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We have a challenging topic in front of us this morning. And if you are a guest, just to catch you up a little bit, we've been through a six-week series on sexuality, and we've said uh part part of this has been driven because we've been working through the book of First Corinthians, and as we teach through the book of First Corinthians, uh, we came to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. In church 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul is addressing some issues with the church in Corinth where they had some sexual immorality. In fact, he uses the word pornea, uh, which we derive the word porn, uh, but the idea is that it's sexual immorality, anything that's outside of God's design and intent for our sexuality and how he created it and how he intended it. Uh, we specifically believe that the Bible defines marriage as this relationship between a man and a woman in a monogamous, committed, covenant relationship for a lifetime. That's how we believe God defines it in his word. And so Paul is addressing some issues because uh that's not what's going on in Corinth at the church. I'm not talking about the culture of Corinth, I'm talking about inside the church, people of God, people who say they're following Jesus, there's some problems there. And one man in particular uh who is living in sin, and the church seems to be like indifferent to it, almost kind of applauding him in it. And so it's a problem, and Paul wants to address that. And so we've been on a journey because it was a great way to springboard into what I believe has become a major challenge, major problem uh in our culture, uh, but but also realizing that it didn't start in 2017, it didn't start uh last year or even 10 years ago or 50 years ago, but that humanity's always been plagued with the problem of what do we do with sex and how do we obey God in it, how do we honor God with our sexuality, how do we understand it in its proper place? Okay? And so we felt like that one of the things we've hoped for is to break the sound barrier. And you may have been in a church environment, a Christian environment that's talked about sex. Um I know that most of the environments that I grew up in or were around, we didn't talk about sex a lot. We didn't talk about it real specifically, real directly. And so we've had some uncomfortable moments in this room over the last six weeks. We had some real challenging moments, but we've also had some grace-filled moments where God's doing some incredible work because we said, God, we're gonna speak about the things that you speak about in your word, regardless of whether we feel comfortable with it or not. You know what I'm saying? And so that's where we've been. And we've been on a journey talking about how that our sexuality deeply impacts us. It deeply affects our lives. And this morning, we want to look at the the topic of homosexuality. Um, and I want to explain to you a few reasons why, but I want you to know that I don't come like excited about talking about the topic. Unlike, you know, there's a there's a part of me that's really sober-minded this morning. Uh I've been looking at, uh exploring uh conversations in, trying to understand uh the different sides and aspects of this discussion for for a number of years. And working through what does God say about this so that I could speak clearly on it, and then also understanding all the implications that we can come out of this because of how personal of an issue it is. Because my guess is that every one of you in this room knows someone who is uh proclaiming themselves to be either gay or lesbian or homosexual, um, and and so you have a personal relationship with some of those people, and so it's a very difficult topic. And I think that the church has to speak clearly and has to speak compassionately. Okay? Both of those things. We have to speak clearly and we have to speak compassionately. Because this is not just a theological or theoretical discussion, it's a personal one. And this is about real people in real life who struggle with real issues. Okay? And so as a church, we wanted to say to you that we want to give you instruction from God's word on this. Not just our opinion, not just my personal opinion, but what does God's word have to say? Because God's word is transcendent, it's timeless, it speaks to all people, all places, at all times. And God's word is authoritative. That's how we feel as a church that we would we would not come up with our own truth or our own way of understanding the world or ourselves, but we would look to God's word and we say, God, this is what you gave us to explain how the world works, how we work, what our lives really mean, what they stand for, what we should be doing with everything from our parenting to our sexuality to our finances to our time management, that we believe God, you're wise, and that we want to come up underneath your leadership and your instruction in that. Does that make sense? And so um, you don't need to hear what I have to say uh as much as you need to hear about what God has to say from His word, and that's how we know what God says is because it's in here. But that being said, um, you might be wondering why we're singling out the issue of homosexuality. Like, that seems a little bit odd or strong. Like, what why are you going after this particular issue? And I want to tell you it's not because we want to jump on the bandwagon of bigotry and just slam people who are homosexual. Are you with me? Because I've seen the church do this far too often, and if you watch national television and you watch the news, what do they typically do? They typically get somebody up there on the right side, conservative, super conservative, who says stuff like, you know, the whole world's being judged, you know, America's all being judged because of homosexuality in America, and they say things that are just very judgmental, very hurtful, very rude, the condescending, and then the person that's who's the homosexual represents that community is very compassionate, very kind, very articulate, well thought out. It's almost like we're just trying to create and paint a picture that all Christians just are completely out of touch with reality, don't care about people, and don't have the heart of Jesus. And I just don't want those people to represent us. Okay? I want by the Bible, God's Word to represent us, and I want us to have a clarity on how we talk to people about this issue. We have to speak clearly, and we have to speak compassionately. And here's here's the thing. I want to zoom out for just a second, alright? Homosexuality is not the primary issue, even though we're gonna talk about it today. Okay? First off, we've set this this entire sex series, the entire conversation about sexuality, that God's plan for our sex is to bring Him glory. And we have to understand that our sex, we aren't, it actually doesn't terminate on us. It actually is not just about our pleasure and us enjoying sex. Uh it's actually about a much greater picture, a much bigger picture, and that is that our sexuality exists for God's glory. To make God known. I mean, that might sound weird to you, especially if you haven't been here through the whole series. You're thinking, wait, how's my sex have anything to do with God's glory? Well, God designed it, He created it, He even gave it boundaries, He gave it a definition and a place where it's supposed to be used that benefits us, yes, but ultimately is about to point people to Him. In fact, a couple weeks ago we talked about marriage. Because marriage is that boundary, it is that place where sexuality is supposed to be used in a way that is beneficial, in a way that helps humankind flourish. And we've said that one of the realities of marriage, one of the primary purposes of marriage, is that it is a picture of Christ in his church. It is a picture of Christ in his church. Ephesians 5 tells us that exact thing. And it says that all the way back to the very beginning of time, when God creates man, he creates woman, that he created this unique complementary relationship where a male and female would come together, and in that relationship there would be a loving commitment, a devotion, a purity, a oneness, an intimacy like no other relationship on the planet, right? That's what God intended, that's what he designed, desires. And so anything that attacks that image, anything that attacks that long-term monogamous commitment between a male and a female in a covenant relationship, anything that comes against that is marring the picture of what God wants us to see and his beauty and his grace and his mercy and his pursuit of mankind. And so that's serious. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's very serious when we try to change what God has intended to be a beautiful picture and help us understand. I mean, we need we need handles on understanding God. We need handles on understanding his goodness. We need handles on understanding his grace. And I can tell you right now that in the New Testament scripture and in life in general, there's nothing more beautiful, more amazing, more compelling, more awesome than the picture of what happens between a man and a woman in a sexual relationship inside of marriage. There's something dynamic and powerful about that, beautiful about that, amazing about that, that is a gift from God, and it helps us understand God better. Now that may sound again weird, but that's because we try to divorce our sexuality from our spirituality, and you can't. That you can't. It is a picture of God's goodness and his love and his commitment to us. And so when you have something like homosexuality, or you have something like pornography or adultery or anything else that tries to change what God has intended, we have to talk to those things. We have to speak to those things. We have to speak clearly, and we have to speak compassionately. And I want to do that this morning if you guys would give me a chance. So don't tune me out if I say something that's offensive to you. Listen, I know myself, I can be easily offended at times. I would encourage you to listen all the way through and hear the big picture of God's heart for you. Understand that God is for you, not against you. God is for us. He is for humankind. He is for the flourishing of this creature, this creation that He has made. So we have to speak. But also about this, we have to understand that there's tremendous confusion. I think you guys know this, so I'm stating the obvious, but there's tremendous confusion around this issue. There's tremendous misunderstanding of this issue. You see, the fact is that our culture says that homosexuality is a natural way for people to express their sexuality. Homosexuality is just a natural way. I've talked to a number of people, again, on both sides of this conversation. I've even had coffee over the last few weeks with a man who attends this church who says he's gay. He's been coming for a few months. This discussion has been very challenging for him, but he's continuing to come, and I respect him greatly for that. And I'm very proud of him for staying connected when we disagree very severely on this issue. But what I'm telling you is that he told me directly he did not choose that. By choice, he did not choose to be a homosexual, he did not choose to be a gay or to be attracted to the same gender. And he's said, in fact, why would I choose that? It's been a very difficult thing for me. It's been a very difficult road for me. And the culture says that homosexuality is a natural way for people to express their sexuality. There's some things that are kind of subpoints to this that I've heard as I've studied, as I've looked, and I want you to know, again, I've talked with a number of people who believe differently than me on this. I've listened to them, I've read some of their material. I don't suggest that everybody should do that. You need to be very strong and rooted in the Word of God before you go and explore other possibilities because you can be deceived. You can buy into the two lies, and you can, there's some very good arguments for what you will hear out there. But if we always come back and filter it through the Word of God, we can stand on truth, okay, with confidence. But here's what you say to hear some of just the things that I've heard over the last couple of years, even. I've mentioned this one already. Sexual orientation is not a matter of choice, and it cannot be changed. I've heard that. I have some stories of people that I know that would say that, and I have some stories of people who I know that would completely disagree because they were homosexual, they were gay, they were lesbian, and God has changed them. So I'm just going to tell you that it can be changed. That's a whole nother conversation. Two, I've heard people say homosexuality is not actually hurting anybody. It's not hurting anyone. Because it's a personal, private act between me and another person, and it doesn't actually hurt anyone. First off, very few homosexuals are private about it. Especially in our culture today, right? But beyond that, I think we're misunderstanding again what God's intentional or original plan was, and his intent was for sexuality. So there are actually more wounds and more pain in this area than you would imagine. Some of them we don't see. That's not what's really talked about. We don't talk about a lot of the pain and the struggle that's behind this issue. But I do hear people say that it's not hurting anybody, which really kind of is springboarding off of something that I would say to you this morning that is very deceptive and it's it's permeating our young generation, which is this truth, or at least this, what they would say is truth. It's my body, I can do with it whatever I want. Now, first off, if you're not a Christian, if you're not a believer, maybe you can live that way. I need you to know that you were created by God and you have breath in your lungs by God's grace. But if you are a Christian, a believer, you are not your own. In fact, Jesus Christ laid down his life, he spilled his blood to purchase you and to purchase me. So we are not our own. And our body cannot be used however, whenever, and whatever we want to do with it. Because we now belong to God. In fact, 1 Corinthians 6 says that we are a temple of God, of the Holy Spirit. So we should use that in a way that honors God who purchased it. However, there's more to this conversation, and again, I can't get into all of that right now. One of the arguments I've heard, if two people of the same gender are in a monogamous relationship, why does it matter? Well, again, it matters because that's not the definition of marriage. It's not God's definition of marriage. God didn't create a man and a man, even biologically, physically, to come together. He created male and female in a complimentary way to honor God. But some people would say, um, well, it doesn't really matter. Well, that really does break down even in the New Testament in Ephesians 5 when God shows us the beauty of a complimentary relationship that describes, again, the relationship with Christ and his church. I hear people say, well, Christians are inconsistent on the laws of the Old Testament and how we deal with heterosexual sin. The first half of that being that these Old Testament laws, and we don't abide by those anymore. Those laws were for the Old Testament. Now we live in the new covenant, so we're free to do whatever we want now. I mean, in the Old Testament they couldn't eat shrimp. We can eat shrimp in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, you couldn't have a homosexual relationship, but now you can. Is that true? Well, again, that's a it's a bigger conversation than we can have right now in this moment, but I would tell you that God's consistent in his word about this issue of homosexuality. It doesn't change. In Leviticus, when it says it's not good, it's not acceptable, it's actually a sin. It doesn't change in the New Testament. Finally, Jesus never said anything about homosexuality, so neither should the Christians. And this is a uh misrepresentation of what Jesus said. He actually did speak about sexual sin, pornea, which is any distortion of God's plan for sexuality. So, again, these are just some of the things that I've heard, some of the deceptions, some of the confusions that I've heard. And I would say to you, I would rather sit down over coffee or lunch with any of you in the room and talk about this personally. Or our elders, our staff, we'd be happy to do that. Because there are personal issues connected to this. And I would much rather just talk with you and work through that than to talk at you. And so I would be happy if you want to after service, come find me. Let's sit down and have coffee. Let's sit down and have lunch. You can come into my house and have dinner, right, babe? Okay. Um we have a rule I'm not supposed to ask unless uh we talked to that. So I guess I just kind of invited you all to my house. All right. No, but seriously, we would happily like sit down and talk about this issue. And I think it's a much bigger discussion than we can get into this morning. So I'm not gonna answer all your questions. But I said this earlier and I'll say it again. I want us to go to God's Word because that's where we can get answers. That's where we can find solid ground to stand on in this issue. And I'm gonna tell you right now, there's probably some of you that are gonna disagree with me, or you're gonna disagree with God's word this morning. And all I'd ask, we've said this the entire series, is don't just push away, take your ball, and go home. Let's talk about it. Okay? Let's sort through it. Let's think about this. Let's consider what God might have to say to us this morning. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, we read it a few weeks ago, but I want to ask you to go back there. We're just gonna read verses 9 through 11. It sounds a little harsh, but hang with me, and we'll explain a little bit of what's there. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9. Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom? Do not be deceived. No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or anyone practicing practicing homosexuality, no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God's kingdom. And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by your spirit, by the Spirit of our God. Now, this is one of the most clear, direct passages in the New Testament that speaks to the issue of homosexuality. But just as a quick observation, notice on the front end is homosexuality the only sin that Paul addresses? No, it's not. Okay? I want you to hang on to that because we've got to come back to this issue throughout this message on several occasions. The first thing I want you to understand this morning is this. Some of you gotta, you're gonna have to think about this. Same-sex attraction is not a sin. Same-sex attraction is not a sin. Now, some of you guys are like, what are you talking about? Same-sex attraction is not a sin. Listen, I want you to understand, let me give you a flip side of the coin. Me seeing a beautiful woman and seeing her and seeing her be attractive is not a sin. Lust is a sin. Dwelling on that beauty, beginning to desire that, and then even acting on that, that is sinful. But the temptation itself is not sinful. Alright? Now, here's why this is a big deal. Because there are some people in this room who've dealt with same-sex attraction. And they've felt like I can't go anywhere in the church for answers or for help on this because we've said that even the fact that you have it means that you are sinning. And some of you need to be free this morning from the fact that you can read the Bible from cover to cover, and nowhere in here does it say that same-sex attraction is a sin. Now, for some of you, that is weird. For some of you, that's uncomfortable. But for some of you, that's freeing this morning. Because you need to know that there are mysterious things that go on in the body and in the mind, and there are things that naturally are part of who we are, but also in the nurture, how maybe we were raised, that have led us down certain paths. And so there is a possibility that you could be sitting in this room and have any attraction to the same gender sexually, to be explicitly clear. And I want you to know that God sees that, He knows that. And that is not an easy road to go down. That is not an easy burden to carry. For some of you that are in that, you need to know this morning that there is hope for you, there is help, there is encouragement in Christ. Listen. They asked Rick Warren one time, they said, Rick, uh, he was on national news, of course, and I love it when Rick's on there because he's he's he's gonna speak what the Bible says. And it was one of those good interviews where they weren't like making us Christians out just to be all a bunch of bigots. But they said, Rick, um, would you would you agree that it's okay for someone to be homosexual if they were born that way and we discovered that there was actually a gay gene? There was actually, which by the way, just so you know, they have not discovered a gay gene. It does not exist, okay? There are some things that that I've that I've read and there's things that I've heard, and sometimes we talk about this, but they asked Rick Warren, they said, if they discovered that, would you say that homosexuality is okay? And Rick Warren said, No, I would not. And I mean the person interviewing just flips out. What? Are you kidding me? You're saying that a person who is born that way with the gay gene, like you couldn't say it's okay for them to pursue a homosexual relationship. He said, Here's the deal. I naturally have a desire to want to sleep with every woman that I see that walks by me. Should I act on that? Now, his point was well made that just because we have a natural desire doesn't mean we should act on it. Just because we have a natural inclination to do something, because every single one of us in here, we have natural desires to what? Lust or to be prideful or to be greedy or to be or to lie. We have different desires that can war against us in our flesh. But when we act on it, that's when it becomes a sin. Because I would say to you this morning the second thing that this passage teaches us is that, and hear me, practicing homosexuality, practicing, acting on those attractions, practicing homosexuality as defined by Scripture is A sin, catch this, just like every other distortion of God's design. Just like every other distortion of God's intention for humanity. It's a sin. What about, you know, these natural desires? What about what God, you know, what about this? Listen, this is a very complex issue. It is very complicated. And it's not something that I can resolve this morning for you. But I can tell you this that I have to go with the Bible over what feels good and what makes sense to culture and to the world around us. We have to look at what the Bible says. And he says, do not be deceived. No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or anyone practicing homosexuality. It's in the Bible. It's wrong. I think we know that. But I want you to understand, and I want myself to be reminded this morning, that just because it is wrong doesn't mean it's the only sin that's wrong, or that somehow it deserves a higher place of wrongness because I don't struggle with it. Now I will tell you, as we've been talking through the sex series, there's a very interesting dynamic at play. And that is that sexual sin has deep, deep, deep implications in our lives because it's very personal. It's a sin that can really do damage internally to our mind and our bodies. We know that. And I would even actually argue that sexuality and sexual sin, sexual immorality is like the pinnacle of self-worship. Meaning that when we really look at sin and we look at all the different types of sin that we struggle with, the thing about sexuality that's so powerful, it's so damaging, is because in essence we basically take this idea of sex and we say, God, we want to be God of our own life. And God, we want control of our sexuality to do with it whatever we want, whenever we want, however we want. And in essence, because it is this amazing, beautiful, and incredible gift from God that brings such pleasure, we then even worship ourselves in it, and we elevate it to an unhealthy place, and we worship ourselves through our sex. And so again, that's not just homosexuality. That is that is our own adultery, that's pornography, it's other ways that it shows up in our lives. So what I'm saying to you this morning is we need to we need to be able to say, yes, the Bible says homosexuality is a sin, but it is a sin and a distortion of God's design, just like every other sin in our life. That's why it's listed in a list of sins. There's more than one sin in this section of Scripture. Okay? Now, continue to hang with me. Thirdly, what do we learn? Your sexuality, catch this, is not what defines you or determines your eternal destiny. You hear me? Your sexuality is not what defines you or determines your eternal destiny. You are more than sex. You as a human being are more than sex, and you're more than what you can get from sex, and you're more than what you can give to someone else in sex. You are so much more than that. You are so much more than just an object to be desired sexually, woman. You are so much more than just a man who pursues sex, men. You are so much more. We do not get our worth and our value and our identity and our acceptance through our sexuality. Why is why am I saying that? Because that's what the culture teaches. That's what our world teaches. And that's not just out there, again, it's in here because we begin to buy into the lie that somehow our sexuality is what really defines us. It's what gives us our worth. Why do women dress in such a way that's provocative? This is, I'm I'm I know I'm meddling with things here. Listen, I get that. Why? Because they think their body is how they get their acceptance, worth, and value. So if I have a body that draws the attention of a man, then that's where I get my value and my worth from. People say, well, no, it's just fashion. Well, where did they get their idea from? Why is that? I'm not saying we should, you know, cover up women from head to toe and all that stuff. I mean, we're I that's not what I'm I'm advocating for this morning. That's not going to solve the lust problem. All right? What I am telling you is that women, men, we are not defined by our sexuality. It's a part of who we are. It is not who we are. It's something we do, we participate in by God's grace, and it's a gift. But if it's perverted, it's distorted, it will become way too important in our life. And when it does that, it will destroy us. And we'll take it and we'll begin to use it, and we will use others and abuse others through the process of it. Now, I also want to make another point here. It's not just about this defining you, but also the fact that it does not determine your eternal destiny. Now, this is really, really critical, so hang with me. At the core of this whole question, and it eventually comes up in all these interviews in our culture. These interviews, eventually, someone on the gay affirming or lesbian affirming side of the conversation will say this. So, what you're saying is that if I'm homosexual, God's gonna send me to hell. Right? That's where it's eventually gonna get to. So that the Christian basically has to answer that question and sound like I hate you. That's basically how it eventually is gonna lead to. And I want you to hear me this morning. Homosexuality, in and of itself, does not send you to hell. This passage teaches us something much, much deeper. It teaches us that unbelief in God sends us to eternal separation from God. It teaches us that behavior is a direct result of not trusting in the God who created us, who made us, who loves us, and is for us. Are you with me? And so what sends us, in essence, to an eternal separation from God, hell, is rejecting the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. That is what is at the core of this. And if I won't trust you with my salvation, God, why would I trust you with my sexuality? If we won't trust God with the most important thing in our eternity, why would we ever trust Him with this temporary gift called sex? That's why when I talk to people and I find out that they're homosexual, guess what? I don't talk to them about homosexuality if they're not a believer in Jesus Christ, if they not receive the gift of salvation, because that is not the conversation. That is not the primary point. The primary point this morning is people need to know Jesus Christ. They need to know his love. They need to know he died on the cross for their sins. They need to know that he offers them eternal life, that is a gift that they cannot earn through good works. They're going to church, they're being a good dad, through being a good husband, through reading their Bible, through prayer, through telling people about Jesus. You only receive the gift of salvation through the grace of God by faith alone. That's it. Not by jumping through hoops, not by stopping sin. Because if that were the case, I'm doomed. I've been a Christian a long time. I put my trust in Jesus at a very young age. And guess what? I blow it every day. I still sin. I wish I didn't. I don't have a free path to sin. I don't want to sin. But I do. And guess what? My salvation is not contingent on the fact that I'm a heterosexual man in a monogamous relationship with a woman for my lifetime. It's not contingent on me sinning or not sinning. It's contingent on the person and work of Jesus who is perfect, who stood in my place and said, I love you enough that I'm going to die for you, even though you're a total train wreck and mess and rebellious punk. That's where my salvation comes from. Praise Jesus. It's not based on how I use my sexuality. So the point this morning is not, hey guys, stop sinning or stop being homosexual or stop struggling with homosexual thoughts or same gender attraction. Listen, the point is look to Jesus. He loves you, He is life. God offers you hope. He offers you salvation. He offers you a better way. He offers us a better way in our sexuality, in every area of our lives. Because sex is not what defines us and it's not what determines our eternal destiny. When we are saved, we are not saved out of sexuality, out of sexual immorality. We are saved out of unbelief. Out of unbelief that God is good, that he made us, and that he is the way, truth, and life, that Jesus is the way, truth and life. That's what we're saved out of. And guess what? I believe that when we trust him with the most important thing, that everything else will start to fall in line under that. That other things in our lives, and that's a process, that's a journey. You might even call that the cross that we bear in this life. Because Jesus said, if you come to me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me, right? That's what he said. And he said, if you lose your life, you will find it. Guys, listen. What God wants us to know is that we all have different journeys that we're on, all different sin issues that we're struggling with. For some of you, greed is eating you alive right now. Some of you lying and deception. You are so lost you can't even remember what the truth is anymore. Some of you are struggling with pornography or lust, and it's just eating you alive. Listen, this is a place where we can come broken to a healer, to a savior who loves us and who will meet us in our mess and who will love us enough to help us move into a place of trusting Him and full restoration and healing. And we might not fully be restored this side of heaven. In fact, I know we won't be. I know my wife wishes I would be, and my kids wish I would be, but I'm not going to get there all yet. This side of heaven, right? I wish, but but I do know this that God is at work in my life and he'll be work in your life as we trust him with every area of our life, including this issue. Now it might sound like I'm getting way away from homosexuality, and it's because I am, because it's not just about homosexuality. It is about the sin of the heart of man. Because that's the next question I want us to answer this morning is so why does so many people disagree with God on this? Why does so many people disagree with God? If he says homosexuality is a sin, why do we disagree? Well, I want to take you to Romans this morning. Romans chapter 1. It's a passage of scripture that describes what's really going on in the heart of man. I'm going to read a few verses and then I'm going to make a couple of observations. Here we go. Hang with me because we're going to have to move quick. Verse 16, chapter 1 of Romans. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God's power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and also to the Greek. For in it, God's righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith. Now, the book of Romans, if you haven't read it, is the most comprehensive, beautiful, amazing view of the gospel you have ever seen and you ever will see. It's an incredible book of the Bible. I encourage you to read it for yourself and really try to soak it in. But when it starts, it's bleak. Why? Because Paul's saying to understand the goodness of God, you've got to understand the depravity of man. You've got to understand that we are broken and we are messed up. And so he starts there. And he says to these Gentiles, he says, These Gentiles, they are screwed up. But the first thing he says before he even gets to that is he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of God for salvation for all who believe. And I want you to tell you this morning, I echo those words. I'm not ashamed of Jesus Christ. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm ashamed of the way the church acts towards people a lot of times. I'm ashamed of the judgmental attitude of the church sometimes. I'm ashamed of the fact that we've got people in the church who are truly bigots, who escalate certain sins, particular sins, to point them out so that they can elevate themselves in their own self-righteousness. That's stuff we should be ashamed of. We should call that out. That's sin. Pride. But we should not be ashamed of the gospel. Because here's what the gospel says we are more broken than when we can begin to imagine at the same time we are so deeply loved, more than we begin to understand and comprehend. So we don't have to be ashamed of that. We can invite people to receive God's gift of salvation by faith. It's a beautiful message. And when that's not our primary message, we will take behaviors and we will put them front and center and we'll say, if you'll just fix yourself here, then God will love you. If you'll just fix this, then God will accept you. If you just will stop sinning, then God will love you. Our job has never been to clean people up and bring them to Jesus. Our job is to point them to Jesus and let Him do that work. Okay? So when the church starts to take God's responsibility, we need to watch out. We need to be very fearful. Because God is not going to bless a church that thinks that we're the moral police of everybody. That's not our job. The next thing you see here in verse 18 is Paul says this, for God's wrath is revealed from heaven. And I want you to let the weight of this sink in, okay? For God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people by who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what has been made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four footed animals, and reptiles. What am I saying? Let me just simply say this. Paul is making the case that these Gentiles, who were not God's chosen people, they had an opportunity to see God through creation, right? God had revealed himself. But there's three things that the Gentiles did that we still do today. This is the reason why we reject God's desire for our sexuality. First, suppress the truth. That means we know God said it, but we're going to block it out. We're going to do our own thing. Secondly, to ignore God's revelation, to say we don't really believe God that you're there, that you care, or that what you say really matters. Thirdly, to worship the created instead of the creator. To enjoy God's things, but so much so that we begin to worship them and look to them for satisfaction, for identity, for worth, for pleasure outside of God. Right? So we begin to worship those things. And everything that we worship like that will suck our life from us because it cannot do what God can do, which is give life. Right? And so those are the three things that Paul outlines for us as he says, humankind, and this would be us, by the way, he says, you suppress the truth, you reject God, you ignore his revelation, and you even worship things that are created instead of the creator. That's heavy, isn't it? But it's an accurate statement of humanity, it's an accurate description. That's why we reject God on this issue of our sexuality. You know this is not a new problem, though, right? In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, one rule. They got a beautiful place to live, all the good things they needed. They disobey the one. Why? Because they thought, God, you're holding out on us. We need something else. We need more. We want to do it our way. We want to go our own thing. So they eat from the tree, the knowledge of good and evil. And from that point, the world broke, and we're still living in the fallout of that bad decision. So thirdly, I want to read this last part of this third section, verse 24. This is really where it gets it gets it gets hard. Oh, by the way, notice we've not said anything yet about homosexuality, right? This is the passage that everybody goes to about homosexuality. The theme of this passage is not homosexuality. It's not. This is about what happens when mankind decides we're going to divorce ourselves from God. We're going to rebel ourselves from God, we're going to do our own thing, go our own way. Verse 24 says this. Therefore, God delivered them over in their cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and they worshipped the s and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen. This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions, for even their females exchanged natural relations, sexual relations for unnatural ones. The males in the same way also left natural relations with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another. By the way, one of the arguments that I hear consistently is, well, you know, God's not talking about monogamous marriage relationships here. He's talking about where a man, you know, takes advantage of another man or a female takes another advantage, or somebody hurts somebody outside of a mutual consent kind of deal. Listen, did you notice that? That sounds like a reciprocal relationship there, where a man and a man both are both pursuing each other sexually. That doesn't look like you got any hoop to get around that, is what I'm saying. Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error. And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong. They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy. Catch this list, guys. Okay? Hang on. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, malice. They are gossips, slanderers, god haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedience to parents. I know you kids love that. Undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful, although they know full well God's just sentence, that those who practice such things deserve to die. Catch this. They not only do them, but they even applaud others who practice them. We live that reality. That's our world today. And it's not a new world. That is the world that's existed when the moment mankind decided again to rebel against our holy God. What's the point? The point is this. Notice three different times in this passage he says that they exchanged. They exchanged. Right? First he said that they, all the way back up in the end, he says they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Then he says that they exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. And then it says that they even exchanged, um exchanged the glory of the mortal for the images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. Three different times he uses the word exchange. But on the back end of each of those, notice what he also says. This is scary, guys. Listen, this is scary. Each time mankind exchanges something for God's desire and God's design, it says he delivered them over. You want me to tell you something that's scarier than any natural disaster we might face? Any terrorism act that we might face or encounter? You want me to tell me what's more scary than any uh any sense that we would have some sort of terrible, horrific, catastrophic event happen to us? To be delivered over by God to ourselves. You say, well, why is that scary? I mean, we do a pretty good job with our life. We manage it pretty well. Because if you take the human heart and you let the human heart go where the human heart wants to go without God, it is incredibly destructive. It is painfully destructive. This is why anyone who says that they're an atheist and you say you don't believe in God, the morality is completely arbitrary. Because you basically are coming up with your own standard. You see, we need God and we need his ways, we need his plan, we need his purpose, we need God to rescue us, and when we reject him, when we reject, listen, the pinnacle of that is going to lead us down a path to destruction sexually. And morally, we are going to find ourselves in a painful, painful place. I want you to hear this this morning. God in his sovereignness, uh sovereignty and his goodness, when he created mankind, okay, he created mankind, he decided to give us choice. Right? God gave us choice because he knew, at least the best of my I understand this, is that if we could only choose him and not choose him, if we didn't have the choice, we basically, that would not be love. But God wanted us to choose to love him. And so he gives us this choice. And all of you want you to know in this room, you have the choice to whether you're gonna obey God and honor God or not. That's a choice you have. That's a choice I have. We get choice because God chose to give it to us. Here's what you don't get to choose: you don't get to choose the consequences of your choice. You and I do not get to choose where our choices will lead us. And you need to know this morning that if you choose to live the void of God, outside of God's plan and God's intent, there's going to be pain and there's gonna be hardship and there's gonna be destruction. And that's why I can stand up here this morning and say to you don't do it. Don't try to live apart. From the goodness of God and his plan. Don't try to take your sexuality and go use it in any way you think you want to use it, because when you do that, you are going to not only hurt yourself, you're going to hurt others. You are going to destroy yourself. That might sound harsh, that might sound rude, that might sound like, Nick, you are not my boss, you're not in charge. Listen, I'm telling you, come up underneath God and his authority and you will find life there. Get out from under God's authority and you will find pain and destruction there. That's what the Bible teaches us, and I believe it's true because not only that his word says it, I've experienced it. And I can speak from my own personal experience that when I get out from under God's authority, it never leads to good things. It does not lead me to life. It is a mirage. It always leads to pain and suffering and hardship. Now, I need to close this out. Thankfully, the book of Romans doesn't stop there. It is the most comprehensive of the view of the gospel. And so when you get through Romans chapter 1, where he's talked about the Gentiles and about how Gentiles they have God revealing himself to them, even though they weren't God's chosen people, they God's revealing himself to them and they still rejected him. He goes on in chapter 2 to say, and you Jewish people, you had the law and you still rejected God. And if you don't get the point, you get to chapter 3 where he literally says, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The way the psalmist says it is that there's no one who seeks God. No, not one. All have turned away, turned their own way. Right? The point is that all of humanity ultimately is rebellious to God, ultimately broken in our sin. And I want us to remember this morning that God doesn't leave us in our sin. He didn't just say, well, you chose your own thing. I mean, it says here, he delivered them over. You want one, you want it? Go get it. You want that sexuality to use it however you want, go get it. You'll find that it's a dead end road. You'll find that it's empty. You'll find that it's destructive. But God didn't leave us there. In fact, we know he didn't leave us there because Jesus came in to our mess. He comes into our mess time and time and time again. He comes into our mess, into our life, into our rebellion, and he loves us in that. In fact, Romans 5, if you continue this reading through of Romans, you'll find Romans 5 where it says, while we were enemies, Christ died for us. While we were still enemies, Christ died for us. I said on the front end that the church has to speak with clarity. So I hope you understand this morning that we believe, based on the scripture, that homosexuality is a sin. That it is wrong, just like every other sin that was listed alongside of it. Like disobedience to parents, like lust, like pride, all those different things that were listed in there. There's a whole long list in Romans 1. We believe that it's there. But we believe there's hope. We believe that there is hope of restoration, there is hope of redemption, we believe that Christ is good and that he will meet us in it. So where do we actually go from here? Where do we go from here? Well, I'll give you several things. First off, if you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, if you're not a believer of Jesus Christ, you have not put your trust in Christ for your salvation. You're either trying to earn your way there by doing good things, uh, or if you just flat out just don't believe, I want you to understand this morning that the conversation that I want to have with you, and I should say the invitation that I want to offer you, is to receive the gift of salvation. It's to receive the gift of salvation. Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sin and for mine, and he offers you salvation. He offers you forgiveness of sin, he offers you redemption. That's what I can bring to you this morning. Okay? That's what I hope for you to have this morning is the gift of salvation. Two, if you are a Christ follower and you are struggling with same-sex attraction, I want you to understand that this is a safe place to talk through that and work through that. We're not going to condemn you. We're not going to slam you, we're not going to marginalize you because you struggle with that. Um, and I should say a word here. Parents, this is just a word to you, parents. We are living in a very confused, messed up world, and so kids at a very young age are being told that they have, if they have any curiosity about this issue, that they're automatically homosexual. Okay? So just as a word of caution here, we need to be very careful what our kids are hearing and buying into. They think that for some reason, if uh a boy wants to play with his sister's dolls, that he must be feminine, he must be homosexual. That's stupid. Okay? That's because we try to put gender into a blue and pink box that doesn't exist in the Bible. It's not biblical. So we've stepped out of the Bible and all of its intent for what a man and a woman is, and we've made sociological, we've made cultural views of gender, and that's really screwed up a lot of our young people. And we need to stop it. And men, if you're if you're railing on your son because he's not more masculine, we need to stop it.

unknown 49:38

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SPEAKER_00 49:38

We're not helping them, we're confusing them. But if you've been in that place, if you as a male or female have wrestled with your gender or wrestled with your attraction, either out of curiosity or because of some things or circumstances in your life, listen, it's it's okay to not be okay in this area. And we can come to Jesus with this, and he will meet us in it. And I want you to know that I am praying for you if this is you, because your suffering and the hardship of that is much different than my suffering. And it's and it's something that I want to support you in, pray for you in, get you connected to community, and help support you through. And so if you need help, please don't stay in the shadows. Please don't stay in secrecy. Just like we've told men throughout this discussion, do not walk out this struggle with pornography alone. It will eat your lunch and it will destroy your life and your marriage. Do not do it. Same thing with this one, right? You can't. You can't fight it alone. We are not here to judge you and condemn you. We are here to help you. Now, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ and you're walking in homosexuality and you have no conviction, or at least maybe you say that you're a Christian, but you have no conviction over this issue, you have no sense of wrong about this issue, then you may not be a believer. Because the Holy Spirit tells us this is not, this is not God's plan. This is not God's way. And so that's a different conversation. And you need to repent if you're walking in disobedience to God and saying you're under the blood of Jesus. You need to repent. And I have no problem saying that to you because I fear God way more than I fear you. I fear God way more than I fear any of your opinions or any of the culture. But I know that we've got to help people come out of this and quit getting blindsided and quit being marginalized and put into the corner when they struggle with something that we don't struggle with. And finally, if you are a Jesus follower, if you're a Christ follower and you have a family member or a friend, because this is a very personal issue, I've talked to multiple people this week who have friends and have family members, I have extended family members that are dealing with this. If you're there, can we just commit to pray for these people? Pray for these human beings who God loves or created in God's image and that are struggling with a very difficult issue. Can we pray for them? Can we commit to pray for them and to love them and to care for them? If they're not a believer, then your primary conversation with them is not stop being gay, stop being homosexual. Your primary conversation with them is, I love you. God loves you, He offers life to you, right? If they are a believer, I will pray for you to have the boldness and the courage to speak into them the word of God. Not just your opinion, but the word of God. And to call people to obey Jesus. Because, again, when we trust Him, as I said earlier, with our salvation, we can trust Him with every area of our life. All the difficult ones. I would close out with this, and maybe this helps us with the posture with which we should approach people. 1 Timothy 1, verse 12. Paul says this, and I felt this this week, even as I was preparing to teach. He says this in 1 Timothy 1, verse 12. This is Paul writing to Timothy. I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry. One who was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I received mercy because I acted out of ignorance and unbelief. And the grace of our Lord overflowed along with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. This saying, catch this, this saying is trustworthy. This is the Apostle Paul, one of the greatest missionaries, if not the greatest missionary to ever walk the planet, took incredible suffering for the name of Jesus. Here's what he says. This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I am the worst of them. But I have received mercy for this reason, so that in me the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life. That's our foundation for how we should interact with anybody, is we are the chief of sinners. I am the chief of sinners this morning. And if not for God's grace and his mercy, I would be doomed to an eternal separation from God. And so would you. So my job isn't to fix people. My job is not to make them stop acting in certain ways. Because the Bible is not simply a message of stop sinning. It's not a message of come and fix yourself. The Bible is a message of come to Jesus. All you who are weary and bloody and broken and marginalized and ostracized and filled with guilt and shame. Come to Jesus and find life. Find hope. Find forgiveness. Find restoration. Find reconciliation with God. God offers us hope this morning in the face of a hard issue. There's a lot more stuff that we could say about this issue. It's a lot more complicated conversation than we've even had. But know this wherever you are in this process, however you feel, we've got to first and foremost seek to honor God. And we've also got to love people. We've got to love people. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for the hope that we have in you. God, I know that there are some in this room who've struggled with this issue and not known how to deal with it. And I pray that you would set them free from the secrecy. I pray that they would feel that this is a place where I can work through that. I pray that they would find community with other believers who can encourage them in it. God, we live in a messed-up fallen world. Things are not as they should be. Our humanity is broken, and we need you to come and heal us, to help us. God, I pray that what people hear this morning, myself included, is not stop sinning, but trust Jesus. Look to Jesus, see him for who he is and all of his beauty, his sacrificial love for us. He laid down his life so that we could experience life and be free. I pray for that this morning. I pray for the many people that I know personally who are struggling with the issue of homosexuality. I pray, God, that they would know your love, that they would know your grace, they would know your mercy, they would find your freedom, your hope. And I pray that you would just move in this place today that whatever ways that we have distorted your picture for sexuality, that you would help us repent, you would help us to come clean, to get honest, and to fall in your grace.