Living A Life Of Sexual Purity Series

Ephesians 5:3-14

Living a life of sexual purity

Sometimes when watching the news on TV some footage might be coming up - say a bomb explosion or war scene - and before they show the footage there is an announcement something like this: This footage contains scenes which may offend some viewers. In other words, they want to warn you before they show the footage. And today, I feel a bit like that with this sermon. Firstly, this sermon today is mainly about sexual immorality. Im not going to be graphic, Im not going to go beyond how the Bible describes things, but nevertheless, if you have young children in the service who are old enough to understand what Im saying and who havent yet gone down to Kingdom Kids, you might want to think about taking them out for this sermon. On the other hand, if you are a teenager, you are becoming aware of the issues we are going to talk about today and so this sermon will hopefully be quite helpful to those of you in that age bracket, so stay and listen!

And for the rest, as we go through todays passage, just about everyone here is going to be challenged at some point - about behaviour in the past, or the present. Some of you may even find what I say offensive, you may not agree with me. So as we do cover these verses, I want to ask you to bear with me. Firstly, if I say something that is hard hitting, a bit hard to take, remember Im not trying to offend but merely doing my best to explain the Bible and what it means to us today. And if you hear something today that is challenging, remember that you are here today in church, I hope because you want to learn more about what God says to us through the Bible. Sometimes the Bible exposes things in our lives that are uncomfortable and that we need to deal with. So today, if the Bible says something, if it addresses some sin in your life, I urge you to do what the Bible says. Do something about it. I and the church leadership are here to help you too, to counsel, pray with you through it.

I also need to say that this is a big topic and I am going to speak longer than usual. I tried to cut down the sermon but in the end felt I needed to say everything that is in it. So please bear with me in that.

Today, we are going to talk about sex. The world is full of sex. It has to be none of would be here without it. But the world is also full of lots of ideas about sex that are just plain wrong, and we are confronted with them every day. We live in a society where sexual morals are very different to a generation or two ago. We live in a society

where marriage is optional. You can live with someone, even have kids and there is no need to get married. If you do get married, and things dont work out, its quite okay to get divorced and marry someone else. Before marriage it is regarded as okay to sleep around. Casual sex is regarded by society as normal and acceptable. And the biggest change in last few years is that it is becoming acceptable for men to have sexual relationships with other men and women with women. This is seen as progressive. Laws are enacted giving same sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples in the name of human rights and equality. In some countries, homosexuals can even marry.

What are we in the church to think of all this? Some churches embrace the new morality. Surely what people do in their privacy of their own homes is their business? How does it hurt anyone if I sleep with my girlfriend? Or sleep with anyone male or female - for that matter? If its in the privacy of my home, how does that hurt you? Its not like Im stealing from someone, not like murdering someone. And some churches have accepted the new morality. Even to the point, in the case of homosexuality, of not just accepting practicising homosexuals into membership, but of ordaining them as pastors and even bishops.

What are we to make of all this? Probably nearly all of us here have some sort of sexual impulses. Is it okay to do what we like? Who says what is right, and what is wrong? Well, no matter what society says, society did not make us. Who made us? God made us. Therefore He is the one who has the sole right to tell us what to do. He wrote the instruction manual for life. So today we are going to look at that instruction manual - the Bible. So hold on, it will be challenging, confronting.