"Am I therefore become your enemy,because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH...?"
(Galatians 4:16)

SIGN of the TIMES:Sex Sermons Cause Stir in Rural Alabama

GOOD HOPE, Ala.-It's one thing for a church in a big city like Dallas or Atlanta to tackle the ticklish topic of sex. It blends in with the urban scene.It's another thing when a small-town congregation puts up billboards with the phrase "Great sex: God's way" on rural highways to promote a sermon series. You can't even legally buy beer in Cullman County, and a preacher is talking about S-E-X on Sunday morning?Daystar Church, whose congregation has grown dramatically under pastor Jerry Lawson, has run up against the sensibilities of a conservative north Alabama community with a monthlong focus on sex.Sex just isn't an appropriate topic for church, some say, and others are upset over the church's signs, which advertise the sermon series and accompanying Web site."It's really stirred up the people here," said Good Hope town clerk Joann Jones.Evangelist Roland Belew, a self-described fundamentalist and former trucker who now preaches at a truck stop, said the whole idea goes against the teaching of New Testament apostles."Paul said preach the Gospel," said Belew."Talking about sex ain't gonna get nobody to heaven."The controversy is a bit ironic considering the church's overall point is about as straight-laced as they come: That God intends for sex to be enjoyed solely within a heterosexual marriage, and that anything else-adultery, pornography, homosexuality, even "sexual arousal" outside of marriage-is sin.Churches have been talking about sex and sexual purity more often. In November, the Rev. Ed Young of the Fellowship Church based in Dallas drew nationwide attention by challenging married couples to have sex for seven straight days in the name of strengthening marriages.But an expert who tracks evangelical Christianity, Larry Eskridge, said few are addressing the subject as directly as Daystar."It sounds like an example of one of those church-growth, market-savvy campaigns going out to an area where you wouldn't normally see it," said Eskridge, associate director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College in Illionis. "I could see where in that particular setting, that could raise some eyebrows."City Hall has gotten a few complaints about the church's sexy signs from a handful of people like Belew, 71, who preaches in a trailer off Interstate 65.Even the 22-year-old mayor, Corey Harbison, worries that the "great sex" message will force parents to talk about the birds and the bees with inquisitive young children before either is ready."I understand what they're trying to do. I get it,"said Harbison."But some people just aren't ready for that. Good Hope is just a good old, country town."Lawson, the pastor at the center of the debate, said the purpose of his sermons and the billboards was to get Christian parents talking to their kids about sex before they learn too much immorality from TV or playground buddies."I think some people are kind of missing the point," said Lawson.Lawson is the lead pastor at Daystar Church, which is affiliated with the Church of God and draws about 2,000 people on Saturday nights and Sunday to its $5.7 million campus on a hilltop beside I-65. People come from as far away as the northern suburbs of Birmingham, 45 miles to the south.The church's attendance is slightly larger than the entire population of Good Hope, which has three other churches in its town limits and five others within a stone's throw. The community is a mix of farm homes, middle-class subdivisions, mobile home parks and a few McMansions...

By Associated Press Writer
Jay Reeves
http://www.christianpost.com/church/General/2009/03/sex-sermons-cause-stir-in-rural-alabama-12/index.html
PS:It is so sad to see how pastors all over the nation have lost touch with God and His Presence and they are staggering in darkness like a drunk at nite and now trying all sorts of "things" to catch the attention of people that otherwise--they mistakenly think--would never go to their churches...
How sad that they spend all this money on billboards and their time in something that honestly is not even biblical....
Paul said to preach THE GOSPEL...
Who--in need of salvation,healing,deliverance,etc is gonna get it out of these"sermons"....???
Many churches across our nation have made a "mockery" of a place that is reserved for worship and preaching and teaching of the Word of God....Pulpits are desecrated every week in churches that are now lukewarm,with pastors and leaders that have lost their way,and that dont even pray or read their bibles anymore....
So little fear of the Lord in pastors and ministers around the nation....!
May the Lord have mercy on us...but to tell you the truth the US is in the shape it is in big apart,because the church has lost its way as a whole some time ago by walking away from God in many ways....
Meanwhile thousands step into eternity every day--and are lost for ever...
As in the days of Noah...