Sermon Tone Analysis

How did we get here?

We are facing it.

It is the reality - It is everywhere in our contemporary culture

It is in the church - it is not just an issue for the world

We need to be equipped.

We need to know how to think about this biblically, listen compassionately, and minister courageously - we are not dealing with an issue here, we are dealing with people!

“… at its heart, this debate isn’t about a debate.

It’s about people: precious people made in the image of God who are hurting, who are confused, who are angry, who are scared, who may have been told by their family that they are unwelcome” (Andrew T. Walker, God and the Transgender Debate, Pg. 14)

Are we ready to love people who are struggling with their sexual identity?

We have the answer.

“…people who have had transition surgery are nineteen times more likely than average to die to suicide.”

(Ryan T. Anderson, When Harry Became Sally, Pg. 2)

Even after having treatment to transition ones gender studies find there is little psychological improvement (Ryan T. Anderson, When Harry Became Sally, Pg. 17)

The answer of a homosexual is not to become straight

The answer for a transgender person is not to stick with their biological gender

These are no more the answers than to say the answer of a addict is to stop their addiction or for an abuser to stop their abuse

I am not saying that these things are not good or that they shouldn’t be done, but that if these changes are made without ones heart being transformed we have done little if anything to make an eternal difference

I realize that statement may make you feel a little uncomfortable, it did me.

If we fail to see the Gospel as the greatest good for all man I think it is because we have failed to understand man’s greatest need.

The answer is not in one’s sexuality or gender whatever it may be biologically or whatever one chooses it to be

I want to engage this issue not simply to educate us but to help us see that we need to reach out with the only true hope any person can have - Jesus Christ!

“The reasons why Christians must confront the transgender revolution and why we must faithfully preach the gospel to transgender persons are because we love God and we love our neighbor.”

R. Albert Mohler Jr. (taken from the forward of God and the Transgender Debate by Andrew T. Walker)

Even after having treatment to transition ones gender studies find there is little psychological improvement (Ryan T. Anderson, When Harry Became Sally, Pg. 17)

“The reasons why Christians must confront the transgender revolution and why we must faithfully preach the gospel to transgender persons are because we love God and we love our neighbor.”

R. Albert Mohler Jr. (taken from the forward of God and the Transgender Debate by Andrew T. Walker)

How did we get here?

having personal characteristics (as transsexuality or transvestism) that transcend traditional gender boundaries and corresponding sexual norms

The term transgender is used to refer to people who do not feel the gender they were born with is the gender they actually are.

How do we define transgenderism?

A man or boy feels he is really a woman or girl trapped in a boys body or a woman or girl feels she is really a man or boy trapped in a girls body

There may be be different reason they feel that way and there are different ways in which they deal or respond to this

The idea is that may not be the gender you were born with, there are more than 2 genders.

The list has rapidly grown, at one time Facebook offered 50 choices, not it just lets you write in whatever you want.

We will look at transgenderism more specifically next week.

This week I want to step back and ask… how did we get here?

How did we come to accept this as a society and how do we now call it good - it is applauded

If we are going to reach our world for Christ we must understand our world.

There is a growing distance between the church and the world.

Partly this is due just to the speed at which our culture is changing.

- It is not necessarily bad - it does mean we need to work harder at understanding our world

How did we get here?

Relativism

If something is relative it is “not absolute or independent”

Based on perspective or view point - Relatively cold or quiet or long - the standard to which one is measuring is not fixed

Relatively cold or quiet or long - the standard to which one is measuring is not fixed

“Relativism says that meaning and truth are relative, so that what is right for one person may be wrong for another person.”

(Andrew T. Walker, God and the Transgender Debate, Pg. 21)

Truth becomes fluid, changing based on the perspective it is viewed from

“Relativism denies that there’s any one ‘right’ way to understand the world.

There are only stories, not a grand Story.

So there’e Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, and lots and lots of other religions, and none are true at all times and all places for all people.

A religion is but one example of how someone could choose to live his or her life, but it isn't authoritative for everyone.

Any attempt to claim that it is is just a ruse to gain power over someone else.” (Andrew T. Walker, God and the Transgender Debate, Pg. 22)

This leads to an abandoning of absolute truth and absolute morality - there is no right and wrong for everyone

This also leads to individualism

Individualism

“Individualism says everyone gets to write their own script” (Andrew T. Walker, God and the Transgender Debate, Pg. 23)

Not only are we not part of a larger story but we get to write our own story.

You do’t have to be the secondary character in someone else’s story you can be the main character in your on story!!

This is really inviting - “I can throw of the constraints of society and be free, totally liberated to be and do whatever I want”

This is incredibly appealing because it appeals directly to our sinful desires.

Ever since sin entered the world man has been trying to live for himself apart from God, now you are invited to do what your flesh longs to do.

This has led to a change in people’s moral intuition - how people determine what is right or wrong

Christians have a standard - Bible - truth matters to us

Moral or traditional view - moral standard, often based on the Bible - increasingly questions, tradition matters

How do People make moral decisions?

1.

Is it harmful or not?

Does it seem to bring harm or damage to the person?

What harm is it if someone wants to identify as a different gender than the one they were born with or marry someone of the same sex?

In fact it seems to bring harm if you tell them they can’t

2. Does it seem liberating or unnecessarily constraining?

Does it seem to free people?

To allow a homosexual to marry another homosexual is freeing isn't it?

It would be very constraining to tell the same homosexual person that he cannot express or act on those feelings or desires.

Same for a person who wants to identify as another gender

Why would you limit someone else in the writing of their own story?

3. Is it fair or in some senses discriminating or unjust?

Does it seem just or honest?

How is it fair to say to a homosexual you can’t marry another homosexual or act on those desires and yet heterosexuals can?

How is it just to allow men to be men and women to be women but not let transgender people be who they want to be?

These are the questions people are asking today when trying to determine what is right and wrong.

When this is your standard for morality then we can see how same sex marriage and people changing gender seems right.

Sexual Revolution

“Our teachings will not be relevant if we are not appealing to moral intuition’s that aren’t shared by our audience.”

(Sam Allberry)

How then do we share the Gospel of truth and the God of truth and the word of truth with a culture that cares nothing for truth?

We don’t...

Abandon the truth

Distort the truth

Hide the truth

How do we respond?

The truth does not change, so how do I share this truth with a culture that doesn’t care for truth?

Maybe this point is obvious but I think it needs to be stated

In this day and age many young people have left the church because the truths they were being taught were not believed by the people who taught them or claimed to believe them

This is really about how we see ourselves and how we see God

There is no double standard with God, all need Jesus.

But… who needs Jesus the most

Of all the people in the world, who needs Jesus the most?

Homosexuals?