October 20, 2002

Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

Is Change Possible?

There is an insert in your bulletin, a page copied from the newsletter of Exodus International. It is a true story. It is a powerful story. It is a politically incorrect story. You see, the story of this woman is that God saved her from a life of sexual confusion and immorality. It is the most controversial story in America today. It is a story that millions of people refuse to hear. It is a story of healing. Please take time to read it, meditate on its meaning, and hold onto it. You might just find someone to pass it on to.

Today, in preparation for Mike Flynn coming to lead our healing mission this Friday and Saturday, I want to share another story with you. Some years ago when I attended a healing conference where Mike Flynn was one of the leaders, he told us this story.

In the early days of Mike's experience with the healing ministry, they were offering a time of prayer for those who wanted to come forward. They were ministering in teams of two. Mike was praying with another man who was also trained to pray for the sick.

A young man came forward and began to tell them his story. He had become involved in the gay lifestyle. In California where Mike's church was, the gay culture is deeply entrenched. It's everywhere. This young man had been lured into this culture by some "friends" who wanted to use him. Promiscuity is a powerful temptation to many young men. The promise of unlimited stimulation and pleasure without the strings of commitment or responsibility was very enticing, and because there had been something missing in his life for a long time, he was an easy target. He experimented for a while, then he was hooked.

He was a living proof of what St. Paul said in Romans 1:27, "Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in their flesh the due penalty for their perversion." The more he experienced, the more it became a part of him. Please note, this is a powerful truth about every form of sin, whether we are talking about lust, or greed, or gossip, or hatred, or envy, it's the same pattern. The more you give in to it, the more it becomes part of you.

In a sense, this young man's friends were right. The gay life had become part of him. It had become much more than simply a choice of lifestyle. It had, as St. Paul warns us, gotten under his skin, into his flesh, and had taken on a life of its own which he could not so easily control. But his friends were also wrong about some things.

His friends told him that this was the way he was made, the way God wanted him, and he should not question it. Rather he should celebrate it, enjoy it, be proud of it! And, they told him, he could never change. "Gay isn't just a lifestyle choice," they told him. "It is what you are. It will always be a part of you." That was a lie. He felt trapped, like a train set on a track, unable to change direction.

But somehow, by the grace of God, this young man had been drawn to the church where Mike Flynn was then rector. He had begun to hear the teaching of God's Word, and he knew that there was something wrong with the life he had been living, not just because it said so in some ancient book called the Bible, but because this Word of God had stirred something in his own heart, a hunger for something more deeply satisfying than the selfish life he had been living.

The invitation was given at the time of prayer ministry, and the young man came forward. He presented himself honestly, openly, telling his story, asking if they could help him. They listened.

Here's the point. Mike and the other prayer minister listened to this young man in a very special way. They were not only listening to what he was telling them, but at the same time they were listening to God, quietly, prayerfully asking God to lead them in ministering to him, waiting for God to give them a word, a signal, a direction in the specific way that they were to minister to him. And after a few minutes it came.

As this young man told them of his fear that there was really nothing to be done for him, that this gay life was part of who he was and could never change, Mike and his prayer partner both got a word from God at the same moment. They glanced at each other and it was confirmed that they had heard from God. Then, simultaneously, they turned to the young man and said, "You've been lied to."

That was the key that began to open the door to a way out for this young man. They began to tell him what God's Word says about God's purpose in creating us, and specifically what God's purpose for him had always been, to discover the true, eternal joy that comes from obeying God, not to be content with momentary pleasure that draws us away from God and never truly satisfies. And they prayed with him, in the name of Jesus, asking him to join them in agreeing that God had much greater plans for him than the empty life he had been living. And they prayed that his mind would be set free from the power of the lies that had been told to him and about him.

Jesus didn't come to the earth only to forgive our sins. He came to deliver us from sin. There's a difference. If you have not found victory yet over some area of sin in your life, press on until you do. The worst mistake a Christian can make is to say, "God is done with me. I cannot change any more. I am what I am and this is all I will ever be."

Listen, you can compromise your rights. You can compromise your privileges. You can compromise your ambitions and desires. But don't ever compromise with sin.

Now, anyone who has had experience dealing with broken, needy people knows that there can be many many reasons why a person falls into this kind of problem. Psychologists have done a good job of documenting this complex matter of developing human sexuality. For example, many young men fall into sexual sin because they didn't have a strong male role model when they were growing up. Or they may have been physically abused by someone they trusted and the trauma of that violence distorted their entire image of themselves. Or they may have had a difficult time finding their place in the pecking order of the family or neighborhood they grew up in, and when they entered adolescence they mistakenly thought that sex was the way to get the approval of other men. There can be a great many things that go wrong in a young person's life that turn them aside from the life God created them for. And if you are going to minister to such a person, you really need to let God guide you to the specific point of need.

You see, ministering to the broken people of this world is not a matter of formulas. I have seen Christians get caught up in this. They develop a list of standard diagnoses and prescriptions for all problems, formula prayers for various needs and illnesses. For example, someone has arthritis and they say, "Oh, I know what that's about. You have unforgiveness in your heart and you need to forgive the person who hurt you." Well, it's true that bitterness and unforgiveness can cause physical symptoms like arthritis. But it is also true that there are millions of people for whom arthritis is an inherited physical illness. They don't have bitterness or anger. They just have a physical flaw that needs medical treatment. And God can heal that too, but don't send them on an unnecessary guilt trip by accusing them of unforgiveness when you don't know this to be true. Every doctor knows the danger of misdiagnosis, and so should we as Christians in our ministry to each other. Don't assume you know what a person's need is until you hear it from God.

This isn't only for people involved in the healing ministry. It's for every part of our lives.

We have a dangerous tendency to look at another person through our own assumptions and judgments and think we know exactly what that person's need is when in fact we may be completely missing the truth. What Mike Flynn is coming to share with us is the teaching and the demonstration of how the church can be much more effective in ministry if we will all learn to listen to God and be guided by the Holy Spirit, not by our own limited knowledge.

It's about learning to suspend judgment and trust what God's Word says more than we trust our own thoughts, or even our own senses.

Question: Let me ask you, do you trust God's Word even more than your own senses? If you do, you are part of a very small, rare minority. The majority opinion, even within the church, is that the Word of God must be filtered, interpreted, and judged by our own flawed, limited knowledge before it can have any meaning to us. And if the Word of God tells us that we must change in some way that we find too difficult to believe, or too demanding for us to attempt, we dismiss it as unreasonable. We have exalted human reason above the Word of God. And God forbid we should be expected to do anything unreasonable.

The possibility of change is the number one issue that the church is struggling with today. In the Vestry we have spent a lot of time talking and praying about this very thing. You see, the church ranges between two extremes. On one side are people who set a rigid moral standard, and seem to say that the church cannot allow anyone in who doesn't live up to that standard. On the other side are people who say that we must accept people as they are, and no one has the right to tell another person that they need to change their life. As is usually the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Yes, we must welcome people just as they are, no matter what is going on in their life, or where they are coming from. Jesus said, "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will refresh you." It's is clear in the Gospel that Jesus never turned away anyone who came to Him honestly seeking the will of God, recognizing their own need. But once they came, He immediately challenged them to look higher. "Whoever would come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.... No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.... Whoever asks receives. Whoever seeks finds. Whoever knocks will find the door open." And we see the same message coming from the apostles in the New Testament. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." The message is clear. Come as you are, but don't expect to stay as you are.

There's a wonderful old saying from the black church tradition that says it so well: "I ain't what a ought to be. I ain't what I want to be. I ain't what I'm gonna be. But thank God I ain't what I used to be."

Don't just confess your sins. Repent. That means to forsake, to turn away from. To look for and work for and pray for a real change. In eucharistic prayer C there is a line that speaks so eloquently of this need for change: "Deliver us Lord from the presumption of coming to this table for solace only and not for strength, for pardon only and not for renewal." Deliverance is not only needed where there is demonic oppression, it is also needed where there is demonic deception. If you have bought into a teaching that says the only ministry of the church is to welcome, include, tolerate, and affirm, I have a word from God for you today. You have been lied to. The church is here not only to welcome you as you are but to point you to what you can be by God's grace and power. No, you can't do it by yourself, but you can do it by God's grace and power. It's a gift, and it's backed by the power of God. The scripture says, "Blessed be God, whose power at work within us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine." and "With God all things are possible." If we say "I cannot change" we are calling God a liar.

If we are going to minister to a world of sick, broken, needy people, we have to learn to look past what we see with our senses and see what they could be in God's sight, what they could be if the kind of change that we see in the Bible is really possible. To do the works that Jesus did, the impossible must become normal to us.

Let me leave you with a poem today by Lisa Bell Palmer. Lisa is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute. She has a ministry to prostitutes on the streets of Chicago. In his daily radio show last Thursday, Joe Stowell, the President of Moody Bible Institute, admitted that many times he passed by these women on the streets, and it didn’t occur to him to pray for them, until he read Lisa’s poem:

“Can You See Her?”

Can you see her, will you let God show you

her face instead of her clothes,

her eyes instead of her body.

Can you see her, will you let God show you

she has a name in stead of a label,

a broken heart instead of a hard one.

Can you see her, will you let God show you

the image of God instead of an object of scorn,

her worth to the Savior instead of her worthlessness to the world.

Can you see her, will you let God show you

His heart of forgiveness instead of your heart that judges,

His blood that covers instead of your rules that condemn.

Can you see her, will you let God show you,

And when you do see her, what then?