Category: The 7th Loving Word – Value Sex

Day Five: God’s Purpose for Sex & Marriage

Ephesians 5:21-32 NIV

²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. ²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior… ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless… ³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” ³² This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

Embedded within this passage is Genesis 2:24 in verse 31, and in doing so, Paul is pointing to how Christian marriages represent Jesus and the church, and how God’s beautiful purpose for sex ultimately represent the covenant relationship between Christ and his church. Let’s pray for the married couples of our churches to be Christ-exalting and Christ-seeking, rather than self-exalting and self-seeking.

Prayer: Lord, we lift up the marriages in our churches to you. How wonderful it is that you have ordained our marriages to be places that can reflect your covenantal love. We pray that our marriages will glorify you and that others will see your love reflected through us. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s worship the Lord to Psalm 23 (Surely Goodness, Surely Mercy) by Shane & Shane (click here).

-DW

As we read aloud the words of Jesus, let’s thank him for inviting us into this intimate loving relationship with him:

John 15:5, 9-11 NIV
⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” 

As a response to his love for us, let’s declare aloud and pray the following verses:

Psalm 27:4 NIV
One thing I ask from the LORD,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for inviting us to know you so intimately and to experience the joy of being in relationship with you. There is no other intimacy that can compare with the one with you. Give us an undivided passion for you today as our hearts are satisfied in you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s worship the Lord by singing “Ancient Gate” by Brooke Ligertwood (click here).

-DW

Deuteronomy 5:18 NIV
“You shall not commit adultery.”

Matthew 5:27-28 NIV
²⁷ “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. 

“Jesus reveals deeper wisdom within the adultery command when he says that its root isn’t in the bedroom—it’s in the heart (Matt. 5:27-28, 15:19). Treat someone as a fantasy, a body, a quick fix for desire? That lust crosses the adultery line, Jesus says, because unfaithfulness begins well before anything physical happens.” (The Bible Project, bibleproject.com/guides/the-10-commandments)

“Sex is a heart issue before God first and foremost, long before it becomes a physical act (with or without another person) or an adultery issue with a person one is not married to. Therefore, any understanding, fantasy, or practice of things sexual in nature that are outside God’s intended purpose within marriage is sin.” (From P. Tim’s message)

Prayer: Lord, teach me your ways. Forgive me for the wrong ways that I have viewed others and help me see others the way you see them – that they are people to love, and not objects to use. Would you purify my heart today? In Jesus’ name, amen.

As we sing, “Lord, I Give You My Heart” by Shane & Shane, let’s pray that our hearts would be wholly and completely belong to him (click here).

-DW

Romans 12:1-2 NIV
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

“…in sex you are always worshiping something. Your sexual life is shaped by the worship of God, the worship of self, the worship of the other person, or the worship of what you get out of sex. What this means is that in sex you and I are always surrendering our hearts to something. The things we say, do, and seek in sex are all ruled by the desire for something. In this most intimate of human activities, you are always revealing who God designed you to be—a worshiper.” (Paul David Tripp, Sex and Money)

We were created by God to worship him alone. As Romans 12:1-2 exhorts us, our entire life, including the area of sex, is meant to be an act of worship. Whether we are single or married, let’s ask the Lord to help us view sex properly in light of how he has called us to be worshippers.

Prayer: Lord, we confess that we don’t properly view our lives, including sex, as an act of worship. But today by your grace and through your Holy Spirit, we say “yes” to offering all of who we are unto you. We choose to worship you alone Lord! In Jesus’ name, amen.

As we sing “Yours” by Elevation Worship, let’s proclaim just how worthy God is of all of our lives (click here).

-DW

As we read aloud and pray the following passages, may we be filled with overflowing thanksgiving:

Ephesians 1:3-6 NIV
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. ⁴ Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. ⁵ God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. ⁶ So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.

Psalm 27:4 NIV
One thing I ask from the LORD,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for how you love us. Because we are so deeply loved by you and known by you, our heart’s desire is to dwell in your presence. There is nowhere else we would rather be than here with you Lord! In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s worship the Lord in adoration as we sing “The Praise is Yours” by Matt Redman (click here).

 -DW