The Normal Christian Life: A Journey Through Romans
Sunday, February 12, 2006
My Prayer Today
Heavenly Father, Thank You for another week of life in which to life and move and have my being in You! I pray for an outpouring of Your Holy Spirit in my life and in the life of every believer who trusts in Your Son, Jesus, as Savior and Lord. I pray especially for my brothers and sisters of New Life Christian Ministries. Please give us joy and boldness in serving you! As we turn to the difficult topic of sexual sins in our studies this week, I pray, O God, that You will give us an extra measure of Your grace to live in purity and holiness. I pray that those who are struggling with sexual sins may be given power to be victorious and restore You to Your rightful throne in their lives. I pray that in any area of my life where I am not living in accordance with Your will and standards that You will cleanse me and restore me. Thank You in advance for the wonderful work You will do in and through us through this week of study. I pray that You will be glorified in our thoughts, words and actions in everything we attempt in the coming week. This I pray in the strong name of Jesus, our risen Lord! Amen.
God’s Word Today—Romans 1:24-27
24So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshiped the things God made but not the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever. Amen.
26That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27And the men, instead of having normal sexual relationships with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men and, as a result, suffered within themselves the penalty they so richly deserved.
Reflecting on God’s Word
Look at Romans 1:24-27 as a whole. As you reflect on it, why do you suppose that Paul thought it necessary to be so specific in addressing sexual sins, which came about as a result of the people worshiping idols?
A Deeper Exploration of God’s Word
Look at Romans 1:24-27 as a whole. What specific matters does the Apostle Paul address? How do they relate with one another?
Understanding God’s Purpose for Us
In looking at Romans 1:24-27 as a whole, what do we find out about God’s ultimate purpose for our lives, and about how he expects us to live out that purpose in our everyday lives?
Applying God’s Word to Our Purpose
Look at Romans 1:24-27 as a whole. What ONE specific area does this Scripture address, with which you face a struggle in living in the name of Jesus 24/7? Take some time right now to ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and to empower you to overcome the temptations you face.
Thoughts - Sexual Sins
As the Apostle Paul continues in Romans 1, we find that he continues to address the results and consequences that take place in our lives when we reject God, and don’t let Him have first place in them. Notice that the first thing Paul tells us is that God “let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired.” When we decide that God is NOT going to be first in our lives, God will not only permit us to make that decision, but He will let us go and let us do whatever our hearts desire. Whatever we want in life, God will give it to us. The result of that freedom is intended to be that we freely choose to love and serve God, but all too often the result is a sense of whatever feels good, that’s our choice. Paul emphasizes in this week’s Scripture that one of the results of God letting us do whatever shameful things our hearts desire is “sexual sins.” We’ll see next week that Paul offers a whole “laundry list” of sins in which we humans engage when we decide to take the slippery slope of sin that leads to death. For this week though, Paul emphasizes that when we turn away from God we’ll do all kinds of degrading things with our bodies, and ultimately we’ll turn away from the “natural” order of things to participate in unnatural practices. We’ll be addressing each of these areas of sexual sin through our studies this week, but today we need to emphasize that when we turn away from God and His ways for our lives, the ultimate result is death and destruction. While sexual “freedom” is the rallying cry of our culture in the early 21st century, God makes it clear that the good gift of sexuality, which He created, is to be reserved in its practice for a monogamous, marital relationship between a man and a woman. God gives us freedom within the confines of this institution, which He established in the order of creation (see Genesis 1 & 2), to practice sexuality as He created to be---a blessing, which ensures the continuation of the human race! Apart from that, sexuality degenerates into degrading practices that destroy us slowly or quickly, and ends in spiritual as well as physical destruction. May this week’s studies remind us that while positive examples are always more pleasant, we can and MUST learn from negative examples as well. How much better for us to read Paul’s instructions and avoid practicing that which God forbids, than to ignore God’s instructions and living in sexual chaos leading to destruction. My prayer is that we will learn God’s will and ways and live them (or keep on living them) as a result of our study!
This Week’s Memory Verse:
They traded the truth about God for a lie. Romans 1:25a