22 Oct When Sex Becomes a Religion and Why We Should Add Wearing a Belt as a Sacrament
Romans 1:21-25 – For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
After teaching the Bible nearly every week for half of my life, I have come to believe that the two most important things to learn before learning anything else is:
1) Who is God?
2) Who am I?
In the opening chapter of Romans, Paul says that when sinners suppress God’s truth, and choose our lies over it, we tend to come to completely wrong answers to both of these questions.
First, we tend to think that God is not worth honoring, thanking, or obeying because He is wrong and repressive. This can be done morally by disobeying the Bible, philosophically by arguing away whatever God says, or religiously by creating your own way to be spiritual without God’s consent.
Second, we tend to think that we are smart, right in our opinions, and should be free to do what we want with our mind and body as a highly evolved animal with rights.
The result of this rebellion is that we worship sex instead of God. The truth is that everyone worships. The question is not if you worship. The question is how you worship, and who you worship. Paul says with precise clarity that there are only two kinds of worshippers:
- Worship Creator and enjoy and steward creation. This includes accepting the sex, gender and lifestyle the Creator created you for.
- Worship creation instead of the Creator which is idolatry. This includes creating new ideologies, gender identities, and sexual activities as you become a re-creator fixing the errors that the Creator made when he created you.
The reason we worship sex as God rather than worshipping God through holy sex within heterosexual marriage is pretty simple. Everything God made He said was “good”. When God made the human body and its passions and pleasures, He called it “very good”. The human body is the most beautiful and enjoyable thing our Creator created.
When we lose sight of Him, we worship people with our body in the act of sex which then becomes our demonic worship. Later in Romans 12:1, he says, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Worship is not just the songs we sing, but the decisions we make about the sex we have. This explains why some people treat sex, gender, and sexuality like a religion with intense devotion, evangelizing of others to join in, and making it the source of their entire identity instead of God.
What created thing (parent, spouse, friend, child, hobby, job, beauty, ideology, cause, etc.) are you most likely to worship instead of the Creator?
To find the free Romans study guide for individuals and small groups, hear Pastor Mark’s entire sermon series on Romans, or find a free mountain of Bible teaching visit legacy.realfaith.com or download the Real Faith app.
