Would Jesus Discriminate?

Maybe you have seen the billboards up on the highway, or an internet ad, or even television commercial, and wondered - "What's all that about?" I first heard someone at church mention it and gave it only a seconds thought before brushing it out of my mind, sure that the woman had misread the billboard. But then only a day or two later I was driving down the highway and saw this sign up and to my left.
Would Jesus Discriminate?
My answer to this billboard, group, and question, is Yes. Would Jesus discriminate? Yes, He definitely would. Discrimination simply means to distinguish by exposing differences. This is the very nature of God. The God of the Bible is both a God of love and peace as well as a God of righteous anger and judgment.

Both Jesus and God (I will use their names synonymously because, after all, they are One Person) are beings of love and joy and happiness and friendship and fellowship. They love the non-Christian just as much as they love the life-long Christ-follower. They love their creation, they hate their creation's sin. And in this, God discriminates.

Jesus lived His human life as a man set on correcting the corrupt world in which He chose to live. He healed the sick, He raised the dead, He loved the abandoned, and He saved mankind through His death and resurrection. He discriminated between the fallen nature - sickness, death, abandonment, sin - and His holy and perfect nature - complete health, full life, salvation and safety.

God wants all of creation to turn back to Him, and as this fails to happen, those who are apart from God will be judged by God and condemned to eternal punishment in Hell. God discriminates between the righteous and the unrighteousness - those who love, honor, and serve Him, and those who want nothing to do with Him.


In regards to sexuality...
Sexuality is intended to be within marriage and between one man and one woman. In the Book of Beginnings - Genesis, God Himself instituted the covenant of marriage. Matthew 19:4-5 reflects back to Genesis:

"At the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.'"

God's plan for a man and woman is to be married and enjoy one another through marital intimacy. Anything outside of this plan sin.


In regards to homosexuality...
Therefore, fornication (sex before marriage), adultery (sex outside of marriage), pornography (you know what this is...), and yes, homosexuality are all sexual sins.

All sex outside of heterosexual marriage is sin.

"Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination."
Leviticus 18:22

"Abomination" here describes a fairly heavy connotation encompassing words such as scandal, disgrace, and atrocity. And I think this is law is pretty applicable for us today, not just for that day, as many would argue. After all, the next law forbids sex with animals...

The Apostle Paul clearly speaks to both homosexuality and lesbianism as being shameful, indecent, and perversion:

"God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 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."
Romans 1:26-27

Yes, homosexuality is a sin. It is a perversion of God's original intended plan of marriage. Though this specific sin, while it has some potentially serious consequences, is not any greater of magnitude than the sin committed by the young couple who is dating and having sex.

The point is, ALL sexual sin outside of heterosexual marriage is sin. We should all be conducting our lives in a right and holy manner, pleasing to God, and free of any and all sexual sin.

A Lesson in Viral Christianity from the Black Eyed Peas

Have you seen this video yet? A simple performance by the Black Eyed Peas on the Oprah Show in the streets of Chicago. They were performing their hit song "I Gotta Feeling" with some pretty incredible results. Pay close attention to the girl dancing in the front...all alone. And no matter where you might be right now (home, work, school) - blow up those speakers - turn it up!



Pretty sweet, huh? You have this incredible group performing their hit song on stage to thousands of people who were just...dead. Although BEP and the song had tons of energy, the crowd was lifeless, except for one girl. It was definitely awkward at first - thousands of people standing still and listening to the music as one lady at the front was completely involved no matter what the rest of the people around her were doing or thinking.

BUT, how quickly that changes when some other people start to get involved. It went from one person to about ten, from ten to twenty, and then all of the sudden every single person was dancing along with the song and it became a cool thing.

Allow me to make a spiritual connection to what you just saw. Without getting cheesy or irrelevant, I want to connect this performance by the Black Eyed Peas with Christianity.

If you are going along in life trying to do the "Jesus" thing all alone it can be a pretty lonely, dare I say even, at times an awkward situation. BUT, how different is that pursuit of Jesus when you aren't doing it by yourself? When you have others standing (or dancing) alongside you that can change everything!

It might start out with just you though. At least it might feel that way. You might feel as though you are the only Christian at your school or at your job and everyone else is just looking at you like you are crazy. But if you continue in your "craziness" long enough it will become attractive and as others begin to see it work, they will take part in it two. You might only infect four or five people, but those four or five infect ten, the ten infect thirty, the thirty infect one-hundred, and before you know it, all the thousands of people at the concert will be "dancing" along with you.

Christianity is truly viral. Ask the first church in the book of Acts. They went from 1 or 2 Christ-followers to 3,000 in one day. Within a week or two they hit 5,000, and Scripture says that they grew in numbers daily (for those of you not good at math, that is at least 365 new Christians a year).

Your job is to infect. Start with one or two, but stay strong. Go against the crowd if that is what it takes. We have something worth living for and you should want everyone around to have it too. Continue to dance.



*This concept I completely "borrowed" from Pastor Mike Leahy at Liquid Church.*

Monologue and Dialogue

Jesus Preached
There are many sections throughout each of the gospels in which Jesus taught and preached extended sermons (Matthew 4-7, Mark 4, Luke 12-18, John 15-17). Just think about how tired and hoarse Jesus must have been after preaching the Sermon on the Mount.

He preached on subjects such as heaven, hell, salvation, faith, grace, His death, His future resurrection, and about everything else the disciples and the people around him would have needed to know. During these long sections you notice that it's not a dialogue; it's a monologue—Jesus is preaching. He's speaking with the authority given Him, and His words are weighty.

When we make disciples we must preach to people at times. When we are being discipled, as we constantly should be, we must receive preaching from others. There are times for discussion, debate, and dialogue (like the 3 D's?) —but there are other times for a good word preached. We should all - the spiritual new-born to the spiritual grandfather gladly receive preaching and teaching from those who study and appropriately administer the Gospel.

Jesus Had Conversation
Jesus did not exclusively use preaching as His method of teaching, but He also allowed question and answer time. On many occasions we can find Jesus conversing with His disciples, with religious leaders, and with the common people. He doesn't confine himself only to the strategy of preaching from a pulpit and retreating to his office. He follows up his sermons by allowing interaction.

Attend a church to grow spiritually from pastoral preaching and teaching. But also get into the community; get into the family and the small groups and build relationships that provide room for open discussion on biblical topics.

We all require growth - physical, emotional, and spiritual. There is no better place, and dare I say, no other place to suitably get it than in the local church.



*Deeply indebted to Mike Anderson for his recent blog by the same name*

Quit 'acting' like a Christian and BE one

Quit claiming to be a Christian if you aren't acting like one. By the slimmest chance possible you might be one (a Christian), but this is only because salvation is by God's grace through your faith. But if you aren't acting like one, quit the games and quit claiming to be one.

Just as the Israelites reacted when Moses came from the mountain with a shiny face (Exodus 34) because he had been talking with God, people create their own glory (prominence, preeminence) and things to worship (sex, money, status) and instead of giving up their sins and enjoying God's glory, they refuse to "look at Moses' face" and see God's glory.

It is like those who refuse to go to church, who refuse to hang out with Christian friends, who refuse to spend time with God, who refuse to participate in congregational singing, who refuse to read a good Christian book or Bible - Why? Because their hearts are hard and they refuse to see the glory of Jesus. They are hard-hearted, stubborn, and rebellious.

"Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
-James 2:17

I am tired of you giving Christianity a bad name. Yes, we are all hypocrites at some time or another. In no way am I perfect. I fall short all the time. But like my claim to be a Christian, I try my hardest to follow Christ in every thing I do and every decision that I make. When I fall short I immediately ask for forgiveness and strive to never do it again.

You (who this message is for) sit there in your sin and shame, ask for forgiveness with no true repentance, and do the same sin the next day. If you are a "Christian" but haven't been to church in a month or two - this is for you. If you are a "Christian" but last night went too far with your girlfriend or boyfriend for the hundredth time - this is for you. If you are a "Christian" but just got finished looking at your nightly porn - this is for you.

Quit merely acting like a Christian and actually be one.

Call it Out

When I was young(er than I am today) I had a few particular people in my life that saw something in me. I had a couple of teachers and spiritual leaders point out certain characteristics that they claimed I could use throughout my life to influence people. My parents specifically liked to tell me that I was a great leader, a college professor would tell me that I had a gift in teaching, and an evangelist or two, when visiting our church, told me that I had a future in the ministry. These people spoke into my life and called something out of me.

I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a pastor. So their words rang true from the moment they spoke them. For other people, these callings might lie dormant and unused for months or years. But when you speak into someone's life and call something out of them, you never how or when or where God is going to use it.

We need to speak prophetically into each other's lives. We need to call things out - gifts, passions, goals, dreams, desires. Isn't that what Jesus was so good at? He saw the martyr in a denier named Peter. He called it out by calling him "the Rock."

Biblical Prophets were less about "telling the future" and more about calling out truths of what was happening and what the result would be of certain actions. Prophets call things out of people.

I want to call the best out of others the way Jesus did. That's leadership. That's discipleship. You should want the same. Don't do it haphazardly though - you might be influencing someone's future for the better or for the worse.