OceanSide church of Christ




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The Modern Dance
by: Dalton Gilreath

I.              Introduction

A.   Dancing has been the fad for the  last few decades

                                          i.    Consider the music industry

1.    Whitney Houston sang, “I wanna dance with somebody”

2.    Deana Carter sang, “But we danced anyway)

3.    Lady Gaga sang, “Just dance”

4.    Walk the Moon sang, “Shut up and dance”

                                        ii.    Consider the television shows

1.    Fox has the show, “So you think you can dance”

2.    ABC has the ever popular, “Dancing with the stars”

B.   Dance is used in two sense today and Biblically as well

                                          i.    There is a celebratory dance which is harmless

1.    David danced this way while moving the ark (2 Sam 6:14-16)

2.    Miriam led Israel in a similar dance as well (Ex 15:20)

                                        ii.    There is club dancing, or dirty dancing, which is the problem

1.    This dancing was seen when Moses came down the mount as Israel worshipped the golden calf (Ex 32:19)

2.    Herodias’ daughter danced this way in front of Herod (Matt 14:6)

C.   Consider three reasons why the modern dance, or dirty dancing, is sinful

II.            Lasciviousness

A.   The Bible condemns the practice of lasciviousness (Gal 5:19-21)

                                          i.    This is defined as:

1.    Lewdness; wantonness

2.     Indecent bodily movements

3.    Unchaste handling of males/females

4.    Arousing lust

                                        ii.    What modern practice best fits this description? Dirty dancing

B.   Paul said that some Gentiles had given themselves or to lasciviousness and were greedy for me (Eph 4:19)

                                          i.    This type of dancing is what we see on television, parties, clubs, and even school dances like the prom

                                        ii.    Notice lasciviousness activities left them wanting more as we will discuss that a bit more in our third point

III.           Lust

A.   The modern dance is also sinful because it entices lust (Matt 5:28)

                                          i.    Lust itself can be harmless but this kind of lust produces evil thoughts (Jam 1:14-15)

                                        ii.    This lust immediately leads to sin and therefore must be avoided outside of marriage

B.   Herodias’ daughter enticed lust from Herod who was willing to give her anything she wanted (Mark 6:21-22)

                                          i.    Herod wasn’t even touching her and felt “pleased” (excited emotion)

                                        ii.    What if he had danced with her? It would have been even worse

C.   Some still argue that the modern dance is harmless and not about lust

                                          i.    44 young men were asked about their feelings when they danced with a girl

1.    41 of them said they thought of sex

2.    Out of 1500 men not one raised his hand when asked if they could dance this way with a women and not think evil thoughts

                                        ii.    Furthermore, have you ever heard of a father/son dance?

1.    Would it be acceptable to have the boys dance in the cafeteria and the girls dance in the gym?

2.    This would be the death of the dance

IV.          Leads to other sins

A.   Biblically, we are to stay as far away from sin as possible not get as close as we can

                                          i.    Solomon told his son not to even go near the door of an enticing women (Prov 5:8)

                                        ii.    Paul said to flee fornication not get close to it (1 Cor 6:18)

B.   As we read earlier, lasciviousness leaves men wanting more

                                          i.    Additionally, other sins besides sex are also associated with it

                                        ii.    Consider immodesty, alcohol, the foul music, and the poor influences as well (1 Peter 4:3)

C.   Consider prom for a moment

                                          i.    Chaperones are everywhere but they don’t see everything that happens

                                        ii.    Plus, why would we want our children to attend something that needs that many chaperones in the first place?