Scripture referenced 8 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Romans 1:21 quoted to show that people who knew God did not honor him, becoming futile in their speculations with darkened hearts
21 Because, knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.
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Keep this verse
Romans 1:28
quoted as the warning that God gave people over to a depraved mind to do things which are not proper
28 Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
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Romans 1:29-32
read through as a list of vices including unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, and more
29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers,
30 backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful;
32 who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.
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Deuteronomy 6:5-7
quoted by Dan Toulson to support parents teaching faith to their children diligently at all times
5 You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
6 These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart;
7 and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
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Hosea 6:6
quoted to show God desires mercy and the knowledge of God more than sacrifice or burnt offerings
6 For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
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Romans 1:24-26
quoted to show God gave people over in the lust of their flesh to impurity and degrading passions because they exchanged truth for a lie
24 Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves;
25 who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature.
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Isaiah 55:6
quoted as a call to seek the Lord while he may be found, before being given over to a depraved mind
6 Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.
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Isaiah 55:7
quoted to say the wicked can forsake his way, return to the Lord, and God will abundantly pardon
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Ray worked through Romans 1:24-32, a passage he called "degradation on demand." The sermon followed Paul's argument that when people refuse to acknowledge God, He eventually gives them over to the very things they want, and that this is not a good outcome. It was a difficult message by his own admission, and he framed it as bad news that exists before, and makes room for, the good news of the gospel.
What was said
The starting point was Romans 1:21, which Pastor Ray had covered the previous week. Paul writes that even people who knew God chose not to honor Him or retain Him in their knowledge, and so their thinking became futile and their hearts darkened. The pattern set up there drives everything that follows: the refusal to acknowledge God leads, step by step, to God stepping back and letting people have what they have chosen.
That handing over is what Romans 1:28 describes as God giving people over to a depraved mind, what older translations call a reprobate mind. Pastor Ray said that verse frightened him more as a child than passages about hell, because it described a condition where a person genuinely cannot tell right from wrong anymore. He said this can happen to individuals and to whole societies.
The long list of vices in verses 29-31 was the center of the sermon, and Pastor Ray walked through it asking the congregation, including himself, to do honest self-evaluation. Envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, arrogance, disobedience to parents, being untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful: he paused on most of them and observed that few people in the room could walk past the whole list untouched. He kept returning to the point that Paul is painting everyone with this brush, not singling out one group.
He brought in a set of quotations, from Oscar Wilde, Voltaire, Diderot, and George Bernard Shaw, to show that the tendency to reshape God in our own image, or to dismiss Him entirely, is not new. Voltaire's line that if God made us in His image, we have returned the favor, illustrated what Paul means when he says people exchanged the glory of God for the image of corruptible man. Diderot's admission that he simply did not care whether God existed or not gave Pastor Ray a word for where much of society sits today: not atheist but apatheist.
On the question of same-sex relationships, which Romans 1:26-27 addresses directly, Pastor Ray was plain about what the text says while being equally plain that the list of vices around it implicates nearly everyone in the room in some way. He noted there is no gossip pride parade, but the same passage that addresses sexual sin also addresses gossip, malice, and being unmerciful, and most people do not agonize over those the way they do over the sexual sins of others.
The Thomas passage from John came in as a bridge. Diderot said he needed to be able to touch God before he could believe in Him. Thomas said something almost identical. Jesus showed up and invited Thomas to do exactly that. Pastor Ray's point was that the body of Christ, when it is actually loving rather than unloving, merciful rather than unmerciful, and honest about truth, is how people outside the faith get to touch and see God.
The sermon closed on the age of grace. Isaiah 55 was quoted, with its call to seek the Lord while He may be found, and its promise that God will abundantly pardon the one who returns to Him. Oscar Wilde, who spent his life being arrogant and flouting convention, called on the name of the Lord on his deathbed, and Pastor Ray said he believes that was real and that Wilde will be in heaven. The offer is still open, and the door is still open to anyone who knocks.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Ray said that when people choose not to retain God in their knowledge, God eventually gives them what they want, and 'that's not a good thing.' What do you think it looks like in a person's life when God begins to give them over to their own desires?
- Pastor Ray talked about Voltaire's line that if God made us in his image, we have returned him the favor, meaning we reshape God to look the way we want him to look. Where do you see that tendency in yourself or in the culture around you?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 8,399 words
0:00
Good morning. I'm so happy to be here. Amen? Let's start the right way this time. I would like to pray first.
0:09
Heavenly father, thank you so much for this privilege that we have to be here together, Gather in your name. Will you please receive whatever we do here? My prayer, dear God, is that every single person that got here this morning at the end of this beautiful hour could say, I'm blessed because I was in God's house. In Jesus name I prayed, amen. Amen.
0:32
Let's stand up and let's worship God. Light of the world. As you know, I play by ear. And when you play by ear, you go with the flow. So please follow me.
0:40
Amen. But let's enjoy it. Let's have a just great time in in the name of Jesus. Amen.
0:45
Light of the world, you step down into darkness. Open my eyes and let me see. Amen. Beauty that Amen. You're my God you're all together lovely altogether worthy altogether wonder for to me king of all days oh so all for love's sake became here I am to worship here I am to bow down here I am to say that you're my God you're altogether lovely altogether worthy altogether upon that cross.
2:59
I'll never know how much it goes. To see my sin upon that cross. Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that
3:48
Amen.
3:49
Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements this morning and a couple of other things going in the announcement time. So, we'll get on get on through those. Are you interested in becoming a member here at First B?
4:03
If you are, Gary, Gary, would you stand up? Gary Geek is gonna be in my office in between services which is down that hall, that direction and he'll just talk about it. The discovery class is what we call it. They actually had one last week but we're having a covenant ceremony today and if you feel like you wanna be a member, you're welcome anyway. You know what I'm saying?
4:22
Y'all got me? Come on or do what you feel but if you wanna become a member, go down and talk to Gary about it in between services today. Tomorrow night, Monday nights, we always have Awana that happens in this room to begin with and then spreads out all over most of church except for the fellowship hall where we have Monday nights at First B. That is a kind of an alternative worship service time. 06:00, meal music, and a message.
4:47
Always a meal, always music, and always a message on Monday nights. The connect hour happens between services. So, that happens about tenish probably today about 10:07 but about ten. That's Conway at the Mid Snowmobile Retreat last week. That's Mike Neal.
5:03
He's right up here upfront every Sunday and that is John Micus making a snow angel up on the top of 2 Top. That was a lot of fun last weekend and Carl preached. Oh, I did not
5:13
get this into the announcements but Blake got into the announcements. There, the World Day of Prayer, the Women's World Day
5:19
of Prayer as it used to be called is happening on Friday, 03/04/2016 from twelve to one and we're going to be involved but there, it's going be hosted by the Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole. So, PCJH on South Park Loop from twelve to one on Friday. Ladies, if you'd like to go to the Women's World Day of Prayer, there are posters around if you wanna be a part of that. Turning Point is looking to raise $25.00. Wow.
5:48
Through their baby bottle campaign this year. You all know Turning Point is a pregnancy resource center. I actually happen to be the chairman of the board right now for that organization, love it, and they just do a fantastic job. Judy Basie is the executive director. Alyssa works and does marketing type stuff among other things.
6:06
And this baby bottle campaign there, baby bottles back there, take it home, fill it up with change, checks, big checks, whatever, cash, whatever, bring it back in, and we'll turn it back into them. So, that's the baby bottle campaign and Dan Tulson has a kind of an extended announcement. How about that? There's your mic right there. It's probably not on.
6:27
Good
6:27
morning. Thank you for allowing us just a couple minutes to share some exciting news about some discipleship and ministry opportunities that God's doing right here in our valley. My name is Dan Toulson. This is my wife, Nancy, and I'm on the board of Timber Ridge Academy. Timber Ridge Academy is a brand new Christian classical school in Jackson, and we're cruising through our second year.
6:51
Currently, have 30 students ages preschool through eighth grade. We're located just a few blocks from here on Willow Street by the rec center and not a lot of people know what we do or what we're doing and that we exist and so we're just trying to get the word out and we believe that the Christian community should know what's happening in a in a school like like ours. Got it. He's got it. Man, life's good.
7:16
Our mission is to provide a high quality Christian liberal arts education in a nurturing environment that will enable each student to become everything that God intends. We believe one of the most powerful ways to expand the kingdom of God is to raise up a generation of Christians who continue walking in their faith after they leave home. I believe that the Bible supports that the primary mission of parents and grandparents is the passing on of their faith in Jesus Christ. God gives us a perfect recipe for that. In Deuteronomy chapter six five three, it says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
7:53
These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, when you rise up, or basically all the time. So why wouldn't the school that we send our kids to support that what we're trying to do at home with our kids? We want to partner with the parents of our churches to disciple their kids and teach not just their mind, but their heart and their soul as well. We believe that kids who leave home and walk in their faith means more missions in the mission field, more Christians in the political world, lawyers, carpenters, whatever who are living out their faith in in our world.
8:36
So if you have kids about to start school or you're considering other options for your school age children, we hope that you'll consider us and we would love to talk more with you, answer your questions. What is classical education? Why is it a Christian school? And and so forth. Now if you're like me when I first heard of private school, you're probably thinking, sounds expensive.
8:57
But our vision is to be a ministry to the community. No child should be denied a Christian education due to lack of funding. Because of the generous contributions of faithful individuals who believe in our vision, our tuition levels are substantially less than comparable private schools. We have a robust scholarship program that enables any family to attend regardless of income. In fact, in our congregation, there are no less than 12 students who are attending our school with low tuition because of generous donations to our scholarship fund.
9:32
As we increase enrollment, we need to increase our financial partners so that we can keep tuition low and scholarships high. So if you're looking for a way, a ministry to give money to, we would love to partner with you in that regard. We are a five zero one c three nonprofit. We own our building and we have zero debt. So every dollar that's given goes directly to our scholarship fund.
9:54
Now as important as it is to expand enrollment and increase our financial partners, we request your partnership in prayer. There's no doubt that God has brought us to the point we are and we have no doubt that he will see it through to completion. But we wanna be faithful in the mission that he's given us, and we need your help in prayer to do that.
10:14
Just short. I I just took on the role of director of admissions. So if you have any questions about admissions, I'm the one to see. My name is Dancey Toalson. We do have a little table in the back with some flyers and little pamphlets that you can take with more information.
10:30
But our website is, has a lot of information on it. There's also a little sign up sheet if you want to be on our mailing list.
10:38
Cool. Thank you for your time. We were hoping to show a short video. Ray, if there's time it's really short. But it just gives a good picture of what the school is and the heart that's there.
11:10
When my husband and I started looking at schools for our children, we had never really thought past the public school because that's what we had. A couple of things came home that we just kind of questioned and we were, you know, saying, okay, well we'll pray through this. It's a good opportunity to talk to our children about it. Then this option came up of a Christian school. If we're supposed to train our children, then we send them off to school for seven hours of the day, five days a week, our job is to make sure that whoever has them for that seven hours is continuing on the same job that we're called to do as Christians.
11:44
Who better than the body of Christ to help me raise my children?
11:50
Classical education is designed to work within the frame of children. How are they built? What's the best thing to do at what ages to grow them into adulthood?
12:01
So that by the
12:01
time you're done, they're able to go into whatever field they're wanting to go into and that the education that they received did in no way inhibit, but only opened up.
12:10
And the whole school convenes in our common area and we start off with just a brief daily devotional and singing hymns. It's one of my favorite parts of our day is just coming together as a school community for about ten minutes and just singing those are the songs that are written on kids hearts that they're humming they're humming come now found or, be thou my vision and it's just neat that that that's what's written on their hearts.
12:34
One of the things that we really love about Timber Ridge is, our kids experience. Benjamin had gone to another school before and, came over to Timber Ridge last year and he's just very excited every day, he's very happy to be there, he's very self motivated to do his homework, never wants to miss school and he loves his teachers.
12:56
Kids are spending time actually reading books that have been tested over time that are not just fun and fluffy and instantly, but there's morals and plots and the full scope and spectrum of the literature has been developed and tested over time.
13:12
Just the ambiance within the building, the kids, the excitement, the camaraderie, no bullying, those types of things, that's what we do really well.
13:22
They're in tune to what the kids need and what's going to help them, and that's what they're here for. It's just a nurturing, wholesome, uplifting environment, and so we're very grateful to be a part
13:31
of it. I have support and that I can send my child to school knowing that the teachers and the staff and the administration are supporting what I'm doing at home, it's encouraging to me.
13:55
Alright. Now, there's lots of other stuff going on but check your bulletin for that and I think that we actually have a covenant ceremony. We'll get to the sermon in a little while. We'll we'll save that but the covenant ceremony, Gary, would you come up? We have several folks that are coming in as new members.
14:09
Some in this service and some in the next. Yeah. Alright.
14:16
I get the privilege to do this this morning. So, those that that are joining the church today, would they come forward? We we also have one at the second service. There's others that are joining. Hi, there.
14:40
We see in first Corinthians 12 that God is the one that adds to the body.
14:47
Amen.
14:48
And he adds to the body for the common good of the whole body. Not only does he do that, he also uniquely gifts those that that are that he has added to be an incremental part of that body as it functions. And then he calls us to give greater honor to the parts that lack honor. Then he also calls us to be so connected to this body that when one part suffers, we all suffer. And that when one part is honored, we all honor with it.
15:28
What a great design God has made for his body. As we try to live that out here at First Bee. So, we see the importance when God adds to the body here and so, I'll let I'll let you introduce yourselves and if there's anything that you'd like to share to this body, I'll give you opportunity.
15:50
Good morning. I'm Jerry White. This is Lori White and yeah, we Hi, Ray. How are you? Yes.
15:57
So, we we we're glad to be here, you know, at First Bee this morning. And and every morning, every Sunday, we just love coming. And actually retired. We're here from Saudi Arabia. We're there for twelve years and many other places as well.
16:15
So we had a long talk with Ray and actually our neighbor Eric many times and and we're just so blessed to be here. If you don't know how great it is to be a Christian, I welcome you to to talk to anybody here. I'm sure that that they can all talk to you about it. If you don't know how great it is to be a Christian where you can express your Christianity, where you can express the love of Christ,
16:48
Talk to us.
16:48
Yeah, talk to us. Well, there's a there's a, yeah. Well, we'll be glad to tell you about that but but you know, we're we live in a blessed place. This is a blessed church. We're we're certainly glad to be a part of that and and continue our our Christian growth, you know, here.
17:05
So, thank you.
17:07
Okay. Now, before this congregation, I've trusted that both of you have trusted in Christ as your lord and savior. Will you allow this church to minister to you? Will you love this church and protect this church as we live out our purposes that God has us here at First B.
17:35
Absolutely. Yeah.
17:37
To the congregation, will you minister to Lori and Jerry? Will you pour your life out towards them? Will you love them and welcome them here at First Bee? If so, say we will.
17:52
We will.
17:53
Alright. It's customary as we give God we give God the glory when he adds to the body. So, let's stand and grab a hand in you in unity as we give thanks to God. Let's bow our heads. Dear Lord, we thank you for Jerry and Lori as you added them to this body.
18:20
Lord, we know that that you have purpose for them here. That that as we live out, each one of us live out that purpose that we we glorify you in that. So, lord, I just pray that that we'll be faithful to the calling that you've given each one of us in this body and that as we do that, we we give you the honor and the glory. Jesus name, amen. If you go if you've never met them, why don't take the opportunity after the service to get to know him.
19:02
Amen. Thank you.
19:03
Thank you. Welcome. Alright,
19:09
that's good. Y'all, why don't you stand up and shake hands and we'll get back together here in just a second.
19:18
Let's worship God again. Amen?
21:06
And time is in his hands, beginning and the end, beginning and the end.
21:17
Amen. Oh, what a beautiful song. Amen? Amen. I'm so blessed to be here, honestly.
23:58
And when I saw, the new members, I I was reminded how great it is to be part of the church. How great it is to be to be part of the God's church, the big church. Amen? For me, this time here in God's house, it's a special. It's a special time.
24:20
Amen? Sorry. I can't stop. I I gotta say something. Amen.
27:42
Would you pray with me? God, thank you for this beautiful day that you've given this beautiful place as we look around us and see the mountains and your glory all around us, lord. Would you help us to remain cognizant of you and keep you, retain you in our knowledge. Think about you. As Paul says, to continue without ceasing in prayer.
28:05
God, would you give us an attitude that bows to you this morning. Lord, with our the blessings that we have been given, lord, we take this time to give back a portion, acknowledging you. In Jesus name, lord, would you bless and multiply this offering to the ends of the earth to advance your gospel for the good of all. Amen. Amen.
28:27
Peak Children's Church is dismissed to go downstairs right now and Romans 124 through 32. I looked at this and I call it degradation on demand. We have video on demand. We have a lot of things on demand. Basically, the point throughout this is made several times is that God eventually gives what it is we want when we deny him.
28:54
When we look away from him, when we don't choose to retain him in our knowledge, when we don't acknowledge him, he will eventually give us what we want and that's not a good thing. So, I've got a lot of unusual references this morning probably, some strange quotations from two Irish playwrights, two French enlightenment philosophers, and two rural Georgians. So I'm just gonna go forward. Backwards in a way, but we'll get to that. As a note to moms and dads, I'm doing this backwards for a reason.
29:23
If you wanna read on the back of your bulletin, read the first portion of the scripture today and you feel like you might want to dismiss a child or somebody else that didn't go down to children's church, I want you to know it. When the asterisk comes up and it says, note to moms and dads, that's what I'm gonna talk about it, okay? So, just a forewarning. So, two weeks ago, we're walking walking in deep mud. I called it a context sermon.
29:46
Carl got the ski fresh powder last week with his what he called a fluffy sermon. We're walking in deep mud because this is the bad news. That precedes the good news. It's actually Paul's already the good news before we get to this but we covered Romans 18 through 23 last week and I wanna just bring out verse 21. For even though they knew God, he's speaking primarily right here of Gentiles.
30:12
Even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. He's saying that because people choose not to retain God in their mind. Although he has given him conscience and he's given him creation as common grace to everyone because they chose not to pay any attention to him. He turns him over to futile speculation and their foolish heart becomes darkened And professing to be wise, they became fools. This kinda brings up the French enlightenment to me.
30:47
Sorry. That's just the way that's where I go with that. And to these two Irish playwrights. So Oscar Wilde is incredibly quotable. I actually love Oscar Wilde's plays and I think that his writing is pretty amazing.
31:00
So Oscar Wilde said, when he came to The US in 1882, already famous by that point, when he got to the border crossing, kinda coming in off of the boat, When they asked him if he had anything to declare, he said, nothing except my genius. I have nothing to declare except my genius. Oh my. They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man. Humanism, I think is what this points to.
31:33
Voltaire. Now, in both of the time periods of all these people that we'll talk today, the church had gotten kinda off track and in a couple, most of the instances, they had allied themselves with the politics of the region and of the time. So, Voltaire is in France before the revolution, kings, queens, Catholic Church, Voltaire says this, somebody else want to pronounce it. I'm no good with French. Amen.
32:09
If God has made us in him, is he he says that if God, he's actually a deist. So, he believed that there was a god. He didn't feel like he had much to do with the affairs of men He's a deist. If God has made us in his image, then we have returned him the favor. Do you get what that means?
32:25
He's saying, we want God to look the way we want him to look. We want him to look more like us. Does that make sense to you? Okay. I'm from Harris County, Georgia.
32:35
Shiloh, Georgia to be specific. Shiloh is on the northeastern end. It's a 150 yards out of my back door was Talbot County, and then Merriweather County was right next to that. And the scariest verse from my childhood, even scarier than the verses about hell to me was this one. I remember sermons where this one came up and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind.
32:59
Now, that's King James version. That's what I heard. Reprobate mind. Reprobate, meaning wicked, corrupt, without any knowledge of what is right or wrong and that scared me. It scared me to death that I would be able to get to a place because of denying God and his urging within me, his Holy Spirit that I would get to a place where I couldn't tell up from down right from wrong.
33:20
That's still scary to me. The reprobate mind. I think this can happen in societies but it definitely can happen in individuals too. So, the new American Standard which is what we're going through this whole study in Romans. We're using NASB and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind.
33:41
Now, depraved mind maybe reprobates not in your vocabulary but depraved, we know what that is. Depraved indifference to human life. It's something where you just don't care. You can't tell the difference. Depraved is morally corrupt or even wicked.
33:55
He'll turn you over to a wicked mind. Degradation on demand. Man, that's hard. That's 28. 29 follow, oh, 28 goes on to say, so he turns you over to a depraved man.
34:11
He gave them over to a depraved mind. To do those things which are not proper. So, it's not just thinking it. It's acting on your thoughts and I've always said that doing follows being, I mean, being, yeah, doing follows being. Doing follows believing.
34:25
What you believe is what you end up practicing and so, turned over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper proper. So, believing it and then acting on it. That's verse 28. So, I'm gonna ask you all and myself too. I've been honestly self evaluating all week this week and it was a hard sermon.
34:45
I'll say that going through this was a very very difficult sermon for me to come up with. I want you to do honest self evaluation as we go. In verse 29, well, let's do this first. Denise Diderot. Also, a French enlightenment just before the revolution, philosopher.
35:05
He said and I think there's some truth in this. We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us but we sip only little by little at a truth that we find better. Do you agree with that? I think I do too. So, 29 says, being filled with all unrighteousness or all kinds of unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil.
35:28
This has got us turn them over to a reprobate or depraved mind to do that which is not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil, full of envy. He starts the list with jealousy. So, jealousy. That one, have we all experienced jealousy? Yes.
35:48
We all experience jealousy. Looking at what someone else has and feeling like we deserve it more than they do or wanting what someone else has. Full of envy. That's a sin. It's a list of vices.
35:57
He's going to give a long list of vices. Do it honest self evaluation. Do you sin in this way? Honestly, are you full of envy? I see some of you going, murder.
36:10
Hey, hadn't done that one. No, probably not but you remember Jesus teaching on murder? He says, if you're angry at your brother and you hold on to it or if you cry rocker, which is you fool at your brother, then you're just as guilty as murder. Whoo. Anybody guilty of that now?
36:26
Oh, gracious.
36:29
Strife. Always stirring up something. Quote my brother right here. He says there are two types of people. There are people who see a little pile and they can walk around it or there's another type that gets a stick and just wants to stir it up.
36:47
If you're always wanting to stir it up, strife may be to your deal and we have almost glorified that in our society. Deceit, lying, coloring the truth, shading it. We usually remember ourselves in the most favorable light possible and our enemies in the most dastardly way we can. Deceit, not having an honest set of measurement. Lies.
37:16
Malice. Malice is the desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another. That's in this list of vices. Anybody have any malice in their heart? To desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another.
37:30
They're gossips. Gracious, it gets worse. Gossips. People who engage in idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others. Actually, didn't put this Oscar Wilde quote in there, but he says the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
37:48
Gossip columns, we have gossip shows. Have you seen TMZ? Have you seen anything on the Internet around the edges of your screen while you're paying attention to what you're paying attention to? Have you clicked on them? Gossip.
38:00
The personal or private affairs of others. I think he's painting with a pretty broad brush. It hits most all of us, doesn't it? Oscar Wilde. My own business always bores me to death.
38:12
I prefer other people's. Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, they are gossips. They're slanderers. Slanderers. People who try to make other people look bad.
38:32
Haters of God. This is the only time this Greek term is used in the New Testament. It's called the when that happens. It's one use in the whole New Testament. It means to one who abhors God.
38:44
To hate God. That's a foreign concept for me because I've grown up since the cradle knowing who God was and feeling like he was good and and praise God for my parents teaching me that I could trust him. So, I don't abhor God. It's an unusual word in the New Testament. It's an unusual thing for me to think about.
39:02
I heard Red Comfort say one time and I found it on the internet. Amazing you can do that. Atheists don't hate fairies, leprechauns, or unicorns because they don't exist. It's impossible to hate something that doesn't exist. Atheists hate God because he does exist.
39:19
Little truth to that one too. George Bernard Shaw, like to be called Bernard Shaw. Everybody knows him as George Bernard Shaw. It's just the way it is. He said, I'm an atheist, flatly but then he said and I thank God for it.
39:33
I think that he gives himself away a little bit saying, he really in seeing the practice of Christianity in the world and in the church at the time, he could not go with that. He didn't feel like that was a good thing. But he thanks God that he's not that. Does that make sense to you? There's a lot of truth in that too.
39:53
He's an atheist but he thanks God for he acknowledges that he exist but at the same time, the practice of Christianity. Somebody else asked him one time what he thought of Christianity. He said, I think it'd be great if anybody ever tried it. Insolent. You know what insolent means?
40:12
Showing a rude or arrogant lack of respect. Is this hitting our society pretty hard? Yes. Did a row before the revolution said, men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
40:26
That's
40:29
pretty insolent, isn't it? Had no respect for those over him. Now, he was right in a lot of ways. I'm sure, especially for the time, my goodness. Arrogant.
40:39
We know what arrogant is. I'll just skip that one. We're boastful. Wow. Inventors of evil.
40:47
This one's an interesting one too. It literally means inventors. They come up with new ways to do evil. The the photograph. Fantastic invention, the photograph.
40:57
You can take a photograph and have a picture of family, pass it down for ancestors. It's a neutral medium, completely neutral. Hey. But you can also take pornographic pictures with it. The Internet, neutral medium.
41:11
But you can also put clips and videos and all that stuff up on there or gossip or slander. It can be used new ways to invent they come up with new ways of doing evil. Just when you think they've thought of everything. Disobedient to parents is in the list. Anybody ever been disobedient to their parents?
41:29
Oh my goodness. Yeah. Honor your father and mother. Goodness. He gets us all people and it keeps going without understanding.
41:37
If you think, well, poor thing, ignorance, they're just without understanding. It really means foolish. Somebody who knows better but acts foolishly. Untrustworthy. Have you ever figured out about yourself that you're untrustworthy?
41:54
Like, you told something you shouldn't have told to somebody and you betrayed a confidence. Didn't they just stab you? Didn't mean to. Kinda slipped into it. Untrustworthy.
42:06
Wow. Unloving. Voltaire, every man is guilty of all the good he did not do. That sounds like James. That sounds a lot like James.
42:18
To know to do good and do it not. That is sin. That's what James says in the book of James. Unloving, seeking the best of the other is love. To be unloving is not seeking the best of the other.
42:31
To be unmerciful. Now, we, most of us think that mercy is a good thing. I think that but if we're not kind of mercy gifted, we're more justice oriented. We might think that we can just kind of skip over that trait but to be unmerciful is a big deal. Is mercy really that important?
42:47
Well, Hosea six six Old Testament passage here. God says, the Lord says, for I desire mercy and not sacrifice. I'm looking for mercy and the knowledge of God, retaining the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. You get that? That's a that's a fast forward to the New Testament right there.
43:07
This is what I want is I want you to be a merciful people. The knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. So, I come back to this and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, they didn't want to pay attention to what God was saying. Now, as Christians, there are varying degrees of people what they what what kind of stock they place in the Bible. I'm I'm I believe in the Bible.
43:30
I believe it's in there. I believe it is our text. It's propositional truth. God has given us to live by. I believe that.
43:39
So, if I believe it and I wanna retain that in my knowledge, what my society does around me really shouldn't matter, right? It shouldn't matter nearly as much. Now, I have to be merciful to all in my society around me and he says that. It's pretty clear right there. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge.
43:58
God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Not really knowing what the difference in right and wrong is. He says that if you acknowledge him, he will show you what right and wrong is. Romans. Getting back to that.
44:12
After unmerciful, it goes into this long sentence and although or the rest of the sentence and although they know the ordinance of God, he's saying that within your conscience, you know. Although they know the ordinance of God that those who practice such things, it's talking about practice, continual, habitual action, what they do, those who practice such things are worthy of death because all sin is worthy of death. Knowing that those who practice such things are worthy of death. They not only do the same. So, he's saying, they do these things.
44:43
This is for the Gentiles that were in that church in Rome. This is for us here today. Almost all of us are Gentiles in this room. It wouldn't matter. It's up for everybody anyway.
44:53
Although they know the ordinance of God, they they those who practice such things are worthy of death. They not only do the same and that's talking about all of that stuff and what comes before it which I'll go back to in a few minutes. But they also give hearty approval to those who practice them. So, it's not bad enough if you if you do it, that's one thing. That's great but also approving of it and showing that you approve of it.
45:19
It's also problematic. Well, that's tough. This is a heavy sermon. Y'all look glum out there right now. Okay.
45:28
Harris County, Georgia. I'm from Shiloh, like I said, Northeastern Corner. I went to school. Well, I didn't go to school with this guy. Allen Lebo.
45:36
I've read a book. I've quoted this guy a couple times recently. He is a singer songwriter. He actually went to school to be a lawyer and when he got out of school to be a lawyer, he did that for a couple of years and realized that he couldn't do that. It was kinda slimy in his in his area, whatever he decided.
45:50
He couldn't do that. That was not for him. So, he stopped to be a singer songwriter. He's been doing that for almost for about eighteen years. He was doing that and then, he got elected as a judge.
46:00
He's the judge in Harris County right now. After having practiced law for a little while and seeing that it just wasn't for him. Singer songwriter, now he's a judge. A couple of years ago, right after I got here actually, almost four years ago, I handed out a bunch of CDs that he had given away for free. Brought a case, got a case of em here and gave em away and one of the things that he says in that is there are two very different ways.
46:23
This is in the middle of a song. He just kinda breaks and does a little ad lib here. Says, there are two different what very different ways that you can approach the Bible. You can make it say what you would like for it to say or you can read it for what it actually says. Either way though, something gets bent.
46:41
Either we bend the Bible or it bends us. I like it too. George Bernard Shaw says, no man ever believes that the Bible means what it says. He always is convinced that it says what he means. That sounds a lot like the earlier quote.
47:03
Which one? I don't remember right now but anyway, no man ever believes that the Bible means what it says. He's always convinced that it says what he means. He's saying that we all twist it. We all bend the Bible to our own ends.
47:16
I pray that that's not true. I pray that the Bible is what bends us and not us bending it. Here's a note to moms and dads. I'm going back now. If y'all want to go, I don't see anybody still in here.
47:35
Meriwether County, Georgia is right next to Harris County. That's where I grew up and I went to school in Woodbury, Georgia at the Flint River Academy. Mind, body, and spirit is a private school. I went there from kindergarten through seventh grade. There are other things I'll talk about this school at some other point, but I went through seventh grade there and the whole time that I was there, I was seven miles away from a little community called Gay, Georgia.
47:59
So, Woodbury, Biter Free Community, if any of y'all watch Walking Dead. None of you do. Anyway, The Walking Dead at Woodbury, Georgia. Gay Gay, Georgia is seven miles away from there. And I grew up in Shiloh, and I grew up with Gay 24 miles away from me.
48:14
The town of Gay. That's their water tower. And they have every year the cotton picking fairs. The first weekend in May and the first weekend in October and when I was a kid, they changed the name of it. So, it was established 1972 and it was called the Gay Fair and that's what I knew it as when I was in elementary school.
48:33
Flint River had a big part in helping out at this fair and so the Gay Fair. We would go there and at some point, they changed it to cotton picking fair. My family, they still call it. You know, you call something one day. They still call Muhammad Ali Cash's Clay.
48:45
So anyway, the cotton picking fair, they changed it. We still call it the gay fair. Cotton picking fair happens twice a year every year. People get married there. And at some point in my elementary school career, I don't remember exactly when, fourth or fifth grade, people started calling me Gay Ray.
49:01
I think because my name's Ray and it rhymes with gay and that makes sense. Maybe it's because I wear light purple shirts. I don't know. But they started calling me that. I had no idea what it meant.
49:12
None at all. Just not at all. For a long long time actually. So I know you can't see this. I can see it.
49:19
I know what's up there. That's me right there. I'm nervous this morning. I was kinda sweet on that girl and that girl and really sweet on that girl. Okay?
49:31
This is the sixth grade. I was there through the seventh grade. This guy invited me to spend the night at his house, and I did. No big deal. It's not going in a real bad place, I promise.
49:48
But he invited me over there. We stopped and we bought a record on the way to his house, and it was Gloria by Laura Brannigan. Anybody remember that song? Went home, put it on the 40 it was a 45. Put it on the record player and listen to that thing for hours and hours.
50:04
And I never thought anything of this. It was not an unusual thing for me because I was sweet on that girl and that girl and really sweet on that girl. And this guy apparently was somewhat sweet on me, and I did not know that. And I I I like the guy a lot. Anyway, he now works on a cruise ship singing show tunes, and I'm not joking.
50:33
That's his job. Carnival Cruise Lines. And I love the guy. I really do care for him. And I have lots of friends, and I can go through lots of things.
50:44
I'm not starting off with the old lots of my friends are black. Lots of my friends are gay. I'm not saying it like that. They're people, and I love I'm going back to the beginning portion of this passage now that now that Paul's painted us all with this brush of you're sinful, people. I love you.
51:00
I want you to see that. I wanna go back and hit this again. If I'd hit it at the very beginning, everybody be like, amen. Yeah. Get em, Paul.
51:07
I feel like. Therefore, therefore, and this is because they did not retain God in their knowledge or did not want to. God gave them over in the lust of their flesh to impurity. He gave them over to depraved mind where they couldn't tell the difference and up and down or right and wrong. So, that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
51:27
For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who's blessed forever. Amen. Paul says, and it is for this reason that because they exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the creator that God gave them over to these degrading passions. Now, this is a hard one. In our society, it's a really hard one to deliver.
51:53
I know lots of people have people that call me that experience and struggle with same sex attraction. And if if that's your case here, we've got lots of people in here who struggle with gossip. We got lots of people who struggle with other things. Some of those don't struggle so much, honestly. There's not a gossip pride parade but there could be.
52:10
Not just in here, all over, you know. But it's for this reason that God gave them over to degrading passion. Now, Oscar Wilde, he says, when the gods wish to punish us, now he wouldn't even say capital g God. When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers. God gives you what you ask for.
52:30
Now, if you're asking for more of him, he'll give you more. God gave them over to degrading passions for the women exchange the natural function for that which is unnatural. That's euphemistic in a way but it is talking about lesbian relationships There's not any doubt about it. It's not like that could be twisted another way. That's what it's talking about.
52:51
In the same way also, men abandoned the natural function of the woman, burning their desire toward one another. Nothing new under the sun. This has been going on a long time. Men with men committing indecent acts. There's no doubt about it.
53:06
It's sexual. Now, you can bend the Bible, make it say what you want to. If you look this passage up on anything with a rainbow flag on the page, it will come up with a a solution to this problem but we can say this is what it says. There's no doubt of what it says. And receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
53:21
That's what Oscar Wilde was talking about. He was saying they give us what we have. He gives us they they, the gods, give us what we ask for. So Diderot, eighteenth century French philosopher, when he was accused of being an atheist flat out, he replied he simply did not care whether God existed or not. That's a very honest answer, and I applaud that answer, and I think that that's where almost most of our society lives today.
53:46
Actually, I like the term. It's not an atheist, but an apatheist. They don't care whether God is for real or not. Doesn't matter to them. How we treat other people is what's important, or what I wanna do with my own freedom is important.
54:00
I can do whatever I want to. I don't care what God says. I don't even care if he exist. I think that that's pretty honest, apatheist. And he also said this, if you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.
54:13
I've gotta be able to touch him. Now, without faith, it's impossible to please God. I know where you're going but think about this, Thomas, this is Caravaggio's, the incredulity of Saint Thomas. Thomas said, and we call him doubting Thomas because of this. Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger in the print of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.
54:36
Thomas was saying, I need to see it. They're, I think they're valid and good reasons why he said that. But he was saying, I want to see it. Well, Dittero was saying the same thing. I want to see it.
54:46
I want to see God for myself. I want to be where I can touch him. Caravaggio's 1603 painting of that. But look at this, Jesus shows back up. He enters the room where the disciples are and he says, then he said to Thomas, reach your finger here and look at my hands and reach your hand here and put it in my side.
55:06
Do not be unbelieving but believing And Thomas answered him and said to him, my lord and my God. Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you've seen me, you've believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Now, the body of Christ, who we are right here and how we act towards other people if we're loving instead of unloving. If we're merciful instead of unmerciful.
55:28
If we hold to the truth too though, we have to know the difference in what is right and what is wrong. We have to hold to a standard. That's how they see the body of Christ. That's how they touch and see God. The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel.
55:44
Isaiah fifty five six says, seek the Lord while he may be found. I told you the scariest verse ever for me when I was little is that he might turn me over to a reprobate mind, a depraved mind. Well, we're living in the age of grace. We're living in a time where God has extended a call and you're able to answer that effective call to come to Jesus. Seek the Lord while he may be found.
56:05
Before he turns you over to that, reprobate or depraved man. Call upon him while he's near and he's near. When Jerry said a few minutes ago, talk to anybody here. That's true. Talk to almost anybody here.
56:20
557 says, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he, God, will have compassion on that man or woman and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. Amen. So, Oscar Wilde was a great wit. I I love, like I said, love listening to him, love his quotes. He's pretty hilarious.
56:48
He was very arrogant and flouted lots of things in his life, in his books, in his plays, everything else but at the end, he did call on the name of the Lord. He was converted on his deathbed but he's converted just like the thief on the cross. He means it. We live in the age of grace and you can reach out. If you ask God to go away, get out of your mind, he will turn you over or you can't tell up from down but if you ask him to come near, he says, seek me and I'll be found.
57:28
Amen. Ask. It'll be given to you. Knock. The door will be open.
57:34
I believe we'll be see him in heaven. He called on the name of the Lord. God saves. That's what he does. Oh, and because I quoted so many this time.
57:44
Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit. So, would you stand with me? And we're gonna close out. Florine, would you come up and lead us in a song? If you do not know Jesus and all you know is Christian meanness, they know mean like Christian mean, okay?
58:02
If all you've ever seen is ugliness from the body of Christ, I apologize. Would you please come talk to me? And I will try my best to introduce you to Jesus. Amen.
58:17
Thank God for this song. It works perfectly with the sermon. God sent his son. They called him Jesus. He came to love, heal, and forgive.
58:25
Amen. I see myself in this song a lot. Thank you for taking your time to be here. And, Michael, thank you for coming. May God bless you.
58:33
See you in Starbucks. What a great song.
1:02:36
Amen. And to him who's able to keep you from stumbling, may he grant you his peace. Amen. Amen.
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