Paul's Sexy Sermon

I'm four days out from giving the sermon that I mentioned in this post. All in all, it's coming together reasonably well. I certainly have plenty of stuff to talk about. The problem is going to be organising it all in a coherent way that is conducive to young people.

I've come up with some sketchy points to throw into the mix:

• Christians need to follow what the bible says about sex. There are some definite commands.
  However, if you haven't made a commitment to be a Christian and signed up to follow those commands, then the church and people within the church, should not try to hold you up to that standard, to judge you by it, or to insist that you change your behaviours to conform to something that you haven't entered into with your head and heart. (Romans 2)
• God created humans and wants a relationship with each and every one of them.
• Presumably (the bible says it for anyone who is a bit slow) if God created everything, he's going to have a better idea of how we can live our lives to their fullest.
• Unfortunately, we don't really bother to listen to what God thinks a lot of the time, even if we hang out at theological college all day.
  
• Fortunately, God loves us enough to have provided a way for us to come back to him. Whatever it is that we've done, he won't keep us separated from his love, as long as we admit that we did the opposite of what he wanted, and turn away from whatever it was. That's where Jesus comes in.
• God invented sex. Apparently, when he made them 'male' and 'female', the words in the original language of Genesis (the creation story) literally translate to 'piercer' and 'one pierced'. Some pretty blunt imagery there. God isn't a prude about this stuff.
• In fact, he tells Adam and Eve to go forth and multiply. He pretty much tells them to get on the job.
• God wants us to have sex, but not just with anyone. He hasn't designed sex to be the casualty of the Year 9 science curriculum that shows kids how to put condoms on carrots.
  
• He wants sex to be a vibrant, satisfying and enjoyable part of loving relationships that are modelled on his design for human relationships, so that we can have the best experience of the gift of sex, as one (very fun) part of a deep, multi-faceted intimacy with another person.
• The church needs to do a better job of communicating about sex.
• When the church seems to say "don't have sex", people sometimes hear "don't love your partner" because they don't have the same foundational beliefs. There is much to be gained from an exchange of perspectives, rather than a standoff where the church condemns people who have sex outside of marriage, or where people dismiss christians who have their own personal convictions, as out of touch. Both are terribly unfair.
• The choice to save sex for marriage is just that - a choice. It is also a choice to become a christian. Obviously the bible advocates for us to choose both. In reality, people don't always choose both of those, if either of them.
  
• Those choices need to be separated so that people look at the central message of the Gospel, which changes hearts and not behaviours. People generally see requests to change their behaviour as a ridiculous rule, if they don't own the reasons behind it.

I'm speaking at the 7pm service, this Sunday at Essendon Baptist if anyone is interested (see link to half-finished website with the address, on right). Church services aren't an open forum for discussion, so if you want to discuss things with me, rather than just listen to what I present, leave a comment here. You don't have to be a Christian or agree with what I'm saying to attend.