Sacred Sex

This last Sunday as part of the Sacred Marriage message series we talked about sex.  My hope is that we talked about it in an appropriate and biblical way.

I started the message by sharing how I was introduced to sex.  I was introduced to sex in shameful ways.  A boy brought an explicit magazine to school and I found myself curious, excited and confused all at the same time.  About that same year a family member had me look in a similar magazine.

All of this is just to say that many of us were introduced to sex in shameful ways.  No wonder we so easily pervert it. 

The sad part is that there is an entire industry hoping that we will be introduced to sex in this way and that we will give into to our natural desires for the rest of our lives so that the industry will continue to be profitable.  And profitable it is.  The porn industry is more profitable than Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, Ebay, Yahoo!, Netflix and Earthlink combined.  It's more than a 100 Billion dollar industry worldwide. 

What does this mean?  If you were introduced to sex in shameful ways, it was for someone else's profit.  If your children or grandchildren are introduced to sex in shameful ways, it will be to make someone else rich.  To me, that's sick.  It ticks me off.  I have two young daugthers.  I don't want them being introduced to sex in this way, nor do I want them buying into their idea of what sex is and isn't.

Before sex was perverted into a mult-billion dollar money making industry, it was a gift from God to be celebrated in the relationship of marriage.  Sex is supposed to be fun and enjoyable to keep a husband and wife connected and their marriage relationship strong.  Sex is just as much spiritual, emotional and relational as it is physical. 

If it was only physical it wouldn't do the kind of damage it does when it's practiced illicitly.

My point was that sex is a physical represenation of a spiritual reality.  Just as Baptism and Communion involve physical elements to convey spiritual truth, sex does the same thing in marriage.  Therefore, sex within marriage can be seen as a type of spirtiual discipline. 

As Gary Thomas says in his book Sacred Marriage "It might sound shocking, but it's true: God doesn't turn his eyes when a married couple goes to bed.  It only stands to reason that we shouldn't turn our eyes from God when we share intimate moments with our spouse."  In other words, when we think of sex biblically we are thinking of it as something physical, spiritual and emotional all at the same time. 

The money making sex industry wants to keep it just in the physical because that's where they make their most profit.  However, as most married couples know, sex is a whole lot better when it involves the physial, spiritual and emotional connection.