God's Gift of Sexuality - 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Audio file

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

A year or so ago, my brother in law, sister in law, their daughter and two sons were at church like they are every Sunday. My niece likes to take notes during the sermon, so she carried a small notebook with her and every Sunday she would dutifully record what the sermon was about. This particular Sunday, she was sitting, waiting for the pastor to begin his sermon, and with notebook open and pen in hand, she was poised for action. To her surprise – and to the surprise of everyone in the church – the pastor began by saying something like this: “I had intended to continue preaching the series that we started a couple weeks ago, but the Lord has led me to preach about sex…” My niece turned her head slightly to see her friend - the pastor’s son - slowly lower his head into his hands and watched the red color rise in his neck. She turned back towards her mom and, without breaking her stare, slowly closed her notebook and mouthed the word, “Nope…”

If any of you want normally take notes on sermons and want to close your notebooks, now is the time… The text is the Epistle lesson for today from 1 Corinthians, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.”

By way of a quick introduction, part two, I had every intention of preaching the Gospel lesson this morning. I even helped a friend of mine by giving him my rough line of thought of what I was intending to preach about Jesus’ instruction to follow. But when it came time to put my own sermon together, it wasn’t working. Square peg; round hole. Then, it hit me…someone had stopped by and talked about concerns about a girl in the family who was going back to college and moving in with her boyfriend. “Pastor, are there any Bible verses that talk about how Christians are to live our lives before we are married?” I said, “well, yes, but nothing is coming to mind…let me get back to you.” Now – remember how I said the sermon wasn’t coming together working with the Gospel lesson? So, I shifted to look at the Epistle. It’s funny how the Lord provides. First, I sent the text to the individual who had been talking with me. Second, I started working on this text myself.

In a preaching class, a prof taught us the Grannie Rule for preaching: “If you think you ever need to use the law in a sermon to really put someone in their place, imagine it’s your grandmother on the receiving end of such a message. Would you do it?” I tell you this so that you know I am not directing this at any particular members of Zion or at extended families. I also want you to know that I have not, am not, and will not use a sermon to browbeat any individual. I can’t promise a sermon won’t make you uncomfortable – that’s what the Law does – I will not use the pulpit to “put you in your place.” But, with the help of God, we will attempt to talk about something that often isn’t talked about in churches, let alone in Christian homes: God’s gift of sexuality.

Answer this in your head: at what age do people have sex. (Repeat). What’s your best guess? 30? 20? 15? 10? When do you think people have sex?

Whatever age you guessed, let me assure you, it’s much younger than you thought.

Thanks to modern, conventional wisdom, sex is a verb, that is to say, it is something you do. Listen to how people talk about sex: euphemisms for intercourse include hooking up, making love, and “doing it.” There are other, much more colorfully graphic words, of course, and you’ve probably heard of them as well, but they don’t need to be repeated here.

Television, movies, advertisements and photos are all designed to get the heart rate elevated, eyes to wander, the mind to wonder, and the Old Adam and Old Eve to start responding at a base level. In short, they’re designed to create and then fuel lust. No Mad Men advertising executive would admit this, of course, but the reality is that if sex sells, then sin sells – and buys - this idea of sex.

Back to the question, when do people first have sex? Very shortly after conception, the chromosomes have aligned to determine whether the baby will love frogs and snails and puppy dog tails, or sugar and spice and everything nice. Your body, with your gender, is made by God for His glory. I guess I should apologize for the question about sex at the start of this sermon. I admit it: it was a deliberate misdirection, but it was done to prove a point. The point is this: we associate sex with a verb to the exclusion of forgetting that first and foremost, sex is a noun. Yes, it is a verb but, more than that, sex describes gender, the male sex and the female sex. In Genesis, God made created man in his own image; in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them (1:12), each with a unique sexual gender.

Here is where the world’s view and God’s word separate.

God gives sexuality as His gift to you, to be treasured and maintained with highest of regard, held in reserve for your spouse who, likewise, has held his or her sexuality in the same regard to be given to you in marriage.  Gift is the key word: it is from God, delivered to us, through the vehicle of our bodies. Gifts of God are to be treasured, not used lightly or in a way that is displeasing to Him. That’s true whether it’s body or belongings; vehicles in the garage or vegetables in the pantry; time or talents – they are all from God, given to us.

But the body, our sexuality, is an extra special gift of God. Baptized into Christ, redeemed by Christ, and forgiven by Christ, we are also united with Christ into Himself. Too often we think of this as just a spiritual connection – as if we can separate our body from our soul – but the entire person, body and soul, is united with Christ. We are so closely connected to Jesus through baptism, Paul says, that our body is the Spirit’s temple. He lives in us and connects us to and with Jesus. 

The world views things through fifty shades of the unholy trinity of me, myself and I. This god is worshipped, pleased and appeased above all gods – please note, this is used in the lower-cased sense. This devilish lie seeks out whatever makes the individual happy, whatever is fun, whatever feels good and it is willing to sacrifice almost anything to attain those goals, including the gift God has given you in your sexuality. Sex – heterosexual, homosexual, it doesn’t matter, not as long as it’s whenever you want, however you what, with whomever you want. It’s all about me, myself and I. Love, true self-giving, self-sacrificing love, is displaced. The gift, where sexuality is centered outside of us in God’s love, is confused with ability, and my attempting to please myself by doing what I want to do. Everything gets pushed aside, particularly caring for the gift of a sexually pure and decent life. In fact, those become punch-lines to jokes as the devil compounds his lies: everyone is doing it; it’s no big deal; how can love be wrong?; it’s not like we’re getting married or something.

But it’s not just the teens and twenties and thirty-somethings that have bought into these lies. We all have. We have surrendered God’s Word and the responsibility delivered to us as parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles.  We don’t teach our children and our grandchildren the truth of God’s gift of sexuality, leaving it up to Hollywood and the magazines in plain brown wrappers to teach. We buy the lie about “That’s old-fashioned,” or “It’s just not how it’s done.” We whine about it being uncomfortable or – really old school – we dismiss it as something that “good people don’t talk about.” As much as I love my Dad, I remember in the early 90’s, I was laying on the floor watching TV with him one night. There was a television commercial about the rising AIDS crisis. The voiceover actor said, “Kids – learn about AIDS and AIDS prevention. Ask your parents.” I rolled over, looked at my Dad and said, “OK, Dad – tell me about AIDS prevention.” He paused for a second and said, “Just be a good Christian and you won’t have to worry about it.” End of conversation. For the sake of expediency, family peace, and not wanting to be the old fuddy-duddy, we keep our mouths shut instead of speaking the truth of God’s gift of sexuality. In so doing, we also dishonor God’s Word, we dishonor God’s gift of our children and grandchildren.

In short, we are unfaithful: unfaithful to wedding vows – whether married or not; unfaithful to our spouse or future spouse; unfaithful to God who loves us enough to give us these gifts in the first place, entrusting them to us to cherish and preserve. Exposed of our sins, like Adam and Eve in the garden, we try to hide ourselves. But our Lord Christ jesus loves us too much to leave us alone in our exposed nakedness. He seeks us out and finds us and calls us to repentance.   And when He finds us, He does something remarkable: He gives His body for your body. Our bodies can only be saved by Him who gives His body and blood for us all. Jesus takes up your sins where we have sinned sexually against God, our spouse or future spouse, and even ourselves and carries each and every one to the cross. His death cleanses your body of your sin. His body is broken for your brokenness; His purity is given for your impurity; He gives Himself for the times you have given yourself away. And He dies for you to save your whole self – body and soul.

What does the life of repentance look like? Confess your sins. Be forgiven, trusting in the promises of God in Christ. Turn away from the source of temptation. Flee from sexual temptation. If suggestive television or movies tempt you, change the channel or walk out of the theater. If magazines behind the gas station counter lure you, shop elsewhere. If living together, separate and seek to get married as soon as possible.

And, if your conscience is burdened by your past, remember that in Christ the sins of your past have all been buried in His tomb and they did not rise with Him on Easter. This kind of living is counter-cultural. The world will look at us and laugh that we are not part of the sexual revolution. It’s not a revolution; it’s a rebellion…a rebellion against God, His Word and His gifts.

“The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.” Don’t glorify a revolution with your body. Glorify God in your body.