Havasu Christian Church
February 9, 2025
“Can’t touch this….. or maybe you can?”
INTRO: Today is the second part of our “Month of love” series. Today we focus on a word for love that isn’t even found in the bible. The word is Eros. This was the name for the Greek god of love, passion, and fertility. He is the son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, and desire. Eros is often depicted as a handsome young man carrying a bow and arrow. In Roman mythology, Eros is equivalent to Cupid.
Why do we not find this word in Scripture? Because Eros is a word that really has more to do with sexual passion, but without any of the attachments that make it beautiful.
We live in a society that is fixated on this kind of sex. Wow! There’s a revelation for you! I guess we’re done here!
Seriously, everything from the internet to tv advertising, to books, movies and magazines. Sex is used sex to sell products, or tease the imagination of the reader.
- God Created sex and it is good.
- He created it first for the animal kingdom, to “fill the earth.”
Genesis 1:20–25 Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.”
21 God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.
25 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
- animals just “do what comes naturally”
- A female comes into season, and the males respond in kind.
- A few animals mate for life, but it’s only about 25 or so.
Shingleback Lizards, Gidgee Skinks, French angelfish, Pygmy Seahorses, Grey wolves, Red & Grey Foxes, Yellow-Winged Bat, Dik Diks, (a little deer) Eurasian Beavers, Gibbons, Titi monkeys, Coyotes, Bald Eagles, Albatrosses, Black Vultures, Sandhill Cranes, Barn Owls, Macaws, Mourning Doves, Fischer’s Lovebirds, Geese, Mute Swans, Sun Conures, (little yellow and green birds) Atlantic Puffins, Pigeons, Monk Parakeets, Prairie Voles, Scarlet Macaws, California Condors, Oldfield Mice, Mantis Shrimp, Caridean Shrimp. Taiwanese Giant Cockroach, and Macaroni penguins.
- But with these few exceptions, it’s all about being in the right place at the right moment.
- It’s just reproduction, plain and simple.
- Even the animals that mate for life are simply doing that way because that’s what God built into their instincts.
- God also created sex for humans.
- Wouldn’t you know it, humans are different from animals!
Genesis 1:26–28 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
- God (Father, Son & Holy Spirit) made us in Their image.
- We understand right and wrong.
- We process information in a way that is different from the animals.
- We have instincts, but we can choose to ignore them.
- “Fight or flight… I can choose to do neither one.
- It stands to reason that if every other way we operate as humans is different, then the way we approach sex should be different too.
- With people, Sex is physical.
- Obviously….
- But there is more than just a physical connection that is made.
- With people, Sex is emotional.
- Feelings get all tangled up in this.
- With people, Sex is spiritual.
- It affects our relationship with God.
Unlike the animals, God gave humans free will to choose what we would do. This gives us the opportunity to use the gift of sex in the right way or wrong way.
Because of this…..
- Satan has done his best to deceive people into perverting sex.
- When misused, sex is destructive!
- Even when misused, sex can be pleasurable.
Dodging cars on a freeway can be fun & exciting too… until you get hit!
- Satan uses this to his advantage.
- Israel’s great downfall was wanting to “worship” the same way their neighbors did.
- Asherah worship… Sex with whomever…
- Baal worship… Sacrifice the babies born out of Asherah worship.
1 Corinthians 6:9–11 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
- Fornication: ANY sex outside of marriage between a man and a women.
- This does damage to what should be a relationship between a man and a woman, married to each other.
- But, what about “Serial Monogamy”
- “I’m faithful! (Until we split up and I find someone new.)”
- Promiscuity:
- Sex with whomever, whenever.
- This is harmful.
- Sex becomes dirty and cheap.
- The participants also feel dirty and cheap.
- People carry this into their future relationships.
Both Promiscuity and “serial monogamy” have worked their way into the fabric of our society.
- Adultery: Sex between a married person and anyone not their spouse.
- Think of the damage that cheating on a spouse does.
- It causes a break in trust that will never really heal well.
- It steals from the intimacy between a husband & wife.
- This includes Pornography.
Matthew 5:27–28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
- This is nothing new.
- Murals in Pompeii and various Greek and Roman statues, “gods and goddesses” in ancient times. Much of these were depictions of a sexual nature.
- This may be the most insidious sexual sin in our time.
- It is so common, easily obtained, and has been “normalized.”
- “It’s not normal if it needs to be normalized.”
It may be “normal.” But it isn’t right!
- Effeminate: Our society tells us that being a “transvestite” (dressing and acting like the sex you are not) is perfectly normal and correct.
- Girls and women competing in sports with men competing against them might have a different opinion.
- Girls and women being forced to share locker rooms and restrooms with men might also disagree about this.
- Homosexuality: Engaging in sexual behavior, men with men, women with women.
- This is nothing new either.
- But it’s still wrong.
Well, there’s the bad news… Is all lost? NO!
- THERE IS HOPE!
- When treated in a Godly way, sex is wonderful!
- 1 man, 1 woman, for life
Matthew 19:3–10 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” They *said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY?” He *said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” The disciples *said to Him, “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.”
- Jesus lays this out plainly.
- God’s plan was always for a man and woman to marry and be partners together until one of them died.
- Divorce was only allowed because they were going to do it anyway.
- With the exception of a cheating spouse, divorce was and still is wrong.
- When you decide that there is no way out….
- You are more careful when you are choosing a husband or wife.
- You work together to fix things.
- Gotta love the disciples… “If the relationship of the man with his is like this, it is better not to marry.”
- These guys weren’t so sure about this “teaching of Jesus.”
- Sexual intimacy draws two people together.
- Kollao = Kollao (κολλάω) is a Greek word that means "to glue together," "to join," or "to cleave". It can also mean to fasten firmly together or to cement.
- This kind of intimacy is a gift from God!
- This is something you can share with only one person..
- This relationship is different from any other relationship!
- Sex is also a lot of fun!
- God gave us something that is meant to be enjoyed by the wife and the husband.
- There is also the option of being single.
1 Corinthians 7:1–9 Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. But this I say by way of concession, not of command. Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that. But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I. But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
- There are some people who do fine without a spouse.
- In the time Paul is talking about, the church is under persecution and if you aren’t married, no one can threaten your spouse or kids.
- Paul says he has the ability to live this way, and he wishes others did as well.
- (As a traveling preacher who is almost always in danger, this is a good thing!)
- Living this way means not having sex.
- This would also be the right course for someone who is attracted to their own sex.
- Feeling a certain way isn’t wrong…
What we do with that feeling is what matters!
- Don’t Act On It!
- Just like a single Christian should not act on their desires.
- Or a married Christian should not act on the temptation that comes to them. RUN AWAY!
- There is even the option of being faithful but living apart.
1 Corinthians 7:10–11 But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.
- Christian women are specifically addressed here, most likely because of the society they lived in. But I think we can safely apply this principal to both men and women.
- If you can’t live together in peace,
- Live separately, but keep your vows!
- The Christian man is not to divorce his Christian wife. Live alone but work things out!
- “Aren’t all these rules awfully restrictive considering how much our society has changed?”
- God makes the rules, because He knows best!
- He knows best, because He made us!
- Since God loves us, and knows us, right down to our DNA “blueprints,” Right down to our sub-atomic particles, He Knows what’s best for us!
- People in the first century had most all of the same terrible ways of dealing with their sexuality that people do today!
- These rules are not subject to change.
Conclusion: Christians are to be “in the world, but not of the world” and that includes how we handle sex.
As with last week, this may be “preaching to the choir. You may have all this settled. You may have had all this settled for years.
If that’s the case, be an honest witness!
Share your past struggles.
Help others to overcome the sin in their lives.
But maybe you don’t have this all settled!
Maybe you are struggling with something. It could be pornography. It could be same sex attraction. It could be a lot of things.
But I want to re-read a passage from earlier….
Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
Such WERE some of you!!!
You were! But you didn’t have to stay that way!!
