Sunday, October 18, 2026
Redacted #6 - God's Design for Sex & Sexuality

WELCOME   (15 minutes)
Ice Breaker: What stood out to you most in Chapter 6 of Redacted?

WORSHIP (10 minutes)

Sing, “No Longer Slaves” (Radio Version) by Bethel Music

WIN   (15 minutes)
Name one person in your life who doesn’t know Jesus. Pray for them together

WORD   (25 minutes)

Leader: This topic may touch sexual history, marriage pain, pornography, same-sex attraction, shame, trauma, or other deeply personal areas. Make room for honesty without pressuring anyone to disclose details they aren’t ready to share. Don’t let the conversation become a culture-war debate or a chance to diagnose people outside the room.

1. Read Judges 17:6, Judges 14:1–3, and 1 Thessalonians 4:3–5. Sunday used Samson to show a simple pattern: “I see. I want. I act.” Judges describes a time when everyone did what was right in their own eyes, and Samson repeatedly treats what he wants as permission to act. What do I do when what feels right in my eyes doesn’t line up with what God says is right? Where do we tend to turn “I want this” into “therefore I should have this”? What desires (not only sexual ones) are most likely to compete with God for the final word in your life?
2. Read Genesis 1:27, Genesis 2:24, and Matthew 19:4–6. Chapter 6 in the book begins with two foundational ideas: God’s Word is true, and God tells the truth for our good. It describes God’s design for sex and marriage as male and female, covenant union, and one flesh, then uses the picture of baby-proofing a house to ask whether God’s boundaries are really cages or whether they might actually be protection. Why do God’s sexual boundaries sometimes feel restrictive rather than good? How can pain become a black marker that makes God’s design difficult to trust? What’s the difference between honestly wrestling with pain and allowing pain to become our final authority?
3. Read 1 Thessalonians 4:3–8 and 1 Corinthians 6:11. Paul says God’s will is our sanctification. Sanctification doesn’t always mean the pull toward sin disappears. Sometimes God changes what we want. Sometimes holiness looks like saying, “I still feel this pull. And I’m still gonna obey Jesus.” What’s the difference between temptation remaining and temptation having authority? What if holiness isn’t proven by having nothing to resist? What if sometimes holiness is revealed by the desires you refuse to let rule you? How does Paul ending this passage by saying God gives us His Holy Spirit change the way we think about the fight for holiness?
4. Read Matthew 5:27–28 and 1 Corinthians 6:9–11. Chapter 6 warns religious people against treating homosexuality like a “superior sin” simply because it may not be our sin. We can use someone else’s struggle to feel clean without actually becoming holy! Sunday pressed the same issue by naming premarital sex, adultery, homosexual behavior, lust, and pornography—and refusing to let us use someone else’s sexual sin to excuse our own. Why are we drawn to rank sins in ways that leave us feeling morally superior?
5. Read John 1:14, Luke 19:1–10, and 1 Thessalonians 4:6. Sunday approached love from the angle that sexual sin “wrongs” another person. Sexual holiness stops asking only, “What do I want?” and asks, “What does love require of me toward this other person?” What would it look like for our church to be a place where people expect neither shame nor compromise, but real grace, real truth, and people willing to walk with them?
6. Don’t let this become a conversation mainly about sexuality in the culture, LGBTQ people, or somebody else’s choices. Finish this sentence honestly:“A desire I’m most tempted to treat like permission is __________.”

WORKS (25 minutes)

• Break down into 2’s or 3’s to pray.
• Sunday gave us a new pattern to replace Samson’s “I see. I want. I act.” I see. I want. I submit. I obey. Take a few quiet minutes and identify one place where desire has been functioning like authority in your life.