Sermon Tone Analysis

One of the joys, strengths, and yet challenges of preaching through books systematically is that you are forced to preach passages and look at topics that in general you would not choose to look at!

And yet, that’s the very thing that we must do, we must preach the whole counsel of God, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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So this morning we come to .

And let’s be honest, its one of those passages you’re tempted to maybe skip over, or have a special time to think through.

It’s a passage that can make us a bit uncomfortable and embarrassed!

And yet, it’s God who has spoken it for us!

We need to hear this, and if we won’t address topics like sex, as a church family, then we leave ourselves, and our young people to be taught about it by the world, which is unthinkable!! So, let’s approach this as we’ve been learning we must approach every part of God’s Word, with humility, reverence, and attention!

We must listen!!

In C.S.Lewis’ book The Screwtape Letters, we are given a fictional insight into the conversation and correspondence between a senior, mature devil or demon (Screwtape), and his young nephew (Wormwood).

And in it the demon is trying to train his nephew in the most effective strategies for war against the enemy (God & God’s people)

But there is something this senior demon really struggles with, and it’s the fact that pleasure is God’s design!

It’s His creation!

‘Out at sea, out at His sea, there is pleasure and more pleasure.

He makes no secret of it; at His right hand are pleasures forevermore…He’s vulgar, wormwood…He has filled the world full of pleasures.’

God is the happiest, most joyful being in the universe!

And He desires His people to know His joy in 10,000 ways!

But here’s where the strategies of the enemy bear fruit, he can’t deny God’s good gifts that bring pleasure, but he can twist them!

‘Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s ground.

I know we have won many a soul through pleasure.

All the same, it is His invention, not ours.

He made pleasure: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one.

All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at time, or in ways, or to degrees which are forbidden.

Hence we always try to work away from the natural, that which least reflects its maker and is least pleasurable!

An ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure is the formula!’

Now we see the reality of this played out across the many pleasures of life.

But one area that we see it most clearly, and most destructively is with sex! God has created sex, it is a good thing, a gift, something to be enjoyed and cherished within the confines of marriage!

Unfortunately because of the abuses of sex, even within the church we’ve fallen into the trap of not talking about it!

Nearly even in a way thinking ourselves that it is something shameful and dirty.

And so often that’s how our young people grow up understanding it.

It’s not to be mentioned until you’re happily married!

‘Sex is like fire.

Kept in the fireplace it keeps the house warm.

Outside the fireplace, it burns the house down!’

Every good gift is from above, and every good gift is meant to point us to the giver!

It’s meant to be a means for us to know more of the One who gives, and so it is with sex.

But equally as with every good gift, we need wisdom, because the enemy seeks to twist it!

Let let’s look at wise sexuality this morning, and see firstly...

Wise Sexuality is recognising when honey is bitter (v.1-6)

Here we have the wise father with his son, and it’s time for that talk!

The birds and the bees!

The Son is coming of age, he is at the point where sexual temptation and the potential of sexual pleasure is a reality for him.

And so the Father must talk straight!

And again God in His kindness talks straight with us! He’s not embarrassed, He not awkward!

He tells it as it is!

And one of the first things here we see is the need to be careful!

There is a danger that exists, a temptation, a seduction!

v.3..

There is a way to take this good gift of God that is forbidden!

And here is the deadly thing about it, this woman is not passive!

She actively comes after you!

She wants you to take her!

And the means by which she draws you in are words, see that, her lips, her speech!

Speech that seems sweet, speech that seems smooth!

She promises much, offers satisfaction, makes bold claims!

She’ll flatter you, she’ll tell you what you want to hear!

Now this plays out in so many different ways!

And although it’s a father speaking to a son, we apply this across the board.

The dangers are just as real for ladies as for men, for girls as for boys!

That attractive guy or girl in school that starts to pay you attention, wants your number, starts to text, starts to send photos or ask for photos on snap chat!

It it’s tempting, it’s appealing, you want it!

Or that work colleague, maybe you or they are already married, but they begin to speak to you in a bit of a flirty way.

And you’re drawn in, their words find a place that you forgot existed!

And you’re tempted to go along with it.

Just to entertain it at this stage!

Or there’s those images on a screen!

This doesn’t have to be an actual physical woman here.

Things that speak to you in a different way, promise you something much more safe, quick, easy!

Something that will fill the void, satisfy the appetite!

Our world is filled with the different forms of this forbidden woman!

All you have to do is walk through a shopping center and the images are everywhere!!

But wise sexuality recognises when honey is bitter!

It sees when the smooth actually conceals the sharp!

v.4...

It’s like bait on a fish hook!

The bait looks tasty, it looks satisfying, it seems smooth and pleasant!

But as soon as that fish bites, it feels the sharp hook, and it’s caught!!

This honey isn’t real!

It may look sweet, it may smell sweet, it may even at first have a sweetness to the taste!

But it is bitter, just like wormwood (strong bitter tasting plant that you’d spit out if you took a bite)!

It will leave a bad taste in your mouth, a pain in your stomach!

It will leave you hurt, and damaged, and broken and empty!

v.5-6...

This temptress although she seems so appealing, and promises so much!

Is utterly lost!

She is on a road to destruction, she wanders about not knowing where she’s going, or what it will mean!

And so it is for any who prey sexually on others.

It’s a picture of such sadness and emptiness!

But look at one way in which we can be prepared!

v.1-2...

Again the cry is ‘listen!’

Pay attention to my words!

They are the difference to us acting wising and properly!

They are the truth that guards us from falsehood!

All sin is deceitful, it lies, it tells half truths!

And the way we combat lies is through the truth, God’s Word is truth!

We fit fire with fire!

We use the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God to fight against the double edged sword of these lies!

But we need to speak those words!

So often we’re faced with temptation of this kind, and we fail to speak out!

We stay silent, we say nothing!