01-23-2022
01-23-2022
Dr. E. Dale Locke (Loxahatchee & Online), Rev. Trevor Johnston (WPB)
Sermon Series: How Life Works
Week 3: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
English PDF file for printing.
Para imprimir el archivo PDF en Español
1. Read our theme verse from this series, Matthew 7:24 - Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
2. Why is it important to have truth (not watering down God’s moral standards) but also grace, when it comes to this area of our sexuality?
3. Many people’s first experience of sex came in a way that was unhealthy or wrong, and so sex became associated with shame. How might that tend to impact a person in the future?
4. Read Matthew 5:27-37:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
5. What is surprising about Jesus’s definition of adultery? Why do you think he defines it this way?
6. Lust isn’t just looking at someone and noticing their beauty. Lust is taking a long second look for your own sensual pleasure. Why is this an important distinction? What’s wrong with lust?
7. Obviously, Jesus doesn’t really want us gouge out our eyes and cut off our hands. What is he trying to communicate when he says that?
8. Why do you think divorce was a big deal to Jesus?
9. Jesus says that when you make a promise, you should keep it. What does this have to do with our sexuality?
10. Talk about the five huge shifts that have taken place in our culture’s view of sexuality in the past 60 years and the dangers or potential for harm that each one has created.
(1) Sex has been disconnected from childbearing and family.
(Birth control was approved by the FDA in 1960 and legalized for single people in 1972, which changed the primary purpose of sexuality from procreation to pleasure.)
(2) Sex has been disconnected from marriage.
(3) Sex has been disconnected from male-female relationships.
(4) Sex has been disconnected from love, emotion and relational commitment of any kind.
(5) Sex has been disconnected from people.
11. Read Matthew 19:3–6 - Some Pharisees came to him to test [Jesus]. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” 4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female, ’5and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
What do you notice in this passage about the basis for Jesus’s teaching on sexuality?
12. Sex is good, but sex is also powerful, and sexual sin is different. Read what the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 - Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 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; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
What do you learn in this passage about what makes sexual sin different from other types of sin?
13. Whether a Christ-follower is married, single, gay, straight, or gender-confused – all of us are called to honor God with our bodies. How do we do that?
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Prayer Night: Thursday, February 3 at 7pm. In English at our Loxahatchee Campus. In Spanish at our WPB Campus. This will be an evening of prayer, pursuing more of God together and asking God to move in big ways in our church and community. It’s going to be powerful!
New Monthly Sunday Evening Service: Starting February 6, on the first Sunday of the month at 5pm, we’ll offer an outdoor service, weather permitting. Bring your own chair or blanket. Communion will be served. Kids are welcome, and there will be a special children’s moment in each service.
Night to Shine: Friday, February 11. Night to Shine is an unforgettable prom night experience for people with special needs, ages 14 and older to show them God’s love. This year, due to the pandemic, we will bring this experience to our guests’ homes. If you want to volunteer to put together goodie bags or delivering them to our special friends. Register to participate as a guest or a volunteer at https://communityofhope.church/nighttoshine
Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, is coming to the Community of Hope West Palm Beach Campus (2341 S Military Trail) on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 from 7-9pm! Space is limited! Purchase tickets online at https://moody.regfox.com/date-night-west-palm
Human Trafficking Conference: February 17, 6pm. View Place of Hope's film, "Invisible" and learn how to be part of the fight against this very real issue of human trafficking in our area. Learn more at https://communityofhope.church/cht
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