Do you know that feeling you get
when something breaks? The more important it is to you, the worse it feels. You
experience the “if onlys” of wishing you had been more careful or that you had
done something differently so as to avoid the “accident”. Cracks, rips, dents,
or whatever breaks in some way leave us disappointed and, sometimes even
depressed.
In my sermon Sunday I ended up
speaking for a few minutes on the brokenness of our sexuality. I’ve thought
about this a lot, especially since various issues around homosexuality have
come so much to the forefront in our culture. It is “easy” for the Church to
become overly focused on the moral and biblical aspects of homosexuality – to
the exclusion of a great many other matters regarding human sexuality. As a
church we do not endorse the idea of any sexual expression or activity outside
of marriage because marriage is the only setting that the Bible affirms sex as
pleasing to God. It is His creation and design. But it can be so easy for us
(for Christians) to zero in on one thing while placing a low emphasis on
others. This is why I said on Sunday – and think that we should always remember
– that every human being is broken sexually. It is an inevitable consequence of
the Fall in our world.
Sexual brokenness takes so many
forms. It includes the abused and their abusers. It encompasses those who are
tempted with just a look in just a moment at someone immodestly dressed, as
well as those who are not married engaging in sexual activity (from teenagers
to seniors). Even husbands and wives can experience sexual brokenness in their
marriage when they differ about the place or role of sex in their relationship.
So many people use or withhold sex in a manipulative, controlling way. Our
culture and its media and entertainment are incredibly over-saturated with
sexual themes, images, and encouragements to “do whatever you want to do” with
no restraint. The problems of prostitution and sexual slavery around the world
are growing so that law enforcement can’t adequately deal with them.
Pornography is one of, if not the largest moneymakers on the internet. Sexual
brokenness includes the thought life as well as actual activity. And, because
we were born in sin, we all have experienced some form of this brokenness. And
the Bible includes homosexuality in this brokenness as well. But it is not a
special category in the sense that it is outside the reach of God’s grace any
more than any form of sexual brokenness is. Why? Because God is the healer of
sexual brokenness in whatever form it takes, just as He is with sin of all
kinds that “break” people.
God’s grace reaches all people whom
He saves who are broken by sin. Not all are saved, but I will certainly not be
the first in line to tell God whom He can and cannot save. Jesus came to die for
people who are broken by sin, and I will not establish any category of person
whom God’s power and love cannot touch and redeem.
I raise this subject because Jesus
came to seek and to save what was lost. Therefore, that’s what
I want to do. He has invited us to partner with Him in carrying out His mission.
Often I think how much easier it was for Jesus to do this than it is for me. My
knowledge of people is limited. My love for people is less than His. My desire
to be with people who are broken is not even close to His. Yet His mission was
to call the sick, not the healthy. Oh how desperately we need the Spirit’s help
to see people with Christ’s eyes and to love them as He does. It’s not easy for
broken people, like us, to be like Christ. But we are now so much more than
“broken” people. Christ has saved us, forgiven us, given us His Spirit, taken
up residence in our lives, given us authority against the enemy and his
servants, and given us victory over sin. Our brokenness no longer defines us.
Christ has given us a new heart and a renewed mind. We live on the side of the
cross that changes lives. So we have much to offer those who are broken. Let us
do so with grace, forbearance, gentleness, humility, and love.
Luke 5:30-32 (NIV) 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to
their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax
collectors and 'sinners'?" 31 Jesus answered them,
"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I
have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Luke 19:9-10 (NIV) 9 Jesus
said to him, "Today salvation has come to this
house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was
lost."
Ezekiel 36:25-27
(NIV) 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be
clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will
remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And
I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to
keep my laws.
PRAYER: Father, thank you that Your Son does not just “put
me back together again” from my brokenness. He has given me a new heart and a
new spirit through the cross. I live in that newness of life. What Jesus has
made me and what He has done for me is what defines who I am. By your Spirit do
a continuing work of straining the ideas and ways of my old life out of me.
Thank you for who I am in Christ. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.”
Jesus
Christ is Lord!
Scott
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