Degradation on Demand

In one paragraph

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...

Read together

1. Romans 1:21 quoted to show that people who knew God did not honor him, becoming futile in their speculations with darkened hearts
2. Romans 1:28 quoted as the warning that God gave people over to a depraved mind to do things which are not proper
3. Romans 1:29-32 read through as a list of vices including unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, and more
4. Deuteronomy 6:5-7 quoted by Dan Toulson to support parents teaching faith to their children diligently at all times
5. Hosea 6:6 quoted to show God desires mercy and the knowledge of God more than sacrifice or burnt offerings
6. 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
7. Isaiah 55:6 quoted as a call to seek the Lord while he may be found, before being given over to a depraved mind
8. Isaiah 55:7 quoted to say the wicked can forsake his way, return to the Lord, and God will abundantly pardon

Talk about it

1. 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?
2. 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?
3. Working through the list of vices in Romans 1:29-31, Pastor Ray asked for honest self-evaluation and said the list hits most of us. Which items on that list were hardest for you to sit with, and why?
4. Pastor Ray quoted the songwriter who said either we bend the Bible or it bends us, and then cited George Bernard Shaw saying no one ever believes the Bible means what it says because they are always convinced it says what they mean. How do you guard against reading your own preferences into Scripture?
5. Pastor Ray closed by saying that if the body of Christ is loving instead of unloving and merciful instead of unmerciful while still holding to what is right and wrong, that is how people touch and see God. What does that actually look like in the way this congregation relates to people outside it?