CRCF\u201d\u201d6\/5\/09
\nQuestions of the Heart #6
\nIntroduction
\nVIDEO–(John 8:1ff)
\n[http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=laPFkFnHGlM&feature=player_embedded]
\nYancey: \u201c . . . in a brilliant stroke Jesus replaces the two assumed categories, righteous and guilty, with two different categories: sinners who admit and sinners who deny. The woman caught in adultery helplessly admitted her guilt. Far more problematic were people like the Pharisees who denied or repressed guilt . . . Yet if I understand this story correctly, the sinful woman is the one nearest the kingdom of God. Indeed, I can only advance in the kingdom if I become like that woman: trembling, humbled, without excuse, my palms open to receive God\u201d\u2122s grace.\u201d (What\u201d\u2122s So Amazing About Grace?, 182)
\n1. We are ALL equally guilty before God, no matter what our sin.
\nRomans 3:10-12, 23\u201d\u201d\u201cNo one is good\u201d\u201dnot even one. No one has real understanding; no one is seeking God. All have turned away from God; all have gone wrong. No one does good, not even one . . . For all have sinned; all fall short of God\u201d\u2122s glorious standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Jesus came with \u201cforgiving eyes\u201d, no matter what our sin.
\nLuke 19:10\u201d\u201d\u201cAnd I, the Son of Man, have come to seek and save those like him who are lost.\u201d
\nLuke 15:1-2\u201d\u201d\u201cTax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such despicable people\u201d\u201deven eating with them!\u201d
\nYancey: \u201cJesus did not identify the person with his sin, but rather saw in this sin something alien, something that really did not belong to him, something that merely chained and mastered him and from which he would free him and bring him back to his real self. Jesus was able to love men because he loved them right through the layer of mud\u201d (175).
\nMatthew 11:19\u201d\u201d\u201cAnd I, the Son of Man, feast and drink, and you say, \u201d\u02dcHe\u201d\u2122s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of the worst of sinners!\u201d\u2122\u201d
\n3. Christ-followers must look at ALL with \u201cforgiving eyes\u201d, no matter their sin\u201d\u201djust as we\u201d\u2122ve received God\u201d\u2122s grace from Jesus!
\nMatthew 10:8\u201d\u201d\u201cGive as freely as you have received!\u201d
\nAre YOU in danger of being labeled \u201ca friend of the worst of sinners\u201d?
\nIf not, perhaps you don\u201d\u2122t have the same \u201cforgiving eyes\u201d toward people that Jesus had towards you!
\nYancey: \u201cAll of us in the church need \u201d\u02dcgrace-healed eyes\u201d\u2122 to see the potential in others for the same grace that God has so lavishly bestowed on us\u201d (175).
\nDorothy Day: \u201cI really only love God as much as I love that person I love the least\u201d (Yancey, 158).
\nNOW\u201d\u201dand only with this backdrop of grace\u201d\u201dare we ready to answer the question at hand!
\n\u201cCan a person be a homosexual and be a Christian?\u201d
\nLet\u201d\u2122s go straight to Scripture, to the most relevant text I\u201d\u2122m aware of to answer this question.<\/p>\n
1 Corinthians 6:9-11\u201d\u201d\u201cDon\u201d\u2122t you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don\u201d\u2122t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers\u201d\u201dnone of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God. There was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. God saves ANY sinner who ADMITS their need for God\u201d\u2122s grace\u201d\u201dhomosexuals included.<\/p>\n
1 Corinthians 6:11–\u201cThere was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
1 Timothy 1:15-17\u201d\u201d\u201cThis is a true saying, and everyone should believe it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners\u201d\u201dand I was the worst of them all. But that is why God had mercy on me, so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in Him and receive eternal life.\u201d<\/p>\n
5. Sinners who DENY their need for God\u201d\u2122s grace will never see God\u201d\u2122s kingdom.<\/p>\n
I think the real question is this: Can a person be a practicing homosexual and have a saving relationship with God at the same time?<\/p>\n
1 Corinthians 6:9-10\u201d\u201d\u201cDon\u201d\u2122t you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don\u201d\u2122t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers\u201d\u201dnone of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bible clearly says that a person who continues unchecked in ANY sin, that a person who doesn\u201d\u2122t call their behavior what God calls it and admit that it\u201d\u2122s sin, will not see God\u201d\u2122s kingdom.<\/p>\n
A greedy person who sees no problem with their greed and no need for God\u201d\u2122s grace in Jesus will bust Hell just as wide open as the homosexual who denies their need for Jesus!<\/p>\n
But understand this . . .<\/p>\n
6. Christ-followers are not free from ongoing struggles with sin\u201d\u201dincluding the sin of homosexuality.<\/p>\n
Romans 7:14-25\u201d\u201d\u201cThe law is good, then. The trouble is not with the law but with me, because I am sold into slavery, with sin as my master. I don\u201d\u2122t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don\u201d\u2122t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. But I can\u201d\u2122t help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things. I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can\u201d\u2122t make myself do right. I want to, but I can\u201d\u2122t. When I want to do good, I don\u201d\u2122t. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. But if I am doing what I don\u201d\u2122t want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it. It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God\u201d\u2122s law with all my heart. But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christopher Yuan, a \u201cwashed\u201d homosexual, said it this way\u201d\u201dand I\u201d\u2122m paraphrasing: Following Christ is not about whether my sexual temptations ever become heterosexual. Following Christ is about loving Him by living in sexual purity in obedience to Him.<\/p>\n
(Check out his video testimony at http:\/\/christopheryuanvideo.blogspot.com\/)<\/p>\n
7.\tThe church should always be a safe place for Christ-followers to struggle against temptation\u201d\u201dof all sorts\u201d\u201das we admit to one another that we ALL have struggles with sin!<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a homosexual came to worship with us today, genuinely seeking God, would you his or her feet? Would you serve him or her with the love of Christ?\u201d<\/p>\n
Folks should be received with \u201cforgiving eyes\u201d by the church, no matter their sin! And then, we should all struggle together against sin in Jesus\u201d\u2122 power, always looking at each other with \u201cforgiving eyes\u201d.
\nChristopher Yuan said that it was God\u201d\u2122s grace that brought him out of sin and to Jesus, reminding us of Romans 2:4:
\n\u201cOr do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?\u201d<\/p>\n
It is that goodness of God\u201d\u201dHis grace in Jesus Christ–that ALL we meet need to experience in us! CRCF\u201d\u201d6\/5\/09 Questions of the Heart #6 Introduction VIDEO–(John 8:1ff) [http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=laPFkFnHGlM&feature=player_embedded] Yancey: \u201c . . . in a brilliant stroke Jesus replaces the two assumed categories, righteous and guilty, with two different categories: sinners who admit and sinners who deny. The … Continue reading
\nConclusion–John Stackhouse: Unlike Haggard, however, Nouwen stayed away from preaching or public activism regarding homosexuality. He avoided, that is, any risk of incurring the taint of hypocrisy, which is a far more serious problem\u201d\u201cin the Bible and in the public eye\u201d\u201cthan is homosexuality.
\nNouwen gave us the lovely phrase, the \u201cwounded healer.\u201d Some have exploited this term\u201d\u201cas all lovely things are vulnerable to exploitation\u201d\u201cto suggest that you can be entirely comfortable with all manner of sins and still be a spiritual leader. You can be proud, you can be lustful, you can be greedy, you can wrathfully dismiss any staff members who disagree, and on down the seven deadliest\u201d\u201cbut hey, you\u201d\u2122re a \u201cwounded healer\u201d and you are so darned popular, which is to say, \u201cblessed in your ministry.\u201d So it\u201d\u2122s okay.
\nNo, Nouwen teaches us to the contrary by word and by example. Serve, yes: offering your God-given talents to make God\u201d\u2122s beloved world a better place. But serve out of consciousness of your wound, which means to serve in humility, in compassion, in patience. \u201cThere, but for the grace of God go I.\u201d We must help others as fellow-sufferers, with genuine fellow-feeling\u201d\u201cbut also with a strong and clear sense of our limitations.
\nBut I also recognize, thanks to Brother Nouwen, that my wounds may not be healed right away, nor in just a few months. God may well let some of those wounds remain a while, in fact, for as I endure their pain, their shame, and their debility, I may be given the gift of remembering just how needy I am, how great God is, and how much you and I each need his restoring love.
\nCelebration of the Lord\u201d\u2122s Supper
\n6-7-09<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"