{"id":3994,"date":"2024-07-04T20:49:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T01:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/?p=3994"},"modified":"2024-10-31T11:03:54","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T16:03:54","slug":"sex-and-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/?p=3994","title":{"rendered":"Sex and Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Happy July 4th! I recently stood with an eighty-something friend on his wooden deck sticking out in space from his home atop a mountain perched on a cliff. After standing in silence for a good while peering over mountains, lakes, valleys, and forests beneath an azure sky punctuated with white clouds, he pipped up and said, \u201cI liked your book [Puzzling 2020<\/a><\/em>], except for one thing \u2014 that three-letter word you used so often.\u201d I smiled at him quizzically and said, \u201cWhat word, John?\u201d \u201cS-E-X,\u201d he spelled out for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smiling, I shook my head and told him the book was written for a multi-generational audience. And I couldn’t be sure that the younger generation even knows what the Bible says about sex. This book was a 70-chapter devotional that describes the Christian or Biblical worldview and hopefully makes it as compelling as it is.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I wrote a few chapters on the subject based on history, philosophy, psychology, and the Bible, hopefully expounding the truth and what God reveals to us about the gift of sex\u2014its best, most enjoyable, and highest uses. My overall summary was: \u201cSex is a beautiful servant but a terrible master.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introducing Thessalonica<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece (one million people), was founded in 315 BC by the Greek general Cassander, who named it after his wife, Thessalonike, sister of Alexander the Great. By Roman times, it had become one of the most important cities in the empire following Greece. It was one of the first churches established by the Apostle Paul in Europe, and it was the first epistle Paul wrote to any church (50 AD). These Christ followers were important to him relationally and personally, as is clear by what he says and how he says it. It\u2019s also clear that sexual misconduct was common and prevalent in the Roman Empire approximately halfway through its thousand-year existence. It was one of the first things Paul addressed, urging them to lead self-controlled lives as God teaches for their good and His glory. In other words, Rome looked a lot like the West and the USA today.<\/p>\n\n\n

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This makes their story poignant and relative to ours. Last week, before July 4th, I heard the first sermon on sex<\/a> I\u2019ve ever heard preached in more than fifty years attending chruch as an adult.\u00a0 Our young PhD pastor, Ben Wilson, delivered it right out of I Thessalonians and from the Spirit of God, who gave Paul the message in the first place. It\u2019s well worth viewing.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll give you a summary of Ben\u2019s message, but the facts and details are important to know and internalize, so don\u2019t stop short of hearing him out. God made sex for our enjoyment, and He prescribed how to enjoy it most fully \u2014 one man and one woman in marriage. Anything else actually dilutes and divides the pleasure and satisfaction possible. And, one experiences bondage instead of freedom. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Tozer says idolatry is: \u201cHaving thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.\u201d If you think your ideas about sex are better than God\u2019s, then I would suggest you don\u2019t know God as well as you ought. He\u2019s good and wise and gives good gifts to His children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About idols, the Bible tells us: \u201cThey have ears, but can\u2019t hear, eyes but can\u2019t see, legs but can\u2019t walk, hands but can\u2019t feel \u2014 those who worship them become like them.\u201d Don\u2019t let this happen to you! Know and choose God\u2019s ways concerning sex. Self-control isn\u2019t a deterrent to freedom but an avenue to freedom. Godspeed as you journey and live free!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cBut the fruit of the Spirit is <\/strong>love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control<\/strong>. Against such things there is no law [emphasis added]\u201d (Galatians 5:22-23 NIV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For the Spirit God gave us<\/strong> does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline<\/strong> [emphasis added]” (2 Timothy 1:7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom <\/strong>[emphasis added]\u201d (2 Corinthians 3:17).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Happy July 4th! I recently stood with an eighty-something friend on his wooden deck sticking out in space from his home atop a mountain perched on a cliff. After standing in silence for a good while peering over mountains, lakes, valleys, and forests beneath an azure sky punctuated with white clouds, he pipped up and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10,9,12,11],"tags":[32,98,235,237,236,234],"class_list":["post-3994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friendoftheking","category-be-a-leader","category-be-a-man","category-bread-for-the-spirit","category-understanding-our-times","tag-christian-life","tag-grace","tag-health","tag-idols","tag-mental-health","tag-sex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3994"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4098,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3994\/revisions\/4098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}