Pastor Bob Fox
Romans 1:26-32

Humans are truth-benders by nature. We develop versions of the truth that favor us. When we bend the truth we offend God, and He lets go. Because of this, the world has become a place where:

1. Many are sexually deviant.
• What’s considered “normal” morphs. It evolves from God’s design, into what we feel like.
• Sin scars impact sexual identity.

The Result: Something within them is lost.

2. Many jettison moral/ethical restraint and travel a predictable path.
• Evil becomes permissible.
• Evil actions become routine.
• Evil actions become their identity.

The Result: widespread collateral damage that compounds.

3. There is enthusiastic endorsement of the very things God stands against. Society is on a different page with creation’s designer.

Our Response

1. We should live and talk the good news with understanding and urgency.
2. We should be a voice for moderation.
3. We should be a credible and kind voice for wisdom.

Listen to Bob.

A few excerpts from Pastor Bob’s personal notes on the first chapter of Romans:

1:3—“concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,”

Having spoken of the gospel, Paul now turns to make some statements about its central figure, Jesus Christ. He calls Jesus here a descendant of David. This is important because the prophecies of the Old Testament are very definitive about this, that the Messiah was to be a descendant of David.

Clearly, Joseph, who was from the lineage of David (Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 2:4). Now we believe that Jesus was conceived miraculously apart from Joseph (Luke 1:34-35; Matthew 1:18-25). But Joseph was the one who occupied that role of earthly father. It appears that Mary was likely a descendant of David as well. The genealogy given by Luke (Luke 3:23-38), name Joseph as a son of Eli, whereas Matthew names him as a son of Jacob. We suspect that Eli was Joseph’s father-in-law, Mary’s father.

If that is true then both Mary and Joseph were descendants of David. The two family trees separated after David. Joseph came through David’s son Solomon, Mary through David’s son Nathan (2 Samuel 5:14). Both Solomon and Nathan were born to David by Bathsheba (1 Chronicles 3:5). Jesus being a descendant of David seems to be clear by all accounts.

1:22—“Professing to be wise, they became fools,”

Such as have darkened hearts become truth searchers, but not truth finders. Those who respond to what truth they know, however elementary, are those who are entrusted with more truth from God. So these profess to be wise and are impressive from a human standpoint. They are quite often lettered and of keen intellect. But they are fools because they cannot set aside the natural bias humanity has against the idea of a God.

Whenever we go against the truth we become fools. We cannot change truth by not believing it. It is the ultimate futility to think that truth can be altered. Yet there is always an air of wisdom about those who stand against truth….

1:29—“being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,”

This verse makes two distinctive descriptive statements, then introduces a third which is continued in the verses that follow. The first descriptive statement is a verbal idea expressed by a verbal adjective in the perfect tense. It describes action that has gone on that results in a certain state. It is rendered in the NASB by the phrase “being filled.” The idea is likely that this is the moral direction they have allowed themselves to travel, resulting in these things being in full bloom in their character.

The second descriptive idea is introduced by an adjective, rendered in the NASB “full of.” This introduces five examples of thoughts/actions that have come about as a result of the character defects that are in full bloom. These five terms, all in the genitive case describe particular things that can be seen in individuals who suppress the truth. Those who are filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil, are found to be full of these specific things; envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice.

The third descriptive phrase is introduced by the last word in this verse and it extends through verse 31. This phrase is a string of nouns and adjectives in the accusative case. They could be viewed as the NASB rendering conveys, as delineating a state of being. These describe what they have become because of who they are. When we suppress truth, it eventually shapes who we are and the results are destructive to all that is good in us. So in this verse we have what they have chosen to be filled with instead of being filled with the truth and with God Himself. Then we see what they are full of, courses of action that come with such compromise. Then we see a string of realities that describe what they are, the identity that is theirs.

Click here to download Pastor Bob’s notes on Romans 1.

America has been collectively processing homosexuality in a very public way over the past three decades. There are diverse opinions being expressed on this subject in the political arena and in the religious arena. The tone of this conversation is varied as well, ranging from open hostility and violence to camaraderie and solidarity.

As we watch and participate in this conversation at Red Mountain Community Church we have four important commitments that we want to honor. They are commitments that we think are inherent in calling oneself a follower of Christ.

• We are committed to conveying to all the story of God paying for our sins through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. Conveying this story by word and deed is a trust that demands from us an open-heartedness to all people.
• We are committed to support any and all in their personal journey toward a fuller expression of the character of Christ. This demands understanding and tolerance of our imperfections, and patience as patterns of thought are wrestled with. We must foster the progress of all who wish to live as Christ desires them to live.
• We are committed to represent accurately what God has revealed in terms of his thought for humanity. Christ represented God to the very end, and it cost Him His life. We must follow Him in this.
• We are committed to a certain tone and rhetoric in all conversations. Our commitment is to speak our convictions with precision, but humbly, with loving, empathetic, and respectful words.

Bible Interpretation
We believe that God has provided for us a written record of His heart and mind with regard to our experience of human life and existence. While this record does not give us an exhaustive revelation of all we might like to know about God, it is a sufficient unveiling of His thought so that we can know with certainty His mind on many matters. We realize that interpreting this record, the Bible, is a challenge, but not in the sense that its meaning is lost or hidden. Interpretation is challenging only because our knowledge of the culture and usage of words within those cultures is limited. And so those of us that have chosen to live by the principles of the Bible know well and first hand the challenges of Bible interpretation. There are sections of it that are very challenging.

The Bible’s Teaching
Having acknowledged the complexity of Bible interpretation, we must say that the passages of Scripture dealing with homosexuality are not among those difficult to interpret. In the entire record of the Bible that deals specifically with this subject, there is no contradiction. Though different human authors separated by centuries of time recorded the words, the accounts of the mind of God on this matter speak as from one voice. The testimony of the Bible is this; homosexuality is not God’s will for humanity (Leviticus 18:22; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11). To those involved in the gay lifestyle, those words sting. We must empathize with that feeling. All who are Christ followers know that feeling well. It stings when we read about things like deceit, anger, slander and so many other things we naturally fall into. But there is no doubt about what the message of the Bible on homosexuality is. Homosexuality is outside of the will of God for us.

Many in Christian circles have sought to refute the acceptance of the actual words of the Bible on this subject. Only lowering one’s view of the Bible and dismissing its words as the testimony of a certain culture from a certain era in history can lead one to do this. To us however, if the Bible were that unreliable, logic would lead us to abandon our entire faith. If the record of the Bible is not reliable, then nothing in it can be trusted, and we would be foolish to base our thinking on any portion of it. In that case, what we have in it is a quaint, cultural tale, not the revelation of the mind of God. We believe that all evidence points to the Bible’s reliability.

The Gospel and Homosexuality
What the Bible says about the practice of homosexuality is relatively easy to establish. How that message should be conveyed must be pondered carefully and prayerfully. We must remember that the grace and love of God must be communicated and demonstrated to all people. We all espouse that, but somehow when it comes to homosexuality, we have not practiced it. Some see no conflict in Christians carrying signs that say things like “God hates fags.” We must grieve at such things. We must not frontload the gospel with the demand that gays and lesbians lay aside their lifestyle before God can accept them. We would not be as quick to demand that of a liar, or of an arrogant person. Somehow we have come to view the gay lesbian community as having extra dues to pay. We must not project that the blood of Christ covers them only if it is combined with a promise never to practice homosexuality again! Our approach should be to extend the gospel to them as we would anyone else, with the deepest sincerity and love, as something freely offered by God. Once their spirits are united with God, effectual change in this matter is made possible, as with all other behaviors that are outside of God’s will. God will be faithful to bring inner conviction regarding truth.

Can one be a Christian and practice homosexuality? Yes. Can one be an obedient Christian and be practicing the gay lesbian lifestyle? No. Gays and lesbians who believe in Jesus are like all Christians in that we all share a common challenge. We must choose obedience on a moment-by-moment basis, conforming to the pattern of life modeled by Jesus Christ. Diligence and faithfulness are required of all of us in myriads of real life issues that God desires to change in us. At risk is our progress in the Christian faith, our personal freedom, our eternal reward, and our experience of God’s power and blessing. This holds true whether one’s natural behavior leads them into fits of rage, into bouts of anxiety, into substance abuse, into adultery, or into homosexuality. We each have battles that relate to who we are and how life has shaped us. We must fight the battles and make the choices each moment of the rest of our lives on this earth.

“But I Can’t Fight Who I Am!”
On the subject of one’s sexuality the statement is often made that it is naturally determined and we must be true to who we are. We believe that this is a flawed argument not because we understand all the genetics of the matter. It is flawed because who we are naturally is not where God wants to leave us. In a host of areas God’s heart is to take us away from natural, instinctive living and to lead us into supernatural living that is choreographed within us by the Holy Spirit. The point of Christianity is that many things have gone wrong in all of creation and our loving and gracious God is in the process of patiently bringing it back. Sexuality is just one area in which we are called to something other than what comes naturally (Galatians 5:15-26; Ephesians 4:17-32).

What We MUST Do
The journey to where God wants us in so many matters is just that, a journey. It is a process we must get good at supporting in all people, no matter what their particular patterns of behavior have been. By getting good at supporting the spiritual journey of others we mean making a personal investment in them. We mean coming along side of them, speaking the truth in love, extending grace, building supporting relationships with them, standing with them through failure and re-starts. This is part of the debt that the Bible says we owe to each other. We must face the fact that we have wrongly arrived at the point where we extend great grace and patience in helping people through certain sins. Other sins, homosexuality being one of them, we tend to govern by different rules—one strike and you’re out! We must squarely face this bias that is in us.

What then will our posture be in the conversation regarding homosexuality. First, we simply do not have the freedom to change what God has revealed to be His will for us. To do so is to take His place, and make ourselves out to be God. That means that we must when asked, speak humbly, lovingly, and precisely for God. His will is that we leave behind the gay lesbian lifestyle. We will likely be misunderstood when we state this truth plainly. We must do all we can to mitigate that, which leads to a second observation. While the truth is not up for negotiation, our tone must be. We must be confident that we will not change or endanger the truth one iota by changing our tone and our posture in this conversation. We must go overboard in projecting a tone of grace and love. In doing so we will find ourselves representing more of the heart of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We will increase the power of the truth by the tone of our words.

Pastor Bob Fox
Romans 1:18-25

The challenges to human life on our planet are snowballing. There is mounting concern, a kind of collective groaning. When you feel it, you are in agreement with God. Hereís how you should process it.

The Root Problem―We routinely offend God and so experience His anger.

1. We offend Him when we bend truth to make it what we want it to be.
2. Bending truth is offensive to Him because it is deliberate, against His internal leading and the external evidence He has given.

The Problems―or the symptoms we feel and see in each other. When we bend truth, God lets go and these kinds of things happen.

1. We become “truth searchers,” but cannot find truth.
2. We embrace powerless, irrelevant, unconcerned gods.
3. We steal from each other the dignity God gave humanity in creation.
4. We build our lives on a truth system that isn’t true.
5. We serve creation rather than rule it.

The Hope

1. God has a final solution that will assuredly work.
2. God has an interim plan that brings relief―the gospel community, the Church.
3. You, because you know this good news and are the critical link for many, many others. You matter.

Listen to Bob.

Pastor Carlyle Naylor
John 21:15-17

Becoming Missional Community ― Part 2 of A Continuing Communion Series

We are in the 2nd part of a 5 part series on learning how to become a missional community at RMCC. When Pastor Bob started the current series we are on entitled “What Matters”, he said this statement is a good description of the goal of the series. It is also the goal of Missional Community. Here it is:

The ultimate blessing from God is the opportunity to make a statement by words and actions that helps intensify another’s experience of His presence and His truth.

Missional Community bridges activities and relationships to something that is next. I think that is supposed to be part of our walk with Christ too. As an example, let’s consider this passage:

15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.

1. Do you love me more than THESE?
• What did Jesus mean?
• Don’t we do the same? The challenge we can get from this is.
• We must be careful not to love the circumstances or the people in our lives more than we love Jesus.
• Comfort is not Jesus’ goal for us.

What is the difference between a “lamb” and a “sheep” and “feeding” and “tending”:

• Lamb – a baby/infant sheep; a suckler – they are spiritual seekers.
• Sheep – a mature(ing) sheep; a walker (grazer) – they are believers in Christ.
• Feed – to fodder; to provide prepared /supplemented food.
• Tend – to shepherd; to provide more than just food.

1. FEED MY LAMBS ― A young, suckling lamb that is also eating fodder.
2. TEND MY SHEEP ― Providing more than just food for maturing sheep.
3. FEED MY SHEEP ― Provide supplemented food for maturing lambs.

The challenge I would like us to focus on as we take communion is this: There is always something or someone next ― for all of us!

The challenge is not to remain in your comfortable and manageable fishing boat. Everything can lead to something with Jesus!

Listen to Carlyle.

Pastor Bob Fox
Romans 1:16-17

What matters is to be “all in” when it comes to the gospel ― to learn to live and talk freely about this good news from God that debunks all normal thought on human/divine relationships.

1. This good news is the story of God’s power working for us not against us.
2. This good news is about salvation not probation. It tells of God’s astounding effort to rescue us from the penalty, power, and presence of sin.
3. This good news is the story of God’s righteousness flowing into us not hanging over us.
• This righteousness comes from God, so it meets His standards.
• His righteousness is credited to our account through faith not works.
• His righteousness in us aims at producing greater faith in us, which leads to more of His works being displayed through us.

What matters is to live it so as to create opportunity to explain it.

Listen to Bob.

Pastor Bob Fox
Romans 1:8-15

The Good News story of the Creator, His creation and His plan of redemption, changes everything. It means that the kingdom/family He is building is the most important thing happening on this earth, and nothing is a close second.

1. What matters is for me to help God’s kingdom/family make a great statement throughout the world. That starts in my world.
2. What matters is that I persist in praying for the health of God’s kingdom/family.
3. What matters is that I intentionally engage God’s kingdom/family with my gift so as to advance and strengthen it.
4. What matters is that I persist in pushing back barriers to my impact.
5. What matters is embracing my obligation to all people. This kingdom/family is diverse in every way.

Listen to Bob.

Pastor Bob Fox
Romans 1:1-7

There is a story unfolding, a good news one, about a person whose actions will reclaim the planet and humanity. This is THE Good News!

1. What matters is to define and be defined by this good news.

The gospel is the greatest anchor for a life.

2. What matters is that the gospel is trustworthy in the midst of all that isn’t. There are two important proofs of it.
• God revealed the script He’s working ahead of time, and it’s happening (Is. 45:20-25).
• God Himself demonstrated the gospel solution to us and it worked.

The gospel is the greatest force at work in humanity.

3. What matters is to spread it! Model it and explain it so as to produce faith based obedience (not fear based) among all people.

The cause of the gospel is the greatest use of life.

Conclusion: The gospel, the good-news-story, is what matters, so much so that it assigns relative value to all else.

Listen to Bob.