Sermon Tone Analysis

My first year in Havelock I was messaged by an old friend who had turned to a life of homosexuality.

His goal was to try and convince me that God didn’t care about homosexuality and that grace meant that a person could do whatever made them happy, and therefore the church need take no stand against this lifestyle.

When I confronted him with multiple scriptures that said the exact opposite of his position his response astounded me.

He did not try and manipulate scripture or deny that that is what it said.

He simply said he no longer excepted scripture as a representative of God’s authority.

That isn’t how he worded it as such but that was the essence of it.

What he told me was God had given him a divine revelation that these things were no longer bad, as the original purpose was to make sure the world was well populated but now that it is, it is no longer relevant.

This was his main theme, relevance.

The bible was written by men with agendas, homophobic’s probably, who feared what they did not understand.

Then more men selected what would and would not be included.

That is referencing the canonical process , and therefore it is not to be taken at face value but can be selectively read.

I told him the flaw in his argument and defended the reliability of scripture.

I assured him that sin was still wrong and grace was not a get out of jail free card but through repentance could be a get out of sin card.

That Jesus has no desire in forgiving our sins so we can freely and willingly keep committing them.

This conversation happened over 10 years ago and the problem has only gotten worse, since then.

We are living in a time when people want to change the line of morality as if they have the authority to do so.

They claim to have new revelation which is contrary to The Word of God, and their argument is the Word is no longer relevant, because we are living in “2020” as if God’s Holy Standards change depending on the year.

So how do we respond to such blatant false teaching and direct attack of The Faith and of Scripture.

You might be surprised to find out this is not a new problem but actually a very old problem.

Almost as old as time itself, relatively speaking.

In fact there is a book in the bible which sole deals with this exact problem, and we are going to read the whole book today.

Turn with me to

How do we respond to those who try and cheapen God’s Marvellous Grace?

Show Mercy with Great Caution

Me: video of man rescuing a moose.

Did you see how carefully the man rescuing the moose was?

Why do you suppose this was?

Because the moose, which can normally be very dangerous, was stuck and worked up and may have seen the attempts to save it as an attack and so it may have hurt the rescuer.

We: What does that have to do with what we are talking about?

Simple working with people can be dangerous , and when those people believe a lie from the enemy so deeply and are stuck in sin so deeply any attempt to help them will most definitely look to them as an attack and they will lash out.

More over they will try and convince us of the lies they believe and in so doing end up getting us stuck in the same mess they are.

So any attempt to show mercy like the man was showing to the bull moose should be done with great care, and Jude would go so far as to say hating the sins that contaminate their live.

Again why so we do not become contaminated by them ourselves.

God: There is so much good stuff in this book I could go on for hours but let me just hit on a couple highlights.

verse 4

ἀπέρχομαι ὀπίσω σαρκὸς ἑτέρας

(an idiom, literally ‘to go after strange flesh’) to engage in unnatural sexual intercourse—‘to have homosexual intercourse.’

Jude

You: Have you come against this with people you love but do not love the things they are doing?

What is you response.

Show mercy but be careful and remember sin is not Good.

We: We can not see people saved if we leave them in the pit.

Next Step: Find the scriptures you will need to have such conversations.