Maintaining Your Marriage Vows - Straight Talk About Sex Series

MAINTAINING YOUR MARRIAGE VOWS

Straight Talk - What The Bible Has To Say About Sex

How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead. 2 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing. Each has its twin; not one of them is alone. Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate. Your neck is like the tower of David, built with elegance; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. Your two breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies. Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense. All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you. (Song of Solomon 4:1-7)

“Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure for God will judge the adulterer and the sexually immoral”

Hebrews 13:4

We are in a new teaching series we are calling, “Seven of the Most Important Decisions You Will Ever Make”. We began it last week with an examination of how you select your mate. Most of us would agree that is one of the most crucial decisions a person can face. There is a second decision which is connected to it – and that is how a person chooses to respond to their marriage vows. Most of us who are married or who have been married – were asked by the person officiating at our ceremony to make a commitment of faithfulness to our partner. In that, we promised to refrain from any sexual relations from anyone else except that person to whom we pledged our love. However, most of us have either known someone quite well who has broken that commitment – or we may have ourselves been guilty of breaking the promise which we made on the day of our wedding.

We live in a culture that is quite preoccupied with sex. I do not know if it is fair to say that there are more people today that at any time before who have little, if any regard for the Biblical teachings on sex. However, I think it is safe to say that at no time has the public perception been that Biblical teaching about sex is outdated, at best. On Friday, I opened the Los Angeles Times Calendar section to see what the most popular movies in the southland currently are. As I glanced at the ads, I noticed that a movie called, “The 40 Year Old Virgin” is in its second week of showings. It is the story of a man who at the age of 40 has still not experienced sexual relations and his friends decide it is up to them to take that matter into their hands. On another page, I saw that the movie, “Wedding Crashers” is still going strong. Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn play two attorneys who pretend to be someone different each weekend in order to crash a wedding in hopes of having a weekend tryst with one of females in the bridal party. Just in case you were one of those people who believed that one “Deuce Bigalow” wasn’t enough, he is back doing his thing as a male Gigilo, only this time in Europe. “Pretty Persuasion” is the story of a high school girl who doesn’t get a part she covets in a high school production who then sets out to ruin the career of the teacher by accusing him of making sexual advances upon her. There is even a very popular film showing called “March of the Penguins” which is about the sex life of penguins! Would you agree with me that interest in sexual matters ranks pretty high on the charts of many people in today’s culture?

Since everyone else seems to be talking about sex, it seems clear that the church better jump in there and trying to bring some common sense and Biblical truth to this discussion. So, consider this a teaching that we are likely to revisit at least once a year for the foreseeable future. In fact, I have prepared for you, “talking points”, on this subject. Feel free to pass these along to your friends, colleagues, neighbors and family members who may be struggling with moral choices on the matter of their sexuality. I would certainly encourage you to hang on to today’s handout and utilize it at the proper time with your teenagers. You should be preparing now to have an open and frank dialogue with them about this subject – I can assure you everyone else in their culture is going to be attempting to influence them on the matter of sexual matters. It is one of the most important topics you as a parent must deal with.