The Truth About Sexuality

In the church we talk very well about

sexuality

and in some churches it is not talked about enough, but I really believe that this conversation about

sexuality

is much more than sexuality itself, this concept of sex and our capacity for it falls between two bookends: we have the beginning when God made the heavens and the earth and then you have the ending when God will make a new heaven and a new earth between these two worlds, if you want, sexuality lives this morning. I want us to remember where everything is. It came from what sin has done to him, how Christ has redeemed him, and what will result from it.

I truly believe that if today we can obtain this deep

truth

and our souls, no matter who you are, what time you are in, whatever has happened to you, whether single married sexually abused sexually promiscuous whatever the case may be the

truth

is what we all need let's pray God find us here in Jesus name Amen I have three points today the first point is that sexuality and everything that comes with it is God's idea if we have our Bibles again I'm being funny here please go to Genesis 2 verse 18 Genesis 2 beginning in verse 18 says then the Lord God said it is not good for the man to be alone I will make him a suitable helper now out of On the earth the Lord God had formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and as the man called every living thing that was its name, the man gave names to all the livestock. and to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field, but for Adam no help was found that was suitable for him, then the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon men and while he slept he took one of his ribs and closed its place with meat and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made a woman and brought her to the man then the man said this at last she is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she will be called woman because she was taken from the man therefore the man will leave his father and his mother and he will be joined to his wife and they will be one flesh and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed in this passage you see the introduction of four things that God did in relation to humanity that has something that To do with sexuality, the first thing we see is community, we see it in verse 18 when God says that it is not good for man to be alone.

The interesting thing is that throughout chapter 1 it says that God saw this and God saw that and that was good six times God declares that what he has made is good until it comes to Adam Adam is not alone in the sense that he is alone but he is alone in the sense of not having anyone near him who is like him and God says that this fist is not a good thing, one of the reasons is that God himself is not alone. God is triune, he is a God who exists in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, our God by nature, is a communal God and a relational God, so since Adam is made in the image of God, Adam is also a relational being like God, so he can walk fully in what God has made him to be and do. everything that God has called him to do, like subdue the earth and be fruitful and multiply, because clearly he can't do it alone, he didn't need another animal or another plant, but another person, I hope that encourages the women here. who are single and do not love him affirms that it is not something strange to want a relationship nor is it something that they should be ashamed of but I do want to say that just as the Word of God to Adam that it is not good for man to be alone affirms that we are designed for relationship also states that you don't need a relationship to be fully human Adam could have been alone but he was no less of a man for that and you could be alone but you are no less of a man a woman for that and marriage and sexual intimacy are not what Lastly, they are just expressions of relationship and community, our culture would have us believe that our humanity and joy find their fullness and having sexual intimacy or being married or married, but the truth is that our Lord was completely single, really human but very complete and we were all made to have a relationship.

This is true, but the relationship that will last beyond this life is not the one-day marriage that will be eliminated, but it is our entry into communion with God. and his church that will extend beyond this life the second thing God did in a relationship with humanity that deals with sexuality in Genesis 2 is gender verses 22 and 23 describe how God laid down Adam, opened his side and took out a rib. no sauce and he did something completely different, you understand I don't like dry ribs, I know some of you do the dry rub thing, I don't get it, I need, I need sauce, I need sauce, but he made something completely different.

However, a similar human being called a woman describes the act as the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man and turned her into a woman. If you pay attention to the language taken from the man turned into a woman, you get an idea of ​​the distinction that is made. here that these are two different people made in two different ways he is not she and she is not him and why does that matter? Because if God made man and woman, gender is also God's idea and if it is God's idea, then it is a good idea. one knows that God made everything for his glory, everything is for him, including our gender.

Adam and Eve's gender was not an accident nor was it something they chose. God did it and they did it because while they were living their humanity with everything that God had given them. distinctions the world could learn something from God and his gospel I say this because I don't want us to think that God didn't make us women on purpose as if when they thought about making you what you would be it was inconsequential to who you are and by becoming a woman, you are able to imagine to God in ways different from those of a man.

I know we are in a culture that thinks distinctions are unnecessary, but if anything they bring greater clarity to the beauty and depth of Divinity because it is with our gender distinctions in the church and in our marriages and in our families and in our friendships which allows us to understand something about God that we would not have known if every human being was equal, the third thing that God did in relation to humanity that deals with sexuality is marriage verses 22 to 24 after God does to the woman God brings this new being to the man the man then writes the first poem in the Scriptures says flesh of my flesh bone of my bone my husband is a poet, but if he wrote that to me, I would think it was a little strange, but I'm not here to judge, then a proclamation is made in verse 24 when it says, therefore a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. and they will become one flesh.

You may already know this, but let me remind you that marriage is also God's idea. People didn't think about it. Culture did not create it. God made it and because he created it, he defines it. A man a woman. flesh and you might be wondering why I haven't talked about sexuality until now, well I haven't because in Genesis sex isn't discussed until the marriage covenant is created, it isn't until we get to Genesis chapter 2 verse 24, read words 1 / that we be able to understand how this man and this woman should interact with each other they should be one spiritually, emotionally and physically when God created Adam surely he did so with the ability to express himself sexually it is not as if Adam was a eunuch before Eve appeared, but it wasn't until God gave Adam a wife who then gives him the freedom to be sexual.

Sex was not created apart from marriage. It was created to function within him to divorce sexuality or divorce sexuality from God's original design is to lose sight of why he did it and why he did it you act, he did it because it is good. Can I be honest and quick? I promised Nancy I won't make anyone grab her pearls. I promise. Get real PG I promise, I promise Nancy I promise, but if you've ever done it, I'll just say it. I will keep it. I'll take a G. If you've ever done that, then you had to think of one for yourself. point that God is so good, not all of us, but some of us think it's so nice of God to not just tell us to do it but give us the physical ability to enjoy it where sex is not just a utilitarian thing but it's also an avenue of pleasure, but if God could create something as good as sex, how much greater is he?

There is nothing on earth that is better than God, which means that sex is a good gift, but it is not a better gift in the Living God and if it is not a better gift in the Living God then we should not have to reject it to satisfy the body in ways that it is not ordered nor should we distrust it believing that it cannot help us enjoy. his good gift in the ways he has ordained if you are single and celibate God is good if you are married and sexually active God is good and if you are married and sex is traumatic for you God is still good we have to trust that if he He made it and we then, by keeping our focus on him, by getting the therapy counseling we need, by being willing to be honest with our spouses about where we are, will be able to resist what we shouldn't have and will be able to enjoy what we have in community, gender marriage and sexuality were all God's idea, but because sin is in the world, now we have to ask ourselves what sin has done to God's idea because one sin broke the tone of an ADIZ communion with God and, therefore, with each other. where we all in one way or another experienced true loneliness after Adam sinned, there are two things he did that he would not have done before, one is that he hid from God, two is that he blamed his wife, the intimacy he once had with God he went he left so instead of running towards God he ran from God he hid behind the tree he hid behind the creative as if God didn't see him there then when he faced his sin instead of saying I'm sorry God, I I'm sorry, I apologize for not protecting the woman you gave me, I'm sorry for not intervening, says the woman you gave me, she is the one who gave me the fruit before I was born from her bone and flesh from her flesh, now she is just a woman, that's it. helped say that this is the beginning of humanity's inability to lovingly connect with each other, this is the breakdown of community and, when it comes to sexuality, this is why we are so easily led to engage in superficial forms of intimacy, there are women who continue to have sex without a ring not only out of lust but because they feel lonely sex for them has become their way of reestablishing themselves with Adam has been broken there are women in this room who are addicted to pornography not only because they are lustful but because they don't know how to have real, authentic intimacy with a living, breathing person.

Sin makes us believe that there is no relational risk in viewing sexual images in private, but there is more risk than you can imagine. God has created us for real community and real intimacy and real friendship and real love and we can really have it sin has also distorted how many see themselves have you ever noticed that the first thing Adam and Eve noticed after their eyes They opened themselves with their bodies, they realized their nakedness and this time they felt ashamed. Do not think it is strange that there are many bearers of the image of the Living God in our world today, people whom God has made and whom God loves deeply, who when looking and who They are biologically will feel as if that is not who they really are nor who they should be.

When God created Adam and Eve, he stepped back and said it's good, this includes their bodies, but now many are stepping back and looking at themselves. themselves and say that this is not good, which sin has also done. God's idea is that it is not just divorced sexuality or married sex, but both have come to be defined according to cultures' perception of goodness, and in our world there is a belief that sexual immorality is something good depending on whether it feels good. for us so reference Adam and Eve again when the devil was sending her to sin, the Bible says she looked at the tree and thought it was desired to make a wise Eve sin because of her logic and her affections and we are of the same way. and I say we on purpose because we can't just think that all this sin is out there as if it weren't in us - we are all born in sin, we are all women whose affections have been affected and we have all sinned because I thought it would be good to do so, but thank you to God through Jesus because Jesus has redeemed the ideas of God and how he did it.

Do you remember the story of the woman caught in adultery? The Bible says that the Pharisees took her to Jesus and told him. She told him that the law says she should be stoned even though they handled her situation in the worst way. His theological assessment of what should happen was correct. The law did say that sin deserves death, but Jesus tells the crowd that he who is without sin is free. the first to throw a stone at it, then the text says that one by one all those who brought it there leave. I think one thing we missed or might miss in this narrative is what do you think was going through her mind when Jesus didn't? walk away from her there was a chance she would think to herself Jesus simply gave permission to whoeverI am without sin to start stoning me to start my judgment but everyone walked away but Jesus is the only one who is still here could it be that he is going to be the one who will judge me will he be the one who will give me what I deserve how is he still here And yet I'm still alive and Jesus interrupts what she might be thinking and says woman, where are they?

Has no one condemned you to what most likely she is looking around and seeing that there is no one there and she says no one, Lord, and Jesus responds so differently to the people he wanted him to do by saying Me neither, how come this woman who was sexually broken, who cheated on her husband, who did sexually immoral things, who desired someone who didn't belong to her, who could have thought that a man could cure her loneliness and her desires, how come this woman can be freed from the consequences of her sin standing before the holy and sinless God you know why because she was not condemned because Christ was going to take her condemnation upon himself he was going to be the one to pay the penalty for her sexual brokenness and she would not be stoned at the hands of self-righteous men because that is an easy death compared to a crucifixion at the hands of an unjust God.

I want you to know tonight that you don't have to carry the shame of your sin. Jesus took care of that. You don't have to be afraid to confess the things you've done in private. You don't have to be like Adam hiding behind your tree. self made jesus knows where you are and he knows what you have done but he has already been promised that he is faithful and just to forgive you if you would just confess and also when i tell anyone in this room it is that you are not what your sexual abuser said that you are you are not what your trauma says you are you are a chai of the Living God listen to me when I say that just as God has dealt with your sin, he will also deal with the sins of those who have wronged you, he is a just God, so May you never think that what has been done against you will not be dealt with there, whoever took care of your debt is not yours to handle nor yours to hold, so you are free to forgive. free to trust again you are free to love again God will heal you and help you in time with the gospel of Jesus Christ he has done it the idea of ​​God is that he has overcome sin and death to which we are subject so that we like the A woman caught as an adulterer can actually go and sin no more and not only that this gospel has given us a community, a community of other people who should have been stoned but who have all looked up and heard Jesus say no. are. condemned just as it was not good for Adam to be alone, it is not good for you either, we are part of a body of people who will help us heal, grow and learn to love God and other sins could have tried to hold us back. from each other but God has knit us together for his love we need the universal church and the local church to help us love Jesus and if it couldn't be better God has given us eternal life eternal life does not begin when you die eternally Life began when you believed, but it is when you are home with the Lord that you will finally be free from temptation, free from shame, free from fear, free from the effects of sexual and physical abuse, free from feelings of loneliness, free from depression, free from everything that you think will be part of your life forever is there, well, God will be in us and will dwell with us, it is in heaven where there will be no more death, no more crimes, no more pain, all the old things will pass away. away where we will get brand new bodies that we will be able to look at and call good again where we will hear God say while sitting on his throne that he is making all things new these words are trustworthy and true I know we are still sitting between two The worlds of this side are the Earth as we know it, on that side there is a new heaven and a new earth that we have yet to see, but we are in a season that I use on purpose where there is so much sin and so much confusion in us and around us but guess what?

What won't always be like this and how do I know you're asking? It's simple. God in His Word has already told us, let's pray for God, there is so much in this room today, but none of our sins are bigger than yours. of our temptations are stronger than you none of these lies are more honest than you and that is why I pray that today we leave this place loving you and believing in you and that in that you will free us from the things that we do not think about. We are possible. I ask you all these things in the name of Jesus.

Amen.