Automatic Transcript Generated:
Speaker 1
So Douglas is asking, what is the Bible’s response to the LGBTQI+ society? Does it approve or disapprove?
Speaker 2
Thank you. Thank you for that. Great question, Douglas. And I want to first just say, like, listen, this whole message, everybody, I’m sure if you stop any part way, people might come to conclusion, things like that. I know this is touchy subjects, but honestly, I could say these things with confidence. And I believe the Bible speaks with a lot of love and that often does not get accurately portrayed and conveyed. And then sometimes it’s also another extreme which anything goes. And so I believe really the Bible is balanced and either it will make everybody happy or nobody happy. But I hope you’ll earnestly listen and I hope you’d be blessed by it. So first I want to start off with this verse that really, I think, summarizes God’s perspective with respect to all of us. So John 317, we all know John 316, but I don’t think we talked about John 317 enough. And it reads, for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And this is such an important concept. God isn’t the accuser. God isn’t the one going around saying, oh, you’re this, you’re that, you’re sinner, you’re that.
Speaker 2
No, that isn’t God. We’ll talk about who that is, but it’s not God. So I want to start with a story in the Bible. When I thought about this question, how would I think Jesus would have handled it if someone brought it to Him today? And this story came to mind. It’s from John eight signing up, verse three. And it reads, then the Scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery, which is a sexual sin. Some people consider this terrible one of the worst sins, and it can be devastating to a relationship. And when they have set her in the midst, they said to him, teacher, this woman was caught in adultery in the very act. They said, now, Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. What do you say? So, yeah, Jesus, the Bible says this person is supposed to be killed for adultery. What do you say? And they want to set Jesus up to say, oh, no, let’s not do that. And then they’ll accuse Jesus of being against the Torah, against the law, and law broke himself. How did Jesus handle this situation? Did he condemn the woman?
Speaker 2
Did he say, There is no law or we can ignore the law? What did he do? And this they were testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse him again, that he’s up for the law. But Jesus stooped down and rode in the ground with his finger as though he did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, he raised himself up and said to them, he who is without sin among you let him throw a stone at her first. So if you’re without sin, if you’re good, okay, you could throw the first stone. I’m not saying this law isn’t there, but you guys need to meet the requirements yourself. And he stooped down and wrote on the ground, verse eight, verse nine. And then those who heard it being convicted by the conscience went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last. And Jesus was left alone. So why did they start going one by one? And in order of age we can infer here, jesus was writing their secret sins starting with the oldest, and he’s just writing there in the sand. Beautiful imagery here about sand house temporary.
Speaker 2
And our sins are written in sand and God can wipe it out. Could go deeper on that. But God is here or Jesus is revealing like, I know the truth about you guys. You guys are hardly perfect too. And they start taking off before they get publicly shamed. And then now you’re left with just Jesus and the woman. And Jesus says, he said to her, woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? And she said, no one, Lord. And Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. Did Jesus say you’re not a sinner. What you did was totally fine, it was good. Did Jesus approve of what she had done? Or did Jesus say, you know what, the past can be in the past. You don’t have to be identified with your sins, just go on and don’t repeat them. Start a new chapter in your life. And I call this sort of the blank slate. This is what the Bible teaches. You can start over, you can start with the blank slate. In fact, we’re going to talk a bit about baptism. There’s a couple of baptism questions and that’s sort of that a symbolic time where you could say, I have been reborn, I’m a new person, I don’t have to identify with the old me.
Speaker 2
It’s such a wonderful thing that the Bible teaches here. So just go and say no more. I’m not going to stand there is accusing you. I’m not going to hold you back. I, as God can forgive you and let you move on. This is how God wants to be. So verse twelve, it says then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. We should walk in his way. Who is the accuser? Whose spirit are we after when we are out there accusing people and trying to condemn people? That Revelation 1210 talks about Satan and it says, the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night. And this is something that I have to be very mindful of too. It’s so easy to slip into this judgmental mindset, this critical mindset. I have to remind myself this is not of the spirit of God, that is the spirit of Satan to be this judgmental. Does God judge? Yes. Will God execute a judgment for those who want to remain wicked? Yes. But he doesn’t want anybody to stay there.
Speaker 2
And this is important thing too. When we’re talking about whatever community, whatever group of people, it’s important to think about where are we going with what we’re identifying with? What is it? The Bible is very clear that there’s kind of this economy of two things. On the one hand, there is what’s good, there’s the Law. And all of it boils down to love in its purest, highest, most perfect form. Yeah, in the highest, most perfect form. That’s what we should aspire to. And that’s also what the Law is asking us to be held to is what we should do. And there’s this build of a self sacrificing element to it. On the other side, there is lust, just broad term that really encompasses just indulging yourself with whatever you feel like doing. You do it. You want it, you go get it. You want to eat something, you go eat it. All this concept of consciously just fulfilling whatever your flesh, your body wants. And the Bible has strong words against that of any sort. It’s not just about sexuality, but as we look at this verse, it’s a major part of it because sexuality is such a driving, strong passion, it’s intense force.
Speaker 2
So let’s look at Galatians five, verses 19 to 23. It says. Now the worst of the flesh are evident. Which are adultery or an occasion. UN and cleanliness. Lewdness. Idolatry. Sulstery. Hatred. Contentions. Jealousies. Outbursts of wrath. Selfish. Ambitions. Dissensions. Heresies. Envies. Murders. Drunkenness. Revelries and the like of which I tell you beforehand. Just as I told you in times past. That those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit. This is the contrast to these things is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and last but not least, self control. Against such things there is no law. So God wants us to have this self control. God wants us to be loving put others first, denying our flesh verse after verse in the Bible about that. And then when we look at the concept of homosexuality and all these things the Bible talks about in Romans one, we’ve talked about it previously, about how this God has allowed people to do this and his wrath, god’s punishment is letting them suffer the consequences of that in their body. God doesn’t want us to engage in certain practices, certain things that can damage our bodies.
Speaker 2
He made us to operate a certain way. If you believe this Creator believe he made our bodies to work a certain way, when we act in any way that’s outside those norms, we can introduce illness, sickness, damage, things like that that goes way beyond just homosexuality and things like that, even again, are you eating things you weren’t meant to eat? Are you eating in proportions you weren’t supposed to eat? All this comes down to God doesn’t want us to be hurting. He doesn’t want us to be sick, doesn’t want us to suffer. He doesn’t approve of anything like that. It leads to our image of God’s image and us being damaged. And this for the fact I wanted.
Speaker 1
To hop in here what you were saying on you have in your notes here you missed it.
Speaker 2
I have a lot of notes.
Speaker 1
This part on Matthew 528, and we’re talking about pornography here, which says but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman who lust for her has already committed adults being in his heart. Pornography is another example of one of these issues. And when you were talking about the.
Speaker 2
Studies are showing how damaging it is.
Speaker 1
Steven yes. Specifically why I wanted to mention this is because what you’re talking about here, about how the consequence of thin is dishonoring one’s own body. And I have heard from so many people who have struggled with pornography for so long and have finally overcome that struggle because they really faced it and did the hard work to overcome it, the hard internal work to overcome it. But while they were going through that process, they realized that when they were indulging in pornography or in sexual sins in their life, their relationships with people were suffering. And those people didn’t know what they were indulging themselves in, but they noticed that on days they indulge themselves in these things, other people, their interactions with other people, their relationship to other people didn’t connect as well. They were getting so self absorbed that they weren’t really present with other people. And the more they indulged these behaviors, they would share that the more powerful it became over them, the more they needed to have it, the harder it was to live without it. And what’s interesting about this is that once people overcame this struggle and they sort of get the pain through it and did the spiritual work and inner work to overcome it.
Speaker 1
Once they had that deliverance from it and they got into a healthy relationship that was one which fit more God’s design. They had a completely different experience that when they had intimacy in those relationships. Their other relationships all improved. There was a complete change in the way their interaction with the world. They experienced life with the world. And it had nothing to do with someone else’s judgment of what they were doing in their personal life because nobody else knew what they were doing in their personal life. It was their internal experience and how they perceived what was going on. And so I found this really fascinating that a sexual immorality, the things that God calls sexual immorality in the Bible is something that is like he doesn’t want us to go through those because it’s something that’s harmful to us. It’s not about other people, really, and.
Speaker 2
It affects our relationship with God too. First Corinthians 618 to 20, starting with 18. This is when we’re talking about how sexual immorality affects the body. It says, please, sexual immorality. Everything that a man does is outside the body. But he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? So here now it’s going into the relational aspect of how it affects you. So our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your Spirit, which are God. So God died for you. God wants to redeem you. God is your Creator, he wants to be our Father. And when we sin and we do things that defy our body, we get embarrassed, we get shot, we want to pull away from God, we feel guilty. All these things stack up and bring us further away from God, damaging our relationship with them. And God wants to be as close to us as possible.
Speaker 2
He doesn’t want anything there in the way God is willing to set aside to forgive our sins and separate us from them. And the identity that he wants us to have is this that would be his children, that we will be his first. John three one, two. The whole manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Eleven. Now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like Him or we shall see Him as he is. Our goal is to imitate Christ, to have that mind of Christ, to try to be like Him as much as possible and we could go into it. But does Christ never have any sexual relationships? Was Christ sexually active? Answer is no. He had a mission. He was focused on his purpose and he showed that you could live a happy, productive life. Even without that, he denied his flesh to accomplish the mission. And all of us could be doing that.
Speaker 2
If we’re called to that and go through it, you could have the closest virtual walk with God. Seriously, like Bible says, being married is going to distract you, is going to bring much hardship. If you could be alone and just again focus on a relationship with God, amazing things will happen. It will be a very rewarding experience if you’re called. Tina, any thoughts there? Sorry, we went a little bit long but.
Speaker 3
Yeah, it’s an important issue and I appreciate you having such a balanced approach to it. And I guess my only thought as far as going back to the question itself, just basically to me, the question is, does the Bible approve or disapprove of this society, of this LGBTQ plus society? And I think it’s kind of like you’re saying it’s two fold because the society is made up of people and God loves everybody in that society. Absolutely. God Jesus died for each and every one of us, including people in that community, in the LGBT sorry, LGBTQ plus society. God loves them, god loves you. But does God approve of their lifestyle or some of the actions that they do? Well, the Bible does make it pretty clear that there are certain lifestyle choices that God does not approve of. And it’s not that God doesn’t love you or doesn’t want you to be happy. It’s just that God is saying, this is my design that I set up at the beginning of creation, that you.
Speaker 2
And if you follow it, you will be most happy.
Speaker 3
Exactly. And I know that that seems contrary to somebody who’s like, well, I was born this way, having these different feelings that other people have and I hear where they’re coming from and I have complete love and respect for them. But I think at the end of the day, we all have to kind of sit down and analyze and think, I have a choice. I have a choice to do what I choose to do with my we.
Speaker 2
All pulled and tempted. So many people attempted to look at pornography, so many people attempted to be promiscuous. Does that mean we go through with that?
Speaker 3
Exactly.
Speaker 2
Exercise self control. And I actually have a verse when it comes to even talking about like there’s God approve of any community. One John Two, verse 16, and it reads, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. So if you’re in a group that’s promoting less of the flesh, lust of the eyes, or the pride of life, that’s going to be rebelling against God. And it’s not god isn’t necessarily against them as they are against God.
Speaker 1
And I think it’s also important to recognize that God is long suffering. That is the nature of his love. So he’s not going and condemning these people. He’s not accusing them. He just is long suffering. He’s patient, he is kind, he is gentle, and he wants people to come to know his greater truth in the ways that they need it in their life. And of course we all need it in every way in our life, but every single person has different struggles, different ways that we are more broken in and we are on that path to becoming more in God’s character, in god’s image and God’s likeness and being restored to that. Everybody is on a journey in that regard.
Speaker 2
Romans 1314 but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust.
Speaker 3
Definitely. And like you’re saying, it’s not that Jesus didn’t come to condemn God. He came to save us and he wants us to inherit the kingdom. But he does have rules and regulations for that. And when you read in one Corinthians six, nine and ten, he makes it very clear there are certain things that certain behaviors, that people who participate in them, they won’t inherit the kingdom. And that’s not God’s will for you. God says he’s not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so our message is God loves you. God wants you to follow Him and be in his kingdom. We love you, and we just want you to know that anybody out there who’s in that system society, we extend our love to you, but we also extend the truth of the Bible. And we want you to know that there are people who are willing to support you in your walk with Christ. Amen.
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