Is God Intolerant?

Hebrews 13

Concluding Exhortations

13 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you;

never will I forsake you.”[a]

6 So we say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.

What can mere mortals do to me?”[b]

7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

We will get to the question that I used for my title this morning, it’s just going to take me a little while, I have a lot I want to share with you this morning that will help set the table for the discussion.

We are living in a time where change is happening very fast right in front of us, we have been fighting a Cultural war for the past 50 years, and in many ways what we have witnessed over the last few weeks shows us how much we have lost especially with our young people.

Times are changing, priorities have changed for many, lifestyles and values have changed…. But one thing will never Change…. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. God’s Word, which is the written revelation of Who He Is to us… tells us over and over again that God is our Refuge, our Rock, our Anchor that will stand the test of time, it will not fail or ever be out of date.

In our Society today, we have two major idea’s about Truth. (Honestly, there is more than two present, but these are the 2 major ones currently).

Let me illustrate these two ideas with a story…. A story that could happen in any of our homes today.

John and Mary Murphy, Christian couple, they have been married for 25 years, they have a college age daughter, her name is Ann, she’s 22 years old and a Senior at the Christian college that her parents are helping her navigate. Ann is coming home for Christmas break, both parents are super excited to see her, and she’s bringing her boyfriend, Jake… who they have not met as of yet, so a little nervous about that.

John and Mary have raised their daughter in church, they have been very faithful in attendance and have worked hard to raise her with good Christian morals.

Mary has asked all those Mom questions like… “Does he go to church?” Do you share the same values?... Only to get the MOOOOMMMM, let’s not get into all that….

Ann and Jake arrive on December 22nd, the house is decorated, and the Christmas celebration has all been planned. John, has made sure that Jake had his own room to sleep in by turning his man cave back into a temporary bedroom, he wanted to make sure Jake understands the expectations…

After everyone meets and eats, lots of small talk and getting the nerves out of the way, it’s time for bed. Ann tells her mom and dad that Jake will be staying in her room and she doesn’t want to discuss it….

As you can imagine, that comes as a shock to John and Mary and of course they don’t feel like allowing that to happen in their home is even an option.

Ann says, “Why can’t you just accept my lifestyle choices and me, why are you going to be so hard about this?”

John responds, “I expect you to honor the morals and values that your mother and I have raised you with all your life.”

Ann responded, “I will honor you, and I knew you would feel this way, so I guess we will sleep in separate rooms while we are here, but when we go to Jake’s parents house, and when we go back to school it will be different.”

John and Mary were crushed when their daughter Ann left, knowing that her whole worldview had shifted dramatically, away from how she was raised.

So what happened?

What we are experiencing in our culture today is more than a generation gap issue, it’s a cultural shift that separating Christian parents from their children perhaps unlike anything we have seen before.