In order to understand the Bible and your life in God, you need to answer the question: WHAT TIME IS...

In order to understand the Bible and your life in God, you need to answer the

question:

WHAT TIME IS IT?

CreationFallRedemptionRestoration

What is the purpose of our bodies?

1 Corinthians 6:13, 15b-1713“Food for the stomach and the stomach for

food”—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the

Lord, and the Lord for the body…Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17But he who unites himself with the

Lord isone with him in spirit.

Three Big Take Aways:

1. EVERYONE’S sexuality is broken and confusedin this fallen world

2. We need the Gospel to inform us about sexuality

3. Sexuality is so incredibly personal because it lands

deeply on relational and identity issues

A Biblical Theology of Sex


Genesis 11In the beginning God created the heavens and

the earth.


Genesis 1Genesis 2

18The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”


Genesis 1Genesis 2Genesis 3

16b“Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”


Genesis 1Genesis 2Genesis 3Ezekiel 16

8Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the

Sovereign LORD,and you became mine.


1 Corinthians 6-713bThe body, however, is not meant for sexual

immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

3The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his

own body but yields it to his wife. 5Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual

consent and for a time…


1 Corinthians 6-7Ephesians 5

31“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.


1 Corinthians 6-7Ephesians 5

Revelation 211Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down

out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he

will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

Gospel Sexuality

God created sex to be received as a gift

and experienced at his directionfor ever-increasing intimacy and benefit.

Gospel Sexuality

God created sex to be received as a gift

and experienced at his directionfor ever-increasing intimacy and benefit.

AS AN ILLUSTRATION OF HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH US

Big Question for this series as we study Gospel Sexuality:

What difference does theGospel of Jesus Christ make to

those who follow him inevery area of life,

including sexuality?

This week’s Big Question:

So if I buy the gospel’s understanding of sex, how do I

live (sexually)in this world?

The World and Us

John 17:6-176“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. 7Now they

know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For 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.

9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All

I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I

amcoming to you.

The World and Us

John 17:6-17“Holy Father, protect them by the power of your

name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12While 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. 13I 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. 14I 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.

The World and Us

John 17:6-1715“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. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”

The World and Us

1 John 2:15-1715Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.

17The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

The World and Us

John 3:1616“For God so loved the world that he gave his

one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn

the world, but to savethe world through him.”

INbut not

OFthe world

Influenced

Influenced

Influencer

Influenced

Influencer

Two Questions to Ponder

1. Should we be pessimistic or optimistic about the possibility for cultural

change?

2. Is the current culture redeemable and good, or fundamentally fallen?

“No single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest,” he

asserted, and then famously added, “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human

existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”

~ Abraham Kuyper, “Sphere Sovereignty” an address at the Free University of Amsterdam in 1880.

“The Two Kingdoms model puts emphasis on the goodness of the material creation, the strength of the

image of God in all human beings, and God’s common grace to all people. Transformationists put greater emphasis on the pervasive effects of the fall into sin on all of life, on the antithesis between belief and unbelief, and on the idols at the heart of every culture. Counterculturalists stress the form of God’s redemption throughout history, namely, by calling

out and creating a new people, a new humanity, that exhibits to the world what life under Christ can and

should look like. Finally, many of those in the Relevance category put great weight on God’s

restoration of this creation, on the healing of the nations, and on the resurrection from the dead”

~ Timothy J. Keller. “Center Church.” Zondervan, 2012

How do we then live and influence culture?


1. Centered


1. Centered

2.Wisely


1. Centered

2.Wisely

3.Know what tool you need to use


1. Centered

2.Wisely


4.What is the Spirit of God putting on your heart?


1. Centered

2.Wisely



5.Do not judge others who are operating differently


1. Centered

2.Wisely




6.Do something!


1. Centered

2.Wisely




6.Do something!

7.Never forget that the gospel is the power of

God!

Great.What does this have to do with

sex?


sex?

EVERYTHING!!


sex?

EVERYTHING!!

As a believer in Jesus Christ, you are not a victim or a product of the culture’s way of thinking. You

are a change agent!

Five take – aways / questions


1. A Gospel theology of sex is your best defense for the world’s sexual influence



2. Do you actually think of yourself as the “salt of the earth” – that you are here to make a

difference?




difference?

3. Are you so committed to one model that you are choking out believers around you?




difference?


4. Do you love the city? Do you actually think Christ and the realities of the gospel are what

people need?




difference?


4. Do you love the city? Do you actually think Christ and the realities of the gospel are what

people need?

5. Who/What is God putting on your heart to influence?

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