January 5, 2022
Elephants in the Church | Morality
October 25, 2020 | Matt Nickoson
Thank you for taking the time to invest further in the topic of morality. God created sex to be expressed between 1 man and 1 woman in a lifelong committed covenant called “marriage”. What makes this particular subject unique from the others in this series is that it impacts everyone to one degree or another. That’s because there is something about human sexuality that is so easy to confuse with worship. This is Paul’s big-idea in Romans 1:25 when he says “…they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.”
While Paul is speaking about the idolatry and worship of false gods that were prevalent in Rome, and many other nations throughout history and today, his bigger point is that when we worship someone or something other than God we end up in all kinds of perverse places. Literally, we trade the beauty, the majesty, and the glory of God for things God has created for us to enjoy in the right time, place, and situation. This rebellion in the human heart has been raging since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden so many years ago God still does the same thing today that he did back in the garden… he is letting us choose who we will love and worship. As Paul says in Romans 1:26 “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.”
While that may sound like not a very big “consequence” – it is actually the most dreadful thing you can imagine. Paul is saying that God allows us to fully be tempted and chase those temptations wherever they lead. This is a downward spiral away from God; away from life and away from love. That’s why the further you look into the world of sex addiction, pornography, and other forms of sexual immorality the more you see that sex has been wildly abused and misused all over the world. Hollywood promises pleasure and fun, but it doesn’t take long to find a ton of evil, harm, and pain that is caused and inflicted worldwide related to sex.
The “good news”, is that God didn’t leave us in that place. God wants you to experience life that is really life (John 10:10) and He wants you to experience true joy and lasting peace. So, while He is letting you chase your desires, when you come to Jesus – God places in you the Holy Spirit. His job is to replace your old desires with new ones and to wage war against your flesh so that you will do what is pleasing to God again.
If you are here looking for helpful resources in that battle, I want to commend you. Google searches often don’t provide very helpful resources (trust me I, Matt Nickoson, did that in preparation for this sermon). However, below are a number of great articles, books, websites, and sermons. May the Holy Spirit help you to use your time wisely by showing you which resource to choose.
Going deeper with articles and books:
- The Single Person's Good Desire for Sex
- The Harmful Side Effects of Porn
- What Happens After 10 years of No Porn?
- This link has multiple options to articles and resources to help in any area you may struggle:
- A great book for people struggling with pornography (ideal for groups of me or groups of women):
- A sample of Levi Lusko's book where he covers many topics from marriage, sex, pornography, dating singlehood, and more:
- A sample of Dr. Christopher Yuan's book where he discusses a variety of sexuality and identity issues by a pastor who struggles with same-sex attraction but holds a Biblical view of sexuality and marriage:
Going deeper with videos:
- Andy Stanley's series: The New Rules for Love, Sex, and Dating
- Dr. Christopher Yuan speaks on a Christian's Response to Homosexuality and takes questions from the audience
Tools to protect yourself and your family from online pornography: