For most people God is very separate from sex. He might have created it but well, if they  enjoy sex, they lock the door and they leave God on the other side. It's not just women are  challenged with this idea of integrating God into their sex life. husbands have a hard time  wrapping their mind around praying about sex. For a lot of men, sex has been vilified as this  worldly thing that they need to control and down against. And singles. They're given a bunch  of black and white white rules instead of encouraging, instead of us encouraging them to pray about their sex life and ask God about it. And thank God for the sexuality. But is it possible  that we could integrate God into our sex life? Who would not only help us embrace sex and  marriage or navigate singleness? But it will actually give us a clearer picture of who God is?  Do we believe that God is that passionate, that he wants us to have that much freedom? Do  we believe that he is that extravagant? That raw that he wants us to know that he wants to  know us that intimately? And so do we have the courage to connect with God to an act that  can feel so free? Scary, a scary sort of way. And so how do we integrate God into our sex life? That's a big part of class. Because most men and women that come to class honestly, God is  not part of their sex life. It's separate. It's not something that they pray about. It's not  something that they can imagine that God is there. And so we read, I'm gonna read you this  verse in Song of Songs. And this is from chapter five, verse one is after their wedding night.  And she says, this is her on her wedding night awake, Northwind come south wind blowing  my garden, fragrance, spread everywhere, let my beloved come into his garden and taste this choice fruit. And he says, I've come into my garden, my sister, my bride, I've gathered my  myrrh with my spice, I've eaten my honeycomb and my honey, I am drunk my wine and my  milk. And then there's this little fringe part that many people think is God's taking over. And  God says, Eat friends And drink, drink your fill of love. When we talk about this, a lot of the  men and women, they're just like, I can't imagine that God is over my bed. drink yourself. And  why is that? Right? How do we begin to believe that that God not only created sex, but that he blesses it, that honoring that it's holy that it is like communion? How do we begin to believe  that? How do we begin to integrate God into our sex life where we see it as a good thing that  only comes from God. So a lot of what we do in class helps us with integrating God into sex  life. So that's, you know, sorting through some of those lies that we believe the lies that come  from so much silence around sex in the church that makes us feel like sex is dirty. Or a lie that comes from watching, struggling with porn and makes us feel like oh, that's what I know the  porn is wrong. So all of this must be wrong. Or from the purity message of don't do those  things. And we're going to start to think of, well, I can't, I can't have too much freedom, I have  to be limited in what I can enjoy. This is not a God thing. This is not a good thing sex is, to be  controlled. And then even the fact that, like, the church can sometimes make sex into a bunch of black and white rules instead of about relationship. God is about relationship and we need  to hear handle our sexuality in the same way that we handle everything with God, we need to  handle it in relationship with him. Instead of just giving a bunch of black and white rules. We  need to pray about things and ask about things. And so, can we believe that sex can be holy  that it can be spiritual that it can even help us understand who God is? Right? That it is a  taste of the Garden of Eden, a place where we can have moments where we feel completely  naked and unashamed. And that sex can help us understand intimacy with God. What if we  started thanking God for our sexuality, and stewarding and caring for it just like, we care if we  have to steward and care for our arm or leg or our mind, or our heart, any of those things. We  have to we have to understand God's design about sex. And if you haven't watched that  video, I really encourage you to watch a mini course on God's design for sex and marriage,  because I think it helps us to understand that sex is not just about satisfying hormonal urges.  Sex is a powerful gift to unify us in marriage. But for singles, our sexuality stream that  constantly calling us into relationships, just like God is constantly calling us into relationship 

with him. So I want to just maybe share just a few practical ideas for how to integrate God into your sex life. One is prayer. Like we've prayabout everything else. We pray, if we're a broken  arm or going to a hospital, we pray about it. We even ask other people that pray about it.  When was the last time that we prayed over a sexual struggle? I'm having a hard time  relaxing enough to stop worrying about the laundry, or a heart or God help me experience,  God help me experience more freedom during sex. God help me to stop believing those lies  of sex is just for my husband. trying to help me to slow down and stop worrying about when  I'm relaxed enough, long enough during intercourse. So I can just be present with my wife  and connect with her. And so can we start praying about yourself but with ourselves? With our kids? Our kids are struggling with handling their sexuality. When was the last time we prayed  with them about handling their sex drive or their or whether they have a struggle of  masturbation or love or pornography? We have to invite God in to our sexuality through  prayer. What about even praising him after after amazing encounters with our spouse. God  thank you for thank you for this gift of connection that you've given us, just simple prayer. I  think integrating God into our sex life is about our attitudes. Right? I mean, you can go to a  worship service. And one person might have the experience of Well, yeah, that was good  worship this week, and another person might have the experience of Wow. Feel the Holy  Spirit? The present. And so it is about our attitude and our openness to encountering God.  Are you open to encountering God during sex? Are you open to the idea that the Holy Spirit  could be perfect during that? Are you open to the idea that God is blessing? Some people  have sex to worship music. That might be a way that somehow you integrate God into your  sex life. Some people have different Biblical verses over their marriage bed and they make  their marriage and this beautiful, special place where they encountered God where they pray  before bed every night where they read their Bible but also where they become one as  husband and wife. And so, kind of creating this. I don't know this special place because the  altar of this is this is where we worship God. And so I think that integrating God into our sex  life part of breaking open the conversation of sex, right? We think about breaking open a  conversation. We think about talking about how babies are made, but our kids are talking  about pornography or keeping our young people from having sex until they're married. But  how often do we talk about Okay? Is God part of your sexuality? Are you praying about sex?  Are we bringing up things? To encourage you? I think this is a stretch for a lot of people. But I  think probably one of the most important things they do is to integrate God into our sex lives.



Last modified: Wednesday, October 12, 2022, 11:14 AM