Three years ago, I bought my wife a Christmas present: an unlimited car wash membership. We had just bought one of the few new vehicles that we had ever purchased, and she had always wanted an efficient way to keep a brand-new vehicle as new as possible for as long as possible. With this unlimited membership, not only she could go through the exterior wash as often as she wanted, but she could then have the interior vacuumed as often as she wanted—and the location of the car wash was extremely convenient. We didn’t have to go out of our way to get there. We used that car wash all the time and loved it.
I personally had never cared much for car washes, because it just seemed like as soon as you got a car clean, no sooner would you drive it out of the car wash than it would already be dirty again. In the old days, it just seemed like a pointless exercise and a waste of money…that is, until we had this wonderful access to a car wash in our own neighborhood. I have to tell you, having the inside cleaned out well began to make even more sense to me than washing the outside.
This coming Sunday, February 6, I’ll be focusing on a tough and pointed passage. It is essentially about a full life clean-up—both outside and inside. Here it is:
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 (NIV) Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Are we going to talk about unholy sex on Sunday morning? YES. So here we go…
The subject of and images of sex are in the forefront of all our lives, non-stop. Every one of us is bombarded with talk, images, and participation, so much that we don’t even notice it anymore. We have all (myself included) become immune and dulled to the topic because it is constantly everywhere. But sexual immorality—sexual impurity, sexual unholiness—is almost never talked about, dealt with, or looked at carefully from God’s Word in God’s Church, the Ekklesia. Why? I believe it is because it’s so hard to talk about. We don’t how to deal with it and, frankly, most of us have just given up and become accustomed to it in our world. The problem with this avoidance is that we, as the Body of Christ, are OK with washing the outside—we are content with making the outside look good; but we just don’t really know how to, or don’t want to, clean the inside, also.
Let’s be clear. Sexual immorality is one of the “unholy behaviors” that can erode the Body of Christ. It is NOT the only one, for sure. But it is listed more and talked about more in scripture than just about any other unholy behavior. Sex was created by God and is absolutely part of God’s design for our lives. But when left in the hands of mankind who choose to pollute it, sex is also one of the most destructive, erosive and corrosive unholy behaviors in the Ekklesia.
As you prepare for Sunday morning, I am asking you to do these things:
- I ask for your prayers for me as I teach this challenging passage and subject.
- I ask for you to pray for yourself, that God would speak to you and that you would open your heart to his Word.
- I also plead with you to come prepared by reading ahead:
- 1 Corinthians 5 (the whole chapter)
- 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
- Acts 15:22-29
We are going to wade bravely into the deep water of this subject and ask God to guide us to live as holy, set-apart people in this unholy world.
A Special Note to parents and grandparents
I will keep this message PG. I will not talk about anything that is not already out in the public or that they haven’t already heard about in their schools. This will be a great opportunity for you to open up conversations with the children in your home. They need your guidance badly in this area.
I will see you Sunday morning at 10 a.m.
