Are We Part of the Problem?
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 138
Today I’m going to challenge your thinking, theology, culture, Americanism, humanism, materialism…and any other isms you might have. I’m going to make some strong statements that are not dogma, but suggestions for you to consider, process, and examine the Scriptures to see if they are really so.
Last week, we discussed the purpose of the sexual revolution of transgender/transidentity, looking at Romans 1. The goal of this movement is to outlaw God, outlaw conviction, and force us to give hearty approval (verse 32).
By God’s divine design, He made male and female very distinct, for a unique purpose, and to be together in marriage as one man and one woman for their whole life. Man has worked tirelessly to mess that up.
Why is homosexuality, or lesbianism, or any other kind of sexual perversion a sin? Many Christians would respond that it is just wrong. The first chapter of Romans gives it to us in a nutshell.
Romans 1:26
For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural…
Natural for unnatural—it changed the use of sex, its purpose, what their body was made for.
Romans 1:27
…and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
Again, an abandonment of the natural functions.
God has prescribed sexual intimacy (actually, any sexual activity) only for marriage. Any kind of sexual stimulus outside of marriage is sin.
Sex is not just for gratification. The fruit of sexual intimacy is that there is gratification. That alluring factor was placed there by God that a man and a woman would be drawn together (and work out their differences).
What is one of the natural functions of sexual intercourse between a man and a woman? The potential for procreation.
Psalm 127:3
Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.
Are children a blessing, or are just some children a blessing? If all children are a blessing (and they are), are there any other blessings that we work overtime to limit?
Think about those who aren’t walking with God currently, who reject God’s blessings in certain areas of their life by not being obedient. Do you think that grieves God? Do you think in the futility in their mind, as they try to reason this out, that they are missing a great opportunity to be used by God and to experience God in a new dimension?
Take something like tithing. Those of us who are tithers see the blessing that comes from sowing. What you sow, you reap.
What happens when you try to sow something and cut off the reaping of it? Why has child prevention, what we call contraception today, become so acceptable and in most cases, not even thought through?
I don’t ask this to convince you of my position. I ask to challenge our thinking on why the issue of children being a blessing is not even thought about. Most Christian couples using contraceptives haven’t even considered what God says or what His mandate is upon us (to replenish the earth and fill it). The decision is strictly based on our lifestyles, our needs, and our wants.
There is really only one example in the Bible on contraception. In Genesis 38, Onan spilled his seed so he would not go into his deceased brother’s wife who he was supposed to take as a wife. He did that because he did not want to have a child who would be part of his inheritance. (By the way, God struck him dead.)
There was a financial concern with Onan. When I have talked with Christian couples on why they are not having children, often it is based on finances. The concerning question is, are we putting a price tag on a child’s life? Are we denying the Father the pleasure of having children?
When we insert something into our bodies, put something on our bodies, or even use surgical means so that what we sow, we do not reap, are we no--in fact--changing the natural use of our body?
Does that mean we should be having children all the time? No, not at all. The Bible says very clearly that whatsoever is not of faith is sin. If you do not have the faith to have children or have more children, then what you need to practice is not having intimacy during fertile times (which is totally possible to do).
Most Christians are not being this intentional or objective in their thinking when they sow and not reap. Nonetheless, I believe we have been beaten into cultural submission. The original name of Planned Parenthood was called the Birth Control League. Margret Sanger, the queen of child killing, believed whole-heartedly that birth control was the avenue to child killing or what we now call abortion. It would open the door to people thinking of children as totally expendable.
Have we misrepresented sexual intimacy? Have we presented sex as just legal ecstasy that is designed for marriage? Have we taken out the concept that one of the benefits and blessings of marital intimacy is the joy of bearing children, raising children, and embracing children as a gift from the Lord?
Is there compromise in the camp by not really saying, “Jesus is Lord over my body?”
We fully expect someone not under the lordship of Jesus who is carrying an unborn child in their womb, who may have conceived that child in less than ideal circumstances, to embrace that child and understand that God loves the mother and the child. Why isn’t that good for those in the church? Even when a child is conceived that we didn’t expect and was an unplanned surprise? Why would we expect someone who is not saved to hold a higher standard than the believer is willing to hold to?
I’m trying to stretch your thinking today with the Scriptures.
Are we trying to outsmart God by violating the key principle of sowing and reaping? Are we trying to sow and yet not reap? Are we doing things that are unnatural to avoid the natural, in this case, positive consequence of sexual intimacy in marriage, which could potentially be pregnancy?
I’m not suggesting that all sexual intimacy in marriage should be designed to procreate. I don’t believe that, and I don’t think the Scripture teaches that. I think there are some things in Scripture that teach against that. There are times when men and women come together to purely enjoy one another.
There are some natural laws in Scripture that we need to reinvestigate and challenge ourselves with.
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
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