Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest
questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search
and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Meador, lead
pastor of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth
for the life we're searching for. So, brothers, you've joined us today and we've had a full
day already. We have more to come. And although I'm really looking forward to the message
I'll be preaching to you in the next few moments, I also want to look beyond the surface today
and call your attention to a couple of people that will be teaching breakout sessions and
also be on this stage at 2.15 with me for a panel discussion about some of the most
important questions you can possibly ask. I'm going to put their faces and names on
the screen if I can. Ricky Chalet, who's executive director of Living Hope Ministries is with
us today and Katie McCoy, director of Women's Ministries for Texas Baptist and author of
a great new book that really answers a lot of questions about what it means to be a woman,
which is obviously a big question today in our culture. And I want to encourage you to
come back for that one o'clock and then that 2.15 session, which will be in this room,
the 2.15 one is, and we'll have an opportunity for Q&A and we've posed some great questions
for them already and they have so much information that is important for us to have in navigating
the world that we live in. All right, today we're going to look at a subject that I call
the perfect man, the perfect man. This morning at 8.30 we looked at the perfect world. We
looked at Genesis chapter one, verse one account of our world and how our world has veered
off course from what God created the world to be. How we as human beings have veered
off course from that same world. Well, 4,000 years after the creation of the world, Jesus
Christ came to live among us. And as you know, Jesus came born of a virgin, fully God, fully
man, the perfect man for us to look to for all answers in life and all the confusion
that we have. He has so much to say to us today. So if you have your Bibles today, turn
to John one, John chapter one, and I'm going to read a few verses out of John chapter one
and just position this message as hearing from the perfect man about the questions that
we're asking regarding healthy home. Please stand with me as I read a few verses out of
John chapter one. Now the first thing you're going to think about when I read this text
is, well this text doesn't really say a great deal about the identity questions that we're
dealing with. What was I created to be? Who was I created to be? It doesn't really say
much about gender dysphoria. It doesn't say much about sexuality or homosexuality or sexual
ethics in the Bible. These passages that I'm going to read first don't say a great deal
about that. But the passages that I read today will position you to see Jesus for who he
really is. One that we must listen to when it comes to all those questions. So read with
me if you look at your Bibles, John chapter one, verse one. The scripture says, in the
beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Most of us when
we read John one think directly back to Genesis chapter one, verse one, in the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth. So you have in John chapter one a very similar wording
of this created world and the scripture says and the word was God. Look what it says in
verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his glory, glory as of
the only begotten from the father, full of grace and truth. You immediately recognize
this is Jesus Christ that we're talking about, verse 16. For of his fullness we have all
received and grace upon grace for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were
realized through Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten God
who is in the bosom of the father, he has explained him. I want you to just note the
person, the character, the nature of the perfect man, Jesus Christ here. And we'll see what
he has to say about all these things. Father in Jesus name speak to us today. From your
word, from the mouth of Jesus Christ, from the words of Jesus Christ himself, about the
questions that our culture is asking and answering in various ways. Help us to know what to say,
to talk about the hope that lives within us through the person of Jesus Christ. I ask
this in Jesus name. And everybody said amen. Please be seated. For those of you that are
not aware of the history of Healthy Home, we once a year focus on something that we
call Healthy Home. Of course it's more than once a year of a focus. We also have classes
that come off of this. We have all kinds of communication that takes place. Our heart
is to answer the five most important questions on the planet. The five most important questions
on the planet have to do with how you can be healthy in mind and heart and life, how
to have a healthy home, how to pass truth on to the next generation with the answer
of those five questions. The first question is who is God and what is truth? And we spent
some time last year focusing on that one question all day in a conference seminar to this. The
second question is the one that we're dealing with today and that question is how do I know
what I was created for? Who was I created to be? What does God intend for my life? There's
another question that we ask from time to time that we'll deal with in future times
together and that is who are my people? Who am I supposed to be around? Who are the people
that give me insight and wisdom to help me live out what God called me to be? How do
you have healthy relationships? That's another question that's in the top five and then that
fifth question is what is my purpose in life? But today we're asking the question who was
I created to be? And I think you'll agree with me from the beginning that this is one
of the most important questions that could possibly be posed in your life. If you were
to ask the question how will I chart out the future of my life? What will my decisions
look like? What will my relationships look like? Who was I created to be can help frame
the answers for all those decisions that you have down the road. But today we live in a
world that has a very different answer to who was I created to be than what we find
in the Bible. Culture will defy reasoning, they'll defy nature, they'll defy the historical
faith, they'll defy what the scripture says about who we were created to be and in many
ways have lost touch with what we understand the answer to who was I created to be is.
You know that you're in a different world when a biological man states I was born a
biological man but realized at some point that I was a woman. And you should know immediately
upon hearing that that he is having an identity crisis. He is failing to find the answer to
who was I created to be. Now the Bible calls this gender dysphoria or confusion. But the
response is often instead of resolving my confusion and changing my outlook I choose
to undergo treatment or surgery and change my body because we fail to answer the question
who was I created to be. The same error takes place when a biological woman has same sex
desires and instead of focusing on the internal confusion of thoughts and desires she pursues
her same sex relationship with another woman and again failing to answer the question who
was I created to be. Now let me say at the start of this message today I'm very aware
of the weirdness of this subject today. And I want you to be aware as well that there
are those that are seated next to you perhaps or around you that struggle with these same
kinds of questions. There are people whose sons and daughters deal with this subject
that we'll be dealing with today. There are people whose grandchildren deal with that.
I had a woman come up to me after the first service this morning and said thank you for
the compassion with which we are approaching this kind of question. Thank you for sharing
truth but sharing it in compassion and love. We need clarity and compassion. This woman
kept talking and talking about that. She said my granddaughter has chosen to be in a same
sex relationship and I struggle with that but I'm grateful we can speak the truth but
in love. And that's what I want us to be able to do today. And that's what I want you to
be aware of. The sensitivity, the nature of what we're talking about. This is not a rally.
This is a time of deep consideration, compassionate, weightiness in dealing with what we have in
front of us and what our culture is dealing with. But we want to answer the question who
would I create it to be? We want you to have that answer before you walk out of this room
today. And the way people answer this question today in our culture is quite a scene. And
it poses the question are we as human beings identified by our own feelings and our own
desires? Or do we find our identity in looking to our creator and how he made us? I want
you to walk away today knowing the answer to that. Knowing that you're not bound by
feelings. Knowing that you're not bound by desires but you are one that can find clarity
in how you were actually born and how God has actually designed you to be. I need to
tell you today, I need to warn you just a little bit that in this world today that we
live in and in Western Christianity in particular, a new kind of way of looking at scripture
is taking place called progressive Christianity. Some call it a revisionist perspective of
the Bible. People are coming from what their feelings and what their desires are and reinterpreting
scripture to bring it into alignment with the way they feel. And some of these folks
can be very persuasive in how they pose their argument. It's important for you to see that
what was written before is for us and helps us and strengthens us but it's also meant
to be timeless and eternal and not changing with the culture no matter what anybody might
say. Jesus will help us with that today. I believe the perspective of Jesus, the view
of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus, the love of Jesus, the life of Jesus, all those things
are going to inform us in such a way where we can answer the question, what does Jesus
say about sexuality and gender? Wouldn't you agree with me that's an important question?
And wouldn't you agree with me that the most important person to answer that question is
the infinite God man, the word made flesh. So let's look at that in three different ways.
First of all I want you to look at the love of Jesus, the love of Jesus. If your Bible
is open to John 1 just turn over a few pages to John chapter 8. I'm going to bring you
to a scene in which Jesus is demonstrating some incredible compassion and incredible
clarity at the same time. And that's what we want, we want truth and love, we want clarity
and compassion. Those are so important to our conversations today in this world, so
important to being able to share the gospel, important to living out the gospel, important
to leading our family or our friends to faith or to truth. We need to have clarity and compassion.
Jesus as always models the way. John 8 is that famous passage where a woman is caught
in the act of adultery. Anybody that knows this text know that the situation is pretty
much rigged, that the Pharisees have allowed this woman to be caught in adultery. The man
is conveniently not in the scene but they drag the woman in front of Jesus and they
are trying to entrap him and in attempting to do that Jesus does something very unusual.
He kneels on the sand and draws in the sand and asks which of them was without sin that
they could cast the first stone. When you look at John chapter 8 the scene is said in
verse 5, teacher this woman was caught in adultery in the very act. Now in the law Moses
commanded us to stone such a woman or such women. What then did you say? I love this
text because we see something from the Old Testament, something from the New Testament,
this new era that Jesus was inaugurating brought together, hitched together. We get a chance
to look at Jesus as he responds to an Old Testament law that's been broken even though
all the rigging is going on behind the scene and we see his response and his response to
me is very telling, very weighty. In verse 11 the Bible says Jesus said to her after
saying to those around he that has no sin cast the first stone and began to leave. He
says to the woman where are your condemners, where are those who judge you? She said there's
no one there Lord. So Jesus said this, he said I do not condemn you either go from now
on sin no more. Now in the context of our conversation today asking the question is
what God created in the beginning still applicable in the days of Jesus. Is it still relevant
that immorality is still sin? Is it still immoral? Is it still relevant that this woman
has broken the law and what does Jesus the sonless son of God do about that situation?
We think about all the possibilities if the revisionist is correct, if progressive Christianity
is correct Jesus could have taken this opportunity to say well that's a different era and now
morality is not seen the same way. We're going to deal with it in a different way. Jesus
said something as simple as that was then this is now. But Jesus does none of those
things in his answer. What did Jesus actually say? He did not exercise judgment at that
moment which would have been stoning but rather said go from now on sin no more. In doing
this he was not affirming sexual immorality of any kind. He was not overlooking the gravity
of sin but rather exercised forgiveness and a warning from this moment go forward and
sin no more. I mean all you have to do is look at this text and see that Jesus called
adultery sin the departure of God's ideal God's plan for your life. So he upheld the
teaching and the moral code of the Old Testament but intertwined through his answer was the
obvious compassion born out of love. In other words I love you too much but I love you too
much to allow you to be deceived into thinking that immorality is okay. It's not but I also
love you too much to not offer you hope of forgiveness. This is not your final moment
of condemnation he says to this woman caught in adultery but I also love you too much to
let you continue your life of sexual sin go and sin no more. You see a very real compassionate
clear response from Jesus just like the woman at the well when he responded to her he pointed
her to something greater. I read this passage and I can find some really clear principles
by which I can think and I can operate and you can think and you can operate in the world
around us with such a changing sexual ethic what do we think needs to be clear in terms
of Jesus' truth. Let me note three things together in this text right here. First of
all Jesus called sexual immorality sin. Sexual immorality is sin. In other words he said
to the woman your identity is a person called away from immorality. If he's answering the
question what will you create to be he's letting her know it's not that. It's not that kind
of lifestyle it's not that kind of immorality. Notice second Jesus exercised love and compassion
for one in sexual sin. In other words your identity is one of a person loved and cared
for by Jesus Christ. I love you too much to leave you alone. And then thirdly you'll notice
that Jesus commanded her to go and sin no more. In other words your identity is that
you are not bound to a behavior that is not God's designed for you. He exercises all three
of these things and in his very brief answer to her, immorality is sin. I'm going to exercise
love and compassion and you can go and you can sin no more. One modern revisionist author
named Matthew Vines actually says that such negative teaching as we just looked at in
the life of Jesus about immorality is the cause of depression and the cause of suicide
and destruction in the lives of people who are living the LGBTQ lifestyle. In other words
Jesus shouldn't have said it like that. Jesus shouldn't have confronted her immorality.
But I would beg to differ in contrast to that statement. Here is a picture of how the sonless
son of God deals with a marginalized alienated woman caught in immorality and she receives
both love and instruction from Jesus Christ himself. And it encourages me. You can speak
the truth in love. You can follow the example of Jesus Christ. You can look with compassion
upon those who knowingly or unknowingly are missing their true identity and calling as
children of a creator God who has an amazing plan for their life. No matter whether they
knowingly or unknowingly are erring from that you can speak in love. After this great account
of Jesus dealing with this situation with this woman caught in adultery he concludes
the conversation with a startling statement that will guide us further. John 8 verse
12. Then Jesus said again and spoke to them saying I am the light of the world. He who
follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of light. In other words if
I still have some questions about how to deal with the subject of immorality, how to deal
with someone that is caught up in sin, if I want to know how to have clarity and compassion
then I've got someone not only to model the way to lead the way but who has given me light,
the light that I need, the teaching that I need to walk through this life without confusion.
Nobody in this room because of Jesus Christ should be confused about his sexual ethic
or his design for our world or for your life. You need to be able to know that. So first
of all the life of Jesus. Secondly that last statement begs us to spend some time on the
teaching of Jesus. The teaching of Jesus. You know in John chapter 10 verse 10 there's
this great verse that reminds us of how incredibly loving and powerful the teaching ministry
of Jesus is and what he actually brings us. And Jesus helps us know about that in this
statement in John chapter 10 where he contrasts the thief that comes to rob and kill and destroy
and what the good shepherd comes to bring. Jesus said the thief comes only to steal
and kill and destroy. I come that they may have life and have it abundantly. If that's
true then everything Jesus said will help us have life and have it abundantly. Not just
everlasting life. Not just heaven when we die. But the most abundant life. The best
kind of life that he's designed for us will be found in the teaching and the words of
Jesus Christ. And by saying that he reminds us that life's fulfillment doesn't come from
fulfilling desires or wants or what we perceive as needs but life's fulfillment comes from
following the one who gives us life. It comes from knowing him and understanding what he
says is truth. So with that where does Jesus say anything at all about homosexuality or
same sex marriage or transgenderism? Is the New Testament silent? You're going to hear
from activists from those that want to look at homosexuality, same sex marriage, they
want to look at transgenderism as a brand new form of life that the Bible doesn't address
at all. They want to say that Jesus didn't shed any light at all about what's truth or
what's wrong about this kind of lifestyles. That's what revisionist authors will want
you to think. That's what progressive Christianity will want you to embrace. They want you to
doubt and question whether the God of the universe was capable or all-knowing enough
so that in the future he could say something to us that would help us in our present day.
So my question is did Jesus leave us in the dark about all these things and my answer
will be no, he did not. If your Bible's open turn to Matthew chapter 19. In chapter 19
of the book of Matthew you got to find that Jesus was clear about all these subjects that
we've been naming. Clear about the created order of sexuality and gender. Clear about
any departure of that would be considered sin and therefore unacceptable before God
and in the church. In Matthew 19 Jesus is asked a question about divorce. When someone
is asked a question about divorce normally you and I would, if we had an answer, we're
limited to what we would know about or study about that subject. But when Jesus is asked
a question about divorce his answer is a bigger picture answer. His answer is not just having
to do with divorce and marriage but about all of life because he goes back and he quotes
Genesis chapter one and chapter two. I want you to notice this text in Matthew chapter
19 verses four, five and six and as you read this text please note that we have capitalized
all of the words in this text and that's actually how it's found in scripture as well. You see
all caps what that means is not that Jesus is shouting. If you think that Jesus is shouting
then you are too caught up in social media, too caught up in your text messaging. Jesus
is quoting word for word the Old Testament. In other words he's saying to the people in
the present day look back at what God has already said thousands of years before. You'll
find your answer there. Now he answered and said, have you not read that he who created
them from the beginning made them male and female? And said, for this reason a man shall
leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together let no man
separate. So Jesus definitely answers the question of divorce or divorce and remarriage.
But he goes further and talks about all of creation. He goes beyond the basic answer
and he talks to us about God's created order. It all fits in how God created the heavens
and the earth and male and female. Let me give you some practicals out of this verse.
In this passage Jesus reaffirms two genders. He reaffirms heterosexual marriage. He reaffirms
marriage as a fundamental building block of the family. He also affirms that 4,000 years
of human history has not changed the way we are to view these passages in the Bible. 4,000
years after they were first given, after creation first took place. In saying this Jesus declares
that any departure from the original created order or gender or marriage is a departure
from God's truth. We get phone calls all the time from people who are looking for a place
to worship and one of the questions they have is, is this an affirming church? And by that
question what they mean is does this church affirm gay marriage or homosexuality? And
our answer is always the same. We cannot affirm what Jesus does not affirm. We don't say that
rudely. We say it kindly. We say we are a welcoming church but we are not an affirming
church. We invite everyone, whoever they are, whatever their sexual ethic, whatever they
come from background wise, whatever place they are in the spectrum, we invite them to
come. We invite them to get to know the God that we worship, to open the Bible and find
out what God would say to them. We're not an affirming church because a church cannot
affirm that which its head, Jesus Christ, does not affirm. But beyond all that we look
around today and we realize that it doesn't work well anyway. Departing from God's order,
departing from God's design hasn't worked well. It doesn't work well in Genesis, it
doesn't work well now. Sean McDowell, a professor at Biola University said in a debate about
this subject, a very interesting statement, I'm going to quote it for a moment. Imagine
a world where people trust and obey God with such issues as gender, sexual activity, exercise
within the confines of heterosexual marriage, in other words Jesus' sexual ethic. Can you
imagine a world without sexual transmitted diseases, without brokenness from divorce,
a world without abortion, without broken dysfunctional families, where every child had a mother and
a father, a world with no rape, no abuse, no trafficking, no porn? And then some would
say yes but that's not reality and you'd be right. But our reality is the reality of
rejecting Jesus' sexual ethic. That's why we have what we have today. Jesus is affirming
that God's created order has not changed. It's not in need of revision. It's not in
need of revisionist commentators. It's not in need of progressive thought. We don't have
to get a different set of lenses to look at what God's truth always has been, always will
be true, has always been truth. Truth will always be truth. People who are practicing
immorality are not following the Jesus of the Bible. They've chosen another life, another
way, another faith and they are not in alignment with the life of Jesus Christ. Now think with
me for a moment. If this is true, if what Jesus says is true, then it really simplifies
life. We don't have to choose. We don't have to choose who we will marry in the sense of
gender. We know. We don't have to choose how to form a family, how to build a family. We
don't have to answer questions we weren't designed to answer in the first place. We
do simply need to know what our Creator says. We do simply need to come to the place of
saying I have more confidence in my Creator than I am about my feelings or my desires
or what everybody else around me is saying. So the love of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus.
I want to appeal to you today on the basis of the life of Jesus. In John chapter 8 verse
29, Jesus makes this statement, he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone. I
just love this next line. This next line just grabs my heart every time I read it. Jesus
said for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. Boy isn't that a great quest for
believers to be able to say I always do the things that please my Father. And of course
you would think that this thing, this kind of a statement would come from the life of
Jesus Christ. But what this verse tells us is that Jesus fully man and fully God was
able to live a life of fullness and devotion and relationship and meaning without sexual
activity, without sexual sin, without sexual confusion of any kind. He fully obeyed the
Father and he followed the Father's created order in terms of having a biologically male
body, tempted in normal ways as all humanity is, but never giving in, never giving up to
confusion. He knows what it means to have a physical desire, knows what it means to
face temptation, knows what it means to turn down that temptation and he still lived that
contented life fully pleasing to the Father. There are times today in our sexual world
where the thought seems to be that if we don't find sexual fulfillment we haven't found life
at all and that's simply not true. Sexuality is not the greatest thing God ever gave us.
It is not the greatest expression of love at all. Greater love is no man than this and
lay down his life for his friends. Sacrifice is a greater demonstration of love than anything
else. Now you might say but that was Jesus. Jesus can do things we can't do and that may
be true but Jesus lived a life to demonstrate that we could live it with his help. You can
clap about that. So today in our culture people seem to think that if God or Jesus say no
then that's damaging to me. If God and Jesus say no then I'm not really bound to that.
That's hard on me, it's difficult for me. But if a person said no to you you just have
to deal with it. We have a whole different standard when it comes to people saying no
to us and when God says no. When people say no to an advance of some kind, sexual advance,
the voicing of a desire and they say no we must stop and we must deny those desires and
we must move on. Your denial has not caused irreparable harm, depression or suicidal tendencies
and if it does you're considered unstable. But if God says no, if God says no suddenly
it's mean and inconsiderate and cruel and if the church that teaches such is doing harm
to people hopefully you can see that for what it is. Jesus shows us that it's possible to
live a contented life without sexual gratification, without activity, without disobeying God in
any way. Sex is not our highest or ultimate need. Andy Stanley, I'm quoting Andy Stanley
today not in a complimentary way, but he said recently in a conference that celibacy for
the LGBTQ person is not sustainable. Sam Osbury, a former homosexual who came to faith in Christ
now a pastor in the United Kingdom responded this way in social media, when any leader
suggests to me that chaste obedience to Christ and singleness is not sustainable he's saying
the very same thing to me that the devil says. That quote is in Christianity today. It's
important that you know who you should be listening to. It's important that they reflect
the pages of scripture. It's important for you to know that Jesus' example is that it
is sustainable to have chaste obedience to Christ and singleness. It is. And he is able
to help you. Many are the stories of those who were in the vicious cycle of gender dysphoria
or sexual experimentation who stopped the cycle, trusted Christ and lived fulfilled
lives today in God's power and yet those are not the stories that people want you to hear.
I think you need to know today, be reminded that we have an entire generation of people
who have not been exposed to the scriptures that we've just looked at today over the course
of the last 25 minutes. They don't know what the Bible says. They don't know how to understand
what we've just said and they have no other source other than activists for the LGBTQ
plus community or post on social media to inform them. By the way, I don't want you
to celebrate this, but I learned today that today, 20 years ago, Facebook was first started.
This is 20th birthday. If you want to ask the question, how much damage can you do in
20 years? You should look at that. One pastor said this. He said, today people are more
discipled by social media than they are the scriptures. He said, I'm not going to tell
you this, he said today people are more discipled by social media than they are the scripture.
And yeah, they have no idea who they're reading about. No idea about their lives. No idea
about what the damage, the confusion, all the destruction in their lives are all about.
They don't have any idea about that. They just see something that fits what they want
to feel. Let me just give you a warning today. I'm going to be real kind, but I'm going
you really well.
Be careful who you listen to.
And if you don't know them, don't listen to them.
Not everybody's out for your well-being.
Not everybody is out to help you.
Not everybody is out to help point the light to the truth.
Katie McCoy in her book, an excellent book by the way,
tells us that 80% of those in the LGBTQ plus lifestyle
have some church or Christian background.
Which tells me that we don't talk about
these kinds of things enough.
It tells me that this needs to be a conversation
on the front burner, not on the back burner.
We've got to teach the truth about the sexual order
and ethic of Jesus Christ, but we need to do it in love.
So Jesus walked the life of the single person.
He walked intimately with God, the Father,
and in close relationship with those around him
with contentment and joy.
I want to kind of bring this message to a close
by looking at a couple of verses that
are gonna be helpful to you.
One of them is in Hebrews chapter four, verse 15.
The author of Hebrews is highlighting Jesus again
for the incredible character who he actually is.
And the fact that he is the intermediary
between God and man.
He is our high priest, the only one that we need.
And in that description of Jesus in Hebrews chapter four,
he makes the statement,
we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize
with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted
in all things as we are and yet without sin.
The presence of the word tempted in this passage
tells us that the weaknesses are not physical weaknesses.
They're not the difficulty to bear up under something,
but the weaknesses are the dealings that we have
with temptation and sin.
It's not that he can't sympathize with our weaknesses,
but in fact he absolutely can understand them.
And he was tempted in all things as we are
and yet without sin.
And as one person said years ago,
that means that Jesus underwent the temptation to the max
because he never gave in.
When we're tempted, we're given way too quick.
We never know the maximum.
Jesus was tempted to the max and yet without sin.
Now the secondary truth of this verse
is that Jesus was tempted and able to withstand
all the temptations and fully devoted to the father
in his ways at the same time.
The second meaning of that verse is that
he is an example for all those who struggle
or who feel alone or who feel isolated
or who feel that no one understands them.
He was able to live with full contentment, with full love,
with full purpose and obedience to his father,
even though he was tempted in all ways as we are
yet without sin.
That's the second meaning of this verse.
The first meaning of this verse,
the primary meaning of this passage is that
he understands and he can help those who struggle.
He can understand and he can help those who struggle.
The verse that we put on the screen a few moments ago,
Hebrews 4.16 is up every week.
Therefore let us draw near with confidence.
But therefore of course follows
what we've just read in verse 15.
Therefore let us draw near with confidence
to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help in time of need.
I can't think of a better invitation
from Christ to each of us.
Instead of looking for people to affirm your desires
or for people to help you with your confused
sexual or gender identity, instead of seeking fulfillment
through the object of your perfection, of your affections
or by changing your body, look to find grace
and help from Jesus.
He knows, he understands, he can help
and he promises true freedom, which isn't the freedom
to become something that you want to be,
but it means embracing who you actually have been created
to be in his eyes, knowing who you are created to be
and knowing how to walk that out day by day,
he will give you grace and help in time of need.
Coming back to John 8.12,
then Jesus again spoke to them saying,
I am the light of the world.
He who follows me will not walk in darkness,
but he will have the light of light.
Do you want light?
Do you want life?
Follow him, follow him.
And as you follow him, he reveals that to you.
It's a testimony of thousands that you may never hear,
but it's the statement of Jesus that everybody has seen.
The one you can trust for your salvation,
can also be trusted for your perspective and your life.
Trust him.
I want you to bow with me for a moment.
A couple of things today, I'm gonna first of all,
just offer a word of prayer.
After I pray, we're gonna give a further word of instruction
because this is an unusual day
and we have some things happening
that you need to know about.
But first I pray, then Russell Gregory will come up
and help us with what's next.
As I pray, let me just say this to you today.
If you're here and you struggle,
if you're here and you struggle,
I hope today you can see that there is one
who knows exactly what you've gone through
and is able to help.
He gives you grace in the toughest moments,
grace to help when in time of need, in that moment.
In the moment when you think that all is lost,
the moment when you think there's no way
you're gonna make it through,
there's no way you're gonna get the answer.
He offers grace to help in time of need.
Jesus is on time 100% of the time.
But you need to look to him
and come boldly before the throne of grace.
That's your act of faith.
And in that act of faith, you need to know
that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for all that sin.
Say, what do you mean all that sin?
I mean all that sin of mankind, all mine, all yours.
All of those who have gone before us,
all of those who will come after us,
he died for all that.
And he offers forgiveness and freedom to you today,
no matter what it is that you need to be forgiven of.
But the biggest thing that you need to be forgiven of
is disbelief, unbelief.
It's not trusting him with your identity,
with your future, with your life.
So my appeal to you today is first,
trusting for your salvation,
and then trusting for your perspective,
and then trusting with your life.
As soon as I close and as soon as we get some instructions
over these next few moments,
we have decision stations that are open
at the back of our room, and I encourage you to stop by.
If you wanna talk to somebody about any of this,
and certainly talk to someone about placing your faith
and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation,
we want to visit with you today.
We don't have the normal thing of the guest reception room
after our service, but we have a lot of people
who have a conference continuing on,
and I encourage you to come back with us.
Father, in Jesus' name, I am just so grateful
that there are answers in your word
for every question we have.
No matter how difficult the question,
no matter how many different voices are chiming in
about supposed answers, Father, I thank you
that we have clarity and compassion from you,
from the source.
Father, thank you that your word speaks clearly.
I pray, God, that we as believers can trust you with that
for our lives, but also represent that well
to people around us.
In the room today, there are people that struggle.
I pray, God, that they will come boldly before
the throne of grace and find grace to help in time of need.
There are those today in this room
that have never placed their faith and trust in you,
and I pray today you'd give them the boldness
to talk to someone at our decision station
and say, I need to know about this relationship.
Father, meet them there, meet them there.
Lord, thank you so much that you love us.
Thank you for every person here today, not by accident.
They're here because you wanted them to hear what is said
and what will be said in these hours ahead.
We ask all this together in Jesus' name we pray, amen.