The Bible and Science on Gender, Sex, and Marriage

So let's just jump right in here So we have a book on the back with an orange cover called the

Bible and science on gender sex and marriage We also have a video that's on YouTube That's on the same topic.

It's about 21 minutes long and then we will be covering this Controversial topic today from the position of relying on God's Word as an authority

So we all have two choices We can rely on culture and secular science in the world as our authority which is going to change for every generation

Or we can lie and trust on God's Word and i'll be speaking from God's Word today, which does not change

As culture is changing, uh frequently And the reason that I want to do this is because not only do

I believe God's Word to be true from the beginning But there's a promise in scripture that says This for this reason we also thank

God without ceasing because when you received the word of God Which you heard from us you welcomed it not as the word of men

But as it is in the truth the word of God which also effectively works in you who believe so if we want to have

God's Word Which is the only powerful scripture on earth that has power to change our hearts and our minds if we want it to work effectively

You have to believe it and trust it and regard it as God's holy word And this is how we're going to develop a root system and it goes all the way back to genesis

And of course God breeds humans out of dust and drew eve from his side and then he created gender

So God speaks about this in the book of genesis, and there's all kinds of other areas You can tap into your with your root system

But I want to encourage everyone today and everyone listening online to tap into the genesis roots

Because that's where the true history lies. I think if you look at our bodies It's going to be really easy to understand as God's word said as in romans 1

God's word says look The battle's already won. You guys know in your hearts that he created the world that he created humans

So no man is without excuse So we're going to be held accountable under the lord and under his word to live in a way that he outlined for us in scripture

So here's what we're going to be covering today on this talk We're going to be talking about foundations of truth and grace because this is of course a delicate topic

We'll talk about god as a creator of earth humans gender marriage and sex We'll talk about people having sinful

Predispositions we'll take a quick flash through culture and gender and then we'll have a testimony at the end

So let's talk first about truth and grace So god's word says this and you were dead in your trespasses in the sins in which you once walked

Let's all take a minute and think about what that says You were dead in the trespasses and sins in what in which you once walked

Every single person here was dead in our sins dead in our trespasses

But if we've been regenerated if we're saved and born again, it's because of the work of christ alone

And there's just some key phrases there. So you were dead in your trespasses It says among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh

So I don't want to pick out any particular sinful expression today. We are talking about gender sex and marriage

So if you struggle with anything related to those topics or if you struggle with alcoholism or lying or theft

Or whatever it is we're all on an equal playing field before christ in need of grace and he's the only savior that can

Save us because of those two neat words that are in scripture time and time again But god but god but god so but god being rich in his mercy

Because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses

We're now made alive together with christ by grace. You have been saved So that's the foundation that I stand on today

And it also applies to things like this Here's one of the lists we see in scripture and first corinthians six that applies to gender

It says or do you not know that the unrighteous? Or the unregenerate those who don't have the righteousness of christ will not inherit the kingdom of god

Don't be deceived nor neither the sexual immoral nor idolaters Nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy

Nor those who are habitually drunk nor verbal abusers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of god

Such were some of you but you were washed you were sanctified You were justified in the name of the lord.

Jesus christ and in the spirit of our god. So we see here The list of homosexuality and a collection of list of other patterned sins and what the apostle paul is saying here is like look

If you're still in a rut of a consistent pattern of sin And you're not submitting to the sanctification work of the holy spirit and there's no evidence of the holy spirit

Cranking you out of works of darkness into works of righteousness then there's probably no evidence that you're saved in the first place because of those of us who are

Legitimately truly saved are going to start submitting to the work of the holy spirit As we're going to leave off the old and take on the new and he's saying that those who have a pattern

Of progressive sanctification who are throwing off the old and taking on the new that's evidence of salvation

And those who are not throwing off the patterns of these behaviors do not have evidence of salvation so because god created the world and humans and gender and us specifically

And because he loves us and he knows what's best for us and he wants to protect and provide for us

Because of all of those things Therefore he's given us clear rules about gender sex and marriage

So if i'm driving down the freeway at 105 miles an hour Last night just to get to my my presentation because i'm late and a police officer pulls me over and says here's your citation

I said, you know what? I don't really care about your citation I'm going to take away its power and i'm going to take that yellow ticket

And tear it in half and scrap it up and roll it up and throw it on the ground What's the police officer going to do?

He says well you've still been cited People today are taking scripture and doing just that.

Well, it doesn't really say that well i'm going to tear it up It really doesn't apply to me. I'm going to go back and develop an interesting story about that scripture

But the police officer still has my license plate. He still has my driver's license

I've been issued a ticket So when people want to attempt to scrap scripture or twist it or pull it or jam new meanings in there?

It doesn't matter scripture has a very very clear declaration when it speaks about lust fornication adultery even cross -dressing and homosexual behavior

No matter how we try to pull it or twist it The honest scholar will read through the scripture specifically with respect to homosexuality

There are six very clear passages about that But the bible also talks about fornication adultery and all kinds of of of sins that pertain to our talk today

So what about if you have a friend that says, you know, don't judge me i'm not hurting anybody

We hear this all the time from the millennials today Well, the bible says actually brethren if a man is overtaken in any such trespass you who are spiritual

Should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness considering your yourself lest you also be tempted

So we are commanded by scripture. We're supposed to just to judge and to call out behaviors

We're just supposed to do it rightly We also hear people throwing back at us when we talk about the topic of gender and sexuality

Well, who are you to judge me and doesn't the bible say judge not lest you be judged we hear that a lot

Well, jesus actually said if you read through that passage in matthew 7 He says well look first remove the plank in your own eye

And then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye So we are called to pull out people who are having behaviors that can condemn them

But first we have to watch ourselves so that we're not being hypocritical about it So if you struggle with alcoholism and you're still drinking

It's probably not a good idea to go to your friend who's struggling with alcoholism who's drinking Get sober first attend some na or aa meetings for a year and then go to your friend

And talk to him or her about their their struggles So let's take a quick through tour quick tour through creation here

Because god's word as we mentioned is very very clear God says that he has created and we're all held accountable for his creation because of what he has created

Deep down. We know there is a creator We're all from probably familiar with romans 1 And the bible even says is for this say is the lord who created the heavens who is god who formed it

The earth and he made it who has established it He did not create it in vain who formed it to be inhabited.

I am the lord and there is no other uh people internally when they see this this

Beautiful magnificent aspiring galaxy. They know internally it's created because you can't move or change

Anything in that system that I just showed you life is perfectly set up for earth We talked about this yesterday even things that were created in design that depend each other were made during the same week during creation week because you can't have

Pollination and vegetation and fruit and flowers without pollinators like the butterflies and the bees

People know these things internally creation's written on their heart romans One says we're going to be held accountable and these things are obvious to me

As a human because i'm looking at this stuff going. I know there's no way that you can have

You know creation and fruit and vegetation without pollinators because where these bees and butterflies are dying off They're having to manually do it.

So we know internally god has created this systematic Interdependent system of earth and it's obviously created

So we see this in bees when we look around we look at how how in the world do bees figure out how to do?

This stuff and bees have always been bees throughout all of history the way they design a nest and the shape

Uh is perfect for strength and structure and for maximum size with what they're going to put in there

Even that little tiny bee in a pin sized brain has pre -programmed information on how to do

Things like this building honeycomb and with respect to the nectar and the pollen and all that it does

When we look at the human body we see it's we're just like a rolex clock which is you know

A watch there's 220 different parts and components. It takes a year to build These are interdependent mechanisms and there's no way something like this pops out

Of chance and randomness and the idea of millions of years So people know this internally the human body is no different God says look in the only place in the bot in the bible that he brags about with respect to our body

He says look the hearing uh, the hearing ear and the seeing eye I get credit for both of them

And did you know I think there's no it's not by chance that the hearing ear and the seeing eye are actually connected

In a way that i'm going to show you that's just amazing, but just take a look at the eye For a minute, there are six muscles that grab each of our eyes to twist it around so we have perfect stereo

Sight that we can have depth perception and everything These six muscles are somehow perfectly correlated to look around to focus and look around the the the room and everything

Just an amazing amazing design We've got 570 megapixels in our eyes.

Well, the the iphone only has maybe 14 megapixels We can distinguish all these colors. We can see a flame a little flicker of a candle.

That's 1 .7 miles away We see something like the eye and even charles darwin admitted.

Yeah, it looks like it was created Well, what about the hearing system? How in the world do we have these five separate components of our hearing system?

That all have to be put together in the way that they are We've got sound waves that are trapped with a mechanical force with the three little bones that we have that creates a lever

That pushes against the cochlea, which again up samples it by 22 times more that goes to a chemical process

It goes to an electric an electrical process Honest people who look at this know what has to be created.

In fact, uh when I speak in in In secular colleges, I say look just give me one minute and i'll disprove evolution

And i'll say and i'll go through the human hearing system with a little bit more detail than I just did and I said like You can take organic materials and put it inside of a bucket and charge it with electricity in you if you want

And stir it for a billion years and you're never going to have this Flied out out of a bucket of mud.

This requires a designer. It's engineered It's a system that has five separate parts

But it gets even a little bit more complicated than this So take your thumb for a minute and put it in front of your eyes like this and focus on your thumbnail

And then while you're locked on your thumbnail turn your head from left to right while you're still staring at your thumb

And then put your head up and down and still stare at your thumb Now move it again left to right now.

I have my question for you is this did your eyes move when you did that? Well, here's some yes

Think about it you got your your your thumb right out here and you're moving back and forth you're moving your head

But are your eyes moving? They actually are they're moving in the exact opposite direction of your head

Because they're wired to do that because they're connected to your ears It's called the vestibular ocular ocular reflex and here's what it looks like.

It's all these electronically engineered Nerves and wires and you've got this balance system your cochlea has these six semicircular canals that are in there

Your movement's being Detected as you move around the fluid that's charged in your ears

Which are turning from a chemical process to an electrical process to coordinate opposite movement between your head and your eyes

When you're doing that So that's a very very very advanced Navigational system it's using two eyes with 12 muscles that are connected to your head with two ears with semicircular canals each of which in your ears have 20 000 stereocilia that are these little hairs that are detecting movement that's moving around and there's some balance functions in there as well

But that's just looking at your eyes and your ears What about your five different systems that you have in your body and do you know that no human group anywhere?

The pygmies the Japanese the Chinese that are Norwegian No one no one people group around the world is evolving or changing these five fundamental systems

If you just look at your circulatory system, how in the world did that evolve? How could a heart have any meaning without veins and how could a vein have any purpose without blood without the veins?

Where would the blood go without the heart? What's gonna pump the blood through the veins?

It's an interdependent system and people know this internally it had to be designed and created

So let's take a quick look about the Bible and science on gender So we know the world says that gender is a continuum

It's this nice fluid continuum and they say nowadays the world is pushing the idea that gender is really a constellation

There's there's there's thousands of different ideas and conceptualizations about gender But science and the

Bible both agree that gender is a binary phenomenon. It's not a continuum So science in the

Bible definitely agree about that but the world is trying to push this idea of a continuum and we know this because at the moment of your conception you're either

X X chromosome or XY chromosome your gender is determined at the point of conception and They've now just recently learned there's a little flash of zinc that happens right when that egg is fertilized.

There's a flash of zinc It's a little special moment when you're created when and when that embryo is fertilized

It's just the most amazing thing and your gender is determined at that time by the the man's contribution to the pregnancy

What about hormonal differences? Well, you know men, of course have most of Testosterone and women have got a lot of estrogen.

It starts at at birth It divides the left and right hemisphere in vitro. So when a baby male is developing

Testosterone is released and the left and right brain hemispheres are going to separate a little bit leaving a smaller corpus callosum

Which is the connection highway between our two brain hemispheres and with women it's going to be left intact

That's why women are usually more intuitive than men They've got a greater fiber a greater highway connection between their left and the right brain hemispheres

And that's why the analogy is they refer to women having brains that are like balls of wire and men having brains that are like waffles

It's very very true men tend to be more Categorical sometimes more black and white and women are more connection connected and intuitive We also see differences in anatomy that are very obvious with respect to our pelvic region and are the angle of our knees

The men the male skeletal system is bigger in the upper body We have bigger heads all kinds of design engineered things that are different between Men and women and did you know that women actually have better vision than men in almost every respect?

The only men typically get colorblind about one out of twenty men will be colorblind

Including this person right here about three to five percent Women have better peripheral vision and women have larger pupils just some interesting distinctions here between men and women

What about hearing? Well, do you know that men? Hear in a more limited way than women do they've done brain scans and looked at what what parts of the brain fire when men and women are listening and Women here in a more connected way and men are only hearing out of certain parts of their brains

I see some wives nodding here going. Yes, of course That's what my husband does

But did you know they can actually hear higher pitched frequencies than men also and their hearing fades more?

Slowly as we age than men. So again, why is it like this? Not sure, but it's by design and it's very consistent also with smelling and tasting at more cells more neurons

It's amazing. They can smell and taste better and differently than men Well, what about cognitive differences between men and women we could spend a lot of time here

There are some structural brain differences between men and women when it comes to having more or less white matter versus gray matter

But what about when it goes to like an assignment? Hey, go buy a pair of pants if you give a man 50 bucks at the mall and you say go buy a pair of pants.

Here's what's likely to happen They go in and they go out and they say alright

Here's my receipt 50 bucks And now if you give the same same money to a woman and say hey go in the mall and go shopping

Here's what typically happens They're all over the place and they'll spend more money and come out without even the pair of pants, but some other cool stuffs

Who knows But maybe that's driven because we do have different brains as I mentioned some studies have just come out with thousands of people involved and learned that men have six times more gray matter and women have

Six time or nine times more white matter some very interesting structural differences

I don't have too much more time to unpack that but we're dealing with structural differences that do have practical world

Implications and do you know that a mother's body is smart enough that it can even detect which gender baby it had

When producing breast milk if a mom has gives birth to a boy It's gonna produce more lipids more fatty acids in the milk

If it had a boy than if it had a girl because the boys are gonna need more fatty acids in their initial development

Isn't that amazing that our own bodies can even detect if you had a boy or a girl so that's far from being a fluid

Continuum idea even your body can detect it subconsciously like that So let's talk about marriage real quick And I want to talk about marriage in the context of a wedding because I think a wedding is a really symbolic in some ways

About what a marriage looks like so here's a biblical marriage We have God and it's

God's Covenant the idea of marriage was even before law was before a church

Was ever started this is God's first covenant between man and woman So so we have God over here with his idea and we have parents or guardians consenting

We have a man and a woman in the circle We have an officiate and then we have a cloud of witnesses and under that structure

We can see a man and a woman are going to form one new unit God's defines what it is and who joins it.

It's the two are going to become one flesh and generally speaking the commission is to raise children under that structure and Christ summed this up for us neatly by compressing two sections of Genesis chapter 1 in Genesis chapter 2 and one paragraph and he says look for this reason a

Man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh

They're no longer two but one flesh therefore what God has joined together Let not man separate so we have

God decreeing the covenant and then we have it's based on scripture We have parents and guardians and witnesses and an officiate

That's the biblical design for marriage in a diagram there And of course, it's also reflected in numerous places in the

New Testament About the idea with Christ and the bride the church we when we cover that a lot this morning

Amazing amazing metaphor we get to participate in that with a man and a woman on earth today

But it's a amazing thing. So secular marriage much much different. We'll have the state

So these people are going to go to the state and they want the state's covenant, which is going to go down So that's already much different than the biblical marriage.

It's going to be based on man's laws not on God's laws The world's going to define what that is

You're gonna have one person plus another person and if it's two people of the same gender

It's going to be two people So the two are not going to be joining to make one one flesh because they can't do that mechanically or spiritually

They're not going to be able to have their own children if it's a man and a man and or a woman and a woman

And so all the parts here that Jesus decreed there and read cannot be done in a secular marriage

It can only be done in the covenant of a biblical marriage with a man and a woman So God created sex from the very very beginning to be held within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman

This is how we have children It's it's for our own protection and it's also for bonding and enjoyment everything outside of that circle

Would be referred to as sinful as God and that's because he's trying to protect and provide us

It's for us and he's just like anything outside of this circle right here is sin This is where I want sex to be and these are the three outcomes and the three reasons that God Designs sex for and when that happens and when a man and woman are involved in that act

He allows a chemical crazy glue to be released Oxytocin mostly with females and vasopressin with men and it creates all kinds of emotional connections that happen

Particularly during the early stages of a marriage where these chemical bonds are going to join a very very unique Emotional deep connection between a man and wife and that's just a very very sacred thing that happens

And that's why God wants sex within marriage because he knows he's going to create these chemical crazy glue bonds

It's like a proxy where you mix the two different parts together and put them together They seal an amazing thing.

So when Jesus says the two shall become one he's talking about physically and emotionally There's an a very very amazing bond there

So what happens when we don't listen to this idea that God has about sex within marriage

Well, here's just one site. We could pull all kinds of sites like this But this is from a very qualified individual and he says here's what he sees

When you take sex outside of marriage and have multiple partners before marriage He says when you have premarital sex your reward circuitry is bonded to them now and it will be much deeper and hurtful

Oftentimes in breakups of people who have been sexually active. They can't tolerate the sense of emptiness

So they rush into another relationship The neural circuits did not have time to reset and so they're impaired in their ability to bond with the next person and they may

Become sexually active with them. This is just a repetitive cycle and there are real impairments and bonding going on God wired and designed our brains for a specific purpose to bond ourselves with the person that we married

So sex within marriage is like keeping your fire within a fireplace. It can provide warmth.

It's got purpose It's got intention. You can stoke the fire when you want to stoke the fire It's under control but when you take sex outside of the context of Marriage with a man and a woman you can burn your house down and this is what's happening to people all the time

Particularly students when they have the thing called a hookup culture or friends with benefits

Their society now is running into these things and they're burning their houses down and they're taking what

God intended as a very sacred Thing and they're living outside of it and they're bringing upon themselves destruction

So let's talk about sinful predispositions for a minute So we know from scripture and from science now that this idea of gender is binary and it's by the creators design

I could stay up here literally for eight hours and go through the male body in the female body and scan it and talk about All these amazing differences

Science is very clear that man and women are made and designed separately all the way down to the chromosome level

But something's happened since that initial design. What is it? It's the fall so the fall happened and it's really impacted two things with respect to gender sex and marriage

The fall has impacted our reproductive and it can create reproductive and birth anomalies

Not everybody is there is this there is this thing called intersex? It's an extremely rare phenomenon where people are born with an abnormality with respect to their genitalia

It's an extremely rare thing. The left wants you to believe that it's as popular as having red hair

They want they say 1 .7 percent, which is absolutely incorrect Falsified in a million different ways it's an extremely rare thing that affects about about one in five thousand people will have some degree of intersex issue as an abnormality when they're born

But it's also affected our desires our temptations and our lusts of all sorts

So we hear a lot of people say well, I can't change it. I was born this way Well, the truth is we all have sinful

Predispositions that are not aligned with God's design and best things for our lives

So even if you were born this way or that way you know, we're born with sinful predispositions that are not going to be the best thing that God wants for us and he wants to Sanctify it or sanctify us and changes.

So we hear this question a lot Well is homosexuality or a predisposition towards fornication or immorality?

Is it a nature thing or a nurture thing? And I honestly don't think we need an answer to that question

I think the jury's still out on it every decade They changed their mind and what the truth about it is, but look what

Jesus did with this woman who was caught in adultery He didn't say well, you're just predisposed to want to have you know

Sex outside of marriage all the time or you're a supercharged woman with all these hormones He didn't give any excuse to that.

He said go now and sin no more He confronted her sin and wanted her to change her lifestyle afterwards

And that's the same thing We need to lovingly do with all kinds of people who are stuck in different types of sinful patterns and practices

Here's what Scripture says so for we all stumble in what in many things if anyone does not stumble in word

He's a perfect man Also able also to bridle the whole body and Romans says for what

I am doing I do not understand for what I will to do that I do not practice but what

I hate to do that I do if then I do what I do not Do not do

I agree with the law that is good But now it is no longer I who do it but the sin that dwells in me.

So scripture is clear That we all are gonna have Predispositions towards certain sins

I can look up at this chart here with all kinds of different sinful Venues if you will and some people are gonna be attracted to certain areas and other people are gonna be attracted to other areas

What about gambling? I don't really struggle with gambling. I know a lot of friends that that that do they have big struggles with that What about adultery or some people find this picture attractive or that picture attractive or this picture attractive some people deal with anger or lust over over money or Alcoholism or drug addiction or pride or love of money?

There's all different landmines that we are all gonna have to steer clear of in our walk

It's a very personal and individual thing I might struggle with some things that no one else struggles with and vice versa

So we all have these landmines that we're gonna have to walk through in life, but it actually doesn't look like this

It's not necessarily a landmine that we can feel that we can navigate through by ourselves

The landmines are so thick and the landscape is so broad with these landmines that you're hopeless to do it without Christ there's no way that you can do it without Christ with Christ We can put to death the flesh and its sinful desires

We can put to death the old man and be raised anew that's the only way you can navigate through this landscape of all different types of Sins that we might be predisposed to some or pre or not to predispose to others

So the truth is guys is that you didn't paddle your way to Jesus You didn't need help and you're flopping around in the ocean just about getting ready to die

And then you're like, oh there's a lifeboat with Jesus in it I'm gonna use my own strength to swim over there and grab his hand and he's gonna pull me up in the life vest

Or in the lifeboat actually the Bible says you were dead in your sins

You had already died you had no no life within yourself You're dead within your own trespasses and in the sins in what you once walked

So our only hope and our only way out of this if it's a sinful lifestyle same -sex attraction drunkenness alcoholic stuff drug abuse

Whatever it is Our only hope is Christ to put to death our sinful flesh and walk and walk out with the power of Christ So why is it our best interest to live according to God's design for a gender sex and marriage?

Well again because God made humans gender us specifically because he loves you

He has the authority to speak into your life. He wants what's best for us He wants to protect and provide us and that's why scripture is filled with very clear narrative of how we should be living out

Our sexuality and how we regard gender and marriage So to the extent that our lives overlap with God's best and to the extent that our behaviors and our choices

Overlap with what God's designed is for gender sex and marriage. These are the fruits and the blessing.

We're like likely to experience We're gonna have clear identity Marriage children legacy sex and joy, but to the extent we don't overlap with God's design in these areas

We're likely to encounter more and more confusion pain heartache. We're not going to have kids no legacy and only have occasional

Sex is what's likely to happen. So we all get to choose What about the state of our culture well, we've all seen the headlines we know this stuff is true

Did you know that they project that the LGBTQ a population will be over 10 % soon?

It's right now seven point one percent of Americans Identify in this way and that's doubled over the last ten years

It's coming. So why is this happening now? Why is there such a soaring? Representation of people who identify this way well scripture says why it's going to happen

Romans 1 says God has poured out his wrath on those who suppress the obvious truth and he exists today and he created the past it says that we're going to exchange the truth for lies and worship the real creator with nature and the

Outcome when we just deny the Creator is going to be futility of thought Darkening of hearts lusts and passions that are against his natural design for gender and numerous other sinful

Expressions all leading to their own set of natural consequences So a summary of Romans 1 in one picture is this

People are going to deny God that exists today and they're going to deny that his creative works of the past including gender the result of that is that they're going to darken their minds and their hearts are going to turn to debauchery and foolishness and they're going to start a pattern of sins that are going to Attempt to undo

God's natural creative order and that's what's happening today In fact, you can just go to the

Smithsonian Museum and you can see yet another expression of this You walk on the Smithsonian and you walk into this little holy

Altar area that they have surrounded by these big huge walls and you go on and you think well What's this little altar that they have there?

What's sitting on top of the altar in our taxpayer -funded, Washington DC?

Well here you have it It's a gold embossed little rat that they say humans evolved from millions of years ago

So this is Romans 1 happening right before your very eyes They call it

Schrodinger of this other ones called Schrodinger and look what the scripture says They changed the glory of an incorruptible

God into an image made like a corruptible or perishable man and birds and four -footed animals and creeping things

So think about this They're exchanging the Creator and his creation and they're taking away his glory of a perm of a permanent

Eternal God and they're attributing Worship to this little guy.

They're trading this for that They're exchanging their glory of the eternal create uncreated one to created perishable animals

Well, do I see the hiss of evolution in that? Isn't that interesting?

Can you attribute evolution to what's going on? If I'm gonna deny the glory of an eternal creator and start worshiping four -footed animals

Well, what do you do when you worship something in some cases you're attributing Origins to that thing that you're worshiping people have shifted from worshiping an uncreated

Creator into worshiping created things that he made rather than worshiping the

Creator. It's a it's a great switch But I would also say that we have to be careful to realize that Regardless of your particular sinful pattern or your predisposition towards certain sins

Just remember that you know Apostle Paul says in Galatians I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness comes through the law then

Christ died in vain and Romans says that but now the righteousness of God apart from the laws revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets

Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe there is no difference

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace

Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So there is a great equalizer We're all equal at the foot of the cross and I want to show an amazing testimony and we'll close with this

It's a three -minute story from Jackie Hill Perry Who's married now has kids now but start struggled with with being a lesbian for years and went through a conversion

But listen to her story and understand she wasn't guilted into it by the church

She wasn't ridiculed into it. It was the transformative regenerative power of the

Holy Spirit that converted her and So let's go ahead and listen to this.

Oh, I did that was going to gay pride parades Enjoying myself enjoying my life

But in the back of my head the entire time was the reality of God Which I think is a mercy

I think there's some there's some kind of conviction that you can't help but feel when you do grow up in an environment where you hear about Jesus and you hear about the cross and you hear about the gospel and you hear about sin and even though hell

It was something that is mad depressing to consider It was the reality that Jesus died for people not to have to Deal with the wrath and the vengeance and the judgment of God, but I didn't want to hear all that So I smoked as much weed as possible to honestly numb my conscience to not have to Remember the truths of Scripture that were ingrained in me in Sunday school

Until I was 19. It got to a point where God's grace and conviction and truth got louder

No matter how much I wanted to drown it out and I was in my room doing something mad irrelevant and unspiritual and normal such as watching

MTV and I felt God speak to my heart in such a way where I saw that all of my sin would be the death of me and it wasn't just my sexuality because that was the narrative communicated to me by Christians that This is the primary sin that will send you to hell

This is the one thing that God looks at and is displeased with but what I saw was no My heart has been the problem the entire time.

My primary idol is not my sexuality My primary idol is me is that I assume that my way and my feelings my affections and my thoughts are

Wiser than the Word of God and so what I needed to repent of was not just being a lesbian I needed to be repent of of being an unbeliever of being a person who refused to believe that God was true and right and all that he's ever said and done and I Sat there in my bed and I told

God God I don't I don't want to be straight though Because I think naturally you think to come to Jesus is to come to heterosexuality

But I really sense that God was saying no come to me. I am the aim of your repentance

I am the goal of your salvation. It's not you coming to some moral standard

It's you coming to a person and so I didn't I felt like I didn't have a choice but to believe and that's the

Holy Spirit because 2nd Corinthians 4 talks about how the the the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers where they cannot see the light that is in the face of Jesus Christ, but God who said let there be light has shown in our hearts to give us the light to see the glory of Jesus and it had

To be nothing but the Spirit of God to help me see that Jesus was more worthy than Everything that I was submitting my life to and so my repentance was not an escapism or a fear

Or me submitting myself to the norms of the culture It was me saying that God actually was the best alternative to everything that I've been living my life for That it was it was futile and silly

To think that anything could make me more whole than the God who created me for himself And so by the power of the