1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,440 Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. 2 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:18,800 Today John Metter, lead pastor of Cross City Church, brings a message in the Origins series 3 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:22,400 that helps answer the five most important questions in life. 4 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:26,080 How you live today depends on how you answer these questions. 5 00:00:26,080 --> 00:00:33,400 Here's John Metter with the teaching on the five questions. 6 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:36,520 We are so glad that you're joining us this morning and if you have your Bibles I want 7 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:39,680 you to take them and turn to Genesis chapter two today. 8 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:41,720 Genesis chapter two. 9 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:46,360 I can't think of a more timely or important set of verses than what we're going to read 10 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:48,040 today for your life. 11 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:52,000 Nothing more applicable than what we're going to talk about today because as we get into 12 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:57,160 this message called Theologies of Life we're going to talk about the theology of gender, 13 00:00:57,160 --> 00:01:01,280 the theology of marriage, the theology of sexuality. 14 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:05,000 And we're going to look at the original pattern that God gave us in Genesis chapter two in 15 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:06,960 the creation of camp. 16 00:01:06,960 --> 00:01:09,920 But before we begin that I want to remind you of the importance of foundations. 17 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:16,080 You know as I walk through Genesis I'm always reminded of how incredibly important the foundations 18 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:22,120 that underlie any of our belief systems or even our homes or wherever we are at the time 19 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:25,440 those foundations are incredibly and amazingly important. 20 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:29,880 I've got a picture of what's called the Western Stone on the screen. 21 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:34,320 The Western Stone is a foundational stone to the Western Wall of Jerusalem. 22 00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:37,080 Some of you might have guessed what that was. 23 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:42,800 Three thousand years ago that stone was laid under the Western Jerusalem Wall and it continues 24 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:46,840 to upgird and hold up that Western Wall today. 25 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:52,400 Millions and millions of visitors will come by every day to the Western Wall and be amazed 26 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:55,960 at all that God did in Jerusalem and all that that city represents. 27 00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:58,800 But that foundation stone is what holds it all up. 28 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:04,160 In fact if you were to remove the Western Stone from the Western Wall can you imagine 29 00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:05,160 what might happen? 30 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:11,040 And of course the answer is the entire wall would crumble because it's built on that foundation. 31 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:16,240 That 570 ton foundation underneath the Western Wall. 32 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:21,360 Well today when we dive into the text I want you to see three foundational stones if you 33 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:26,120 will for life, for relationships, for culture. 34 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:32,880 And I want you to imagine what happens when we remove those stones, those theologies from 35 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:33,880 our life. 36 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:40,520 Please stand with me as we read God's word beginning in Genesis chapter 2 verse 15 through 37 00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:43,840 the end of the chapter. 38 00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:50,240 As you know Genesis chapter 2 is another account of the creation on the sixth day. 39 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:54,760 We go into great detail of the sixth day in Genesis chapter 2. 40 00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:58,200 You find the overview of all of creation in Genesis 1. 41 00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:03,520 The chapter 2 goes into the details of help us know all that was behind God's creation. 42 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:07,920 Verse 15 says, and the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate 43 00:03:07,920 --> 00:03:09,160 it and keep it. 44 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:13,560 The Lord God commanded the man saying from any tree of the garden you may eat freely 45 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:17,360 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day 46 00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:20,320 that you eat from it you will surely die. 47 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:22,760 Now last week we began to talk about that. 48 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:25,840 Next week we will fully look at that. 49 00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:28,320 And we move on to verse 18 here. 50 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:32,060 Then the Lord God said it's not good for the man to be alone. 51 00:03:32,060 --> 00:03:34,960 I will make him a helper suitable for him. 52 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:38,440 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky 53 00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:41,400 and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. 54 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:45,440 And whatever the man called the living creature that was his name. 55 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:49,960 The man gave names to all the cattle, to the birds of the sky, to every beast of the field 56 00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:54,440 but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. 57 00:03:54,440 --> 00:03:59,080 Now if you can imagine with me Adam in that day naming all these animals, letting all 58 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:04,560 the time go by while realizing there's nothing that matches me. 59 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:09,800 Verse 21, so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and he slept and then 60 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:13,360 he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 61 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:17,560 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and brought 62 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:19,280 her to the man. 63 00:04:19,280 --> 00:04:23,160 The man said this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. 64 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:26,760 She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. 65 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:31,080 For this reason the man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and 66 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:32,760 they shall become one flesh. 67 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:38,080 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. 68 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:43,040 Father in Jesus name today I pray that you will illuminate this text for us. 69 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:48,120 Not only the immediate meaning of it but the implications of staying with this foundation 70 00:04:48,120 --> 00:04:50,640 or moving off this foundation. 71 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:54,480 Help us to see what goes on in the world around us. 72 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:58,320 Help us to see the importance of standing firm on your foundations. 73 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:04,040 Father thank you that you foresaw all these things that we experience today and you still 74 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:07,000 call out to us with answers from eternity. 75 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:08,480 We ask this in Jesus name. 76 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:11,280 All God's people said amen. 77 00:05:11,280 --> 00:05:14,960 Please be seated. 78 00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:17,000 Today's text has three foundation stones. 79 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:20,280 I call them theologies for life. 80 00:05:20,280 --> 00:05:23,880 The reason I call them theologies for life is because they are the perspectives of what 81 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:25,440 God has given us. 82 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:31,240 In Psalm chapter 11 verse 3 there's a verse that the psalmist calls out to us about. 83 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:36,080 It says if the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do? 84 00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:40,880 And the question of course is if you remove all the God's given foundations that we have 85 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:43,360 what in the world is going to happen around us? 86 00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:47,560 And the answer in Psalm 11 is judgment will come. 87 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:51,560 Judgment will come when we move away from the theology the truths that God has given 88 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:52,560 us. 89 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:54,040 Now I've used that word theology several times. 90 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:57,200 Let me go into a background of what theology is. 91 00:05:57,200 --> 00:05:59,240 It's really a combination of two words. 92 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:03,760 Theos which is God and Logos which is God's word and God's intelligence. 93 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:10,320 It is the view that a study of what God says and the study of God's view of things. 94 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:15,520 Now I would think to anybody in this room today to look at the word theology a study 95 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:22,420 of the view of how God sees things would be important to you because this is creator God. 96 00:06:22,420 --> 00:06:26,760 Because it's not God that came on the scene like many world religions have a God who showed 97 00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:29,640 up and began to have followers that follow them. 98 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:34,320 These are not the true Gods of the world but the God of creation is the God that we have 99 00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:38,640 been looking at and his word the Bible is the truth that we have. 100 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:43,320 And to know what God's view is of anything in life it's incredibly important that you 101 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:47,400 and I who are God followers and Christ followers. 102 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:51,040 It's incredibly important to the world around us too because he is the creator of the world. 103 00:06:51,040 --> 00:06:57,440 He is the designer of the world and so his view of the world is amazingly important. 104 00:06:57,440 --> 00:06:59,640 So what are those theologies? 105 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:04,160 The truth is if we don't utilize and stand on the theology of God we only have a few 106 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:05,160 other options. 107 00:07:05,160 --> 00:07:07,280 And culture is taking those options. 108 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:14,560 Those options are thoughts like humanism or independence or outright rebellion or agnosticism 109 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:20,640 or even atheism where the world looks to man to solve the problems and man to fulfill 110 00:07:20,640 --> 00:07:25,560 desires and man to come up with explanations about how the world came into existence. 111 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:27,360 That's your option. 112 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:31,600 Theology or the idea that man has all the answers. 113 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:35,360 I don't know about you but I've been around long enough where I know man does not have 114 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:38,640 all the answers and God does. 115 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:43,720 And so that's why we study the theology of scripture, the theology of what God says. 116 00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:45,480 So there are three theologies I'm going to give you today. 117 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:50,480 Let me share them one at a time with you and then come back and begin to elaborate. 118 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:53,880 First of all we're going to look at the theology of gender today. 119 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:58,920 Then we're going to look at the theology of marriage and then the theology of sexuality. 120 00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:02,520 Now those are three really big rocks wouldn't you say in our culture today? 121 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:06,880 Three big topics of contention and argument today. 122 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:09,520 What does God say about gender? 123 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:10,940 What does God say about marriage? 124 00:08:10,940 --> 00:08:13,480 What does he say about sexuality? 125 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:17,680 Well going back to the creation account we see the foundation God has laid for each of 126 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:24,480 those understandings from God's perspective and what should be from our perspective. 127 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:27,200 Beginning first of all with the theology of gender. 128 00:08:27,200 --> 00:08:32,480 If you look with me in verse 18 we pick out the creation account there. 129 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:36,040 Then the Lord God said it's not good for the man to be alone. 130 00:08:36,040 --> 00:08:40,120 I will make him a helper suitable for him. 131 00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:43,920 And in this creation account we hear for the first time something that's not been said 132 00:08:43,920 --> 00:08:48,760 in all the six days to that moment of creation. 133 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:52,160 We've never heard the phrase not good. 134 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:56,520 Every day it is God created, God spoke and these things came into existence and it was 135 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:59,200 good the Lord saw it and it was good. 136 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:02,440 And again the next day the Lord saw it and it was good and the next day the same way 137 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:06,200 and the same way all the way through creation until now. 138 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:10,720 At this point it simply says that God said it's not good for man to be alone. 139 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:15,000 It's not that God's created something bad in creating man it's just simply that it's 140 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:17,280 not complete yet. 141 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:22,880 It's not good in that it's not complete and he still has another aspect of creation to 142 00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:27,680 go where he creates the second gender which is woman. 143 00:09:27,680 --> 00:09:31,160 Now all this is coming from the architectural designer of life. 144 00:09:31,160 --> 00:09:33,880 All this is coming from the creator himself. 145 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:38,360 And when we talk about genders, when we talk about how God created man and God created 146 00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:42,280 woman we're really talking about very sacred, very holy ground. 147 00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:45,760 There's nothing holier than this, nothing more sacred than this. 148 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:52,640 This is God's design being created and lived out from the day of creation. 149 00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:59,320 Let me be clear today the Bible speaks specifically of only two genders of mankind, the male and 150 00:09:59,320 --> 00:10:00,800 the female. 151 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:06,800 The reality is in God's perfect wisdom this is what he designed, this is what God created. 152 00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:08,280 And what do we find out about them? 153 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:12,480 First of all that man and woman distinctively differ. 154 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:14,360 Men and women are different. 155 00:10:14,360 --> 00:10:17,200 Do we agree with this today? 156 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:18,200 We know that's true. 157 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:22,960 And in verse 22 the Bible says that Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had 158 00:10:22,960 --> 00:10:26,520 taken from the man and brought her to the man. 159 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:31,000 Now he's got this great creation account and as you read that account in chapter two you 160 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:34,040 see that God did put Adam to sleep. 161 00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:38,600 He did open up a side and take from his side a rib with which he created woman. 162 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:43,100 All kinds of interesting insights in that but I'd like to stop and just make an observation 163 00:10:43,100 --> 00:10:44,100 first of all. 164 00:10:44,100 --> 00:10:45,240 It's a personal observation. 165 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:49,800 I'm glad God put man to sleep when he created woman otherwise I have no idea what we would 166 00:10:49,800 --> 00:10:52,040 come up with. 167 00:10:52,040 --> 00:10:56,800 He didn't need man's advice, he didn't need man's interference, he didn't need anything 168 00:10:56,800 --> 00:10:57,800 like that. 169 00:10:57,800 --> 00:11:02,400 Who knows what we would have if man had spoken into the creation of woman but God put man 170 00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:09,440 to sleep and he took out of his side that rib with which he created the woman. 171 00:11:09,440 --> 00:11:14,960 Now this is a really beautiful picture of creation here, very, very specific. 172 00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:19,380 They are a part of each other unlike all the other living creatures. 173 00:11:19,380 --> 00:11:25,760 He shaped man but he fashioned woman and she is more fashionable, wouldn't you agree? 174 00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:28,760 I mean it's not a joke, it's just the way it is. 175 00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:33,640 Adam was just a clump of dirt but Eve was far more refined in this creation aspect. 176 00:11:33,640 --> 00:11:38,600 She's perfectly unique from Adam and at the same time perfectly equal to Adam. 177 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:42,920 In fact the woman couldn't be more different from the man. 178 00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:46,720 If you wonder about that Sunday just Google differences between men and women and see 179 00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:51,480 what you come up with and all these lists of the differences between men and women. 180 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:56,280 Every Mary seminar I've ever been to or watched opens up with the differences between men 181 00:11:56,280 --> 00:11:59,200 and women as though we need to be reminded. 182 00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:02,120 So many differences, we're so different from one another. 183 00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:05,620 We're on opposite ends of the spectrum. 184 00:12:05,620 --> 00:12:07,400 God made us to differ. 185 00:12:07,400 --> 00:12:12,820 We differ physically, we differ mentally, we differ socially, we differ emotionally, 186 00:12:12,820 --> 00:12:17,760 we differ verbally, we differ in every way that our brains work and our bodies work. 187 00:12:17,760 --> 00:12:23,040 We're complete opposites but we're also complementary. 188 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:28,280 What an incredible thing God has done and created male and female, man and woman in 189 00:12:28,280 --> 00:12:33,400 that we are different but at the same time we are complementary. 190 00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:38,960 That leads me to also say that men and women distinctly fit each other. 191 00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:41,340 There will never be a better fit. 192 00:12:41,340 --> 00:12:47,800 No social construct, no orchestration of how people fit together will ever match. 193 00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:53,280 Men and women fitting together, being different but at the same time uniquely fit for each 194 00:12:53,280 --> 00:12:55,680 other the way God has created this. 195 00:12:55,680 --> 00:13:00,880 In verse 18 it says this, I will make a helper suitable for him. 196 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:04,880 I know sometimes people spend a lot of time with that word helper insinuating that it's 197 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:09,640 somehow inferior to man but it absolutely is not inferior in any way. 198 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:14,680 In fact in the New Testament Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit, the third member of the 199 00:13:14,680 --> 00:13:19,440 Godhead, he would come after Jesus ascended as what? 200 00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:20,440 The helper. 201 00:13:20,440 --> 00:13:25,280 The Holy Spirit, the helper will come to you and he'll dwell in you forever. 202 00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:32,040 So Jesus refers to someone who is coexistent, co-eternal, co-equal as the helper. 203 00:13:32,040 --> 00:13:36,560 In no way do we look at the word helper as inferior in any way. 204 00:13:36,560 --> 00:13:43,360 It simply says that she is another just like Adam except complementary and different. 205 00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:45,200 Men are distinctly fit. 206 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:50,440 Just like members of the Godhead fit together means that they work together in incredible 207 00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:51,440 harmony. 208 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:52,440 That's God's design. 209 00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:56,840 And only by both genders being present is mankind complete. 210 00:13:56,840 --> 00:14:03,320 Only when God has created man and then woman does he say it is very good. 211 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:05,320 It is complete. 212 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:09,600 Now when God says something is complete that means you can't add anything to it. 213 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:13,440 When God says something is complete it means that there is no later revision to that. 214 00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:16,920 He doesn't have to go back and rebuild humanity. 215 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:22,220 When God says something is complete and something is very good that's the exclamation mark from 216 00:14:22,220 --> 00:14:28,720 God that says this is the way it is and it is very good. 217 00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:34,980 So here we have this picture of creation with male and the female, the man and the woman 218 00:14:34,980 --> 00:14:37,040 portrayed in a beautiful way. 219 00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:43,200 Now 4000 years after creation Paul acknowledges that and he says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 220 00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:44,200 11. 221 00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:49,000 He says however in the Lord neither is the woman independent of the man nor is the man 222 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:51,000 independent of woman. 223 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:56,120 For as the woman originates from the man so also the man has his birth through the woman 224 00:14:56,120 --> 00:15:00,080 and all things originate from God. 225 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:05,760 So there is Paul the apostle acknowledging both the difference and the fit and they alone 226 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:09,960 constitute complete creation. 227 00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:13,760 Now there is another line here in this creation account and that is in verse 24 and it says 228 00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:16,280 and they shall become one flesh. 229 00:15:16,280 --> 00:15:20,560 Now I realize we have jumped down to the latter part of the passage but this also is part 230 00:15:20,560 --> 00:15:23,440 of their complementary differences. 231 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:26,280 They shall become one flesh. 232 00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:32,720 The Bible says when Adam saw Eve, God brought Eve to Adam and when Adam saw Eve he responded 233 00:15:32,720 --> 00:15:34,520 in a poetical way. 234 00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:39,680 I mean here is a guy, the first guy speaking poems the moment he sees the woman. 235 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:42,040 This is now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. 236 00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:45,440 She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. 237 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:51,000 That still today is a statement that is used in Israel as they acknowledge the beauty of 238 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:54,960 creation and the goodness of what God has done. 239 00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:56,640 So they shall become one flesh. 240 00:15:56,640 --> 00:16:03,000 Different authors write over the years about man's response to woman and I have included 241 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:06,360 some of these kind of in a collage of statements. 242 00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:08,600 She's my unique kind Adam said. 243 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:11,520 She's human like me, one flesh with me. 244 00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:16,480 She's like me and yet perfectly unlike me so as to be the exact suitable counterpart 245 00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:17,480 for me. 246 00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:22,640 It's not only true physically and anatomically for sexual relationships but deeper than that 247 00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:25,880 in profound personal psychological ways. 248 00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:30,680 John Piper who loves superlatives who uses lots of adjectives said it like this. 249 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:35,160 Together they are good, there is no other creature on the planet that is suitable for 250 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:36,360 him but the woman. 251 00:16:36,360 --> 00:16:43,280 She is radically, gloriously, profoundly human standing before God with Adam side by side. 252 00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:44,960 That's John Piper. 253 00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:47,040 All those statements are so true. 254 00:16:47,040 --> 00:16:52,880 God has done an incredible thing by making male and female. 255 00:16:52,880 --> 00:17:01,040 However our culture today would argue the point of two genders. 256 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:07,960 I don't think it's necessarily just recent but in recent years like no other era of history 257 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:13,680 our culture has rejected this design and created an intersex fluidity between male and female 258 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:20,080 that's got many stopping points on the line between male and female and it's everywhere. 259 00:17:20,080 --> 00:17:25,120 That's being taught in schools, you find it in HR departments of businesses, in medical 260 00:17:25,120 --> 00:17:30,080 clinics and politics, on social media. 261 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:33,280 Everywhere the word is gender fluidity. 262 00:17:33,280 --> 00:17:37,320 Be whatever you want to be on any spectrum you can possibly imagine. 263 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:42,320 Let me pause for just a moment and say those who follow God cannot be discipled by social 264 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:43,480 media. 265 00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:46,880 You cannot be discipled by mass media, by culture. 266 00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:51,480 You cannot be discipled by people who do not know the God of creation. 267 00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:54,360 You must be discipled by the God of creation. 268 00:17:54,360 --> 00:17:59,080 He will grow you and help you know the truths by which we are to walk. 269 00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:06,120 And yet all around us is the noise of gender fluidity and we need to be aware of that. 270 00:18:06,120 --> 00:18:11,620 The only reason there is an idea of gender fluidity is because there is the resisting 271 00:18:11,620 --> 00:18:12,620 of theology. 272 00:18:12,620 --> 00:18:19,280 I'll say that word again, embracing what is atheistic and humanistic, removing trust in 273 00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:23,480 the creator and placing trust in the creature instead. 274 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:30,000 I'm going to put a timeline on the screen here for a moment and you'll notice on that 275 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:35,700 timeline there is on the left the male and on the right there's a female and then a series 276 00:18:35,700 --> 00:18:36,700 of dots in between. 277 00:18:36,700 --> 00:18:44,120 Now if you were to go and research gender terminology and gender ideas you'll find about 278 00:18:44,120 --> 00:18:52,000 64 to 72, depending on what articles you read, types of genders that people identify as today. 279 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:55,800 I've left just a few dots on there because we don't have enough time to talk about everybody's 280 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:58,840 imagination but just a few. 281 00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:02,780 Here are some of those gender names. 282 00:19:02,780 --> 00:19:09,960 Those gender names include agender, gender fluid, gender queer, intersex, nonconforming 283 00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:10,960 or trans. 284 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:17,960 And they would place themselves somewhere between the created male or the created female. 285 00:19:17,960 --> 00:19:22,720 And the reason they place themselves there is because they have paved their way with 286 00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:28,360 feelings and desires and dissatisfaction with who they are and what they were created to 287 00:19:28,360 --> 00:19:29,360 be. 288 00:19:29,360 --> 00:19:34,360 And in their search for finding a fit in their life with what they feel that they are, they're 289 00:19:34,360 --> 00:19:37,600 looking for some other kind of gender to be. 290 00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:42,320 And along with the false promises of sexual fulfillment from exploration, they really 291 00:19:42,320 --> 00:19:47,720 find misery and they find dissatisfaction and regret. 292 00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:51,880 It's literally a mental issue, not a physical one. 293 00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:55,600 Now that's not just me saying that and that's not just the Bible saying that. 294 00:19:55,600 --> 00:20:02,200 Did you know that today's gender fluid crowd simply says it is a matter of brain and not 295 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:03,200 organs? 296 00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:05,800 You are what you think you ought to be, what you want to be. 297 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:09,000 It's not a matter of how you were born biologically. 298 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:13,600 But the Bible would teach us that how we were born biologically, male or female, we were 299 00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:17,200 also given a brain to that same biology makeup. 300 00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:21,600 A man, for example, who is a biological male has a male brain. 301 00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:27,720 A woman who is biologically female has a female brain and we understand how that works well 302 00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:29,600 together. 303 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:33,280 But the world today would say whatever you think you ought to be, that's what you ought 304 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:38,240 to be despite how you were born physically. 305 00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:42,920 Psychiatrists and psychologists actually use the term gender dysphoria, which means gender 306 00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:44,160 confusion. 307 00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:46,160 They call it confusion. 308 00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:53,080 It literally means dissatisfaction with one's gender and uneasiness or unhappiness about 309 00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:55,400 how one was born. 310 00:20:55,400 --> 00:21:00,720 But confusion about one's gender only comes from the preoccupation of a few questions 311 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:01,720 in your mind. 312 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:04,440 And those questions are what do I want? 313 00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:06,400 What do I desire to be? 314 00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:09,040 What do I feel like I ought to be? 315 00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:13,800 The more you focus on that, the more you can imagine different forms that you might turn 316 00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:18,880 into but you're still biologically male or biologically female based on creation. 317 00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:26,240 I read a fascinating story last week of a man whose name was Ollie England or Ollie London. 318 00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:27,240 His name was Ollie London. 319 00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:28,240 He's from England. 320 00:21:28,240 --> 00:21:31,720 If you haven't followed this story, it's very interesting. 321 00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:39,280 He came out last week saying that he was transitioning once again to yet another biological makeup. 322 00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:43,840 He was born a male, but he was dissatisfied with how he looked facially. 323 00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:49,520 He'd been raised for a time in Korea and loved the appearance of the Korean facial structure. 324 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:54,120 So he had a number of surgeries so he could be more Korean in his look. 325 00:21:54,120 --> 00:21:57,120 And after a time with that, he realized that didn't bring satisfaction. 326 00:21:57,120 --> 00:21:58,120 That didn't make him happier. 327 00:21:58,120 --> 00:22:01,560 It didn't make him have any more acceptance than he had before. 328 00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:06,760 So he thought, you know, this is not working, but maybe if I turn myself into a female, 329 00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:09,600 I'll find more happiness and more joy there. 330 00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:12,800 So he had a number of surgeries that made him more feminine. 331 00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:15,880 He didn't have the most radical surgeries, but he had a number of them so he could look 332 00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:16,880 and appear more feminine. 333 00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:20,080 He became a transgendered woman. 334 00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:22,760 And after 200 days of that, he said, this is enough. 335 00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:28,480 I realize now I can't find my satisfaction in another makeup in terms of Korean instead 336 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:29,480 of English. 337 00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:32,800 I can't find satisfaction in being a woman instead of a male. 338 00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:36,680 Now I'm transitioning back to my original biological state. 339 00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:39,280 I am now a man from this day forward. 340 00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:44,120 Well, I have news for Ollie and that is he was always a man. 341 00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:48,960 And I think he's coming back to that saying, okay, I now know I was always a man. 342 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:50,640 I don't say this to ridicule him. 343 00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:55,280 Here's a man who says, accept me for who I now know I am. 344 00:22:55,280 --> 00:23:00,600 And then in his article, he simply says, don't go and experiment with your gender. 345 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:02,040 I made the experimentation. 346 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:07,520 I had the multiple surgeries and I'm telling you, it does not bring satisfaction. 347 00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:08,640 This is not a Christian. 348 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:11,520 I'm not even sure he's a God-fearing man at all. 349 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:15,360 He may be atheistic, but here's the voice of experience. 350 00:23:15,360 --> 00:23:22,400 You won't find satisfaction looking for yourself to be another gender. 351 00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:27,840 Now when I hear stories like that, I don't get angry. 352 00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:32,640 It's not something that makes me upset with them, but I'm grieved. 353 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:36,000 I'm grieved that someone would walk in that direction. 354 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:39,160 They would bring all those consequences on their life. 355 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:45,200 I'm grieved and I'm sad because Christ and the creator God of the universe could bring 356 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:47,880 them satisfaction right where they are. 357 00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:51,720 It's so important for us to know that that's the truth. 358 00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:56,480 In Romans chapter one, 2000 years ago, Paul said to the Romans, for they exchanged the 359 00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:57,840 truth of God for a lie. 360 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:02,360 They worship and serve the creature rather than the creator. 361 00:24:02,360 --> 00:24:05,120 For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions. 362 00:24:05,120 --> 00:24:09,640 Right at the heart of it all, this is the truth that people are ignoring. 363 00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:17,040 When we worship the creator, then we began to surrender to his ways, to his truths. 364 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:22,120 When we worship the creature, we only get how we feel at that moment. 365 00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:27,320 We only get how someone else lures us to feel about ourselves or our lives or our gender 366 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,000 or our sexuality or anything else. 367 00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:36,360 You cannot worship and serve the creature, worship and serve the creator. 368 00:24:36,360 --> 00:24:40,560 It's the only way to be in alignment with the creator who is your God. 369 00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:46,040 The theology of gender tells us that God made us male or female. 370 00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:51,160 No matter our momentary feelings or our confusion or our frustration, we are called to live 371 00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:56,760 in alignment with how God has created us in his perfect design. 372 00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:02,000 Only in alignment with our creator will we ultimately find joy and satisfaction and purpose. 373 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:04,320 This is not just true of gender questions. 374 00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:06,720 It's true of every aspect of our life. 375 00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:11,640 Only in the alignment of God, only in alignment of his ways and his purposes for our life 376 00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:14,200 will we find the joy that everybody wants. 377 00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:18,080 We won't find that joy anywhere else except in him. 378 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:20,640 I think the evidence is clear. 379 00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:22,760 What do we do with this? 380 00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:28,120 First of all, know who we were created to be from birth. 381 00:25:28,120 --> 00:25:32,200 Make sure you know who you were created to be from birth biologically. 382 00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:34,000 God makes that very clear. 383 00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:36,480 Make sure your children, your family understand that. 384 00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:39,440 Make sure those around you understand that. 385 00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:45,720 Then lovingly and patiently point the way to satisfaction in life through Christ and 386 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:50,620 no other way to people that are on all those spectrums. 387 00:25:50,620 --> 00:25:56,020 You won't find satisfaction through sexual pursuits or through a gender identity that 388 00:25:56,020 --> 00:25:57,640 you weren't born with. 389 00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:01,800 We need to point out that there's freedom from the sinful self-worship by coming to 390 00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:02,800 embrace Christ. 391 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:06,920 There are people who think they can't change from their feelings, and they're right. 392 00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:08,840 They can't change by themselves. 393 00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:13,520 We can't change them either, but the gospel of Christ can change everything on the inside 394 00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:17,280 of us to fit with how we're created on the outside. 395 00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:20,760 The Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. 396 00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:22,760 All the old things have passed away. 397 00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:24,480 All things become new. 398 00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:29,560 The answer is always the gospel, and that's why it's such good news for people of every 399 00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:33,520 walk of life, the theology of gender. 400 00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:36,200 The creation account also gives us the theology of marriage. 401 00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:38,040 Look at verse 24. 402 00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:42,320 For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother, be joined to his wife, and 403 00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:44,200 they shall become one flesh. 404 00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:46,960 Do you notice something here? 405 00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:50,560 Already, God is talking about his marriage design. 406 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:54,480 Before there's an earthly father, before there's an earthly mother, he's already talking about 407 00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:58,640 what's going to happen when a man leaves his father and his mother. 408 00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:02,240 He's always already making his plan known. 409 00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:07,800 In a nutshell, God's designed for a man and a woman to become husband and wife and experience 410 00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:13,200 spiritual, psychological, and physical oneness. 411 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:15,120 Not all marry, of course. 412 00:27:15,120 --> 00:27:19,280 But if we marry, God's designed for marriage is this one. 413 00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:22,560 Men and women who simply live together do not have this alignment. 414 00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:27,880 Those who are in same-sex relationships do not have this alignment, nor any other variance. 415 00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:32,500 You do not experience what God has designed for you to have in marriage, nor can you be 416 00:27:32,500 --> 00:27:35,600 till you come back to God's design. 417 00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:40,160 Only then can it be real and deep and thorough. 418 00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:42,560 I have people today say, well, what about Jesus? 419 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:45,480 Jesus didn't say anything about gender. 420 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:49,640 I say, I want to take a moment and just ask the question, what does Jesus say about gender? 421 00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:51,320 What does he say about sexuality? 422 00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:53,720 What does Jesus say about marriage? 423 00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:58,080 And Jesus quotes Genesis 2, just like we're quoting Genesis 2 right now. 424 00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:03,720 If you have your Bibles, in Matthew chapter 19, Jesus asks a question about divorce. 425 00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:09,160 And as he answers that question, he affirms the creation account and brings the listeners 426 00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:12,080 to the point of what marriage is all about. 427 00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:14,960 Here's what he says in Matthew 19, verse 4. 428 00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:21,200 Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 429 00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:24,960 and said, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother, be joined to his 430 00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:27,400 wife, and the two shall become one flesh? 431 00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:30,360 So they are no longer two, but one flesh? 432 00:28:30,360 --> 00:28:36,320 And then Jesus adds, what therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. 433 00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:40,240 So here's Jesus, the sonless son of God. 434 00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:43,680 One agrees that Jesus is compassionate and loving and understanding. 435 00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:47,600 He identifies fully with us in every way, yet without sin. 436 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:51,080 And when asking the question, how many genders are there? 437 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:52,500 What is marriage all about? 438 00:28:52,500 --> 00:28:53,920 What's sexuality all about? 439 00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:59,160 Jesus answers the same way Genesis chapter 2 teaches us. 440 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:01,360 Bring your theology into the modern day. 441 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,280 Jesus says, this is what God created. 442 00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:08,120 And when he talks about marriage, it means a few things. 443 00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:11,400 First of all, it's a unique relationship. 444 00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:12,400 A unique relationship. 445 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:15,720 A man shall leave his father and his mother. 446 00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:17,720 Do you notice the leaving? 447 00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:19,520 It's not rejecting the biological family. 448 00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:21,040 He's sat from two families. 449 00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:23,360 A third one is formed. 450 00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:27,640 And that third one is the one with the husband and the wife, the man and the woman who become 451 00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:34,120 an entirely unique family and begin an incredible journey that they have before God. 452 00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:36,560 Hey, married couples, you're a thing. 453 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:40,040 I mean, God had it designed for you to be married. 454 00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:44,240 And you're a part of two families, but now you're a part of a new third family. 455 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:45,480 So where will you go? 456 00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:46,480 What will you do? 457 00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:48,400 Who will you worship? 458 00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:51,680 What will you pass on in terms of faith to the next generation? 459 00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:53,120 The responsibility is amazing. 460 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:55,800 The opportunity is incredible. 461 00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:59,640 It's an unprecedented call to pass faith on. 462 00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:04,200 But keep in mind also, if you leave your father and mother to be joined to another, you also 463 00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:09,600 leave a lot of friends behind, not in the sense of having no social interaction, but 464 00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:13,080 in the sense of not having interaction at that level. 465 00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:17,440 Because the husband and the wife have this unique covenant relationship that's far beyond 466 00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:20,600 anything our friends could bring us. 467 00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:23,760 Marriage is not just two friends, but it's more. 468 00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:24,920 It's more personal. 469 00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:25,920 It's more intimate. 470 00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:30,160 It's more unique, more unmatchable in the relationship than anything else on the planet 471 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:34,960 and it's closely linked with your relationship with God himself. 472 00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:39,240 That's why marriage is to be protected and cultivated and invested in. 473 00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:40,800 That's why you must grow in marriage. 474 00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:42,800 That's why you thrive in your marriage. 475 00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:48,080 That's why you rejoice and enjoy and celebrate your marriage because God has given you something 476 00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:50,600 incredibly special. 477 00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:53,120 But it's also interdependent. 478 00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:58,560 Not only is it unique, but the scripture says he should be joined with his wife. 479 00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:03,000 Join means to stick together, to adhere, to be glued together. 480 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:04,000 This is not random. 481 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:08,400 God said, I've got this design where a man and a woman are to come together as husband 482 00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:11,120 and wife for all of their lives. 483 00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:15,280 Jesus basically said, God has joined together. 484 00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:16,520 Let no man put his son to you. 485 00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:17,520 You're joined. 486 00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:18,520 You're glued together. 487 00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:23,480 I remember 44 years ago saying I do to my wife, putting the ring on my finger, putting 488 00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:25,600 the ring on her finger and walking out. 489 00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:28,640 I thought to myself, I didn't really say it out loud to her at the time, but I said, 490 00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:31,240 you're stuck with me now. 491 00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:33,240 I'm really glad you are. 492 00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:39,560 I'm still glad she is because we needed to be committed permanently. 493 00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:40,560 This is not a contract. 494 00:31:40,560 --> 00:31:42,340 It's not a negotiation. 495 00:31:42,340 --> 00:31:45,560 This relationship is a covenant relationship. 496 00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:47,760 It means we're in it for the long game. 497 00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:52,680 It means sometimes it's extremely difficult in the way we interact and how we have to 498 00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:55,560 make it work, but it takes commitment to do that. 499 00:31:55,560 --> 00:32:01,040 This marriage is not based on sexuality and it's not based on compatibility and it's 500 00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:03,240 not based on having common interests. 501 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:08,840 It's based on commitment that plan A, plan B, plan C is for that marriage and that's 502 00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:09,840 what it's based on. 503 00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:13,400 It's a covenant and we're dependent upon each other. 504 00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:18,400 Then in this same text is the theology of sexuality. 505 00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:25,960 In verse 25 and 26 we see these words, and they shall become one flesh and the man and 506 00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:29,280 his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. 507 00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:33,600 As if it's not enough to cover these other two, we have yet another item that needs clarity 508 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:36,680 and that is sexuality. 509 00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:42,880 The idea today is that sexuality is fluid, just like gender is fluid for so many. 510 00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:48,640 First we heard more about sexual fluidity and now we're hearing more about gender fluidity. 511 00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:50,200 It's a slippery slope. 512 00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:56,140 When you start moving away from God's clearly designed purposes, it's only going to become 513 00:32:56,140 --> 00:32:58,880 more complicated as time goes on. 514 00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:02,880 The idea that sex is fluid today is very dominant. 515 00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:08,160 Cultural celebrates, cultural celebrities and others celebrate individual identification, 516 00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:13,520 individual expression and these amount to dreams and illusions and desires and lies 517 00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:16,840 that have been cultivated by the enemies of our soul. 518 00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:21,000 What they don't often realize is they're pulling at massive foundation stones that all of life 519 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:27,120 is really built on and expecting that nothing really bad will happen as a result of that, 520 00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:31,560 but unfortunately that's not how foundation stones work. 521 00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:37,400 Some experiment with sexual fluidity hoping to escape crumbling lives or crumbling culture 522 00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:42,880 or they're just absolutely oblivious to it all, which is a very real possibility today. 523 00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:45,520 That creation makes it very obvious. 524 00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:51,320 God's design declares that human beings find physical and sexual completeness exclusively 525 00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:56,000 in monogamous heterosexual marriage. 526 00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:01,960 A scripture calls this in essence the original design or natural order. 527 00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:04,320 It's clear and unmistakable in creation. 528 00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:07,720 It's clearly affirmed by Jesus in the gospels. 529 00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:11,960 It's clearly accepted by the epistles and the writers of the epistles, which are the 530 00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:13,120 apostles. 531 00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:19,680 It's also clearly accepted for 6,000 years in human history. 532 00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:21,600 Here's what's accepted, here's what's known. 533 00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:26,400 Any deviation from sexuality outside of one man, one woman marriage has been prohibited 534 00:34:26,400 --> 00:34:30,580 by scripture for thousands of years and continues to be. 535 00:34:30,580 --> 00:34:35,520 No matter how people try to re-architect or re-look at the scriptures, it still says 536 00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:37,720 the exact same thing. 537 00:34:37,720 --> 00:34:42,360 Modern sexual experimenters are doing everything they can to twist the scripture today to make 538 00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:48,240 them feel more validated in their sexual kind of exploration, but it's always going to say 539 00:34:48,240 --> 00:34:49,560 what it says. 540 00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:52,760 It's always going to mean what it meant originally. 541 00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:56,920 Paul wrote in Romans chapter 1, which by the way is an incredibly difficult chapter to 542 00:34:56,920 --> 00:35:01,600 walk through, especially if you have people like me that you know, that you love, that 543 00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:03,960 have departed from God's design. 544 00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:07,240 You don't read this in celebration of somebody's right and somebody's wrong. 545 00:35:07,240 --> 00:35:11,440 You read this in analysis of what went wrong. 546 00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:12,760 And you read it with grief in your heart. 547 00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:17,880 You read it with sadness for those that may never experience God's goodness until they 548 00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:20,200 come back to his design. 549 00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:24,800 And this is what Paul wrote in Romans 1 verse 26 and verse 27. 550 00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:30,960 For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions. 551 00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:35,400 For the women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. 552 00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:40,480 And the same way also, the man abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in 553 00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:45,340 their desire towards one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving 554 00:35:45,340 --> 00:35:49,240 in their own persons to do penalty of their error. 555 00:35:49,240 --> 00:35:52,080 Now scripture is written by the Holy Spirit. 556 00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:57,520 Ultimately, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are bringing scripture to 557 00:35:57,520 --> 00:35:58,520 us. 558 00:35:58,520 --> 00:35:59,520 There is no greater love. 559 00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:03,840 There is no greater passion for anyone except what Jesus did when he came and died on the 560 00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:05,200 cross to pay for our sins. 561 00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:06,400 Greater love has no man than this. 562 00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:11,760 And yet he still speaks the truth to people that are making decisions all over the board 563 00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:15,400 from his creative order. 564 00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:17,280 So these words are hard. 565 00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:21,960 They're hard to hear and they're hard to share and they're hard to realize in our minds that 566 00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:27,800 this is where people are who make choices outside God's design. 567 00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:32,720 Now instead, God calls us to rejoice and thrive in the gender given at birth to look for the 568 00:36:32,720 --> 00:36:38,720 kind of marriage he calls us to and to express sexuality and the bonds of marriage. 569 00:36:38,720 --> 00:36:43,720 So pastor, how are we supposed to respond to people around us in the world today? 570 00:36:43,720 --> 00:36:48,600 And I just wrote a brief sentence that I hope you'll take to heart. 571 00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:57,120 I believe it's my responsibility, your responsibility to be kind and loving and calm and pointing 572 00:36:57,120 --> 00:37:03,500 out the truth that Jesus gives us, but also that we love them with the love that Jesus 573 00:37:03,500 --> 00:37:04,500 has. 574 00:37:04,500 --> 00:37:06,080 And we love our gay friends. 575 00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:10,560 We love those who make gender decisions and marriage decisions and sexuality decisions 576 00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:15,680 with our whole heart, knowing that Christ is always the only answer for them. 577 00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:18,880 You're not going to change somebody's mind by arguing with them, but you're going to 578 00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:19,880 pray for them. 579 00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:23,840 And you're going to be amazed at what God can do when you pray. 580 00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:27,080 Many have prayed for years for their friends to come to know the truth that we're talking 581 00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:28,080 about today. 582 00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:29,440 Keep praying. 583 00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:31,200 Don't stop. 584 00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:34,920 God is faithful to the end. 585 00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:40,120 There's a game out there that's called Jenga and most of us are familiar with it now. 586 00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:42,000 Jenga is a block building game. 587 00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:46,400 The object is to build a tower with blocks and then players take turns removing one block 588 00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:49,000 at a time, leaving an increasingly unstable tower. 589 00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:53,920 Of course, the object of the game is to see how many blocks you can remove until the tower 590 00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:58,840 crumbles and hopefully your opponent is the one that makes the tower tumble and not you. 591 00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:01,440 That's the object of the game, to stay safe. 592 00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:05,200 But I want you to look at this Jenga stack for just a moment and I want you to imagine 593 00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:09,120 what happens when we remove blocks in our lives. 594 00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:14,300 Some of us remove the blocks of relationships or health or routine. 595 00:38:14,300 --> 00:38:20,160 Sometimes we pull out family or finances or rest or time alone with God. 596 00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:21,160 We remove worship. 597 00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:22,160 We remove prayer. 598 00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:28,200 We remove study and we think it'll be fine, but at some point it gets kind of shaky. 599 00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:34,040 But when you get down to the bottom, the base foundation in our lives are things like God, 600 00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:41,680 creation, truth, gender, marriage, sexuality. 601 00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:47,760 If you remove the bottom blocks, these foundational blocks to this stack of blocks, everything 602 00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:48,760 will crumble. 603 00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:53,320 It's like the picture and it's crumbling today. 604 00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:55,120 It's crumbling in our culture. 605 00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:56,360 It's crumbling in our schools. 606 00:38:56,360 --> 00:38:59,800 It's crumbling all around us. 607 00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:04,640 There is no other outcome but this crumble for culture. 608 00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:09,480 But there can be a different outcome for you if you come to Christ, if you surrender to 609 00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:16,040 His ways, if you allow Him to determine all the things about your life that are so important. 610 00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:21,120 It can change for every individual who comes to Christ and He makes them new, but it's 611 00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:26,320 going to crumble around us as people continue to pursue these kinds of lifestyles. 612 00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:30,800 So within God's design, Adam and Eve were standing before God as one. 613 00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:34,280 They were holy, they were blessed, they were naked, they were unashamed of the passion 614 00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:39,000 and the desire and even the consummation of their marriage together before God as God 615 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:40,000 designed it. 616 00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:43,960 So a married couple, you stand before God as one. 617 00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:47,400 And I would say you should be unashamed of what God caused you to. 618 00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:52,760 And for all of us, we stand before God as men or as a woman, unashamed and embracing 619 00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:54,920 who He called us to be. 620 00:39:54,920 --> 00:39:59,720 Understand that, rejoice in that, learn to mature and grow and thrive in that. 621 00:39:59,720 --> 00:40:01,440 That's God's plan for your life. 622 00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:06,320 And within that alignment, you have the joy and the celebration and the satisfaction that 623 00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:10,920 you can only find in being in tune with your Creator. 624 00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:15,440 No sexual experience, no change of what you look like or what you're made up of can ever 625 00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:20,160 bring the kind of satisfaction that your heart will find in being in alignment with God and 626 00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:21,920 God alone. 627 00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:23,720 And I call you to that alone. 628 00:40:23,720 --> 00:40:25,640 God calls you to that alone. 629 00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:26,920 Christ calls you to that alone. 630 00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:30,960 And He paves the way with the blood that He shed on the cross so that you could come to 631 00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:38,160 Him and find that alignment, that forgiveness and that salvation in Jesus Christ alone. 632 00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:45,240 A few years ago, more than 30 years ago, I had a conversation with a young woman who 633 00:40:45,240 --> 00:40:47,680 was attending a church. 634 00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:51,400 And she came to tell me that she was going to pursue a lesbian lifestyle. 635 00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:53,920 In fact, she had already begun to do that. 636 00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:55,520 And she felt like she needed to let me know. 637 00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:58,960 And I did appreciate her conversation with me that day. 638 00:40:58,960 --> 00:41:04,320 But in that conversation, I responded to her that God's word says, that's not the right 639 00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:08,680 direction for you, nor is it true for anybody. 640 00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:12,600 And she allowed me to walk her through what the Bible said about homosexuality and about 641 00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:14,660 sexuality and gender. 642 00:41:14,660 --> 00:41:20,480 And when I got through reading Romans 1, verse 20 and verse 25 and 26, I read in the most 643 00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:22,640 loving, compassionate way I could. 644 00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:26,120 She stood up, she was angry, she slammed her hand down on the desk, she said, I will never 645 00:41:26,120 --> 00:41:27,560 come back into this church again. 646 00:41:27,560 --> 00:41:28,560 I will hate you forever. 647 00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:30,040 And she left. 648 00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:34,400 Obviously, she was very mad, very angry, very upset that someone would contradict what her 649 00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:38,040 heart was telling her she thought she needed to do. 650 00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:41,160 And I thought, well, I did my best to love her well. 651 00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:43,320 I did my best to tell her the truth. 652 00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:47,120 And I didn't like the way it worked out, but I couldn't do anything about that. 653 00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:50,800 About three or four years later, I was at a student ministry camp and I felt a tap on 654 00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:54,440 my shoulder and I turned around and it was that young lady standing there with a young 655 00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:55,440 man. 656 00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:57,200 And she said, do you remember me? 657 00:41:57,200 --> 00:41:59,680 And I thought in my mind, how could I not remember you? 658 00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:06,160 You see, I just want you to know that I'm thankful that you told me the truth. 659 00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:10,720 You said, God has done a work in my life and I want you to meet my fiance. 660 00:42:10,720 --> 00:42:12,920 We're going to get married in just a few months. 661 00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:18,080 This young man, this young woman, we're going to be married because this young woman had 662 00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:21,760 turned away from the direction she was going and surrendered herself to God. 663 00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:26,720 And the joy on her face was so radically different from what I remembered her face being like 664 00:42:26,720 --> 00:42:27,720 before. 665 00:42:27,720 --> 00:42:32,960 People, there's hope, there's joy, there's satisfaction in Christ. 666 00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:37,840 It can be very good in God's design. 667 00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:43,200 It's on the foundation that God has given us and no other. 668 00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:44,600 Just a few moments, we're going to close. 669 00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:47,640 We're going to have decision stations as we do every week. 670 00:42:47,640 --> 00:42:51,440 And I encourage you to stop by the decision station and talk to somebody about any part 671 00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:53,920 of this message, any part of your life. 672 00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:57,880 Talk to somebody about placing your faith and trust in Christ who died on the cross 673 00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:02,080 for you, receiving forgiveness of sin and direction for life. 674 00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:06,000 God is warning to do business with your heart and your life. 675 00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:10,320 So those decision stations are lit up and ready to go when you leave today. 676 00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:12,480 I also invite you to our guest reception center. 677 00:43:12,480 --> 00:43:14,360 I'd love to personally meet you. 678 00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:16,960 I'd love to say hello and thank you for coming today to our services. 679 00:43:16,960 --> 00:43:21,680 So right out the center exit door across the hallway, there is a glass room and I'll be 680 00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:24,920 in that room and please stop by and talk to us. 681 00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:30,240 Thirdly, I want to encourage you to take the invite cards that are outside on the tables 682 00:43:30,240 --> 00:43:31,760 as you exit. 683 00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:35,160 Invite someone to come back next week with you. 684 00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:38,920 Because it's very important for people to hear the word as it's planted in their hearts. 685 00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:39,920 It's like seed. 686 00:43:39,920 --> 00:43:43,680 And they may not agree with everything, but they get to hear what God has said in the 687 00:43:43,680 --> 00:43:48,200 scripture and this allows them to be open to what God may say in their lives in the 688 00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:52,240 future telling the truth to people and all people need to hear truth. 689 00:43:52,240 --> 00:43:55,840 So I want to encourage you to invite someone and bring them with you next week. 690 00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:59,320 Would you stand with me as we pray today? 691 00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:02,680 Father, in Jesus' name, I'm so grateful for this day. 692 00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:07,560 I'm grateful for the opportunity to worship you, to lift you up, to look at your word. 693 00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:14,480 Father, I know in this room today there are many that have thoughts, decisions, or friends 694 00:44:14,480 --> 00:44:16,040 that they need to speak with today. 695 00:44:16,040 --> 00:44:20,660 Father, I know that there are those in this room that are at the brink of giving their 696 00:44:20,660 --> 00:44:26,240 lives to you and they want to trust you, but they've always kind of made those decisions 697 00:44:26,240 --> 00:44:27,240 themselves. 698 00:44:27,240 --> 00:44:31,960 And Father, I pray today that they can have confidence that you will be the best possible 699 00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:33,160 choice for them. 700 00:44:33,160 --> 00:44:38,840 Lord, by your Holy Spirit, draw them to yourself, allowing them to know you as Lord and Savior. 701 00:44:38,840 --> 00:44:44,600 Father, as we walk through this life, help us to represent you well in love, with kindness 702 00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:45,600 and with truth. 703 00:44:45,600 --> 00:45:02,840 In Jesus' name, amen.