Bathwater, Week 2: Sex

Message Title:  “Sex” An “ABSITNENCE = APPROVAL” understanding Where GOD wants us to see PARAMETERS FOR PROTECTION, RELIGION wants us to see PARAMETERS FROM PUNISHMENT. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (NIV) A “DO WHAT YOU FEEL” mentality Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.  Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. Isaiah 55:6-9 (NIV) “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:6-9 (NIV) So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh… Galatians 5:15-18 (NIV) …You have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. Romans 8:12 (NLT) A “SHAME IS ALL AROUND ME” perspective  So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.  And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. Romans 8:1-2 (NLT) God created Sex The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18-25 (NIV) …But for Adam no suitable helper was found.  So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh.  Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. Genesis 2:18-25 (NIV) 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.” Genesis 2:18-25 (NIV) That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.  Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Genesis 2:18-25 (NIV)  Eden = pleasure and delight God set parameters for our protection  Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Hebrews 13:4 (ESV)  God set parameters on sex… but they are wide parameters God designed it to make marriage more dynamic. Sex is a thermostat and a thermometer of your marriage. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:21-31 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Ephesians 5:21-31  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself… “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” Ephesians 5:21-31 Men = sex stimulate ours emotions Women = emotion stimulates sex   Men = visually responsive Women = relationally responsive   Men = emotionally modest Women = physically modest   Men = compartmental Women = inclusive   Sex puts us in touch with a world we aren’t naturally in touch with.  This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:32 (NIV) A Commitment to PURITY. Pure: free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind; unmodified The goal of saving sex for marriage has never been about saving your virginity… it’s always been about pursuing purity. A Commitment to INTIMACY