speaking of sex...

I've been pleasantly surprised by the reaction to my preaching on the topic of sex. I've finished 3 of the series of 8 sermons. I've gotten both verbal and email responses saying that people have appreciated my broaching the topic.

This is a hard topic to preach. It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's that there are so many ideas in my head from all my reading it can be hard to figure out how to present the info in a way that's interesting and helpful while being thoroughly biblical. Oddly, one of the hardest things to do is to use the Bible as more than a proof-text. We talked about this in the "Serving the Bread of Life" class (on preaching), that the temptation is to put one's own story into whatever text you're studying rather than letting the Bible speak for itself and help to order all the stuff that's in one's own head/life.

Sorry if I lost some of you with that last sentence. My point is: pray for me because I want this to be a series that is both biblical and relevant. I don't want to wag fingers or give legalistic advice. I want the proclamation of the Word to be a way for God to work in all of our lives, i.e., top be a means of grace. So thanks for your prayers and encouragement. Now back to studying for this Sunday...