Is God’s Way Possible?

Scripture: Luke 5.1-11; Romans 8.1-11, 28-30

God has made us for each other. Our sexuality is a gift from gift God and it is also a sign that points back to God. Through the unique music and language of sexual intimacy between a man and a woman we hear rumor of another world. Sexual intimacy is about a self-giving relationship. Like a mighty river, the experience can be deep and wide. Also like a river, when sex overflows its God-given boundaries, it becomes a potent and destructive force.

No human longing is more powerful or difficult to rein in. Surveys show that 70 percent of evangelical Christians engage in premarital sex. “Sex has enough combustive force to incinerate conscience, vows, family commitments, religious devotion, and anything else in its path,” author Philip Yancey notes.

Everyone I think would agree that living a pure life is difficult. One problem is, we’ve stopped even talking about God’s will for our lives as sexual beings. The church has turned a blind eye to premarital sex. When it comes to our youth and our young adults, we cross our fingers and hope at best, or at worst, we counsel our kids to try not to get pregnant. Most people, including most church people, have completely thrown in the towel on traditional standards of morality about sex, especially premarital sex.

Lurking behind our almost complete capitulation to the times and culture is the nagging question for believers, “Is God’s way even possible?”

Christians through the ages have wondered this. No less than Martin Luther wrote:

Some might say, “Waiting for marriage is unbearable and aggravating!” They’re right. It’s very similar to other difficulties requiring patience that believers must face, such as fasting, imprisonment, cold, sickness, and persecution. Lust is a serious burden. You must resist it and fight against it. But after you have overcome it through prayer, lust will have caused you to pray more and grow in faith.

All the difficulties Luther mentions, oddly enough, no longer really confront Christians in prosperous societies – except for lust. We have eliminated the other problems. Lust, however, we have not eliminated but perfected.

Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Temple of the Holy Ghost” tells of a precocious twelve-year-old girl and two country boys who have come to court her visiting cousins. The girl overhears her teenage cousins mock a nun, Sister Perpetua, who has suggested a formula to use in fending off fresh young men in the back seats of cars. “Stop sir! I am a Temple of the Holy Ghost!” the nun taught the girls to say. The cousins think such advice is hilarious. The twelve-year-old girl, however, is moved. The news that she is the dwelling place of God makes her feel as if somebody has given her a present. She takes it seriously.
What Sister Perpetua’s teaching was based on St. Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians.

“The body is not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. . .Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?” 1 Corinthians 6.13b,18-19a

Paul tells us that there is a spiritual/physical connection, that what we do with our bodies affects our spirits. In other words, you can’t compartmentalize sex.

Fornication is all sexual activity outside the bonds of marriage. Fornication is that attempt to compartmentalize sexual desire and activity, to divorce the sexual act from relationship, and especially from the only relationship (marriage) that is strong enough to contain it and reveal its true meaning.

But again we come back to the question, is waiting until marriage possible?
I mean, does God really understand what he’s asking?

After teaching a crowd gathered by a lake one day, Jesus approaches one of the local fishermen named Simon. Like the other fishermen at the lake that morning, Simon is probably ready to go home for the day. You see, the best fishing was done at night there. Simon had been out on the lake all night. It was a poor night with nothing to show for the effort. Simon has cleaned his gear and rolled up his nets. He’s ready for bed. But Jesus says, “Let’s take the boat out now and do some fishing.”

You can imagine what Simon Peter was thinking – this preacher doesn’t know anything about fishing. Doesn’t he know that I, an experienced fisherman have been out all night? Simon has a decision to make. He can say no to Jesus with every good reason and excuse. And by saying no he can go do what he really wants to do at this point, go home and go to sleep. Or he can listen to Jesus, even if just to humor him. But listening to Jesus is going to cost him. It will cost Simon hours of backbreaking labor with no real hope of success.

And that’s the choice Jesus puts before every one of us. Do we trust God? Is Jesus smart? Is He competent?

Do we trust God with our bodies? Does God really understand sexual desire? Is there any hope of success at the end of all the aggravating and painful choices and waiting?

Church will you say yes? Will you say yes, we trust you God? Because when the church says yes then we can encourage parents to trust God as well.

Parents you must set the standard of purity for your kids. Just because you have mistakes in your past does not disqualify you from raising a high standard for your kids. Teach your kids that their bodies are sacred, that they carry the presence of a Holy God around with them. Teach them the positive message of a sexual relationship in marriage.

If we set the standard high, it’s true sometimes our kids will fail; but if we set no standard at all, we have planned for them to fail. And failing the standard of sexual purity brings a high cost of hurt, consequence and lost innocence. By setting boundaries for our kids, we are setting them free for better things.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” Romans 8.28-30