Sermon Tone Analysis

It’s Critical to Get this Right

Thank you for having me again...

Uniting and Separating

The Premise: Covenant Believers in YHWH and in Messiah MUST be serious about making healthy and Holy Separations.

At the same time, we must make every effort not to be so overzealous in trying to separate from uncleanness, that we end up causing harm to legitimate members of the body of believers, in our necessary efforts to be holy.

It truly is a NARROW path that leads to life.

Matthew 7:1

The reason that I bring this up is because, I'm seeing a lot of believers; both traditional Christian believers and Hebrew roots believers that tend to be very extreme in their fellowships and in their relationships.

That is to say, they tend to go to extremes when they decide what they will and will not tolerate in their relationships with fellow believers.

It's becoming epidemic.

Once again people's default position seems to be to the extreme left or to the extreme right, and there isn't much healthy balance to be seen in general among believers.

I would like to issue a challenge to those of us who are now being established in the Hebrew Roots/Whole Testament Theology.

Today, YHWH has graciously opened our eyes, and we see the love and the benefits of Torah observance, but we didn’t always perceive observing Torah as the true blessing that it is.

Many of us were once brought up to believe that observing Torah was supposedly bondage, but now we know that it is indeed a true blessing of freedom.

The point is, we didn’t always know this truth.

On the one side you have some people who are so extreme about showing grace and mercy and fellowships, that they will open the gates wide with a come one and come all attitude.

The idea of being aware of YHWH's wrathful judgment and the need to repent is barely mentioned if at all, because all we're interested in is showing Abba's love and grace.

If we just show them enough love and enough grace, and were absolutely tolerant of anything they bring, they will eventually repent and come around.

Most often congregations that take this approach are very popular, but extremely ineffective when it comes to building thriving and overcoming disciples.

On the one side you have some people who are so extreme about showing grace and mercy within fellowships, that they will open the gates wide with a come one and come all attitude.

The idea of being aware of YHWH's wrathful judgment and the need to repent is barely mentioned if at all, because all we're interested in is showing Abba's love and grace.

They mistakenly believe that If we just show them enough love and enough grace, and we’re absolutely tolerant of anything they bring, they will eventually repent and come around.

Most often congregations that take this approach are very popular, but extremely ineffective when it comes to building thriving and overcoming disciples; because YHWH’s True Standards, and the penalties for missing His Standards are never discussed, because that does not FEEL or SOUND very Gracious.

There are many of us in this movement who at one time or another had been brought up to believe that the Sabbath had somehow been changed from the Seventh day of the week, to the First day of the week.

Many of us were brought up to believe that supposedly, so long as you love Yahweh and Messiah in your heart, then you could celebrate God and Jesus anyway you wanted to, and supposedly YHWH Almighty would bless that approach.

Today, by YHWH’s Grace, many of us have come to understand that laying aside the Commandments of YHWH, in order to maintain a tradition established by human religious leaders is VAIN Worship, and we should never do such things, (; ; ), but in the beginning of our walk many of us did not fully understand these things, as we do today.

On the other hand, the other extreme is also evidenced.

There are some people that are so aware of YHWH's wrathful judgment over sin.

They are so concerned about not wanting to be defiled that they almost have a knee-jerk reaction to anything that is remotely suspicious, and they will attack and quickly separate anything that they are not personally comfortable with at the time.

These people are trying very hard to avoid having any tares with their in their congregations.

They aggressively try to root out everything and anything that looks suspicious.

In the process though, they end up damaging genuine brothers and sisters.

A lot of fellowships and congregations and up dividing over illegitimate reasons, and believers end up getting hurt and damaged in the process.

Messiah himself addressed this issue in this way:

On the other hand, the other extreme is also evidenced.

There are some people that are so aware of YHWH's wrathful judgment over sin.

They are so concerned about not wanting to be defiled that they almost have a knee-jerk reaction to anything that is remotely suspicious, and they will attack and quickly separate anything that they are not personally comfortable with at the time.

These people are trying very hard to avoid having any tares within their congregations.

They aggressively try to root out everything and anything that looks suspicious.

In the process though, they end up damaging genuine brothers and sisters.

A lot of fellowships and congregations and up dividing over illegitimate reasons, and believers end up getting hurt and damaged in the process.

Some examples of Overzealous Tolerance

In the last formal congregation that I was working a conflict actually broke out among the leaders.

Some did not want to use the word discipleship, because it had the connotation of being disciplined, and for some people that is just too negative.

Based on everything that I have seen and heard and read, in another congregation, the leadership was bragging about its youth crew wearing Harry Potter T-shirts to attract more youth into the church.

Suddenly it didn't matter that they were praising something which YHWH called an ABOMINATION, and which will NOT inherit the Eternal Kingdom, didn't seem to matter, because the end goal was to get them into the church so they could hear the gospel and hopefully get saved.

Suddenly, making YHWH and Messiah appear cool and popular among youth became so important, that YHWH's Legitimate Standards suddenly took a backseat.

It didn't seem to matter to people that if you make yourself a friend to the world, you actually end up making yourself an enemy to YHWH.

As it is written:

James 4:4

Failing to Uphold YHWH’s Standards is a SIN.

Let us be absolutely clear.

Failing to uphold YHWH's Standards is a SIN.

Let us not miss that key point.

As it is Written:

Ezekiel

At the same time, being so overzealous about separating from uncleanness that you do harm to legitimate members of the body who are trying to walk with YHWH faithfully; that is also a sin, and its DANGEROUS:

Some Examples of Overzealous Separating

As I look at various blogs and social media such as Facebook, and as I witness some of the relentless arguments, vicious comments, debates and broken relationships that come up in fellowships because of disagreement over issues such as flat earth versus round earth?

Do you pronounce YHWH’s Sacred Name in this way, or in that other way?

Do we honor birthdays or not?

Do you start the biblical months on the sliver, the full moon, or the conjunction?

I’ve even heard of a brother who walked out of fellowship because someone used the word, “Talmudeem,” (which in Hebrew means taught one), or disciple, but all that this poor soul heard was the word, “Talmud," so he got it in his head based on misunderstanding that single word that the group he was with must be teaching Talmudic tradition of men, so he stormed out and broke fellowship on that basis.

In another instance, I heard of a brother who got angry during the feast of Tabernacles because one of the camps had gourds and pumpkins, (not carved) as table decorations, he thought it was too pagan, he got angry, and broke fellowship, and complained to others of his household about it.

Never mind that the Scriptures tell us to decorate with the fruit of the land, and in our land pumpkins and gourds are basic fall decorations.

In another instance, someone got upset because one of the PowerPoint slides during the song service portrayed a star of David, (or seal of Solomon).

They walked out of fellowship on that basis.

The point is that some of the vicious comments, the name-calling, the belittling of others, the breaking of fellowships, and the hurting of fellow believers with nastiness against other believers, who are legitimately trying to OBEY the Scriptures, but may not be exactly on the same page when it comes to one topic or another is getting RIDICULOUS.

I honestly fear that we are becoming a reproach to outsiders, based on the way that we treat one another, and especially in public forums.

Messiah Himself addressed this issue in this way:

Today many of us understand that it is IMPOSSIBLE to truly love YHWH with all of our hearts; it is IMPOSSIBLE to truly love our neighbor as ourselves, (as YHWH defines the term), unless you progressively learn, and KEEP the Heavenly Father’s Commandments; but we didn’t always know that in the same way that we do now.

Many of us were brought up to think that if you have warm fuzzy feelings toward God and Jesus, and that you are not overtly working in hostile opposition to Him, then that must be what it means to love Him.

By His Grace, YHWH our Heavenly Father opened our eyes, and today we understand that there are 18 times in the Whole Testament of Scripture where YHWH directly connects the Idea of Loving Him, with KEEPING His commandments.

Today we see this, but there was a time for many of us where we were blind and we did not see this incredible truth.

Matthew 24:

Scripture Warns Believers to Avoid Extremism on All Sides

For me, there was a time when I passionately believed and thought of myself as a, “New Testament Christian,” and I thought that was enough.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I was a passionate believer in becoming a DOER of the New Testament which I thought was valid.

The parts I thought were valid, I did passionately believe that Christians should OBEY.

However, at one time I was thoroughly deceived.

I generally believed that the obligation to learn and obey the first five books, (the foundation of the whole Bible), was supposedly done away with at the cross of Messiah.

I was WRONG, but that is what I believed.

Scripture Warns Believers to Avoid Extremism on All Sides

What strikes me though is that I still believed that the 10 Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the Commandments of Messiah, and the instructions of the apostles were still completely valid for believers, and that we should DO them, and I would strive hard for it as a Christian.

But I believed that the rest of the Bible supposedly didn’t really matter quite as much, because we were under grace, and all the rest of those obligations were allegedly nailed to the cross.

I was clearly misunderstanding the Scriptures, but I didn’t realize that.

I was blind.

Here’s the thing.

Even though I was clearly blind, and I did not understand; YHWH and Messiah still loved me.

The Father still took care of me.

He still met my needs.

He still answered many of my prayers.

He still worked with me and gradually taught me more and more of the Scriptures.

He still forgave my sins when I confessed them (), and Abba YHWH continued working with me, and working through me, even in the midst of my monumental ignorance.

In those few areas where I was willing and able to obey Scripture correctly, Abba YHWH still thoroughly blessed me, and He continued working with me as I continued to grow in Grace and Knowledge, despite my many shortcomings then, and He continues to work with me, despite the many shortcomings that I still need to overcome, even today.

Here is my challenge to Hebrew Roots/Whole Testament believers:

Do not forget the ignorance from which you came, and do not forget the tender Fatherly love that Abba YHWH showed you, even though you have not always known and understood the crucial truths which you know now.

; , ; , , ; -If you look at these references in the Original languages, they all urge us to be “sober minded” i.e. moderate, temperate, balanced, and self-controlled.

In other words, we are clearly instructed by Scripture, NOT to be extremists in our thinking and in our actions.

We are to be moderate, balanced and temperate.