What does the Bible say about sexuality and gender?

We are continuing our series of messages called “Asking for a Friend.” Where we are asking tough questions that you are possibly asked and providing biblical answers on why we believe what we believe.

As followers of Jesus, we need to be critical thinkers not just gullible followers. Meaning to think and know the reason behind why you believe what you believe.

Asking for a friend, what does the Bible say about sexuality and gender?

This is a question that culture is asking and talking about. If you feel a certain way about your body then thats who you are not what your body says you are.

So to answer this question we have to go to where the Bible talks about creation of mankind.

Creators make something with an intentional purpose in mind.

Steve Jobs, invented the iPhone for the purpose for us to communicate and connect with others through the internet.

People can use it for different things, though. You can use it as a doorstop, paperweight, spatula, or even a frisbee. Would you fully experience the potential of the iPhone the way Steve Jobs intended its users to experience? Not at all.

Outside of the Creators intended function, you will not experience the full potential the Creator wanted you to have.

Steve Jobs would roll over in his grave if he saw you using an iPhone to stop a door from shutting. What a waste of money! He would love to see people connecting through FaceTime with friends who are now thousands of miles apart. Taking videos of your of your dog who is making a silly noises and acting weird. Searching why flamingos are pink. These are some ways we can fully experience the full potential of the iPhone.

You were created by an Intelligent Designer.

Week one we laid a foundation that we can trust the Bibles authority and that it holds absolute truth. The Bible says that we were created beings. Since we are created beings, we have a Creator.

Genesis 1:1 ESV

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:27 ESV

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God purposefully created you with no mistakes, because you are the image of God.

Imago Dei. Sometimes we think of creators having different prototypes to get to the final product. Meaning that there were mistakes that had to be fixed. Not with our creator.

God spoke everything into existence, but when He got to the creation of mankind He rolled His sleeves up and formed us in His own image and gave us the breath of life. A soul.

Genesis 2:7 ESV

7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

He planted man a garden and told him to work it! But after a while Adam saw that the animals had pairs. He was by himself, and God noticed that it was the only thing that wasn't good.

Genesis 2:21–24 ESV

21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

God specifically created man and woman to be compatible with each other.

He created 2 genders. Male and female. His purpose was to help one another. Outside of Gods intended purposes you get depravity. When someone is depraved of something they are corrupted or defiled. Not in its purest state. That was the goal of Satan.

In the fall we see him question the very word of God by asking Eve if God really said to not eat of the tree of good and evil. Genesis 3:4-5

Genesis 3:4–5 ESV

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.”

Satan wants you to think that God is holding something back from you.

The way the enemy works is to get you to think that God is holding something back from you.

We see it here. The serpent gets her to believe that God is holding back this knowledge, and so she wants to be like God.

We hear this same message today. When people start to feel like they are attracted to the same sex or that they feel like the opposite gender than which they were born to, then they need to make a change.

This idea leads to a belief that God makes mistakes and if God makes a mistake then He is not truly God.

This is a slippery slope to play on.

This leads us to the answer of our question tonight.

You are a masterpiece created by God to give Him glory.

Ephesians 2:10 NLT

10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Does this mean we can trust our feelings? No because you and I were all born with a sin nature. Romans 5:12

Romans 5:12 ESV

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

If we can’t trust our feelings then what can we trust?

We trust the truth. If we are feeling a certain way then we need to go to Gods word and read over it and if it lines up with Gods word then its okay. If it doesn’t then we need to change the way we feel to match to what Gods word says.

You are not a mistake. You were intentionally made. Some of us need to know that. Battling with an identity crisis. Who am I? Did God make a mistake with me? He hasn’t made a mistake. We fall short, but Jesus came in and rescued us. Throwing a life preserver out to us to grab onto.

We have to surrender our lives to Him. His desires become our desires and His ways become our ways.

Ask for forgiveness and repent of our sins. Anything that is impure, turn from it. He will forgive you.

Believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again and lives.

Confess Jesus as Lord of your life.

I want us to read this psalm together, and rest in His truth. Psalm 139:13-16

Psalm 139:13–16 ESV

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.