The Preaching Hour 491. Mandatory Celibacy Is Not God's Public Policy https://youtube.com/watch?v=95I99UKSggA

I never thought I would go back to blessing the bread and wine at the table, or preaching about celibacy, but then again as God's spokespeople we are just called to do and preach what He wants, His Word in season and out.

It's always a surprise to me what the Lord wants me to preach next. Today is no different, just another surprise. It is like Gomer Pyle on the Andy Griffith show, "Surprise, surprise. surprise."

Preaching is always a surprise, to me, and then perhaps for you who have the faith courage to tune into 'The Preaching Hour.' 

There's a concept in the law that if a contract or agreement is against public policy, it won't be enforced in a court of law. No court is going to hold a person to a contract that is outside the operative laws and rules of a society. As a society, as a faith "nation", Christianity has public policies from both the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament. Some churches might dispute that to a degree, but generally speaking, most Christian churches would agree that we should not ask fellow Christians to enter into contracts that are against the public policy of the Word and the Spirit of God.

And you might say well only one Christian major denomination adheres to mandatory celibacy for its leaders- "so its no big deal." In a sense that's true. We can do what we want, but the Lord Jesus our God is sovereign and so is His Word in biblical based Christianity.

And yes we live in our own local nation, and town, and have own local church, but the fact is we also live in a global age, and global village to use a now trite phrase, where we are more and more seeing the interconnectedness of all human endeavors, especially within like minded institutions, or institutions in the same line of work, and thus in churches too.

Sports and banking and church are all global endeavors, more now than ever, and rules that change or don't change in each of these lines of work have a real effect on the "playing field" of all three. All sports leagues and all banks and all churches, not just inside one's own systems and preferred institutions are effected by change or not change, inside and outside their own governing structure.

So if the largest banking system (changes or doesn't change its rules, or the English Premier "Soccer" League) changes or doesn't change it's rules, or the largest church changes or doesn't change mandatory celibacy, it effects all the other banking systems, all the other soccer leagues, and all the other churches. For better or worse.

And situations arise in any institution or endeavor or line of work and just seems rules need to be changed, to make the particular institution, better and the whole global industry better. For example, baseball has been slow to change its rules (wouldn't it be a better, speeded up game, if three balls was a walk?), whereas NFL and NHL have been quicker to make the game better, with rules thatt favor scoring and offense, and rules against the clutch and grab in the hockey game that really slow things down.

What do I know? I would say NFL and NHL are today in better spot than the more "traditional" baseball. 

Likewise in Christianity, it's better for all Christians if all churches make changes, or not, according to the public policy of the Word and the Spirit of God. And when churches do this, the whole of Christianity itself is blessed, all churches are blessed, because Christianity is more and more honoring the Word, as its actual public policy, rather than trotted out in bits and pieces to try and support traditonal denominational customs, rules, laws and cultures.

By the Word and the Spirit, mandatory celibacy is a rule crying out for a change that will bless the long term interests of all Christian churches.

We saw this long better for the whole church view in the beginning of the pandemic. It was as if the secular world might literally shut down all Christian houses of worship. And what happened? Many serious Christians realized, oh my perhaps for the first time, that we all need to also look out for the best interests of all our brother and sister churches, not just our own.

I am going now proceed to go onto the main body of this bible based message against mandatory celibacy, but I wanted to open with a valid rationale as to why changing this rule wil bless all Christianity.

I trust this rationale and this preaching both come from the Lord, from His Word and Spirit.

As is my custom, in the mode of prophetic gospel preaching, I'll leave that to your discernment. You can take it or leave it, in freedom, just as I have to preach what the Lord gives me.