Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil?
Scripture: 2 Timothy 4: 2-8 Date: 14 November 2010
Purpose: Accepting everything means you believe in nothing. When it comes to right and wrong, sitting on the fence won’t get you – or the people you love – anywhere. Passiveness is not love. Love is getting in people’s faces and telling them the truth.
Illustration: On May 26th 2002, a towboat on the Arkansas River in Oklahoma accidentally pushed a barge into a concrete bridge support. The bridge was where Interstate 40 crossed the river. At the impact, a third of the bridge collapsed.
The problem was that the people on the interstate could not see that the bridge was out. Fisherman below watched in horror as car after car fell off the edge, plunging 62ft. to the river. The fisherman immediately began pulling survivors out of the river. When they pulled a truck driver out of the water, he shouted, “Somebody stop the cars!”
So fisherman Alton Wilhoit grabbed a flare gun from his boat and ran up to the interstate, where another semi was headed for the collapsed bridge. Wilhoit fired the flare gun at the semi, hitting it on the driver’s windshield. The driver slammed on his brakes and the wheels locked up, the trailer came to a stop with the truck’s front wheels hanging over the ledge. The driver threw it into reverse and pulled away, effectively blocking the road and warning the other drivers.
14 people died that day. But how many more would’ve died if Alton Wilhoit hadn’t done what it took to warn people who were blindly headed toward their death?
You and I can be Alton Wilhoit for the world. We know the bridge is out. We know that people are unknowingly accelerating to their deaths. And we’re in the right place at the right time with the right tools to do something about it.
Your friends are about to go over the edge. People in your family are about to go over the edge. Our whole country is about to go over the edge. They don’t know it. They don’t even see it coming but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s true.
We have fooled ourselves as a society that if we don’t hear it, see it, or speak about it; well then it just doesn’t exist and all is well in our world. The truth is this: There is much evil in our world even though we turn our backs to it and pretend it’s not there. We actually are condoning it by doing nothing about it.
2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
6For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Let me start this morning sermon off with another scripture reading:
“And Jesus said unto His disciples, “Go into all the world, teaching all men to live any way they want, and urging each to find his or her own path to God. Let not any one of you make someone feel inferior or victimized because of their beliefs, Above all, be tolerant, Verily, verily, I say unto you that what you believe and how you live do not matter, so long as you are sincere.” And if you choose to come to the Father (or Mother, if you prefer) through Me, that’s cool. Now go forth to live according to whatever feels good to you.” And there was much rejoicing!! What Bible translation was that!!
I promise you that you won’t find that passage of Scripture in any Bible translation. But sadly, there are plenty of people alive today who live as if that’s exactly how the Bible does read.
It seems that everybody wants to be cool with everybody else. Nobody wants to offend others or be thought of as narrow- minded or intolerant. I believe it is tough being a Christian in today’s world, isn’t it? You want to follow Jesus. You want your friends to know about Him, too. But whenever you start talking about the Bible and what’s right and wrong, everyone jumps up and calls you a judgmental bigot. After all who are you to say what is right and what is wrong?
And so you keep your mouth shut. Or maybe you’re the kind of Christian who just wants to get along. Jesus promoted a life of peace, right? You’re wondering why you can’t love Jesus and the next guy love Buddha. The problem with that is you don’t fit in with some of your friends because you say you love Jesus- doesn’t that name just freak people out? Yet you also don’t seem to fit in with the crowd at church.
Today I want to encourage you in your Christian walk. If you’re feeling paralyzed in your walk with Jesus, if you’re fearful of what might happen if people find out what you truly believe, I want to take you to a new place where you will gladly stand up for Jesus Christ, no matter what the cost.
I want to bring you out of the darkness of political correctness into the light, peace, and freedom of the truth. I want to take you from hypocrisy to consistency, from moral cowardice to moral confidence. I want to show you that it’s not just uncomfortable to be a Christian and be friends with the world at the same time – it’s IMPOSSIBLE! I want you to speak out for the Lord out of love for your friends.
Jesus didn’t say He was one of the ways to get to God; He said He was the only way. When it comes to being intolerant, Jesus is the leader of the pack. He will not let you stay on the fence.
- Accepting everything means you believe in nothing. When it comes to right and wrong, sitting on the fence won’t get you – or the people you love – anywhere. Passiveness is not love. Love is getting in people’s faces and telling them the truth. I believe the Scripture are straight forward, I believe Jesus was straight forward; I believe we too must be straight forward with people and be clear about all matters in life. First of all, the Bible speaks clearly about,….
I. HOMOSEXUALITY
A. In the Old Testament it is called Sodomy. In the New Testament, in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 it is clear. “Do you not know the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom f God.”
1. IT is clear-----God would not condemn people for something they could not help. –
- Homosexuality----like all the other sins listed-----is a SIN.
2. Let’s not sugar coat it as the world desires us to. We need to expose it for what it is. It is a sin and we need to recognize this fact and speak it to the world.
3. Hey, a sin is a sin, wrong is wrong. And I am sick and tired of a wishy washy society trying to change wrong into right!!!
4. It is time for us to ban together and expose homosexuality as the sin it truly is.
5. The world wants us to accept homosexuality; the world wants us to believe that it is kosher and an act of Love.
B. Sadly, many good Christians have bought into this junk; they have covered their eyes to God’s Truth and have accepted the world’s lies.
Illustration: News article posted, August 24, 2009 “Homosexual Clergy approved by ELCA church” Sexual active homosexuals in committed relationships can serve as clergy in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The controversial resolution was passed Friday by a vote of 55.3 percent in favor of the measure.
The vote took place over the weekend at the Minneapolis Convention Center. A group of pastors, several of them lesbians dissolved into tears after the vote was revealed.
“I feel a tremendous amount of joy and a tremendous amount of pain,” confessed the Rev. Jenny Mason to the Associated Press. Mason is a St. Paul cleric who said she was ejected from the official list of ELCA “rostered” clergy in 2001 for having a same-sex lover. “This means our church can move forward and practice this welcome toward gays.”
“It’s a huge victory.” Said Jeremy Posadas, 26. A voting church member from Decatur, GA. “The gospel of inclusion has won and we’re going to keep winning.”
1. The ELCA was once a strong denomination that stood on God’s Holy truth but I firmly believe that over time this once Holy body of believers has allowed society to water down the word of God. It began with the acceptance of female clergy and has brought us to a gay acceptance of clergy. Where does it end? At what point will someone stand up and say ENOUGH?
3. 20 years ago Psychiatrists recognized and categorized homosexuality as a form of mental illness. Recently, that has changed completely and now they say that homosexuality is normal and those who oppose it are mentally ill and they define homophobia as an “irrational fear and hatred of homosexuals” and in our culture, anyone who verbalizes anything negative about homosexuality is homophobic or mentally ill.
Illustration: Citizens in Canada are already being persecuted for criticizing homosexuality. Christians in that nation are already facing this threat because the Canadian Parliament passed a bill that provides special rights of protection for homosexuals. As a result, speech against homosexuals is now criminalized in Canada.
Pastor Stephen Boission and Dr, Chris Kemling are both being persecuted in Canada for publicly criticizing homosexuality. Both are being persecuted because Canadian “hate crime” legislation now includes “sexual orientation” protections.
- The persecution of pastors, therapists , and others will be inevitable if the United states passes the same bill here.
4. If we do not take a stand I would not be surprised if one day I too will be persecuted against preaching God’s truth. I stand here before you this morning and I tell you that this is something that I will NOT cower down to nor will I keep quiet and fear a corrupt society. I will keep preaching His Holy truth to the end. I will keep on pushing and pushing until the last beat of my heart.
Illustration: As a pastor I learned a valuable lesson early in my ministry. I once was so concerned and worried about offending the congregation. I didn’t want to say anything that would rub them the wrong way or make them feel uneasy. I suppose it was for multiple reasons. For one, I was afraid that I would lose my job and the church would ask me to leave if I was preaching tough hard hitting topics that they didn’t want to hear about. Second, I suppose I wanted to make everyone happy. I wanted to be liked by everyone and I didn’t want to hurt feelings and I wanted them to come back.
I was so interested in pleasing man that I forgot who I was called to serve. I forgot God and was placing man above Him and my calling. I wasn’t seeking the Holy Spirit in preparing my messages because I was too concerned about hurting others.
I came to the realization that I could never make everyone happy and I was failing God and blowing my calling as a pastor off. I realized that the one I needed to please and make happy in my messages was God. I realized that I needed to preach His Word and share it with others that I was to make God happy and not worry about pleasing the masses because pleasing Him is the key.
6. People get convicted. People don’t like to hear anything that is contrary to their personal beliefs even if it is Scriptural. We hate to be told we’re wrong on any level.
7. Friends, my goal is not to make you mad and hurt your feelings, my goal is to make God happy by sharing His Truth and doing His will.
8. Homosexuality is sin, and sin is evil. Why do we as believers in Christ, turn the other way and avoid talking about it in our churches, to our friends, and to our loved ones?
9. The Scriptures clearly reveals to us that Homosexuality is wrong. But this sermon is not meant to just talk to you about homosexuality. We have much evil in this world and this brings me to another controversial point that many churches and pastor are afraid to talk about, ….
II. ABORTION
A. Let me share with you something I came across on the internet this past week entitled, “ DIARY OF AN UNBORN CHILD”
OCTOBER 5 -- Today my life began. My parents do not know it yet, I am as small as a seed of an apple, but it is I already. And I am to be a girl. I shall have blond hair and blue eyes. Just about everything is settled though, even the fact that I shall love flowers.
OCTOBER 19 -- Some say that I am not a real person yet, that only my mother exists. But I am a real person, just as a small crumb of bread is yet truly bread. My mother is. And I am.
OCTOBER 23 -- My mouth is just beginning to open now. Just think, in a year or so I shall be laughing and later talking. I know what my first word will be: MAMA
OCTOBER 25 -- My heart began to beat today all by itself. from now on it shall gently beat for the rest of my life without ever stopping to rest! and after many years it will tire. it will stop, and then i shall die.
NOVEMBER 2 -- I am growing a bit every day. My arms and legs are beginning to take shape. But I have to wait a long time yet before those legs will raise me to my mother’s arms, before these little arms will be able to gather flowers and embrace my father.
NOVEMBER 12 -- Tiny fingers are beginning to form on my hands. Funny how small they are! I’ll be able to stroke my mother’s hair with them.
NOVEMBER 20 -- It wasn’t until today that the doctor told my mom that I am living here under her heart. Oh, how happy she must be! Are you happy mom?
NOVEMBER 25 -- My mom and dad are probably thinking about a name for me. But they don’t even know that I am a little girl. I want to be called Kathy. I am getting so big already.
DECEMBER 10 -- My hair is growing. It is smooth and bright and shiny. I wonder what kind of hair my mom has.
DECEMBER 13 -- I am just about able to see. It is dark around me. When my mom brings me into the world it will be full of sunshine and flowers. But what I want more than anything is to se my mom. How do you look, mom?
DECEMBER 24 -- I wonder if my mom hears the whispering of my heart? Some children come into the world a little sick. But my heart is strong and healthy. It beats so evenly: tup-tup tup tup. You’ll have a healthy little daughter, mom!
DECEMBER 28 -- TODAY MY MOTHER KILLED ME. (prayer)
1. I Corinthians 14:8 asks, "if the trumpet does not sound a clear call who will get ready for battle?" If the church doesn’t take a stand for morality, if the church doesn’t take a stand for the unborn, who is?
2. Abortion is an all-out war on the unborn; it is the brutal murder of precious tiny babies created in the image of God.
3. How should God’s people feel about Abortion? Well, how does God feel? Proverbs 6:17 reads, "God hates the hands that shed innocent blood." As God looks down and sees these innocent little children murdered, He hates it!!! And we as God’s people should hate it to.
4. The Bible clearly commands, “You shall not murder” (Exod. 20:13).
Murder is forbidden. The Bible uses the phrase “innocent blood” about 20
times, and always condemns shedding innocent blood.
5. I ask you this morning, “What is more innocent than a helpless child in their mother’s womb, waiting to be born”?
B. I believe the majority of Born again Christians today believe that Issues like Homosexuality and Abortion is a major problem across the board.
5. I personally believe that the real problem at hand is that we as Christian are not doing anything to combat the problem such as abortion.
VIDEO: “Not My Problem”
Conclusion:
Could this be a bigger problem? The sad fact that we sit back and do literally nothing? Our churches are afraid to speak against such issues within the church itself because of the fear of losing people and stepping on toes.
Christians are afraid to speak out against it because we do not want to be viewed as bigots or as intolerant right wing Jesus Freaks.
Friends, I believe it is time we open our eyes, ears and voices to the evil that is so very prevalent in this world.
