Today’s message
Read and reflect
MESSAGE
There is a strange miracle happening in our generation: we have learnt how to change the name of sin without changing its nature.
We have become very good at giving old abominations new Christian names.
Fornication has become “relationship mistakes.”
Covetousness is now “financial ambition.”
Pride has graduated to “knowing your worth.”
Drunkenness is “just unwinding.”
Dishonesty is “being smart.”
And compromise? Ah! We now call that “being open-minded.”
Apparently, if you rename a snake “Brother Long Rope,” some people think it will stop biting!
But Heaven is not confused by our vocabulary.
God does not consult the latest cultural dictionary before deciding what is holy.
Israel once manufactured a golden calf and Aaron announced, “Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD” (Exodus 32:5).
Imagine that!
They created an idol and then invited Jehovah to attend the dedication ceremony.
They gave rebellion a religious name, but changing the label did not change God's verdict.
And that is still our danger today: putting Jesus' name on something Jesus never approved.
The serpent has not changed his strategy. In Eden he asked, “Yea, hath God said…?” (Genesis 3:1).
That question is still circulating.
“Did God really say it is wrong?”
“But everybody is doing it.”
“Times have changed.”
“God understands.”
Yes, God understands—but understanding God is not the same as an approving God.
Culture may change. Fashion may change. Public opinion may change.
But holiness has not received an update.
Hebrews 12:14 still says, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”
WHEN ABOMINATION BECOMES NORMAL
The greatest danger is not merely that people sin.
It is when sin stops troubling us.
There was a time you did something wrong and could hardly sleep. You prayed, cried and asked God for mercy.
Now you do the same thing, eat dinner, watch television and sleep peacefully.
Beloved, sometimes the absence of guilt is not evidence of innocence; it may be evidence that the conscience is becoming numb.
When darkness stays in a room long enough, the eyes adjust to it.
That is how normalization works.
Yesterday we were ashamed of it.
Today we tolerate it.
Tomorrow we defend it.
Eventually, we may even preach a sermon supporting it.
And when anyone still calls it sin, we accuse them of being “too religious.”
What a generation!
WHEN THE CHURCH LOSES HER VOICE
The Church cannot effectively rebuke the darkness she secretly romances.
How can we command demons to leave when we are negotiating accommodation with the values of darkness?
How can salt preserve society when the salt itself is asking the world, “Please, what flavour would you like me to become?”
Jesus did not call us to blend in.
He called us light.
And light does not negotiate with darkness; it simply shines.
BRIDE OF CHRIST, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR GARMENT?
This is where the matter becomes painful.
Bride of Christ,
Who convinced you that holiness was old-fashioned?
Who told you that purity was embarrassment?
Who persuaded you that you must become like the world before the world will listen to you?
Why exchange your white garment for the stained fashion of compromise?
Why perfume what God asked you to wash?
Why decorate what God asked you to destroy?
Why put Christian music behind rebellion and call it worship?
Beloved, a decorated cage is still a cage, and baptized sin is still sin.
Christ still walks among His candlesticks.
His eyes are still like fire.
And His message remains:
Remember. Repent. Return.
ETERNITY WILL CALL EVERYTHING BY ITS REAL NAME
One day there will be no public relations department before the Throne.
No sophisticated explanation.
No cultural excuse.
No social-media applause.
No “But everybody was doing it.”
On that Day, fashionable sin will lose its fashion.
Popular compromise will lose its popularity.
The applause of men will become strangely silent.
Only one approval will matter:
The approval of the Lamb.
Therefore, beloved, do not live merely to be accepted by your generation. Live to be accepted by God.
If everybody celebrates what God condemns, lovingly stand with God.
If everybody mocks what God honours, keep honouring it.
Because Jesus is not returning for the most culturally acceptable Church.
He is coming for “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing” (Ephesians 5:27).
TODAY'S CALL
Repent: Stop giving respectable names to things God has already called sin.
Return: Come back to prayer, purity, truth, consecration and genuine fear of God.
Realign: Do not allow society to disciple you more than Scripture does.
And above everything else, guard your conscience.
If something that once made you cry before God no longer troubles you, don't celebrate your new “freedom.”
Run back to the altar.
A tender conscience is a gift.
There is a strange miracle happening in our generation: we have learnt how to change the name of sin without changing its nature.
We have become very good at giving old abominations new Christian names.
Fornication has become “relationship mistakes.”
Covetousness is now “financial ambition.”
Pride has graduated to “knowing your worth.”
Drunkenness is “just unwinding.”
Dishonesty is “being smart.”
And compromise? Ah! We now call that “being open-minded.”
Apparently, if you rename a snake “Brother Long Rope,” some people think it will stop biting!
But Heaven is not confused by our vocabulary.
God does not consult the latest cultural dictionary before deciding what is holy.
Israel once manufactured a golden calf and Aaron announced, “Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD” (Exodus 32:5).
Imagine that!
They created an idol and then invited Jehovah to attend the dedication ceremony.
They gave rebellion a religious name, but changing the label did not change God's verdict.
And that is still our danger today: putting Jesus' name on something Jesus never approved.
The serpent has not changed his strategy. In Eden he asked, “Yea, hath God said…?” (Genesis 3:1).
That question is still circulating.
“Did God really say it is wrong?”
“But everybody is doing it.”
“Times have changed.”
“God understands.”
Yes, God understands—but understanding God is not the same as an approving God.
Culture may change. Fashion may change. Public opinion may change.
But holiness has not received an update.
Hebrews 12:14 still says, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”
WHEN ABOMINATION BECOMES NORMAL
The greatest danger is not merely that people sin.
It is when sin stops troubling us.
There was a time you did something wrong and could hardly sleep. You prayed, cried and asked God for mercy.
Now you do the same thing, eat dinner, watch television and sleep peacefully.
Beloved, sometimes the absence of guilt is not evidence of innocence; it may be evidence that the conscience is becoming numb.
When darkness stays in a room long enough, the eyes adjust to it.
That is how normalization works.
Yesterday we were ashamed of it.
Today we tolerate it.
Tomorrow we defend it.
Eventually, we may even preach a sermon supporting it.
And when anyone still calls it sin, we accuse them of being “too religious.”
What a generation!
WHEN THE CHURCH LOSES HER VOICE
The Church cannot effectively rebuke the darkness she secretly romances.
How can we command demons to leave when we are negotiating accommodation with the values of darkness?
How can salt preserve society when the salt itself is asking the world, “Please, what flavour would you like me to become?”
Jesus did not call us to blend in.
He called us light.
And light does not negotiate with darkness; it simply shines.
BRIDE OF CHRIST, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR GARMENT?
This is where the matter becomes painful.
Bride of Christ,
Who convinced you that holiness was old-fashioned?
Who told you that purity was embarrassment?
Who persuaded you that you must become like the world before the world will listen to you?
Why exchange your white garment for the stained fashion of compromise?
Why perfume what God asked you to wash?
Why decorate what God asked you to destroy?
Why put Christian music behind rebellion and call it worship?
Beloved, a decorated cage is still a cage, and baptized sin is still sin.
Christ still walks among His candlesticks.
His eyes are still like fire.
And His message remains:
Remember. Repent. Return.
ETERNITY WILL CALL EVERYTHING BY ITS REAL NAME
One day there will be no public relations department before the Throne.
No sophisticated explanation.
No cultural excuse.
No social-media applause.
No “But everybody was doing it.”
On that Day, fashionable sin will lose its fashion.
Popular compromise will lose its popularity.
The applause of men will become strangely silent.
Only one approval will matter:
The approval of the Lamb.
Therefore, beloved, do not live merely to be accepted by your generation. Live to be accepted by God.
If everybody celebrates what God condemns, lovingly stand with God.
If everybody mocks what God honours, keep honouring it.
Because Jesus is not returning for the most culturally acceptable Church.
He is coming for “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing” (Ephesians 5:27).
TODAY'S CALL
Repent: Stop giving respectable names to things God has already called sin.
Return: Come back to prayer, purity, truth, consecration and genuine fear of God.
Realign: Do not allow society to disciple you more than Scripture does.
And above everything else, guard your conscience.
If something that once made you cry before God no longer troubles you, don't celebrate your new “freedom.”
Run back to the altar.
A tender conscience is a gift.
Reflection
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
When society changes the name of sin, it does not change the mind of God.
You may rename darkness, decorate darkness, defend darkness, legalize darkness, popularize darkness and even bring darkness into church—
but darkness will never become light simply because everybody has learnt to see in the dark.
When society changes the name of sin, it does not change the mind of God.
You may rename darkness, decorate darkness, defend darkness, legalize darkness, popularize darkness and even bring darkness into church—
but darkness will never become light simply because everybody has learnt to see in the dark.
Prayer
PRAYER
Lord, search me.
Where I have renamed what You condemned, forgive me.
Where compromise has become comfortable, awaken my conscience again.
Do not allow me to become so familiar with darkness that I forget what light looks like.
Give me courage to stand when standing becomes unpopular.
Give me grace to remain pure when compromise becomes fashionable.
Wash my garment.
Restore my first love.
And when earthly applause has finally gone silent, let me hear the only voice that truly matters:
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
In Jesus' name. Amen.
Lord, search me.
Where I have renamed what You condemned, forgive me.
Where compromise has become comfortable, awaken my conscience again.
Do not allow me to become so familiar with darkness that I forget what light looks like.
Give me courage to stand when standing becomes unpopular.
Give me grace to remain pure when compromise becomes fashionable.
Wash my garment.
Restore my first love.
And when earthly applause has finally gone silent, let me hear the only voice that truly matters:
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
In Jesus' name. Amen.