I should be asking questions like this:
What am I doing in my marriage
that acts as if...
As a result of treating my marriage
like it belongs to me
and not to my Lord,
what am I doing with my body
that acts like that body belongs to me
and not to my Lord?
- Yeah, you mentioned in there,
sexuality, with sexuality.
Our sexuality belongs to God.
Talk about that for a second.
- Well, of course,
the ultimate pleasure
that should motivate me in my sexuality
is the pleasure of God,
because this thing belongs to Him.
That somehow, someway,
the way I conduct myself in that area of life
would bring Him pleasure.
That's not impractical.
That's very practical.
Listen, if I'm a man
and I treat sex as for my pleasure,
I will reduce my wife to an object.
In fact, I'm going to use the word,
she will become,
sadly, a little more
than a means of me masturbating myself.
Because she's just an object for my pleasure.
If that's true,
it won't be long before I'm tempted to replace her
with digital pornography.
Because it's never been about loving her,
it's never been about loving God,
it's been about loving myself.
And frankly,
it's just easier to satisfy self-love
with something that doesn't require anything of me.
I think that addiction in the church,
is an indictment
of the way we're owning sexuality in our marriages.
Because we're making it about us.
It's about our pleasure.
We're comfortable with being demanding.
We're comfortable of using our wife for our pleasure,
whether it's pleasurable for her at all,
and rolling over and going to sleep
as if she doesn't matter.
And so, the Doctrine of Creation speaks into sexuality.
Of course, it does.
What about my money?
What is my dream for money?
When I dream of having more money,
what do I dream of doing with more money?
What occupies my money fantasies?
Why is it that I'm in a situation
where income always chases expenditures?
Why am I always in debt?
And how would the fact that
every bit of financial resources I have
belongs to the Lord
for His purpose and for His using?
A good example of that, Shelby,
is in Ephesians 4,
when Paul really begins to apply
the truth of the gospel to living.
He applies it to money.
And he says,
"Let him that stole steal no longer,
but work with his hands."
Now, I would expect
that what it would say next is,
"so he has the wherewithal to provide for himself."
That's not what it says.
It says, "So he is able to give to those in need."
Wow!
The purpose of my money,
the very first purpose of my money
is that I can be a part
of God's generosity mission on earth.
Because the whole story of scripture
is a generosity story.
Captured by nine words in John three,
"For God so loved the world that He gave..."
- Yeah, that's beautiful.
- So, it's not first for me where I say,
"Okay, the first goal of a Christian view of money
is provision for you and your family,
and then you give a tithe to the Lord."
That's not what the Bible teaches.
Because we all know,
we've all been in situations
where we haven't had money
and God's provided for us.
And unexpected,
God's a phenomenal provider,
He provides for His own.
The number one reason for my money
is so that I could somehow, some way
be a tool of the generosity
of the one who sits on the throne of the universe.
Now, if you track that in scripture,
the law said it was the first fruits of your harvest
that you offer to the Lord.
It's the same teaching as is there in Ephesians 4.
So, again, the Doctrine of Creation transformed
the way you think about money.
- Yeah, blessed, to be a blessing.
- You could just
again, track through everything in your life.
That two-pronged implication
of ownership and purpose
that is inextricably attached
to the Doctrine of Creation
begins to radically transform
the way you approach your living.