The Tough Question

I recently had the opportunity to speak at Sunset Church in San Francisco.  They asked me to come do a youth leaders training conference all day Saturday as well as speak to the youth group on Friday night and preach on Sunday morning.  It was a very full weekend and a very rewarding weekend.  The folks at Sunset Church are passionate for the gospel and committed to scripture!

Friday Night I taught from Hebrews 10:19-25. It was a passage I had spent some time studying and really was excited about. The students (ages 12-18) were very attentive.  Saturday I shared some foundational stuff on youth ministry (what do we build on?) and practical teaching on leading discussions, Bible studies, and doing discipleship one on one. We ended with a Q & A that raised a tough question.  How do we deal with the fact that what the Bible teaches as sin is seen as acceptable to the world.  It was a contextual question.  The context of San Fran (or SF as they call it) is that so much of what the Bible condemns as sin is seen as a great and wonderful thing in their culture. How was a guy from the Bible belt to respond to this question?  Having worked in a very post Christian culture (the UK) I had thought I could readily reply.  Yet, SF is a different place.  It’s only kind of recently post Christian. It got me thinking.  Should we speak in terms of sin as something other than merely morality?  In other words, could we teach what scripture says is sin as that which goes against the intentions of our creator rather than merely presenting sin as immoral behavior?  When we think of the biggest of sin, we know that it is rebellion against God. That being so, why not present sin as that which is contrary to God’s plan for us?  This approach means that we then present sin as something other than what society thinks is immoral.

Sunday I had the opportunity to preach on Ecclesiastes chapter 8.  In it I was reminded that though we who fear God may live the same number of days as those who don’t fear God, our quality of life is not the same.  Our purpose and meaning in life changes everything.  There was lots more in the sermon, but I don’t have my notes handy.  Might include those in a future post.  Overall it was a great weekend, though exhausting, and one that challenged me in many ways.