Church Retreat - Talk 3: The Presence of God in the Face of Hedonism
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Third level
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Fifth level
6/5/2017
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Talk 3
第三讲
:
The
Presence of God
in
the Face of
Hedonism
享乐主义下的神同在
There
will be terrible times in the last days.
2
People will be
lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3
without love, unforgiving,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
4
treacherous, rash, conceited,
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—
5
having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Challenge
of Ageism Challenge of Virtuality Challenge of
Sexuality
= Challenge God’s presence
Evicts God’s presence & replaces him with our idolatries
Hedonism
Extreme self-pleasure at the expense of God & neighbor
Hedonism
Hedonism
Upsized
Two-thirds
of children age 11 to 14 now use perfume or after-shave According to a study in the March 2005 British Journal of Development Psychology, 71.4% of 7 year olds wanted to be thinner and most thought it would make them more popular
A Generational Change
In
the study of the diaries of adolescent girls in the U.S. over a period of 100 years, Joan Jacobs Brumberg found that girls of earlier eras focused on
“good works
” as the key to getting on in life whereas today’s focus is far more on “
good looks
”.
The Sexualisation or Maturation of our children?
Psychologists’ View
emotional distress
& depression.
More major problems: Eating
disorders. “
Suicide
among tweens more than doubled
between 1979 and 1995. Therapists say they are seeing a
growth in eating disorders
— anorexia and obsessive dieting—even among girls in late elementary school, doubtless an
outgrowth of a premature fashion-consciousness
.” – Wall Street Journal
Between
1988 and 1995, the proportion of girls saying they had sexual intercourse before 15 rose to 19% from 11
%.
May ironically result in girls having less of a chance of a healthy and happy sex life in the future
Boys end up with an emphasized belief that girls are sexual objects and jeopardize their ability to form and maintain intimate relationships in the future.
Michael Thompson, co-author of "Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys," says he hears from seventh- and eighth- graders a lot of talk about oral sex, which they, don't think of as sex. "For them, it's just fooling around”
Philosophy
of Sexualization?
Sexuality is humanity. Humanity is sexuality.
= Sexuality is my destiny.
Endgoal
of Sexualization?
Sexual plasticity or fluidity
= Is anything you want it to be
Richard Huckle
Authority or Sexuality?
Sin inverts our priorities
Our Sexuality
I choose my own sexuality
2. Our Identity
I choose my own identity
3. Our Authority
I am my own authority
1. The gospel according to the Revisionist View is “the inclusion of sinners” not the “salvation of sinners”.
“
Blessed are those who mourn”
(Matthew 5:1-10) is no longer mourning our
”spiritual
poverty
before God”
but mourning
our
“social
exclusion by
society”
.
So, Jesus
’
main mission
is to include those whom mainstream society has excluded.
Revisionist Sexuality
“Coming
out”
is more important than
“coming back to God”
Revisionist Sexuality
We
need Jesus
not
as
“Saviour
of my
life”
but as
“Endorser
of my alternative
lifestyle”
The authentic gospel
The gospel Jesus preached is the
“gospel
of
inclusion”
but only
after
the
“exclusion
of Satan and
sin”.
Heaven
is the
“inclusion
of
former
sinners saved by God’s
grace”
not
the
“inclusion practising
sinners who
reject
God’s grace in
Christ”.
3
. Conversations & Conversions
Know your Christ
Know your Child
Know your Conversations
Firm in our Biblical Position
Flexible in our Ministry Posture
2.
Firm in our Biblical Position
Glorifying God with our Bodies
18
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.
19
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20
you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor God with your bodies.
= We help one another to glorify God
Flexible in our Posture
2 Ways to Glorify God
“The opposite of homosexuality is
not heterosexuality but holiness”
- Christopher Yuen
Change in orientation
No change
Single Single
Married
Celibate
Contented Contented
= HOLY HOLY
“It is important to recognise that very often God’s power is seen, not by him removing our temptations and difficult circumstances, but by giving us the strength to persevere and live for him in the midst of them.
We
will then be able to see our struggles, including the experience of living with same-sex attraction, not just negatively, but also positively.”
(Vaughan Roberts on Same-Sex Attraction in
Evangelicals Now
)
Wesley Hill:
'In so doing, they may find, as I have, by grace, that being known is spiritually healthier than remaining behind closed doors, that the light is better than the darkness.'
ARPC
Provide safe & secure spiritual family for us to “
come out” and “come to glorify God”
Know your Child
1.Your child/friend may
have been struggling with homosexual
attractions, behaviors and identity for
years.
2. Pray for Godly sensitivity about
“where, when & how”
you
come into a
person’s journey.
3. The car analogy: They have been on this journey for years. Have you come in to be a
driver, co-driver or fellow traveller
?
Know your Vulnerabilities
“Triggers” & “Coping Mechanisms”
1.What are your “triggers” to same-sex
attraction, infatuation and love?
a. Beware
Escapism
from
reality = when I am tired
b. Beware
Fantasy
to
unreality = when I am bored
c. Is it about ”the object” or “about me”? = when I am lost
d. Beware “echo chambers” = when I am unwise
(Isaiah 5:20 & 2 Tim 4:1-3)
Isaiah 5:20
Woe
to those who call evil
good and
good evil, who put darkness for
light and
light for darkness, who put bitter for
sweet and
sweet for
bitter.
21
Woe to those who are wise in their own
eyes and
clever in their own sight
.
2 Timothy 4:3
3
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say
what their itching ears
want to hear
.
= Beware “Echo Chambers”
w
here we hear what WE want to hear
Know your Vulnerabilities
“Triggers” & “Coping Mechanisms”
2. What are your “coping mechanisms” to same sex attraction, infatuation and love?
Closet: Gay Shame
= Public denial, Private indulgence
Coming Out: Gay Pride
= Self-sufficient coping mechanisms
2 Ways to Vulnerabilities
Jesus & Rich Young Ruler (Luke 18:22-23)
When
Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow
me.” When
he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth
.
= His vulnerability was money
2 Ways to Vulnerabilities
Jesus & Zacchaeus (Luke 19:8-9)
8
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything,I will pay back four times the amount.”
9
Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.
10
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost
.”
= His vulnerability was also money
2 Ways to Vulnerabilities
& Coping Mechanisms
Lessons
1. Our
“triggers”
reveal
our
“vulnerabilities”.
2. Our
“vulnerabilities”
expose our
“idolatries”
3.
Idolatry
=
The ONE thing
I
“must have” & “won’t give
up
4. The rich
ruler
remained
lost in
his
idolatry.
5. Zacchaeus was
found in Jesus
= Christ is his new coping mechanism!
Know your Conversations
a. To confront?
Focus is on “Exposing, then Shaming”
b. To change?
Focus is on “Controlling”
To comfort?
Focus is on “Consenting”
To chaperon?
Focus is on “Accompanying”
Know your Conversations
Confronting conversations
“
How long have you had this?”
“How come you didn
’
t tell me?”
Controlling Conversations
“You know how wrong this is?”
“You know how much shameful it is?”
“Consenting Conversations”
“I know how you feel. Go where you heart goes.”
“Chaperoning Conversations”
“God knows you. God loves you despite this. God is able to love and empower you through this.”
Know your Conversations
Confronting, Controlling
& Consenting Conversations:
a. puts you or your child in the centre.
b. Exposes & leaves us in the
same
position.
“Chaperoning Conversations”
a. puts God in the centre.
b. Accompanies a person from “who they are” now to “who they can be in Christ”.
Pray to travel in God’s direction:
1. From “condemning, controlling & consenting” to “chaperoning conversations” 2. From
“Prescriptive conversations”
(what you “should” think, feel and do) to
“descriptive conversations”
(how/what are you feeling, “why” and what can WE do about it?) 3. From
“One-off”
to
“one-going”
conversations
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with
great patience and careful instruction.
God’s Way of Salvation
1. At times, we
“correct”
= point out right doctrine/living. At times, we
“rebuke”
= we admonish wrong doctrine/living. At times, we “
encourage”
= strengthen feeble hearts. 2. At ALL times, we are to be
PATIENT teachers & CAREFUL instructors
= It takes time to detox us from wrong thinking & living
A Choice: Make life to be about …
My Sexuality
2. My Identity
3. My Glory
Make Life to be about …
God’s Glory
2. God’s Saviour
3. God’s Salvation