A few years ago, we realized that we could ignore it no longer. Whilst we teach about it whenever it comes up in our week-by-week journey through books and sections of the Bible, we realized that as Richmond has grown and diversified; as new people turn to Christ; as contradictory messages bombard us through media and even other churches, as an eldership we would be irresponsible to ignore it any longer.

This term, we need to talk about it…Sex. From news reporting, you’d think the church was obsessed with it.

We’re not - as a Church we want to be obsessed with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are convinced that He's the Saviour and Lord of the universe, and it's him that we want to introduce people to.  But because our culture is obsessed – and rocked by it - with it we need to know and love the security and stability of God’s created, revealed and clear purposes for sexual attraction & desire, singleness & marriage, and family & church.

We need to talk about it because:

• We are all sexual sinners who doubt God’s good word and pattern in how we live.
• some people are left in confusion, feeling insecure and/or shameful, and ill-equipped to live for Christ and stand for him in the world.
• some in our church (now or in the future) may experience same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria and we don’t want to leave them to face the struggles in isolation.
• some need the encouragement of seeing God’s plan for faithfulness, flourishing fruitfulness, forgiveness, and future as they experience the frustrations of life in a fallen world.
• we sow the seeds for upsetting people in the long run if it later becomes clear that we don't endorse certain lifestyles which some had assumed we would support.
• we can’t speak helpfully and evangelistically into a culture obsessed with sex without considering these things.

As we approach this in two four-week blocks focusing on God’s purposes and then the challenges to living within them, we’re aware that this may raise issues that will challenge our beliefs, confront our failures, upset our comfortableness, and remind us of the past. If you want to talk and pray with someone afterwards, we'll have a prayer team available after each service, or you can arrange to talk in more detail with Martin, Evee or Martin & Evee together

Find out more about this series here.