This Sunday (June 28, 2015), following today's SCOTUS ruling declaring any State ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional (June 26, 2015), hundreds if not thousands of Christian pastors will stand up and declare something like this:
- The SCOTUS does not have the final say! God has the final say!
- Regardless of this ungodly ruling, marriage is still between one man and one woman!
- Now is like the time of Daniel; we must not submit to an ungodly, idolatrous ruling!
- Now is like the time of Caesar Nero, where the world was commanded to worship his image. We will declare Jesus is Lord!
- We must obey God rather than men and continue to preach the Gospel!
- We will not bow to lawlessness; we will fight!
And you know what? Every one of those statements will be right and very much needed. Christian pulpits will be on fire this Sunday. And praise God!
BUT…(you knew a “but” was coming right?)
How many of us will urge the sort of action that prevents and hopefully rolls back the sort of thinking that got us here? How DID we get here anyway?
I’m just a crazy, nobody local pastor, but here is what I think.
- We gave up the Gospel. Somehow, it became about breakthroughs and blessings and now seasons, NOT the forgiveness of sin. Christ and eternity are in large part, no longer our objective. Actually making disciples isn't in focus.
- We gave up Holiness and the Fear of the Lord. Somebody told us holiness was unloving, and we believed it.
- We gave up the Family. Easy and celebrated fornication. Happy shacking up. Hook ups. Immodesty. Easy divorce. Fathers, God’s primary hedge against unbiblical thinking, gave their children to others to teach…if he raised them at all. Mothers, mostly overwhelmed, couldn’t be dads and moms too.
- We gave up Stewardship. Money constraints often force decisions that don’t lend themselves to discipleship.
- We gave up the Church. Some of the same BAD hermeneutics used to validate a disorderly, unbiblical church are used to validate same-sex behavior. “Paul didn’t mean that.” “That was for then, not for now.” "God gave me a revelation that that Scripture no longer applies." Etc.
- We gave up Worldview. Again, we’ve allowed the very people pushing the mindset that gave us this evil ruling to teach our children, promote it in our entertainment, head our colleges, hold political office, and sometimes preach in our pulpits!
Note: See our book, "The Playbook" on all the above.
In other words, after we “speak and declare” that we must be like Daniel (insert hoop), I pray we both “hear and do” as it relates to concrete action in the areas above. Otherwise, the great preaching coming this Sunday will only be that….great preaching.
