Jubilee | I'm a Gay Pastor: Ask Me Anything | Pastor Reacts
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Jubilee just dropped a new video where a gay pastor answers questions. What was he asked? Did he represent the Bible correctly? Find out in my reaction :)
Link to the Jubilee video: https://youtu.be/XLAinrKzh0E
Reaction to Jubilee's LGBTQ vs. Christians: https://youtu.be/Y4QOndxjisM
Reaction to Jubilee's Atheist vs. Christians Middle Ground: https://youtu.be/nmabtMZtIV8
Reaction to Jubilee's Traditional vs. Progressive Christians: https://youtu.be/nmabtMZtIV8
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- 00:00
- How does your family handle your sexuality and your religious together? My family is very understanding.
- 00:07
- In all actuality, my parents are members of my church. I don't really have a coming out story because I really never came out.
- 00:15
- I just became more authentically myself. Imagine if I made a video where I put up a curtain and different people asked me questions and the video was called,
- 00:26
- I'm a drunk pastor, ask me anything. And people would say, well, you know, how do your parents feel about you being a drunk pastor?
- 00:33
- And I would say, well, you know, they're very understanding. They attend my church. I didn't really come out and tell people that I was drunk.
- 00:39
- I just became more of my authentic drunk self. The only reason that stuff like this can happen, this video can even exist is because more and more people do not know what the
- 00:50
- Bible actually says. And that's really sad. Got another video for you today.
- 01:02
- One of the in the new year. So if you've been watching for a while, I'm so glad that you're continuing to do so.
- 01:08
- If it's your first time here, welcome. My name is Nate, and this is Why as Disciple, where we're helping you become the effective Christian that you were meant to be.
- 01:15
- How I help you specifically is I take my background as a teacher, pastor, speaker, and former debate teacher, and I talk about how to be more like Jesus in today's culture.
- 01:26
- Because let's face it, it's not getting any easier to be a Christian in today's culture. I have a couple of new series along these lines that will start very soon on this channel, so stay tuned.
- 01:35
- I'm excited to share those with you. It's been way too long for a Debate Teacher Reacts video, so stay tuned for that.
- 01:40
- We'll do one soon. Today, let's do a reaction to a video that it just caught my eye and not in the good way.
- 01:48
- Okay, this is a video from Jubilee. I don't know much about this organization, but I do know that they like to have difficult conversations, and I do too.
- 01:58
- And so what Jubilee will do is very often they will invite Christians and non -Christians to come on and have difficult discussions, and I've reacted to a few of those videos in the past, so check out some of those.
- 02:09
- I'll include some links below. Today though, let's watch a video entitled, I'm a Gay Pastor, Ask Me Anything.
- 02:15
- Here we go. If you were alone in a room with a gay pastor, what would you ask? Do you view yourself as an openly gay pastor as a political statement?
- 02:24
- What are your thoughts on conversion therapy? Does it really say in the Bible that being gay is a sin?
- 02:30
- So the first thing we have to look at is that... Hi, I'm Hadidas, and I have some questions for you today.
- 02:40
- Awesome, nice to meet you, Hadidas. Hi, Hadidas. Thank you for having probably the most soothing voice
- 02:47
- I've heard all year. I kind of don't want you to say anything because I might have to take issue with it.
- 02:53
- Instead, I just want you to talk about anything else, anything at all, and I promise that I'll listen because your voice is lovely.
- 03:02
- Your voice needs to be heard more. We need a Hadidas talking about how the ocean runs over and over again on the smooth beach on the sands of Southern California.
- 03:14
- I do, I do, I legit, I love Hadidas' voice. All right, that's enough. My name is Pastor Kurt. My first question is, what is your religion?
- 03:21
- I am a progressive Pentecostal, which would be a Christian. Progressive Pentecostal.
- 03:28
- Interesting combination. I'm not a Pentecostal, okay? Maybe the intersection of these two categories has some kind of logic to it, but what
- 03:35
- I can say is the typical progressive Christian will allow for subjectivism to play a role in the conclusions that they draw about God, that they draw about the
- 03:44
- Bible, that they draw about the Christian experience in general. This is different from, say, the traditional
- 03:49
- Christian, which I characterize myself as, because the traditional Christian will be wary of subjectivism since it leads to dangers and error in drawing bad conclusions about God, the
- 04:01
- Bible, and Christianity. So, for example, you'll often hear the typical progressive Christian say something like, well, you know, the
- 04:06
- Bible was written long ago by men who had an experience of God and tried to capture that experience in a way that was unfortunately filtered through their very limited, ignorant,
- 04:18
- Bronze Age -style mentality. And so, of course, the Bible has errors in it. It was written by these kinds of men.
- 04:24
- And then for progressive Christians, the starting point for the doctrines that they'll hold begins with themselves and their own felt experience.
- 04:32
- And so, if a progressive Christian is gay, well, then God must have made them that way, you see, because that's how they feel on the inside, right?
- 04:40
- And the assumption is God would want me to do what I feel is right. I don't agree with that, but I do recognize the logic to it.
- 04:49
- Now, again, just trying to think about how this connects with Pentecostals, I'm not entirely sure, but I would imagine that some
- 04:55
- Pentecostal churches, and let's face it, a lot of churches around this country are probably more friendly to subjectivism than, say, a stuffy
- 05:05
- Baptist slash uber -reformed church, which often tends to completely squash any sense of mystical union with God and replace it with an attitude that reflects dry scholarship rather than exploring what it really means to be led by the
- 05:18
- Spirit and abide in Christ. Now, I've said a lot there, and some of you are probably already upset with me, and I'll move on, all right?
- 05:25
- Maybe I can say more on this in another video if that's what you all want, all right? Let's keep going.
- 05:30
- It inspired you to become a pastor. It's a funny story. I really didn't desire to be a pastor.
- 05:36
- I wanted to be a police officer, and so I always joke when I'm preaching that I got the Ps mixed up.
- 05:41
- There was a church looking for a youth leader, so I took the youth leader job, developed a passion and a love for it.
- 05:48
- Is being gay ever an issue for you? Like, does that affect you being a pastor in any way?
- 05:54
- In some instances, it does. I get uninvited to stuff, and I'm the black sheep of some spaces.
- 06:00
- You know, something happened that was really funny. So, depending on what Kurt means right here, I think it's appropriate to uninvite people who have errant theology, and sometimes
- 06:09
- I think it's appropriate to invite them, you know? So, for example, if I perhaps want to appeal to this person to understand the
- 06:18
- Lord and His teachings, I might invite him to come eat some of my barbecue. I mean, I do make a mean
- 06:23
- Korean barbecue, by the way. Just saying, y 'all. I think it's entirely appropriate to invite this person to something like that.
- 06:29
- I think Christians have the freedom to do something like that as long as they are wise and intentional. However, if I need a preacher to fill in on a
- 06:37
- Sunday morning, I'm not inviting Kurt. And if he was invited, I would disinvite him immediately.
- 06:43
- Why do I say that? Not because I'm trying to be a jerk. It's because the Bible clearly teaches that folks with errant theology should not have a voice in church.
- 06:53
- Take a look at basically any epistle of Paul. Why would he say to Timothy, hold to the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, you know?
- 07:00
- Guard the treasure that has been entrusted to you. Why would he say, do not associate with any so -called brother who is sexually immoral, greedy, an idolater, right?
- 07:10
- But he says, remove that wicked man from among yourselves. And that's not even a theoretical command.
- 07:16
- Paul specifically names folks that he presumably had removed from church, like Hymenaeus and Alexander, right?
- 07:22
- Paul said he handed these men over to Satan. Why do and say these things? Because false theology is dangerous to the church and it should be taken seriously, and the church should be guarded seriously.
- 07:36
- Now, some of you might be thinking, well, what's the difference between engaging with this man one -on -one and inviting him to join church activities?
- 07:42
- Well, the difference is, in the first situation, I'm intentionally appealing to a sinner in need of a
- 07:47
- Savior. In the other situation, I've invited a wolf into the sheep's den, acting as if it's just another sheep, which is a recipe for disaster.
- 07:55
- One of my friends invited me to come and preach at his church. Some of the members from that congregation wanted to hear me again, so they came to my church.
- 08:04
- I wanted to thank God for my boyfriend being there, and I saw every person that came from that congregation, they got up and exited stage right.
- 08:15
- Oh, wow. Well, there you go. Now, this is edited, so I don't know what the full story is, but it's not out of the realm of possibility that church members who, apparently, they liked what
- 08:27
- Kurt had to say so much during the first sermon that they actually went to another sermon so that they could hear more, but then in the second sermon, they heard things that are counter to biblical doctrine, and so they got up and walked out.
- 08:39
- Now, maybe it didn't happen that way, but this is the kind of care and concern that Christians are taught to have when it comes to correct theology.
- 08:47
- Now, I'm certain somebody is watching this video right now and saying to themselves, well, you see? That's my problem with traditional
- 08:53
- Christian bigots who act with so much hatred. Well, here's the deal. It's not hatred that causes Christians to be very cautious when it comes to what the
- 09:00
- Bible says. It's love for God and the words that he has communicated in the Bible that causes us to be so cautious.
- 09:08
- In the same way, if you were married and I came to you and I said, hey, you know what I love about your spouse? This person is not at all monogamous.
- 09:16
- They are so welcoming of cheating in monogamous relationships, and you know what? They have no regard for bearing children, you know, which basically
- 09:24
- I end up listing a bunch of characteristics that you know without a doubt does not describe your spouse.
- 09:30
- It's like the total opposite of who they are. You're going to have the same reaction too. You're going to say, no, wait a minute.
- 09:35
- That's not true. Now, you tell me, is that out of hatred or is that out of love for your spouse?
- 09:40
- And I'm going to hell and I'm teaching false doctrine. In the beginning of my ministry, that hurt me.
- 09:46
- On the flip side, when a young person comes to you and they're thinking about committing suicide, then who's going to hold them up and tell them, you know what?
- 09:55
- You don't have to give up and you don't have to allow people to dictate your path. You have the power to dictate your own path.
- 10:01
- I definitely resonate with that. Well, it sounds extremely noble to say that, right? You know, who's going to go and love the suicidal person who is struggling with their desires?
- 10:12
- They're struggling because they feel out of place, perhaps condemned for the decisions that they're making.
- 10:18
- Who's going to help them? Well, Jesus will. And as a representative of Jesus, traditional
- 10:24
- Christians like me go to suicidal people all the time and love them and tell them about the solution to their struggle.
- 10:31
- But see, that's the difference between me and somebody like Kurt. If you're a progressive Christian, you're probably going to tell an
- 10:37
- LGBTQ person that the problem is not their sin, it's everyone else. It's the environment in which they're surrounded, right?
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- You're probably going to tell them that the way forward is to embrace who they are, recognize that God made them to feel the way they feel, and then presumably join a community of like -minded folks who interpret
- 10:56
- Christianity in this unbiblical way. And in order to say all these things, you'll have to ignore the clear teaching of God and His Word.
- 11:04
- You'll have to ignore or reinterpret entirely what the Bible says is the problem with the world, which is our sin.
- 11:10
- You'll have to ignore that sin separates us from our Creator, that our sin actually produces in us a predilection and a set of desires to rebel against our
- 11:20
- Creator, that our own flesh, our own self attempts to restore what is broken inside of us but fails miserably, which, by the way, explains anxiety.
- 11:32
- It explains depression. It explains the feelings of hopelessness and being lost. And you'll have to ignore what
- 11:39
- Jesus was doing by coming to earth, dying on the cross, and rising again. I mean, the Bible says He came to save us.
- 11:45
- Save us from what? And if the answer is not ourselves and our own desires to reject
- 11:50
- God, well, then we're not talking about Christianity at that point. Again, who can talk to the person struggling and feeling hopeless and lost?
- 11:58
- Well, the true ambassador of Christ who can provide the actual cure to the problem with the world.
- 12:04
- The one who loves his neighbor enough to tell him the truth in love. Have you ever had to hide yourself to the people of your church?
- 12:12
- I don't think that I hid my sexuality or hid who I am, but I did use a lot of discretion so that I wouldn't offend people.
- 12:19
- It took me until 26 to actually authentically be myself. I went through this journey of dating girls and dating guys.
- 12:27
- I would go out with my girlfriend because I wanted everybody in the church to love me and to like me.
- 12:33
- And then I would go home and cuddle with my boyfriend after. It wasn't until like I had an ahoo moment,
- 12:39
- I just said basically to hell with people. And I understand that God created me and He built me to be the person that I am.
- 12:46
- And nobody can be Curt but Curt. Okay, and that's it, right? I start with my own feelings.
- 12:54
- Then I assume that God gave me these feelings. Then I continue to follow my own path, right?
- 13:00
- I absolutely acknowledge and I recognize the pain that Curt must have felt being in the particular situation that he found himself in.
- 13:11
- I totally understand. I wasn't a Christian until I was 30 years old, okay?
- 13:16
- It's not like I was a pastor since birth, right? It's not like I was a Bible teacher since birth. So, I remember what it's like to reject
- 13:23
- God as a non -believer, okay? And so, I recognize how
- 13:29
- Curt must have felt. And it's not good, you know? I can actually acknowledge and say that I feel what he's feeling.
- 13:39
- I connect empathetically with the pain that he must have felt. But do the conclusions that Curt drew out of the pain that he felt, do those follow logically from the
- 13:50
- Bible? No. This is completely anti -biblical. It's not what God wants for your life.
- 13:56
- Jesus said, whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. What does
- 14:02
- Curt think Jesus is talking about here? I'm also gay. Yay! Yay!
- 14:09
- And it definitely took me a bit longer than I would have liked to have figured it out. How did the acceptance in the church of queer people affect you and your own mental state?
- 14:22
- I don't think my sexuality was exposed yet. But I will tell you that I use hand gestures.
- 14:28
- The bishop called me into his office and he was like, all those hand gestures and stuff like that you're doing, man, don't do that.
- 14:35
- It triggered me to where if I move my hands, I'll catch myself, put my hands together and say, no, don't move your hands.
- 14:43
- I remember I had a similar experience, not so much hand movements, but the way I walked. I remember it was like three of the older guys were like, you walk like a girl.
- 14:51
- Why is your butt out like that? And I didn't think I was walking so flamboyantly, but that moment stuck with me.
- 14:59
- Up until now, I still think about it. I think that in the world that we live in today, that we can actually be more gender fluid.
- 15:07
- And if you like it, you like it. Make it work. So that's how the world needs to be. Make it work. So far,
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- I haven't heard any scriptural basis for anything Kurt is saying. Right? Follow yourself.
- 15:20
- Embrace gender fluidity. If you like it, just make it work, y 'all. I don't see that anywhere in the scripture.
- 15:26
- I do see a lot of submitting to God, letting his plans be accomplished, not your own plans.
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- I do see a lot of dying to self and living for the Lord, you know, obeying his commandments and not seeking your own way.
- 15:40
- But that's not what Kurt seems to be about at all. How does your family handle your sexuality and your religious together?
- 15:49
- My family is very understanding. In all actuality, my parents are members of my church.
- 15:54
- I don't really have a coming out story because I really never came out. I just became more authentically myself, but I will say
- 16:03
- I had an initial conversation with my parents. My mom said that she already knew.
- 16:09
- It took my dad two years. He would use terms like them and those people.
- 16:14
- Now he understands that at the end of the day, that it's all about love. Imagine if I made a video where I put up a curtain and different people asked me questions, and the video was called,
- 16:26
- I'm a drunk pastor, ask me anything. And people would say, well, you know, how do your parents feel about you being a drunk pastor?
- 16:34
- And I would say, well, you know, they're very understanding. They attend my church. I didn't really come out and tell people that I was drunk.
- 16:40
- I just became more of my authentic drunk self. You know, I mentioned getting drunk in one of my sermons and a lot of people judged me for it.
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- And then some people got up and walked out of my sermon. Can you believe that? The only reason that stuff like this can happen, this video can even exist is because more and more people do not know what the
- 16:59
- Bible actually says. And that's really sad. Do you view yourself as an openly gay pastor as a political statement?
- 17:07
- No. Me being a pastor just means that I'm passionate about people and that God has called me and given me a unique identifier to be able to love and to appreciate and to speak life into people.
- 17:20
- Okay, but what are the qualifications of being an elder, though? So if God calls some to be pastors, which
- 17:28
- I believe that, by the way, then the question is, how can we verify in some sense that a person is called?
- 17:34
- Well, the answer is, go to 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus and see if this person fits the description.
- 17:40
- Again, let's just say that I'm a drunk pastor. Ask me anything. And someone says, well, you know, did you sense
- 17:45
- God's call to be a drunk pastor? And I say, well, yeah, totally. And then somebody opens up 1
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- Timothy 3. It says, if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.
- 17:57
- Therefore, an overseer must be not a drunkard. Oops. I mean, it's the same thing with Kurt.
- 18:03
- If anyone aspires to the office of overseer or deacon, he must be the husband of one wife.
- 18:09
- Why? Well, because the Bible teaches that the only God -honoring romantic relationship is between a man and a woman.
- 18:15
- I mean, that is clearly spelled out in Genesis. It's reiterated by Jesus in the Gospels. And it also teaches the opposite, that a same -sex relationship is antithetical to God's design for humanity.
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- So if you want to be a pastor, which means a shepherd of the sheep of God, right, of God's church, you need to affirm
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- God's design for His people. You need to faithfully teach what God desires or else
- 18:38
- God did not call you. You say in the Bible that being gay is a sin. Biblical text doesn't introduce the word homosexuality until the 1900s.
- 18:49
- So then you have to go back and you have to look at the original manuscript, which frames it from a different perspective.
- 18:56
- So it talks about giving the natural affection of a man to a woman or a natural affection to a woman.
- 19:08
- We are divinely everything that God wants us to be. I think that's awesome. I've never heard that part of it before.
- 19:15
- Well, so there it is, right? Kurt is right in this sense.
- 19:20
- The Bible does not talk about a person's orientation. That's because, I would argue, talking about people as heterosexuals or homosexuals as if their orientation is some kind of significant descriptor only came into regular use relatively recently.
- 19:35
- Nobody in the history of humanity has ever talked like this before. But then Freud comes along and others, and they start using these terms about orientation, then all of a sudden here we are today talking this way.
- 19:47
- The Bible actually talks about action. Men getting together with men. Women getting together with women.
- 19:54
- This is what is described in places like Leviticus 18, Leviticus chapter 20, as well as Romans chapter 1, 1
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- Corinthians chapter 6. And the New Testament passages merely reflect what the Old Testament teaching is on this.
- 20:08
- But look at how the action is described. Leviticus 18 .22 says, "...you shall not lie with a male as with a woman.
- 20:16
- It is an abomination." What does lie mean? Right? It means to have intercourse.
- 20:22
- If you have intercourse with a male the same way that you would with a woman, it is considered to be an abomination.
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- It is antithetical to God's design, and God doesn't want you to do that. Leviticus chapter 20, verse 13 says, "...if
- 20:35
- a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination."
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- The action is in view. The Bible is not talking about people in terms of their orientation.
- 20:49
- It's talking about their actions, and it's very clear. So for Kurt to bring up orientation and then natural affection, which he's referencing
- 20:57
- Romans chapter 1 right there, verse 26 says, "...for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relations."
- 21:08
- And so Kurt wants to interpret the word natural to mean natural for the individual. Why? Well, because in progressive
- 21:14
- Christian circles, the operating principle is to start with subjectivism and individual feeling, and then just assume that God wants you to follow yourself along those lines.
- 21:24
- But if you just keep reading Romans chapter 1, it becomes obvious that's not what the word natural means.
- 21:30
- Verse 27, "...and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women, and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men, and receiving in themselves a due penalty for their error."
- 21:45
- What is natural? That a man and a woman should be together. That's what the Bible means by natural.
- 21:51
- If you do not accept that, I mean, that's a separate issue entirely. What is going on right now is someone is saying that the
- 21:59
- Bible is teaching something that it's not. It's clear that Romans 1 is using the word natural to refer to the fact that it's natural for a man to be with a woman.
- 22:08
- Notice, once again, the Bible talks about actions. It's not talking about orientation. Men committing shameless acts with men.
- 22:15
- So Kurt's argument here falls flat and does not prove what he wants it to. I mean, look, I don't say this with contempt in my heart for Kurt or his friends or anyone in the
- 22:26
- LGBTQ community. I know it's hard for LGBTQ folks to understand how a
- 22:32
- Christian who doesn't agree with them on this issue can still have a huge heart for them and love them, but that doesn't change the fact that I do care about them.
- 22:40
- My brothers and sisters in Christ care about them, and we care so much for Kurt and his friends and the
- 22:46
- LGBTQ community that we have to be real on this issue. This isn't a game. We all have to understand the
- 22:52
- Bible correctly on this issue. People's very souls are at stake. Do you believe that you will go to hell?
- 22:58
- Oh, heck, you know, I'm not going to hell. I think that God is very heart intended, and so he looks at our heart.
- 23:08
- I don't think in him there's neither male nor female. I definitely think that God looks at your soul and not at who you choose to love.
- 23:17
- So, I mean, there's a little bit of scripture in there, right? But what is the implication?
- 23:23
- It seems like Kurt and the previous lady is saying our heart is somehow separate in some kind of meaningful sense to our actions, right?
- 23:32
- God is heart intended. He just looks at the heart. The girl said, you know, God looks at your soul, not at who you choose to love.
- 23:41
- It sounds like in their minds there's this disconnect between our heart and soul, right, and our actions.
- 23:48
- But is that what the Bible teaches? No. Proverbs 4 .23 says this,
- 23:54
- Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. In other words, your whole life, what you do, what you say flows out of what is in your heart.
- 24:05
- That's why Jesus said in Matthew 12, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. But then he goes on to say this,
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- The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good. What is treasure, right? The treasure is the heart.
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- The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good. The evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.
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- So, it's not just your words, it's what you do. This is why David said in Psalm 51,
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- Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. It's because the Bible teaches that your actions are fundamentally connected to what is inside your heart.
- 24:40
- So, what Kurt and this previous lady is saying is so fundamentally off. And then,
- 24:45
- Kurt quotes Galatians, right? Verse 28 of chapter 3, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female.
- 24:55
- Why? Because you are all one in Christ Jesus. And in order to be one in Christ, you should have been baptized in Christ and put on Christ.
- 25:04
- That's the context, that's verse 26, look above it. But wait, in order to do that, you needed to have followed
- 25:09
- Christ, which means that you need to deny yourself. That's Mark 8, 34, right?
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- If you deny yourself and put on Christ, which means to be like Jesus, to obey the
- 25:20
- Father the way that he did, to follow in Jesus' footsteps, then we won't seek to be identified as a
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- Jew or a Gentile. We won't seek to be identified as a slave or a free person. We won't even seek to be identified as gay or straight.
- 25:34
- We will identify as Christ followers, as sons and daughters adopted into the family of God to do our
- 25:41
- Father's business. See, again, this is what happens when you don't know your scripture and you don't take its teachings very seriously.
- 25:47
- How does it make you feel when more conservative pastors spread hate about the
- 25:53
- LGBTQ community and even like spread like threats? It hurts my feelings that people operate in hate, especially when we serve a
- 26:02
- God that loves. John 3, 16 says, for God so loved the world. When people teach hate instead of love, it makes me, one, question their ability to really hear from God or to speak for God.
- 26:15
- So, I agree with Kurt that God is a God of love. I agree with that.
- 26:21
- I agree with Kurt that if we are not a people marked by love, then we are nothing, right?
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- Paul says as much in 1 Corinthians 13. You can be the smartest person on YouTube and you can know more than anyone else about the
- 26:33
- Bible. You can win all the debates that you want to, but if you do not have love, you're nothing, right?
- 26:38
- But again, is God only love? What does the Bible say? Kurt quoted
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- John 3, 16. What do the next verses say? Look at verse 18 with me. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only
- 26:57
- Son of God. Verse 19. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
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- For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. This is why the very last verse of chapter 3 says what it says.
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- It's the same chapter that Kurt just quoted, but look at the last verse of chapter 3.
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- Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life.
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- Here it is. But the wrath of God remains on him. Is God love?
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- Yes. Is love the only characteristic that God has? No. God will bring justice upon the evil of the world.
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- And I got news for you. If you don't believe in God, you don't believe in the Bible. You do believe in justice, okay?
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- And I don't need to know you to know that. And so we have a God who at least with these two qualities for the intent and purposes of this video is a
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- God of love and justice, right? In love, God extends his grace to those who will accept it.
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- I mean, the fact that Jesus left eternity and took on flesh to stand in our place and receive our punishment should take everyone's breath away.
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- That is the greatest act of love imaginable. But in justice, God will punish those who reject him and continue to practice evil.
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- Why? Because God is not corrupt. He is just. That is the consistent teaching of the
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- Bible. Time that you resented the church. Yes. I had a situation where I was fired and I resented the church for a very long time.
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- My therapist was able to help me understand how to feel better about myself.
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- So how does one take religion and come to terms with themselves?
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- Like this is that love you're talking about. How do we find our own truth? The first misconception is that people want to be religious.
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- God's desire is to be relational with us. If we go back to Genesis and we look in the garden with Adam and Eve, God was building relationship with them.
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- He wasn't building religion with them. Do you ever get any judgment from queer people about you being so religious?
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- So many gay people have been hurt or damaged by the church. It does take people a minute to realize that religion is not what we do.
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- Relationship is what we build. What advice would you give to... Okay, I got it. I got it. I think I got it.
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- All right, look, the bottom line is the world is broken. I think
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- Kurt recognizes that at some level. I think everyone who sat with him and asked him questions recognizes that the world is broken at some level.
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- Every religion that has ever been formed is seeking to solve this fundamental problem with the world.
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- And so that raises some deep philosophical and existential questions like what is wrong with the world?
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- How can what's wrong be made right? So I do feel that journey and that search that Kurt is on.
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- Okay, I never struggled with same -sex attraction, but I was a non -believer until I was 30 years old. I know what it feels like to be on that search.
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- I resonate with that. I feel the journey and the questions that everyone was asking today because I know where it comes from.
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- They're all in their own way, searching to make sense of the world that we live in. But I think the fundamental error that Kurt, and it appears these other people are making, is that they trust themselves too much in that search.
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- In other words, they seem to take stock. Well, let me just... I'll focus on Kurt because he's the one primarily talking.
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- Okay, Kurt seems to take stock in his feelings and in his sense of himself and just assume that these things are morally righteous.
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- And then from that starting point, he goes to the Bible and then he tries to make sense of the Bible through the filter of his own experience.
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- And I would argue you cannot do that. The Bible teaches very clearly that our desires influence our thought processes, which would be okay if it wasn't for the fact that our desires often are wicked.
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- And anyone that can take a real honest assessment of themselves knows that deep down. The Bible says this wickedness is so deep that we can't even trust our own hearts because they are deceptive in nature.
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- The only thing that we can trust is the God who appeals to us to turn from our wicked ways and be with him and let him be with us so that we can become righteous again.
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- But see, that requires that we accept the solution from the outside. That requires that we cannot see ourselves with such a high view that we actually have to lower our view of ourselves that we can't assume that we can just pull ourselves up from our own bootstraps and fix ourselves.
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- We can't do that. That's not the gospel. We need to accept the solution from someone else, from the outside.
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- But see, a lot of us, like many who go through interventions, they refuse such outside solutions.
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- We think we don't need it. We think we are the solution. And so when the Bible says, stop seeking your own way and seek
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- God's way, we ignore it. Some of us, if we do read the Bible, we don't treat it as seriously as it teaches us that we should.
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- Instead of seeing it as God's own communication to mankind, we think, well, you know what? First, let me start with how
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- I feel today about how I feel about myself. And then we use that as a filter to understand
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- God and the Bible. That is a recipe for a false gospel, ladies and gentlemen. The Bible warns us against such false gospels.
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- Curtis quoted from Galatians. Galatians 1 .9 says, If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
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- Why? Why does it say that? Because 2 Timothy 3, understand this, that in the last days, there will be times of difficulty for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self -control, brutal, not loving good.
- 33:06
- Treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.
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- The Bible says avoid such people. That's what's going on here with Kurt and others. And it's unfortunate.
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- I would much rather Kurt be teaching what the Bible actually says because he's actually been transformed by it.
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- But unfortunately, Kurt is not teaching the Bible. He's not teaching what God desires for us.
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- And so this video, unfortunately, is going to lead a lot of people astray. What do you think?
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- What's your reaction to Kurt and these folks? Let's talk about it. I'd love to get your thoughts. Look, if you are a
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- Christian, it is incumbent upon you to guard the treasure that has been entrusted to you. That's the spirit of this video.
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- That's the spirit behind this ministry. Thank you so much for watching. I have more videos for you coming soon.
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- Check out some of the other Pastor Reacts videos in this series. I think you'll find them to be interesting. But in the meantime,