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Sermon by Kenny Foster, Senior Pastor, from Genesis 1:26-28 & 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
This week we begin a new series of messages on the gospel and human sexuality. When Jesus rises from the dead and appears to the disciples on the mountain, he declares that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, it wasn’t just about evangelism. Jesus’ authority is good news for the sexually broken too. Christ’s supreme authority over all things, including sexuality and gender, seems to be lost in our culture and also for many Christians. 37% of professing evangelicals believe that gender is a matter of choice. How does this mesh with the teaching of Holy Scripture?
Scripture teaches we are made in the image of God as male and female. This means we were made for God. So if we are made in the image of God, male and female, and our bodies are made for God, then gender is not something we decide, but it is a powerful gift from God. (Genesis 1:28) And if the body is a powerful gift from God we are at our happiest when we glorify God in our bodies. A self-focused and self-indulgent attitude toward gender and sexuality does not make a person happy or holy. It only leaves a person shamed, unfeeling and disconnected. The gospel is good news for the sexually broken since the power of Christ’s resurrection makes our bodies his members and makes us one spirit with him. (I Cor. 6:17) Seeing how Christ uses his power for us, empowers us to know the holiness and reverence that we should have for our bodies and our sexuality. This grace shows us that Christ, who is the image of God, took on flesh, and suffered shame in giving himself, so that we might have the honor of being remade into His image.