Sanctified Sex

Last week we began the second segment of our summer in Thessalonians. Pastor Paul got to talk about the Nazarene buzz words of holiness and sanctification, and left me with a really fun topic.

Consecration is what we do, our role – sanctification/holiness is what God does for/in us.

1 Thessalonians 4 is not standalone. It relies on the previous chapters as a whole letter. Through last series we discovered that previous chapters showed us that people are priority. Community is significant. So when we move to holiness, community is still significant. Holiness is not an individual accomplishment, it is about community – the setting apart of a people.

So our passage of focus (1 thess 4:3) starts with this idea – It is God’s will that you ALL be sanctified. What does that practically look like?

Since community is important, starts with the most communal thing ever. Let’s practice with open mic session. Going to talk about **Micheal Scott Sex**

Absurd. Sex is a very private, intimate thing. So much so that it is somewhat taboo in the church. Not some communal thing.

Yet Paul starts with it as a key factor in what this sanctification looks like. Read 1 Thess 4:3-8

This is a weird place to start, right? But not accidental

-Starts with the most intimate thing in your life. If you are going to allow God to sanctify you, starts with consecrating even the most intimate parts of your life. Not a private thing to God.

Ernest Best – “Sanctification is not for worship alone, but for every act of life” Paul says, even sex!

-Paul also starts here because of cultural context. Written to church of Thessolonica. A Greco Roman group of people that were being set apart by God. A context where sexual immorality was an accepted and expected way of life. Sex was solely self gratification. Practically speaking, free men were essentially able to get sex from whoever they wanted for their own self gratification.

So Paul starts with sex, and so will we. So what does that look like?

Vs. 4 – control your own vessel. Differences in how that’s translated… either tool or body. Either way, the point is YOU get control of it. We like to put the responsibility of this on anything other than ourselves – wife, modest dress, etc.

What does sanctification in our sexuality NOT look like? Vs 5 – Not in lustful passion. Sex in the context of passionate lust is centered around 1 thing: self love/self gratification. This self love and self gratification practically plays out in the objectification of another person (this person, whether physically with me or with me via some form of media, this person now only an object to fulfill my own self desires). We will talk in a minute more about keeping from sexual immorality for the sake of others.

But, self love, self gratification is the exact opposite of what we are working toward in holiness. Holiness moves us to a position of self sacrifice for the sake of others.

So this leads us to our why? Why does Paul encourage/demand we refrain from sexual immorality.

-So God can continue to sanctify you – holding so dearly to our own selfish desires prevents God from moving us to a place of holiness.

-So God can continue to sanctify the community. Vs 6 – in this matter, do no harm to your brothers and sisters. With people as the priority in our community, sexual immorality does harm to the community. We must be concerned with the sanctification of our community as a whole.

So what does this look like for our community?

Wrap up with some imagining/what ifs?

What if we took seriously the significance of the holiness, or set apart-ness of our community?

In my studying for this sermon, I kept coming across a seemingly significant component is this idea of the sanctification of the community. Paul realized that God was setting apart the church in Thessalonica. He was setting them apart from the cultural sexual immorality found in their Greco Roman society. Not just setting them apart for their own good, though, but for the sake of those around them.

We, this community, this church is called to be set apart for the sake of our whole community around us. Set apart to be a representation of God to our community and to our world. That is what we are called to be.

If I’m honest, I can’t help but be disheartened by the representation of God that we sometimes are because of this issue of sexuality. When it comes to sexual ethic, we as the church have very little voice. Our words hold very little weight. We could say it’s simply because of the stances we sometimes take on sexual things, but I think that would be a cop out that requires no self reflection. I’m more and more concerned that it’s because we have been so vocal about sexual ethics in the public square, but our private lives are anything but sexually pure. And it’s coming to light. In a world where news spreads, we are seeing more and high profile names who have been publicly vocal about sexual ethics and sexual purity have their private lives revealed, and they don’t match. And it is destroying our representation of God to a world that desperately needs him.

So again, let’s imagine. Let’s dream. What would it look like for each and every one of us to consecrate even the most intimate and private part of our lives – our sexuality – in order to allow God to sanctify us… individually, yes, but even more so to allow God to sanctify us collectively as a community.

Responding to this is awkward by stepping out to the altar. Perhaps you’d like to. Perhaps you’d just like to pray. But my encouragement would be to take your response beyond this prayer time. Reach out for help. To pastoral staff, to a mentor, to someone. Don’t keep burying it as a private thing.