11-1-2015 Bioethics Part 30

The speaker begins by congratulating the audience for not showing up early and then leads a prayer. The topic of discussion is homosexuality and what the Bible says about it. The speaker mentions common arguments in favor of homosexuality and refutes them. The most honest critique of the speaker's position is considered ignorant. The speaker emphasizes the importance of humility and not judging others. The speaker then discusses the difficulties of change and the misconceptions surrounding it. Change is not spontaneous eradication of sin and it won't happen to most people. The speaker warns against making false claims about personal transformations. The talk concludes by reminding the audience that Jesus is salvation, not a cure for homosexuality, and that living in a broken world is challenging. All right, well, congratulations, nobody showed up early. Isn't that what usually happens today, people show up early? Okay, nobody did that. Kudos. Let's pray and get started. God, we thank you for time, time to be here and be together and think about some of the more complicated issues of life. And so we pray that you would give us wisdom as we do that in Jesus name, amen. For the past few weeks, we've been looking at what the Bible has to say about homosexuality. So please help me understand just very briefly what it says about homosexuality. Does it say a lot about homosexuality? No. But every time that it's talked about, it's always mentioned in a way that prohibits it. There's some common arguments in light of those passages that people tend to bring up who are on the pro-homosexual Christian side. What are those kinds of arguments? Okay, so the prohibitions against homosexuality were temporary. Yeah, okay, so it's only against things like homosexual rape or coercive sex. So there's no ideal in the New Testament or Old Testament time period of committed homosexual relationships. Since we are so progressive now, we have those, which is not true. They did have those back in the day. What else? Right. Yeah, so the interesting and creative exegesis of Romans chapter one that says everybody should live according to their nature. All that means is that homosexuals shouldn't pursue heterosexuality and heterosexuals shouldn't pursue homosexuality. That's all. Good. What's the most honest answer or most honest critique of what we would consider to be our position or the Bible's position? It's ignorant. That's right. So we read that quote from Luke Timothy Johnson that says the Bible is clear. There's no question about what the Bible says, but experience and the weight of what we have seen and felt amongst ourselves trumps what the Bible says. That is by far the most honest opinion that I respect, except for the fact that they're dead wrong. But it is the only kind of argument that works at the end of the day. You and I have to remain as clear as possible always that it is not our pride and joy to look people who struggle with same-sex attraction or openly embracing homosexuality and tell them like you can't do that. It's not that you should take no pride in that whatsoever. It's an act of submission to God's word, and as I hope we're beginning to see, if you and I hope to see other people change, then you have to go first. Right? It's illegitimate to remain in your sin and tell homosexuals that they need to change. Now, this is not a legitimate reason to remain in your own sin. I know that this can come across this way. We are sinful human beings, and so we like to come up with some crazy scenarios. So essentially we come up with something like this. I can't tell a homosexual he needs to change because I'm lying. Therefore, I won't tell the homosexual anything and continue to lie. No, the right response is repent from lying. Don't seek to be a liar. Seek to change and seek to, you know, give God thanks that he has put somebody in your life who is pursuing a sin that's very different than yours but that makes you look at your own life. So, change is what we are going to talk about today. It's very controversial in our society, mainly because of two reasons. On the one hand, change is hard but important to talk about because you have people who are driven to all kinds of destructive behavior as a result with wrestling with their own sexual identity. This includes both those who are kind of what we would call in the closet or homosexuals but not openly who wrestle with it maybe and then also those who fully embrace it. There was a thought kind of back in the 80s and 70s that said if we just get homosexuals to accept themselves and if we as a society accept them, then everything will be fine with them and that has turned into a complete lie or been shown to be a complete lie over time. It is true for some people, they find kind of freedom in that but a lot of people, that kind of release of being open with the world for many, particularly young people, only lasts for a couple months and then it's just empty which we would expect if it wasn't a right way to live. So, we have to be very careful in the ways that we speak. It's a problem for those who come out as gay and practice that lifestyle often. It's particularly difficult for those who are struggling with it in secret. Just imagine how much at times you struggle with the sin in your hearts that is secret and then tie that to your sexual identity and I can only imagine how difficult something like that would be. On the other hand, we have the God hates fags people which I'm not going to really say a lot about them because I only have four-letter words that come to mind when I think of them and those are wrong. The main problem with those people is what? What's wrong with the people who march around with signs like that? Any thoughts? Good. A high view of themselves? Okay, good. Anything else? Okay, that's a good one. Now, how we're shown to or taught to show love? Solid. What else? Yeah, that's a big one. Homosexuality is their problem. Right? So the solution is don't be gay. Just so we're all clear here, God hates sin and most people who sin are heterosexual or homosexual? Heterosexual. So if it was just on a per capita basis, a better sign to walk around with is God hates non-fags, right? Which I've always wanted to walk around with that sign at like a gay pride rally or something and then have people totally confused as to what I'm doing with the sign as I'm like, I'm being congratulated by the people that I want to speak with and then I'm loathed by the Christian people. That would be an interesting, it's for a different day. I'll write a book about it. Change for Christians is not merely switching habits or practices. That's what we call moralism and we're going to look at that in a minute. It's what many of us grew up with, but change is truly, as we are going to see this morning, if you don't know this already, God-centered. Jesus is for us salvation. Jesus is not anti-gay medicine. Let's say that again. Jesus is salvation, not anti-gay medicine. This is something that some of us are going to most likely going to desperately need to remember when our own children possibly struggle with their own sexual identity. Just because they grew up in the church, just because they know who Jesus is, maybe they're members of the church, does not mean that they will not struggle with their own sexual identity. If you want proof of that, each and every one of you is a member of the church, continues to sin. So it's probably going to be true in their case as well. Living in a broken world is difficult. Before we look at how change happens, though, it'd be important to look at how change doesn't happen. So we're looking at three different ways that change does not come about. They're all probably pretty self-explanatory or clear. The first one is change. What we're talking about when we mean change is not spontaneous eradication. Does anybody know what I mean by that? What would spontaneous eradication be, of anything? Cold turkey. Okay, yeah, so it's not just like gone. Here one day, gone the next. One of the more curious things about Christianity is how often we think that believing the gospel takes away sin. Why should that make absolutely no sense to anybody, that believing the gospel takes away sin? What? The gospel tells us that we're sinners. Oh, that's a good one. Because there are still sinners. And who would be included in that mix of sinners? Everybody, that's right. So you have not had your sin spontaneously eradicated. Therefore, the person who you're talking with is most likely not going to have their sin spontaneously eradicated either. If you ever have the privilege of hearing somebody truly confess their sins to you, know that what they have shared with you is most likely going to be a lifelong struggle. That's true for just co-members, it's true for husbands and wives, it's true amongst parents and their children. If people are actually honest with you, like, this is what I'm really struggling with, buckle up, because that is most likely going to be the thing forever. Our persistent sins are never an excuse for sin, right? You can't say, well, I have a proclivity towards X, and therefore I should just do this thing, because it's never, it hasn't gone away. And if God existed, wouldn't He just take it away? Isn't that what a God of love would do? Which, by the way, creates God in your own image. It is difficult. I will agree that our most deep and abiding sins stay there. Hopefully, have less and less power over time, but they are there. I've never seen people as discouraged, maybe you've been one of these people on one of the two sides. I know I have been. You ever heard the testimony of the person who says, I used to struggle with X, right? Fill in the blank. But then I received Jesus. I was baptized. And now, don't even think about that thing, right? I've never seen more discouraged people than people who are struggling with that very thing, are on the Christian team, and are listening to this going, why not me? I'm sure that people might have their sins spontaneously eradicated, maybe for a lifetime, definitely for maybe long periods of time. But, number one, losing one sin means you have how many more sins? A whole lot. So the guy who gets off of heroin, thankfully, but wrestles with wanting to do heroin for the rest of his life, is not morally victorious because he hasn't done heroin, because he's still wrapped up in the difficulty of loving his neighbor, and telling the truth, and being honest. The second thing is that it won't happen to most people. So watch what you say. Very, very, very much watch what you say. It's interesting that in seeming as though you were proclaiming the grace of God, you could very easily destroy the faith of other believers. Now that's going to be hard, because if you hear somebody say something like, I struggle with this thing, if it's anger, you're kind of like, oh, I get that, right? I'll pray for you. Like, I struggle with same-sex attraction. And that's going to be their thing for the rest of their lives? I mean, imagine the difficulty of a wife or a husband hearing that from their partner, that I'm attracted to what you biologically are not. That's difficult. And that we don't see change as just, it's going to go away. Change also isn't moral determination. Often we think that we just need to try harder to quit something, or start doing something we ought to do. I don't want a show of hands, and we don't need to have a time of confession right now, but I can almost guarantee you that you are, to some degree, either practicing or tempted to practice moral determination on some sin in your life. Right? We're not going to have a little confession time. That would drive some of you to insanity, literally. But, I wonder, how's that working for you? I'm guessing not very well. Many of us are all too painfully aware of where pure moral determination gets us, right? Anybody want to take me down the path of moral determinationism? How does it start? I'm resolved to do this thing. Then what happens, ordinarily? There we go. Short time of success. Killing it. At which time you turn, how, towards other people? Prideful. Can't believe they're doing that. I am winning. I am, I am, I am believing the gospel. I don't know why they're not believing the gospel. They're clearly not believing the gospel, because they're struggling with this, and I am just destroying, in the Christian language, the gospel. I am just destroying in the Christian life. I'm on the path to victory. That could last a short time. It could last a relatively long time, and the longer it lasts, the more prideful you ordinarily get. Then what happens? You mess up. Yeah, good. So, you, it usually starts slowly, and then builds steam over time, and just leads into this massive pit of despair, where you do go, I really got nowhere. So, interestingly, your, your, your success actually turns into, usually, feeding into your failure, and you feel worse than you felt in the beginning. You might feel guilty for all the pride you had against the other people. You try to buffer it, you know, because you're like, I don't want to let, I've made fun of all these people. I can't let these people know who I truly am, and what I've truly done, and then you end up, ordinarily, worse off than you began with, because you feel so miserable. So, you find yourself more ingrained in those sins than before. I have seen it over, and over, and over again, as a pastor. I wish I could say I hadn't. Sometimes, looking in the mirror. Is resolving to do better a bad thing? No. Huh? Absolutely. We are supposed to resolve to do better. We are supposed to resolve to do better. So, how is Christian resolve different than just bare moral determination? Different motivation. Yeah. Good. And, also, different power. Right? So, you for a different reason, and you move by a different power. John Flavell, the Puritan, wrote this great little line where he said, we are more able to stop the sun in its course, or make rivers run uphill, as by our own skill and power to rule and order our hearts. Right? Totally true. Something that we, as parents, need to remember when we're speaking to our children. Something we need to remember when we're speaking to our loved ones. Something we need to remember as we speak to our fellow church members. Something I need to remember as I preach from up there on a weekly basis. And, something that you desperately need to remember when you find yourself having practiced moral determination. Just quit. Give up. Turn to Jesus and find a better reason, which we're going to talk about in a minute, for turning around. So, if it's not spontaneous eradication, then we go, okay, there's got to be moral determination. Okay, that's not it. Where does moral determination lead after a time if you just continually fail? Okay, depression, yes, which leads to ordinarily what? If I, let's say that, like, my thing is same-sex attraction. There you go. Capitulation, right? Because you're like, look, and this is, by the way, not just for those Christians out there. This affects Reformed people, I would say, as much, if not more, because it's simply like this. God's all-powerful, right? I'm stuck in this in. I've tried to change. I'm clearly not changing. God's in charge. He must want me to do this thing. You think, that's ridiculous, Jeremy. I've heard that argument at least five times, like, laid out for me by different people. It is ridiculous, but it is real. The providence of God is a great and profound mystery, but it can never be leaned on to disobey the God you think is in charge. Those with same-sex attraction will likely battle it for the rest of their lives to lesser and greater degrees of intensity, right? We've been talking about this as we've gone along. Not every person who struggles with same-sex attraction just, like, wants people of the same gender every day, every minute of the day, and that's, like, all they can think about, to lesser or greater degrees. Also, in that mix is lesser or greater degrees of success. You will find some people for whom, like, not practicing homosexuality is, for them, relatively easy. Those are the people that you need to help with pride. Then you'll find people who it's almost impossible to stay away from, and those are the people that you need to speak about grace to. Both of them end in the same place, right? Doing what is right. Yes, moral determination as Jesus. We're going to see why, but it's going to be different for everybody. But just because their desire is present and ongoing never gives us justification for doing anything. Anything. Much less disobey God. Just because you feel like doing something doesn't make it right. We tell that to six-year-olds. We don't believe that for ourselves often. So, okay, if that's not where change is found, then where is change to be found? And this is where we're going to look at a passage. I'm going to steal Morgan's thunder. Don't worry, Morgan, it's like a year from now that you're probably going to get into this, so nobody will remember this by the time we get there. Colossians, chapter 3. Or you can just look at this like I'm doing your sermon prep for you. One of the two. Colossians, chapter 3. A very powerful little section. This is where change is found. The basis upon which change is pursued in all areas. Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4 say this. In glory. The simple answer to where change is found is change is found in the new life that is in Christ Jesus. That's the short and sweet answer. There are two imperatives, two things we are called to do here by Paul. What are they? Okay, seek the things that are above and set your mind on things that are above. In both those cases, we're talking about things that are above. Seek and set. At first, this seems ridiculous and counterintuitive. The on things that are above part. Why does that seem ridiculous? Anybody have any ideas? Okay, so we don't really have a great idea of what is above. That's the first thing. Let's say that it's like heavenly reality. Let's say that you're speaking to me out of Colossians 3 about my struggle with homosexuality. Exactly. Jeremy, you're an idiot. My problem is... or not Jeremy. I'm talking to a guy named Jeremy. You're an idiot. My problem is here and now, I need to focus on my problem here. Why in the world would I focus on what's up there? That's stupid. And in the beginning, you have to say, I totally agree that that seems foolish. You will win more arguments and you will see people become better disciples if you just like jump in their boat for a second, right? It'll totally throw them off guard because they're expecting to be like, no, you need to listen. You're like, no, I agree. It sounds ridiculous. These actions that we are called to do, these imperatives are present and continual actions. We don't do them once. We do them every day. Paul is calling the Colossians to continually do this. Continually look up, set, and seek your mind on things that are above. It is not a decision that you make. It is an orientation that you have. Does that make sense? It's not just like, okay, I'm going to seek and set. All right, I heard it, Jeremy. I'm going to go home and be like, God, I got this in. I'm going to seek and set. Amen. Take it away. And then you just kind of go on with your life. And then you're discouraged because three hours from now, you find yourself in the midst of that thing. You go, I prayed to seek and set thing. Like I did that for like a solid three and a half seconds, right? Before I had a piece of hot chicken. Then I got my mind taken away off of that. So, I'm going to go home and do that. I just participated in a foretaste of the glory of new heavens, new earth, and that was awesome. I'm still on this end though. It's a continual and present and abiding action. It's an orientation. An orientation to seeing things as they truly are. Doug Moo, who's a great commentator on Colossians, says this, we are not to strive for a quote-unquote heavenly status since that has already been freely given in Christ. Rather, we are making that heavenly status the guidepost for all our thinking and acting. So, what we are continually to tell each other, and by the way, this is like one of the ways. You go, how can we help disciple people? Like, how can we see people to turn out more and more like Jesus? Good question. We come up with like 40,000 books and all that kind of stuff. I'm not saying all that stuff is useless, but like the word is pretty much sufficient and if people just got these four verses, we would see things radically change. Not if we just taught them once, but just over and over. We meditated, right, continually thought and prayed through stuff like this. Because what the advice is from Paul to the Colossians is understand the way things really are in the world. If I just look at my struggles and my failures, then that becomes my reality. Hope is completely lost because I'm failing so often, right? I won't ask for a show of hands about how many people are there, right? Just like looking in the mirror and going, I suck as a human being. Man, am I terrible. It's interesting that one of the greatest lacks of assurance is when you're looking at your own sin. Because it doesn't ever drive you to Jesus. It just drives you to despair. You're like, oh, I'm so miserable. But if I seek and set what is already true of me in Christ, then I have every reason to hope for change. Now, all of this seek and set language, all of this call of what I am supposed to do, and I'm supposed to encourage you to do, assume something about us. What does it assume? The very basic thing that it assumes. Any ideas? There's just a couple of things it assumes. Okay, yeah, that's true. It's even more basic than that, though. It gets to the there part. Okay, ah, there we go. They're believers, right? That God exists and that you're speaking to believers. What's the other thing that it assumes? The very basic thing that it assumes. What is a homosexual's number one problem in the world, bar none? It's a worship problem. It's the fact that they don't know God, right? What is the problem of every single human being? They don't know God. It's a great answer. Christianity is really simple because there's like one answer to every question. It makes my job fundamentally easy. It's just how you talk about these things, and you get around to the same point every time. A homosexual, an adulterer, an oppressor of others, a self-centered jerk, needs most fundamentally in this world Jesus, not just to stop what they're doing. As Brilliant Morgan and I have pointed out in the past few weeks, the problem of humanity is our separation from God, and until that's fixed, there's not really a lot of point in talking about things. Now, let me ask you a question. Should we get upset when an alcoholic stops drinking? Yeah, right. Yeah, I mean, it's upsetting. What are you talking about? Should we get upset when a guy stops beating his wife? No. Should we get upset when a homosexual just kind of gives up on the game and goes, you know what? I'm tired of this. I just got into this for all the wrong reasons. I don't even know what I'm doing here. I'm just gonna give it up. No, we shouldn't be upset. Those kinds of things can make for a more well-ordered society, but it can't make people right with God. Often, Christians are culture warriors. We just want to see society transform into our vision of what ought to be. This has gone well at times, kind of. Anybody think of a moment, and we'll just think of our own history in the United States of America, at which point Christians were desiring to see something good happen in society, and it actually happened, and it turned out as well as could be imagined? Huh? Family structure? Okay. Was that ever messed up in the United States? I mean, something was messed up, and Christians were for it, and the culture had to fix this thing, and then it got fixed. We've continued to pursue the family structure thing, which is becoming weirder and weirder. The one that comes to my mind right now is segregation, right? A lot of Christians were on the wrong side of that one. Not a good number of them were on the right side of that one, right? So they go, we want to see that happen. Question, is segregation legal anymore? No. Are there still problems when it comes to racism? Darn well better believe it. We haven't fixed the thing because there's this problem. We've also been on the complete wrong side of history. Prohibition, case in point. Prohibition is my favorite test case, not because I enjoy alcohol, but it's my favorite test case because Christians were the leaders of it, and Christians were sure that if they enacted that in society it would be a better society, and it ended up creating the mob, current taxation structure, all you Republicans, and on top of that it also created an illicit market that killed a whole lot of people and led to complete pride on the part of Christians and a million other evils, and thankfully it was repealed. The fact of the matter is that just getting people to stop what they are doing that we think are bad habits and even sins does not bring people into the kingdom of heaven. Seeking change from sinful behavior is a Christian endeavor, right? That doesn't mean that you shouldn't encourage somebody who's like doing drugs or whatever to, you're like, well okay, like you should keep doing drugs until you become a Christian and at that point you should stop doing drugs. Wait, you want to become a Christian? Okay, I guess you should just keep doing drugs then. That's fine. No, that's ridiculous. You should seek in love to your neighbor, seek to see them end drugs, but them ending drugs isn't going to make them right with God. So you could say in this, you should stop doing this, oh and by the way, you've got a problem way worse than this thing. Same thing goes for the homosexual. Until we can see our neighbor's deepest need is to get right with Jesus, whatever their sins are, you and I are always going to be on the train of moral determination. Just do something! And also we will continue to be unhelpful in the practice of treating homosexuals as if their greatest problem in the world wasn't just that they're attracted to somebody of the same gender. If you just want gay people to stop being gay, then you're pretending that their biggest problem in the world is that they like people that have the same parts they do. That ain't their biggest problem in the world. Just the same way your anger ain't your biggest problem in the world, whatever your deal is. So now we're going to look at how Jesus reorients our life from this passage. This is how we're going to close out our time today. We're going to turn into good fourth grade grammar school. Jesus, new life in him radically reorients how we see ourselves in the past, present, and future. So look at, let's look at the past first. What are the statements in this section that are in the past tense? There's two of them. Somebody give me one of them. Have been raised. Another one. You died. There we go. Congratulations. So far so good. Gold star for the class. So you died and you have been raised. Your past no longer has control over you. What's the proof of that statement? You died, you raised. That's a reflection of what? Jesus. So in your identification with Jesus, you have died, have been raised. There is this new life thing happening. Does it mean that all of our past sins are done away with, that we don't have to worry about those things anymore, that we can just trot on in victory? No way. The last 14 hours of your life are a testament to the fact that that's a lie. But it doesn't have the power to control you anymore. So what are the present statements? How does Jesus reorient our present? Two of them again. Okay, your life is hidden with Christ. Good. There's another present statement about the position of your life. There's another present statement about the position of Jesus. Where is Jesus currently? Yes, Christ is seated at the right hand of God. So help me out, fellow Christian. How does the fact that Christ is seated at the right hand of God and that my life is hidden with Christ, how can that encourage me today? Well, it doesn't say that here. It's true, he's interceding for us. But I want to know from here, just this one idea, how does that help? Again, playing off the past tense thing and thinking in the present. We can be seated at the right hand of God? What? We will be seated at the right hand of God? We are seated at the right hand of God. All those things are true. This is a crazy thing. Calvin has this great thing. Calvin always trips out about new heaven and new earth. And he says this. I'm sure there's like four people this week. It's crazy. It is more true that you are victoriously seated at the right hand of God than you exist right now. You think, wait a second, Jeremy. I know I exist right now. Like, I'm convinced. I don't know about that. I know about this. But the statement all rests on Jesus. It doesn't rest on you. Because you are in Christ, and because you have past tense, this is what Christians confess, we have died and risen with Christ. That's why baptism is important. That's why baptism isn't just this thing you do at summer camp and feel nice about yourself for three minutes. It is a public identification with Jesus in his death and resurrection. It's like, yeah, it's God's claim on me. It's not my promise to God or anything like, now don't screw up for the rest of your life. It is a reception of God's promises to us that I am up there. Like, done. Like, how would that encourage you? That you are currently seated with Christ in heavenly places. What kind of encouragement does that give me as a person who struggles with homosexuality in theory? Okay, why not? Yeah, and how do I know I have victory in Christ? So, it rests on your belief? Does it rest on your belief? Oh yeah, good. So, it just rests on the fact that, like, so I believe that's true, but the power of that is just merely on, like, where he is. I'm like, let's just throw this out there. Either he is or he isn't. Either Jesus exists, right, or he's not. And if he's not, then get the heck out of here and quit playing games, right? Like, don't believe this stuff. This is not just to make you feel good, because let's be honest, it doesn't really make you feel good, right? And it's not just because, like, you're not trying hard enough. This is not just, like, you know, encouragement time. Life is hard. You're going to look sin in the face for the rest of your life. However, you have died and been risen with Jesus. You're going to be resurrected. You're going to be resurrected for the rest of your life. However, you have died and been risen with Jesus, if he exists. And if he exists, and he is seated at the right hand of God, and you are seated there with him, then it doesn't make your sin go away, or your problem go away, but it definitely puts it in perspective. This is where somebody like Martin Luther, when he was struggling against Satan, Martin Luther had some crazy stuff going on, would do things like tell the devil, I am a baptized man. You think, like, I remember the first time I read that, I was like, Luther's crazy. What the heck? But on something like the understanding of Colossians 3, it's like, oh, that makes all the sense in the world, because what he's saying is, like, look, dude, do whatever you want, but I'm seated with Christ in heavenly places. Done. Get off me. And that's how he would do battle. And, like, this dude would do battle, apparently, with the devil. I think he's kind of crazy. But it's going to go down that way sometimes. But just this reality, this is the crazy part about this. Where do I find victory over my sin, Jeremy? It's like, well, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this. It's like, no, just realize who Jesus is. Check that out. In the midst of that, we don't only find liberty, but what happens to Jesus in our minds? Do we think more of him or less of him? More of him. Yes. Jesus gets glorified just by being where he is, and you get help. Jeremy, why is it that we should preach the gospel to one another? Hopefully, you'll never ask that question again. All right. This is why. That's not all, though. It's not just past and present. What are the future statements here? Oh, yeah. You also appear with him in glory. What else? One other one. Yeah. The Bible says that when Christ appeared, he was the last to appear. Yeah. Again, I won't ask for a show of hands, but I'm willing to bet that there's a substantial number of us this morning that are not, like, absolutely sure that, like, Jesus is coming back, right? Because that's, like, crazy idea. Like, I'm hopeful for it. Like, I'm, like, 90% of the way there, but I'll walk around and be like, yeah, duh. So, question. What reason, Christian, do you have from this passage to believe that Jesus is actually coming back besides the fact that Paul says he is? Anything? Where's Jesus right now? Is that a weak position? No. See, this is where, this is where theology matters. If you believe that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father over everything, then his returning is, like, a no, like, okay. Like, I mean, if he wants to do that, he can, because he's over everything right now. His returning is, like, no, that's a piece of cake. So, Jesus' current position should give you hope for his future position. Now, if Jesus isn't actually there, if Jesus just risen to new life in our hearts and we just love each other and stuff, then you're hosed and you should have no hope for the future. Because all the hope for the future is on the fact that, like, Jesus won, past tense, is winning, current tense, and is just going to come back and be like, done. We're going to finish the book of Revelation over the next two years and it's going to be hilarious and an incredible letdown because Jesus really doesn't do much. He just kind of shows up and it's all over. You're like, oh, that was anticlimactic, because nothing can get in his way. Same thing as we're seeing through Mark. Jesus just shows up and demons are like, oh, forget about it. I'm out here. There's no mighty battle. Jesus ain't sweating, you know. He's just, do this. Demons are like, okay. If Jesus is currently sitting at the right hand of God, then we should believe that he's coming back. And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. This is where we're headed. Like, this is a ridiculous statement. So, you can look at something, and this is the best part. Somebody's asking me, like, why are you talking about homosexuality so much? Like, because it's controversial, it's all get out, and it allows me to talk about a big thing and then apply that to the little sins that we think don't matter, like pride or lust or hate or whatever. Because here's the thing, like, if that's your future, do you believe that? And then how does that affect today? And then do you realize, Christian, the immense power that exists in that, that, again, puts your life in perspective so that your moments of just greatest joy, you're not like, this is it, this is as good as it gets. You're like, it's just a taste of what's to come. And at the point of your lowest, most depressed moments in life, you go, there's, there's something substantially more true about this world that I live in, that goes beyond my realities, that shapes who I am. So, now, as I'm going to live, I'm not going to live to try to get there, right? This is the most, it is, we as human beings in Colossians 3, 1 through 4, do we do, did we do anything? This is the most ridiculous part of this passage. Did you do anything? No. You are a straight-up passive recipient. You just get this stuff because of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for his people. It's like, just sit back, hang on for the ride. Now, that's going to lead somewhere. That's going to lead towards Paul telling the Colossians that they do need to do stuff, but it's all on the basis of the fact that all of this has already been done for them. So, as we look at our brother and sister who struggle with same-sex attraction, we say, this is your reality. And this is not just your reality, this is my reality. And because it is our reality in Christ, then let's go, because change is important. But, if this is true of us, then we should be infinitely hopeful that change is possible. Yeah, exactly. It is a very hopeful place to be in. It's a hopeful place to be in, and it's a hopeful thing to remember, not only for yourselves, but also as church members who are looking at other church members and saying, is there any hope for those people? Is there any hope for that church? Is there any hope? And you go, there is hope in Christ for all who believe in him. So, I'm going to have hope, knowing that this God is bigger than I could possibly imagine, and that these things are true for all who are in Christ. Let's pray. Now, we thank you that change is possible, not just for the homosexuals, not just for those who have same-sex attraction who are actually pursuing homosexuality, but for all of us. And we do pray that we would truly meditate on passages like Colossians 3, 1-4, that we would figure out what it means to find our identity in Christ, that it would shape our presence, that it would shape the way we view our pasts and shape our expectations for the future. I pray that even as we've gone over this and talked about something in such a completely different realm like homosexuality, this has brought encouragement to all of us, particularly those of us this morning that are struggling with the way life is going right now. We thank you that the comfort that your word gives us, and we pray that we would wisely be able to share it with others. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.