Today in the Word for February 11-19
Today in the Word
Thursday Feb 11, 2021
Is there a sure-fire way to get more stupid? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Paul makes clear in Romans 1:20-21:
“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. 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.”
Why did people develop unproductive minds and the darkened heart of a fool? This came about because they failed to give God the worship and thanks he deserves. He is the Creator of all. Yet we can slip into ungratefulness for who he is—even forgetting to give thanks before we eat!
God is worthy of our worship and thanks. We are designed and expected to honor God. When we don’t, there is a consequence. We get more foolish. Our understanding withers.
Don’t get more stupid. Frankly, most of us cannot afford to get dumber! I know I can’t. Be thankful to God every day for his greatness and his goodness.
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in the Word
Friday Feb 12, 2021
Is there a link between different kinds of idolatry? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Paul draws a cause-and-effect link between different idolatries in Romans 1:22-25:
“Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…”
As the culture replaced the true God with other images and idols, God ‘gave them over.’ (One translation described this as ‘delivered them up’, and another, ‘let them go ahead into.’) The culture began to idolize the human form and sexual behavior. Sexual prowess and its importance took the place of God on the throne of the society. They became sexual idolaters. Do Paul’s words sound like our culture from the 60’s to the beginning of this millennium? When we push God off his rightful throne, some kind of idol will move into the vacuum. And often in the history of cultures, it is sexual idolatry that we are given over to.
One of the best protections against sexual sin is to keep God firmly on the throne of our heart.
And that’s the Word. Tune in Sundays at 10:30 on the Deer Lodge Assembly Facebook page for our Livestreamed service or join us at the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in The Word
Monday Feb 15, 2021
Is sex within marriage the one command of God we don’t have to follow anymore? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Paul describes a downward spiral in Romans 1:24-27:
“…God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another…and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
As the society elevates and worships unrestrained sex and disregards the safety and beauty of sex within God’s covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, God ‘gives them over.’ When sex becomes casual and a recreational right, it begins to unravel. If people can sleep together without the committed covenant of marriage, who is to caution against any kind of sexual act? When this fence falls, all others follow suit. And so, the ‘god of sex’ cannibalizes itself. It unravels into all the letters of the LGBTQ (etc…) confusion.
As Christ-followers, we must recognize God’s authority to protect our sex lives through the covenant of marriage. If we let sex be our god, the very thing we worship may unravel before our eyes.
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in The Word
Tuesday Feb 16, 2021
What happens when a culture completely separates their pursuit of knowledge from God’s Truth? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Romans 1:28-31:
“…just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind…They have become filled with every kind of wickedness…They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.”
The ASV translates the first phrase, ‘they refused to have God in their knowledge’. Once we eliminate God and his inspired Word from the pursuit of knowledge, the consequence is that God gives us over to our choice. Our mind becomes depraved. Our brain no longer is informed by our conscience. And the result is a list of wickedness that can largely be summed up as narcissism. II Timothy 3:2 describes the depraved mind as “…lovers of themselves…” Knowledge apart from God creates a culture that exploits others for their own gain. From gossip and slander to malice and murder, we become a people that use each other.
There is a lot of amazing knowledge to discover in this world, but when we actively remove God from our pursuit, we don’t add to our minds’ capacity, we strip it of conscience and detract from our capacity to care for our fellow man-- and the whole culture becomes depraved.
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in the Word
Wednesday Feb 17, 2021
Are there warning signs that a culture is becoming increasingly depraved? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Paul provides a list of the kinds of evil that attend a depraved mind. Romans 1:28-30 reads:
“…just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind…They have become filled with every kind of wickedness…They are…God-haters…they disobey their parents; they have no understanding…”
God-haters and those disobedient to parents share a common trait. They both defy authority. Once we remove the acknowledgement of God from our pursuit of knowledge, we unhinge data from authority. If we refuse to follow the Creator, it is not a long trip to refuse to follow anyone. That can include leaders in the family, in the church, in the community, or in the nation. We become an authority unto ourselves. We practice our ‘own personal truth.’ We pride ourselves on bowing to no one.
Defiance of all forms of authority is one warning sign of a depraved mind, or even a depraved culture. We must recognize and follow God’s authority as a preventative against the destructive isolation of a defiant lifestyle.
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in the Word
Thursday Feb 18, 2021
Can removing God from the pursuit of knowledge affect our virtues? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Romans 1:28 and 31 reads:
“…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… they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.”
Stripping God from the pursuit of knowledge doesn’t just turn ultimate Truth into individual ‘truth for me.’ It assaults our virtues. Fidelity gives way to untrustworthiness, love degrades to lust, mercy evaporates into ruthlessness. And this loss of virtue as a person and as a culture is because we do not increase our understanding, but rather become unreasoning. We know data, but we don’t have any discernment. We become brutish in our thinking, and then it is no surprise that we act like brutes toward each other.
Our virtues are precious. We must keep God in the center of our pursuit of knowledge and truth, or we run the risk of bankrupting our virtues.
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in the Word
Friday Feb 19, 2021
What does removing God from the pursuit of knowledge look like when it descends to its end? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Romans 1:28-9 and 32 reads:
“…just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind…They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity…. 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.”
When God is excluded from the pursuit of truth, people don’t just descend into depravity. They take another, quite sinister step. They actually call evil good. The inveterate gossip is an admired TV personality. The one that defies all authority is held up as a free-thinker, the man on the trail of vengeance is the movie hero, and the guy who invents ways of doing evil is a brave creative genius.
Watch out for the upside-down thinking of a culture that rejects God as the ultimate source of truth. They call wickedness heroic. It is depraved thinking.
And that’s the Word. Tune in Sundays at 10:30 on the Deer Lodge Assembly Facebook page for our Livestreamed service or join us at the corner of 5th and Montana.