Look First To The Word
GNLCC 11/2/2003 Proverbs 2:1-15 2 Timothy 3:10-17
Meet Clarissa. She is a beautiful seventeen year old junior in high school. If her smile does not light up a room, her sense of humor surely will. She needs a good sense of humor coming from a poor family with 13 children, and no man hanging around long enough to be called Dad. Very few of the 13 call the same man father.Life for the family is a struggle with a lot of people living under one roof
Meet Jamale. He is standing all of six feet two with the athletic build and the lines that could melt a girl’s heart. Jamale is also in school. He and Clarissa start seeing each other. But they follow that path, that far too many of us travel of thinking we can handle the situation. But then discover temptation is far greater than we thought.
Jamale assures her that nothing can go wrong. Well something does go wrong and she finds out she’s pregnant. It’s a lonely place to be when you’re pregnant and you don’t want to be. Jamale has decided on his own, that this pregnancy is not his responsibility and there’s no way this could be his child. Jamale already has his eyes on another girl in the class, and now they’re kicking it together.
Clarissa is absolutely miserable, isolated, and feeling alone. What should she do about this pregnancy? What should she do with her life. She comes to you for advice. What are you going to tell her that her options are? Where is your source of wisdom going to come from? Can Clarissa leave you having received a biblical perspective on her situation?
Diane comes home from the end of the first semester and announces to her father Daniel, that after thinking things over, she’s decided that she is a lesbian. Diane has always been a good girl who never gave the family any trouble. But Diane also says that she wants the family to meet her new lover during the Christmas holidays.
Daniel is in a state of shock. This is one thing he did not see coming. Not his beautiful little girl who he loved as a father should. He sees his dreams, his hopes, and his desires for your daughter going up in smoke. He has no idea of how the rest of the family is going to deal with this. He is also hurt and angry at the same time. He wants nothing to do with this lover and tells his daughter so. “don’t you bring that woman into my house.”
Diane refuses to speak to her father. He has come to you for advice. What is going to be your response? Will it be based on what’s on something you saw on TV? Will it be grounded in Scripture?
If we are Christians, then we are counselors. Not because we have a degree in counseling, but because the word of God has made us to be. Jesus told us, “you are the light of the world.” How many of you know that light attracts others. When someone is stumbling around in the dark, they are looking for a light in order to get their bearings straight. As a Christian, God expects you to be as spokesperson for Him in the world. God has provided us with the greatest counseling tool available known to the world. We call it the Word of God and the Bible.
Too many of us treat the bible as being so holy that we will not even touch it and read it to see what it has to say. But God does not give us the Bible to have a big pretty book on the coffee table, or to put it under the broken leg to keep the table from falling down. God gave us the bible to equip us to be the counselors to provide light for the world. We are to look first to the word of God in trying to deal with situations that come into our lives.
Have you ever met a person that’s really smart, but lacks plain common sense? We lack common sense every time we choose to ignore the Word of God. There is a pride in us that just does not like anyone or anything telling us what to do. How many times have you heard people say “I want to live my own life” and then when they do and screw up, they came back to you asking for help.
The bible is not just a bunch of stories or a bunch of history. It is a book written for us to get the most enjoyment and benefit out of life regardless of what our circumstances are. In our Old Testament reading, it is clear though, that the benefits of God’s word is an option in life. In Proverbs 2:1, the writer clear states, “if you accept my words.” God will not make us obey Him. God will not make us obey His word. It is a decision on our part to turn our ears to wisdom and to apply our hearts to understanding.
Everyday, something is calling for us to turn in it’s direction. There is a battle which rages for our values, our morals, and our goals in life, whether we turn on the tv, the radio, or simply go outside. Who is going to win the battle for what we believe is right and wrong? Who is going to shape our minds and our hearts? We are fools if we think nothing influences us, and we make all our decisions independently.
Who decided what you wore to church this morning? Is there anybody here this morning with plaid bell bottoms on today? Even something as simple as the choice of clothing is influenced by others we don’t know, who persuaded us to get their product through a variety of manipulations.
Some of us do not recognize the battle that goes on for our moral values. One of the reasons for this is that we got saved but didn’t go through the stage of repentance. We attempted to receive all the benefits of knowing Christ, without repenting of the wrong way of thinking we had prior to coming to know Christ.
That is why you can have a racist claim to know Jesus Christ as savior. The person fails to understand, that there has to be a renewing of one’s mind, or one’s way of thinking to accompany a changed heart.
Satan knows, that as long as he controls our way of thinking, we are not going to be of much use to the kingdom of God. Why do you think it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write? It was an attempt to control their way of thinking.
God is upfront with us at all times. God lets us know, that His goal is to change our way of thinking and of seeing the world as He sees it. God makes it clear that His wisdom alone is true wisdom. What does he tell us about His word. Let’s read 2 Tim. 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The bible did not one day simply fall out of the sky as God’s gift to humanity. No it took many people many hundreds of years to write portions of it. This verse tells us that they were not simply writing their opinions. Just as the Spirit of God blew breath into Adam at creation, those whom God chose to use were breathed upon by God to write the Scriptures for us. This verse also provides us with the reason for the Scriptures.
We are told the Scripture is useful for teaching. When someone comes to us with a new doctrine or a new way of thinking, we are to first run it by the teachings of the Scriptures.
We are often find ourselves in today’s world trying to redefine Scripture so that it fits our way of thinking. When we can’t make it fit, we try to toss it aside as being old fashioned. Today people no longer commit adultery, they’re simply having an affair. People no longer steal, they were simply misguided in their actions. People no longer are evil. They simply came from bad environments. We can say what we want, but we are still going to be judged by the same standard of Scripture.
The second purpose of Scripture is to offer rebuke. The bible is going to offend us because it’s going to say, what you are doing is wrong. We are not going to like that, because all of us have something we would like to do, that’s wrong. We don’t like being told we have to forgive people who genuinely have used us or abused us.
We don’t like to be told we were wrong to give so and so a piece of our mind when we know they deserved it. We don’t like to be told by not tithing we are stealing from God. We don’t like to be told how to behave in our marriages.
Let’s read a verse that’s full of rebuke 1 Cor. 6:9-11 “Do you not know that 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 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Now this a rebuke of things we are doing, that we should not be doing, but the Bible also has a rebuke for us for not doing things we ought to be doing. Let’s read another verse that’s a rebuke 1 John 3:16-18 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. –You know it’s a dangerous thing to have a lot of money just sitting around in the bank collecting interest, when you know someone in the church has a real financial need for housing, or food, or clothing.
The third purpose of Scripture is to offer correction. This means to help us straighten out our errors. In our walk with Christ, we all get off in to some kind of error. Most of the time our pride will get us there because of something we say. The Scripture is going to reveal to us, that we only have half of this thing right. There is something else we have to do to make this thing right.
Your spouse may have committed adultery, and you see in Scripture your right to get a divorce. But Scripture can offer some correction by showing you there is an alternative to forgive. It may also remind you that when you get past your hurt and anger, remember to think not only of your own interests, but also the interests of others. What will this do to your children? What will this do to your future?
The fourth purpose of Scripture is to provide training in righteousness. The Bible shows us how to please and glorify God in our living. There is always going to be someone who comes up with a different plan for how to serve God. In the Old Testament, there were two young men who were priest. One of them would have become the high priest. But they decided, they did not have to serve God in the way God had prescribed. Instead of offering God the kind of incense listed in the rules, they came up with something that was new and improved. They went to offer it to God at the altar, and fire came from the altar and burned them to death.
Everything we do in the name of God is not pleasing to God. God has set some rules and some limit If we want to live a life that’s pleasing to God, we don’t have to pray, oh God would you speak to me and show me what to do. God has already revealed it in His word if we would pick it up, read it, and apply it. We die because of a lack of knowledge, but for most of us it is an intentional lack of knowledge.
If Jesus is our role model, then we know that Jesus relied on the Old Testament for the course of His life. When Jesus faced temptation, He relied on the Scriptures for help, because with each temptation He responded it by saying it is written. It is written. It is written. If Jesus relied upon the Scriptures, what makes us think they are only on option for us.
God gave us the Scriptures so that we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Now remember I told you that as a Christian you are a counselor. As a follower of Christ, you must first look to the Scriptures as Christ did when facing various issues. Let’s look at some of our opening stories. Do you remember Clarissa, the young beautiful seventeen year old who’s pregnant, about to drop out of school, with an ex-boyfriend, and from a family of poverty. When she comes to you with this undesired pregnancy, what role does Scripture play in your counseling.
I’m old enough to remember the abortion debate when it first started. Those who supported abortion used to argue that it really was not a human being. They showed us embryos of frogs, dogs, cats, and humans and stated you could barely even tell them apart. They emphasized the need to help women by giving them choices in life. They talked about the weight of the decision to choose abortion and how it would not be chosen very often or very lightly.
Somehow we have moved from that, to the place of where abortion is just a means of correcting an earlier mistake, and we can kill kids as they come out of their mother’s womb fully alive and healthy. While at the same time spend thousands of dollars on a child down the hall in the same hospital trying to save the life of this child born premature with lungs that are not fully developed.
But if our starting point in developing our morals is Scripture and not society, we may come to another conclusion on this issue. For all our great wisdom, our scientists still do not fully understand how a child grows in its mother’s womb. But God does. Look at Jeremiah 1:4-5 The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 5"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Life for all of us began before conception in the eyes of God. God says, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. How many of you here, believe that God knew about you even before you were born. Wouldn’t there be something uneasy about knowing you were an accident in God’s mind?
No, not only did God know about you before you were born, God was working with you in your mother’s womb. God wasn’t concerned with who your mother was, what her background was, what her social economic status was. At that moment God was concerned with His purposes for your life. Nobody could know about what was going to become of you except God.
You see, when we eliminate a child in the womb, what plan of God are we discarding for humanity. Now for those of you who feel as though Clarissa, should have an abortion in order to complete her education and get on with her life, you have just changed your own life. You say how is that. Well in one way, this church as we know it today, would have never existed because Clarissa was my mother. Only the name was changed.
One of the proud moments I have of our daughter Anita, was in a Shaw High School class they were having a discussion on abortion. One person said, she would rather have an abortion than to give up a child for an adoption because she would be afraid someone might abuse the child in a foster home.
Anita then spoke of her natural Mom having several kids already in foster homes when she was pregnant with her. She said, “I’m glad my mother gave me up for adoption rather than having an abortion. Are you saying that I don’t have a right to be here just like everybody else.” That ended the discussion.
Think of how different our church would have been, if that woman who had all those kids and was strung out on drugs, had gotten an abortion and Anita Allen would have never been born. God’s ways are not our ways.
What about Dianna and her coming out of the closet. Our society has spent the last 30 years trying to convince us of what the bible says is wrong and sin is okay because now we call it an alternative lifestyle. Our society spent the first 10 years proving that 1 in 10 of us was homosexual. Then it later dropped that argument because the facts were not there to prove it.
I remember when AIDS was limited to mainly to male homosexuals. When we embraced the alternatively lifestyle, bisexual men brought AIDS into the mainstream and it spread even quicker through the population. But to make this kind of statement is considered homophobic today. Anyone who speaks the truth about homosexuality as found in Scripture is called a homophobe a bigot and the like.
When our Bible rebukes homosexuality as sin, it is labeled as a hateful book. Yet the Bible is clear, that the homosexual person was created by God in the womb, the same as everybody else is. God has a call on that person’s life as well. But the Bible never teaches that any of us are perfect in the womb when it comes to sin.
We all come out of our mother’s womb with a special bent toward a special sin. Some of us were lying the moment we learned how to speak. Some of us were stealing the moment we saw something to steal. Some of us were bullies from the first day of pre-school. Some of us were stubborn and revengeful before we got to be three. Where did we get it? We were born with it. It’s part of our sinful nature that affects all humanity.
The argument today for accepting the alternative lifestyle, is that people were born that way. I believe that some people were born with a slant toward homosexuality. Let me come out of the closet for a minute about myself. I also believe I was born with a slant toward adultery. I have always seen women who I would have liked to have had sex with when I was growing up and even after I was married. That desire has nothing to do with my wife who has done more than he share to fulfill her sexual vows for me.
The fact that the desire is in me is not a license for me to throw out the word of God and act upon my feelings. It is a warning to me not to go to certain places or get into certain situations. All of us are called to give up something differently in order to follow Christ. Some of us struggle with things, that others of us are not tempted by in the least manner.
Some of you who are single, are not single simply because you want to be. You’re single because you’re not married for whatever reason. You have the same urges and desires within you as does a person who is homosexual, yet you can not claim to come out of the closet as single person with special desires, and therefore make yourself exempt from God’s word concerning your sexual behavior.
Let us not kid ourselves, the singles involved in having sex with others are facing the same rebuke from God as the homosexuals and lesbians are. So are the adulterers. The issue is not one of desires, but as Lord of our lives, does God have the right to tell us what is right and what is wrong concerning our sexual desires. I’ve got desires that I know are wrong. My goal is to submit those desires to God and to obey Him because I know He has more wisdom concerning my life than I do.
We run into sin when we launch a crusade against people rather than against behaviors. We are called to love people, but love does not mean I have to accept what you do. Some people say its foolish to talk about love the sinner, but hate the sin. They say it can’t be done. Let me ask you something. How many of you here love your kids or your parents, but hate some of the things they do? So why does the homosexual movement say we are hypocrites to say we love homosexuals but will not approve of their practice or behavior?
When Daniel comes to you for help in dealing with Diane, you’ve got to be honest with him about the word of God stating that homosexuality is wrong. But you’ve got to be honest and let him know the word of God indicates his actions toward his daughter were wrong. Diane has chosen a lifestyle in opposition to God, but she stills needs a loving father to help her find her way back home.
He can let her know that, He still loves and accepts her, but he cannot give his approval or affirmation to what she’s chosen. He has the right to say, “no the two of you are not sleeping together in my house anymore than if she you had brought home a man.”
But to say, this other person cannot even come into my house is neither, loving, kind nor Christ like. The word of God requires Daniel to go his daughter and ask for forgiveness. He can no more make her forgive him, than she can get him to approve her lifestyle. It’s not going to be easy for Him dealing with his daughter’s choice through the years to come. But following Christ is never about what’s easy and what’s not. Is about being obedient to Christ. He is to keep praying for her.
What other people think in the end is not going to matter. Jesus made it though this life,” by sticking to the Word of God and being able to say “it is written. He looked first to the Word of God to guide his way of thinking in the face of temptation and in the face of personal struggles. In an age when like to talk about rights, let us remember His prayer “not my will, but your will be done.”
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick GNLCC 11/2/2003
“Look First To The Word
Proverbs 2:1-15 2 Timothy 3:10-17
A. Dealing With Unexpected Circumstance Which Come
1. Clarissa A Beautiful Young Girl
2. Jamale A Handsome Young Man But,
3. You’re The Counselor
4. Dianne A Wonderful Young Woman
5. Daniel A Father In Distress, Shock, Unbelief
6. You’re The Counselor
B. Christians Are Called To Be Counselors
1. Jesus, You’re The Light Of The World
2. The Bible Was Given To Equip
3. Look First To The Word For Guidance
4. Intelligence Vs Common Sense
5. Pride Short Circuits Common Sense
C. The Bible Itself As The Word Of God
1. Written To Give Us The Most Out Of Life
2. Proverbs 2:1, “If You Accept My Words”
3. We Decide To Turn And To Apply
4. There’s A Battle For Our Values
5. Who Really Dressed You This Morning
6. Trying Salvation Without Repentance
7. Why The Racist Claims To Know Christ
8. Necessity Of The Renewal Of The Mind
D. God Is Upfront About Changing Our Minds
2 Tim. 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
1. Bible Did Not Fall Out Of Sky
2. God Breathed Into The Authors Of Bible
3. Scripture Useful For Teaching
4. Attempts To Redefine Sin & Make It Nice
5. The End Of Adultery, Stealing, & Evil
6. Same Scriptures Await Us At Judgment
E. When The Scriptures Offend—What Do We Do
1. Scripture Is For The Purpose Of Rebuke
2. We Don’t Like Being Told We’re Wrong
3. We Don’t Like Being Told How To Behave
1 Cor. 6:9-11 Do you not know that 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 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
4. Scripture Offer Rebuke For Not Acting As Well
1 John 3:16-18 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
F. When The Scriptures Put Us Back On Track
1. Purpose Of Scripture Is To Offer Correction
2. Scriptures Gives Options To Consider
3. Think Not Only Of Your Own Interests
4. Purpose Of Scripture Is To Train In Righteousness
5. Serve God His Way, And Not The Way You Choose
6. Two Priests Lives Lost Because Or Their Way
7. God Has The Right To Set Limits
8. Look First To The Word
G. Jesus Is To Be Our Role Model For The Word
1. Jesus Relied On The Scriptures To Face Life
2. It Is Written
3. Word Allows Us To Be Thoroughly Equipped
H. Let’s Try To Help Clarissa
1. The Movement Toward Abortion
2. From Embryo To Partial Birth
3. What Is God Up To
Jeremiah 1:4-5 The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 5"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
4. Does Life Begin Before Conception
5. When Did God First Think About You
6. What Plans Of God May Be Altered
7. Clarissa Could Change Glenville
8. What About Adoption From Experience
9. Who Has God Raise Up To Make A Difference
I. Can We Help Daniel
1. The Early Arguments For Alternative Life Styles
2. The Early Spread Of Aids
3. Is The Bible Hate Speech
4. God Worked In Gays & Lesbians In The Womb
5. All Babies Come With Original Sin—Born
6. The Confession Of A Pastor—Adultery Bent
J. We Are All Tempted By Something
1. Singles Who May Choose To Come Out Of The
Closet
2. Desires Do No Give Us Exemptions
3. Is There Really A Difference Among Sins
4. Launching Crusades Against People—A No, No
5. Can You Love The Sinner But Not The Sin
6. Being Honest With Daniel
7. Word Says, Daniel Must Change
8. Choosing To Be Loving And Christ Like
9. When Following Christ Is Not Easy
10. Keep On Prayer
11. Who Gets To Call The Shots
K. When The Thoughts Of Others Don’t Really Matter
1. Jesus Made It By Sticking To The Word
2. Look First To The Will Of God
3. Jesus, Not My Will But Thy Will Be Done
