank you very much we'll decide.
So our culture is saying hey you're the final Arbiter on the right and wrong good and evil it's like didn't a snake tell us that a long time ago that's where we are we exchange God for something else and sometimes this shows up in straight up the way we think of idolatry a totem pole bird something that you're lighting incense to but also we've replaced it for images resembling mortal man my own intelligence my own reason my own Inner Man and also physical bodies of other people and it says.
Verse 24 therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves and y'all our approach to sexual sin is a dishonoring of our bodies and that's what he's talking about he's going to go further and say more about sexual sin he also says that he gave them up to all kinds of sin but that's what happens when we reject God often he'll say you can have which have it and it's not good.
For us it's actually his wrath on us to give us what we want at times it says because they exchange the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever amen you are worshiping something and you are serving something you are a slave to something this is how Humanity works you have something that you set out in front of you and say this is good this is desirable this is the right outcome this is who I want to be this is how I think want things to work that's worship that's this this is what is most wonderful and delightful in the world.
And then your track to get it and enjoy it is your service or slavery so that Peter's going to say things like whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved or later in Romans in chapter six he's going to say you're a slave to the one whom you obey he says it's either God or it's to sin which leads to death and culturally we are told if you can think about yourself and you can think about sex in these ways you'll have freedom you'll have joy you'll have Delight This Is Our.
God come let us worship and Bow Down and we have not been blessed by our cultural approach to sex you have not been blessed by our cultural approach to sex it has not been good in your life or added to your joy for many of us most of us we were introduced to sex way too early it ruled in our imagination way too early our introduction to sex if it was through pornography completely Twisted for us what it is supposed to be.
Because rather than being something that is participatory and covenantal and enjoyable between two people it became voyeuristic and you were separated from it became a commodity it became only about pleasure and nothing about Covenant or sacrifice or the giving of yourself it came only about self-service rather than service and kindness and graciousness and generosity and sacrifice and belonging if we went from relationship to relationship if you're currently going from relationship to relationship sexual relationship to sexual relationship or not even a relationship just sex to sex.
If you're currently looking at pornography daily it might hit the pleasure button but it is not added to to contentment to rest peace it is not added to your joy it's one of the reasons it's so confusing because you've potentially been convinced that it would so maybe you're not doing it right or maybe you need more or maybe it's got to be different or maybe you've got to find the next approach to it that that makes you send out more dopamine maybe next time.
But it will not satisfy more and more when we do pre-marital counseling or when we do marriage counseling we are not dealing with people who have only had sexual relationships with each other and their previous sexual relationships have not added to their Joy it has not added to contentment it has not added to Delight it has not added to the picture of what God had for us our objectification of each other and buying and selling of one another has only added to the Brokenness around us.
If sex and individuality are our God we need a new one because this one has not blessed us this one demands more worship more sacrifice more service always promising to at some point finally satisfy satisfying us saving us fixing us and it will not ever deliver and by God's grace we will see that sooner rather than later Jesus says in John chapter 8 Jesus answers them and he says truly truly I say to you everyone who practices sin as a slave to sin and the slave does not remain in the house forever the sun remains forever and he's playing on a concept they understand here slaves don't inherit the end of the line.
For a Slave is not inheritance rest and Delight that road leads to more slavery but the Sun remains forever and then he shifts and he starts talking about himself and he says so if the sun sets you free you will be free indeed do you want freedom do you want satisfaction do you want joy do you want to learn how to quit just trying to chase after pleasure and find contentment and Delight that lasts not only last for this little life as we walk this out.
But last for an eternity because it has been purchased for us not by us but by him then you need the son to set you free you need Jesus to pay your debt to rescue you to forgive you and to make you his forever one of the reasons we can say that we know with definitive Clarity that God loves us when he stands between us and pleasure is because he sent his son to die on a cross for us that he came to suffer.
So that he might pay our debt and set us free there's a beautiful story in Luke chapter 11. Luke tells us that Jesus is in the house of a religious leader and a prostitute comes she falls on the ground and she begins to weep she begins to weep on Jesus's feet you ever had really dusty Sandy dirty feet and put a little drop of water you know that little line that runs through them that's what his feet looked like but more lines more lines more lines I don't know.
If you've ever just wept and you've cried to where it's just dripping she's just weeping on his feet and she starts using her hair to clean his feet because there's so many tears she had been chewed up and spit out by her culture's approach to sex she had been run racket she had been wiped out she had approached something that was supposed to be good for them and it was horrific and and the religious leader thinks to himself if Jesus was really a prophet he would know what kind of woman this was and he wouldn't let her touch him we're looking in the pages of our Bible and we know that he's not only a.
Prophet but he's the son of God and you're struck at that moment oh he knows exactly what kind of woman this is and he welcomes her and he forgives her and he Delights that she would come to him and in this room right now we may have some significant sexual Brokenness because you have been poorly trained by our culture about what satisfaction and Delight look like and I want you to know that you can fall on your face at Jesus and he welcomes you he does not hesitate he wraps you up and says it's.
For you that I died it's for you that I came that I might cover your shame that I might clothe you in righteousness that you might shine forever with me and all of this can be taken away so do not hesitate do not feel dirty do not feel ashamed but run head long to Christ and to his Redemption and may we be a people who begin to understand what our culture is training Us in so that we might speak well to them.
And so that we might speak well to our hearts to know that we need Jesus to set us free let's pray Lord Christ we praise you and our hearts lie to us and deceive us and lead us astray and Lord we're tired we're tired of biting the hook and being reeled in and being promised satisfaction and being promised fulfillment and being promised that if we just had this we'd be happy and it always falling short and Lord we're hurt we've pursued sexual sin or we've been actively harmed by the sexual sin of others.
Well we're in this room today and we've been marred we feel bruised and abused we feel like we've dirtied ourselves and been dirtied by others and Lord we praise your grace that Jesus shed his blood that we might be clothed in righteousness and by the power of your spirit by the working of the cross may you be at work right now for every person here who is holding on to sin that they might repent that they might weep at your feet and be restored that they might come humbly that they might be lifted up and that we might leave here with new worship and new service in rejection of a false.
God we've asked this in Jesus name amen Matt's going to come up as a Church we're going to sing he's going to take a moment to play while we reflect we're going to take communion and communion is a celebration that Jesus came and that his body was broken and that his blood was shed and that he was made to suffer on our behalf and to cover us through his work and so I'd like for you to take a moment that before you take communion before you come to the feet of.
Jesus she would take a moment to repent that you would take a moment to praise him for his sacrifice for you for his covering of you some of you right now have felt shame creeping up on you and I want you to know that if you're in Christ there is no condemnation there is no guilt because he has paid for it you are made holy and righteous and new if you've trusted in Jesus if you've repented you don't have to dredge all this back up you get to walk free you've never brought it to him come surrender.
So that you might be made new communion is for Christians for those who place their faith in Jesus if you have not trusted in him we'd ask for you to to not partake in it but we would ask you to come to Christ but if you place your faith in him today you can walk over and take communion and celebrate that he died for you that you might be made so take a moment where we are and pray and then Delight in the salvation of Christ.