The Rainbow Elephant

June 24, 2012

“The Rainbow Elephant”

Session IV

Rom 1:21-27

This morning I want to continue preaching on the ”The Elephants in the Church”. We know the terminology that there “Is an Elephant in the Room”, meaning that there is something we all know exists, something that is an obvious truth that everyone ignores, or it is something that everyone is thinking about but no one is willing to talk about. I think everyone has experienced some sort of this phenomenon whether it is something that has occurred in our families, circle of friends, and even in the workplace, but does it occur in the body of Christ as well? Yes. What are the elephants in the church?

The title of my sermon this morning is “The Rainbow Elephant”.

This morning I want to share a brief story that recently happened in Creekside Community Church…. see Illustration

I want to deal with a subject that EVERYONE in the church is going to have to face sooner or later. There is a deep seeded desire that the community of believer in the Church desire to be socially inclusive in everything they do, in order for their church to grow. But there is one culture in our community whose identity is normally symbolized with a “Rainbow” that the Church must face head on with how they are going to interact with and engage them.

The subject of Homosexuality isn’t something that we aren’t eager to discuss, primarily because we don’t want to be offensive or come off as being intrusive towards another person who inclines to identify themselves as being gay or lesbian. In the past we have seen how the modern day church has dealt with homosexuality, some of those in very cruel and antagonistic ways. But in all honesty, in this new generation of Christ followers there is a systemic problem in knowing how to deal with the Homosexual community. So to be the church that God has called us to be, we need to get a grasp on how to deal with this issue in the Church both humanly and biblically.

But if we consider and agree with that the Bible is “our rule of faith”, and that it is “God’s Infallible Word” then whatever God’s Word says stands@? But I think that we really need to get to the root of the problem in order to remedy the issue! Paul was teaching the Church of Rome of how to deal with sin in their church, especially those who had an unrepentant heart.

Let’s look at scripture in

Romans 1: 21-27

because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

Church, I want to preface this sermon by saying this as openly and honestly as I can. We need to be very careful with how we relate and engage those involved with the homosexual lifestyle. The Homosexual community not only affects those who are actively participating in it, but more importantly it affects those families from which these individuals come from.

There are Christian mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers whose lives have been turned upside down and broken due to their children or siblings who have come out of the closet. In the past there have been dogmatic preachers and sermons that have been preached against homosexuality that lay blame upon how they were raised. Folks have been critical that the source of gay men is a direct result of single moms raising kids in a broken home, without a fathers influence. Churches have excommunicated people for having ties with the Gay community. The church has cut and sliced people lives up in a way that has wounded everyone touched by homosexuality. But Church we have got to be very sensitive to this situation to see the truth behind the false doctrine of ignorance.

But it isn’t just the Church that has brought propaganda and prejudice to the situation, the Gay and Lesbian Community has its own agenda as well! The Gay Lesbian Activists Alliance just updated their 2010 agenda. Here is a summary of their goals for 2010 in the United States: