Sex, Self-Worship, and the Tornado of Desire: Understanding Lust, Love, and God's Design (Sex, Love, and God Series)

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2017

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How does our view of God shape our experiences of desire, sexuality, and freedom? In this raw and emotionally honest continuation of the “Sex, Love & God” series, Mike explores the sacredness of sexual desire through the lens of Song of Songs while unpacking the dangerous spiral of lust, idolatry, and self-worship outlined in Genesis and Romans. This episode – titled “The Tornado of Death” – offers a deep dive into the difference between holy longing and destructive craving, revealing the power of God’s design for intimacy, restraint, and healing.

As Mike leads us through poetic affirmations in Song of Songs and the brutal honesty of Romans 1, we explore how desire becomes corrupted when it disconnects from gratitude and reverence for God. He unpacks the devastating effects of lust – not as mere sexual temptation, but as the loss of sensitivity, agency, and joy. Whether you're single, married, struggling with addiction, or questioning your faith, this episode offers soul-piercing honesty, powerful biblical insight, and compassionate perspectives on how to break free from the prison of self-worship.

Key Takeaways:
• Understanding the Spiral of Lust – From ingratitude to idolatry, from self-worship to captivity, Mike maps out how distorted sexual desire emerges from a misaligned view of God.
• Lust vs. Sexual Desire – Differentiating between healthy, God-honoring romantic longing as seen in Song of Songs and the soul-deadening craving of lust.
• The Role of Worship – Why battling sexual temptation begins not with behavior modification, but with reorienting worship from self to God.
• Lost Sensitivity and Slavery – How lust enslaves us by numbing joy, increasing craving, and replacing healthy intimacy with compulsive behavior.
• Healing Through Truth and Community – Freedom begins with honesty, vulnerability, and the willingness to come out of hiding in safe spiritual communities.

Resources Mentioned:
• Song of Songs 1–2 – Exploring Biblical romance, affirmations of beauty, and desire with restraint.
• Genesis 1–3 – The roots of ingratitude, idolatry, and human fall through disobedience and self-rule.
• Romans 1 – Paul’s warning of God “giving us over” to our lusts when we refuse to glorify or thank Him.
• Ephesians 4 – The call to reject sensuality and reclaim God-honoring desires through the renewing of the mind.

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Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everyone here again, producer and co-host of the show, Mike, again, is not a part of this introduction.
0:20.7	He actually asked me specifically to do the introduction for this one for no special reason,
0:26.5	other than he assumed that many of you all missed my voice, which, again, goes to his incredible sense of humor because there's just no way that that's true.
0:36.3	Because if it was, this show would be named after me and it is not so yet yet again here I am now a bit of a fun
0:45.0	piece of news I will be traveling to Ohio this coming weekend where I'll get a chance to sit down
0:50.8	with Mike and set up the rest of his stuff so we can actually get back
0:55.2	on board with doing our show together. So I'm sure we'll record a couple episodes out there
0:59.6	in the same room and then we'll be ready to go and be doing episodes together, most likely
1:05.8	over Skype or something or other. But anyhow, yep we got another episode uh today of the sex loving
1:12.8	god series uh called the tornado of death um for those of you that would be new to this uh we've
1:18.3	been doing a bit of playback on a particular series uh the past few weeks um in mike's uh kind of
1:24.2	transition time as he gets settled into ohio So yeah, so I'm excited to bring you
1:28.2	that recorded sermon. The one thing I do want to bring a little bit of attention to this week,
1:32.2	Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas a couple days ago. So the news of Rockport being devastated.
1:41.2	Houston right now is just absolutely flooding and yeah, our hearts are broken
1:46.4	and just grieving for all the loss is taking place, all the pain and suffering. A lot of folks
1:52.0	are going to be going through here soon. I myself have a few friends, both in the Houston area
1:56.6	and kind of in the general Texas area, and I've been reaching out to them and check in and see
2:02.3	if they're okay.
2:04.2	You know, being the, I guess, resident beer person on this show for the most part, props to
2:11.2	Anheuser-Bush for switching over to producing water to actually take down as a relief for a lot of folks down there at the
2:19.3	hurricane site. So, you know, our prayers, our hopes and best wishes to the emergency response
	...

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