“The Recreation Room and the Bedroom”

“My Heart Christ’s Home” Series

John 10:1-18

June 5, 2005

First Presbyterian Church Carson City

Pastor Bruce Kochsmeier

Purpose: For people to discover what real re-creation is and what the meaning of our sexuality in God’s design. For people to make room for God to be re-creating them.

I have chosen John 10:1-18 to speak to both the recreation room and the bedroom because in it Jesus’ tells us that he came to give us life and life abundantly. Jesus wants us to experience recreation and our sexuality in the best way; in the way that makes us complete. Then why is it that we seem to WORK at our play? And why is it that sexual expression is portrayed in culture as so empty? The answer is that if Jesus Christ is not at the center of our experience we will we frustrated in our attempts at recreation (re-creation) and in our sexuality. Until Jesus is allowed to shepherd us in these two areas of fulfillment nothing will be quite right. It will FEEL close, but that’s all. It will ultimately be more frustrating than satisfying.

Our cultural model for recreation is if it isn’t fun, spend more money. In a similar way our sexual model says, “If it isn’t satisfying try something different”. In either case the understanding is that more is the answer.

An anonymous Christian relates how challenging it is in our world to make our heart Christ’s home in terms of the loving boundaries God sets for us in our sexuality. He writes…

I held a notice from my 13-year-old daughter's school announcing a meeting to preview the new course in sexuality. Parents could examine the curriculum and take part in a lesson presented exactly as it would be given to the students.

When I arrived at the school, I was surprised to discover only about a dozen parents present. As we waited for the presentation, I thumbed through page after page of instructions on the prevention of pregnancy or disease. I found abstinence mentioned only in passing.

When the teacher arrived with the school nurse, she asked if there were any questions. I asked why abstinence did not play a noticeable part in the material. I was shocked by what happened next. There was a great deal of laughter, and someone suggested that if I thought abstinence had any merit, I should go back to burying my head in the sand. The teacher and the nurse said nothing as I drowned in a sea of embarrassment. My mind went blank, and I could think of nothing to say. The teacher explained that the job of the school was to "teach facts," and the home was responsible for moral training.

I sat in silence for the next 20 minutes as the course was explained. The other parents seemed to give their unqualified support to the materials. "Donuts at the back," announced the teacher during the break. "I'd like you to put on the name tags we have prepared and mingle with the other parents." Everyone moved to the back of the room. As I watched them affix their nametags and shake hands, I sat deep in thought. I was ashamed I had not been able to convince them to include a serious discussion of abstinence in the materials. I uttered a silent prayer for guidance.

My thoughts were interrupted by the nurse's hand on my shoulder. "Won't you join the others?" The nurse smiled sweetly at me. "The donuts are good."

"Thank you, no." I replied.

"Well, then, how about a name tag? I'm sure the others would like to meet you."

"Somehow I doubt that," I replied.

"Won't you please join them?" she coaxed. Then I heard a still, small voice whisper, Don't go. The instruction was unmistakable: Don't go!

"I'll just wait here," I said.

When the class was called back to order, the teacher looked around the long table and thanked everyone for putting on nametags. She ignored me. Then she said, "Now we're going to give you the same lesson we'll be giving your children. Everyone please peel off your name tags." I watched in silence as the tags came off. "Now, then, on the back of one of the tags, I drew a tiny flower. Who has it?"

The gentleman across from me held it up. "All right," she said. "The flower represents disease." Then she asked the man, "Do you recall with whom you shook hands?" He pointed to a couple of people. "Very good," she replied. "The handshake in this case represents intimacy. The two people you had contact with now have the disease."

There was laughter and joking among the parents. The teacher continued, "And whom did the two of you shake hands with?" The point was well taken, and she explained how this lesson would show students how quickly disease spreads. "Since we all shook hands, we all have the disease."

It was then that I heard the still, small voice again. Speak now, but be humble. I rose from my chair. I apologized for any upset I might have caused earlier, congratulated the teacher on an excellent lesson that would impress the youth, and concluded by saying I had only one small point I wished to make. "Not all of us were infected," I said. "One of us…abstained."

Citation: Source unknown; submitted by Eric Reed, associate editor, Leadership Journal

And Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” It is the irony of sin that seeks to rob us by telling us that the more we get of the goods this world has to offer of this life the better life will be. Jesus tells us the more we get of him the greater will be our abundance.

To say NO to any sexual activity the Bible clearly tells us in harmful is not unnatural or damaging. It is liberating. This is true for everyone single, married, teenagers or AARP members, straight or not. To know how to live out our sexuality most meaningfully is to accept with peace and content and joy the model of the ONE who made us sexual creatures in the first place. Unlike the message of the world celibacy for the single person is the most meaningful expression of our sexuality because it ties us to Christ and not the world. Monogamy for men and women in a Christian marriage relationship is the most abundant expression that can be known. In either case it reflects our solitary commitment to God and God to us in Jesus Christ.

God knows our needs. In the scriptures God makes himself clearly known to us. That’s why it is so important that we be in the word daily. This is where we live into the relationship God offers us. Here is Jesus’ example. Shepherds gave the sheep names in the Middle East. God gives us a name because he knows us and knows what we need and that we are his.

But what if we don’t want to be shepherded? “Ah” said Shakespeare, “There’s the rub”. In “My Heart Christ’s Home” the person in whose house Jesus is living heads out the door and Jesus says, “I’ll go with you” and the person says, “I don’t think you better. We can go to church tomorrow.” And Jesus says, “I thought when you invited me to live here that we would do EVERYTHING together.” But not that night. And the person returns broken because he realized that the best recreation without Jesus is not re-creation. It doesn’t re-create. It is hollow.

Jesus says, “I am the gate for the sheep”. What this means literally is that Jesus becomes the doorway. The shepherd in the Middle East becomes the gate way so that if anyone or anything comes to steal the sheep the they will have to go through the shepherd. It’s where we get the expression, “You’ll do this over my dead body.” That’s how committed the shepherd is. This is how committed Jesus is to us. But the door swings both ways. In order to go out the sheep must step over the shepherd. As we step out are we going through Jesus? Are we filtering our play through him? Are we letting him lead the way or are we leaving him behind? Are we without saying it saying, “Jesus is for church and not for anywhere else in my life?”

As we have discussed before, sheep are not the most intelligent animals in the kingdom and yet Jesus tells us we are his sheep. If we are his sheep why do we think we are smart enough to be trying to recreate without him leading the way? Why do we think we know something more about our sexuality than God’s word tells us?

The answer is because a thief has climbed over the wall and into the house; into the sheepfold, into our very hearts to bring a false teaching that would lead us away from the shepherd; away from making our hearts Christ’s home. This teaching is one that says, “We can know more today about our humanness than the Bible teaches.” It is a teaching that says; “God doesn’t care what we do with our spare time. God just wants us to have a good time.” The lie in this is that God cares immeasurably what we do with our time – all our time, but particularly our “in-between” time because it is in these hours and moments that God knows our hearts are most vulnerable to attack and available to him. God very much wants to be in the heart of our time when we are free to wander because he not only wants to protect us; he wants to make these times abundant in their meaning.

The thief; the untruth of evil comes to steal our hearts for no purpose but to steal them. The word used is klepto from which we get the pointless thievery of kleptomania. We become unwitting participants when we do not let Jesus filter our thoughts and actions about our recreation and our sexuality.

Jesus says that whoever goes out and comes in by him will find pasture. To go out and come in means our living and dying; our whole lives. When we attempt to find pasture on our own; through recreation that does not center in devotion to Jesus Christ or in sexual behavior that denies the teaching of scripture we seek our own pasture. There is no abundance in this but there is huge openness to attack.

I’m indebted to Ken Davis who tells just how vulnerable sheep are. They can be scared to death. He tried this by saying “BOO” to a sheep and it killed it! I made the mistake of telling this to youth group kids once and they tried it and it worked! My point is that when we go looking for our own pasture no matter how safe the world around us says it is, we are vulnerable to spiritual death. And we think we are still living, really living when in fact we have died because we have not had the shepherd to protect us. We have like sheep have gone astray because we have thought we didn’t need a shepherd for something like recreation or sexuality when the shepherd is who we most needed.

Today God calls us back to life. In the shepherding voice of Jesus Christ; in his life and death and resurrection; in his broken body and spilled blood he calls us to make our hearts; our recreation and our sexuality, his home.

Maybe you’ve never done this. Maybe you think you’ve outgrown this need. NOW is the time to come to this pasture; to this sheepfold that we may experience life and life abundantly as only Jesus can provide it. Don’t listen to the world. Don’t listen to me. Listen to the shepherd. Trust him. Do it now. Amen.