Broken Moorings

Broken Moorings

CCCAG July 6th, 2025

Scripture: Matthew 24:12-13, Romans 1:18-32, 2 Timothy 3:1-7, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

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Introduction:

When I was growing up, I spent the summers in Hayward with my grandparents. My grandfather and I would spend many days on the Chippewa Flowage. In the late 1970’s and 80’s, it was largely undeveloped and wild. We would take his little boat with the outboard motor and travel pretty far into the various bays of the flowage, looking for Musky to catch.

One afternoon we were out there, and suddenly a storm blew in from nowhere. In the 70’s and 80’s, no internet, no cell phones, no tornado sirens on the flowage, so you had no warning that anything was coming. Suddenly we went from a sunny late July day to a roaring severe thunderstorm and we were in the middle of the widest parts of the flowage at the time. I was in the back, hand on the outboard lever, driving the boat.

I think I was 9 or 10 at that time, and I had no idea how to drive the boat in a storm, and the motor was too weak to matter. We had no anchor, or ropes, nothing to secure to even a stump in the water. We were getting blown all over the place- hitting sandbars and almost tipping, heading to islands filled with brush that hanged over the water. No matter what I did, at 9 years old, I had no chance at getting us to safety.

Obviously we survived, but that’s kind of how living in 2025 feels sometimes. A storm has rolled in without much warning, and our society is getting blown all over the place and we are hanging on for dear life.

Last week, we looked at Matthew 24 to see how the world was going to look in the days right before the rapture. This morning, we will again visit that chapter to see the reason and explore how the people of this time will be acting.

In Matthew 24:12, Jesus declares, “And because lawlessness (???µ?a) will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”

Prayer

I believe that the words Jesus spoke that are recorded in the bible for us were spoken very deliberately. Every single word has meaning, and the one that is important for us here this morning is the word “lawless””

I. Lawless meaning

In the Greek language, kind of like the English language, if you want to cancel out a word- make it means it’s opposite, you put an A in front of it. The word Atheist is one of them- a theist is a person who believes in a god, but with the a in front of the word, it means the opposite.

The Greek word for law is nomos (No’ mos) means natural, civil, or religious law, rules, and customs. It’s an all encompassing word that forms the fabric that holds a society and culture together.

The word for lawlessness is anomia- meaning that the law has been stripped away, and with it the glue that hold society together. Without that shared ethos, a formally united people fall apart.

Does that help you understand why we are seeing people lose their minds today?

Does that help you understand how a mother can insist that her child get a permanent, disabling, horrific procedure done that will permanently change that child forever? All for social media clout?

Does it explain how men in this last week can strut down the street completely naked in celebration of pride?

Does it explain how every single perversion imaginable is becoming not only allowed, but celebrated?

Many in our nation have cast aside all restraint, and are reaping the consequences of those actions.

If you understand this, Romans 1:18-32 makes perfect sense.

II. Societal Collapse: Rejecting God’s Order (Romans 1:18-32)

Let me read the section with brief commentary before we get into detail-

(Rom 1:18) For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,

(Rom 1:20) For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

(What Pau is talking about here- the suppression of the natural law that informs us that since there is a creation= a creator. You have to brainwash yourself to think otherwise)

(Rom 1:21) For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened.

(Rom 1:22) Claiming to be wise, they became fools

(Rom 1:23) and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.