Walking seems like such a simple thing until we break a toe or all the lights go out. Thankfully, the command to walk worthy of our calling is not something we must figure out on our own or something we must do in our own strength. Rather, in Christ the Christian has been given all they need to walk in love and light.
Just as important, we have been given a community with whom we can walk. In Sunday’s sermon, it was this community—a community of light—we considered most closely. For those who are laboring to walk with Christ, Paul’s words in Ephesians 5 are vital for knowing what light is and how to walk in light.
For help on this subject, you can listen to this sermon online or read the sermon notes. Discussion questions and further resources are listed below. Continue reading →
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
— Genesis 2:24 —
Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
You are not your own,
for you were bought with a price.
So glorify God in your body.
— 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 —
From the intricate arrangements of the cell to the massive construction of stars in the Milky Way, the God who made the heavens and the earth and everything in them is—to put it plainly—a Designer.
On earth, God has made mankind in his image. Male and female he created the human race. And on the day when he fashioned the man from the ground and made woman from his side (see Genesis 2:4-25), God also designed the institution of marriage and gave to Adam and Eve the gift of sex so they could partner in covenant union, procreate children who bear God’s image and likeness. At the same time, God made sex pleasurable as a good gift to his married couples.
Tragically, when sin crippled the human race (Gen 3), men and women made to honor God with their sexuality began to abuse and misuse his gift. In just a few generations, Lamech had married two women and by Genesis 19, homosexual desires had overcome the men in Sodom and Gomorrah. Today, sex is manipulated and marketed with dizzying speed.
Christians need to learn how to think about these things and we must come to the Bible to get our bearings. These two messages, preached over the last two Sundays, are my attempt to help our church think about God’s designs for marriage and sex.
I pray they may help you understand what God’s word says about this blessed gift, and how the power of God’s gospel can help you walk in holiness.
In True Sexual Morality, Daniel Heimbach, a SEBTS professor of ethics, engages a predominate view of sexuality that he labels “Playboy Sexual Morality” (see pp. 267-81). In his chapter, Dr Heimbach makes a helpful distinction between pleasure and joy. Continue reading →
Here is the sermon audio to yesterday’s sermon: “Evangelism in a Post-Marriage World.” This is the first in a series of messages on God’s Design for Marriage and Sexuality. In three sections, it introduces the challenge of evangelism a post-modern and post-marriage age; it calls us to have new hearts and minds as we approach the subject of sexual sin; and it gives five ways we must change our approach to evangelism, in order to reach a culture infatuated with sex and ignorant of God’s good design for marriage and sexuality.
Pastors have a responsibility to teach the whole counsel of God and to help the people of God form a biblical worldview. With this conviction in mind, I will be leading a series on what the Bible says about marriage and sexuality. In preparation for that series, I wrote this letter to our church: ‘A Sexual Manifesto: Embracing the Church’s New Mission.’ Let me know what you think.
If you haven’t noticed, things aren’t the way they used to be.
It wasn’t long ago that the boys’ bathroom was for . . . well, boys. Homecoming queens had to use a razor on their legs (not their face). Marriage was legally defined as the union of a man and woman. And Christians had a place at the table in regards to influencing public policy.
In what seems like the blink of an eye, all of these givens are gone. With more people in Georgia supporting same-sex marriage than opposing it, the once influential Bible Belt is nor more. Christendom as we know it—or should we say, as we knew it—has collapsed. Welcome to the new America. Continue reading →
Via Emmaus 