Exchanging God's Gift for Personal Gratification

Balance Beam

Have people try to walk a balance beam with distractions of various kinds.

Have them walk the beam looking up and/or at a fixed point in front.

Learning from the image:

There are voices and images and distractions all around us telling us how we should think, believe, act, and what we should desire.

But what is true and real.

The Great Exchange: God’s good design for Selfish Gratification

Romans 1:24–28 ESV

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

This passage is pretty blunt and to the point. Paul doesn’t shy away from the specific of what he is countering in the culture of ancient Rome.

The culture had exchanged God’s design for sexuality for unnatural and ungodly forms of sexual expression.

The most obvious mentioned was gay and lesbianism (women pursuing women and men pursuing men).

But that isn’t the only thing he is confronting. “Dishonorable passions” is a bigger category than just homosexuality.

It would include any kind of sexual pursuits outside of a marriage relationship

Sex with a GF or BF

Messing around without having sex with BF or GF

Digital sexual activities (texting, phone calls, video chats, snap-chats…)

Pornography

This passage and everything I just said may prompt these thoughts in you:

This is so judgmental. Love is love and who I decided to get intimate with isn’t anyone else’s business.

This is so old school. This was the 1950s, culture has changed and the view of sex in our culture has changed. Get with the program.

This is so limiting. Sex and sexuality is not that big of a deal. It isn’t something to be so serious and uptight about. It’s fun and enjoyable.

Here are the assumptions each one of those responses make:

Assumption 1: There is no “natural” or “created” standard for sexuality in the world.

Basically the “rules” or “laws” of nature/creation do not exist. There isn’t any kind of structure or organization to things, instead it is fluid and we can pursue whatever feels right and good in the world.

The problem with this is that if we really believed this to its logical end, there would be no limits or out of bounds in any area of sexuality.

It also fails to take into account the existence of a loving and active creator God who has created things in the world with purpose and intentional design.

Assumption 2: Culture is advanced so the bible’s teaching on sexuality isn’t relevant for today.

There are lots of people who love parts of what the bible says, but when it says something that goes against their desires, it becomes irrelevant.

Sexuality in the bible isn’t something that came out of culture, but came out of creation. God made man and woman to procreate and to be in a loving, commited, and monogamous relationship. Sex was designed for THAT relationship not any other.

If you don’t believe the bible then that might be hard to accept, but don’t sleep on it…if it is the Word of God in one place, it is in all places.

Assumption 3: Sex isn’t a big deal, it is just a physical exchange between people.

You are more than a body and sex is bigger than what you do with your body.

There is an emotional and spiritual component to sex, in ALL forms, that our culture fails, or refuses, to acknowledge.

Everything or Nothing

The issue in Paul’s day is the same as in ours: sex in their culture had become the most important thing (GOD) and, at the same time, a pretty meaningless thing.

They have made sex a God that they worshipped as they sacrificed themselves to it.

They had also came to view sex as something that was on par with any other hobby or extracurricular activity.

God’s Design

Genesis 2:18–25 ESV

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

This is the first wedding ceremony.

God saw that Adam by himself wasn’t complete. It was the only thing in all that He had created that wasn’t good.

He put Adam to sleep, took a piece of him, and created Eve.

This is important. Because women came from men there is a responsibility we have to protect and serve girls, rather than use and take advantage of them. They are not toys for our pleasure.

When he wakes up and see Eve he is struck by her beauty and sees her as a gift, not as a tool.

This is before sin, so his words are selfless and his posture towards her is honoring.

There wasn’t a father and mother to leave here so vs 24 really is pointing toward the standard/rule.

Guys if you can’t leave your mom and dads house and take care of a wife (support her, provide for her, protect her, and all) then you have no right to sleep with her.

“Hold fast to his wife” means they are committed and not sleeping around.

“become one flesh” is bigger than just sex, but it doesn’t exclude sex. They are united.

“naked and not ashamed” marriage is the coming together of 2 people without the need to feel shame or embarrassment for the body God has given you and the past you have had.

Marriage isn’t some perfect thing and waiting for marriage to have sex isn’t some promise that everything you desire will come true.

Some of you might not get married, meaning sex won’t be in the equation for you. You will survive, trust me.

Most of you will get married, and you will learn in the years before patience and self control.

And in that time you are preparing to enter a relationship of purity, commitment, freedom, and shamelessness.

God Forgives and Restores

Some of you have made this exchange already and may be feeling hopeless or guilty.

I want to tell you, God is a forgiving and restoring God.

1 John 1:9 ESV

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Romans 8:1 ESV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

If you are convicted, I want to invite you to seek His forgiveness today and to begin a new direction.

You may have questions and we want to help.

Please reach out to us so we can help you.