100% Grace and 100% Truth

Introduction: We all know someone or are someone who has found themselves outside of God’s plan for Marriage at one time or another.

5-6 - Q&A 13 -

Q&A 13 -

8-11:

John 1:14–17 NIV

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

12 - We are all sinners.

Story of Banishing Gay people to an island.

13-16 -

Romans 2:1–4 NIV

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

Romans 2:1-4

See the Chapter 1 for the things that we do that is against God’s will.

Ultimately the Gospel is not about our sin management. - Growing Young material

Moralistic - Equating Faith with being good/nice a moral person.

therapeutic - the goal is to feel good about ourselves.

The Gospel is about Jesus’ work to restore us, to liberate and free us from sin, and to make us new.

17-18: Q 19, A (First Paragraph)

19 - Christ Followers are called to respond with Grace and Truth.

100% Grace and 100% Truth - Without Truth, then Grace is meaningless - It says there is no standard, and we can do whatever we want no matter how much it hurts other people. Truth without Grace is just mean - It legalistic, and does not recognize the problem of sin in our world, and therefore suggests we do not need Jesus to save us.

20-24: The Truth: QA 16 & 17

25: Q 18 - (Just the Question)

26: Neither Condemning, Nor Condoning

Two Patterns of How Jesus responded to people outside of God’s plan.

Woman Caught in Adultery

27-37:

John 8:1–11 LEB

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Now early in the morning he came again to the temple courts. And all the people were coming, and he sat down and began to teach them. Now the scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. And standing her in their midst, they said to him, testing him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery! Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” (Now they were saying this to test him, so that they would have an occasion to bring charges against him.) But Jesus, bending down, began to write with his finger on the ground, taking no notice. And when they persisted in asking him, straightening up he said to them, “The one of you without sin, let him throw the first stone at her!” And bending down again, he wrote on the ground. Now when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, they began to depart, one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone—and the woman who was in their midst. So Jesus, straightening up and seeing no one except the woman, said to her, “Where are those accusers of yours? Does no one condemn you?” And she said, “No one, Lord.” So Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.”⟧

John 8:1–10 LEB

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Now early in the morning he came again to the temple courts. And all the people were coming, and he sat down and began to teach them. Now the scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. And standing her in their midst, they said to him, testing him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery! Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” (Now they were saying this to test him, so that they would have an occasion to bring charges against him.) But Jesus, bending down, began to write with his finger on the ground, taking no notice. And when they persisted in asking him, straightening up he said to them, “The one of you without sin, let him throw the first stone at her!” And bending down again, he wrote on the ground. Now when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, they began to depart, one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone—and the woman who was in their midst. So Jesus, straightening up and seeing no one except the woman, said to her, “Where are those accusers of yours? Does no one condemn you?”

Jesus Reminds the judgers that they are sinners - Some of them may have created the situation in which she sinned, and the man does not seem to be held accountable. Jesus neither condemns her, but neither does he condone her either - “Go and Sin no more.” Both Grace and lifts up the Truth.

The Woman at the well - Jesus knows she is out of bounds in terms of Biblical Sexuality, but that is not the primary content of their discussion - He honors her humanity, the conversation is about true worship and the Messiah (he points her to himself first) - Good News First, and sexuality second - Grace & Truth pg. 121-122

In order to live this way we must...

38: Staying Defined, and Connected

2:39:27 - 2:40:57 - Video Videos from Grace and Truth. - Drew Harper in “Grace and Truth,” Son of Pastor Brad and Robin - “I believe Christians can love LGBT people without changing their theology.”

Quote from LDJ - Jim Harrington, Trisha Taylor

To be defined has two parts. First, we define ourselves when we say, clearly and courageously, with our words and our actions, who we are, what we think, what we believe, what we want, and what we will (or won’t) do. Second, we allow others to define themselves. We allow—and even invite—others to say who they are and what they think and believe, even if it is different from us.

emotional maturity also requires that we stay appropriately connected to others by acting in ways that honor our relationships with them, when we can stay in honest contact with them without giving up our own positions.

Gospel First - Quote from

Have you ever been in a conversation with an LGBT+ person at work or in the community, and you wondered, “Do I need to tell this person where I stand on homosexuality? I think it’s important to understand that we weren’t commissioned to preach the gospel of “Don’t have gay sex” but rather “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” To repeat an earlier point, the good news isn’t, “God can make you straight” but “God can make you holy.” A message of sexual judgment detached from the gospel is legalism, not grace.

This is so important to keep in mind when interacting with all LGBT+ people, but especially people who are not yet Christian. Some Christians feel uneasy just talking to LGBT + people. They feel that they have to tel theme where they stand on the questions related to sexuality and gender. But listen closely to Paul’s words in

“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people-not all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world…For what have I to do with judging outsiders?”

How would you approach being invited to a same-sex marriage? You would approach it the same way you would any marriage you felt was outside of God’s design for marriage and human sexuality.

How would you approach being invited

What is communicated? Endorsement/Relationship; Do they profess to be a Christian? Loving Correction/Non-Judgment - We are called to stay defined in what we know the God has designed for marriage while gracefully connnecting with those relationally who live outside of that that by our gentleness and the Gospel they may receive Jesus.

Pastor Friend whose uncle was gay, divorced his wife, and pursued a relationship with a man. His uncle insisted that in order to love him, he had to not just accept, but affirm his lifestyle. My pastor friends response, “Well, you have kids. Do you accept and affirm everything they do? Well no, but you still love them and always love them don’t you? The same is true with us. I love you, but I might not always agree with you and my hope is vice versa.”

Many of us have experienced this in our lives. Someone you love, had a child out of wedlock, or divorced, or are making unwise decisions in their life (dabbling in drugs, alcoholic) You love them, but you may not alwasy agree with them. Some of you may have been the person who made unwise decisions and yet those you disagree with have loved you, and you have loved them. It is possible to be defined, and stay connected.

Staying Connected involves the fruit of the Spirit - To do the opposite runs the risk of sinning on the other spectrum - Sins from Romans.

I think this involves setting....

39: Setting Healthy Boundaries, and Building Bridges

40-52:

1 Corinthians 5:1–13 NIV

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

Sexual Immorality - .

Boundaries Defined:

The Church sets boundaries - not to be a law for salvation, but to shine God’s light well to the world.

So what are the boundaries that Paul is laying out here.

First it must be noted that the Church is being arrogant about their view of “We are Free in Christ, so anything goes Mentality” - This leads to unrepentance.

Second this is after - attempts to correct the behavior for the sake of Gospel Witness to the world.

So Paul is not just suggesting kicking people out of the church willy-nilly for particular sin. This comes after a longer process of apealing to the man to live according to God’s will and the man to repent, and in fact arrogantly being proud of his sin. - So that is the real boundary.

The Goal also is

This Kind of Church Discipline is about restoration - in 2 Corinthians we see the Church restoring the man and bringing him back.

So the Church is called to set healthy Boundaries - I do not perform gay marriages, Neither does the Church, There are also a lot of other marriages we might not do (examples - Groom who could not express love, If there is a sense that abuse might take place, If there has been sexual union after marriage) At the same time we want to build bridges. - Share the Gospel, Invitations to repent and move towards a more God-honoring relationship before marriage.

Story of Pastor who would not marry couple living together before marriage. The couple balked at it, the parents left his church. The couple decided to go to another church after they got married and low and behold that church had the same policy. Years later, the couple came back to that pastor and said, “It was his stance that got them thinking, and looking into the word, and they realized that God’s way was the best way.” They thanked him for setting Biblical Boundaries.

Being honest about God’s Plan, and continuing the relationship with people and loving people.

An Elder whose wife divorced him. He was growing in the Lord, and she was going in the opposite direction. A few years later, he met a women in our church, they started dating, and they started living together. Many lovingly challenged him on this relationship. He both recognized the Grace of God in his life, and realized he was not living according to God’s plan. No one told him to do this, but it was this recognition that caused him to make the decision that when we served communion (he was not installed at the time) that he would not receive nor serve communion.

Building Bridges - Involves gentleness and care for p

Pastor Friend - Uncle who divorced his wife

53: Journeying together in Grace and Truth

The Phrase, “Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner.” - The heart of that is good, but it can be percieved with an heir of self-righteousness.

Instead of that, how about, “Let’s pursue Jesus together as broken people in need of Grace and Truth.” - Preston Sprinkle.

Yes in the church we need to set some healthy boundaries for the sake of living out our call as a church to glorify God, and pursue his mission according to his will. These boundaries are not intended to a system of self-righteousness, but of discipleship, to help us be defined, but we still need to build bridges and connect.

54-61: QA 18-19