Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
The speaker starts by praying and discussing the topic of homosexuality. They mention that the cultural narrative is divided, with some accepting it and others viewing it as strange. They also discuss how people's preferences and dislikes are influenced by various factors. The speaker argues that just because someone feels compelled to do something doesn't make it morally acceptable. They mention that if the Bible speaks against homosexuality, then they must accept that stance. They address criticisms that the prohibitions against homosexuality in the Bible are outdated or misunderstood. The speaker refers to passages in the Old and New Testaments that speak against homosexuality. They conclude that the argument that the prohibitions are temporary or misunderstood is not valid. All right, let's pray and get started. God, we thank you for this day, we thank you for each other, and we pray that as we come to look at this touchy, but important topic, that you would give us wisdom and insight one more time. In Jesus' name, amen. What's the topic we've been looking at recently? All right, homosexuality, there we go. And what have we learned so far? We took a week break, so let's see if we can jog our memories. You can be anything. I don't need a lecture or nothing, but yes, okay, so it's a sin, just like any other sin. That assumes something about homosexuality, which is debatable, which is that it's a sin, right? So that assumes that it's a sin. We're looking right now at why that might be the case. What else? Coming off of just another sin, culture has to sort that in two ways, one, they take it too far and say it's acceptable, and then there's another camp that says it's this weird, strange, totally alien type of thing. Yeah, great, so we live in a day and age that makes talking about this hard, because you have, on the one hand, the broad cultural narrative that this is fine, that we should celebrate this because we've arrived at a particular place, and then you have what we would call kind of the opposite and equal reaction that would be negative, mostly on the Christian side of things, but not wholly on that. You also just have people who are kind of old school, as they would define themselves, who look at homosexuals as if they were aliens. Okay, what else? Anything else? Okay, right. So, is that the only reason people would consider themselves gay? Because they feel like it? No. Alright, good. So there's all kinds of reasons, right? Millions and millions of things go into why we are the way we are. Some of those things are inside of us, some of those things are outside of us, and I'm not talking about whether you are heterosexual or homosexual this morning, I'm talking about the reason why you like the particular sports team you like, the reason why you love or hate particular foods. All kinds of things have shaped who you are. Most of those things, I believe, are not identifiable. You have no reason. Like, somebody gives me a food they hate. Bananas and broccoli. Alright, so, here we go. Broccoli, we'll take broccoli. Raise your hand if you hate broccoli. Okay, now that's just, you know, okay, good, put your hand down. That's like half the people in here, right? Anybody know why they hate broccoli? You don't like the way it tastes, okay, because it's green. Nice. How many people grew up in a household where their parents hated broccoli? Alright, okay, good. So we've got one. No, you do not live in a household. You're in my household. We love broccoli. Yeah. So, here we go. So we've got one person, right, whose parents didn't like broccoli. Maybe that influenced your decision. Maybe it didn't. Who knows? Even that question of, like, let's take, in my case, I hated bell peppers for a long time. And then one day, I don't remember why, I ate one and I was like, why do I hate this? This is actually rather tasty. Now, I was sure up to that point, I like, I evangelized against the bell pepper, in particular the green one, because it was nasty. It is still my least favorite of all the green peppers, or all the bell peppers. However, I will now eat them, and I'm still weirded out about why I did not like them. But I was not feeling that I was choosing my hatred of bell peppers. That was just the fact of the world I lived in. And when it comes to something like homosexuality, it's much deeper than that. What we have to realize is that many people don't, they're just like, this is just the way, I'm not choosing this in the same way that I don't choose to hate bell peppers, or I don't choose to get frustrated when I look at math problems, which is also a serious condition that I have, that many of you are praying for me for as I finish this math class, which I am currently crushing, so thank you for your prayers. What we have come to see, though, is that while those are real feelings, the fact that they are feelings, and the fact that we don't feel like we choose those things, does not make certain actions okay. Please give me a reprehensible, in society, not even Christian, a reprehensible act, or kind of realm of action, that people feel compelled to do, that we go, that doesn't make it okay. Suicide? Good. What else? Stealing? That's a big one, right? People just feel compelled to steal things, and it could be small things, or it could be, you know, millions of dollars out of, you know, a retirement account or something, somebody else's retirement account, but for whatever reason, people just feel compelled to do these things, and justify it in their own minds, and they're like, I don't know why, I just found myself doing this. Which would lead us to the conclusion that just because somebody feels like doing something, doesn't inherently mean that it's okay. Now, when it comes to the issue of homosexuality, you and I must be blatantly clear. If the Bible promotes or does not speak against the topic of homosexuality, you and I must be what? Accepting, right. So I would say we should go from somewhere between careful to accepting, right? We should fly the gay pride flag in front of our church, we could make a shirt for Braley, and he could run around with it, preach with it on Sunday mornings. It would be great. I think you'd look good in those colors. We should, if the Bible leads us to the conclusion that homosexuality is a perfectly legitimate and appropriate expression of human sexuality, then I don't care if you like it or not, we're going to celebrate it. Just like I don't really care, and you shouldn't really care, if you love the idea that the reason you're right with God is because a guy who claimed to be both fully God and fully man was sacrificed on a cross for your sins. There are an equal number of people in society today, in our culture, who consider themselves Christians, who say that is a morally reprehensible idea, therefore we are going to do away with that idea. There's only one problem with that. On a level of magnitude far and away above homosexuality, the Bible speaks very clearly that the only way that you and I can be right with God is through sacrifice, and that the sacrifice of his son was the means by which you and I become right with God. I don't love that fact. If you love that fact, you're kind of creepy. I love the fact that I'm right with God, but I'm like, yeah, alright, sacrifice, this is great. It's kind of weird. But we go where the Bible goes, same thing goes with homosexuality. Now, what we're looking at, though, is that there are some, there are a number of criticisms that are leveled against the stance of people, Christians, that are against homosexuality. We looked at one of them last time. Anybody remember what that was? Okay, right. So maybe not the whole thing is irrelevant. It's seemingly, right, so there are things that are said in the Old Testament that we don't seem to follow today, therefore, the prohibitions against homosexuality are equally in that camp. Can you please give me something in the Old Testament that is legitimately in there that we do not practice today? Pork. Yes, Jake. Okay, sacrificing animals. Good, there's two good ones. So now give me the answer. Why is it that you and I can eat pork today? I don't know. Good, Acts chapter 10, the sheet descends, there's all kinds of unclean animals on it, rise, kill, and eat is the command from God to Peter. Peter is such an idiot that God has to do it three times in the vision, and then Peter finally gets it. Why don't we sacrifice animals anymore? It's a legal requirement. Okay, so it's a legal requirement that is fulfilled in Jesus. Okay. So, what happens when it comes to homosexuality? Isn't that just a prohibition in the Old Testament? It's one that hasn't been done away with. Okay, it hasn't been done away with, so there's that argument, right? There's nothing in the New Testament that would counteract that. Can you go any further than that? It's actually spoken against in the New Testament. In particular, we looked at just one passage, 1 Corinthians 6-9, which is typically seen as... by the people who would say that homosexuality should be practiced today. It only applies to homosexual prostitution or rape, which is not true. But it is inventive. It is very clearly seen by most scholars. Actually, what Paul is doing is he's going right back to Leviticus 18-22, which is one of the two prohibitions against homosexuality in the Old Testament. He's using the same kind of language, saying the same kind of thing. So that's the first argument. It's just temporary. Something new has come today, but the reality is that that doesn't actually seem to be the case. Let's go to the second one. The prohibitions against homosexuality are misunderstood. They're misunderstood. The first one is temporary, the second one is misunderstood. This is a classic text that is rather troubling. Genesis chapter 19. Anybody know what's happening in Genesis 19 off the top of their heads? Ooh, there we go. Sodom and Gomorrah. Right? Hellfire and brimstone. We're just going to read the kind of pertinent section here. Two angels come into the town of Sodom. They are, in the appearance of just men, Lot, who is the nephew of whom? Abraham. Nicely done. He says, hey, come stay with me. You do not want to sleep in the square tonight. I promise you. So they come in, and Lot shows them hospitality, and then in verse 4, Do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof. But they said, stand back. And they said, this fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them. The argument of the opposition. By the way, just help me out if you were ever in Sunday school or whatever. I never got the drawing of this one to color in. This would have been entertaining in Sunday school. But what happens as a result of the crowd's action? Anybody want to summarize the story for me? Okay, they're blinded. By whom? The angels. Great. So now we've got a bunch of stumbling guys outside. Then what happens? Yeah. Great. So the angels go, hey Lot, we're going to burn this place down. You got any family? Get out now. Then what happens? Lot, listen. Okay, eventually, right? He gets his family. They head out of the city. The angels are very clear. Say, what should they not do? Don't look back. It's not like look over your shoulder. It's like look with longing back to the place from which you came and desire to go back there. Which will make a whole lot more sense of what happens to Lot's wife who is on the way out. What does she do? She wants to go back. She doesn't like peek over her shoulder. She actually resolutely turns back towards the city. Boom. Pillar of salt. Done with. And judgment is brought on the city. What the men of Sodom have committed is that they did not care for the poor and the needy. And you go, come on, man. Where do you come up with an argument like that? Well, actually from a pretty good place. Somebody go to Ezekiel chapter 16. Remember, we've got to understand the Bible from the perspective of the Bible. So, know your Bible. In Ezekiel chapter 16, somebody please read verse 49 and 50. Ta-da! You see, the problem in Sodom had nothing to do with homosexuality. It had everything to do with the fact that they did not show hospitality to the visitors who were amongst them. What was the last line? Oh, yes, because the abomination is not showing hospitality. So, conservative Christian, what the heck is your response to that one? There's a perfectly appropriate response. What should be your first response? You're right. We absolutely should not do that. Good point. We shouldn't pit the Bible against the Bible. I'm not doing that. I'm actually reading all of the Bible. I'm actually interpreting a passage with another passage. That's a reformation principle. Oh, thank you. The first thing we should do is agree. What should we agree on? Exactly! You can get so blinded by homosexuality that you miss the forest for the trees that are worse than you probably think they are, not better. You can get so wrapped up in the fact that these people are gay that you miss the fact that they're actually unloving and unkind. You go, what the heck, man? And this will show your own heart very quickly and the hearts of others. You go, I don't care about them not loving their neighbor. It shows what? About you, not about anybody else. Yes? Exactly. That you will justify your lack of love, which is called hatred, towards the poor and the needy on the basis of the fact that you're not gay. Or that you say, I might not love the poor and the needy, but that dude's gay. That's abomination. Now, it is equally an abomination to not love the poor and the needy. So we go, no, I completely agree with you. That plays into it, too. The people of Sodom were terrible. They desired to not love their neighbor, the visitor amongst them. They desired to destroy them. You go, but is that the only thing that was going on? That's the question. Is that the only thing that was going on? Apparently, what's going on in this story shows the completeness of the sin. Notice that in the very language of the way it's written, what would show us the kind of completeness of the depravity of Sodom? Read well. In the Genesis 19 passage. Just the form in which it is written should lead us to that. Anybody have any ideas? Somebody just read it from verse 4. Verse 4. Period. Let me ask you again. What would show you in the text the complete depravity, the spread of the depravity in Sodom? Okay, it was accepted. All of them. So it goes out of its way. You always look for extra words when you're reading the Bible. This will make the Bible a lot more fun. You go, what the heck is this going on? Like, you've got the men of the city came out. That's all you have to say? But then it goes, the young and the old. So now we're looking at the age range. How many? What men? The young men? The old men? All the men. Every single one. To the last man, they all came. Why is it always speaking of the totality of the action in a poetic and interesting way? Because the Bible is beautifully written. At least most of it. There's some stuff that's straight up ugly. But this part, pretty great. And clearly, the issue is not just bring out the men so we can spit on them. We don't like the fact that you're feeding him. There is definitely, in the story, sexual intent going on. We know this for two reasons. We want to have sex with the two men who are visiting. And then what does Lot do in response? Offers up his daughters. And then the men respond and say, we're not only going to get after the two men in your house, we're also going to get after whom? You! You're uppity. You come in here judging us. We're going to take you out too. Let's do this. At which point, the angels blind these guys I'll find chapter 18, verse 1 It says, that the sin is great, not that you sin, but the sin is great. But again, that has nothing to do with homosexuality. No, no, but in terms of all the other things. So the totalitarianism, the ate-upness of the city. Yes. Then we have verse 7. Again, you go, oh, okay, right. So let's look at Ezekiel. Totally agree. They treated their neighbor poorly. But then you've got, you know, let's just keep reading. You can go all the way to the New Testament there, near the end of the book. Right there, you have the fact that they weren't only mistreating the poor, it says, We'll play your game of looking at another passage to understand this, but what you've got to understand is, it's both and, it's not either or. It's not like, oh, I just view it as homosexuality, or mistreatment of the poor. But I think this is a very good place, especially when you're talking with liberals or somebody and say, you know what, let me congratulate you, or let me step into your world for a minute, let me be on your side for a second and say that you're right, that usually the only thing that we see as a problem here is the homosexual thing. You're right. You're absolutely right. We are blinded of the lack of love towards a neighbor and the homosexual thing. You're right. But you can't deny the homosexual thing. That plays an integral role in this. It's both and. But thank you for bringing that point up because we miss it so often. That would trip them out. What? Because they're just expecting a fight. So, while we can go to maybe other stuff, the prohibitions against homosexuality are not really misunderstood. It's not just about something else. It's pretty clear. Let's go to the last one. This would be the most powerful one, and also the most potentially destructive, which is that the prohibitions against homosexuality are ignorant. Essentially, the argument goes something like this. Jeremy, the times have changed. See, Moses and Paul were battling against pagan idolatry and religions that were wild and had crazy practices without a social concept of committed homosexual relationships. The only kind of homosexual practice during that time was stuff that we would stand against too, Jeremy. Homosexual prostitution, kind of forced homosexual slavery, rape. We're against all that stuff. But you see, Jeremy, thank goodness we have progressed as a society around the world, and we now have social constructed concepts of committed homosexual relationships. We're good! Interestingly, Romans chapter 1 is used in defense of this argument. Romans chapter 1, the second half of it is talking about the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness because God is known through His creation and we see that and reject it and worship the creation rather than the creator. They would point to this and go, well, look at verse 26. It says, For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged natural relations for those contrary to nature. And men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. Here's the way this argument goes. I will give them incredible props for inventiveness. They say, see here, it's natural relationships. Natural is taken to mean natural sexual orientation. So what Paul is speaking against here are men who are naturally heterosexual who are acting against their natural sexual orientation and acting as if they were homosexual. So far you go, okay, what's your point? Anybody know how the argument progresses? That's right. So those who are naturally homosexual would, of course, act according to their nature. So in fact, Jeremy, for somebody who has a natural inclination towards homosexuality, what would be unnatural for them? To act as a heterosexual. So not only should we say that heterosexual men and women should not act as homosexual, we should say, and you homosexuals, don't you dare act heterosexual because that would go against your nature. Again, I've really got to applaud them on their ingenuity. There are, however, a few problems with this admittedly creative exegesis. Here's the first problem. In the context of today, we really aren't in very many ways. A not so close study of history bears much testimony about the reality of committed homosexual relationships. Admittedly, most of those are like man-child relationships and they would seem to be what we would consider to be coercive. Like a young and poor child or something like that. But that is not the only instances we have. We do have instances of committed, same level societally and age-wise, homosexual relationships that happened during the time. Sexual identity also is nothing new. This idea that, like, oh, I'm just this way that's been around for a very, very long time. Here's the second one. Personal sexual orientation is not Paul's point in Romans 1 whatsoever. At this point, let me use my fancy slideshow and see if this actually works. Look at that. This is what Paul is actually doing in Romans 1. I hope you can kind of read this. I have a laser pointer. How does that work? In verse 23, we change God's glory for images. We change the truth for a lie and we acknowledge God for a debased mind. So we go, ah, okay, I'm not going to do all this stuff. I'm going to switch. I'm going to take this and go over here with it instead. That's what's happening in this passage. So we exchange the Creator for the creation. Notice that the Creator gives us over to our cravings. So, notice that it's a series of steps. God gives them up to the lust of their heart, God gave them up to dishonorable passions, and God gave them up to a debased mind. You go, okay, what's the point? Well, step three, our sexual deviation depicts our spiritual perversion. The dishonoring of the body amongst themselves gave up natural relations with women to do what ought not be done. The point is that homosexuality is nothing more than one sign of our spiritual rebellion against God. It's a sign of that. Equally, by the way, is a sign of your greed or your lust for people of the same gender. That is equally an act of rebellion against God. Or your hatred of your fellow co-workers, maybe of your children, maybe of the fellow church members you have. Just think for a second, I'll give you just one second, it should only take that long, of the top three things that would drive you to near suicide if other people knew about you. Take those three things, just those three. Got them? Those things are for you, in your life, an expression of rebellion against God. What you have, those three things are an example of the worship problem that exists in your life. I don't know what those things are. I'm also not going to list my three up there on the wall, that would be messed up. But here's the thing, in this case, what Paul is doing is he's showing homosexuality as just one example of this orientation away from worshiping God to worship anything else. Martin Luther probably said it best, where he said, every time you and I sin, the first and foremost thing we do is break the first commandment, don't have any gods before me. Well, every time you sin, you're saying, this thing is my God, I will not worship the true God. Homosexuality is not the thing that provokes God's wrath. Spiritual rebellion provokes God's wrath, which is exhibited at times in people through homosexuality. We've gotten to this before, I want to keep coming back to this over and over again. Is homosexuality the only problem a homosexual has with God? Not even remotely close. Could it be that a homosexual's main problem with God is not his or her homosexuality? Absolutely. Not everything that draws us away from God is sin, and all sin is equal in a sense, but it could be that my homosexual proclivities are way down here, it's not even the main thing, it's just kind of the way I am, but really my thing is my narcissism, my love of myself. So again, let's take Joe over here, let's say that I know Joe. Now if I've read Romans 1 and I think that the wrath of God is revealed against not all unrighteousness, just against gay people, and I know that Joe is a homosexual, he's not a believer, and I come to Joe and I start talking to him about his homosexuality, let's say that his homosexuality isn't really just like his thing. Really deep down his thing is like, I just love myself. And I talk to him only about his homosexuality, what's the problem? Okay, I'm not getting to the core of the issue. What else? That's right. What is Christianity? Well, Christianity is anti-gay. That's what Christianity is. No. I think Bradley was the one that brought this up. No, we're not anti-gay, we're anti-sin. You have sin. Yes, I do. You and me, just both sin. Now there's repentance. There's the fact that I don't desire my sin. Do you desire your sin? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, The exegetical situation is straightforward. We know what the text says. But what are we to do with what the text says? If we see ourselves as liberal, then we must be liberal in the name of the gospel, and not, as so often has been the case, liberal despite the gospel. I think it is important to state clearly that we do, in fact, reject the straightforward commands of Scripture, and appeal instead to authority, another authority, when we declare that same-sex unions can be holy and good. And what exactly is that authority? We appeal explicitly to the weight of our own experience, and the experience thousands of others have witnessed to, which tells us that to claim our own sexual orientation is, in fact, to accept the way that God has created us. By so doing, we explicitly reject, as well, the premise of the scriptural statements condemning homosexuality, namely that it is a freely chosen vice, a symptom of human corruption, and disobedience to God's created order. I respect profoundly Luke Timothy Johnson's honesty. I also profoundly reject his stance. Just so you and I are perfectly clear, anything that bears the weight of common human experience can, and will, trump the Bible. Give me an example of a morally reprehensible sexual act in society that is currently not super highly practiced, but could very easily, according to this argument, be accepted by the Church. Bestiality! Good one! Right? You think, there's no way, no way, that could ever be accepted in the Church. Just so we're all clear, what is bestiality? People and animals. People and animals. I often get asked if I allow my children in these bioethics classes, and I say yes. It provides for an interesting dinner conversation. Yeah, people and animals. You think, dude, that is crazy talk. Well, according to this, all you would need is some kind of tipping point. You would need enough people to say, I am in a committed relationship, I feel the weight, and so therefore, like, duh, acceptable practice. And we would have to go, yeah, I mean, we've got a lot of people who say this. I know that the Scripture explicitly rejects such an idea, but the weight of human experience would trump that. That would apply to anything. And you might think, Jeremy, this is crazy. This is crazy talk. But I think that you and I find ourselves in this stream of thinking almost all the time. Question. Which one of these is correct? Let's go, let's go this. Is the one on the left correct, or the one on the right correct? Any thoughts? The one on the left. Anybody want to disagree with that one? Okay, good. I agree, the one on the left is correct. We'll talk about that for a second. Question, though. Do you think this is the way most Christians live, the one on the left? Sadly, no. Okay, so the one on the right, by the way, this is a great opportunity to mention to all of you listening online, Get Instinct in Church, so you can figure out what the heck I'm talking about. But just for their benefit, in case somebody is sick and dying and at home and can't make it because they have a cold or something, my experience is what starts everything off. The world that I live in, right? This is the only truth that I know, which is subjectively true. That goes through the heart. I worship, I want. That is kind of the fundamental stance of human beings, right? This is what I worship, this is what I want. What is down here at the bottom is God's Word. On the basis of my personal experience, if shaping what I want and what I worship, then as I read the Bible, and if I bump into something that I don't like, what am I going to do with it? Just find a way to reject it. Yeah, good. This way around is much more difficult. In the words of Peter Hubbard, who writes Love and Delight, I read this a couple weeks ago, this is a great quote, this is what the kind of thing on the left would express, and it's kind of what we're trying to do. Real Bible study, he says, is an act of corporate execution. As we die to our own preferences and together stand in the counsel of the only person who embodies and defines life. It's an act of corporate execution. Every time you and I get together to read the Bible, we're reading through the Gospel of Mark right now. Mark is difficult, because hopefully he's blowing up your opinion of Jesus Christ. Every week you should be confronted with, oh shoot, this is the Jesus I thought I believed in my entire life. What am I going to do with Jesus now? Every time you and I come and look at something like Genesis 19, and then see Ezekiel 16, we go, oh no, am I understanding the Bible rightly? What we must continue to do is continue to read the Bible, but at each and every point we go, this is God's Word, so we will be shaped by it. So maybe some of you only ever saw Genesis 19 as a bunch of gay people that wanted to get after two visitors to a town. And now you're like, oh, that's right, I wasn't seeing lack of hospitality as being on par with homosexual acts. That that was also an abomination. Man, what am I doing in my life? Hopefully God's Word is shaping your heart that leads to thoughts, feelings, and choices that are more in line with God's Word. Now let me ask you a question. Are your thoughts, feelings, and actions always in line with God's Word? They have not even been so this morning. Maybe that's true to a large degree, maybe that is true to a small degree. However, what we must do is what we expect others to do. It's very simple. That's like a four-year-old kind of statement, right? Treat others as you would like to be treated. Be fair. So if we are going to tell people to be fair when it comes to how they read the Bible, which we ought to do, you better be the first person who is seeking to be fair. Which means that you come under the weight and authority of God's Word, which actually shapes you. I am fundamentally convinced that one of the reasons why liberals don't listen to conservatives in the area of Christianity is because conservatives are a jacked-up mess of human beings who don't even care. Because we're right, because we believe the Bible is true. Just so we're all clear, that doesn't mean jack if it doesn't change you. We're going to see Jesus talk about this. Your confession does not mean squat without repentance. Same thing applies to this. Jeremy, how can we affect the world for Jesus Christ? You think, oh, we need to go dig wells or put on a puppet show or something stupid. No, here's the primary way you and I affect the world. You repent of your sin and you live as if Jesus weren't dead anymore. You go, what's that going to do? Well, I'll let Jesus answer the question in Mark chapter 4. Being shaped by God's Word is not optional. And if we are not willing to do it, if you hold on to anything because of your experience when it comes to God's Word... By the way, trying to figure out what God's Word says is not easy, so we'll work hard at it. As we work hard at it and as we come to a stated conviction amongst ourselves, we change. Whether that comes to something like the way we spend our money or the way we view homosexuality. Simple as that. And as we figure out what God's Word says, it shapes what we worship and what we want and changes who we are. Let's pray. God, becoming people who are like Jesus is not easy. We admit that avoiding certain actions is oftentimes a piece of cake. And we also confess that the truly difficult thing to do often is to actually do what is right. We pray that we would be the first of all peoples to confess our sin, both to you and to others. That we ourselves would do the hard work of listening to, instead of just speaking at, those who are either practicing homosexuals or those who desire to defend the practice. We pray that you would learn, that we would learn how to speak well, that you would teach us, that as we continue to read your Word, we would understand what it means to truly love our neighbor. How to do that. And that we would see our repentance as the first, primary, most important thing we can do in the world. And that we would see our repentance as the first, primary, most important thing we can do in the world. And that we would see our repentance as the first, primary, most important thing we can do in the world. Remembering that nobody should listen to us if we are not seeking to be the kinds of people we ought to be. And that we are telling others they ought to be. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
