part of the turn

Illustrated sermon notes from my talk last night on relationships and sexuality. Thanks to The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsh and Sex God by Rob Bell for much of the material.

Beach photo by zyrogerg, garlic photo by Gio JL and sex photo by Eva

Email Illustration

From: ***

Subject: I lonely search lonely.

Date: January 11, 2008 1:12:26 AM EST (CA)

To: ***

Hello my new dear friend!!! I am very glad, that I can write to you the letter. I, the truth, do not know, whether my letter will reach you as first time I use the Internet. But very much I hope, that my letter will reach you. My name Nataliya. I - the nice and passionate woman, but I am lonely. My heart dies without love. I am really tired to be one in this life!!! I very strongly want to love, and to be loved worthy the man. I need in kisses and love and tenderness as I very long time did not receive these fine feelings!!! I search for the man which will like, and to respect me!!! I search for the man which will appreciate all my qualities, and to support me in difficult situations. I search for the man to which I can entrust not only the feelings, desires, dreams but also as the most important - the life!!! I want serious relations, to create a home. I liked your structure, and I would like to start to get acquainted with you. I very strongly hope, that you that the man which I searched for all life!!! If our purposes in a life identical I shall wait with the great pleasure from you for the reciprocal letter!!! With hope for your reciprocity, your new friend Nataliya!!!

P.S. And if I have really interested you, and you want to begin acquaintance to me - that in the following letter I shall send you the photos!!!

Please, write to me directly on my email: ***

CS Lewis Quote

“I have no doubt that pleasure is in itself a good and pain in itself an evil; if not, then the whole Christian teaching about heaven and hell and the passion of our Lord seems to have no meaning. Pleasure then, is good; a ‘sinful’ pleasure means a good offered, and accepted, under conditions which involve a breach of the moral law”

God CREATED

• Sun
• Plants
• People
Tree photo by Timothy K. Hamilton

and gave us the GIFT of

• Sunshine
• Food
• Relationships

so we could experience the PLEASURE of;

• Warmth
• Garlic
• Sex!
Beach photo by zyrogerg, garlic photo by Gio JL and sex photo by Eva

but sin is the introduction of EXCESS;

• Skin Cancer
• Obesity
• Rape

Michael Frost & Alan Hirsh

“to say it another way, a biblical doctrine of creation begins with the primary affirmation that life, the world, humanity was made by God and is, in essence good. The secondary truth, one that qualifies the primary truth is that all of it is fallen/broken and in some way dangerous to the soul. Sin has so qualified the world that it has made it precarious and ambiguous, but it had not obscured God’s hand and his love.”

the biblical starting place is

• “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” - Genesis 1:31

• Genesis 1:4,10,12,18,21,25, 31
• 7 times in the first chapter!!
• And that is the basis
• God’s creation is good
• He is excited about
• It is a gift
• and we were created to enjoy it
• In fact, a study of scripture teaches that when we act in excess or outside of His design we are actually….
• Diminishing our ability to experience the pleasure that God’s creations offer

Think about how that affects our

• understanding of mission?
• understanding of self?
• understanding of pleasure?
• understanding of the world?
• mission: we talk about a God who loves His creation
• self: I am loved – and lovely
• pleasure: God intends us to enjoy His creation
• world: God’s planet is good in His eyes

Christians of all people

• laugh
• dance
• sing
• experience joy
• because we live life under a

Theology of JOY

everything that follows is just details / explanation of this truth

A deeper look at:

• Creation
• Excess

Creation

• animals and angels
• Animals
• body without image of God
• obvious problem
• deny spirit, we live like animals
Originally uploaded by Gavin Bell
• Angels
• Spirit with out body
• we are like angels– hugh hefner story
Originally uploaded by Norma Desmond
• God made us human
• angels ad animals before us, to act like either is to regress
• 2. Our self-image is a reflectio in part of what we believe about our God-image to be

Excess

3. Lust

• if i just…
• sun longer
• more food
• had her
• this is where we often get sick of ourselves and try to turn into angels to beat back the lust.
• It will never work.
• not reducing passion, redirecting– Eph 4:28 “steal no longer”

“He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those i need.”


• questions to ask lust:
• What is the lie here?
• Where is the good in this person or thing?
• Where is the good that has been distorted?
• What is the good thing God has made here that has been hijacked?
• Have I been tempted like this before?
• Have I given in before? What was it like? Did it work?
• Was I more satisfied or more empty?
• What will the moment, the morning, or the week after be like?
• Is there a pattern here?

• Lust is wanting what we do not have, and it is dehumanizing
• Dehumanizing a person is rejecting their God given “image of God”
• “something hellish happens when people are made into objects” - Rob Bell
• church is an outpost of new humanity, we honour: rich/poor, black/white/, male/female, young/old.

“Because God saw all me had made…”

So?

• review: CREATED, GIFT, PLEASURE, EXCESS
• review: mission, self, pleasure, world

• Woman: you are lovely. a guys smooth talks adds nothing to that
• Man: you will continue to lust for what you can NEVER EVER HAVE, until you redirect your passions to things that are useful, beneficial, and for others.

God saw it was good. it is good. listen to the creators way to enjoy the creation.