Every Breath You Take by Pastor Ed Young

Some may be murdered.  But it is important that you know where you are going.

We began this message time with a song by the police called “Every Breath You Take”.  During this series called LISTEN TO THE MUSIC VOLUME II, we start the service with a secular song and end the session with a Christian contemporary song that puts the period and the exclamation point behind what these people who don’t know Christ were trying to get at.  This next song is one of my favorites.  In fact it is by my most favorite group, DC Talk.  It is entitled, “Supernatural”.  When you hear the wordS, I pray that they become words not only of information but also of transformation as we get into the omnipresence of God.

There’s a fascinating fact about men.  They love to give other men nicknames.  They’re really into the nickname scene, aren’t they?  Think about the world of sports.  These nicknames might bring images to your mind in a nanosecond.  “The Playmaker.”  “Dr. J.”  “Moose.”  “The Golden Bear.”  “The Shark.”  How about from the political spectrum?  “Slick Willie.”  “Ike.”  “Abe.”  “Ollie.”  “Camelot.”

Nicknames are kind of terms of endearment.  They’re a man’s clumsy way of showing another man, “You matter to me.  You’re important to me.”  More often than not, nicknames are terms of endearment.

Ed Young says that however, some nicknames are terms of devastation.  “Homo.”  “Faggot.”  “Queer.”  “Queenie.”  “Dyke.”  When a man or a woman gives that name, that slang term, to another person, the person receiving slang terms like I just described to you is humiliated, devastated.  They’re rocked to their core, because someone has told them, someone has referred to them as being a homosexual.