Theology of Sex+ Week 7: Christian Societal Ethics
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Theology of Sex+ Week 6: Transgenderism
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here uh grab a Bible if you will and go to Genesis chapter 1 we're going to be there we've been there for several weeks um as we have tried to wrap our head around uh the way God has designed us and uh what that means for us as we seek to follow him today we're going to talk about transgenderism um and this is something I believe that it's worth us taking some time to consider um the concept of transgenderism and the way that we've approached it culturally has changed rapidly uh in 2014 was one of the.
First times there was a Time Magazine cover 2014 so that's that's 10 years ago nine years ago that said that that was the new area that we needed to grow as a culture was in accepting transgenderism so there was a transgender uh person on the the cover of the Time magazine that said this is the new the new area where we're going to grow culturally this is the next thing that we need to grow in acceptance and and it was that that magazine cover was saying hey this is the future not not this is where we are.
Now but this is the next thing that's coming for us and that was in 2014 so we've rapidly changed how we've thought about this and approached this and so as our culture has shifted on it and as you've heard more about it seen more about it participated more in understanding what's going on around it we think it's helpful for us to take some time to just say what does the Bible tell us uh about this so transgenderism uh if you were to.
Look in a dictionary um English dictionary for most of English History and you were to look up the words gender and sex uh there would be a definition that was the same which is gender or sex dealing with Biology whether whether or not you are male or female but the the new way of thinking about this if you look it up now if you go to dictionary.com and you look it up is that sex deals with your biology your hormones your physical body whether you are male or female and that gender is separate from them that gender has to deal with your internal impression and your external expression of masculinity or femininity.
So that your gender can be different from your biological sex this is what's being taught this is the way that gender is to be understood now and so that someone can be uh their gender can be feminine or masculine and that can be connected or not connected to whether or not they were born male or female on transe equality.org it says it this way transgender is a broad term that can be used to describe people whose gender identity so that's internal impression or external Al expression is different from the gender they were thought to be.
When they were born meaning that they looked at their biology they looked at their physical traits and said this is a boy or this is a girl um painted the room blue and then were wrong that's what this is they grew up and it was that's not what they were their gender is something different than what they were thought to be and that's the way this is being taught and understood culturally now now there's a lot of different definitions this is changing all the time different people have different opinions on how this is.
But this is a a fair General representation that sex and gender are separate and that your gender can be different than your biology and that's what we're talking about this morning is how ought we to think about that is that okay what does the Bible have to say about that how should we inter in in in engage in that and then next week we're going to spend a good bit of time basically asking how do we as Christians live in a culture that disagrees with us on some things what does it.
Look like for you to be a Christian and follow Jesus and be faithful where a lot of people around you disagree with what you think so that's what we're going to do today we'll be in Genesis 1:26 I'm going to pray for us I would invite you to pray with me Lord we ask for wisdom we ask for Grace um none of us I don't think come into this neutrally I believe that we have opinions I don't think anybody just learned the concept of transgenderism just.
Now as I tried to explain it I think we have opinions I think we have interactions with this I think we have uh what our news stations or favorite YouTube people have told us to think and so Lord I just pray that you would help us to see what your word says on this to be kind and gracious and humble towards one another but to hold firmly to what you tell us is true we ask for your help and the empowerment of your spirit this morning in.
Jesus name amen I want to begin by telling us a story that is beautiful and sad Genesis CH 1 we're going to look in Genesis 1 and 2 it says this then God said so this is in the process of him creating everything he says let us make man that's Humanity in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the Earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
So God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them so we spent some time here God made man and woman in His image we are created in the image of God that you were specifically gendered you were given of biological sex on purpose you were male or female and designed that way intentionally by God that's God's original and design and it says this and God blessed them so this gendered Humanity male and female is blessed.
God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth and God said behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the Earth and every tree with seed in its fruit you shall have them for food and to every beast of the earth and every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth everything that has the breath of life I have given every green plant.
For food and it was so and God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good so God designed Humanity he designed our bodies he encased us embodies we are meant to be embodied we have a gender and that is built into how we image God uh one of the terms for this is tellos or tellos that we have a purpose that there's an end in mind in our design that there's purpose built into it we are not just set free to be whatever.
But we actually have God had purpose built into how he built us as CS Lewis puts it uh who is a um a writer and theologian philosopher uh in the 1900s he says this Christianity is almost the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body which believes that matter is good that God himself once took on a human body and that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness we believe that your body is good that you were given it on purpose and that we are not going to one day die and Float off.
Into ethereal wispiness where we're free from our horrible Earth carcass we believe that we will be given new bodies and live on a new Heaven and a new Earth that we will en engage in this same sort of thing it'll be a renew Eternal Body it'll be a glorious one but we are embodied and that that is good and blessed so Christopher Yuan who is now a um Bible Professor but he was once a um practicing homosexual who was selling drugs got kicked out of dentist school.
For selling drugs which I didn't know much about dentist school but apparently they frown on you selling drugs I you can tell I don't know much about it cuz I'm calling it dentist school um but he says this in his book holy sexuality and the Gospel so he became a Christian and changed his lifestyle and he says this we know that we are created in God's image thus rejecting our inherent Essence and replacing it simply with what we feel or do is in reality an attempted coup d'a against our creator we don't need to find our identity our identity is given us by.
God so we believe that we're embodied and there's a purpose there there's intentionality there but it um gets sad I said the story was beautiful and sad well let's move to the to the last part of the beautiful part and then into the sad part so Genesis chapter 2: 24 God brings the man and woman together and it says therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
So one of the things that we said when we looked at this earlier was that they were perfectly comfortable in their bodies and perfectly comfortable in their gender and perfectly comfortable with the other person's body and their gender that they were naked and not ashamed that everything was fine they weren't concerned about their bodies they felt at home chapter 3 now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made and we find out later in the Scriptures that this isn't just any serpent this is actually Satan the Ultimate Enemy of.
God and man so the serpent he said to the woman did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden so God had planted a garden and he had planted the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life In The Garden but in the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil he said y'all can't eat from this one and so so the serpent comes along and he says God says y'all can't eat from any of these trees and the woman said to the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden.
But God said You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden neither shall you touch it lest you die which the text doesn't tell us that God said that you can't touch it or you'll die just not to eat of it but the enemy has come along and he's begun to ask is God really trustworthy isn't he withholding good from you can we really believe what he says but the serpent said to the woman this is verse four you will not surely die.
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil you won't die you'll be like him you'll get to decide what's right and what's wrong you'll be the one who can be the Arbiter of truth and reality so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate.
Then the eyes of both of were opened and they knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin cloths and they heard the sound of the Lord God Walking In The Garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God Among the Trees of the garden but the Lord God Called To The Man and said to him where are you and he said I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid.
Because I was naked and I hid myself and he said who told you that you were naked have you eaten of the tree which I commanded you not to eat they were perfectly at home in their bodies they were perfectly free God had designed it to where they would just be free and enjoy and delight and rest and work but all in Freedom and all in comfort in who they were and how they were designed and When sin enters the world that's gone they suddenly know they're naked and feel great shame and even after they had covered themselves they still hide and say we were naked did you catch that that they sew fig leaves.
To cover themselves up but when God shows up they still hide and say we're naked cuz that it's it didn't work it doesn't fix the problem there's a couple of things in this passage that have traveled through time and exist in your heart that have that are just innately born into us now one is the lie that the serpent tells is God really trustworthy and shouldn't I be the one to decide what's right and wrong oh if that's not in your heart this idea that ah I mean is he really right about that you ever just reading your Bible and you go nah that can't be right I think I know know what ought to.
Be right here you ever do that like that's in us this idea that shouldn't I be the one who picks what who is he to say the other thing is this this feeling very not at home in our bodies very uncomfortable and exposed there's a reason why there's like a human wide nightmare that you're going about your day and then suddenly you're naked that's what happened to them you know that feeling they ate of the of the fruit and suddenly realized oh I'm I'm exposed I'm out in the I'm not.
Okay you ever you have that moment where you just feel exposed have you ever had that nightmare where Suddenly It's just like this is I was given a presentation and then I was naked and it was not okay cuz that's in US y'all we wear clothes and still feel wildly uncomfortable you know how much you fidget with how your clothes fit you like I have some collared shirts where one of the collars curls in and one of them curls up and I have no clue whether anybody else ever notices that.
But I think about it all day long you ever had like a cold SAR and you're like I just want to cancel my life for a week you see other people with a cold sord and you think I'm glad other people get cold sores you don't care that they have a cold sore really you're just like that's fine I'm not going to kiss you but that's fine but when we have stuff like that we feel it because we don't feel at home y'all this the theological concept here is called estrangement we we don't feel at home in ourselves.
And so one of the things that I think we need to wrap our heads around as Christians is that Christians ought to understand gender dysphoria and transgenderism better than anybody else the idea that you would not feel at home in your body ought to break our hearts and bring out our sympathy more than anything else that should be the first thing that it does to us we should understand oh yeah know I feel that there's things about me that I don't like there things about me that I don't feel at home in there are things about me that I wish were different there things about me that I hate there are things about me that.
I uh long for and crave that I wish I didn't there are things about me that that just never felt right I never liked I never appreciated never could enjoy it always felt like am I sure this was right I was reading someone who was talking about transgenderism and they said there their argument was why should we be beholden to our bodies it's it's like a taxi cab that we were shoved into at Birth and had no choice over and as a Christian part of me understands that feels that you didn't choose how tall you were going to be what you were going to.
Look like what your skin was going to be like how your hair Works y'all know that it seems like and this is I'm not a lady but it seems like ladies really really appreciate apprciate whatever type of hair they don't have I think that's part of the curse I think that's part of the Fall if you've ever said I wish my hair did blank it it's just built into us that we would not feel fully at home and so when someone says I was reading on Pew research and they just did they just got a bunch of people who would identify as transgender and they asked them a bunch of questions and they would all.
Say things like ever since I was little I just never really felt like I was in the right body y'all do you know how hard that would be it it's whatever you felt in all these little ways but it's so acute and so painful and so lifelong and in such a big area of life to feel like you're the wrong gender has got to be extremely difficult and if that's you then you're here this morning I'm sorry that you've felt like that your whole life and I I understand a little bit.
But I don't understand fully but you're welcome here and you're welcome to be here and and and struggle and not feel at home in yourself and you're welcome to be here and to to express that and voice that and to say I'm in the middle of trying to figure this out' we understand and we ought to one of the things that comes along with this this our human bodies designed for good built in intentionally but then Fallen is that we now have birth defects we.
Now have people who are born interx which is a small portion of the population people who are born with both sets of of reproductive organs then there's a wider portion that that will get labeled as intersex where they're born with um physically externally male or female but then there's some internal biological things that go into what would the people would now consider interex and there are some realities to that the the vast majority of are born physically externally male or female and there may be some hormonal or some biological things going on that they can have to take some medicine.
For or adjust and try to figure out how they're going to approach life very rarely is anybody born with with both sets of genitalia but even that those situations they end up usually having to figure out and have some sort of surgery and figure that out as they go forward in life and we understand that that's part of the Fall as well it doesn't mean that there is no male and there is no female it doesn't mean that we don't understand male or female there are some people who are born with the wrong number of Limbs and that's horrible.
But it doesn't mean that most humans aren't born with two arms and two legs and five fingers and five toes it's it's something that happens and can happen and even the Bible understands it happens when Jesus talks about in U marriage in Matthew 19 he refers to people who were born um he says Unix from birth and then there are unic that have been made Unix by by men so he understands that there is some sort of birth process birth defect that can go into this.
But that's part of the Fall as well and it doesn't negate either the the reality of God's intended design for male or female but it also doesn't negate how gracious and kind and welcoming the Church ought to be in understanding that as well and walking alongside people and not not stigmatizing that or making it something you can't talk about or deal with because we all understand that we're all living with some form of the effects of the fall but here's where we are culturally.
For someone who has felt like I've been born into the wrong body has felt this this gender dysphoria this particular type of estrangement culturally right now we come around them and we give them a Playbook we say well here's what you do if you feel that way they they're getting a script that says go this direction and as Christians we have to disagree with the script and it is culturally impacted I want to show you the things that go along in this cultural approach that have gotten us here it's like a all the building blocks that that made it to where this is how we respond.
Now so I want to show you this list we're going to talk through these fairly quickly the fall of Christendom relativism radical individualism Triumph of the therapeutic the sexual Revolution and new gnosticism and I know you're are like I'm so excited for this list and just so you know when we were walking through and making sure the slides were working Josh babone who was up here earlier already called all those as band names he's claimed them so you can't start a band named any of those he's already he already called dips all right the fall of Christendom we've existed in the West in in a judeo Christian ethic.
For hundreds of years and we have rejected that now as the ruling thought process for the West that we are no longer all under a general judeo-Christian ethic which meant that we had a baseline philosophy and a baseline Theos ology for how we were going to live life and we would say we've removed that but the thing is when you remove it you don't just remove it you replace it and the problem with replacing it from our standpoint as Christians who believe our Bibles is that we think we enter into what Paul's talking about in Colossians 2.
So I want to read this to you he says this see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human TR tradtion according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ okay we want to know what Jesus tells us we want to follow what Jesus tells us we want to be uh led by Christ and then everything else fits into one of these other categories philosophy it's just them thinking through this is how the world ought to work empty deceit meaning they're intentionally trying to deceive twist things around human tradition ACC according to the elemental spirits of the world meaning that the enemy at.
Work in some of these kind of things and so we we aren't fans of the fall of Christendom in general we want to be genuinely Christian in the way we approach things and follow Christ that's where he says this for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in him who is the head of all Rule and Authority so we think Jesus is over everything and we're to follow him but that's gone culturally so we get The Replacements relativism relativism is the concept that there is no objective right or wrong you get to decide nobody can really tell you what's right or wrong nobody can really come in.
Tell you how you ought to live it's up to you you do you boo that General thought process whatever you want to do you do as long as you're not hurting anybody as long as you're not bothering anybody as long as you're not oppressing anybody nobody can really come in and tell you you're right or wrong whatever you want to do is fine that's relativism and y'all we we all kind of yeah okay like you just you've been trained in this it's like yeah that that's kind of true like the uh one of the Justice Anthony Kennedy.
And when he was writing one of the majority opinions this is one of our Supreme Court Justice he says this at the heart of Liberty is the right to Define one owns concept of existence of meaning of the universe and of the mystery of human life that's at the heart of Liberty you get to decide meaning purpose existence the mystery of human life all up to you which just if you think about that first of all the in the garden version of us that wants to eat from the tree goes yeah I get to pick the purpose and meaning of existence.
But if we'll just pause for a second you're going to have a hard time picking what to eat for lunch existence and the meaning of purpose in life is way above your pay grade but that's at the heart of relativism and he says it's at the heart of Liberty that that's true Freedom that you get to decide the next thing is radical individualism that we've just been sold on this we bought into this this is the idea that you are the only one you can really trust you are the only one who really knows.
For you you're the only one who really decides every Disney movie every Disney song just watch a preview for a Disney movie and they'll be like and then I suddenly thought have I even considered what I want and we're like yeah I think about you but that radical individualism is that you're the only one who can really decide for you and no one else can really so it's relativism but it's boiled down to ultimately you are the last Arbiter of all things.
Then we have what Carl Truman calls the Triumph of the therapeutic so it used to be 100 years ago 60 years ago you would um you would have to if you went to see somebody and they were trying to help you work through life they were trying to help you change you to exist in the world they were trying to to make you capable of existing out there you you were being bent and molded to reality but when Carl Truman's looking at this and he's tracing this out through history he says we've actually flipped this and what we've started doing is trying to change your circumstances to fit to you.
So we're going to get rid of toxic people we're going to get rid of toxic environments we're going to get rid of any Professor that says things you don't want to hear we're going to get rid of anybody who would come around you and say things that you don't want to hear you get to perfectly mold your environment and this is up to and includ including our physical bodies are now going to be brought in in line with you which goes along with the next two the sexual Revolution which is just our overemphasis on sexual enjoyment and cutting out all of the GU guard rails and guidelines that used to be around sex and Christians.
Aren't anti-sex we believe it's actually more important and more powerful than our culture does that's why we think it needs guard rails it's why we think it needs to be handled appropriately it's not because we think it's bad it's because we actually think it's better than our culture thinks it is more powerful not essential to life essential to the existence of humans for sure um but not essential essential to everybody's individual life you can live a perfect meaningful human life without ever participating in any sort of sexual activity.
But the sexual Revolution the general idea that your body is is a playground the only question is how would you like to play and then the new gnosticism which is connected a lot to the Triumph of the therapeutic and the radical individualism but gnosticism is the idea that your body is in general lower than the spiritual reality and we wouldn't culturally refer to it as spiritual reality as much as we would refer to it as reason our thinking self is more important and better than our physical self uh one author put it this way he said a person's self-awareness is different than and more important than their physical bodies that's this new idea of narcism.
So you can change your physical body to be in line with the way you think because your physical body is less than it doesn't actually give you any indication of anything you can change what you think so there's a Melinda selmies who was a practicing former lesbian who's repented and Fallen the Lord and she wrote this Bute all the pageantry of free sex and self-love there is a fundamental belief that the body doesn't mean anything that it is insignificant in a literal sense signifying nothing you can do anything that you like with it you can give it away to anyone.
For any reason it's just a sort of wet machine a tool that you can use in exchange for whatever purpose suits your fancy that's some vivid imagery but that's the general idea you have a body use it enjoy it change it the real you is on the inside the real you is your reasoning thinking self and that's new gnosticism and gnosticism is an ancient heresy so just so y'all know this is the problem Christians ought to understand understand the tension and the pain and the hurt and the Brokenness in transgenderism we ought to understand gender dysphoria in a very real sense that makes us very empathetic and caring and and gentle.
But the ideology is completely contrary to Christianity yall we disagree with this whole list of the things that come together that give you the script for how you ought to respond if you feel gender dysphoria they're going to come along and say well if you feel that that's internal to you so whatever you feel is right and you're the only one who can really decide and no one should come from outside and tell you that you are wrong that would be oppressive that would be harmful that would be bad.
For your psychology we ought to think well and Care well for your approach to the world and we ought to change your environment and if you if you want to pursue any sexual desires those are good and to be pursued never to be curtailed unless you want to but y'all we're Christians so we want to follow Christ we believe that he's the authority so it's not relative there's a actual reality that we can run up against radical individualism is bad for us we are individuals that need to be to repent and follow.
Jesus there's some amount of understanding that a unique person who who can follow Jesus that God designed on purpose is good but not you're in charge and you're the only one who knows what's right the Triumph of the therapeutic y'all we're Christians we think we should change that's repentance that's discipleship when you say things like well this is just what I'm like the Bible sometimes goes well stop it what you're like is bad quit talking to people like that quit acting like that it's bad.
For you repent so when people just you can't just go I was born this way I'm Italian so I yell or whatever it's like what stop we believe in Repentance and we believe that's good for us that we can change we believe the sexual revolution has been a negative thing for our culture that it has taught us poorly and gnosticism we've hated it ever since it showed up we don't like the new version or the old version We believe that you the physical body is important and good and that God's going to redeem both soul and body.
So here's the problem all of that leads to destruction and so the script that you're given if you feel gender hish Foria is bad 1 Peter 2 he says beloved I urge you as soers and Exiles he's talking to the Church saying we don't fully belong here we'll talk more about this next week but I urge you to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul in considering gnosticism and this idea that you're really separate from your body that the real you is on the inside and has nothing to do with the outer you the physical body Christopher West wrote this and I thought it was a helpful quote he.
Says Satan's fundamental goal is always to split Body and Soul why well there's a fancy theological word for the separation of body and soul perhaps you've heard of it death and we believe that that is where this thought process leads to to death to destruction it's what James 1:14-15 says but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire then desire when it is conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death this is the Baseline Christian position that all of us have desires that will produce death in us and all of us need to repent all of us need.
Jesus to redeem us to work in us to forgive us so here's the problem whenever we isolate one and say you don't have to repent of that one pursue that one engage in that one we can't go along with it the message to someone in gendered dysphoria is actually the same message to all Christians There's Hope in Jesus there's repentance in Jesus and y'all this is a terrible place to be so as Christians we've got to be kind and gracious and understanding and welcoming and friendly and hospitable.
But we also can't say go for it because we don't think it'll lead to Joy they've they've done studies in 2008 they did another big one in 2015 they did another big one in 2022 the results of the 20221 aren't out but all of your statistics of negative statistics are increased by by being transgender I found that transgender people are four more four times more likely to live in extreme poverty have doubled the rate of unemployment double the rate of homelessness um 41% and this was both in 2008 and 2015.
So the the jump on acceptance changed from 2008 to 2015 it's continued to change I'm interested to see what happens in 2022 study study 41% of survey respondents both in 20 2008 and 2015 reported at least one suicide attempt 41% that's the people who weren't successful the amount of Despair and death wrapped up in this is horrific and we ought to be kind and gracious and welcoming and hospitable and we ought to plead don't follow the path that's laid out for you culturally the argument made is that the reason it's.
So high is that they're stigmatized they're hated they're treated poorly their whole life is awful and look we ought to understand some of that you ever had a bad haircut I'm not trying to be trivial but if you had a bad haircut and you felt it the whole day you walked around you ever been in the place where you were the only person of your race you never really think that much about your race and suddenly that's all you can think about.
For that day y'all if you are in the middle of transitioning I think they feel it I think they feel it when they're not trying to differently portray how they physically appear I think they feel it when they are I think that it's on them all the time and so yeah there's certainly some social stigma and some things that go along with it that make it extremely difficult but they did a long longterm study in Sweden Sweden way ahead of us in acceptance and celebration of this from 1973 to 2003 what they did was they followed people who had gender affirming surgeries.
So people who had actually made the transition which I just have to say somewhere we don't think you can actually do we think you can physically change your body but you have not actually changed your gender you've been given a gender you've been designed by God and we think you can physically alter your body but it doesn't actually change you from a man to a woman but they had gender affirming surgeries and then they followed them for for 30 years and they compared them to the regular population and they controlled.
For things like poverty level gender at Birth what age group that sort of thing they needed psychiatric care at five times the rate of the normal population the suicide rate was three times the normal population no I'm sorry death from suicide was 20 times the rate of the normal population impatient psychiatric care was three times the rate the suicide attempts was five times the rate and the conclusion they have is this this is straight from the conclusion of the study persons with transsexualism after sex reassignment have considerably higher risks.
For Mort mortality suicidal behavior and psychiatric morbidity than the general population our findings suggest that sex reassignment although alleviating gender dysphoria may not suffice as treatment for transsexualism and should imp Inspire improved psychiatric and somatic care after sex reassignment for this patient group meaning that for those who are actually in a place where they change their they have gender affirming surgery and then live in a place that celebrates it it still doesn't fix the problem and as Christians we go yeah.
Because pursuing it can't fix it because that's what we're told is it pursuing any of our desires in that direction won't fix it it might alleviate some of the symptoms it might alleviate some things but it's not going to actually fix the root level problem Paul McHugh who is the the head over the this department in John's Hopkins and they used to do they were one of the leading ones to do these surgeries and then they stopped it under him and they've recently restarted it.
But he says that it's it should be treated more the way we treat someone with anorexia we should say that the way you're thinking is not in line with the way your body actually is and we would do best to help bring you in line with reality because you do have a physical reality and so as Christians 1 Corinthians 13 says this love does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth so we can't celebrate we can't Rejoice we can't go along with saying this is a fine way to go.
Because it would be unloving so we have to be loving we have to be gracious we have to be gentle we have to be kind we have to be hospitable we also can't just say that's fine pursue what you want because we believe it would lead to death so I have a better option when Matthew 12 is talking about Jesus it says this a bruised Reed he will not break and a smoldering Wick he will not quench that's a prophecy about him from Isaiah and it's quoted in in Matthew a bruised Reed he will not break and a smoldering Wick he will not quench a candle that's just barely hanging on barely blowing smoke.
Jesus doesn't come and snuff that out he's gentle he's gracious Andrew T Walker in his book on transgenderism quotes this from Matthew 12 and then he says this the visual imagery Jesus uses is important to remember and beautiful to see Jesus will not let fragile people crumble and collapse under the weight of their struggles Jesus wants to take those who feel they are close to flickering out and return them to brightness and joy Jesus is tend tender and gentle towards those who think they cannot go any further Church family some of us need to repent.
Because when it comes to transgenderism or homosexuality or anything in the lgbtq plus Zone we've looked like anything but Jesus because we haven't been gentle you can't say we haven't snuffed out smoldering Wicks we've made it seem as if this is one of the most hostile places for someone who needs it the most that we're welcome here in our sin but you aren't we're welcome here in our frustration and our confusion and our our estrangement but you aren't Lord help us help us.
When we stand before the king and he's been so kind and so gracious to us in our sin and we've acted as if there's somehow line between us and them may God have mercy on us for that and I'm so grateful that he's not going to Snuff us out if we come to him in Repentance and ask for Mercy but may we be gracious and kind and hospitable and welcoming people to someone who so badly needs to hear the Gospel and what our culture is telling them to do leads to death y'all it doesn't help it it doesn't fix it we can't celebrate it we've got to love our hope is not in the rejection.
Of our bodies but the Redemption of our bodies Romans 8 this where we'll finish we'll look at this together for just a moment Paul says I consider that the sufferings of this present time and that's all of us are not worth comparing with the glory Glory that is to be revealed to us so that we're to look at everybody and say you're going to suffer but there's glory and there's hope this direction for creation Waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of.
God for the creation was subjected to futility not willingly but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of children of God yeah we're all creation is subjected to futility and a bondage to corruption it's falling apart it's decaying and we're all longing whether we know it or not for this Redemption for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in Pains of child birth until.
Now and not only the creation but we ourselves who have the first fruit of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as Sons the Redemption of our bodies our hope is not in the rejection of our bodies Our Hope is not here our hope is found in the Redemption of our bodies that is going to be worked in Christ on that day where we receive forgiveness and renewal and so we wait patiently but we ought to wait as people who understand the groaning we ought to wait as people who understand the pain and the discomfort and the estrangement and the Brokenness we ought to be the kindest most welcome most hospitable.
People and listen in our culture in disagreeing we're going to be told that we're hateful and so we've got to hold the line on loving enough and holding on to what is true but in a way that silences critique because of how much grace and kindness and gentleness there is for in this hope we were saved now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he seen disas but if we hope for what we do not see we wait.
For it with patience we believe that our God put on a body that he intended us for have to have a body that he's going to give us new bodies and that he's going to renew all of that in Grace and we wait with patience some of us need to change our position because we've been echoing what our culture says and we're wrong and we shouldn't do it because it leads to death but some of us need to change our posture.
Because we've been saying true things with not a hint of Grace and not a hint of kindness and we don't look at all like Jesus let's pray Lord we ask for we ask for Mercy where we've been wrong where we've supported what will ultimately lead to destruction where we've agreed with our culture on some things that are damaging and lead to death Lord we ask for Mercy where we've not modeled well the way you treated people who needed Grace where we've acted as.
If somehow we've merited or earned something or we're some of the good ones because we think this way or vote this way or act this way or we don't have that desire how dare us Lord forgive us have mercy on us and may we be a people who love like you love so that we hate sin but our arms are wide open to anyone who's coming to you and Lord our culture is confused on this and they're leading a lot to destruction more more and more children and teenagers are headed in this direction.
God have mercy on us have mercy on our nation give us wisdom help us to love help us to plead on behalf of our country so that you might keep people far from destruction and may they see clearly the grace that's found in you in Jesus name amen Church family we're going to sing we're going to praise the Lord if you need to take a moment to repent if you need to take a moment to ask the Lord for help.
For grace and for Mercy do that if this is something you struggle with and you want to talk about it and understand that we're just trying to understand and we're trying to walk in it the same way we walk in all these other things which is that we believe Jesus is better that our passions are at war with us to destroy our souls we'd love to talk with you let's sing.