New Covenant Church
Divine Pleasure
Join us next week online at 9:30 CT at wearencc.com, or at one of our four in-person services: 9:30AM or 11:15AM at our South Campus and North Campus.
Locations & Times
New Covenant Church - South Campus
5621 Farm to Market Rd 2087, Longview, TX 75603, USA
Sunday 9:30 AM
Sunday 11:15 AM
There are both righteous and unrighteous pleasures. Too many people have only been taught about one! Pleasure is not seen by many as a spiritual word, only a secular or even sinful word.
The Bible speaks of both. I want to share with you today some of the pleasures God has for His people.
Righteousness
The Bible speaks of both. I want to share with you today some of the pleasures God has for His people.
Righteousness
• We’ve heard “there’s pleasure in sin for a season” as if living a worldly life is more pleasurable now than living for God. It’s like all of our pleasures are delayed for the next life.
Marriage and Family
• God wants us to learn to delight in our family members, to see them the way He sees them.
• Don’t let family life just become duty
• Includes marriage – need to keep the romance and sex after kids come
• In the Middle Ages much of the church taught that sex was only for procreation, not recreation.
• The ‘procreation only’ theory of sex is contradicted by both science and scripture
- Animals vs. humans; animals only mate during a certain time of the month
• Proverbs 5:19 tells us you should “…always be enraptured with her love”, referring to your wife.
• That word in the Hebrew language literally means intoxicated!
• Endorphins are released. This is a drug that’s good for you.
• Science now tells us that a hormone called oxytocin is released during sexual activity and helps form an ongoing social bond.
- This is why sex outside of marriage ultimately creates pain, not pleasure. You’re bonding with someone you’re not bonded with!
• The same with children. God means children to be a blessing, not a burden.
Marriage and Family
• God wants us to learn to delight in our family members, to see them the way He sees them.
• Don’t let family life just become duty
• Includes marriage – need to keep the romance and sex after kids come
• In the Middle Ages much of the church taught that sex was only for procreation, not recreation.
• The ‘procreation only’ theory of sex is contradicted by both science and scripture
- Animals vs. humans; animals only mate during a certain time of the month
• Proverbs 5:19 tells us you should “…always be enraptured with her love”, referring to your wife.
• That word in the Hebrew language literally means intoxicated!
• Endorphins are released. This is a drug that’s good for you.
• Science now tells us that a hormone called oxytocin is released during sexual activity and helps form an ongoing social bond.
- This is why sex outside of marriage ultimately creates pain, not pleasure. You’re bonding with someone you’re not bonded with!
• The same with children. God means children to be a blessing, not a burden.
Serving
• Adam and Eve weren’t just eating pineapple and giving each other back rubs.
• They worked the Garden – before the Fall.
• Chariots of Fire, “When I run, I feel His pleasure.” (Eric Liddle)
• We’ve all been given certain physiologies, personalities, and psychologies for which certain types of activities, which would be work for others are pleasurable to us. (ID class)
• Adam and Eve weren’t just eating pineapple and giving each other back rubs.
• They worked the Garden – before the Fall.
• Chariots of Fire, “When I run, I feel His pleasure.” (Eric Liddle)
• We’ve all been given certain physiologies, personalities, and psychologies for which certain types of activities, which would be work for others are pleasurable to us. (ID class)
• This could also be translated, “My yoke fits”.
Friendship
Friendship
• “Hearty” – heartfelt, with some meat on it.
• Dr. Henry Cloud observation
Communion and God’s Presence
• Dr. Henry Cloud observation
Communion and God’s Presence
Why is this?
We are literally feeling God’s pleasure (family, bride, work)!
We are literally feeling God’s pleasure (family, bride, work)!
GIVING
Thank you for your generosity! You can click the link below to give online!
http://www.wearencc.com/give/• Some of my greatest moments of joy have been in God’s Presence.
Response and closing
• This is why Jesus died on the cross, to pay the penalty for our sins.
• Not just to have heaven later, but communion with God now.
• Are you experiencing God’s Presence?
Response and closing
• This is why Jesus died on the cross, to pay the penalty for our sins.
• Not just to have heaven later, but communion with God now.
• Are you experiencing God’s Presence?