A Walk that is Worthy Part 12
Sensitivity vs Sensuality
Text: Ephesians 4:17-19
Intro:
This morning I would like to continue on with our series in Ephesians entitled “A Walk that Is Worthy”
For those of you that are keeping track I am skipping around just a bit. I want to come back to the ministry gifts at some point, but this morning the Lord wants me to preach on this passage. The message I would like to bring you is entitled “Sensitivity vs Sensuality”
Maybe another name we could give it is “Enemies of Sensitivity”
Illus:
You know you are living in the year 2003 when. . . .
Your reason for not staying in touch with family is because they do not have e-mail.
1. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.
2. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.
3. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn’t have the first
20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go get it.
4. You just tried to enter your password on the microwave.
5. You consider second-day air delivery painfully slow.
6. Your dining room table is now your flat filing cabinet.
7. You get an extra phone line so you can get phone calls.
8. You wake up at 2 AM to go to the bathroom and check your E-mail on your way back to bed.
Sensitivity vs Sensuality
Our text is really interesting this morning. Two words lept off the page when I was reading in preparation for this message…
Sensitivity…Sensuality
V19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
They sacrifice sensitivity to the Holy Spirit for Sensuality. Never before have we seen a time when this is happening than today. Sacrificing Sensitivity to the Spirit of God for something else. We tend to give in to those things that are gratifying to us, rather than be led by the Spirit of God.
Let me give some definitions here…
This word sensitivity here in the Greek means to be beyond feeling.Another way to maybe put this is to be Calloused.
Illus:
Calloused hands
This is in contrast to verse 30 where it says we are not to Grieve the Holy Spirit, speaking to the sensitivity the Holy Spirit has towards us. So the loss of sensitivity I am speaking of here is not a losing of ones Salvation, but a loss of intimacy between you and the Lord.
A loss of communication
A Loss of Awe
A Loss of the Fear of the Lord
Romans 8:14 says “because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”
This morning I would like to look at three areas that are enemies to the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit.
1) The Sensual
Our text speaks to this first one.
V 19 says “they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. People are hungry for the sensual. This is why we are confronted with it everywhere. Internet, Magazines, Radio Programs, Novels, Girls buying Prom Dresses, TV
Illus:
A recent study compared a study done in the 1997/98 television season, This study showed sitcoms’ sexual content jumped from 56 percent to 84 percent of all episodes. Dramas also rose from 58 percent to 69 percent.
People are hungry for the sensual.
Never before does the verse apply in
2 Tim 2:22
“Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and
peace, along with those who call on the Lord with a pure heart”
Young people you must make a commitment to sexual purity today…don’t say, when I am married I will make that commitment. I tell if you don’t make that commitment now while you are still single, you will find it even more difficult when you are married.
Older ones, commit yourself to not being swayed by the sensual. Why is this so difficult for us.
I believe that it is because the enemy brings in what is sensual to replace the intimate. He brings in sensuality because it is easy, and something we can
purchase. Intimacy is difficult and something we must work at.
Be warned the sensual will harden your heart.
2) The Sensational
Watching the space shuttle crash I heard the CNN Reporter say over and over again…”What a sensational crash, lets watch it again”
The Second thing that decreases our sensitivity to the Spirit is the sensational.
We love the sensational.
Fast and Fancy Cars, Gadgets of all Kinds, Fast Moving Programs, Situations with lots of lights and glamour.
We love to gaze at car wrecks because it is sensational to us.
We as Americans love to be wowed. That is why we go to demolition derbies…think of the logic behind that.
We lose our sensitivity to God when we fail to be awed by Him.
James 1:13-15
Ps 86:8-10
When we allow ourselves to be wowed by something other than God we lose our sensitivity to Him and our desires for Him.
3) Self Centeredness
When get our eyes focused on ourselves we lose our sensitivity to God
Eph 3:29 "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only
what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen "
We must focus on the needs of one another…bearing one anothers burdens.
When we keep our eyes focused on ourselves, we lose our sensitivity to God.
I would like to look at two other aspects of this before we close this morning.
I spoke earlier of a lack of sensitivity being a state of callousness.
Ps 73:7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity£; the evil conceits of their minds know no
limits.
Lets talk about calluses for a moment.
-Where do calluses come from?
1) Activity
-Too much activity..even good activity
2) Wrong Shoes or Clothes
Are we wearing the wrong shoes, trying to fit in?
Eph 4:17 says So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
Don’t try to wear the gentiles shoes
Conclusion
-Have we lost our sensitivity to the Spirit?
1) Sensuality
2) Sensational
3) Self Centerdness
4) Calloused
a. Too Much Activity
b. Wrong Shoes
