Today is the day to stand firm for the institution of marriage in the state of North Carolina by voting FOR the marriage amendment that adds protection for this precious union into our state constitution. In today’s post I want to make a final argument before we all head for the polls.

Consider how often great societies and cultures have broken down in the past. They seem to start out with unity, single-minded vision and even somewhat godly laws and governing principles. This is true of even secular societies. However, there is a mental and eventually physical laziness that creeps in that eventually leads to boredom and finally a moral breakdown followed by total collapse. This was certainly true of

• Babel
• Sodom and Gomorrah
• Babylon
• Assyria
• Greece
• Rome
• Each and every powerful nation in Europe
• And we’re watching this pattern play out right before our eyes in the United States of America

It starts with boredom and ends with destruction. And perhaps the most difficult part to take is how easily predictable and preventable this all is—yet, at the same time—seemingly unavoidable.

Does the Bible talk about this breakdown anywhere?

Yes, several places—and one is right in the book we are studying as a church right now—Ecclesiastes. In Ecclesiastes 3:11 it says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Every person understands innately, intuitively that he is an eternal creature. While he may suppress that knowledge (Romans 1), instinctively he knows that eternity is part of his spiritual DNA and understanding—a perception that there is more to this life than meets the eye.

But it’s the second half of that verse that causes problems for so many—the, “yet^[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”—part. We may know that we are eternal beings and that there is more to life then just the here and now, but for a lot of people, the fact that we cannot figure out much more than that without faith is just too narrow-minded of God. So we strike out on our own to find answers rather than accepting God’s truth. And while we search anywhere and everywhere but God’s Word, we also keep fighting to push down the obvious, inherent knowledge of God within us all. And the modern catalyst for this rebellion seems to be nothing more than boredom. We get tired of the predictability of life and set out to spice things up a bit and sadly, most feel that can best be done when God’s not around (newsflash: He’s always around).

Once we give into this, the breakdown has begun—a domino affect has started and it’s very difficult to stop. Here’s the whole process in scriptural nutshell,

Romans 1:18-32

 

“¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

Pay careful attention to these 2 verses,

“²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

This is talking about the breakdown of one of God’s most cherished and holy institutions—marriage. Notice how there is first a rebellion against God. People started worshiping other gods. Next, it manifests itself in immorality—specifically, homosexuality.

In the end, even truth itself becomes a nebulous fog (today we call it relativism) and before you know it—anything goes. And friends, when ‘anything goes,’ it won’t be long before ‘everything goes.’

Satan’s not all that creative. The tricks and patterns have been the same since the very first man and woman in the garden. Yes, he’s not very creative, but he’s amazingly consistent and determined and he’ll keep executing the same game plan as long as the game plan keeps executing societies.

Today you can throw a wrench in his tried and true plan—at least as far as North Carolina is concerned. Go out today and vote FOR the amendment to the state constitution that protects marriage and let’s see if we can’t stem the tide at least a little bit longer.

I’m fascinated by “Guinness Book of World Records type stuff.” Not the cheesy ones—like longest fingernails or who can lie on a bed of nails with the most weight on them. No, I’m talking about, tallest human being on record or shortest—heaviest , longest living—things like that.

Several years ago, a man died who claimed to have been born eight years after president George Washington died! Thomas Jefferson was president when this guy (Russian Shirali Muslimov) came into the world. The $15 million Louisiana Purchase was completed just two years before; Aaron Burr gunned down Alexander Hamilton just one year before; and Johnny Appleseed was still planting trees across our land! That’s old!! Without question, this guy died “earth’s oldest human being in modern times.” For that he deserves at least a short golf clap.

Sadly enough though, the only thing that stood out in this guys life was how long he lived, others who have lived only a fraction as long have contributed far more to society and have accomplishments tenfold what this guy

In the book of Ecclesiastes (Southbrook’s current preaching series entitled, “Game of Thrones”) Solomon (The one the Bible refers to as, “The wisest man ever”) talks a lot about life being brief. He compares life to a vapor, withering grass and the season of a flower). But we should never think in reading over and over about the brevity of life, that the goal was to try and extend it somehow. No, the goal is trying to live it rightly. Or, as Eugene Peterson once said—“to live our lives faithfully is like a long obedience in the same direction.” The goal—and I know I’ve said this over and over again—however, the beatings will continue until we get it—the goal is to live according to the last thing he said in the book (chapter 12 verse 13). Rather than just trying to extend the time our heart beats, our muscles work, and our face looks young—we should learn early and with much passion to “fear God and keep his commandments.”

“In our strife-torn and tension filled age, God is still calling men to live right. There is an urgent need for sons and daughters of the living God—who claim to love Jesus with all their hearts—to truly revere Him and take seriously His commands (i.e. more than just lip service). It really does not matter who long we live if what we’re really after is building for eternity. Those who live well live forever.

• Today we baptized nearly 40 people who wanted to stand up and be counted for Jesus! These days are always a celebration @ Southbrook Church and among my very favorite as a pastor. The name of Jesus was greatly magnified!
• Lifting high the name of Jesus didn’t stop there either. I just got home form an incredible Night of Worship that saw the return of Dan Rutty and Sara Scott! The 2 of them joined Greg, Mia and many others from the Southbrook worship team for a rockin time with brothers and sisters new and old!
• Today was also ‘part 3’ of our “Game of Thrones” series and the message entitled, “My Empire of Dirt.” Funny how hard we sometimes work at building what amounts to mud pies and stick houses when we could live for so much more in following the One who made us.
• Today we witnessed a very poignant illustration of not only the brevity of life, but also the confusion about whether or not most of us are even on the right track. The illustration with the yellow gumballs really makes one stop and think about “where all the time goes” and “to what” all our time and effort go to. I may have said that Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books of the Bible but I never said it was easy. It’s just that it’s well worth the effort. Stick with us throughout the summer and I know you’ll agree!

• Week two of , “The Game of Thrones” series is up on the website HERE, and in iTunes HERE. If you missed a week… catch up. This thing is a bullet train and you need to get on board early because it is harder to catch the further away from the station it gets!
• The actual “game” doesn’t even get started until this chapter (Chapter 2). Chapter 1 sets up the game — it lays out the ground rules so to speak and introduces the whole “life experiment” that Solomon undertakes and the guidelines he set for this epic pursuit of every possible pot of gold under every possible rainbow. Again if you haven’t heard the first two messages make sure you catch them on iTunes — especially the first message as I use it to set the ground rules and lay out the intro for the entire series — sort of like reading the rules on the lid of the Monopoly box game before you actually set it up to play. You could play without reading the rules I’m not sure you’d be playing the game of Monopoly!
• Since the very first man and woman sinned in the garden—the game has been under way. Yet, curiously, next to no one actually knows how to play! The instructions are readily available (most households average at least 10 copies of “the directions”) but they never take the time to familiarize themselves with the book or its author—strange, huh?
• This series – which is actually “a study through the biblical book of Ecclesiastes” — is a great place to start — to get to know God—that is. It also makes this a fantastic series to invite your friends to. Listen gang, I don’t know if there’s ever been a time in my entire life where the world was searching harder for answers to life’s mysteries then right now. Sadly, they nearly always look anywhere and everywhere rather than to the One Who created them! That’s what Romans 1 is all about. Did you do your homework and read it? If so, then you know what’s at stake for our neighbors, friends, co-workers, fellow students and family members who do not know Jesus! Even if you don’t feel quite up to the task of sharing your faith just yet—you ARE up to the task of bringing them with you to Southbrook Church for the Game of Thrones series. The gospel will be presented at least twice in this series so there will be ample opportunity for your loved ones to come home to Jesus! You just need to get them here! So let’s all invite, invite, invite.
• This coming weekend even stands out as perhaps THE BEST one to get people to as we continue in chapter 2 of Ecclesiastes with the message, “The Backwards Throne,” and end with a massive baptism service! These services are always powerful—always a celebration! We need to expose our lost friends and family to the joys of being a part of the family of God. AND, if you have never identified with Christ through baptism—what are you waiting for? Sign up online, HERE (so we can get a somewhat accurate picture of who all will be getting baptized) or just show up on Sunday ready to get dunked for Jesus!

Can’t wait! See you all there!

At Southbrook Church we teach both topical and expository sermons (sometimes referred to as “verse by verse teaching”). And I have to admit, I’m somewhat perplexed by the virtual Hatfields vs. McCoys type infighting that has resulted from pastors believing vehemently that you can only do one or the other.

On the one hand you have the “Topical Camp.” Those who subscribe to a topical approach to scripture often offer “relevance” as the biggest plus. “There simply is no other way to speak directly to the topics of the day without bringing those same topics and issues to God’s Word and developing messages based on what the Bible has to say about said topic,” they insist. For example, if you want to do a relationship series you could go to Song of Solomon or Ephesians, or Philippians, Proverbs, etc. But most optimal would be to just take the best from all of them. On the other hand, if you are committed at all costs to make it through the book of Lamentations, for example, then you’ll just deal with Lamentations no matter what’s going on in the world around you.

Critics of the above approach will say that the so-called pluses often put forward for topical preaching are really minuses. The “pick and choose” approach to the Bible (one of many alternate names for “Topical Preaching”) allows us to skip over all the difficult passages we’d rather not deal with and causes us to teach only a small portion of the entire counsel of God. This obviously creates difficulties for the minister charged with teaching all of God’s Truth (i.e. ALL ministers). However, preaching verse by verse through books of the Bible may address this and seems to be the most reasonable way to teach the whole counsel of God. If I am obligated to teach the whole new covenant message and all of the mystery unfolded, the only systematic way that I know to teach it all is to take it the way it comes, one book at a time.

Put yet another way, If I were to approach the goal of teaching the whole New Testament in haphazard fashion, it would be a hopeless labyrinth to lead people through. But, if I am committed to teaching the Word of God systematically so that all of the revelation of God is brought before His people, the only reasonable way of doing that is to go through it one book at a time.

Ok, enough of that—turns out there’s a common sense reason that tipped the scales for me. Truth is, I’ve been back and forth throughout the years as lead pastor @ Southbrook Church—teaching seasons almost entirely topical and spending more than three years largely going verse by verse through several books of the Bible. In fact, if there are more argumanets out there for and agsint each method that I haven’t read—I’d be surprised.

My conclusion?

Do both. But lean heavily on teaching through books of the Bible. At Southbrook we have taught through the following books:

• Hebrews (“Only God” series)
• John (“Divine” series)
• Galatians (“Losing My Religion” series)
• James (“Moxie)
• Jude (“Hey Jude”)
• Jonah (“The Deep”)

We’re beginning the book of Ecclesiastes this weekend (series title: “Game of Thrones”) and will follow this with a teaching through the gospel of Luke (Title yet to be determined). Now, if you’ve been at Southbrook over the last few years you also know that we have had quite a few “Topical” series—dealing with marriage…

• Heartbreak Warfare
• Better WITH You

Stewardship

• Treasure Principle
• Genome

Discipleship

• Fist Full of Wisdom
• Upgrade
• Diary of a Wimpy Christian

Vision

• Impact 2010
• Impact 2011
• Impact 2012

Addiction and sin (Living in Victory)

• Overcome
• Resolution Revolution

And so on…  What’s my point? Only this—sometimes what’s going on in the body of believers screams for immediate attention—sometimes major events happen in the world that call for the same (9-11-01 is a powerful example). Other topics are just so huge they bear repeating on a regular basis (i.e. stewardship, marriage / relationships, etc. ). When either of these is the case—we pause in our book study and do a short topical study pulling from all over God’s Word for what it has to say on the subject.

Makes sense, right?

That’s why I’m still stunned to this day how few churches do this. For many, it would seem a blend of each is somehow compromising—for others (many in the “Expository preaching only crowd”) it’s like crossing over to the dark side. This just seems silly—especially in light of the fact that the greatest teachers of God’s Truth who ever walked this earth all taught somewhat topically (I’m referring to the apostle Paul, to James, Peter and John and the best of them all—Jesus). Like it or not, they didn’t teach verse by verse—mainly because the verses weren’t added for over a thousand years after Christ. Even the books in their Canonical order and bound together in the form we have today (the Bible) wasn’t even canonized (declared God’s official, inspired Word) until, following the toleration of the faith by Emperor Constantine, the Council of Rome decreed a 73 book Canon in 382 AD. Of course the Canon was confirmed by subsequent Councils at Hippo, Carthage, Nicaea, Florence, Trent, Vatican I and Vatican II—but my point is, it’s tough to teach book by book and verse by verse when you neither have the books or the verses!

So, for what it’s worth—at Southbrook Church we primarily teach through the Bible book by book, placing the greatest weight on the words of God rather than the opinion of man.

And that’s a wrap.