"Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited."
Good morning my beloved,
Welcome to worship this Lord's Day.
I am so grateful to have you all here with us today.
Many people in our society think morality comes from their own truth about what morality is. That deeply religious
people, those who uphold the biblical truths haven't any morality at all.Our culture wants to believe that the principals found in the Bible are not acceptable, no longer relevant, because it goes against contemporary moral and social issues of the day.
II Timothy 4:3-4 clearly teach us, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths."
Even many church going Christians, have chosen to ignore the moral teachings of God's Word. While pastors tend to preach sermons, with little or no biblical basis, only cultural issues and beliefs. It has become commonplace in our society to follow your heart, live your own truth and stand out from the crowd. We have created a relationship with God based on our morality, and a Burger King Jesus, with a "Have It Your Way, theology.
I know today's message is out of place in our teaching series, I promise you that we will resume our series tomorrow. We will get back on track with Hebrews chapter 5. But, we can longer sit idly by and watch the current culture refine define our morals and biblical standards! No longer can the people of God stand with one foot in eternity and the other it the world. Sin and immorality is the product of Satan, who controlling the minds of men by their pride and lusts.
Mark 7:21-23 says "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."
Yet, Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that "The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?"
As Christians, we have a serious responsibility, a vital role in the world. We have a
continuing, permanent obligation and privilege to live to the glory of
God and to silence the critics. If anyone is going to criticize Christianity, let them criticize Christianity unjustly. We must not allow the lost to judge Christ, based upon the actions of worldly and ungodly so called Christians. There’s a greater significance, is we cannot know how to rightly love each other; if there are no absolutes. We need a biblical and moral foundation.
I believe there are a number of things that we accepted philosophically in the Civil and Equal Rights Movements that are not based in biblical truth. In fact, they are contradictory to biblical teaching. They are grounded in cultural Marxism. Create a division between people, put them into groups and gain power by making promises, never giving them what you promise, and you will keep your power to the degree that things won’t get better. Because if things get better, you lose your power over them. You see, if all you are doing is using the language of the culture and the idea of people as factions, then the result is hegemon, a predominating influence over others, and that's where we are culturally today. Furthermore, I believe that its high time, that we call them out.
We have embraced a hyphenated understanding of ourselves as opposed to a view that sees us as one people.
Our differences are not innate and they are changeable.However, we must do so through the teaching of God's Word and upholding biblical standards.
Let us bow our heads.
Heavenly Father,
Father, thank You the truths in Your Word. Lord, we pray for those who are confused are unwittingly deceived, those who despise authority, those who are dominated by lust. We pray for those whose lives are characterized by sin and immorality. Lord, how we love Your precepts and want to be a sanctified people. Father, we live in a world that has long since ignored Your commands, help us to boldly speak truth, with grace, love and compassion to a lost a dying people. Remind us that we cannot expect the unregenerate to live according to Your Word, when even those who claim the name of Christ are living as the world. Help us Lord, to pursue purity and holiness.
We pray this in Christ's name
Amen
Today's Message: Unchangeable God
The narrative of today's society is to redefine the way people view certain issues by desensitizing the culture, which by definition means "make (someone) less likely to feel shock or distress at scenes of cruelty, violence, or suffering by overexposure to such images."
Secondly, by creating confusion, taking advantage of the way specific groups view certain issues by introducing propaganda, flooding "information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view." Taking two contradictory issues and just oppose them.
And thirdly by conversion, "the process of changing or causing something to change from one form to another," by getting people to subscribe to the narrative through a planned psychological attack by undercutting rational thinking. Creating the narrative that reasoning is defeasible when the corresponding argument is rationally compelling but not deductively valid, open in principle to revision, valid objection, forfeiture, or annulment.
The strategy is taking an illogical argument, making the argument against the person, rather than the issue. Attacking the individual character as a person.
By definition, discrimination is making or showing an unfair or prejudicial distinction between different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.
Unfortunately, this ideology has made it's way into the church. Because Jesus is love, Christians do not want to be characterized as unloving, or intolerant. Making the argument that as Christians, we must be kind, accepting and loving toward things we disagree with, and we cannot force our beliefs on society, rejecting an argument on the premise of where it comes from. Claiming that we cannot use the Bible to bear on an argument, a Bible they do not believe in. You cannot create a defense for a moral argument based upon principals in a Bible that you acknowledge that you do not believe in. While the morals of our culture may change, God's Word never does.
When you go to the doctor, and the test results indicate you that you're dying from cancer, how much respect would you have for that doctor, if he says "I didn't tell you the truth about your cancer because I didn't want to offend you."
The Bible does not discriminate. Satan's number one tactic is to deceive! And he is good at using it, he's been doing it since the beginning of creation in Genesis. The same biblical truths and principals apply to you as well as me. Its the same for all persons, regardless of age, race or sex.
I believe, therefore, the leaders of the church must address biblical issues biblically, and not on an emotional basis, of which the current culture deems as relevant. We must proclaim Christ, the same Jesus of the Bible, the One Who died on the cross for the forgiveness of sin.
As Christians, when we see that someone's eternal soul is in jeopardy, we must speak the truth! Not in condemnation or standing in judgement of what we know is wrong, but in love, but with the same grace and compassion, that we ourselves have been given. Gently offering the solution to the issue. Yes, Jesus is love and we must love our fellow man enough to speak the truth, as it pertains to eternity.
I pray that rather than just disregarding this as something that goes against what you feel, or have been taught to believe, that you will see it as it is intended, as an act of love and compassion, with a great concern for your eternal salvation.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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