Sermon Tone Analysis

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message.

The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

When Ryan and I began to plan our preaching schedule for this year, we wanted to make sure that we included some topical sermons that addressed some of the cultural issues that we are facing as disciples of Jesus.

Although we probably wish that it were otherwise these are some issues that just aren’t going away.

And it’s really important that we have a firm grasp on what the Bible teaches in these areas.

There are two crucial reasons why we must do that:

We need to develop some firm Bible-based convictions so that we, both as individuals and as a collective body, can continue to stand against the onslaught from our culture that is only going to get more forceful.

We need to know what we believe so that we don’t get deceived by the world.

We also need to understand what the Bible teaches so that we can obey Jesus’ command to be salt here on earth.

We’ve talked about this before, but one of the functions of salt in Jesus day was to be a preservative.

And in each of these areas we’re going to address, we have a responsibility to do what we can to preserve these biblical values in our culture.

Tension

The topic that I’m going to address today has come even more visible in our culture than when we first identified this topic a few months ago.

I’m sure that most of you are familiar with some of these recent events:

During the recent hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, Jackson said that she could not define the word “woman” because she is not a biologist.

University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male, won the women’s 500 meter freestyle event at the NCAA swimming and diving championships last month.

On the last season of the singing competition show, The Voice, a singing duo that consisted of a father and his transgender “son” made it to the live shows portion of the competition.

By now I’m sure you’ve figured out that this morning I’m going to be addressing the topic of gender identity.

Before we go any further, I want to address two groups of people who may be joining us this morning:

It is certainly possible that there are some of you who have struggles in this area.

Although this issue affects a very small number of people, it is much more prevalent in the the younger generations that we identify as Millennials and Generation Z.

According to some recent studies, as many as 15% of our young people have indicated they struggle with gender identity.

If that describes your life, then I want to say two things to you:

God loves you!

He created you and He willingly gave His life for you.

Because He loves you, He wants to give you an abundant, full life that is far better than what you think you may have right now.

We’ll talk more about that later.

The second group I want to address are those of you who are thinking “Why does this even matter?

It doesn’t impact me directly, so why should I even care?”

We need to care because we are called to share the gospel with our entire community, even those whose lifestyles we don’t understand or agree with.

And it is an issue that all of us are likely to have to deal with more and more.

Since this is such a sensitive topic, let’s pray before we go any further.

Truth

While my goal this morning is to help us understand this topic from a biblical viewpoint, I think we’d all agree that there are also some biological and cultural issues that have a tremendous impact on our understanding.

Since I am far from an expert on any of this, over the last several weeks I’ve been reading a book titled The End of Gender, written by neuroscientist Dr. Debra Soh.

Interestingly Dr. Soh is an avowed atheist whose work has often been more accepted by the Christian community than by her own peers in the scientific community.

While some of what she writes in her book clearly does not align with Scripture, many of her conclusions about gender identity and the transgender movement actually are right in line with what the Bible teaches.

So during the message I’m going to share a few quotes from her book.

Let’s define some terms:

“sex” = biological makeup - either male or female

Although it is common to determine one’s sex based on physical characteristics, chromosomes or hormonal profiles, scientifically sex is determined by gametes, or reproductive cells.

Females produce large ones called eggs and males produce small ones called sperm.

In 99.98% of people, they are unambiguously either male or female at birth.

Therefore sex is binary - not a spectrum

“gender” = how our biology is expressed in social and cultural roles - either man or woman

There are two related but distinct aspects of our gender:

“gender identity” = how we feel in relation to our sex

Do I feel masculine or feminine?

“gender expression” = the external manifestation of our gender identity

How we express our gender identity through things like our appearance, clothing,hairstyle and mannerisms.

It’s important to note that no one is 100% gender conforming.

However, just because I like watching cheesy Hallmark movies with my wife does not make me a woman any more than that fact that Mary would rather come to church for a work day than attend a women’s tea makes her a man.

But that doesn’t mean that there is some third category of gender or even that gender is some kind of continuum.

As we’re going to see in a moment, the Bible actually does distinguish between sex and gender, although biblically they are never out of sync.

Dr. Soh argues that there is also a biological connection between the two:

Dr. Debra Soh in The End of Gender:

Biology, not society, dictates whether we are gender-typical or atypical, the extent to which we identify as the sex we were born as, and the partners we are sexually attracted to.

When sperm fertilizes an egg at conception, the baby will be either female or male.

This biology will influence hormonal exposure in the womb, as well as the child’s resulting gender identity.

At about seven weeks, if the embryo is male, the testes will begin to secrete testosterone, masculinizing the brain.

If the embryo is female, this process does not occur.

Although sex and gender are both biologically based, it isn’t accurate to use them interchangeably.

For some reasons that are easy to understand, gender is used almost exclusively in our culture, even when a person is actually referring to sex.

For instance, it is common today for parents to hold a “gender reveal “ party.

But they’re not really revealing the baby’s gender, but rather, the baby’s sex.

It’s understandable that even if the parents know the difference between the two, that they might not want to call it a “sex-reveal” party.

But nevertheless sex and gender are not the same.

“gender dysphoria” = distress caused by a mismatch between a person’s gender identity and their sex

Just because someone feels a small sense of uneasiness or dissatisfaction with their gender, does not mean that they have gender dysphoria.

The American Psychiatric Association considers gender dysphoria to be a mental disorder which is defined as follows:

...a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and their assigned gender, lasting at least 6 months...

Their definition also requires the presence of multiple desires and/or behaviors that demonstrate significant distress.

It can be common for a person, especially growing up, to sometimes wonder about their gender, but that does not mean that you have gender dysphoria.

Dr. Debra Soh in The End of Gender:

Girls who are even slightly masculine, or who prefer to wear men’s clothes because they are more comfortable, now believe this makes them something other than a girl.

In truth, I’d argue very few women enjoy squeezing into dresses or skirts and having to sit awkwardly in public places so that they don’t accidentally flash unsuspecting onlookers.

This is why sweatpants were invented.

“transgender” = a person who feels that their gender identity is more in alignment with the opposite sex.

In some cases those who consider themselves transgender choose to express their identity through the way they dress, talk, and act and the name they choose.

In other cases, they also elect to go through medical treatments that change their bodies to make them more compatible with their gender identity.

With those definitions in mind, let’s spend the rest of our time focusing on...

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

Only God gets to determine my identity

To a large degree, our culture has bought into the idea that we all have the right to determine our own identity.

But the Bible confirms what many of us already sense - that is just not possible.

In both the Old and New Testament, God is compared to a potter who has the right to make whatever He wants when He creates each of us.

Isaiah 45:9 (ESV)

9 “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots!

Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?

Obviously when a potter does his work, he is the one who determines what he is making.

The pot, or whatever else is being molded, has no say in the matter.

In the same way, as God’s creation, we have no right to question why God made us the way He did and we have neither the ability nor the right to determine our own identity.

This is the foundation for everything else we’re going to learn this morning, so if you don’t get this right, you may very well struggle with everything else we’re going to learn.

At creation, God established two sexes - male and female

This is really very simple, isn’t it.

At creation, God established two sexes and only two sexes - male and female.

And He confirmed that when He gave the command to be fruitful and multiply - something that requires both sexes.