God is not against sex

Pastor Pat Duffin

Sex! We live in a sex-saturated culture. Like goldfish in a bowl of polluted water, there is no escaping it. It is in the very atmosphere we breathe. Whether on the magazine stands, up on billboards, or riding the electromagnetic currents of the media, sex saturates our culture. Every two years, the Kaiser Family Institute conducts surveys of sexual content on TV programming. Their results show that the number of TV programs with sexual content rose from 56 per cent in 1997/98 season to 68 per cent in the 1999/2000 season and the trend has continued upwards with 70 per cent of all shows now having sexual content. Seventy per cent! The proportion of shows with sexual content in prime time on the major broadcast networks has also increased. Nearly eight in 10 such shows (77 per cent) include sexual content, compared to 67 per cent in 1998 and 71 per cent in 2002. What do these facts say about the culture we live in? And, how are we affected by it all? Sex is certainly popular, but is it good? According to the American Social Health Association, half of the population will contract a sexually transmitted disease in their lifetime. That’s one out of every two people, folks! Sex is certainly popular, but there’s definitely something gone wrong. Sex was originally God’s idea. It was not the ‘original sin’ committed by Adam and Eve as some have believed. How could that be? Sex was an institution ordained and blessed by God. “...male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number’. . .(Genesis 1:27,28) So God certainly wasn’t against sex. If fact, He encouraged it. If sex was ordained and blessed of God, it cannot be sin. But, it can become sin. How can something ordained and blessed by God become sin? Simple. Misuse and abuse the gift. Sin is nothing more than attempting to meet legitimate human needs in wrongful ways, outside God’s boundaries of love. Instead of being the means to an end, as God intended, sexual pleasure has become the sole end itself. Rather than an expression of love, sex has become an expression of selfish interest. Personal pleasure takes precedence over everything else. If we really got honest we would have to admit that many times what is being called ‘love’ is really lust. Lust wants - love gives. Lust gets - love gives. Lust takes - love gives. As I stated, sin is nothing more than attempting to meet legitimate needs in wrongful ways. We are born separated from God because of the rebellion of our ancestors, Adam and Eve. We have inherited their fallen estate. This leaves a huge vacuum in our lives. Since God is love (1John 4:7-21) we are, therefore, all born with a “love deficit.” That vacuum wants to be filled with something, so we spend the rest of our lives trying to have that need filled. Not knowing where to turn, we look for any place that might offer a little comfort. But we tend to look in the wrong places. The entertainment and marketing industries are great students of human nature. They know exactly where we look, and they know exactly where to bait and set the hook. The catch phrase “Sex, drugs, and rock and roll” pretty much says it all. We look there and a lot of other places. Sports, popularity, material possessions, over-eating, the list is virtually endless. The only problem is we cannot narcotize that love deficit with “stuff.” We try, but it doesn’t work. However, when God is allowed to fill that need, life becomes much different for us. The emptiness goes away. The striving ceases. There is a peace and contentment - a satisfied fullness. Jesus said, “I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for-will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” May I gently and lovingly ask you a very important question? Have you been looking in the wrong places to fill that love void in your life? Promiscuity is rooted in a desperate search for love and acceptance. Sexual intimacy, in all its forms, outside of God’s boundaries will only provide temporary relief from the deeper hunger within. Pornography, drugs and alcohol merely dull the pain for a short while, but then it comes back stronger than ever before. Whatever form of illicit pleasure we might choose, it still reminds me of the bartender’s slogan, “What’s your poison?”