Today I begin a new teaching series. Yesterday God spoke to my heart and I totally changed the message for this morning. I am so thankful for my wife Sharron who printed the revised outlines and after removing the previous outlines from the worship folders - replaced them wit the revised copies. God is speak to my heart and I pray - through my voice today! Here is the message I presented this morning:
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Welcome – as we begin a new teaching series - Breaking the Rules. This series was birthed in my spirit as I prayed, and studied for the messages this year. We began in January with a series: Brand new – New Year – New You and I invited you to join me on a spiritual Journey. The Sunday following Resurrection Sunday we began a new series: The New Normal as we walked through the Book of Galatians.
This is the New Normal: 1. Christ died for our
sins.
2. He was buried. 3. He was
raised from the dead.
The Summer Series was “Running with the Giants” as we looked at the lives of men and
women of faith – who lived against the culture and took risk to live for God.
Relationships have been redefined by culture's new norms,
which are completely different from God's Word. The world's new norms have been
allowed to creep into the church. This
series is about learning to stand firm in God's truth, even when culture tell
us differently.
“Our culture has taken a step backward and called it
progress.” Our society is selling a “new norm” that labels God’s ways and His
principles as outdated and irrelevant in our new and “enlightened” world.
Unfortunately, we often “buy” what the world is selling, and we allow ourselves
to believe that we know better than He does, what is good and acceptable. A
quick look around us proves that the “new norm” is not working. It is time to
return… to return to God’s standard for our lives and our families.
For
the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the
power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the
intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is
the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has
not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
1 Corinthians 1:18-20
For
the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is
stronger than man’s strength. 1 Corinthians 1:25
The
New Norm
So, I plan to preach the gospel – not soft pedal the
truth. You may push back a little from
some things I may say. My job is not to
make you feel good – my job is to rightly divide the word of truth as a workman
that needs not be ashamed
Claiming
to be wise, they instead became utter fools.
And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped
idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful
things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things
with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they
worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who
is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. Romans 1:22-25 NLT
That is why God abandoned them to their
shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and
instead indulged in sex with each other. And the
men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for
each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this
sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. Since
they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish
thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their
lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder,
quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They
are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new
ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They
refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no
mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve
to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them,
too. Romans
1:26-32 NLT
Tough passage of Scripture – to compare the New Norm of
the world and God’s Ways. Why the
change in our culture – even in our church?
I suggest just three reasons:
We
gave up on GOD’S WISDOM and settled for the WORLD’S WAY .
Don't
become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even
thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside
out. Romans
12:2 MSG
Ex: We try to change things – update it for
today’s generation. Now, I believe we
should be relevant in our communication of the gospel. But I do that with this
principle in mind: God does not
change! So we tag a partial Biblical
principle to try to prove our wisdom.
God judges – but Jesus loved everybody!
Jesus accepted everybody! Jesus
didn’t lower the standards – he raised the standards. Jesus said,” You have
heard it said “Thou halt not commit adultery.”
And the crowd would agree (culturally)!
Then Jesus added: I say – “if a man even looks at a woman and lusted
after her, you have committed adultery.”
Jesus turned the whole group of men into adulterers. He raised the standard – but then refused to
condemn those committed those sins. He showed them who they real were in their
hearts – then went to the cross and paid for it all! As the standard got higher – the grace got deeper. If you admit your sin – Jesus forgives
your sins and wipes it away!
So, the
real question is:
Will
we change the standard or allow God to change us?
Don’t
copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a
new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know
God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 NLT
We
followed our FEELINGS instead of
our FAITH .
You cannot depend upon your “feelings”, because your
feelings are not always right. This is
how God made me! We accept everybody and
anybody that is struggling with sin in their life, here at NRN – you are
welcomed in this place. I was asked
last week by a person, Pastor Rick, what if a gay couple came to our church,
would they be accepted?
We welcome, and embrace everyone – as long as they desire
repentance and willing to let the Spirit of God transform them. Every one of us here today should desire
repentance and become willing to let the Spirit of God transform us! It is impossible to fight for holiness if we
cannot acknowledge sin in our lives.
The question is:
Are
we going to agree with the Bible on what is sin?
Or
will we trust our feelings to be our guide?
So
letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the
Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. Romans 8:6 NLT
We trusted OURSELVES more than we trusted GOD.
This is really what it comes down too. Culture says it old fashion – it’s not
relevant. You can’t trust the Bible?
(LIE) The Bible is just a collection of
men’s thoughts.
Are we going to trust culture’s New Norm or are we going
to trust God?
Trust
in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all
your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust
Exercise…
This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16
Before
we leave today – I have one more question:
Who will you invite to church next Sunday?
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