Deleted Scenes: Strength when speaking a challenging truth. Romans 1:18-32

In this week’s “Deleted Scenes”, I’m going to give you a little bit of a “behind the scenes” look at what it’s like to preach certain texts. For quite a few months, stretching back to the spring, my plan was to preach through the book of Romans starting in the fall. (Actually, the plan to preach Romans in its entirety at The Bridge goes a lot farther back than that- I had it in my mind back in 2017, my first year at our church.) I knew that there would be a number of difficult passages, Romans 1:18-32 being on the radar as an early challenge. As you know if you caught the sermon from Sunday, this text is pretty blunt about an expression of sexual immorality our culture celebrates. I know from past experience that no matter how well you say it, you’re bound to offend someone when you speak on topics like this. All this meant that for months, I have had October 20 metaphorically circled in my mental calendar. I thought to myself, this might be the day where the good times stop rolling. This might be the day when there’s a mass exodus from our church. This might be the week where I’m inundated with angry emails. I don’t know if you can tell, but I have a tendency to “catastrophize” a bit. Even as we were concluding the worship time on Sunday, I had this little voice whispering to me, “are you sure you want to do this? Wouldn’t it be easier to avoid this topic altogether?”

Ultimately, though, as I stood up there on that stage and delivered the message, I experienced peace and strength that were not from myself. Of course, I believe that was from the Lord. I believe it was the gracious work of the Holy Spirit in me. As one of my favourite verses says, “according to His power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). There are at least three other aspects to the strength and peace I experienced on Sunday, however, and I hope this is encouraging for all of us.

First, I knew that I was standing on solid ground. I had done my best to understand the word of God in this passage and to communicate that as faithfully and accurately as I could. If people were going to be offended and reject what was said, I wanted to be confident that it was not just Craig’s thoughts being communicated, but a teaching of God’s word that was as faithful and honest as possible.

Second, I knew that I was standing on that solid ground together with many others who were lifting me up in prayer. I had asked for quite a bit of prayer leading up to Sunday, more than usual, to be honest. And I would have to say that I felt it. I had a clear sense that I was not alone in upholding the Scriptures, but that there were many people figuratively lifting their arms with me.

And third, I asked the Lord to give me His heart and speak the message in the way He would have me do it. I wanted to point people to grace and emphasize that none of us are in right standing before the Lord in our own power. This isn’t about picking on certain sinners, it’s recognizing that we’re all in this together, desperately in need of the Gospel.

To be clear, you may feel I didn’t do all of those things (or any of them) well! I’m definitely not trying to toot my own horn, and I readily recognize that I’m always far from perfect whenever I preach. However, those three things were my intention, and I do think they contributed to the kind of experience I had while preaching on Sunday.

More importantly, it seems to me that all those points are crucial for all of us who seek to follow Jesus. Our beliefs and our lives will inevitably be countercultural at all kinds of points. The pressure we face to conform to the ways of the world (Romans 12:2) can be immense. So let me encourage us to do these three things: ensure that we are standing on the solid ground of God’s Word, that we are doing that together with other brothers and sisters in Christ, and that we are doing this from a posture of grace. We might be tempted to rely on some other source, or we might be tempted to go it alone, or to be fuelled by self-righteous rage. All those are doomed strategies. But if we stand on solid ground with others in grace, the Lord strengthens us and gives us peace as we proclaim His name.