The Decision by James and others Acts 15: It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath. The Why the apostles said to abstain from it in Acts 15 Summary of our observations 1. Sexuality is a gift from God, not something bad! Summary of our observations 2. We were created, by God, for loving relationships a.First and foremost (and not to be filled any other way) is our relationship with Jesus. We are never to use sexuality (moral or immoral) as a substitute for our relationship with Jesus Christ. b.If God leads us into marriage, then sex is a beautiful metaphor of that intimate relationship. Summary of our observations 3. God created sex to be in the confines of a life time, permanent relationship (leave, cleave, one-flesh)! God is a genius! He created sexuality, and designed us to fully enjoy it. However, it is to be an expression of a total nakedness in EVERY area of life, not just physical. Summary of our observations 4. God wants us to experience sex without shame. Therefore, he has commanded that we abstain from any forms of sexual immorality. Summary of our observations 5. There is something about sexual immorality that uniquely causes relational pain when misused. God is NOT a killjoy! His command is for our ultimate joy. Waiting makes it sweeter! Our cultures obsession with sex One strong message is that sexual fulfillment is the key to being happy. Both boys and girls are considered weird in our culture if they are still virgins at age eighteen. So it should be no surprise that over 70 percent of young men and women have had intercourse before that age. The message is: You cant possibly be a fulfilled human being if you are not having sex in a way that excites youand having it often. ~ Stephen Hayner, President of InterVarsity (quoted from Discipleship Journal: Issue 64 July/Aug 1991) Will you go on a date with me? Or take it another way. You can get a large audience together for a striptease act--that is, to watch a girl undress on the stage. Now suppose you come to a country where you could fill a theatre by simply bringing a covered plate on to the stage and then slowly lifting the cover so as Our cultures obsession with sex to let every one see, just before the lights went out, that it contained a mutton chop or a bit of bacon, would you not think that in that country something had gone wrong with the appetite for food? And would not anyone who had grown up in a different world think there was something equally queer about the state of the sex instinct among us? ~ C. S. Lewis, from Mere Christianity It seems thrilling to slap the face of your Maker Romans 1: The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world Gods invisible qualitieshis eternal power and divine naturehave been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. It seems thrilling to slap the face of your Maker Romans 1: For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creatorwho is forever praised. Amen. We have met the enemy and we are it! James 1: When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. How do we turn the boombox down? 1 John 2: Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the worldthe cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and doescomes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. How do we turn the boombox down? John 17: After Jesus said this, he looked towards heaven and prayed: Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. How do we turn the boombox down? John 17: I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. How do we turn the boombox down? John 17: All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your namethe name you gave meso that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. How do we turn the boombox down? John 17: I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. How do we turn the boombox down? John 17: My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.