[Begin with video: “Relationships:
Street Interviews” (3:22)]

This morning I’ve entitled my sermon, “What’s the Big Deal about Sexual Purity?”—and I thought the video you just saw would be an interesting place to begin because it pretty well describes our cultural mindset about such things. And while it may seem to some that it’s an inappropriate topic for a morning worship service, I’d argue that the Bible has way too much to say about such things for us to ignore them. And if the Church is silent, all our people are going to hear are the world’s philosophies and values!

To most of the young people interviewed on that video I want to say, “God has a better way!” He’s the One who thought up the idea of sexual relationships! It was His plan and His design! It was God who created us male and female—and His plan was for the lifelong bond between a husband and wife to be sealed and nurtured by a sexual relationship. Sex is a God-given gift!

But God also knew how destructive that precious gift would be, and humanity wasn’t around long before it became obvious that the misuse of the gift of sex is one of Satan’s most powerful weapons of destruction in people’s lives. And so it is that the Bible is full of warnings about how we are to use this gift in order to honor God and how to guard our lives from being wrecked by its misuse.

This morning, I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Ephesians, chapter 5. Paul is on a roll here as He instructs the Early Church not to live like everyone around them who do not belong to Christ Jesus. Our lives are to be different—by the grace and power of God in our lives! We don’t have to live like everyone else—in fact, we dare not! Let’s begin at verse 1—
[Read Ephesians 5:1-14, NLT]

Paul begins here with an invitation for us to imitate our Heavenly Father by living a life of sacrificial love for others. As children like to imitate their daddies, so we are to imitate God, our Heavenly Father. The Lord’s words are declared early in the Old Testament, “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2) In regards to loving even our enemies, Jesus said, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36) As children of the Heavenly Father, we’re to imitate Him. And Paul makes clear in this passage that because we’re God’s children, we are Children of Light—and we’re supposed to live like it! We are not to fade into the spiritual darkness around us. God has redeemed our lives from that—and we are to rise above it! We are to love others like Jesus did, and to live a life of purity.

Paul then jumps into the matter that there are some things that are absolutely inconsistent with purity. He said, “Let there be no sexual immorality among you!” The Greek word here is “porneia”—which should remind you of a sad diversion from purity which is so rampant in our culture today: pornography. Sexual immorality was tolerated in the permissive pagan society of Paul’s day. It’s nothing new!—it’s just as sordid and just as destructive and just as un-Christlike! And we’re not to give it an inch in our lives!

Paul said, “Let there be no impurity among you!” His choice of words builds on something he had written earlier about those living in spiritual darkness—
Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. (Ephesians 4:19)
The people had rendered themselves incapable of responding to moral stimuli, for their consciences were so atrophied that sin registered no stab of pain. They had abandoned themselves to every sort of ungodliness.

It reminds me of something else the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans—
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. (Romans 1:24-25)
Sensuality is license in the sphere of the physical, and in the New Testament it refers to sexuality gone wild, with no constraints and no conformity to the will of God. This self-abandonment leads to all kinds of filthy practices, which are so consuming as to become a total preoccupation, pursued in a sort of greediness. The determination to gratify self-interest at all costs leaves one with a continual lust for more that is never satisfied. It becomes the idol in someone’s life—a sad substitute for God.

Paul even deals here with what many may see as relatively harmless: obscene stories, foolish talk and coarse joking. And you thought dirty jokes were a new thing! So what’s the big deal about that! Not only does it take our minds to gutter where our minds aren’t helped and no one else’s is either, even more importantly it takes our mind off of God. How can a believer in Christ sing songs of worship and praise to God with the same mouths that later speak foul words and tell dirty stories?

Obscenity is filthy language—and it dishonors God. Do I need to get graphic? I’ll let you fill in the blanks—but the blanks you’re filling in are the very words that Paul is saying should never come out of the mouth of a believer!

Neither should the foolish talk and “coarse joking”—often filled with double meanings, where there is clearly an effort to take the minds of others into the gutter with us! Do you know what Paul says about this? He says such talk is simply inconsistent with the life of the child of God—Children of Light!

I never struggled with a foul mouth spitting out cuss words—it’s just never been a part of my life. But I did realize early in my young adult days that I had drifted into the realm of coarse joking. A few things helped me. First of all, a friend lovingly challenged me, saying, “I think better of you than that.” And in my first ministry assignment, I worked under a senior pastor who wisely flew above the radar of such conversations. If someone tried to go that way, he had a great way to change the course of the conversation and keep it on an uplifting plain instead. The Apostle Paul says that foolish talk and coarse joking simply misrepresent Christ and are inconsistent with who the Child of God is to be! There’s not to be a hint of immorality in our lives!

In this passage, Paul gets bold about the serious consequences of immorality, declaring that there is simply no room in the Kingdom of God for those who blatantly continue in sensual sin! And this isn’t the only place in scripture where that is made clear! Here’s one passage among many that clearly contradicts any hint of universalism, something we talked about briefly last week, that would falsely declare that, in the end, everyone’s going to heaven.

There were those in Paul’s day just as there are those now who would protest that Christian standards for morality are too demanding and that people must be allowed to live as they want. But what happens is that, in the name of freedom, Christians can be drawn into bondage to sin once again! There are those who say that by God’s grace the Christian is free from the law—so it doesn’t matter how we live. But Paul said, “Don’t be fooled by those arguments!” The truth is that the argument is a lie from Satan—who loves to wreck lives! Paul said that we’re to have no part in the worthless deeds of darkness or in the promotion of them! We are Children of Light—God’s Light! We are to live like it! Sexual immorality and even the impurities of sordid joking are to have no place in our lives. God thinks better of us than that—and expects better from us!

I do think this raises the question of what we allow into our minds and into our lives through entertainment—movies, books, music, you name it! Aren’t we violating the heart of scripture when we fail to weed out of our lives that which promotes sexual immorality? I know that weeds out a lot of entertainment, but it’s not just our kids’ minds that we need to be thinking of! What are we steeping our minds in? As Children of Light, God expects better of us than wallowing in the murk and mire of the world’s sordid morality. What did Paul say? We’re to have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness! We’re to expose the deeds of darkness for what they are—not bask in their darkness. We are to wake up and rise up from spiritual death so that Christ’s light will shine on us. That does not happen, friends, when we’re dwelling in the darkness.

And what do you suppose all this has to say about pornography? Do you realize what a rampant problem it is today?—even among Christians! Pornography is so easily accessible, and yet it’s so destructive. And there are far too many people right here in this sanctuary this morning who are enslaved to it—and like every sin, it wrecks lives—and yours will not be the exception to the rule!

Someone once told me an old Indian story that we can certainly apply to this. One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that was going on inside him. He said, “My son, it is between two wolves.” He went on to say, “One wolf is evil: anger, envy, false pride, lies and arrogance. The other wolf is good: joy, peace, hope, kindness, truth, compassion and purity.” The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “And which wolf wins?” The old Cherokee simply said, “The one that I feed.”

And so it is with our character. Paul wrote to the Galatians—
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8)
We reap what we sow in our lives. If we want to be more and more like Christ—which is literally what it means to be a Christian—then we need to feed our lives on that which exemplifies and nurtures such character traits. But if we feed our minds and souls on that which is perverted and immoral and impure, that is the kind of person we will become.

So what’s the big deal about sexual purity? Why does it matter? God’s plan is for sexual relationships to enhance the marriage relationship between a man and woman—that and only that. Anything outside that parameter distorts His plan and His purpose—and it’s ultimately destructive in our lives and in the lives of others. God’s Word is clear: it’s sin.

But our world doesn’t take too kindly to such parameters, does it? Our world promotes sexual relationships outside marriage as the norm. It’s just to be expected! As long as both parties are consenting, it’s okay—but it’s not! If sex is taking place anywhere outside the bond of marriage between a man and a woman, it’s sin.

Now, did God declare it sin just because He knew how strong our sexual desires can be and He just wanted to show us Who’s Boss? Do you think He wants to make our lives miserable? Do you believe for one moment that He demands of us that which is impossible?

God’s laws are meant to protect us and others. He desires only what is best for us, and He wants to protect us from that which would shortchange His best in our lives. In other words, He’s watching out for us! His laws flow out of a Father’s deep love for us!

Does the utter disregard for God’s laws about sexual purity make any of you just downright mad like it does me? Sometimes I feel like we’re fighting a losing battle. It’s shocking for me how absolutely common and acceptable it’s become for couples to live together outside marriage. I have to shake my head when I hear of such couples getting engaged and then making big plans for a wedding—and they honestly don’t see anything wrong with it. I do believe it’s a clear reflection of what I said last week regarding us living in a post-Christian world.

Some would say, “Doesn’t a couple need to find out if they’re sexually compatible before they marry?” Now honestly, what do you think our Holy God would say to such a question? It seems to me that sexual compatibility is carved out in the context of committed love in marriage—that’s part of the bonding process between a husband and a wife!—to over a lifetime together become compatible in every area of their lives, include the sexual realm!

Dan Boone tells of working with a guy named Jerry at the Alamo Plaza Motel in Nashville, Tennessee. I know exactly where it is—right down Murfreesboro road from Trevecca Nazarene University. Jerry was a student at Vanderbilt; Dan a religion major at Trevecca. Jerry worked the afternoon/evening shift, 3-10:30; Dan came on at 10:30 and stayed until 7 in the morning. Dan said Jerry would often let him know that if Dan needed him for anything, he’d be back in room (pick a number). He had checked in a guest and had gotten an invitation to her motel room after his shift was over. His attempt was to score. And many nights, Jerry would return to the office later and proudly let it be known that he had gotten what he went for.

But Dan recalls the night that Jerry came into the office and slumped on the couch. Dan was working away, as Jerry began muttering to himself, but intentionally loud enough for Dan to hear, “I don’t get it. Here you are a virgin, dating a great girl, never had sex and don’t intend to until you’re married. I’ve had more women than I can remember. You feel loved and valued. I’m miserable and lonely. I don’t get it.”

Dan claims it must have been a moment of divine inspiration that prompted his response: “Jerry, I do get it. You are destroying your capacity to love. Every night, you practice bonding and breaking, bonding and breaking. Sexual intercourse is an act given by God to bind two people together in a covenant of marriage for life. It is a bonding act. When you bind yourself to a person you hardly know, and walk out of the room never intending to see that person again, you damage your capacity to love. You are learning to love and leave, not love and stay. It doesn’t surprise me that you feel lonely. You’ve been doing nothing but using your fellow humans and treating women like conquests in a game. My goal for sex is to love and stay, to bind myself in marriage to one person and stay bound for the rest of my life. Call it boring. Call it conservative. I call it love as God intended for it to be.”

But our culture worships sex. We’ve somehow concluded that life without sex is somehow life devoid of meaning. Besides that, life without sex is impossible! The Bible has the audacity to say that our culture is absolutely wrong! It suggests that sex is a gift of God, to be celebrated, for sure, but not what defines the Good Life. That good life can be lived—and it has been lived—by millions who have gone without sex. The Bible challenges the idol we have made of sex.

Sad to say, even in the church world, sexual immorality has a foothold. Many would say that they like Jesus, but they think something’s deeply messed up with a belief system that says two consenting, unmarried adults should refrain from sex. And statistics indicate that too many young Christians aren’t waiting for marriage anymore. That’s the implication in a recent evangelical magazine that claims that young, unmarried Christians are having premarital sex almost as much as their non-Christian peers. A study conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy concluded that 80% of unmarried evangelical young adults (ages 18 to 29) said that they had sex. They theorized that it was due to the saturation of sex in popular culture, the prevalence of pornography and a popular “do what feels good to you” philosophy. Too many have simply bought into the false teaching that a loving God wouldn’t put such limits on us…but they’re wrong!

I’m told that even among those who believe that sexual intercourse outside marriage is wrong there is the strange idea that anything short of intercourse is okay. So they’re sleeping together and even having oral sex, but think they’re not violating God’s laws as long as they don’t actually have intercourse!

When I was a young pastor, a wise old preacher said something from my pulpit that I’ve never forgotten: Sin will always take you further than you want to go. And it’s true! And it’s so absolutely true in the realm of sexual impurities. If sex is reserved for the marriage bed alone, then until we’re married, we need to draw clear lines in the sand long before we get to anything that even closely resembles sexual activity.

Jesus knew that when we give in to sexual immorality at any level, we become slaves to it. Oswald Chambers, in his book “My Utmost for His Highest,” builds a thought on Romans 6:16, which declares—
Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness. (Romans 6:16)
Chambers then observed—
Yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust, and although you may hate yourself for having yielded, you become enslaved to that thing. Remember what lust is—“I must have it now,” whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind. No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ (who came to “proclaim liberty to the captives”)…Yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in a person’s life. (Oswald Chambers)

Jesus made it clear that any movement toward adultery is dangerous—and we need to see it as such! When our sexual desires move us toward that which we know would violate God’s call for purity in every area of our lives, we need to hear loud, blaring, obnoxious warning sirens which blast the message, “Don’t go any further! Turn around! Turn around now! Danger ahead!”

As followers of Christ, we need to be pro-active in averting sexual temptations. Let me suggest a few ways we can do that:
1. Determine to be sexually pure! Determine today that from this day forward you are going to do everything in your power, with God’s help, to be sexually pure. Make a decision! In the Old Testament, Job demonstrated such a commitment, evidenced by his words at the beginning of chapter 31, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.” (Job 31:1) In the New Testament, Paul wrote, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Galatians 5:16-18).
2. Keep a constant watch over your heart and life, dealing quickly and decisively with the first hint of lust and sexual impurities.
3. See the appetite for the forbidden fruit for what it is—that which can only lead to sin. And in seeing it as the pathway to sin, think carefully about all the ramifications of hurt, disappointment and heartache if you would ever give into such sin.
4. Avoid the places, the circumstances and even the people who would likely be a snare for you. This is a great way to put a fence around your heart to protect you.
5. Whenever you sense yourself making an approach toward that which is sin, turn around—and run as fast as you can! Paul wrote to Timothy, “Flee the evil desires of youth!”
6. Keep growing in your relationship with God—seeking His grace and learning daily to depend upon His strength, assured that His “grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor 12:9).
7. Allow the Lord to reshape your thought-life, just as Paul instructed the Philippians: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things…and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8-9) This is much like replacing a toy that might be harmful to a child with a toy that is equally enticing but not at all threatening!

God promises to bless those who walk according to His light—and He does just that! While there are all kinds of natural consequences to violating God’s principles for sexual purity, there are all kinds of built-in blessings for those who submit to His way and His plan. And I pray those blessings in each of your lives. And if you’ve already blown it in this realm, let me remind you that we serve the God of the second chance! He loves to redeem lives—and He wants to redeem yours! His mercy and His grace are big enough to cover your greatest sin—and He wants to help us all now to live this day forward as Children of Light!

Some time this week, as I was contemplating this morning’s message, I thought to myself, “What in the world was I smoking when I planned to preach on this topic?!” But honestly, it’s a matter that I’ve been sensing a need to address in some way with you as a congregation. And so, I raise the question, “Are ‘Postmodern’ and ‘Emerging Church’ of the Devil?” in order to open dialogue on some critical matters before Christ’s Church today and to hopefully shed light on it all from God’s Word.

We’re in our third week of sermons in a series I’ve called, “Living as Children of Light.” My inspiration for the series has come from Ephesians 5:8-10—
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.
We’ve talked about social justice and affluence, and in the weeks ahead we’ll dive into the matters of sexual purity, homosexuality and alcohol. And my prayer is very much that we as believers will make the passion of our lives in all things to find out what pleases the Lord, that which consists of all goodness, righteousness and truth, and that we will truly learn to live as children of light.

I may be throwing out a couple of terms that are unfamiliar to some of you today—“postmodern” and “emerging church.” And I’m guessing few, if any of us, fully understand what is meant by those terms. I certainly do not claim to be an expert on either one—and I doubt that anyone could fully cover all the issues in the short time that we have together this morning. But I do believe that we as a church family need to be familiar with the ideas and we need to seek wisdom and guidance in response to them if we’re truly committed to the Mission Statement of our church: Passion for God; Compassion for People.

People have asked me questions like, “What is the emerging church?” “Are we part of it?” “Is the Church of the Nazarene supportive of the emerging church?” “Is this a good thing or a bad thing?”

First let me say that the “emerging church” is incredibly challenging to define because it’s a very young movement and it intentionally has no central institution, no primary spokesperson, and certainly no unifying statement of faith. It is important to distinguish between the “emerging church” and “Emergent Village”—which is a particular organization that has tried to bring together those of the emerging church. I guess you could say that those in the Emergent Village are part of the emerging church, but most of those who relate to the emerging church are not part of the organization called the Emergent Village—so don’t treat them as one and the same.

The emerging church movement began 20 years ago, but is only a decade old in the United States. It really began as a conversation among young Christian leaders who had grown disillusioned with and had begun leaving the churches in which they were raised. The conversation began around the question, “What kind of church and worship practices resonate with the spiritual passions of the emerging or future generations?” It’s certainly not a new question, for insightful members of every generation have tried to address the same question in one way or another!

What’s new is that the question is being asked in a culture that is experiencing unprecedented changes with a massive philosophical shift taking place. We’re no longer in a “Leave It to Beaver” kind of world! People don’t relate to June and Ward Cleaver anymore! And the philosophical shift is most often described as a shift from modernity to postmodernity. Part of what is shaping the postmodern way of looking at like is that our younger generations are global now in a way that we’ve never been global before. That changes their whole perspective on a lot of things. And they have grown up in a world many are calling “post-Christian”—which means that most have grown up outside the influence of the Church and with a totally secular worldview. And so the question before the church today is how the practice of Christian faith might need to take on different forms than it did in previous years in order to be meaningful to emerging generations. And honestly, it’s a question we need to ask if we’re going to be relevant in a changing world!

I heard someone recently say that when he was young and went out and partied with his friends and got drunk and had sex, they knew it was wrong! They did it anyway, but they knew it was wrong! When kids are involved in such things today, too many of them have no such sense of right and wrong. They don’t know that it’s wrong! They’ve grown up in a post-Christian world that has lost all sense of the difference between right and wrong. It’s all relative! And we as the Church have to come to grips with the reality of trying to share the Good News of the Gospel with people who have not had the same moral compass impressed upon them.

It’s important to recognize that the emerging church is not a new denomination or organization as much as it’s an on-going conversation across many denominations and theological persuasions. There really isn’t any cohesive theology or uniformity in the emerging church.

I read this last week something that helped me to understand this a bit better. Scott Daniels said that in the same way the Protestant Reformation would not have happened without the invention of the printing press which allowed the common person to own a copy of scripture for the first time, so it is that the emerging church would likely never have become the force that it is without the advent of the internet. Just imagine in 1517 the great reformer Martin Luther posting his 95 Theses on-line rather than on the door of the Wittenburg Church. Thousands and thousands might have joined in on Luther’s conversation—in the first 24 hours!—agreeing with part of it and expressing disagreement with other parts. Just imagine how much quicker the movement would have spread! I was glad to hear Scott Daniels say that he doesn’t believe that what’s happening in the emerging church is on the same level as the Protestant Reformation, but certainly the internet has had a huge impact on the emerging church gaining momentum.

Well, before we go further, let’s turn to God’s Word this morning. There are a couple of passage of scripture that I particularly believe are powerfully relevant to this conversation. The first is in 1 Corinthians 9—
Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it! (1 Corinthians 9:19-23, The Message)

The Apostle Paul wrote those words. He was on a God-given mission and he knew that he needed to be able to significantly connect with those who were living in spiritual darkness if he was ever going to be able to shed the Light of Christ into their lives! He kept his bearings in Christ—in other words, he did not divert from that which he knew was right, but he didn’t let things like traditions and cultural differences stand in the way of accomplishing his mission!

To Paul, the gospel was a liberating word and the church was a liberating community. After his Damascus Road experience, he spent years learning what that freedom was all about. I suppose what people do with their freedoms is a classic clue to their character. Paul decided that he would use his freedom to voluntarily become a servant to others. His goal was to lead as many people as possible to Jesus Christ. With that determination, he demonstrated great flexibility and the ability to identify with people where they were. Paul’s declaration in these verses is a great revelation of his deep love for people, as he had learned to identify with all kinds of people! This is not to say that Paul was a spiritual chameleon who took on the moral and spiritual climate of his environment, but rather that Paul was a people-lover (like Jesus calls us all to be!) who did not let cultural or even “religious” differences become barriers between him and persons for whom Christ died.

Unfortunately, too many of us seldom get past liking people who are a lot like us and who like what we like—which becomes a great handicap to any church! The inability to identify with and love and minister in Jesus’ name to all kinds of people has caused the death of lots of churches—even though the church may still be meeting on Sunday mornings! And those of us who struggle to reach across barriers of age, race, or culture—including cultural shifts like postmodernity—need to learn Paul’s valuable lesson of freedom.

Now, let’s turn to 2 Peter 2:1-3—
But there were also lying prophets among the people then, just as there will be lying religious teachers among you. They’ll smuggle in destructive divisions, pitting you against each other—biting the hand of the One who gave them a chance to have their lives back! They’ve put themselves on a fast downhill slide to destruction, but not before they recruit a crowd of mixed-up followers who can’t tell right from wrong. They give the way of truth a bad name. They’re only out for themselves. They’ll say anything, anything, that sounds good to exploit you. They won’t, of course, get by with it. They’ll come to a bad end, for God has never just stood by and let that kind of thing go on. (2 Peter 2:1-3)
Here is just one of the many New Testament warnings against false prophets. Peter was warning the Early Church that they had to be on their guard against those who called themselves Christian leaders but were in reality false prophets. He was pleading with the Church to learn to discern between prophets of the Lord who spoke truth and false prophets who sounded good but whose words were not in line with the teachings and the life of Christ.

And just as they were then, false prophets today are persuasive and have an attractive message—and a lot of people listen to them! The challenge to followers of Christ is to exercise discernment and God-given wisdom in weeding out that which is true and that which is false! False prophets have always caused a lot of trouble in the church—it’s nothing new!—because there have always been those who fell for their cheap gospel—hook, line and sinker! Peter—and Paul in many of his letters too—talked about those who were guilty of heresy, a perversion of the Gospel, distorting and manipulating the Truth of God’s Word. And in the passage we just read, it’s clear that God won’t put up with such false prophets. They are on their way to absolute destruction!—but not before they do a lot of damage in the Church and in people’s lives!

So, in light of these basic scriptural principles, what is to be our response today to our postmodern world and the emerging church? While many are scared to death of anything postmodern and see it as the denial of absolute truth, that’s not necessarily the full story. The cultural and philosophical thought of the last century has been deeply shaped by Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity,” which in essence says that we don’t see reality at it is, but rather as it is and as we are—which means we always see things from some kind of temporal perspective. Paul acknowledged that when he said, “Now we see through a glass darkly…” For most postmoderns, truth is subjective and thus ever-changing. Not all postmoderns, however, reject the idea of absolute truth; some are simply more humble about our ability as humans to know it completely. The emerging church is responding to postmodernity with great efforts to embody the truth of the Christian faith with humility and grace rather than arguing for the propositions of the faith or trying to use the Truth as a club with which to hit others. And part of the reason we find the culture at large shifting from modernity to postmodernity is because of the harsh and even un-Christlike way many who claimed to know the Truth carried it.

That humility calls for a greater flexibility than many evangelical Christians want to welcome. All too easily we’re all about how we do things. We protect our traditions, equating our traditions to Christlikeness. But we’ve got to understand that our calling to reach this world calls for us to contextualize the Gospel.

What do I mean by that? Missionaries have known for many years that in order for the Gospel to come alive in the diversity of human cultures and circumstances, we have to find ways of telling and living the Gospel that make sense to a given group of people. We then trust that Christ will transform lives, but they first have to “get it.” Contextualizing the Gospel is simply making the Christian faith relevant and meaningful to people of a particular culture without changing the meaning of Scripture. It’s relating the changeless Gospel of Jesus Christ to a world that is constantly changing.

Imagine how you’d talk about Jesus with a 2-year-old. Don’t you suppose you’d approach things differently with a 10-year-old? Or a 16-year-old? Or a 60-year-old? In much the same way, the challenge of making the Gospel relevant and meaningful to people of different cultures forces us to take different approaches. Contextualizing the Gospel doesn’t change the Gospel; it just changes how it’s presented!

But there are those who have taken that too far—which is why we need God’s guidance in making our way through this. Some have changed the Gospel! History is full of examples of people who went too far with contextualization. One way we see that happening today is in the encouragement of the blending of religions and the rituals that go with them which would make someone think that they can be both a Buddhist and a Christian at the same time. Scripture clearly doesn’t teach that! The exclusivity of the Gospel is sometimes offensive—in fact, very offensive in our world today. But if we try to accommodate the desire to combine religions, then we’ve crossed a line. Jesus is not one of the ways to God. He is “The Way.”

I need you to know that there are those in the emerging church movement who have gone too far in their efforts to make the Gospel relevant in our postmodern world. There are things coming from some emerging church leaders that are nothing less than heresy. One popular emerging church author recently wrote a book in which he pretty much declares that there is no hell. Rob Bell, in my opinion, goes way too far in his book entitled, “Love Wins.” He’s only telling half the truth. And Scripture doesn’t just tell half the truth.

My concern on one hand is that there are those who accept everything the emerging church declares—without putting it through the filter of scripture. That’s what scares me for those who get enamored with the popular authors and teachers in the emerging church movement. They’re incredibly gifted speakers and writers—and they communicate so effectively! And it’s so easy to just soak it all in without doing the work of sifting through what’s consistent with scripture and what is not!

On the other hand, my fear among those who have been in the church for many years is that we’ll plant our feet in our traditions and worship practices and ways of thinking and fail to recognize that the way we’re communicating the Gospel no longer connects with the people down the street. We so easily spiritualize our traditions that we stubbornly refuse to flex in the methods in order to accomplish the mission, and the church too easily falls into the trap of trying to please itself—when God has called us to reach the world!

“Emerging church” can mean a lot of different things, so we need to be careful what it is we’re responding to and not embrace or reject people or churches or practices that someone might label “emerging church.” We need to listen and learn what we can from much of the emerging church, for they are focusing their efforts in reaching younger generations for Christ. And while we can’t accept it all, there’s much we can learn.

For example, the emerging church wants Christians to focus less on what God saves us from and more on what God saves to—to be disciples who live as part of the Kingdom of God and not just believers who have been forgiven. That’s why we see such a surge among young adults in a willingness to go and serve the great needs of our world!

Here are a some of the other things I believe we need to hear from the emerging church!
• Christ used the analogy of “The Body” to speak of the church. That means it’s a living organism—always alive and always developing. While I don’t believe everything about the church is suddenly obsolete, I do believe that God wants to speak to His Church through this movement and let it prompt some necessary changes.
• We need to hear the passion of the emerging church that takes them beyond just making converts but truly making disciples of Jesus!
• We need to learn what we can from emerging church leaders regarding how we can best reach people who are living in a postmodern world.
• We need to hear the cry of the emerging church for Christ’s Church to move away from institutionalism. I appreciate the Church of the Nazarene—and it’s the family through which I have served the Lord, but I’m a Christian first and foremost. Postmoderns get that—and we need to be careful that we don’t begin to worship our institutions.

But let me also briefly share some of the concerns regarding the emerging church that I may not have covered yet—and let me encourage you to consider these in trying to discern what is true and what is not.
• To me, my greatest concern is the tendency to water down the authority of Scripture. If we’re not grounding our beliefs and our lifestyles in scripture, then I believe we’re on shaky ground.
• The emphasis on conversation, community and peace with all people can easily drift the emerging church away from a clear understanding that Jesus is the only way to God.
• In their emphasis upon God’s redeeming love, some emerging church leaders have drifted so far as to deny the existence of hell and embrace universalism—that everyone will go to heaven. That’s simply not biblical!
• One of the mantras of emerging church people is “I’m spiritual; I just don’t like religion!” Honestly, Jesus didn’t care for a lot of what went on in the name of “religion” in His world either—so we can’t disagree totally with the emerging church on this. However, independent too often means we’re not accountable in any way, and we need to be aware of the pitfalls. When it comes to the Church, let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water!

Let’s not be too quick to criticize other churches if they’re reaching people for Christ. While there certainly are churches that are watering down the Gospel in order to make it more palatable to unchurched people, most churches are genuinely and passionately trying to do everything they can to respond to the spiritual needs of people in a rapidly changing world! We need to be giving a lot more grace to one another—church to church—than we sometimes see and hear.

Let’s be open to changes we’ll need to make in order to be most effective in living Christian lives and being about His mission in our world! I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to waste my life on that which isn’t working and isn’t making a difference in our world—even if it’s comfortable to me! We’ve got to be willing to embrace changes which help us better facilitate growth in Christlikeness among those who simply don’t see the world through the same lens as we’ve grown up seeing it!

At the same time, let’s be on our guard against jumping on the bandwagon of the latest craze in the Christian world and the most provocative speakers. We’ve got to be on our guard against theology or practices which are simply not consistent with biblical teaching and principles. And we as a congregation need to be careful about giving a platform for such people—in what we read or in what we teach! And let’s teach our people to exercise discernment in their own lives in finding out what God’s Word says pleases the Lord—and what doesn’t! Let’s be wholeheartedly committed to living as Children of Light!—not darkness!

In John 17, Jesus prayed that we would be in the world but not of it. We are not to be chameleons that adapt our values and our principles to every wave of thought that comes our way. While we’re to live in the world, we’re keep our eyes on Jesus. We’re to stay connected to the Vine—to Him. And we’re to remain fully engaged with Christ’s Body, His Church. May God help us live as Children of Light!

Cindy and I flew through Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago and were intrigued with all the slot machines in the airport! It cost me a fortune to get out of that airport that day! (Not really!—I didn’t touch them…and that’s a whole other sermon!) But I got to thinking that if you asked most anyone in Las Vegas “How much is enough?” you’d get the answer, “Just a little more!” And honestly, we wouldn’t have to go to Las Vegas to get that answer, for the answer to the question, “How much is enough?” seems to be a moving target all across our country today—with the simple answer always being, “Just a little more,” regardless of how much the person already has!

Some of you may be wondering why I’m even posing the question this morning. Why deal with the question “How much is enough” when most of us are just trying to get by?! “We’re not wealthy!” most of you would say, “We’re part of the 99%!” And you may be, but I’m hoping you understand that on a worldwide scale today, most all of us are part of the 1% or at least the top 5% in terms of personal wealth. And the strange thing is that we still don’t think we have enough to live on! But is it that we don’t have enough to live on, or have we come to think that we need far more than what we truly do?

But just how much do we need? What do you think? Do you have enough now? Let me pose what I believe is an even more important question: What does the Bible say about how much we need?

The writer of the book of Hebrews wrote,
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5)
And Paul wrote to young Timothy,
Command those who are rich in this present world not to…put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God…In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17, 19)

Do you know that Jesus talked a lot about money? In fact, Jesus talked more about money than most any other subject, and almost everything He has to say about money is negative—or at least a warning, so it should be interesting to us what Jesus would have to say about affluence. In the passage we’re about to read from Luke 12, Jesus talked about the love of money being a major distraction in our spiritual lives.

Someone came to Jesus asking Jesus to take his side in a family dispute about an inheritance, but Jesus saw that the man had a greater problem than what kind of inheritance he was going to get. I’ve seen some people across the years get mighty ugly when it came to family inheritances! And Jesus rightly saw that the man had a problem with greed. And what Jesus began to address is that greed and the pursuit of possessions constitute one of the greatest obstacles in our spiritual growth—in our desire to be more and more like Jesus. And I suppose that it’s never been any more true than it is for people in our country today, where abundance is far more the norm than not—despite all of our unfulfilled wants.

Let’s go to Luke’s record of Jesus’ response to the man that came to him with a request one day—
[Read Luke 12:13-34, NIV]

Jesus said that we need to be on our guard against greed. Apparently Jesus saw greed as a dangerous trap—a dangerous trap to be avoided at all costs! Why would Jesus tell us to be on our guard against greed? Because He knew that all too easily our answer to most of the concerns in life is that we simply need more money! That would solve all of our problems! Or would it?

The man whom we read about in Luke 12 apparently thought that more money and more stuff would solve all his problems. He wanted what he thought was his—and he was trying to get Jesus to side with him in what was apparently a dispute about how his father’s estate would be divided. Now, as much as we accept that God is a God of justice, as we discussed last week, obviously Jesus wasn’t as concerned here with the man getting justice as Jesus was concerned that the man lose his preoccupation for greed. You know, as I studied this passage, I realized that this man had apparently just lost his father. His father had died, and yet he wasn’t asking Jesus to help him deal with the sadness of his loss. He was concerned about money and stuff. And Jesus rightly saw it as a problem with greed, and he told the man and all who were listening a story or parable about another greedy man.

Jesus tells the parable of what is sometimes called “the rich fool.” It involves the tremendous fortune of a man and how he handled that fortune. He was a farmer, and he had a banner year for his crop. His crop was so huge that the man lacked storage space for it all. So, rather than letting his resources waste away, he devises a plan to create more storage space. His thinking is perfectly normal and seems to make sense, but the it’s the rationale, philosophy and personal self-interest that result from the decision that are the problem.

You see, the man believes that what he has is his in no uncertain terms. Several times, as Jesus told the story, Jesus has the man speaking about what he has: my crops…my barns…my grain…my goods…myself! There is no hint of an awareness of stewardship or of a responsibility to help others with his fortune. It was all about himself! He apparently thought he’d earned it, so it was rightfully his! So after he built a bigger barn to store all his grain, he determined that he could relax into a totally self-indulgent life of ease: “Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” While it simply sounds like a wonderful early retirement, it was, in Jesus’ eyes, a classic case of hedonism—which is the relentless pursuit of pleasure.

While the man is about to sit back and enjoy his fat-cat life, God has some news for him: his life is about to end! God calls him a fool because of his poor choice of life priorities! All that the man gained in life would now make no difference in eternity at all. He couldn’t take a single thing with him—and someone else would get all that the man had stored up for himself! The one who defined life in terms of possessions now came up terribly empty in terms of character on the Day of Judgment. Jesus’ point in the story is that the person who seeks wealth in this life ends up with an empty soul and an empty life. What could have been an opportunity for generosity and blessing to others became a stumbling block to the man’s soul. Life is not about possessions! The world may get enamored with money and with stuff, but the follower of Jesus is to live life on a higher plane—we’re to have higher values and priorities than seeking wealth!

Jesus isn’t saying that possessions in and of themselves are bad, but rather that the selfish pursuit of them is pointless. Greed seeks possessions and possessions never satisfy like we think they will. Greed too easily becomes idolatry, turning the passionate pursuit of money and possessions into a cheap and unsatisfying substitute for God. Our church’s mission statement is “Passion for God/Compassion for People.” When greed is our god, we can’t have a passion for God Almighty, and we certainly won’t have true compassion for people.

While Jesus isn’t saying that possessions in and of themselves are bad, Jesus did say that it was difficult for wealthy people to enter the Kingdom of God. When a wealthy young man came to Jesus asking what he had to do to receive eternal life, Jesus told him to sell all of his possessions and give it to the poor, and then to simply follow Jesus. But the man couldn’t do it, so he went away sad. In response, Jesus made the disturbing statement,
I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. (Matthew 19:23-24)
And lest you think that makes it impossible for a wealthy person to enter the Kingdom of God, Jesus clarified immediately that “with God all things are possible”!

But His point was made—and I’ve seen the life examples all too many times. Several years ago, Pastor Ray Stedman gave a list of four false beliefs that make money so deceitful. He said that those who have wealth have a strong tendency to believe:
• I am bulletproof (nothing can harm me)
• I am free of responsibility
• I do not need other people…or God
• Money will buy me happiness
But the realities of life prove otherwise—which is what the Lord so much wants each of us to learn before we throw our lives into the pursuit of money and things! That’s not what life at its best is all about!—at all!

Dan Boone tells about an event that happened in 1923, when nine of the world’s wealthiest men gathered in Chicago. The group was made up of the presidents of the world’s largest steel company, the world’s largest utility company, the world’s largest gas company, the New York Stock Exchange and the Bank of International Settlements, plus the world’s greatest wheat speculator, a cabinet member of the United States President, the biggest bear on Wall Street and the head of the world’s largest monopoly. You’d think that these guys were set for life and would enjoy their days on the earth. I’m sure many people would have loved to have had their money!

But if you fast-forward 25 years to 1948, you see that things didn’t turn out as we might have expected. Charles Schwab died bankrupt; Samuel Insull died penniless, running from the law; Howard Hopson was insane; Arthur Critten was insolvent; Richard Whitney was just released from prison; Albert Fall was pardoned from prison to die at home; and Jesse Livermore, Leon Fraser and Ivan Kreuger all three committed suicide. These men who had mastered money had somehow suffered a fate under its curse—and their lives unraveled.

In light of these men’s lives, we need to consider what Paul wrote to Timothy—
A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that’s enough. But if it’s only money these leaders are after, they’ll self-destruct in no time. Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after. (1 Timothy 6:6-10, The Message)

I suppose in some ways my sermon is about two months too late!—for we all know that the time leading up to Christmas has become the time of advertisers’ biggest assault on any sense of contentment within us. Maybe I could have spared you and your family some of the frantic rush that is all-too-often all about greed—somehow convinced that we must have more, bigger, better, and certainly the latest new toy or gadget! Have you ever stopped to think that God started working on humanity’s greed way back when the Israelites found themselves wandering in the wilderness and God supplied just enough food for them to eat every day—food that would spoil if they dared to hoard it. The instructions were as simple as: Gather only what you need; learn to trust God for your daily provisions; enough is enough; don’t stockpile; don’t get greedy.

Back to Luke 12…Jesus also demonstrated keen insight into humanity when he instructed us not to worry about our needs being met. Instead of worrying about material matters in life, followers of Jesus are to trust God for those things! It’s that simple! And Jesus gave three illustrations from nature to affirm God’s care for us. He talked about how God provided for the ravens, for the lilies and for the grass of the field. If God can take such good care of them, surely we can trust Him to take care of us! Trusting God to take care of us is part of what it means to have relationship with God! Living is so much more than just about what we acquire and accumulate!

And besides that, there’s a practical reason not to worry: it does us no good! In fact, worry should come with a surgeon general’s warning: “Warning: Worry may be harmful to your health.” Worry is so pointless! We’re God’s children, and He invites us to trust Him instead!

Jesus is our Ultimate Example in this. Jesus had a loose attachment to things. Unlike the foxes and the birds, He owned no home. He emphatically rejected Satan’s offer of food, kingdoms and fame. And while he never lauded poverty per se, nor spoke of the material realm as evil, our Lord clearly chose and modeled simplicity. His message was of eternal blessings, not prosperity here on earth. He knew that prosperity was what the pagan world ran after—and He clearly warned us against falling into their footsteps. God has something better for us. We’re to seek His Kingdom, and trust Him to take care of our needs along the way, assured that He knows what we need. And we’re to embrace a spirit of contentment about what God has provided for us—something too many of us aren’t so good at! God wants us to be totally dependent upon Him. We’re to work—and scripture makes that clear too, but we’re to do so with the understanding that when it all boils down to it, we’re absolutely dependent upon the Lord!

And instead of storing up treasures on earth, we’re to store up treasures in heaven. What in the world do we mean by that? A treasure is something you consider extremely valuable. A treasure is something to be cherished, something that is accumulated and carefully protected for the purpose of security. The world’s way is to gather all the material treasures we can—and to guard them as our own. But Jesus held loosely to things, didn’t He? Like Jesus, we are to hold loosely to the resources God provides for us—including our money and our “stuff”! We’re to live with the clear recognition that it’s all His to begin with and it’s all His in the long haul! What’s more important than how much of it we gather for ourselves in life is how we use whatever He entrusts to us along the way! And in holding loosely to it all, we are to be generous with those in genuine need.

May I remind you of what we read last week in Matthew 25? Jesus said He’d welcome into His Heavenly Kingdom those who fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, welcomed strangers who had no place to go, clothed those who needed it, and visited the sick and the imprisoned. But He would turn those away who refused to do so.

Do I need to remind you of the needs around us and around the globe today? Most of you have seen the images of what life is like for millions living in extreme poverty today. It’s so pitiful that we want to turn our heads. Some of us have seen the great needs with our own eyes—and it makes its mark on our hearts, for we can’t ignore it! And we must be reminded that God has not given to us in order that we would hoard it for ourselves. God’s passion and desire is that we learn to be good stewards of what He entrusts to us, using what we need to live on, and sharing the surplus with those in need. If we are blessed in material things, we are not to pat ourselves on our backs and somehow consider ourselves more important than others, and we certainly aren’t suppose to squander it to satisfy our many desires. Our calling as followers of Jesus is to live simply and to share all that we can with others in need.

Our church has derived much of our theology and understanding of scripture from a man named John Wesley. For Wesley, defying material prosperity was part of the call to live holy lives. Holiness for Wesley was separation to God away from the things the world valued. He warned that wealth would increase our conformity to the world, and he boldly criticized those who preached in favor of the accumulation of wealth. He saw the Acts 2 model of sharing possessions as something we should be doing today. And in his own life, Wesley chose to live as simply as possible so as to give all that he could to the poor—and he challenged his followers to do the same.

How can we claim to have “compassion for people” if we’re clinging to our lifestyle comforts while others don’t even have enough food to survive? I’m told that every minute, 27 people die of starvation and malnutrition—with about 20 of those 27 being children under five. I understand that people are to work and earn their wages and not become dependent upon charity. But children under five cannot “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” nor can men and women in drought- and famine-stricken areas and in areas devastated by natural disasters. Darwin spoke for the elimination of the weak; Jesus calls us to serve the weak.

Don’t you think that we need to do some serious soul-searching of our attitudes toward money and stuff? How much is enough? Most people simply can’t handle the thought of their wealth moving in any direction other than upwards. We need to ask ourselves if we are committed to accumulation or to Christlike charity. The Bible talks about the addiction to material things as a form of idolatry where your possessions become your master instead of your servant. And God’s joke on rich people is that they will have to leave it all behind anyway.

Jesus concluded His thoughts that day by talking about our goals. He introduced a formula which is as appropriate today as ever: Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Luke 12:34) Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being. If everything a person values is on earth, then his values will also be earthly. But when a person’s goals are set on the eternal will of God, that person’s values reflect the same.

We really must avoid what some have called “the tyranny of things.” Jesus wants His followers to understand and fully embrace the reality that possessions do not give life its meaning. In fact, possessions can become a tyranny in our lives so that we are full of greed—and never satisfied with what we have. Jesus’ words strike at the core of human selfishness, challenging the wealthy who have possessions and accounts and investments to guard and as well as the poor who wish they could acquire them. And Jesus’ words are so uncomfortable that even those of us who say we love Him and who defend the authority of Scripture find ourselves looking for ways around what He says.

If it’s appropriate to pray that God would purify our hearts and cleanse us from anything that is not pleasing in His sight, then it would seem that it’s appropriate to pray that God would “de-greed” (or “un-greed”) our lives. I’ll warn you: It may not be a painless process. I will promise you that it will be incredibly freeing—as obedience to the Lord always ends up being. And I’ll even suggest that cultivating the discipline of giving faithfully and generously is one of the ways in which God “de-greeds” our lives. I personally believe that that’s exactly what God has in mind with tithing—giving back to Him the first 10% of our earnings, recognizing that it all belongs to Him anyway. And I can tell you for sure that learning to give well beyond that is what He wants to teach us to do—as His resources flow through our lives to impact the lives of others.

I’ve been reading and re-reading Psalm 139 in my personal devotions this week, and I want to close with the prayer found at the end of that beautiful psalm:
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)

Would it shock you for me to admit that there are some topics pastors don’t like to talk about from the pulpit? It’s certainly true in a lot of contexts outside the church that two topics you don’t talk about are religion and politics! They can just be too divisive! The problem with us not addressing some things from the pulpit is that people “out there” (wherever that is!) don’t mind infusing their opinions and philosophies 24/7! Unfortunately, the church has allowed the world to dictate some values to us, making some topics difficult to deal with—and yet, if we refuse to do so, all we’re left with is the world’s philosophy, which is primarily a life philosophy apart from God.

There are several topics I have been sensing that I need to address as pastor of this church—things like sexual purity, homosexuality, social justice, material affluence, the landmine of terms like “postmodern” and “emerging church,” and even the matter of whether or not alcohol is to have a place in the life of the Christian. I spent several days in prayer last November, and came away convinced that now’s the time! So here we go!—for the next six weeks, we’re diving into these matters, endeavoring to shed light from Scripture on them. And then next fall, by the way, I plan to deal with several other such topics, like “What makes Christianity think it’s right and every other religion is wrong?” and “How can a loving God send people to hell?” and “How can a good God let people suffer?”—but I have a hunch we may need a few months to recover from the first batch of issues!

My premise for the series in the next six weeks really comes from the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:8-10—
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. (Ephesians 5:8-10)
As believers, we cherish the assurance that God has redeemed our lives, forgiven our sins, and welcomed us as sons and daughters. Our challenge, then, as children of light, is to live like it and to find out what pleases the Lord! Our concern is not for what pleases the world or what pleases ourselves. Our calling is to please the Lord.

This morning I want to address the question, “Does God really care about social justice?” There are those who cry out for the church to first and foremost be about social justice—and there are others in the church who think the social justice agenda is a clear indication of the church being polluted by the world’s values. So what are we to think and how are we to act and what are to be our priorities and our values as a church and as Children of Light?

Because I want these messages to be firmly grounded in the Word of God, I want us to begin by turning to a passage of Scripture which clearly sheds light on this matter for us. Turn with me to the words of Jesus found in Matthew 25—
[Read Matthew 25:31-46, NIV]

Jesus’ words are pretty clear, aren’t they? We cannot hear these words and miss the importance Jesus placed upon His followers being those who feed the hungry, give water to those who are thirsty, welcome strangers who have no place to go, provide clothing for those whose clothing is inadequate, look after the sick, and visit those who are in prison. Jesus really isn’t using such abstract language here! He’s pretty clear! He’s clear that those who do these things for others will be welcomed to His side for all eternity—in a place we often call heaven. And He’s also quite clear that those who ignore the needs of people will be sent away to eternal punishment—a place we often call hell.

Now, can we step aside from this passage for a moment and consider “social justice.” It’s a phrase which seems to spark a lot of passion! We have many young people in the church today with strong convictions that the church needs to be more concerned with social justice than we have been. They’re fired up about it! They’re asking questions like, “Why would a church spend millions of dollars on a church building when those dollars could feed a lot of people who are literally starving to death?” They long to be in a faith community that actively embraces the weak, the poor and the disadvantaged—like Jesus did! And the more astute ones are critical of their own generation for spending more money at Starbucks than on donations to address global concerns like poverty or AIDS prevention. They long for the church to step up and be the church as they offer justice for those oppressed in every corner of the world today.

On the other hand, we have people who have been in the church for many years and have witnessed the watering down of the Gospel in many denominations which have lost their passion to see people saved—to come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and for their lives to be transformed as only Jesus can do! There’s a genuine fear that we as a church—the Church of the Nazarene in particular—not go down that road! When they hear the word “social justice,” they relate it purely to political agendas which have led to churches ordaining practicing homosexuals and talking more about saving our earth from global warming than seeing the salvation of souls by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And it seems like before we get too fired up for or against “social justice,” we need to clarify what we mean by it! Psalm 9:16 affirms what so much of Scripture seems to proclaim: The Lord is known by his justice. (Psalm 9:16) Isaiah 61:8 tells us that the Lord loves justice. In Micah 6:8, we find the marching orders in regards to justice:
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

The call for justice is found throughout the Old and New Testaments. And there have been followers of Christ throughout the ages who have given their lives—some of them literally—for the cause of justice for others. The Roman Catholic Church throughout the ages has exemplified a concern for the poorest members of society, embracing the value of all human life. Their embracing of the words of Jesus, such as what we read from Matthew 25, prompted many to establish ministries to address the needs of the poor. From its founding, Methodism and its leader John Wesley were committed to what they considered “social justice.” It prompted them to address issues such as prison reform and the abolition of slavery. John Wesley was among the first to preach for slaves rights—and he was severely opposed for doing so! Our own denomination, the Church of the Nazarene, was founded by those who were committed to taking the Gospel to the poor and doing everything they could to address the needs of the poor and to make them feel welcomed in their fellowship. It was, no doubt, a passionate response to “act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with [their] God.”

And so it’s reasonable for us to conclude that if we mean by “social justice” the valuing of every person and the life priority of taking care of the needs of the poor and the vulnerable, then we can be confident that God cares deeply about social justice! The moral righteousness of God is revealed in His laws and expressed in His acts of judgment—and they comprise the perfect standard of justice.

If we embrace the whole of God’s Word, we also have to acknowledge that His doling out of punishments and rewards is also perfectly just. God’s justice is impartial—not swayed by the things that sway man. He punishes wickedness—regardless of who is the perpetrator. He rewards right-living. God’s justice is exercised fairly and equitably. He loves justice!

Thus God upholds the cause of the oppressed. He vindicates those who have been wronged. And, in His grace, He gives opportunity for people to change their ways—which, of course, is the Good News of the Gospel. Peter reminds us,
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise…He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
God’s love extends to all people, as does His offer of grace. But God’s Word teaches that we must be willing to turn from our sins and accept His salvation in order to be delivered from the condemnation we deserve.

God then requires His people to reflect His compassion and His justice to others in our world. In the book Compassion, Henri Nouwen explains where compassion asks us to go:
To go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human. (Henri Nouwen)
Which is, of course, exactly what Jesus did! Jesus identified with the weak and the poor. He sought out the outcasts of society. He was quick to condemn those who ignored the needs of people around them, and wasn’t afraid to denounce the hypocrites who considered themselves religious but refused to respond to such needs.

And Jesus was clear in the severity of judgment upon those who failed to care for the poor and the needy. Heaven was prepared for the righteous, but hell was prepared for the Devil and his angels, but now also serves as the doom of those guilty of the sins of omission which Jesus addressed. This judgment is surely an indictment upon Christ’s Church when it fails to be involved in the needs around us, with the sins of omission apparently the most serious. In other words, all we need to do to miss out on God’s grace is to ignore caring for the needy! As the oft-repeated quotation of Edmund Burke declares,
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. (Edmund Burke)
And that’s consistent with what Jesus was saying in Matthew 25! God’s people are called to action! That’s essentially what the story of the Good Samaritan is all about! Christians are called to put love and justice into action!

Jesus conducted a major attack on the religion of His day—which was full of much talk and no action! He continuously condemned in bold language their legalism, self-righteousness, bigotry and love of wealth and power. Listen to His words as recorded in Luke 11—
“Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness…you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God…Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces…and you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them…” (Luke 11:39-46)

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had failed to heed the warnings of Old Testament prophets like Isaiah, who condemned the people for going through religious exercises like fasting without embracing the heart of God in how they lived their lives. Isaiah wrote,
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him…?” (Isaiah 58:6-7)

We must conclude that God has called His people to see the value in every person as people created by God. We must make a life priority of caring for the needs of the poor and the vulnerable—and we must be willing to be part of correcting the wrongs being done. A deep stain on Christian history is the African slave trade. Since Christianity was dominant in the nations that bought and sold slaves during that time, the church must bear responsibility along with their society for what happened. But it was eventually Christians who first came to the conclusion that it was wrong—and they began to work for the abolition of slavery. Christian activists such as William Wilberforce and many others devoted their entire lives to ending slavery.

Of course, the abolition of slavery didn’t bring about racial justice in our country. I remember in 1974 traveling with my college choir in Mississippi and hearing the lady who organized the housing of all the students say, “We were studying the picture of the choir to see if there were any black students in it and wondered where we might house them if there were, because we knew no one in the church would be comfortable having them stay in their homes.” I was appalled!

And if you’ve seen the new movie, “The Help,” you get an all-too-vivid picture of how African Americans were being treated, especially in the Deep South, just 50 years ago. I can’t recommend the movie without telling you that there’s language which I don’t appreciate, but the impact of the movie is remarkable. The first time I saw it, I wanted to call some of my black friends and apologize for how they had been treated.

We the church must be at the forefront of righting the wrongs in our society! We cannot undo the wrongs of the past, but we must be devoted to setting things right now!

It is the same passion for justice that has led many to give themselves to the cause of protecting the unborn children who are never given the chance to breath because someone determined is was their right to take the life of another. And while the media has a heyday with those who are misguided in their attempts to protect the unborn, it is surely Christlike for us to speak out for those who will otherwise never be given the chance to speak for themselves!—and to provide care for young mothers who choose to let their babies live.

Cindy and I have a new grandbaby on the way. Our son Justin and his wife Chelsea are expecting a little girl in April—and we’re excited for them and excited to welcome a new baby into our family. We value the unborn child—our new granddaughter already even has a name! It breaks our hearts when a miscarriage ends that promise of new life! And it should make us downright mad that it is permissible in our country for one person to destroy the life of another!

If these are the things that we mean by “social justice,” then absolutely God cares about social justice! It’s woven into His character and He wants to weave it into the character of His children as well! It’s how Children of Light live!

But “social justice” has come to mean much more—and that’s where I believe we have a problem with the term unless clearly defined. If we mean by social justice the acceptance of every philosophy and every lifestyle having equal worth and deserving equal respect, then it would seem clear that God does not embrace “social justice” as a priority for His Church. Why would I say that? Because God’s Word speaks clearly about that which is wrong and that which is right, about that which is His plan for humanity and that which is clearly a perversion of His plan.

The popular religion of our world has declared toleration to be our new standard. The problem for us as Christians is that the Bible declares righteousness to be our standard for living. And while God is the God of love and has compassion for all people, He does not tolerate sin in our lives, and He’s never been afraid to define what is sin and what is not. God is not “tolerant” in the way our culture teaches tolerance! He is quite intolerant, as a matter of fact! I cannot fathom how anyone can read the Bible and not see that!

Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 6—
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

Indifferent to God’s standards for righteousness, people have turned God’s call for social justice into a political movement and a secular manifesto to somehow make respectable and give dignity to that which God abhors. We can relate that to the sexual revolution that has seemingly lifted all constraints on God’s mandate for sexual purity—promoting freedom as a license for most anything, and “social justice” declares that we must give dignity to those choices. We can relate that to those advocating the acceptance and “dignity” of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender lifestyles—something I’ll address further in a few weeks. We can relate this to the equal merit which we’re seemingly forced to give to all religions and philosophies—even though the Christian faith teaches that salvation is through Christ alone!

We can relate this to the social acceptance of so many things which God’s Word clearly tells us are sin. And yet because this secular manifesto has been carefully clothed in terms of Christian compassion and mercy, it has become the new norm for many Christian churches! And the message of the Gospel has become the message of toleration—and it’s absolutely inconsistent with Scripture! And whenever a Bible-believing Christian speaks out against such things, it’s declared “hateful” by our secular culture. Oh, I agree that we must be compassionate toward those who sin—for that’s where we’ve all been in one way or another! But God’s call to love the sinner is not the same as giving dignity and value to the sin. Sin is sin—and God’s Word never gives dignity and value to sin.

Justice means “giving to each what he or she is due.” Functionally, “justice” is a set of God-given principles which guide us in judging what is right and what is wrong. If “social justice” means that Christians must accept the choice of every person to be equally “right” regardless of how they measure up to biblical standards, then I must resist the concept of “social justice” on biblical principles.

And we may as well admit that such a position is not a popular one in our culture today. It is perceived by many to be “hateful” and intolerant and simply will not be understood in the context of the world apart from Christ. But let me remind you that Jesus wasn’t understood in this world either—and He made it clear that His followers would be counter-culture as well. I believe He said we’d be hated by the world—and, sad to say, we often are. Many have and do face persecution. And I fear the kind of persecution that will come to followers of Christ in the years ahead as we live in a culture that is more and more secular and less and less in tune with the principles for living that God has laid out for us and for our benefit.

Does God really care about social justice? If we’re talking about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, taking care of the sick—then absolutely Yes!! And we as Christ-followers must be willing to give ourselves to these causes! But I might suggest that we use the term “social justice” carefully, acknowledging that it carries lots of different meanings today, many of which are not consistent with the teachings of Christ and with God’s Word in general. I pray that the Lord will give us wisdom and discernment in rightly understanding His Word to us!

As pastor of Valley Shepherd, may I once again affirm you as a church in the many ways in which you respond to the needs of people in our community and beyond! Honestly, I’ve never been part of a church that does so much to address hunger and material needs in the community. Your work through the Meridian Foodbank and the Backpack ministry and the Shepherd’s Garden and Project Kids and other ways is amazing—not to mention the money given through this church for Nazarene missions and Compassionate ministries every year! In so many ways, as a group of Christ-followers, you seem to have “gotten it” that a church that is more interested in providing for itself than in giving itself in service to a needy world is not the kind of church which our Lord had in mind on the day of Pentecost!

And yet I suppose that our risk is in contenting ourselves in what others are doing and patting ourselves on the back while the needs in our world continue. Oh, I know, we can never solve all the problems of poverty. Jesus said that we’d always have the poor with us. And yet we each need to keep coming back to the Lord, asking Him to search our hearts and our lives to see if we’re doing enough to address real needs, if we’re attentive enough and if we truly care enough—and to make sure we’re not getting too consumed with our own desires that we fail to see how God wants to work through us to address the needs of others. I’m actually going to dig deeper into that very matter next week.

May the Lord help us give ourselves wholeheartedly to feeding the hungry, taking care of the poor and the sick and the imprisoned and the helpless—not just to somehow satisfy our guilt, but to do so with great abandon and to make it a life passion of our lives! May God help us live as Children of Light, finding out what pleases the Lord and doing it!

Satchel Page, the famous baseball player, gained a national reputation for his rules for successful living. The best known of those rules was: “Don’t look back. Something may be gaining on you.”
That’s something like the Apostle was saying in our Scripture reading for this first Sunday of the New Year, 2012 in Philippians 3. Paul was writing from a jail to the church at Philippi. This church had been established by Paul and his friends about A.D. 52. In this section we meet Paul, “the athlete” with his spiritual vigor, pressing toward the finish line in the Christian race. It is an incredible letter and provides powerful principles as we begin a new year. Turn with me to Philippians 3:12-16. The Apostle Paul was facing some of the greatest challenges of his life. He had come from being a persecutor of Christians to now boldly proclaiming the love of Christ. He had been forgiven of all his past and refused to allow Satan to trap him with past guilt.
There is considerable evidence in the Bible about the danger of looking back. First in the Old Testament in Genesis 19:26 and in Luke 9:62 , “But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt.” “But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”(NLT)
Yes, there are times when we need to reflect on God’s blessing and offer praise, but this morning our focus is on those events in the past that are best not to recall. When these events are remembered they produce negative responses and often bring on depression and bitterness. There are some things in life we just need to refuse to recall.
Notice Paul’s words in verses 12-13 “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.”
Many Christians get into a comfort zone because they compare there running the race with others rather than with Christ. Paul had no illusions about himself ,but was very much aware he had to keep pressing on and growing. He says, “…but one thing I do…” Paul was focused on -around certain people they reflect a Kingdom mindset. One of our dear saints who is praying for me today, whenever I talk with her is concerned about Kingdom issues, about prayer and how God is working.
The airline industry referred to David Phillips as the “The Pudding guy.” That’s because he had made the most of an airline promotion that offered frequent-flyer miles for purchasing certain brand-name products. He quickly spent $3,000 to buy 12,150 cups of pudding and, in the process earned 1.25 million miles. For a time, it seemed as if his whole life revolved around getting frequent-flyer miles.
As people observe our lives what do they see as what we consider as most important. First century friends of Paul had no doubt what was most important in his life. “But one thing I do…” He was able to no longer be immobilized by his past.
What does Paul mean when he talks about forgetting what is behind? We may wish we could forget the past, but apart from an episode of amnesia that will never happen.
However as one Bible scholar, Warren Wiersbe puts it: To forget in the Bible means “no longer to be influenced by or affected by.” Wow! It is possible to develop the habit of not looking back and being influence by the negative events in our past. I’ve had friends who have been paralyzed by their past. Bitter over divorce proceedings, neighbor relationships, , friends who let them down, employment relationships. One of those friends I think went to his grave with bitterness.
Someone has said: “We cannot change the past, but we can change the meaning of the past.” That was the difference in the Apostle Paul’s life. He was meeting the challenges of life by not letting his negative past paralyze him.
This first Sunday of the New Year I would place before you some fresh challenges in the year 2012.
Challenge #l DON’T LOOK BACK AT SINS THAT HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN
A popular bumper sticker says: “Christians aren’t perfect…just forgiven.” Paul was practicing what he preached. He had so much in his past that needed forgiveness. He was guilty of murder. He had turned Christians over to be executed in prison. Paul was doing this in the name of religion, yet didn’t realize that religion was just man made. It wasn’t until he had that dramatic encounter with Christ on the Damascus road and repented of his sins and turned form
religion to a relationship with Christ. His past had been forgiven. He was given a new beginning and did not look back on sins that had been forgiven. To say that this idea of forgiveness of my past is some isolated Scripture is to ignore the Word of God. Lets start with Ephesians l:7, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace…” Colossians 2:13, “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature; God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins…” Ist John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Let us put it this way, “Sins confessed are sins forgiven. The next time the time bomb of guilt starts ticking over some past sin that has been forgiven disarm it with the declaration “ Jesus died to set me free.”
But there is a second challenge for the New Year.
Challenge # 2 DON’T LOOK BACK AT DEFEATS THAT GET YOU DOWN.
We all are going to have failures in life, but it is how we manage those failures that count. Paul had suffered many defeats in his life. No his teaching is so strong in this area. Again look at those words in verse 13, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.” Paul is saying to us this Sunday morning Keep pressing on, keep growing, keep your experience fresh with the Lord through those daily disciplines of pray, read the Word and obey.
I read about a minister who was waiting in line to have his car filled with gas just before a long holiday week-end. The attendant worked quickly , but there were many cars ahead of him. Finally the attendant motioned him toward a vacant pump. “Pastor, I’m sorry about the delay. It seems as if everyone waits until the last minute to get ready for a long trip.” The Pastor laughed, “I know what you mean. It’s the same way in my business.”
One of the reasons Paul didn’t fall into the trap of spiritual defeatism was he always kept his eye on the goal. Look again at verse 14, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” The main reason why many fall into despair over the trials they face is that they have taken their eye off the goal and have forgotten that this life is but a preparation for the life to come, where those who are faithful will win the prize to be forever with Christ.
This past week I called my friend of 31 years, the converted alcoholic who I lead to Christ in Baker City. You have heard me talk about him before. But he was so thankful for what the Lord has done in his life. Just recently he was able to share his testimony and has read the Bible over 100 times. Even though he is going through tough times, physically, he has his eye on the prize, Jesus Christ.

The beginning of a new year is a good time to be reminded of how important it is to live with eternal values in view. Thelma shared me an everyday survival kit that came in a Christmas card.
Finally this morning let me share this challenge.
Challenge 3# DON’T LOOK BACK ON OLD CONFLICTS THAT MAKE YOU BITTER TOWARD OTHERS.
May all year long the words of Paul ring in our ears in verse 13, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do. Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead…”
Most of us have had conflict with people. There was a Sunday School teacher discussing the ten commandments with her 5 & 6 years old. After explaining the commandment to “honor thy father and mother,” she asked, “Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?” Without missing a beat one little boy(the oldest of the family) answered, “Thou shalt not kill.” Someone said: “Be nice to your friends. If it wasn’t for them, you’d be a total stranger.”
How many time have you caught yourself looking back on an old conflict and watched your blood pressure go up. Many of us have a hard time disengaging from our hurts, habits or hang-ups. Paul wanted those Philippian Christians to continue to grow in their faith and walk in the light God had given them. Notice those last two verses in this section, 15 and 16”All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live us to what we have already attained.”
Bible history is filled with people who began the Christian race but who fell by the wayside. In the O.T. Saul and in the New Testament Judas and we could name others. If only they had lived in the light God had given them.
It is God who enables us to cover our past through the blood of His Son who gave His life for us. Here at the Lord’s table we remember that the sacrifice of our Lord makes it possible to be forgiven and to have eternal life.
We just celebrated our Lord’s birth, but today we are reminded that the cross lay before Him. Dr. Ray Pritchard shares that during one of Billy Grahams sermons he told the story of a patrolman on night duty in a town in northern England. As he walked the streets, he heard a quivering sob. Shining his flashlight into the darkness, he saw a little boy in the shadows sitting on a doorstep and tears were running down his cheek. The child said, “I’m lost. Please take me home.” And the policeman began naming street after street, trying to help the boy remember where he lived. He named the shops and the hotels in the area but the little boy could give him no clue.
Then he remembered that at the center of the town there was a church with a large white cross that towered above the rest of the city. The policeman pointed to the cross and said, “Do you live anywhere near that place?” The little boy’s face immediately brightened up. He said, “Yes, sir. Take me to the cross and I can find my way home.”
Paul had found his way to the cross and was able to overcome his past. All that we believe and hope for is found in the cross.
Perhaps there are some here today that would like to come to our open altar before we serve communion and spend a moment in prayer. You want to start the New Year by allowing the Holy Spirit to do a fresh work in you, Others may just want to leave your burdens at the foot of the cross and claim victory over any negative thoughts and attitudes,or to accept the challenges of God’s Word as you face a New Year.