Please bow your heads with me as we pray. Pass the Lord for help. Heavenly Father, as I enter into this text, I have such deep concerns for our society, for our rulers, governors. I have a deep concern for our church and not just our local congregation here, but the church at large in America. and extended throughout Europe as we are faced to celebrate a season of pride. We are asked to set aside our convictions and beliefs as conveyed to us by your word about who and what a man is, what our relationships ought to look like, how society ought to be in governed as a result. We're asked to celebrate something that you consider an abomination. We're demanded to bow the knee. Or be called a bigot. Filled with hateful hatefulness. Considered an extremist hate group. Just because we say this is wrong. You can't do this. You have been made for something so much greater. That you suffer from delusion. living in a particular lifestyle that is contrary to the way God has created and made you. Yet we know, Lord, the great hope is that as the gospel prevails. As a weak instruments convey that message to the world, the foolishness of the cross transforms lives just like our lives in here today. As such, where some of us yet we have been washed. Sanctified. Justified. In Christ. Lord, I pray that this message today would be an encouragement to equip the Saints for the work of ministry that we are called to as we leave this place and stand as ambassadors for the Lord Jesus Christ in opposition to one of the greatest evils of our age. Pride month. Pride season. I pray that this word today would be an encouragement that would embolden those to stand firm in the face of adversity, Lord, knowing that this adversity will not go away. This is not an easy fight. This is a great Goliath. But yet, Lord, let us be like David as we face this incredible Goliath, seemingly insurmountable Goliath, that we would look at him and say, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that defies the armies of the Lord? How dare he? I'll take him on. And Lord, we know that you don't need numbers. There's not strength in numbers in the economy of God. That you're looking for a few faithful willing to stand and speak. Despite what might come. I pray that in Jesus name, Amen. So as we prayed, I can imagine what might be going through your head at this moment, like oh man, he's going to do it, isn't he? He's going to get after it. This guy cannot get away from the controversial stuff. That's correct, and I'm going to take it head on. I can't. I can't let a time as this such as this. Be uncritiqued, go without. Exposure were called as Christians to expose wickedness. And this is not a comfortable subject matter. It's not. Moving from. The endorsement of the LGBTQ community early on in our history, coming out of the 1960s sexual revolution, through the 90s, and I'm a child of the 80s and 90s, many of you in here remember that, that it wasn't really widely endorsed, but the endorsements started to come through Hollywood, the endorsements started to come through certain social figures, through music, But it was still really unacceptable. And then coming into the late 90s, early 2000s, you started to see a greater influx of the LGBTQ agenda. The ideology being revealed more again in Hollywood, more in music, in those influential spheres that shape our society for the most part. We see it. We've seen it come through. And then going through the late 2000s, say 2010 and into 2015, we saw this massive influx of not just, will you accept me? But a demand to accept it, a demand to endorse it. And language shifted away from like, hey, we just want equality. We just want to be considered equal. We want things like marriage. So the Obergefell decision came through. That's all we want, really. And then it's now. You need to celebrate this. And if you don't celebrate this, if you don't endorse this, you'll be considered an enemy of the state. A traitor to our country. Our president has shared such terms. That's right, an enemy of the state and a traitor to our country. So as Christians, what I'm asking myself is how do you respond to such a thing? In the face of this kind of adversity, how? How do we do it? Not only is there an external battle outside, but there is an internal battle within the church. We have authors coming out and saying, I came out of homosexuality. And I'm struggling with still these desires, these temptations. I must be a gay Christian. Okay? How do you endorse such a thing? How could you say such a thing? Now, if you come at this and you say, wait a minute, there is no such thing as gay Christians. None. And if you say something like that, they look at you and they say, well, oh man, come on. Listen, you don't know the suffering and the struggles that I've gone through. The difficulties that I wrestle with. Look, I have just... you know, result basically reserve myself for the Lord. And I've come to the fact that you know, or resign myself and come to the fact that you know what? This is just the way that I am. But I'll be celibate for the rest of my life. I'll just commit my life and devoted to the Lord. Even though I have these, you know, I'm still struggling with these temptations. The question that we need to ask ourself today is, is that OK? Is that acceptable? Is that something that we should embrace and endorse? Is the scriptures clear on such a subject? I believe it is emphatically clear. The text that I've chosen today, 1 Corinthians 11, I believe destroys all of those things. all of those ideas. There's no way you can hold to such a position. And this might be uncomfortable for some of you today. You might have family members. You might have very close friends who what appears they love the Lord and say, I'm gay. And let's say they're even living in that lifestyle there. They're married. They have a wonderful so-called monogamous marriage relationship, right? And you're looking at their lives and you're like, oh man, it seems like they're really producing a lot of fruit. Like there's something there about them. I would definitely say, you know, there's some of the sweetest, kindest people I know. How dare you say that they're not a Christian? I have acquaintances in that category. I also have acquaintances who are wrestling with Christianity, who are transgender, who are struggling with this idea that, wait a minute, man, I have went all the way, changing myself, trying to do everything that I could to become something that I can't. pretending a man trying to become a woman or a woman trying to become a man. And I've gone so far and so deep. You know, I'm now coming to acknowledge that Christ is Lord and Savior, yet I've gone so far into this particular path that I don't know that I could ever go back. I can't de-transition. I've already fully committed to this transition. And I'm a Christian. OK, we struggle with that. We there are people all around us. There is pressures right now within the church. I guarantee you right now there are groups of people in here that are acquainted and associated who are like, oh, do Jeremy. Come on, man, don't go there right now. Don't don't do this to me. I don't know if I can continue maybe coming to this church if you're going to preach that sort of message. You're telling me I have to make a stance. When someone has proclaimed and professed the Lord and is saying they are part of this LGBTQ group, they can't be Christians, I don't know if I can get along with that. I'm going to tell you today you don't belong in this church. You don't. You don't belong in this church because you're not part of the church. Why? Because look at what Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 11. Let's go through the context starting in verse 9. Do you not know that the unrighteous, that is to say the not writers, those who are incapable of reflecting the righteousness of God, who hate the righteousness of God, don't you know those people will not inherit the kingdom of God? They won't. Don't be deceived, Paul says. Who are these? Here's some examples. The sexually immoral. The LGBTQ category falls in the sexually immoral. There is no other way around it. None. I'm sorry, there just isn't. No other way around it. idolaters, adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality. And do you know what that Greek term can be translated as? The phrase that refers to the passive and active partners in consensual homosexual acts. It leaves no stone unturned. It is both sides of the party. It's anyone who is doing this act. Nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, no revilers, no swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Whenever you hear something repeated, it is duly important. It is double downing. Right? This is super important. You won't inherit the kingdom of God here, and you won't inherit here. Can't get away from it. You will not inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. I love this. Such were some of you. But, not and, but. Look at that very carefully. But you were washed. You were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God. This means that you would have had to need to be delivered from such a thing. Now, allow me to make my case. Some people would say, you know, in the insides, this intergroup, they would say, no, no, this is only talking about particular types of homosexual acts. Right? That Paul is discussing something that was specific going on in Corinth. OK, turn into Romans chapter one for me, please. Romans chapter one. Paul says this, he says the wrath that God has revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. No, here we are again back to the unrighteousness factor. These people are unrighteous, ungodly people, OK, who in their unrighteousness suppress the truth. They hate the truth. They resisted. Any of you studied Greg Bonson? Dr. Bonson, he had an example of suppressing the truth is like pushing a beach ball under the water. They continuously suppress it. They push it down. They want nothing of it. They want to defend their sin. Instead of embrace the truth, they are deniers of the truth. They suppress it and reject it. Why? For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his internal power, divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. That term is the same term we get apologetics from. They are unapologetus. They have no defense, incapable of providing a defense for this rejection, for this suppression of truth, for this denial of the existence of God. And it goes on. For although they knew God, so they know these are knowers of God. There's no such thing. Paul says here there are atheists, no such thing. They might profess to be atheists, but there are deniers of the truth, suppressors of the truth, unrighteous people who defend their sin and do not care to have God in their knowledge. As Scripture says elsewhere. They knew God, they did not honor Him as God nor give thanks to Him. They became futile in their thinking, and in their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise. They became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." Now, you might think, well, people aren't really doing that as much anymore. Wrong. I do that every day. I see people worshiping their dogs in my neighborhood, so much to the extent they hate people. Seriously, they worship their cars. They worship their houses. They worship their spouses. People still worship animals and creeping things. They worship people instead of the immortal God. Therefore, what does it say here, guys? What does it say? Look carefully at that text. What does it say? God gives them up. God gives them up. He gave them over to what? Dishonorable passions. Where do passions stem from? The heart, which Jeremiah says, and you guys all know this text, is deceitfully wicked above all things. Who can know its ways? God gives them over to these dishonorable passions. It's a form of God's wrath. He says it in the beginning of verse 18. The wrath of God is revealed. How? He gives them over to these dishonorable passions. Their women, what? Okay, what is the first example he provides? What is this giving over? What is this debased mind, this impurity, this dishonoring of their own bodies? What is it? For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. He uses nature twice there. Natural relations for that which is contrary to nature. What does that mean? What is that assuming? There is a natural order to things. There must be for Paul to appeal to it so much to the extent that they know their creator who created them that way and made it within a particular order that they are rejecting. They are going against so much to the extent God has given them over to that debased passion. And they go completely against that which is natural. He goes on. Men likewise gave up natural relations. Notice the word natural relations again. We're going to get into that and discuss it further. For those that are contrary to nature, They gave up those natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. The same dishonorable passions that were given over to, they consume now with passions for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. There's something going on here that is just a mere action, right? People say to me, you know, guys at work are always giving me a hard time. Jeremy, why are you concerned with what people do mutually together and enjoy it with one another? What's wrong with that? You're acting like they might be harming themselves and others. What does Paul say here? There's a due penalty of their error. First of all, it's based on a dishonorable, shameless passion. And there's a due penalty of error. Something results in their body. What do we know about sin? All sin brings forth death. They are harming themselves. They are harming others. It is a harmful act. Now some people might look at it and go, oh, here he goes, man. People watching on right now, they might be going, oh my gosh, he is really getting after it today. This guy's not pulling any punches. That's correct, folks. Sin brings forth death. There is a due penalty of error as a result of this shameful, unnatural act. Some have said, well, wait a minute, man. Like, OK, look, that could have been only stuff Paul's maybe dealing with in Rome or the Roman Empire, more generally speaking, in terms of pagan worship, not a mutual, consensual, loving relationship. You've heard this, haven't you? OK, well, we'll deal with that. Let's continue on. Since they did, they, same group, okay? They did not see fit to acknowledge God. God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. Bookends, God gives them over, they do this thing. And since they did not see fit to honor God, right? God gives them over. And it's a debased mind. Notice that, a giving over. You guys remember the, I love Tim Mackey's definition of blessings and curses, right? Blessing is God's favor. a multiplication of something, one thing or the other, right? It could be children. It could be a blessing in terms of financial gain, material prosperity. It could be a blessing of clear conscience. It could be a number of blessings that come from our covenantal obedience to God. But a disobedience, you receive this thing called a curse, and it's not like some black magic cast over the top of you. What it is, is it's you trying to define blessing for yourself, us trying to define blessing for ourselves, and then God handing you over to the consequence of it. I love that. That is exactly the same thing you see here. Giving you over to a debased mind. What does a debased mind do? Defines blessings on their own. No, no, God, I know you said that was a blessing and you said that was a curse. Well, I think this is a blessing and I think this is a curse. Isaiah said something very similar. What did he say? You call good evil and evil good. It's the same thing. I wanted to find blessing for myself. Kids do this all the time, don't they? It'd be such a blessing to be able to pound that whole thing, that whole jar of chocolate chip cookies, Dad. My kids, man, do you think of it? I got some, a package, a big package of taffy. I love taffy, okay? Taffy's cool. You ever think of a gift for me? I just love taffy. My wife, you know, the kids get it for me, and they eat the whole thing. They thought that'd be a sweet blessing. I'm like, hey guys, you didn't save anything for me, man. What's up with that? What do they do? They define blessings based on their appetites, don't they? Kids do it all the time. No, no, no. I want to keep watching TV for hours on end. I want to keep playing video games. I want to keep doing this thing. I want to eat way too much of that thing. This would be blessing. And now imagine as a parent, you give them over to their debased mind. Go ahead and eat that whole thing of ice cream. We'll see how that works out for you. Keep pounding that. Eat all the hot dogs you can, right? We'll see how that works out for you and just give you over. OK, and in some cases you're like you see kids doing stuff, maybe that you just warn them multiple times not to do, and you're like. Alright, you asked for it, go ahead. Another parents look at you like wait a minute, bro. You gonna let him keep doing that? Hey, they gotta learn the hard way sometimes, don't they? In the same sense, God does that with us. But even to a greater extent, when you want to give yourself over to the passions of your heart, especially when they're misdirected and go against nature. It's the equivalent of, you want to jump off that bridge? Well, you're going to find out the law of gravity real quick. You're going to discover how that works out for you. You know, I deny the law of gravity. OK, well, go ahead. I think I'm a bird now. I identify as a bird. And then you jump out the window, what happens? You quickly discover that you're acting contrary to your nature, and it hurts you. you could die. Right? You know what that's like. Anytime we go outside of it, we try to act outside of it. We try to identify blessings on our own and God hands us over to them. It ends up being quite the curse, doesn't it? And it's the bitterness of it. Lord, I want to pursue this relationship outside of marriage. I want to give myself over to something outside of marriage prior to that. Even though I know you said this will be a bring blessing. I am eating. the curse of going outside of that relationship. But Lord, I want your blessing. Please give me your blessing. Those are the dangers. Lord, I want to do this. I know you said that's a curse, but man, I'm defining it as a blessing right now. And the Lord goes, oh, well, I'm just going to hand you right on over to that since you want to deny my word. You want to act contrary to my warnings. I love what one of my mentors said. He goes, you know what the Word of God is? It's a protection for us against ourselves. and a protection from God responding when we walk contrary to it. I love that. He given it to us for our own protection. Listen, you live in my world. You're my creature. I designed you. You need to walk accordingly to what I instructed you. And if you don't, well, it's to your own harm. And it causes death, by the way. If you do this, you will die, right? So God gives them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. Then these people are filled with all manner of what? Unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They're gossips, slanders, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. And though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, it's not only for this, but those who give hearty approval to those who do. So let's say you're not gay today, but you have a gay family member or a gay friend and you're like, well, I'm not gay. You know, I'm in a loving marriage. I got kids and stuff, but I got this homie who's gay. And, uh, you know, we're friends. And so whatever's cool for them, that's kind of their thing. That's what they do. And I totally endorse that. Matter of fact, I encourage other people not to put them down for it. Just leave them alone. Let them do them. Stop bothering them. Don't trouble them. And if you do, you're messed up. I support them and their thing. I'm just not doing it. You fall in this category too, according to Paul. It's not just you. You may not be practicing that, but if you give hearty approval to it, you fall in the same category of those who will what? Under God's righteous decree deserve death. Tough words. I love what Paul says in 1 Corinthians. Go back to 1 Corinthians 6. Look what he does. He doesn't just leave it open-ended like, hey, look, I know I just said all this, but I'm going to leave that for you to kind of interpret on your own. Look what he says in 1 Corinthians 6, 13b-20. So the middle of verse 13. Look what he says. The body is not meant for sexual immorality. That's so clear. It's just not meant for that. There's no way of getting around that. Well, then you have to ask, well, let's define our terms. What is sexual immorality? And who is the body for? What is the body for? The body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body. God raised the Lord and will raise up us by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take a member of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is written, the two shall become one flesh. What is Paul referencing here? What is he quoting? Genesis chapter 2. The end of Genesis chapter 2. Reflecting on the marriage covenant between Adam and Eve. A man is to leave his mother and father and to be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. Note that. So the body is not meant for sexual immorality. It's not meant to whore itself out to a prostitute. It's to be joined in a covenantal union before God. That's what it was designed for, Paul quotes. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. And therefore, flee sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body. But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. There is consequences for it. There are consequences. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own. You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. I love that. You're a holy temple of the Lord. This is why we don't need the tabernacle. This is why we don't need the temple in Israel. We, as Paul says later in Ephesians 2, are the temple of God being built up by the Spirit of God. Your body is a holy temple to the Lord. Don't defile it. What does God do in the Old Testament with folks who desecrated the temple, who defiled the temple, or even like outside of it, like around it? What did God do with those people? He smoked them. He destroyed them every single time. He purged the evil. Paul's warning is the same here, OK? So your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. You're not your own. You're bought with a price. Glorify God in your body. Now, we might get challenges here. Okay, challenges come. Let's deal with some external challenges here. You might get people who say, if you believe what the Bible says about the LGBTQIA2S+, folks, there's more. they're just continuing to develop more than the acronym. That is the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, two-spirit, and countless other affirmative ways in which people choose to self-identify. If you believe that what the Bible says about us, you're homophobic, you're bigoted, cringeworthy, hateful, hard right-wing extremist, wrong-headed, anti-scientific, messed up, cotton-headed ninny muggins. That's what you are. You guys know what I'm quoting. It's one of my favorite movies, Elf. Now, where did this come from? Self-appointed representatives, OK, of the Southern Law. It's a southern left. I forgot the name of the exact. I didn't write it down here. Anyway, I'll get you the Southern Poverty Law Center. are self-appointed defenders of this particular group. And what they have done is created a website that helps people identify who these hate groups are and what's going on right now with them. And just so you know, if you scroll down the list, just go to the Southern Poverty Law Center's website at the very bottom. Their map of hate, they call it. There's a huge list. And guess what the majority of the people are in that list, including American Vision at the top? Guess what the majority of the people are in that list? They're churches. Mostly Baptist. If you're a Baptist church, you're in trouble, dude. Here's what these guys say when they describe their mission to defend against anti-LGBTQ persons. They say, a central theme of anti-LGBTQ organizing and ideology is the opposition to LGBTQ rights or support of homophobia, heterosexism, and or cis-normativity. often expressed through demonizing rhetoric and grounded in harmful pseudoscience that portrays LGBTQ people as threats to children, society, and often public health. This is their chief concern. We want to make sure that we defend against groups like that who are acting and behaving in such a way and hold such insane ideologies. Just bookmark that. Remember that real quick. What are they concerned with? They're concerned with things like organization and ideologies rights. Demonizing rhetoric. Harmful pseudoscience. That threatened children, society and public health. What did Paul just say in First Corinthians and in Romans so far? All those categories are covered every single one of them. So this particular group has made itself a self-appointed group to defend against such people. You are that group of people today. If you're a Christian, I'd say, a Bible-believing Christian, you're part of that group. So they say in their what's ahead component, they're looking at, OK, here's what's going right now in this particular context. What should we be considered? What's ahead of us? What is the battle that we face? They say, in quoting them, the cycle of anti-LGBTQ extremism will continue. Right-wing politicians continue to spread disinformation, which is echoed across mainstream media channels. publications, and by right-wing social media accounts, and then used by anti-LGBTQ politicians to enact harmful legislation that fuels violence against LGBTQ people. This, scare quote, mainstreaming of anti-LGBTQ extremism and violence will perpetuate the already hostile social and political environment that LGBTQ people inhabit, and that negatively affects their health, safety, and mental and physical well-being. specifically censoring or eliminating inclusive education. Sex education and LGBTQ representation in schools and libraries will continue to be a focus of the anti-LGBTQ movement. Curriculum-censoring groups masquerading and representing all parents continue to exert undue influence over local school boards and in other local elections. Expect to see more legislation that restricts and denies affirming care for transgender youth than demonizes at-risk LGBTQ youth. And then finally here, this targeting of transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming youth is not new, but the all-out mischaracterization of gender affirming care on a state level and criminalization of it as a child abuse are extreme escalations. The attempt by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to identify and compile a list of transgender people in the state and in the Club Q mass shootings are already especially troubling and ominous signs that the cycle of anti-LGBTQ extremism is continuing and that the anti-LGBTQ movement is willing to convert their hateful rhetoric into action. So we have to look at this and say, OK, we cannot escape the reality of this. Remember what we talked about in Sunday school. We need to understand the battlefield and we need to be able to properly define the warfare. We need to understand the enemy. They're saying of us, here's your enemy, which is all you, by the way. This is all of us. You're our enemies. And this is what we see you doing. And this is how we're going to address it and attack it. If you continue on this pseudoscience, which they are saying like biblical, right? Biblically based science. If you continue on this demonizing rhetoric, you continue to censor curriculums in the schools and in the libraries, and you stop us from being able to spread the good news of LGBTQ, then we're coming after you legislatively. And in this section, you can look. There's this whole thing of what we are doing now, and it's all legislative action. I encourage you to go there and read it. Go check it out. Go look at what they're after and what they want to do. So what we need to do is take seriously their challenge and say, OK, well, wait a second. Let's look at this. Can we really say that what they believe is an ideology, which they are organized around, can we really say that it's homophobic? It's heterosexism? It's cis-normativity? Is it really demonizing rhetoric that we're saying when we say these kinds of things when we're just like hey what I just read in first Corinthians and in Romans is that demonizing rhetoric about this particular group of people Is it grounded in harmful pseudoscience and is it? a threat to children society and public health Turn your Bibles to Genesis chapter 1 You might be shocked to see that we can make an argument clearly here today, I believe, will help you say a hearty amen to all of those things. Yes, it's absolutely 100%. A threat to our society, our children, and it is harmful, 100%. 100%, watch. In Genesis chapter one, God describes his creation of the earth, and he describes his creation of us. And starting in verse 26, he says something profound. God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. Stop there. God has imbued us with a particular value. We have an intrinsic value, and dare I say, an inescapable value. God has appointed that value. He has personally ascribed it to us. Only persons can ascribe value. Things don't give value to other things, right? Only persons give value to things. We have a personal God who personally relates to us via His Word that He has given us a personal value. Personhood is given to us by God by virtue of bearing His image. It exalts us above the status of the rest of the animal kingdom. There is something unique about us. Question, do you get to change that? Do you get to self-identify in a different way? Do you get to make up what that value is? Do you? Hopefully most people are shaking their heads, no. You don't. You've been created, you're a creature, and God made you that way. Whether you like it or not. Period. End of story. There's nothing else that you can argue about it. You've been made a particular way and you've been designed for a particular purpose. Go on. And he says, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Pretty much everything. It's all yours. I want you to rule in my image. I want you to reflect my character. You are to bear my image and you're to do it rightly in righteousness. OK, you do it righteously and he goes on to reiterate. What does this look like? God created man in his own image image. God, he created him so anybody was confused on what that means. He goes on to say male and female. He created them. So man and woman are the chief representatives of God's image in creation. They represent him. And there to do so righteously. over all of the earth." And he goes on to say, God blessed them. Remember that word, blessing. God gave them a blessing. He blessed them. And what did he say? He said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over everything that moves on the earth. He says everything. Have dominion over it. And what does that mean? What is dominion for anybody who's taking Sunday school with us? What does that mean? Dominion means we are designed to steward, develop, and govern God's created order as a reflection, a careful reflection of His image. And what I'm arguing today is that this is the very foundation of human sexuality. This is the very foundation of who and what we are. It's the very foundation of our relationship structures with one another. And by virtue of that, the structure of marriage, structure of household, and structure of society. It's inescapable. Now watch this. You ready? If you change one of those things, the rest fall out of order. Think of it. If someone like most of our LGBTQ friends, you know what they would say? They would say something along these lines. I've always felt this way, but I've been fighting it. I've wrestled with these desires, I've wrestled with these attractions, but I've been fighting it my whole life. This is what and who I am. And I now identify with it. And this is what it looks like when they come out of the closet. When you hear them, and they say, I've been trapped in this closet by this suppressive society who believes that only, you know, heterosexuality is the right way. Cisgenderism is the only right way. Meaning, what you are is what you identify with. There's no confusion there. There's no disillusionment. That is a suppressive society that traps people like us who have always felt this way, who have always struggled with these feelings, desires, and emotions. And now I can finally be free from it and express who and what I am. What kind of language is that? When you say things like what and who, what are you saying? What kind of language are you using? This is what it means to be a person, not image bearer of God. I know you said I'm an image bearer of God, but I get to define that. And what am I defining it based on? My desires, my feelings, and those really deep impulses that I can never seem to get away from. That's my identity, not image bearer of God. Then what happens when that breaks down? Well, I'm going to define relationship structures on that ground, by the way, and also marriage by virtue. I'm going to change what I believe about relationship structures in marriage. Because why? I'm a dude. I know I'm a dude physically, but I really have always desired to be a woman my whole life. And then by virtue of that, I'm going to change that relationship structure. This is what a good relationship structure looks like. It's okay for me to be a dude, pretend to be a woman, and then being like a lesbian or heterosexual, whatever that looks like, whatever that relationship, and notice they can't ever get away from those. They're always grounded in those two things. I'm a dude trying to be a woman. Why aren't you trying to be like a cat or a dog? Well, there are people doing that too now, okay? And then what do they do? They redefine. Well, I should be able to have relationships with animals. You're like, yuck, dude, no way. I should be able to have relationships with little kids. Yuck, dude, no way. I've even had a transgender sent across to me when I'm saying that. They're like, dude, no, no, no, no. See, now you're pushing it too far. Nobody believes that. Nobody holds to that. Are you really sure? Let me explain something to you. I have always felt like I have been attracted to wolves. Stop laughing at me. That's bigoted. You're hateful, meanie, cotton ninny. I have been trapped in this body. I'm really a wolf inside. I'm a female wolf too. And I want and desire to be in a relationship with wolves. I want to be a part of the pack. And no, I'm not going to speak wolvish for you right now. That's a personal thing. It's between me and my homies. But that's always the way I felt and desired that. And you know what? I now identify with it. And you need to respect that. And let's create some laws around that. When we steward and develop and govern society now as a result of that, this is what it looks like to be a household. We're a wolf pack. And we have wolves here. We do wolf things. Every wolf thing. Marriage. You gotta own that, man. I'm trying to get married to this wolf. Me and the wolf are going to the courthouse tomorrow afternoon. Because they're open only during business hours, right? And you need to own that. Give me my marriage certificate. I want my wolf to have my inheritance. Right? And they say, bro, you can't go to pedophilia. You can't go there. Oh, yeah, yeah, no, no, we can. Hey, listen, I've always felt this way, but I fought it. Had these deep impulses and desires to be in relationships with kids a lot younger than me. Just that's where it is. I can't help it, man. It's my desire. It just flows from me. And I've been hiding it for so long. And this oppressive society is stopping me from being able to really experience who and what I am. How dare you? You need to embrace this. You need to respect this, and if you don't, you're hateful, bigoted, cotton-headed, nagging mongers. You're messed up. I'll put you on a hate map. And people stand back and they're repulsed by that. You make that kind of argument, you watch them. They say, Now, I cannot believe that you can make that sort of a leap. I can't believe you make a sort of leap thinking that you could be with the same sex partner. I can't believe you make the sort of leap that goes, I'm a dude trying to pretend to be a woman or vice versa. I can't believe you made that leap, let alone the wolf pack. And how dare you be offensive to the wolf, right? I can't believe you can make any of those leaps. What is that? Listen to this thing. LGBTQIA2S+. Like, there's a lot of leaps there. Tons of leaves. How do you make those leaves? That's what I can't believe. How dare you say you can't believe what I believe? Now, we're going to really struggle with this because then what happens? When you change the identity of who and what you are, no longer image bearer of God, designed to reflect the character and wisdom of God and His good created order, and you begin to identify and change arbitrarily whatever your feelings and passions lead you to define, what does governing society look like after that? How does it look? Doing awesome, huh? Everybody's at peace, you know, the demand for peace, shalom, equity. All these wonderful terms that we want to throw out there, right? These slogan terms. Equity. We want everybody to have equity. Equal justice. We want freedom. We want plurality. I'm here to tell you guys, there's no such thing in a world where people get to arbitrarily define who and what they are. relationship structures, and then go and have dominion. All image bearers of God, whether they own that or not, will take dominion in the end. All image bearers of God will in some way, shape or form want to control reality. They want to manipulate it, create according to their beliefs, all of them. And so in some way, shape or form, they will do that. And what that will do is negate a group of people who are in disagreement. And if everything is arbitrary and it's not based on an objective foundation, what ends up happening? Chaos. tyranny, revolution, and all sorts of wars and problems between people groups. So what's the resolution? What's the resolution? John says in 1 John 3.8, he says that the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. And those works of the devil he defines as sinfulness, lying, sinfulness. which he also describes as lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. James describes it as rooting up in the heart. Christ came to destroy that. And this is exactly what I think Paul's driving at, okay? Paul says you're washed. What does it mean to be washed? To be washed means to be made clean from uncleanliness. We give a description in scripture and we identify with it when we make this public proclamation. What do we do? What do we do to people who make a public proclamation that they have now been washed in Christ? What does that thing look like? You guys know? Baptism. I saw that out there, right? Baptism. What is baptism signify that the old man has died and the new man has been raised in Christ? The old man is quite dead and was dead and you've been raised by resurrection power. The very power that raised Christ in the dead to newness of life. That's what you're saying by that you've been washed and cleansed from your sins. Paul says you were sanctified. What is sanctification? You're made new. You are a new creative work by the whole power of the Holy Spirit in the believer. Look at Titus. Go to Titus. Look at this. I love this passage, dude. And Titus, he says verses three. Four through seven, OK? Get there guys. Yes. In Titus 3, verses 4-7, he says, But when the goodness of the lovingkindness of our God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by His own righteous, but according to His own mercy, by the washing and the regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out to us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we, being justified by His grace, might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And we also know from Romans 8 that there is a guaranteed promise. You're called, justified, sanctified, and glorified. There's a guaranteed promise. Christ will promise to begin the work that he started in you and bring it to completion. That sanctifying power is a work of the Holy Spirit. You're denying the work of the Holy Spirit in you if you're saying, I identify with these things. You're denying that, the reality of that. No, no, you don't. You can't identify with those former things. Why? First of all, you were washed. Meaning, you acknowledge that you died to sin and were raised to newness of life. And also, the power of the Holy Spirit is at work in you. Transforming what? Your mind. Your heart. You. Helping put to death the deeds of the flesh, right? Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.17, you are a new creature in Christ Jesus. A new creation. You have a new mind capable of rightly discerning the will of God according to Romans 2, 12, 2. And last of all, the most important of all, the symbol of the new covenant, you have a new heart. The old heart of stone has been removed and you received a new heart of flesh. And God has done what? Written his law upon it. He'd given you his spirit so that you could walk in obedience to his commands and statutes. All of you is new. beautiful and being conformed to the image of His Son. So you can't identify with something like, I'm a gay Christian. Those are contradictory terms. You can't be the equivalent of saying, I'm a murderous Christian. You know, I have these temptations to slaughter people here and there. And I'm really resisting that. I'm maintaining abstinence from slaughtering people. You might think about that with your kids every once in a while, right? I know I have fluid minutes. You don't, you don't like identify as like, you know, I'm a thief Christian, you know, I'm a thief Christian. I, uh, I struggle with, you know, desiring, wanting to steal people's stuff and coveting it. And so, you know, I'm, I'm really working on that and maintain abstinence from, from thievery. I'm an adulterous Christian. You guys know where I'm going with this, right? You know, think about the second table of the 10 commandments. I'm a covetous Christian. I'm a sexually immoral Christian. No, we don't say that. No, no, you don't say I've always felt this way and these desires that have been awoken in my impulses and desires, I identify with that. That's dangerous. And it's especially dangerous when you go, let's make laws around that. Amen? I can't say it clear enough. So on the one hand, you can't expect a peaceful society that dictates reality based on their feelings and emotions. You can't expect a peaceful, organized society that dictates reality based on their feelings and emotions, who dictates what they are and who they are. They must surrender and bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ and say, no, you've defined who I am. I'm going to be obedient to your law in the way you've described what I am. I'm going to be obedient to those relationship structures. As a matter of fact, I'm not going to sit here and burn in passion. for the same sex when that really clearly states in scripture that you have given me over to do a base mind based on your wrath. No, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna resist those things, put those deeds of flesh to death, because you have promised that I'm capable of doing so, and I'm gonna pursue right relationships. Matter of fact, I'm gonna encourage this by taking stewardship, development, and governance in society, and I'm gonna do the best I can to try to encourage, promote what you've called very good and blessed. And I'm going to identify with Christ because I'm a new creature in Christ Jesus who's received a new mind and a new heart. And I'm going to walk in obedience to you by the grace of God and his mercies in the power of the spirit. Amen, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this precious tax lord that we don't have to walk according to the patterns of the world anymore. We don't have to identify them, nor should we ever. Our identity is sealed in Christ, hidden in Christ. He is the treasures of all wisdom and knowledge. and that we can pursue a right relationship even if we struggle in our simple desires. But we do not let those desires overcome us because we have the Spirit of God in us to guide us and direct us. And where we have stumbled and fallen, we have a faithful mediator that by His work on the cross, through the veil of His flesh, the author of Hebrews says, we can confess our sins and He is faithful to forgive and restore. Lord, we know that you discipline those whom you love, those who are a part of your Lord, for those who are struggling today, who may be wrestling with some of these things, who are really having a difficult time, maybe with this message, Lord, I pray that it would penetrate their heart, that you would expose the conscience, Lord, that you would go to the joint in the marrow and the discernment of their thoughts, and that you would help them open their eyes to see and their ears to hear, and give them a heart to follow you. And for those who don't know you today, Lord, I pray that they would repent, turn to Christ, and walk in this newness of life that you promised. In Jesus' name, amen.