Showing the Full Extent of His Love

Who is the most “powerful” person you know?

As the question is asked, I wonder what images come to mind - CEO’s, kings, billionaires, political figures, military might? The fact is, when we think of power, we immediately jump to images of conquest, poise, strength, and influence. For 21^st century America, the “P-word” has been transformed into a megalomaniac’s paradise. As we enter into this new series, it will be important for us, as we did sexuality, to see the topic – not through the eyes of the world or our immediate culture, but through the lenses of Jesus Christ.

In the Synoptic Gospels, an account is given in which some of the disciples are arguing among themselves about who will be the greatest in the Kingdom and who will sit closest to Jesus’ throne. Knowing their hearts, Jesus rebukes their worldly understanding of power and teaches them that only a defenseless, innocent child will be qualified to rule with him in eternity. And at the height of Jesus’ time here on earth, moments before he was to lay down his own life, he showed his disciples the full extent of his power and love by getting up from the table, wrapping a towel around his waist, and washing their feet. His power was not to be wielded at the tip of a sword but at the end of a towel.

The same holds true for us today. We wrestle and scuffle our way to the top of the mountain – to the pinnacle of what we believe is real power – only to find our path is littered with the people we’ve hurt and the morals we’ve compromised in attaining the vista. Jesus calls out to us today and says, “You want to follow in the footsteps of success – follow me. You want real power – deny yourself. You want to prove your strength – take up a cross DAILY. You want respect – earn my respect by following after me. The real ministry of power is not to subdue, but to submit.

Resounding Themes:
God’s Omnipotence
Service
Gratitude
Humility
Self-denial

The Sexual Struggle

What great, epic battles can you remember from history?

maybe, World War II and the taking of the beachhead at Normandy, possibly, the American Revolution and the colonists cause for freedom against mother England, still, maybe a more ancient war comes to mind like the epic battles of Rome and even of the nation of Israel, but, what about the battles of today? Yes, our fearless men and women are giving their lives for the democratic dream in the Middle East, but the war I am speaking about is the battle of the mind.

Sex on the magazine racks, sex on our computers, sex on the television sex in the mail, sex on the telephone. Sex, sex, sex! We are an obsessed people out of control with the urges of sexuality. At every turn, there is a battle of the mind going on, and its major combatant is sexuality. In fact, it’s so pervasive in American culture that one can scarcely drive down the road without being hustled by a billboard of a half naked man or woman advertising this or that. And, in tandem with those sensory impulses comes a message of toleration, indifference, and even indulgence. Yes, the battleground of the human mind seems to have been overrun by the enemy – its fortresses occupied by lust of the senses.

And yet, Jesus spoke to this very battle in his day. His commentary was not flamboyant or self-aggrandized. When confronted with the issue of adultery, Jesus said, “Anyone who stares at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt 5:28). Jesus not only reminded people of the “limit of being lawful” but elevated the bar for his disciples to include adultery as a battle for the mind – not just the flesh. If his teaching was a tough pill to swallow, his solutions were even less palatable and passé. In response, Jesus said, “So if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. . . and if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into hell.” Wow! In a culture that would have one believe that promiscuous and perverted sexuality is the norm, Jesus not only declares “no,” but he demands that his disciples take great lengths to conquer the battle of the mind.

In our worship, we will be emphasizing many themes surrounding this topic. Namely, we will express our belief that God is in control and we submit to His reign in our lives. We will also, in reaction, dedicate our heart, mind, body, and soul to the great Redeemer of all things. Our worship will also call us as Christians to godly, pure living that exhibits holiness in the bright and dark spaces. Finally, we will offer to the congregation an invitation to wholeness and forgiveness that only comes through Jesus Christ.

Resounding Themes:
Power of God over sin
Renewal of Mind
Surrender of Body
Personal Holiness and Purity
Christ’s forgiveness
Atonement

Sexuality - Church vs Culture

What a transformative week we had last Lord’s Day, when we spoke very purposefully and honestly about the role (or the lack thereof) the Church has played in the life of educating Christians, both young and old, about the true nature of sexuality. Rather than embracing the gloriousness of all God’s “good and very good” creation, we have used fear and guilt as our method of preaching against sexuality. By doing so, we have decreased the self-esteem of God’s people and created a culture where the body and sexuality is evil – rather than a full expression of God’s manifold wisdom and love for his children.

Yet if the Church has failed in its role to educate and form Christians’ sexuality, the culture around has had a catastrophic and devastating impact on such formation. To say that our culture is permissive or even promiscuous about sex and sexuality would be as inept as referring to Hitler as a misguided leader! The fact is, our culture has done everything within its power to promote and stigmatize its followers against the beauty of heterosexual, monogamous sex and perverted into a 24/7 free for all. Movies, commercials, entertainment, advertisements, jokes, apparel, consumables . . . everything under the sun has been used to push one agenda and one alone – sex is for everyone and anyone at any time. By doing so, the media has taken something which we have established as God-made, and cheapened it to an immediately and temporarily gratifying, fleshly experience between any two human beings – or even more perverted still. Pornography, adultery, homosexuality, lust, sexual abuse and perversion . . . these are all gifts of a culture which persists in making the holy profane, the sacred ordinary.

In the movie, “Down With Love,” the heroine in the story is a frustrated suburban housewife fed up with an unfulfilling life with her drab husband. In response, she leaves him and writes a book called Down With Love, in which she outlines the need for all women to leave their chains of marriage and find fulfillment in, what she called, “sex a al carte.” While the outcome of the movie was a surprise to all the players, the idea of “sex on the side” is a true reflection of a culture which has taken its gaze off of God and caught a captivating glimpse of the perverter of all good things.

In our worship this week, we will emphasize the beauty of God’s handiwork – namely in the form of man and woman and the beauty of their relationship. In connection, we will build up one another by reestablishing self esteem, not built by the world, but by our identity with Christ: the name changer. In dong so, we will once again express the place of God’s grace in sexual falleness and stir all to a greater commitment of holiness and purity.

Resounding Themes:
The Creative Genius of God
Holiness
Identity
Grace
Purity

SEX. I Should Really Get Some Hits Off This One!!

“Sex.” There, we said it out loud.

Now that the shock is over that such a topic could be talked about in the Sunday AM assembly, we must not stop here. Rather, we must continue on in this explorative process of finding spiritual formation surrounding human sexuality.

As we learned last Sunday, God desires men and women in marital relationships to embrace the joy of sex. In its purest sense, sexuality is the pre-packaged gift of God in all of his creation. Male and female he created them – and, as we see in the garden, what God made was both good and a reflection of his love for his creation. Contrary to what we’ve all been taught, it goes beyond procreation – it has everything to do with relationship, and when enjoyed in its purest state, sex is a magical, intoxicating blessing.

If indeed sexuality has such a theological stance in the formation of God’s creation, then it should go without saying that the church should be and is the prime authority for educating the world. But as we learned, only 2% of incoming college freshmen in America believed that the church had any significant role in regard to instruction about sexuality. 2%!! How can that be true, one might ask? Simple – the church has been better at propagating myths about sexuality than God’s truth and intent. In fear, we’ve taught that sex is a dirty thing and undesirable – an abomination if you will. We’ve also shown, both by our action and inaction, that sexuality is a secretive thing that is best not talked about at all. Finally, we’ve threatened our children with that notion that if they fool around with their own sexual discovery, they’ll be cut off from God and be irredeemable – forever. Yet through all the myths, we have failed to truly educate and equip Christians to embrace and respect sexuality.

While all of these myths and many more have, at their core, some truth in certain applications, what the church has really succeeded in doing is to teach obedience out of fear, rather than behavior born out of godly understandings and relationships.

As we continue in our series this week, our worship guides us to respond to Jesus and his victorious nature over sin and death. There is nothing perverse or distorted about the Creator of the Universe, and He is worthy of all praise. We will also be dwelling on the idea of our own wholeness and purity as we come to God with clean hands and pure hearts. Finally, we will offer our worship to God in a manner that 1) requires transparency and 2) begs for healing. As any other sin, the consequences regarding sexual illness in all areas leave marks and scars. God is not offing to take away what is ours to be responsible for, but He is desperately pleading with us to not believe we have to live any longer with the guilt of failing Him with our bodies. To the broken, the Savior says, “all who are thirsty, all who are weak – come to the fountain, dip your heart in the Stream of Life. Let the pain and the sorrow be washed away in the waves of His mercy, as deep cries out to deep.” And we say, “Come, Lord Jesus, Come.”

Resounding Themes:

Christ Victorious Over Sin
Holiness
Sanctification
Wholeness/Completeness
Healing