Sex in the City | Sermon Notes
SEX in the City
Jesus has called us to be the salt of the Earth, the light of the World. A City Set on a Hill. Set apart yet influencing the rest of the City. We are looking at different aspects of our life in the City and how it affects our worship and our influence. Last week we talked about things that get in the way. Idols.
Let’s look at our Spouses and Family AND when you get right down to it. Our Sex in the City.
Isaac, Jacob’s dad tells him to go find Laban and marry ‘one of his daughters’. So Jacob goes on the journey. God promises him strongly. He will be blessed and father many children. (similar to Abraham covenant).
He finally makes it to Laban’s neck of the woods and finds sheep at a well. While he is speaking to some shepherds, he looks up and sees the most beautiful woman! Rachel!
Sermon Notes: “Idols in the City” part 1
Jesus said that we are “the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and a CITY set on a hill.”
What does that mean? Right now, we can have God in our lives. Because while we were sinners and didn’t even know or care about God, He came to this earth lived a sinless life, took on all of our sins to justify us or make us right. That whosoever, shall call on the name of the Lord will be saved. The good news is that our sin is taken away and we become an eligible place for God to live. The good news is that this is a gift. He loves us and it is free. Take it!
What would it look like if we lived in unity with God and the world?
In Genesis 1, God made man in His image. To follow after God (worship) v.26 Genesis 1:28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
- Worship God
- Rule over all created things in God’s name
Exodus 20: 3 You must not have any other god but me. (1st commandment) 4 You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. (2nd commandment) 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.
Exodus 23:24 You must not worship the gods of these nations or serve them in any way or imitate their evil practices. Instead, you must utterly destroy them and smash their sacred pillars…32 “Make no treaties with them or their gods. 33 They must not live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me. If you serve their gods, you will be caught in the trap of idolatry.”
We read that and say. Oh yeah! The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is God. Jesus Christ is God incarnate. Emmanuel. God with us. However, God put this as the FIRST commandment because He knew it would be the hardest one to keep. The more we are in the City. The easier it is to look like, dress like, talk like, desire like …the city. He definitely wants us in the city. But, he is looking for us to keep HIM FIRST.
When Moses comes down from the mountain to meet back up with the people, the first thing he realizes is that they have made an idol golden calf!
I know what you are thinking right now… “Pastor, I have been doing really good lately. I have not made any golden calves. I have been tempted, but I have held off!!” Let’s look at what happens to us as New Testament believers. Here is what the Apostle Paul says about Christians like us:
Romans 1:22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.
In 2013 (just as in the days of Romans, people are still finding their self worth in things other than God)
A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living. An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources, on it without a second thought. It can be family and children, or career and making money, or achievement and critical acclaim, or saving face and social standing. It can be a romantic relationship, peer approval, competence and skill, secure and comfortable circumstances, your beauty or your brains, a great political or social cause, your morality and virtue, or even success in the Christian ministry. -Timothy Keller
An idol is anything that makes you feel: “If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning. Then, I will know that I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.”
We come to Jesus and we lay down the big ones. We ask him to forgive us of all the sin in our life and we are inspired/motivated by His Spirit to eliminate sinful habits and activities from our life.
We worship fervently on the weekend and some at home. (picking up Bible and then putting it back down.) We work a lot on the items of our life. Investing a lot in each one. Becoming emotionally connected to each one. Desiring to see each one of them perfected. Finding our identity in the completion and the look of these things to other people. This is the idolization of life. We go to God, Bible in order to prop these things back up and we are disappointed in God when we see Him not showing up in each item.
Sunday morning, Daily reading/prayer, accountability, serving the kingdom, all these items are in our life to refocus and recenter our thoughts around the Gospel. All these parts of our life are here to give us a soil or planting ground for His purposes. The success of failure of them in and of themselves is NOT important. His glory is not found in the perfection of our life parts, but in His gospel being revealed and his Kingdom being established.
Why do we lie, or fail to love, or break our promise, or live selfishly? Of course, the general answer is “Because we are weak and sinful,” but the specific answer is that there is something besides Jesus Christ that we feel we must have to be happy, something that is more important to our heart than God, something that is enslaving our heart through inordinate desires. The key to change (and even to self-understanding) is therefore to identify the idols of the heart. – Timothy Keller
The number one way to identify an idol is to think of the thing or things that cause you the most stress. I’m so stressed because______________. Many times we think that as Christians that we are being attacked by a spirit of darkness, but really our stress is coming from a demanding idol craving your attention. Idols are so demanding.
We have placed family on a pedestal. We have placed financial security on a pedestal. We have placed sexual fulfillment on a pedestal. We have placed being accepted by our peers on a pedestal. AND because we have deficiency in some of these areas it causes us stress and until we get it looking just right.
Galatians 4:8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
The Gospel to the City: Justification and Sanctification
Justification and Sanctification
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. 12 And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, 13 while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. 14 He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds…
3:3 Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other.
4 But—“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, 5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. 6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. 7 so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Justify / Justification – our legal system brings justice. The judicial system analyzes the situation, sets free or sentences. After that “justice has been served”
to declare innocent. To absolve, Acquit. to free from guilt or blame or their consequences
How are we justified from our sin?
Romans 6: 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 John 1: 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Ephesians 2:8 God saved you by his grace when you believed (by faith). And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
Sanctify / Sanctification – being made holy or purified. To act right, no longer sinning. To be like God.
Lacy Schwien – “Using the Word and the cleansing Blood of Jesus, God’s Holy Spirit sculpts me from a useless lump of clay into a vessel of honor, triumphant over sin and fit for God’s use.”
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Romans 6:22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.
(ESV the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.)
1 Corinthians 1: 30 ….Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy (sanctified), and he freed us from sin.
The problem that a lot of us have is we get justification and sanctification all mixed up.
The biggest problem with confusing the 2 is that our motivation gets all screwy.
We do things for the wrong reasons and it messes with our relationship with God and everyone else.
- We are driven into depression because we think we aren’t perfect enough.
- We are judgmental because we think others are perfect enough.
- We look for power and acceptance in our obedience.
- Our motivation for living right is: fear of hell OR the good feeling of the acceptance
Galatians 5:19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature/flesh, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (hell)
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 26 Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.
I Need YOUR Vote
I (robin) have been studying and praying and writing and thinking a lot about a book I feel I should write. As you can tell from that sentence, I will need a good editor.
All the steps I have been through has brought be to three basic ideas or angles for the book. I would like your input on two things. Which book would you personally be more interested in reading? (you are not committing to buying a book by participating in this poll.) Also, I would like your thoughts on which book would appeal to the rest of the population. In other words, you might think that your opinion is different or the same as the rest of the world.
All three book concepts are centered around our experience with our daughter, Kennady. The story behind her diagnosis, life with special needs, our faith, and pastoring our church will make up the basis of the book.
The first two options are two different angles on the same basic premise. The third one is a lot different:
Three Book Ideas
- Bullet Proof – Keeping the faith after life kicks your ButtHelping people remain full of faith even after a terrible life situation. We will map out our story of Kennady from diagnosis to daily life and how maintaining faith is a marathon. There is always uncertainty. However, there can be a place of safety.
- Made Meaningful – Finding Purpose in the PainEven though Kennady was born with intense special needs she was made by God and He had a divine meaning behind her condition. This book would help people find divine meaning when bad things happen to people.
- Aborting – Killing the Pro-Life StereotypeThough most Christians believe abortion is wrong, we only hear about weird or violent people stand up against it. Older generations seem apathetic. The newer generation is very activist oriented, yet, most seemed bent on helping out all over the world except in our own backyard. This book will help bridge the gap between believers and the brokenness of abortion. Our story of being given the option of abortion and Kennady’s special needs helps make the case.
The Pastoring Parade
I just reviewed the list of people from the New Members meeting in April of 2012. (almost a year ago)
Here is what I determined from that list:
- 12 families making up 19 people are still active
- 5 families making up 13 people are no longer here (unknown reason)
- 3 families making up 6 people have moved out of the area
Rick Warren says that pastoring a church is like pastoring a parade. There is a constant moving of people and you are saying, “hello, how are you, goodbye, hello, how are you, goodbye, hello, how are you, goodbye”.
Andy Stanley said, “Everyone leaves your church..at one point or another.” They either move, quit, or die.
Knowing how to pastor people in the flow of life is often challenging. We get personally attached to those who make big time investment. We wish that others would connect more. There are times when it seems like everyone is joining the church and then times when it all seems stale. Thankfully, we have never had a mass exodus or ‘split’. I say ‘thankfully’ because of the emotional pain and logistical nightmare that incurs on us as humans. I am not sure the real damage of this ‘church failure’ to the kingdom. It is quite possible that some mega churches do just as much harm to the message of the gospel. But, I digress…
To keep on loving people, preaching the gospel, correcting, encouraging and fulfilling the commission is exhaustive when looking through the fleshly eyes. We are tempted to believe that our next technique will solve the parade. It won’t. Jesus preached to a parade just as we do. We do our best and learn all we can, however, at the end of the day we need to be focused on Jesus Christ. (period)
When pastoring with a real, personal relationship with God and always centering on the gospel, we are able to:
- Remember what is important
- Reassess priorities
- Not be as concerned with comparisons to other churches or leaders.
- Celebrate everyday victories. (1 baptism, 1 new volunteer, 1 etc)
+robin
Robin Steele 