Gender
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
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PRAYER
A - God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we praise you! You are good, You are Holy, You are Righteous, You are Loving. Your Word is Truth, Your Word is Infallible, Your Word is Eternal. We come before you today to worship You for you are worthy.
C - We confess LORD that we can sometimes be caught up with the times rather than the God who created time itself. We confess that we can be sinfully judgemental over others. We confess that we can sometimes let our feelings dictate our understanding of truth rather than letting your Word lead us. We confess that we sometimes misuse the bodies you have blessed us with.
T - Therefore we thank you for your patience to us. We thank you for your Spirit in us. We thank you that you are long suffering with our foolish hearts and that you have sent your Son to redeem our thoughts, emotions, and bodies as well as our souls. We thank you that your Word is living and active and full of power.
S - Do not leave us in our sinful state Father. Change our hearts to be ever hungering for You, for Your glory, for our obedience to you even when it is hard. Transform us by your Word and not by this world. Be with this poor preacher today and let his words firstly bring you glory and praise, and secondly bring life and hope to those who hear.
INTRO
What are your pronouns?
How do you identify?
Where are you on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum?
Is your organization inclusive?
Are you providing a safe space?
These are the questions that we are being faced with as a society right now.
MESSAGE
God’s Creation
God’s Creation
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Gender and sexuality are and have always been relevant in the Bible.
Genesis has very clearly given us the sexual template in the beginning
Genesis shows us the created order and function of two sexes in reproduction
Genesis shows us the wickedness of mankind in sodom and Gomorrah
Leviticus and Deuteronomy gives us rules and laws concerning sexual sin
The OT historical books tell tails of sexual sin and punishment/outcome thereof
Proverbs tells us of the lack of wisdom in sexual sin
The Prophetic books regularly compare Israel’s idolatry to prostitution
The historical books record the fall of the kingdom and at least one main reason was the kings sexual sin
The New Testament affirms the OT in form and function of human sexuality
Jesus himself explains and even deepens our understanding of Gods holiness in physical sexuality
The rest of the NT writers regularly warn against sexual deviancy
The only acceptable outlet or practice of sexual behaviour is inside the covenant marriage union of one man and one woman
According to scripture human creatures are strictly binary.
Genesis has very clearly described humanity as being either or and not a range thereof
God brought Adam all creatures so he could see the need for a counterpart.
God gives these roles, calls them good, and blesses them.
The Old and New Testaments agree regarding gender being binary
Nowhere in scripture are non-binary genders mentioned.
if you want to argue this point you simply don’t know your Greek and Hebrew and therefore I dismiss your argument altogether !!
Lifestyles outside the created gender roles are actually condemned by scripture
Science PROVES the Bible to be accurate
DNA and Chromosomes
Humans binary sexuality is good and right and to be guarded and celebrated.
God says it is good outright
Genesis (God) established, blessed, designed it
OT scripture celebrates it, cherishes it, guards it
Jesus in the NT only continues to confirm this view
NT authors, inspired by the HS continue this push
Biblically speaking heterosexual monogamous marriage is the ONLY proper context God designed for our gender and sexuality to be practiced. Anything outside of that is sin.
Humanity's Curse
Humanity's Curse
Genesis 3.
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Sin is what causes a person to desire and do what is contrary to God’s desire or purpose.
We are created to worship and if we are not worshiping God we still worship something
any sexual practice or identity outside of Gods created order is sin
Sexual sin is not the only and is not the worse sin
but sexual sin is sin
The curse affects the physical, mental, and emotion of the individual as well as the soul.
When mankind was cursed it effected every part of who we are
Physically we now get sick, old and die
Mentally our minds have been darkened
we think wrongly
we suffer anxieties, fears, doubts
emotionally we are disconnected and left wanting
designed for relationship with God and left hollow
All of this culminates in wrong living… For everyone!!
Food addiction - eat our thoughts / feelings
Drug addiction - where we numb / drown our thoughts / feelings
Entertainment / Work addiction - where we busy ourselves from our thoughts / feelings
Rage / Depression / Anxiety - where we give ourselves over to our thoughts and feelings
Sexual Sin - where we seek overt indulgence in our thoughts / feelings / desires
and the longer humans exist in this fallen state the more innovations we will create to “save ourselves” from the consequences of our wrong thoughts, feelings, and failing bodies!!
Because of the fall we …
have sinful sexual desires
practice sinful sexuality
seek to justify ourselves in this sinful behaviour
Satan (and the world) offer the same lie regarding gender and sexuality that he did about fruit.
The lie is this: - (Jon’s Translation)
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Genesis 3:1–6 (ESV)
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the human, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not practice sexuality nor change your gender’?” 2 And the human said to the serpent, “We may practice sexuality inside the context of marriage, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not practice sexuality or gender outside of this context for it will lead to death’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the human, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you do your eyes will be opened, and you will experience a new sense of self and pleasure that God seeks to keep from you” 6 So when the human saw that the sexuality was pleasurable, and that it was a delight to the body, and that the experience was to be desired to make one wise, the human practiced and did as it wanted and also encouraged others to do the same.
The lie is this: “God does not have your best interests at heart”
He is keeping something from you
He is not letting you be our true / authentic self
He is wrong!! Your thoughts, your desires, your emotions, YOU are right
Do what you want to do for there will be no consequences
The truth is when we live outside of Gods plan we experience…
Depression / Suicide / Self Harm
Medical Issues / sterility / performance inability / pain
STI / Incontinence / Tears and infections
Biblically speaking because of the fall all of us are broken, twisted, and deceived. None of us on our own seek after God but rather we seek our own selfish pleasures. Satan promises us that these sinful desires will bring us pleasure, purpose and identity but in the end they do not.
The Cure
The Cure
1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, 2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
Accepting the truth of the gospel for our own salvation.
We are trapped in our sin apart from Christ
One-Way sermon last week
Jhn 8.36 “36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
2 Cor 5.17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
God is God you are not
His Word is true even when it hurts, hard
This is your identity in God’s eyes… dead / alive
child of satan / child of God
Seeking the wisdom and understanding of God given to us in scripture.
We are told to work out our faith with fear and trembling
God’s word is the ultimate authority
not society
not media
not feelings
not thoughts
not desires
Apply the word through the spirit in our everyday lives.
This is not easy, Jesus said we are to die to ourselves!
I was born this way… but you were also re-born in christ !!
you are now born to HIM
2 Cor 5.17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Biblically speaking heterosexual monogamous marriage is the proper context God designed for our gender and sexuality to be practiced. Anything outside of that is sin.
Biblically speaking because of the fall all of us are broken, twisted, and deceived. None of us on our own seek after God but rather we seek our own selfish pleasures. Satan promises us that these sinful desires will bring us pleasure, purpose and identity but in the end they do not.
Biblically speaking everyone who practices LGBTQIA+ gender and sexuality is living in sin, pursuing a false identity, and is danger of eternal punishment and separation from their loving God who died for them. In and Through Christ is their only hope to real joy, peace, pleasure, and identity.
Biblically speaking this is true not just for those suffering the LGBTQIA+ lie but for every human being everywhere throughout all time.
Our Call
Our Call
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Constantly come before the throne of grace in prayer and praise.
Luke 21:34–36 “34 “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.””
1 Corinthians 6:9–11 “9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Stand up for biblical truth while extending God’s grace in welcoming fellow sinners.
2 Timothy 4:1–2 “1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”
Galatians 6:1–3 “1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”
Be willing to walk with others through the sanctification process.
John 13:34–35 “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””
3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
CLOSE
Group Questions
What stood out to you most from this weeks message?
Why is it important to see human sexuality as a biblical topic? How is binary sexuality supported by scripture?
How should a biblical understanding of sexuality help us to celebrate it rightly?
How has the curse distorted our view of sexuality? What truths of biblical sexuality does the world twist and seek to misuse?
If someone struggling with sexual sin came to you for help, how would you seek to help them?
What’s your opinion: Can a person who identifies as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community be a Christian? Why or why not?
When someone becomes a Christian what in their lives should change?
Is sexuality something that has changed over time? Does the Bible speak to gender and sexuality of today?
How can (do) Christians misuse scripture to harm rather than help those struggling with sexual sin?
How should church members seek to protect one another from falling into sexual sin?
Do you think God sees heterosexual sin the same as other variations of sexual sin? Why or why not?
How should we be guarding our children from sexual sin?
How can we pray for you?