What are you Clinging Too?
Pastor Glenn Newton Aug. 17, 2003
RO 12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to
one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be
lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope,
patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God’s people who are in need.
Practice hospitality.
A couple of weeks ago I was busy carrying out my duties as a Tyson Chaplain, meeting
with Tyson Team members, I went to the feed mill, I went to the truck shop, I stopped by
the hatchery, and finally I made my way to the Rendering Plant, my most favorite stop,
because of the great aroma that just envelopes you as you arrive. As I made my way to
the break room, I saw someone whom I had talked to last time so I went and sat down
and begin to ask how things were going since last time we talked, He said things were
going well, but he kept looking at me kind of funny.... finally he asked, what’s wrong with
your shoulder? I said, nothing is wrong with my shoulder, why do you ask?
You have a big lump on your shoulder........ I reached back and found a big lump
on my shoulder, I reached in my Tyson shirt and pulled out the lump...... a cling free dryer
sheet..... which had been with me all day and I didn’t even know it. The dryer sheet had
been there all day, clinging to my shirt.... What I couldn’t understand is why none of the
other people had said anything.
This morning I want to talk to you about Clinging.... it’s not a great Theological Word for
sure, but I believe it’s a word we need to examine and see how it applys to our life. I
want to ask you, What are you Clinging too,......... Our passage today simply says, hate
what is evil, cling to what is good. What do you cling too?
This morning I want to take you through this passage, and let’s let it speak to us, and let’s
let the Holy Spirit teach us what He wants us to learn. Look at verse 9.
RO 12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
The apostle Paul is in the middle of a discourse here in Chapter 12, talking to the Roman
church, and he has just finished talking about how as Christians they are “to to offer your
bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of
worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
The apostle Paul is telling these Christians how they are to conduct themselves as
Christians... This is what Christian Conduct entails.... As a Christian this is how you are to
live your life....... “offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God --
this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Wow! That is a pretty big idea, that involves every part of my life.... offering my
body as a living sacrifice, that means my physical, my mental, my spiritual, my will,
everything... I offer it to God... How? Holy and pleasing.... and this is how I worship
God.
Can I ask you something Chrisitians? Has anyone explained this to you? This is
part of your Christian Conduct.... This is a major part of how you live out your Christian
Life..... This reflects the kind of Relationship that God wants with us.... He doesn’t want
just part of you..... In fact I believe the Bible says very clearly that God demands total
surrender, total commitment, total obedience.... From those who are called Christians.....
What are you clinging Too? Do you Hate what is Evil? Is your love for God Sincere?
The apostle Paul isn’t making suggestions to us this morning on ways we should
consider living as Chrisitians........ It’s much stronger than that........ This teaching points
right at us... right between the eyes....... This is required as a part of our Christian conduct,
it’s who we are, it how we live.
This morning I can tell you this.... If your love for God is sincere...... you won’t cheat on
Him...... You won’t ignore Him...... You won’t use Him for selfish purposes....... If your
love for God is sincere..... you will obey Him..... You will Honor Him........ And you will
desire to Serve Him.
I love my wife Nola...... did you know that? And because I love my wife..... I won’t cheat
on her..... I won’t ignor her..... I won’t use her for selfish reasons......
How do you cheat on God anyway you may be wondering..... If there’s anything this
morning that is more important to you, that is higher priority to you than God is.... your
cheating on God with whatever that is..... One of the 10 Commandments says that we are
not to put anything above God, in His place, He is a jealous God.... He will not accept
second place in our lives. Period.
There have been times on my life, as a teenager when sports, my playing football
and baseball were the most important things in my life..... those things were what I
thought made me happy.
We can put people in God’s place... Maybe one of the biggest hangups we face is
we put ourselves and what we desire in the place where God belongs..... Were going to
do what we want to do, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.
Hobbies, our jobs, our children, our Televisions.... Just about anything can become
the thing we Cheat on God with... if it becomes more important than God in our lives.....
We cheat on God when we ignore Him personally, but we can also cheat on Him when we
ignore His Church....and friends this local body, it may be small, but you and I represent
Christ, we represent the body of Christ.... and as a Christian who is apart of this body, if I
separate myself, if I ignore, or neglect this body of Christ.... it’s the same as If I do it to
the Lord......
Pastor your just saying that because you want everyone here for the services........
When you choose not to be here when you physically can be..... you are not only hurting
your own spiritual well being.... you are subtracting... you are hurting the Body that you
are apart of..... We depend on each other, we need each other.... We can’t be all that God
wants us to be unless we are here together, Praising God, Worshiping Him, in Unity, in
one spirit. And when you miss friends.... we all feel it.
Have you ever broke a finger, have you stubbed your big toe...... it’s hard to
operate normally when your hurt.... the same is true in the church.
When I’m sincere in my love for God..... I’ll be true to Him, and I’ll be committed to His
Church.
We are talking about our Christian Conduct.... How we are to live as Christians... in the
second part of verse 9 it says, “Hate what is evil, and cling to what is good.”
I believe God put these words in the order that He did for a reason. I think it’s impossible
to cling to what is good, if you don’t know what is evil.... how can you Hate what is evil if
your not sure what Evil is.......?
We live in a post-modern society today that rejects the very idea of absolute truth. Our
society clings to what ever feels good, our society clings to what ever works for them...
our society clings to whatever makes them feel better about their life... whether it’s true or
not. Let me illustrate to you how this is even working it’s way into the church...
August 2, 2003.
“When officials announced the vote tally on June 8, thunderous applause showered
the crowd at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Concord, N.H. The occasion:
Episcopalians in the diocese of New Hampshire had just elected the first openly
homosexual bishop anywhere in the worldwide Anglican Communion. As joyous
clergy and delegates leapt to their feet, the new bishop, the Rev. Canon V. Gene
Robinson, ambled forward, stood before the altar, and embraced his grown children
and his male lover.
On May 23 in Nashville, officials of Glendale Baptist Church met with officials of the
Tennessee Baptist Convention (TBC). The issue: Glendale had in 2002 hired as its
associate pastor April Baker, a practicing lesbian, a fact the TBC did not learn until
January 2003. TBC officials felt Ms. Baler’s sexuality violated Scripture. Glendale
officials believed otherwise, and asked the TBC to quietly vote them out.
In October, 2002, about 300 Presbyterian Church (USA) members from
Northeastern churches gathered at South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
There they nailed to a church door dissents and demands that included calls for the
reversal of PCUSA laws against ordaining noncelebate homosexuals and marrying
same-sex couples. During an ensuing two-hour worship service, church members
hoisted the door atop sawhorses and converted it into a communion table where
gay ministers and elders blessed bread and wine, then served it to worshippers,
A growing number of churches in some denominations are stepping beyond the
acceptance of repenting homosexuals as members, and instead loving both sinner
and sin. Denominations that for decades have ordained pastors who reject such
essential doctrines of Christianity as Christ’s deity and His resurrection are
now also on the verge of affirming homosexuality as biblical. Conservative
Christians who remain in those bodies are fighting for the scriptural view of sexual
morality that has stood for millennia.”
Hate what is evil, cling to what is good. When you have these so called experts on TV
telling you that you are born with this sexual orientation, what are you suppossed to
believe. When many of our schools today beginning in the elementary age levels are
teaching homosexaulity as an alternative lifestyle.... what are you as a parent suppossed to
believe?
Friends, today there only one source that you need to be concerned about in finding the
Truth, and because of the society that we live in today, you had better become well
acquainted with it..... It’s God Word..... and it says to Have what is evil, cling to what is
good.... So you need to know what the Word says is evil... let me share one passage in
Romans chapter 1 that sheds Truth on what I’ve been talking about:\
RO 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to
sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They
exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things
rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.
RO 1:26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women
exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also
abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one
another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves
the due penalty for their perversion.
RO 1:28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the
knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to
be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and
depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing
evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32
Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve
death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who
practice them.
Friends, today many of the people that you know, even some people who call themselves
Christians, have traded the truth for a lie...... they are worshiping created things, rather
than the Creator.......that’s the sad truth...... my question for you is What are you clinging
too?
Verse 32 hits us right between the eyes when we think about the things that we condone,
maybe in our own homes, maybe from our TV’s and our VCR’s... listen to what it says....
Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve
death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who
practice them.
Were talking about Living our Christian lives as Living Sacrifices, every area of
our life, presented to God as Holy and pleasing to Him.... this can only be done when we
Love God sincerely and we Live in obedience to His Word, We cling to His Word, and to
His People,
Friends, let’s be honest with each other and with God.... There are times when we can
look honestly at our lives and we realize that there are things in our lives that have no
business being there..... Thank Goodness that God’s Grace is available all the time, and He
never runs out. AMen?
There’s been times in my life when I realized I was starting to cling to something other
than God, for whatever reason I was being pulled away.... God as He is so faithful to do
convicted me of this, and I repented and God allowed me to cling to Him again, as close
as I want to get, that’s how close God wants you. What are you clinging too?
Were a Holiness Church, we are a Holiness People, and what that means is we need to be
close to our God, because He is Holy, and if we are not in direct relationship with Him, if
we are not rooted and being fed by His Holy Spirit daily, we will not be Holy, because we
cannot do it on our own, our Holiness comes from Him, our Righteousness comes from
Him....... Everything comes from Him.... Are you clinging to Him this morning? If your
not, you can change that this morning.
If you’ve never accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, then today you can do that,
and you can find that God is the source of truth, and He has a wonderful plan for you that
includes living in eternity with Him... its a great retirement plan.....
Maybe your a Christian.... but you have found yourself being pulled away from God by all
the business of life, all the problems of life have kept you from being intimate with God,
and your grip has begun to slip....... Good News... God is waiting for you, He wants you
close..... you can ask God to forgive you for moving away from Him.... He wants to
forgive you... give you grace.
What are you clinging too?
