-with Gregg DeMey, Lead Pastor
Gregg DeMey 00:02
God, we thank You for this hour to come into Your presence. And indeed, we need your Spirit to guide us to guide our thoughts. We want to follow in Jesus' way. So we're opening your word now. To help with that, in his name we pray, Amen. Good morning again. Hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day. Good morning to everybody watching on live stream, which includes my wife today, who left me a bachelor on Valentine's Day. Super. I know right? Now, my wife's the best. She's out with a bunch of girlfriends. We are in the middle of three weeks of tough stuff. And why are we doing this? Because God's word addresses and speaks into and shapes all of life, all of it. One of my prayers is that opening these topics, on Sunday morning, will be a first step in demonstrating that we can talk honestly and openly about every part of life, like God's light shines everywhere. Sometimes the goal of a sermon is to instruct sometimes to comfort, sometimes to warm our infections toward Jesus. This sermon really is designed to cause you trouble. isn't that bad? It's mean. So if the first service was any indication, heard from a couple of people like, wow, that sermon a few decades ago here might have gotten a pastor fired ago and heard from some more progressive people like wow, that was super disappointing. So nobody's happy, because I'm causing trouble. Maybe mission accomplished. So kind of buckle up, because that's what we're in for my commitment. I mean to you all, I just like I hopefully look at you with God's eyes of love and concern and think what we need more than anything, is God's word. And God's word is definitely shaped by our understanding of science, and culture. So we'll talk about all those things. But ultimately, what we need is God's word. Even though we live in a good country, as Americans, there is no doubt in my mind that our culture has gone off the tracks on some of these tough stuff topics. And we are trying to think God's thoughts after him and let his thoughts inform our actions, attitudes, and opinions last week, hopefully pretty firmly establishing that God is for life. He created everything all life and breath comes in from him was his idea he is for life. This week, I can definitely affirm that God is for sex in general. Like it was his idea, crazy idea, there would be no life, like propagated and handed off to succeeding generations. Without this gift from God. When it comes to this topic, like if you are a post-pubescent grown up, we are all in this together, because like you have a sex life, you have a biological drive, you have that energy as a gift from God, it is a for life guarantee from God, because without this drive, like our species would die within one generation. Right? It's a gift from God, but of all of our appetites and inclinations and gifts. My observation would be this particular appetite has the tendency to get further off the tracks than any of our other appetites. I remember one of my kid's friends one time found out that their parents had slept together and had sex more than just the two times that it took to procreate that child and their sibling and they were horrified. Like why would you do that? More than twice? Our appetite obviously far exceeds for most of us, the biological need, right? I mean, some people think about food a lot. But no, we're in the kind of proportion that we think about our sex lives. When it comes to this topic, we are all in this together, no matter what our orientation, no matter what our inclination, no matter what our history, no matter what our brokenness, we are all in this together as human beings.
Gregg DeMey 04:25
Good. Good so far, we all bear the image of God. One of the core principles that I will say every week on this topic, is that in the tough things in life, we are called first to accept and notice and embrace people, and then let God correct the story Cliff told about being in a park in Australia, they did just that. They sat down and hung out with some folks. They listened and a door opened. Awesome. The door doesn't always open, but that's the way for it to open. Secondly, I intend in each of these messages to cast a positive vision to have God's will, especially when it comes to our sexual drive and behaviors. Sometimes we think, Well, this is what the pastor or the Church says, I have to do like it feels like we want stuff from you, which is perfect behavior, or else we will exclude you and tell you to go someplace else. That is not the gist of this message. I am much more interested in exploring what God wants for you. Here the difference, not what the church collectively wants from you, but what God desires for you, which is healthy, fulfilling, godly, wholly self-controlled expression of the gift of his sexuality in your life. Now, there are two images that are going to work their way through the course of this sermon. deep sigh of relief, neither of them is sexual at all. Here's the first one to train tracks. The reason I'm going to refer to this is that there is a 3,000-year-old train that represents the Judeo-Christian biblical teaching on sexual morality. I didn't make this up. It doesn't need to be nuanced, or like it's a pretty clear train going down these tracks for 3000 years. Like there's a lot of great people on this train. Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, Mary, the apostle Paul, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, Martin Luther Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr. Like everybody is on this 3000-year-old train. I am also on this train as a conservative Christian person. Okay, it seems like a bad idea to jump off that train. There is a second set of tracks, which I will call the rapidly changing way our culture views human sexuality and behavior and this track is getting laid down super quickly these days. And these two tracks are diverging on the horizon. Okay. One seems to be going into the woods once seems to be going in an open place. I'll let you decide which train you want to be on. But that is like God's honest truth. As far as I can tell, these two opinions or views of human sexuality have separated and are going down different tracks. The second image that I'm going to share with you the best one that I could come up with comes from golf. I'm sorry, it's kind of like a middle-aged white Bourgeois, you know the thing to do play golf. But golf has this amazing feature. This is a golf scorecard. If you've never seen one it has like how long the holes are from various tees. There are 18 holes in golf. And right in the middle of that scorecard in the long yellow box, there is what is the par for each hole in golf some holes are par three and some are for some are par five, no matter how good you are at golf or how bad you are at golf. Like par is what it is. It is like a standard at a golf course. Are you following us? Now golfers protest what power is you can play the long tees. You can play the short tees. You can be a professional golfer, you can shoot 150. That's a lot in golf. I've seen more but it's a lot. But no golfers protest par based on their you know abilities or potential power just is what it is. Anything that does not meet par is called a bogey or a double bogey. And almost everybody who I ever have played golf with makes a ton of bogeys. Okay, when it comes to human morality, and our sexual behavior, like there's a lot of ways to make bogeys in the world, and probably every single person in this room like look around, like no one is shooting perfectly par when it comes to like managing our sexual energies over the course of a human lifetime. Can we just admit that, like nobody's perfect? Alright. Here's the awesome thing about golf though. Even though it is bougie golfer golfers of all abilities can play together.
Gregg DeMey 09:18
A professional can play with someone who shoots 120 and have a great time. Because it's about walking together. Being there together, talking together. We may not all end up on the same page, but like God be praised. Like even though some of our behaviors are different, and we're different people we can be in God's family together. Here is the clearest description of par on the market. This is where it's gonna get tough. This comes from about 70 years ago, a British theologian named C.S. Lewis was a single man. When he was writing this and in some of his writings, he makes it very clear that he personally struggled with his own singleness and sex drive. In particular, before he came to Christianity, C.S. Lewis says about Christianity, chastity, or self-control is the most unpopular of all the Christian virtues. But there is no getting away from it. If you read the Bible, the Christian rule is this is either marriage with complete faithfulness to your partner, or total abstinence. Doesn't that sound like a total drag? Now, some people are like, this is what the Bible teaches. That is par. Okay? That is synonymous with 3,000 years of Judeo-Christian history. Like this has been the teaching, the view with the understanding that we people are making bogeys all over the place. With each of these tough topics, it is wise, I believe, to return to creation, and God's original intent for us. On one tough occasion of his own, where people were asking Jesus about marriage and divorce, "when can you divorce, when can you not?" Jesus replied, with these words, going back to creation, Jesus replied, "Haven't you read that at the beginning, the Creator made them male and female, and then said, For this reason, a man will leave his father and his mother, be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one else dare to separate." By going back to creation, Jesus is gently reminding us that everybody was made in the image of God, male and female. But did God design male and female to compete? Was Adam like the test model? And then Eve was better, you know, the new and improved model? Or was it Adam, the alpha version, and he was, like, that's not it. God gave the gift of gender and sex because, with two complementary genders, we reflect the image of God and reflect the creativity of God in a way that I can't just as a guy, or in a way that you can't just as a woman, are you hearing this? Like, there is not a single human being amongst us? Who is not the result of the combination of genetic material from a man and a woman? Do you know how this works? That somebody had to talk with you? Sure, okay. We're not gonna go there. I mean, too much I just did. Alright. So this is basic science, right? to propagate, to follow God's command to have a flourishing human race and species. It takes a man and a woman, ideally committed together to not only create that child, but love, nurture and raise them. This is God's design and intent from creation. And this is Jesus' vision. This is par for the course.
Gregg DeMey 13:12
This is also the wider vision of the entire New Testament, and 23 of the 27 books in the New Testament—there are words of caution, or warning, about the kind of bogeys that we make with our sexual behavior. Please hear that 23 of 27 New Testament books, it's not like the Bible ignores this, like the Bible brings it all, that brings it up all the time because it has the potential to cause pain, chaos, and separation from God when we simply do what we want, rather than listening to God's design and intent for us. The apostle Paul wrote, to the Corinthian church, especially about this of all the churches in the New Testament, the Greek city of Corinth was the most amazing bogey producing place of them all. I mean, like double bogeys all over the place. So Paul writes to them, he's like, horrified. He's like, you guys. At church. There's a dude in your church who's like openly sleeping with his mother-in-law. And you guys are okay with this. Like, you can hear his head exploding. Just a little while later Paul is writing like you guys in your church. There are people who are openly paying to have sex with other people. Instead of honoring marriage. You can hear his head exploding again like this is not cool. This is immorality, separates you from each other, and separates you from God. Here's an example of Paul's writing to the Corinthians. "I wrote to you in my letter, not to associate with sexually immoral people." Okay, that sounds brutal on the surface of it, right? However, not at all meaning The people of this world who are immoral or greedy, swindlers or idolaters. In that case, you would have to leave this world. Like, sometimes Paul is funnier than I think we give him credit for. So that first statement makes it seem like, "Oh, if someone is behaving badly sexually, like keep them at arm's length" and policy saying like, that was not what I'm saying. Because if that was your attitude, you would never leave your house. Thank you. This is hilarious. Then Paul goes on, however, so he's holding people inside the church, on the Jesus train to a different standard than people outside the church, on the Greco-Roman train, Paul goes on. "But now I am writing to you that you must not associate. Be careful with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister in Christ, who is just actively sexually immoral, are greedy, or idolatry or a slanderer or a drunkard, or a swindler." Like don't associate with these people, not because they're less than human, but to cause them pain so that they will seek reconciliation with the church. That is what Paul is driving it. But again, he's not saying don't associate with anybody who's ever had a sexual bad thought, or a bad deed. He's saying, this is a problem when it's inside the church, and people are just like, it's my body, I just do what I want. That is a problem inside the church. Notice also, that Paul is not just concerned with sexual ethics here. Like he is developing a big bogey bucket. And there are a lot of things in the bogey bucket. Things that we are totally okay with and tolerate all the time. So you think obsessively about your 401k plan like you're checking the stock market nine times a day, you're super stressed, I mean, about what your retirement is going to look like 25 years, like no problem. That's just like a mild case of being financially responsible. Right, like we never use the word greed. If you are devoting a ton of your life and creativity of thought and anxiety over your financial life, we're totally cool with it. We might put you on the Finance Committee. I have nothing against finance. That was me and I'm sorry. Do you catch my point, though? We have gone beyond the Bible and constructed our own hierarchy of what really seems out of bounds to us and straight from all kinds of things. And even among sexual bogeys themselves. We have our own hierarchy. Paul puts all kinds of behaviors in the same bogey bucket, same-sex behavior, marital infidelity, sleeping together before you're married, fornication, compulsive behavior that hinges on the addictive need for pleasure, abusing someone else diminishing your own spouse like all that stuff is in the giant bogey bucket. We're so creative and how we make bogeys.
Gregg DeMey 17:56
The reality is that in your life if you have a child, a parent, a friend, a neighbor, who is struggling with any of these behaviors, the Bible's idea is to create empathy and understanding for their weakness. Because it's creating distance, probably between them and God it might be could be creating distance within a family system. And the Bible does not create a hierarchy of bogeys. Now of all the ones that we like to mention, as Christians, same-sex behavior is probably at the top of the list of things like, oh, that's just out of bounds. The Bible does not do this. 50 years ago, the Christian Reformed Church in North America had a committee that studied human sexuality, and wrote a report about human sexual behaviors and how, Lord willing, to live a holy life. In that report 50 years ago, there is this sentence. "It is one of the failings of the church and Christians generally, that we have been lacking in sympathy and concern for the same-sex attracted among us." Did you catch that? Right? I mean, it is not saying anything goes. It is not saying everybody just gets to do what they want to do. It is saying we as a church have kind of singled that one out and have cast a burden of exclusion on our brothers and sisters who are same-sex attracted, and that ought not to be. This report also distinguishes clearly between our orientations, our inclinations, what we're attracted to, and how we act out or live out our orientations and attractions That is a big, big difference that happens on the Jesus train. That does not happen on the culture train. The culture train assumes that if you feel like doing something, you should do that to be your true and authentic self. Nobody on the Jesus train is saying that
Gregg DeMey 20:22
Of all the bogeys that happen with sexual behavior in the world right now. I'm not trying to create a hierarchy. But the thing that does the single most damage in my observation, and harm to individuals and families in our own community, is the bogey of pornography. Like no doubt, statistically, like that has touched more individuals and families in this congregation right now. I mean, in our still beginning understanding of how to be a responsible human being, and engage with this thing called the internet, we are still in our baby preschool stages of figuring this out. And in terms of like, the existence of the internet, and how that interfaces with our sexual wants, needs, and desires like man, Bogeyman Central. So if you leave this service today and want to be super worked up and concerned about a particular sexual behavior, like that one is at the top of the list, just based on how much harm is going on in our midst. All right, I had composed a lovely section of the sermon on the topic of sex and gender, how to define those words and the difference, and what is going on in our culture right now. I do not have time to do this today. So this will wait for another day. This whole sermon, I'm kind of apologizing, it's the worst thing to do in public speaking is to apologize to your people. But as God has so much to say about this. And there's a lot of clarity, but teasing out all the input implications and questions like we could be here for 20 hours, I have enough info and stories and perspective for you, I promise. But we're staying for a half-hour, so I'm skipping this part. Okay. We're going back to behavior. Here's a super important question. If you have the desire in your heart, to recognize that some of your inclinations lead to trouble. If you have made a few bogeys in your life. What can you do to aspire to a higher level of holy living? Or self-control? Or get both your brain and your body on the Jesus train? Like how do you do that? I have a couple of thoughts along these lines. Okay, thought number one. When you're tempted to do something that you know, clearly is out of bounds from the kind of conduct that God wants on his train. The very simple childlike thing to do, is say no out loud. Like when the thought hits you when the temptation strikes you when you feel it in your blood, like, say out loud, wow, I'm really tempted toward X. And no, I'm not gonna do that right now. Like, that might help you make it through an hour. declaring things out loud, and then asking for God's help is an awesome way to pray. And to recognize what reality is and what's what now some people here will be like, that sounds super psychologically repressive pastor Gregg, no psychological repression is this. "Oh, that's a bad thought. I will never think that again. I will put that in some dark corner and pretend that this thing never occurred to me." Like that is psychological repression. And if you try that, that will get you every time. Because you can like keep the door shut for a while and it will come blasting open in some insane way in the future in your life. That is never God's way to cram things into the corner. It is a realistic thing to do. On any given day to say, I feel this temptation, I know this behavior would be harmful. So no. And God, please help me give you your strength today. Suggestion number two is just to recognize that sexual energy is energy. Say that again? Sexual energy is energy. And one of the miraculous transformations that can happen with a person is one kind of energy can be channeled into another kind of energy. Here's a more superficial kind of example. Anybody who's ever given a speech in front of people like me today, you have nervous energy, like holy cow, there's like 500 people there like that's crazy. And then like you get a few butterflies. Hopefully after doing this for a number of years, like God has taught me to channel that nervous energy into being open and available to be able to look you in the eye to be able to listen to you to use that heightened energy, for love and good things rather than to just be obsessively nervous that I'm standing in front of hundreds of people.
Gregg DeMey 25:15
Right? I mean, really good athletes know how to do this, they take their butterflies and channel them into peak performance. It is possible to take sexual energy, which is a form of creative energy, and to channel it into other forms of love, and good deeds. It also works the other way, like I've been a musician all my life. Musicians are like the worst at this. Like musicians often, like you're having a creative period, you're playing music, you play a show, the very next thing you want to do is act out sexually. It does not help your musical and creative life. Like if you're behaving badly, sexually, by the way. Does anybody know musicians, like a few smiling musicians out there, thank you. Lastly, it is helpful to recognize that your sexual appetite and drive are not the ultimate appetite and drive. There's a guy named Viktor Frankl who wrote a book called Humanity's Search for Meaning. He profoundly gets to this, he points out that Karl Marx saw human beings primarily driver as economic like we don't just want more stuff, more money, economic controls. Sigmund Freud says human beings are primarily driven by sexuality, the sex drive Charles Darwin, primarily driven by biology, and Viktor Frankl who survived the Holocaust, points out, "I have known super poor people in concentration camps, who are incredibly happy because they knew meaning in life. I have known rich people outside the concentration camps who are miserable." Viktor Frankl, inside the concentration camp, everybody was so sick, undernourished, and emaciated. There was not much sexual activity. There were people who are happy, even though they were single, and had no active sex life. Outside the camp, there are people who have incredibly active sex lives who are miserable. He points out that our ultimate drive is for meaning. And it can really help shape your personal views, theology, and practice of how you work out your own sex drive in the world just to know and remember and reiterate that this deep drive for meaning connection, and communion with God is ultimately the thing that drives this life and all eternity, God be praised.
Gregg DeMey 27:59
When you fail, if, after today, you go from this place and make a string of bogeys, or if your brain or heart, body gets stuck on the wrong train, please hear that there is hope and healing for every single person in this place. If you are struggling with what you've done in the past, I mean, this is one of the things the Church of Jesus Christ exists for, to share God's forgiveness and open the doorway of self-forgiveness for you and to help you pursue anything that would make things right and free your conscience moving forward. If you are struggling with a behavior or habit or practice, like right here and right now and you're really long to change. The step you need to take is to somehow bring these things to light in a safe and trusted place so that the light of God can shine into you. If you have a friend, if you have a counselor, if you have a spiritual director, if you trust one of us as pastors, or someone in our care department, like we would love to walk alongside you and help shepherd you towards sources of genuinely help and hope and healing in this world. This is one of the best things we do as a church. Not that we have all the answers, but we can help you access God's redemption and point you in this world that has a lot of good resources towards signs of hope and healing. What God desires for you is that you find contentment and satisfaction on the train that Jesus is on. That same contentment joy and satisfaction cannot be found on the other train. Alright, can we get a picture of the two tracks one more time? Here's where a few people are gonna get mad. I am going to share a few personal opinions with you about things that both bother me, and don't bother me about the fact that these two tracks are separating. Okay? These things are not in the Bible, I'm giving you my personal opinion. However, I'm reasonably confident that the perspectives are rooted in the biblical perspective that I've been trying to share with you today.
Gregg DeMey 30:25
It bothers me that we as a church have done such a poor job presenting the Jesus train in a compelling way. So much so that my assumption for almost everybody in this room who's 25 years or younger, is that you might really love Jesus. But your assumptions have been shown so shaped by the other train that some of what I've said this morning just seems small-minded and bigoted. Like we've done a bad job talking about these things. One of my goals this morning is just opening the door so we can talk more. It doesn't bother me that the laws of our nation permitting same-sex relationships, legally speaking, we're changed. That doesn't bother me. It's the law of our land. It's not the law of Christ. I don't expect every country that I will go to to be organized around the law of Christ. That is my personal commitment. That is the commitment of the Church of Jesus Christ to be on that train. But I do not expect that we should have the majority, or the authority to control the laying down of the other tracks are at our worst to be able to cram down our opinion on the other train. So that doesn't bother me. In fact, I have a spouse who is an awesome nurse who works with people from every walk of life or going through cancer and the dying process. And I think it's a good thing that people in lifelong committed same-sex relationships can be there for each other when they're going through cancer, can have access to each other's medical records, can share financial resources together. I don't believe that compromises our Christian morality, or Jesus' train in any way. Again, we can disagree. Here's another thing. It would not bother me if sometime in the future, we have a same-sex attracted, and same-sex practicing president. There are a lot of people who because of Christian commitments won't vote for that person. However, I don't expect that every president and leader in our country is going to be on the Jesus train. We can have very skillful, adept responsible leaders who are not on the Jesus train. And they can be very effective for us as Americans. Oh, what? It would bother me. I'm getting all mixed up. Eraser, it wouldn't bother me. It would not bother me. To be a pastor, alongside a same-sex attracted non-practicing Christian person who is also a pastor, those people exist in our both in our midst and in our denomination. And our denomination has very much approved that your orientation does not disqualify you from anything. But practice does. Repeating bogey behavior, according to the Bible, that's a compromising thing. But self-control no matter what your orientation is a noble and beautiful thing. And there is no office in the church, therefore that is closed. Did you hear me on that? Like this is bigger than me, this is like our wider church. If you would come to this worship service, as a transgender person, or a same-sex person, it would not bother me to call you by the pronouns that you choose to identify with. The name that you choose to identify with. I will try first to accept you. Over time, I think God will have some serious business to do. All right. But that's in his time. And as you experience community and the genuineness of the gospel, right, this principle of first except then like God, correct. It does bother me that people are significantly outside of our suburban box. There may be a number of us in the middle who are like looking sideways at people who may appear different from us. And then We will be, unfortunately, closing the door of being able to walk alongside people because of our, just like instinctive reaction, if something seems different, like closing doors, that that bothers me. It bothers me when the church ignores the 3,000-year-old train, that Jesus Christ is on that Moses is on.
Gregg DeMey 35:26
That all the saints have been on. It bothers me when the church ignores that train and just goes along with the culture train. For example, if I am a pastor, I mean, I'm a married guy, right? If I come to our elders and disclose to them to borrow, that I'm having a deep struggle with compulsive sexual behavior of pornography like I would fully expect, I would need to take a step away from ministry for a while. Because for a Christian leader, you're not only on the Jesus train, but you're being held to a higher standard, like anything as a Christian leader, for our elders, for our deacons, for our pastors, like if there's repeated, habitual stuff going on there, like what I would expect, if I have a girlfriend on the side, if I have a boyfriend on the side, like any of that, I am going to need to be held to account by the elders, take a long step back from ministry, and pursue health and reconciliation and recalibration. Would it be the end of my pastoral career? Like by God's grace? No, because forgiveness and healing are possible. Like if I was up to some of that stuff, I may have broken trust so deeply with you all, it would be impossible to come back here. But that's another story. But could I still be a servant in Jesus's kingdom, like, God forbid, if any of our behavior or bogeys can like, get us out of the kingdom of God, God's love and forgiveness and restoration are so much deeper than anything that we can cook up? It doesn't bother me to say that God loves same-sex attracted people, that God loves transgender people. In our families, I'm happy to say that I've been a student of, a teacher of, and a friend of people in both of those communities, like if you want to, if would help you to say to a friend like, wow, our pastor really loves gay people. Like, please say that, because that's true. God loves same-sex attracted people. God loves hetero people. God loves old people. God loves young people like we all bear his image. Like that is the foundation. It does bother me. That same-sex, that heterosexual married people are having less sex than ever. That bothers me, because that is part of the Jesus train, as part of God's design for gluing us together and experiencing man, happiness, joy, intimacy, togetherness. And for some reason, in North America, heterosexual people are not enjoying the gift of marriage for what it is so pleasing to hear first like it's the Sabbath day. Come on.
Gregg DeMey 38:27
It does bother me when we fail to differentiate orientation from the action. People on the Jesus train do that. Oh, that's uncomfortable for some of the progressive people. But we do that. It does bother me. When we intentionally misconstrue Jesus' words, I saw an awesome sign last week that said this, as Jesus said about gay people. And then the rest of the sign was blank. Does it seem kind of compelling it kinda like is it gut punch a little bit? Because if Jesus didn't say anything explicitly about gay people, like who am I? Who are you to say that homosexual behavior should be in this buggy bucket? That is a deep logical mistake. Okay, Jesus had no problem pushing back and correcting the attitudes of 2000 years ago, both the Greek and Roman attitudes and the Jewish Pharisee's ethical, overly religious attitudes that were both in his myths. Why didn't Jesus say anything about same-sex behavior explicitly? Because every Jewish person 2,000 years ago was clear that they were on the Moses train. And Jesus didn't go out of his way because everybody knew what it meant to live a sexually pure life at that point. Oh, that's difficult, super difficult. It doesn't bother me that we as Christians are increasingly minority on the Jesus train. In this other train mean the tracks are going down fast and almost everybody is on this other train. It doesn't bother me that we're increasingly weird, a minority, honoring the Bible, our ancestors, those who went before us in the faith. Personally, I think we are in the years to come, we are going to stick out more and be more peculiar and weird and different and is going to have people ask like, man, you Christians like what is going on. And that will open some doors for our witness and point to Jesus. And that is only a good thing. Lastly, I would like to say a few words, extolling the virtues of singleness, celibacy, and self-control. These things are almost never honored in our culture. When's the last time you saw a movie that honored someone who has celibate on purpose? 40-Year-Old Virgin? No. Like, seriously, I'm making fun because like, this never happens. It's not even a thing in America that it could happen, that you could be a grown-up person and live a fulfilled fully alive, celibate life and be in touch with your sexual energy at the same time, and not a repressive person. But the Bible holds out this possibility. We have single elders and deacons in this very church. And I thank God for it. Because they're living this life and modeling how to do this. Think of some of the heroes of our faith. Paul, we've quoted today, single dude, the person that God Almighty chose to bear the second person of the Trinity, the Holy Son of God, Mary of Nazareth, single woman, at the time of Holy Spirit conception does God have a problem with single people? Was Jesus married, I forget. What how is Jesus dating life? The only perfect person to ever walk the planet, the only fully alive fully manifested potential of what a human being can be was a single guy. And somehow we think like, you're only living a half-life in American culture. If you're not doing whatever your sexual inclinations tell you to do, or if you're a self-controlled, celibate, single person. Like that's just wrong. The Bible has a very, very different opinion on this. Paul again, and I Corinthians 7 says this about the single life. "Now I say to the unmarried widows, widowers, it's good for you to stay unmarried, just like I do." Paul, the single guy, the one who refrains from marriage will do even better than the person who goes into marriage. But however, Paul has this caveat. If anyone is worried that they may not be acting honorably, okay, your desires and drives are so strong, your passions are too strong, and they feel they want to marry, then you should do as you want. You're not sinning, get married,
Gregg DeMey 43:25
that is 100% on the Jesus train, right. But it's either singleness and self-control, or it's marriage.
Gregg DeMey 43:39
God's grace and the strength that brought Jesus back from the grave are so powerful that it can enable a fallen human being to get on the Jesus train and stay on the Jesus train. Whether you're heterosexual inclined, or same-sex and client, whether you're young, old, married, divorced, like the power that raised Jesus from the grave is strong enough to form virtue inside of us. Some of us have a way harder go than others, because of our genetic makeup. Because of what happened to us as kids, because of things in our past, I am not saying that this is an equal playing field. And God forbid that we should judge somebody else's journey because we have no idea what other people have gone through. But if you want to be on the Jesus train, you open yourself up to the transformative power that brought a man back from the dead. And you invite that to be at work with you and you want it to be more and more at work with you and to do the difficult labor of cooperating with that power, even in your sex life. The Bible says this, your body is not your own. Now that's a crazy counter. Cultural thought too, cuz everybody on this train is like, Dude, your body is your own, like, do to do what makes you feel good. On the Jesus train, your body is not your own. It belongs to God. And you, not just your soul, but your body, all of it. You were bought at a price. I hope that sounds like good news to you that you don't belong to yourself, but that God bought you and you belong to Him. Because God promises as you let me take ownership of your broken self. I will help you to live. I will help you. I will form you, I will forgive you. I will be patient with you. I will transform you. It's so difficult. And it's so good. Life with God is so good. Life on Jesus tracks is so good. Amen. We pray with me. God, we belong to you, body and soul. To those of us who are committed to your word and are going down the tracks of Jesus way show us how to live in joy and holiness. Amen.