Can You Be Threatened?

I was thinking about Bro. Alain’s message this morning and what saddens me so much is how much of the Body of Christ is living in compromise and we don’t even realize it. And I thought about a Republican senator here in Ohio who came out strong and hard against homosexuality. He came out strong and hard against same sex marriage. And then his son tells him he’s gay and that he wants to marry this guy. So the senator said because his son is a homosexual, it caused him to rethink his views on homosexuality.

Ladies and gentlemen, when a person close to you comes out and says he’s living a lifestyle that’s in disagreement with the Word of God, there should be no re-evaluation. A person who comes out against what the Bible says is wrong. But what I appreciated about Bro. Alain’s message this morning is a message like that you have to present in love.

You don’t judge the person. Judging, ladies and gentlemen, is not your job. That’s not your job. Calling them on the carpet – that’s not your job. You are simply to tell them what the Bible says and then tell that you love them. When you’ve done that, you’ve done your job.

Now if you were to ask that Republican senator if he was living a compromised life, he would say “no”. He would tell you “I’m simply loving my son. I am not rejecting who my son is.”

The biggest thing we face in the Body of Christ is when we have people in our lives that we love, we have people in our lives that we cherish, and they come out in a lifestyle that goes against what the Bible says – nine times out of 10 we’re going to go with the person and not the Bible.

Years ago there was a pastor who had been caught in a lifestyle that was against scripture. And it involved him having to settle the issue out of court. So he goes back to his church and the first morning that he’s in the pulpit he says “I’m still the man.” And church clapped and yelled its support. That pastor, ladies and gentlemen, is living in compromise. His church is living in compromise.

Now I want to tell you something: whenever I stand in the pulpit to minister, whenever Bro. Alain stands in the pulpit to minister, whenever Pastor stands in the pulpit and ministers, go to the word and check us out. That is your responsibility. We do our best to sit at the feet of the Teacher and to teach what we hear but it is your responsibility to make sure that we’re teaching truth. That is your responsibility ladies and gentlemen. When you don’t do that you are telling your Father how much you love him by not going back and making sure that you are being taught truth.

When Bro. Alain was talking about abortion this morning, and it’s one of those subjects I talk about too, when you talk to a lot of people, now listen to me, abortion is not the issue. Do you know what the issue is? The woman’s right to choose. That is always how the argument is framed, as the woman’s right.

And it breaks my heart is that we, the Body of Christ, allow the conversation to be framed that way instead of saying it’s not about rights – it’s about life. It’s about life and you are choosing to kill a life. “But that’s my right.” Yes it is. That’s the right that this country has given you.

But if you are a Christian, you live in this country with this body but your residence is in heaven. You have to make decisions based on your residence not where your physical body lives. And that’s what we do every day in the Body of Christ. We compromise when we make decisions based on what we see in this world rather than what we see in the Bible about where we live spiritually.

We’re going to talk a little bit tonight about two guys who were faced with a decision – to do what they were told to do or to do what God had told them to do. And ladies and gentlemen, that is always going to be the choice. And the choice about doing what God wants us to do versus what is easy to do – what’s easy to do is why we live in compromise. What’s easy to do is why we’re not seeing God’s blessings manifest in our lives the way they can.

We have decided that God says “this” but I can get away with “that”. Barry, in John and Dorothy’s house, if John and Dorothy said “this” Barry couldn’t get away with “that”. Why do we think we can get away with “that” in God’s house?