sex or money?

As I've been preparing the first of my series of sermons on sex ("Exposed"), the thought occurred to me: do American Christians need more sermons about sex or about money? I preached 3 sermons on money (the sermon series "Priceless") and the series on sex will be 8 sermons. Which topic should get more coverage?

When I tell people I'm going to preach on sex, I usually get a "good for you!" response. It seems that people think there's a need for sermons that tackle the topic head on. I agree. But why don't I get the same response when I say that I'm going to preach a series on money?

My hunch is that we THINK we know how to handle money. Especially if we're Asian American, we probably think we're extra good at handling money (at least according to the mainstream American stereotypes, but don't get me started on the myth of the "model minority").

But if God were to monitor our spending habits and our attitudes toward money (especially the latter), I think we'd fall pretty far short. The difference between our self-perceptions about money and sex is that we think we've got money figured out but we're conflicted about sex. Our parents told us one thing about sex (if not in words, at least by their arched brows) and American society (via television and movies) is telling us something different. About money, they both seem to agree that having a lot of money is good and makes you significant and how you get it isn't all that important.

So the next time I preach on money and sex, I may need to do 3 sermons on sex and 8 on money.