CHEW ON THIS: Love Is a Battlefield – Part 4

Genesis 2
18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the
man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right
for him.” 19 So the LORD God formed from the
ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the
sky. He brought them to the man to see what he
would call them, and the man chose a name for each
one. 20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the
birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still
there was no helper just right for him.
21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a
deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took
out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening.
22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib,
and he brought her to the man.
23 “At Last” the man exclaimed.
“This one is bone from my bone,
and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’
because she was taken from ‘man.’”
24 This explains why a man leaves his father and
mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are
united into one.
25 Now the man and his wife were both naked,
but they felt no shame.

SEX LIES
SEX: A THIRST to be QUENCHED
SEX: the NECESSARY EVIL
SEX: the ultimate SELF EXPRESSION
SEX: Marriage is a KILL-JOY

1 Corinthians 7
3 The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs,
and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs. 4 The
wife gives authority over her body to her husband,
and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife.
5 Do not deprive each other of sexual relations,
unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy
for a limited time so you can give yourselves more
completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come
together again so that Satan won’t be able to tempt
you because of your lack of self-control.

Before SIN there was SEX

God gives good sex

MAN ➞ WOMAN ➞ MARRIAGE ➞ LIFETIME

GOOD SEX is COVENANT SEX

COVENANT SEX is SAFE SEX

1 Corinthians 6
15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually
parts of Christ? Should a man take his body,
which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute?
Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins
himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body
with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united
into one.” 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord
is one spirit with him.
18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly
affects the body as this one does. For sexual
immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t
you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you
with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

Sex a PRIVATE ACT with PUBLIC IMPACT

There’s a difference between PRIVACY and SECRECY

Step 1: Confession & Repentance

Ezekiel 36
26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a
new spirit in you. I will take out your stony,
stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive
heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that
you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey
my regulations.

Be VERBALLY GENEROUS with your spouse

Song of Solomon 4
Solomon:
3 Your lips are like scarlet ribbon;
your mouth is inviting.
Your cheeks are like rosy pomegranates
behind your veil.
4 Your neck is as beautiful as the tower of David,
jeweled with the shields of a thousand heroes.
5 Your breasts are like two fawns, twin fawns of
a gazelle grazing among the lilies.
6 Before the dawn breezes blow
and the night shadows flee,
I will hurry to the mountain of myrrh
and to the hill of frankincense.
7 You are altogether beautiful, my darling,
beautiful in every way.
8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
come with me from Lebanon.
Come down from Mount Amana,
from the peaks of Senir and Hermon,
where the lions have their dens
and leopards live among the hills.

Sex begins OUTSIDE the bedroom

Be VISUALLY GENEROUS with your spouse

Song of Solomon 6
Young Woman:
13… Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
as upon a dance before two armies?

Song of Solomon 7
Solomon:
1 How beautiful are your sandaled feet,
O queenly maiden.
Your rounded thighs are like jewels,
the work of a skilled craftsman.

Be CREATIVE with your spouse

Song of Solomon 7
Young Woman:
10 I am my lover’s,
and he claims me as his own.
11 Come, my love, let us go out to the fields
and spend the night among the wildflowers.
12 Let us get up early and go to the vineyards to
see if the grapevines have budded, if the
blossoms have opened,
and if the pomegranates have bloomed.
There I will give you my love.
13 There the mandrakes give off their fragrance, and
the finest fruits are at our door, new delights as well
as old, which I have saved for you, my lover.
Proverbs 5
18 Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you.
Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 She is a loving deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts satisfy you always.
May you always be captivated by her love.
20 Why be captivated, my son, by an immoral
woman, or fondle the breasts of a promiscuous
woman?