Same-Sex Attraction Part 2 - Answers to Difficult Questions — Shane Idleman

Lord, I would just ask that you visit us tonight in a special way, Lord. Lord, we thank you for Calvary. We thank you for Golgotha. Lord, we thank you for the empty tomb. Lord, we are here today because of you, because of your Son, because of the power of your Spirit.

Lord, I pray that this service tonight would change lives, transform lives. Lord, rebuild marriages. Lord, restore the brokenhearted. Lord, I pray, Lord, that you would please visit our valley. Lord, bring revival.

Lord, to the churches. Lord, we wanna see you move in our nation again. Lord, we give you this service tonight. Lord, I pray that you would just give me, Lord, not only the words to say, Lord, but the passion to say it, the clarity.

Lord, give me purpose behind what we're about to speak on tonight. Lord, I pray right now that those who came here with heavy burdens, you'd begin to release those burdens, Lord. Give them peace and hope and joy.

We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, for some of you, you might wonder if we start a little early now, and we don't. We still start at 5 .30. But at 5 .15, we've decided to kind of close the doors and start worship.

The only thing that we ask is that you would just remain quiet during that time. If you wanna talk, then definitely stay out in the foyer and do that. But we're trying to just set a time for worship, before worship, if I can use that term.

Maybe I'm missing something here. There we go. Love when that happens. Luckily, it was just the introduction, right? So that's why we start a little early now, 5 .15. We're getting in. We're just gonna worship a little early.

And if you don't like that, then 5 .30, you can still come on in. But we wanna just keep it quiet. We just wanna honor God. And as we go into part two, definitely it's been heavy on my heart. As you know, last week I spoke on same-sex attraction.

Solid Answers in Confusing Times

How do we balance grace and truth? How do we balance that topic of grace and truth? We talked about homosexuality and the homosexual agenda and how we have love for those people, but at the same time, we wanna hold true to God's word.

So if you were not here last week, I wanna encourage you to get that message. Go online, you can watch part one. It's the sister to part two. It's gonna make a lot more sense when you put part one with part two.

And what part two is, I was getting a lot of questions from Facebook and email and just different people on this topic of same-sex attraction, homosexuality and gay marriage, and it's in our culture today big time.

So what I wanna do this week was answer some of those questions. However, looking at the questions, looking at the bulletin, as you can see, there's a lot of questions. And I don't think I can fully exhaust this in 60 minutes.

So what I did was I put a Bible scripture, a verse underneath each question so you can also go back on your own and look at these questions. And that's why I titled the message tonight Solid Answers in Confusing Times.

And I'm often reminded of Psalms 119, 105. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. So what we do is we answer everything according to God's word, especially on this topic. God's word has a lot to say on this.

And we're such in unstable times, but there is a solid rock on which everything is built. So that's what we are wanting to accomplish tonight. Now, I don't think I'll get through all those questions. So you can kind of look at those later.

Truth as the Foundation for Christian Unity

Some of those I can probably answer when we get to the study in Proverbs. But I wanna ask a question tonight, and I kind of allude to this last week, but I wanna ask it again. Why are Christians divided on this issue when the Holy Spirit is not divided?

Think about that. Why is there such a polarization in the church today? Why are Christians divided on this topic of same-sex attraction or gay marriage? Why is there a division? The Holy Spirit is not divided.

The Holy Spirit is a spirit of unity, a spirit of truth. So it begs the question, why are we divided? And there's one word, truth. The battle is over truth. That's what you're gonna see in our culture today.

The culture mocks truth. The culture despises it. So that's why Christians are divided on this issue. The truth is crystal clear. This is crystal clear, but we're divided on this issue. Why is that? Why are Christians divided on this issue?

It comes back to truth. And that's why I often ask people, are you upset at me when I talk about this topic, or are you upset at the truth? Because see, I'm just a messenger. I'm just a messenger on this type of topic.

God's word is crystal clear, and what a lot of churches are doing, a lot of people are doing, is they're straying away from this, and they're bringing in opinions, and what I think, and what do you think, and all these people, all these different opinions are coming into the church.

So that's why the Christians are divided on this issue. You look at Facebook, you look at all these different things, you can wonder, what's going on here? What's wrong with me? Nothing's wrong with you.

The problem is, people are pulling away from the truth. Does that make sense? So I wanted to clarify that, and before I get into these questions, I wanna talk about three things with truth. And many of you have been coming here a while, you know that I really wanna drive this point home, but it begs repeating, because of where we're at with this issue.

Truth is a non-negotiable. You realize that? Truth is non-negotiable. Jesus said, sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. See, everybody wants to quote Jesus, turn the other cheek, do nice to people, love your enemies, but Jesus said, God's word, the totality of God's word is truth.

Jesus said it. Everything, every jot, every tittle, he said, I came to not abolish the law, the Old Testament, I came to fulfill it. Fulfill it, I am the fulfillment of everything you've been looking for.

I am the totality of the law. So Jesus said, sanctify them, God, by your truth, because your word is truth. Now, the next scripture I wanna look at there is Ephesians 4, 36. Paul writing to the church in Ephesus says, endeavoring, you've gotta endeavor, you've gotta struggle to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and the Father of all, who is above all and through all. You might say, Shane, what in the world does that have to do with everything?

Well, I wanna look at that first sentence. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit. When we talk about unity in the church, when we talk about unity among Christians, it's always unity with the spirit, unity with truth.

It's never unity for the sake of unity. Can't we all just get along? No, we can't all just get along if we're rejecting the truth. Does that make sense? As much as we'd love to have a big ecumenical movement, we can't with those who deny the truth.

When you deny the inerrancy of the truth, when you say there might be other ways, I don't know, Jesus was a good teacher, I don't know, all these things, when you deny the truth, I can't fellowship with you because I've gotta be in fellowship with God.

So when I'm in fellowship with God, one spirit, one truth, one baptism, one faith, I must reject other groups that don't embrace that. It's not arrogance, it's not narrow-minded, it's biblical. Anytime you study unity in the Bible, it's unity of truth, unity of faith, unity of love for Christ, unity of the word of God.

So when we talk about unity in the body, what's going on? I see this, you know, why do you have to talk about this? People have this difficult issue. We just need to be united, we all need to come together.

How can we come together when we're divided on truth? Truth is what holds everything together. I love what A .W. Tozer said, I've said this before, but it bears repeating, he said, God will bless the peacemaker, but what?

He abhors the religious negotiator. And that's what's happening in our culture today. We're wanting to negotiate this. Let's negotiate it, let's reconsider, let's remove all these difficult things. So as I'm talking about this topic, that's why people are divided.

They're divided on the truth of God's word. The next point here, truth can never, never, never be extinguished. Do you realize that? Truth, no matter what they do, they might try to silence it, they might try to pass laws against it, legislation against it, silence the church, but truth will never be extinguished.

It can't, because God said, I will send my word and it will not return void. The truth can never be extinguished. They might try to cover it, they might try to get rid of it, but it can never, ever be extinguished.

And on this point, I've been dying to tell a story that I've told almost two years ago when the church started. But I've held it for two years because you don't want to be repetitive and all these different things.

But the story that I told probably almost two years ago on this issue of truth, and some of you remember, I remember there's probably a dozen faces here, but it bears repeating because it's gonna bring this point home in what's going on in our culture.

And many of you have heard it's about that battleship that was doing exercises off the coast of Alaska. You remember this? Deep water exercises off the coast of Alaska. It was dense fog, it was midnight, and the battleship is out there doing whatever battleships do.

And the captain was on the battleship and he could see a light approaching. He could see that there was something, there was a vessel there. And he woke the signal man up and he said, listen, signal to that vessel to turn 20 degrees or he's gonna run into us.

So they signaled to the vessel and the vessel signaled back, no, you turn 20 degrees starboard. The captain said, who does this guy think he is? Signal back, turn your vessel 20 degrees. I am the highest ranking officer in the United States Navy.

And the message came back, captain, with all due respect, I'm a seaman, first class, change your course immediately. And this infuriated the captain. He threw down his coffee, he said, give me that signal.

Let me signal, I am a battleship. I'm gonna blow you out of the water if you do not change your course immediately. The signal came back, captain, with all due respect, change your course, I'm a lighthouse.

Isn't that what our culture does though? It says get out of the way, get out of the way. The Bible says I can't, I can't get out of the way. I am a lighthouse given to guide, given to direct, given to save man from himself.

I cannot hide, I cannot move no matter how hard you try. I am given to save you. But in our pride and in our arrogance, we have told it to move and get out of the way. Truth, we don't wanna see you, we don't want that protection.

Would you move, would you get off course? But it says no, I stand as a lighthouse. I cannot move, I cannot be removed. You cannot quelch me, you cannot quench me, you cannot do, I will stand the test of time.

And the church must be reminded of that on a continual basis. The next point is there, the pulpits are responsible. The pulpits of America are responsible because when you proclaim the truth, the church will repent and receive it.

Paul told Timothy right there in your notes, Timothy, I beseech you, I charge you, which is a command, I command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead. Timothy, preach the word, be ready in and out of season for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, so convince the people, rebuke the people, exhort the people so that they will turn and turn back to me.

That's the job of the pulpit. It's not here to coddle and comfort all the time and never challenge and never convict. If we would just preach the truth of God's word, the church would break, the church would repent.

That's what we're seeing today. And you guys know I've quoted Jeremiah 23 often. It reminds me of that time though when God said, I have not even sent these pastors, I have not even sent these teachers.

What they do is they strengthen the hand of evildoers. How, Jeremiah? By not confronting them. They say peace, peace, when God says there's no peace, there is judgment coming upon your land. And these guys cry, peace, peace and safety, the Lord is with you.

So God says, I have not even sent them. I didn't even send them. But they ran. I have not spoken to them, but they prophesied. But had they truly stood in my counsel, they would have turned the people from the error of the way.

Is not my word like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? The Bible says it's a hammer, it's a rod, it's iron. It is a fire that devours the word of God. So he sends his word and it heals them and it restores them and it breaks them.

That's the whole point of preaching is to go forth through the power of the Holy Spirit and change and convict the heart. That's why I often say I can't just play church. You got the wrong guy. We've gotta go for what God wants and convicting and changing and challenging.

And yes, we need to be encouraged and yes, we need to be upheld and yes, we need to be strengthened. But there comes a time in the history of a church when they have to start standing on solid ground and going back to the word of God.

There's enough comforting out there. There's enough fluff out there. We need to call the church back to truth. So that's why this is such a divisive issue in our nation today is because we're not going back to the truth.

Everybody's confused. God's not confused. God's word's not confused. It's very, very clear on this issue. So we've gotta stand on the truth. That's what this division is all about. And as I read through some of the, you know, when this thing, when last week's messages went on YouTube and we have over 1 ,000 hits now in a couple days and all these comments and people are saying this and that, and a lot of times I don't look, but this one doesn't bother me too much because these people don't understand it's truth.

It's not me. It's the truth. They just don't wanna look at the truth. It's like trying to argue that the sun doesn't come up. I mean, how long do you argue about that? You don't get upset about it. You go, ah, geez, they don't even understand the truth.

So unless you embrace the truth of God's word, you will never have clarity and direction. You will never have solid answers in confusing times. You have to be in the word of God. You have to study, you have to cherish it.

God has given us his written, revealed word for us to guide us, to direct us, to encourage us, to lead us. It provides everything we need right there. So we have to look to that. So with that said, can I get to the questions now?

Judging Righteously Rather Than Hypocritically

Now that we have that foundation of truth. So everything I'm about to say is built on the foundation of truth. Okay, the first question that is thrown out there, and if you have your Bibles, you can turn to Matthew 7, one through five.

Who are you to judge? Doesn't the Bible say, let me put in here what they really said. Doesn't the Bible say, shut your mouth? Some people have dropped the F-bomb in there, shut your mouth. Who are you to judge?

That's a big argument today. Who are you to judge? Remember when Charles Barkley was running for office a couple years ago? He made the same statement. Who are you Christians to judge on gay marriage and abortion?

Who made you judge? Jesus said, judge not. The problem is you have to keep reading the text and put it in context. You can't just pick out, you can make the Bible say whatever you want if you just pick and choose little things here and there.

Let's read the rest of it so you'll know. These are gonna be the arguments coming against us. If the church would just stand her right ground, know the word of God, be confident in it, and speak it in a spirit of love, we would be able to come against the culture.

Now I said this last week and it bears repeating, but we're not as a church against those who struggle with same-sex attraction. One guy said, I'm not coming to hear that because it's gay bashing. It's not gay bashing, it's the last thing I'm doing.

It has nothing to do with that. We love those who struggle with this. We've helped those, I talk to those, I counsel those, I pray for those who struggle with them. We are the church. We are a hospital for people who are broken.

We're all sinners in the same boat. However, I'm against the agenda, this perverted agenda that wants to push this junk on kindergartners, that wants to lower the age of sexual consent. They wanna do all these things so they say, you're prohibiting me from doing this.

No, sir, I'm not prohibiting, I'm protecting. I'm called to stand and protect the word of God that has been in place for thousands and thousands of years. So who is actually attacking? I'm not being attacked, I'm defending.

I'm just holding the post. Hey, this has been in place for thousands of years. This was in place in Adam and Eve. This was in place when Sodom and Lot and Abraham. This was in place during Israel's history when they made their laws.

This was in place when Christ came. This was in place when the early church fathers said, look at the writings, Tertullian, Augustine, Justin Martyr, Polycarp, Irenaeus, all these. And it's still true today.

So we're just holding ground. They're attacking God's word. They're attacking truth, so I must stand ground. If I can't stand ground, I need to retire and go get a secular job. That's what the church is called to do.

So we are to judge because right here in Matthew, Jesus says, judge not that you not be judged. For with what judgment you use, it'll be judged. And with what measure you use, it'll be measured back to you.

Now he goes on to say, hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye, then you'll be able to see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's. So see, you can go to a person at some point in time, once you're humble, once you're broken, once you say, Lord, I don't wanna do this, I don't wanna go in a spirit of arrogance and a critical spirit, but I need to judge rightly.

What does John Calvin say in his commentary? These words of Christ do not contain an absolute prohibition from judging, but they are intended to cure a disease. Criticism. See, Jesus was listening to all these critical Pharisees and Sadducees, so this judge not, he's saying, listen, judge not you sin-sniffing, finger-pointing Pharisees.

Whatever judgment you use is coming right back at you. This has nothing to do with judging rightly because Jesus says in John, I believe it's 724, he encourages his followers to judge with righteous judgment.

Wait a minute, what's going on here? Scripture's contradicting itself. No, it's not. This word judge and condemn and all these things, Jesus, he's saying, judge not. In other words, condemn not. I cannot pronounce judgment on somebody.

That's why Paul says in Romans, who are you to judge another man's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. He will be judged based on, so we can't condemn a person. In other words, you're going to hell, you're condemned to sin, I'm done with you, boom.

We cannot judge in that regard, but we can judge righteously by godly standards. I mean, that's the whole point of God's word and the pulpit is to dissect God's word and to judge rightly so that people know how to live.

So it makes no sense that we can't say anything based on this one little scripture of judge not. So that's putting it in context. I put a little bit more info there if you want to read on that later. So we are to judge, but we must judge in a spirit of humility and love and brokenness and come out of truly wanting to help somebody, not wanting to be right.

You see the difference? That's why I've said before, is it the truth that offends you or is it my attitude? See, my attitude I can change, but the truth I can't. That's going to offend people. The truth of God's word's going to offend people.

When to Speak and When to Remain Silent

Number two, this one I probably won't answer much because I'm going to answer it in Proverbs, but a lot of Christians have been asking, well, when do I say something and when do I remain silent? When do I say something about this?

I mean, that's what I said before. Everybody else is coming out of the closet, but Christians can't come out of the closet. We can't post one little scripture on Facebook about this or we're attacked, but they can say everything, everything out there, but we can't come against it.

That's part of the agenda. Make this lifestyle look real, make it attractive, make them appear to be victims, make everybody see it in all the media and all the sitcoms and everything so it looks normal.

It's part of this whole agenda to get society to embrace this. So when do we answer that? Proverbs 26, 45, do not answer a fool according to his folly or you'll be like him yourself. And then it says, answer a fool according to his folly or he will be wise in his own eyes.

And I'm actually gonna pick that apart in Proverbs so I don't have a lot of time to do it tonight. It's gonna be repetitive, but James McDonald wrote a good blog post on this. In a nutshell, he says, you tell someone once with clarity and brevity.

Anything more than that draws us into the web of folly. Say it once clearly and lovingly. Anyone seeking wisdom will get the message of benefit. Fools will argue and debate and blame shift. And if you don't get off that train in a hurry, you'll become one of the fools trying to help a fool and that doesn't help anyone.

But I did write that, I wanna share this. When to share something with somebody, a friend, a relative, Facebook, whatever it is. Okay, when do I say something and when don't? I've been silent for years, I haven't said anything.

What I do, here's what I do. I wait, pray and I search my heart. And then guess what I do? I wait, pray and search my heart. Because it's like, sometimes you just wanna, man, I gotta say something. So you wait, pray and God usually leaves that impression on you.

He'll keep, you know, you gotta do this. You got, like speaking on this topic. I don't want, no, not right now. You know, and then Chick-fil-A and people and it's like, okay, this time. So God's gonna put that on your heart and you're gonna say it in love, not arrogance.

You're gonna say it in love and think it through. Often it's not what you say, it's how you say it that tilts the scale. See, that's vitally important. That's why it took me 30 minutes last week just to get to the introduction.

So I'm gonna be very careful to clarify everything. So you have to, it's not what you say, it's how you say it. Again, here's another one. Don't react, instead respond. Don't react, instead respond. There's not a Saturday that goes by that I see a negative editorial sometimes that's just smearing my name all over the page of the religion section.

Oh, let me shoot this guy an email. I'll find him on Facebook. Let me write an editorial and let me set him straight. No, sleep on it, change my mind the next day. You know, let other people do that. So there's a lot to just waiting on the Lord and not reacting, but responding in love.

And then I often ask, does it hurt, help, or harm? Like the person, you know they're not receptive right now, it's just gonna hurt them, it's gonna hurt the relationship. It's not, what's the point? Or somebody genuinely seeking, genuinely asking questions.

Always remember this too, what you write now is recorded forever almost with the internet. Every time I go to publish a book, I'm like, oh goodness, this is new. There's no way you're getting this back once you put it out there.

So with Facebook, with anything else, remember that. You can't erase it. Once you say it, so you better say it kindly and with love, and with gentleness, you better make sure God's directing you. But more on that when we get in the Proverbs series that starts September 8th.

All the studies are gonna be in Proverbs, September 8th. Number three, I know that homosexuality is a sin, but if it's just like any other sin, why do many Christians hate people for it? And I answered this in length last week, so again, if you weren't here, go listen to that.

But in a nutshell, Christians don't hate people for it. We recognize, and that's why I put here, true Christian's response is all sin is wrong in God's sight. All sin. So we don't hate somebody for it.

We don't like sin in general. We abhor sin like God does. Sin is what's destroying man. Sin is what's destroying marriages. Sin is what's gonna put people in hell for eternity. So we look at sin as all sin.

And again, the battleground is the agenda, not the person who's struggling. So it's funny how just speaking about this, as loving as we can be, they're gonna say, you hate, you're hate-mongers, you hate this.

I don't hate, who hates? Look at how the backlash, and you'll see what side really hates. We're saying it in love. If I, why would I put myself and subject myself to criticism and maybe being attacked someday or whatever?

Why would we, why would it open itself up for that? Because of God's word and loving and wanting to share the truth. So it has nothing to do with hate. I mean, people can carry on their lifestyle and do whatever they wanna do, but if somebody genuinely loves them, they're going to warn them.

Not belittle, but warn. Not upset, but convict. That's what the truth does. Number four, the Bible encourages, oh, here's my favorite one. The Bible encourages slavery. And it says that certain foods are an abomination, therefore homosexuality is obviously okay now.

Well, a couple things. First, you have to remember that the Bible never encouraged slavery. It often taught a time in history when this happened, and we also have to make the differential between slavery, like what this nation knew, we have this atrocity on our hands, and like Joseph being sold into slavery.

But a lot of times, the Old Testament, it was indentured servant. They owed this person money, so they worked for them. And sometimes it turned out so good that in Deuteronomy, I believe it's Deuteronomy, early part of Deuteronomy, where they would say, if you want to stay with that person, we'll put a mark on you and your ear, and if you say, I love this person, I want to stay with them for the rest of my life, then you can remain with them.

Because they had, after seven years, they would free the people that were under this financial bondage. So we have to be careful here. I mean, I could spend a lot of time in that. But the Bible doesn't encourage slavery, and it says certain foods are an abomination, like shellfish is an abomination.

So they say, well, obviously, now homosexuality is okay. That's a quantum leap. I mean, because all the moral laws that God put in place are still applicable today. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, all the moral laws.

And by the way, as a health thing, shellfish are not good for you. They eat off the bottom of the ocean. They eat the cesspool, the septic of the ocean. That's, there's a little bit of wisdom in the Bible.

It says don't eat swine, don't eat shellfish, don't do these things, don't eat the blood. All these things are also very sanitary and healthy. It's funny how clothed foot, and God picks out the clean and unclean animals.

I'm like, man, these birds, their health, just for health reasons, he's nailing it. All the animals you can eat, all the ones you can't, these are unhealthy things for the body. Isn't that amazing? God's Word doesn't contradict itself.

It confirms itself. Doesn't mean you can't go back and have shrimp, just understand that it's not good what they eat, because you're eating them and then you take in that. So I'm gonna leave it at that.

But the Bible verse for that one is 1 Timothy. If you have your Bible, 1 Timothy 1, 9 through 10. Or just hold tight, because I'm gonna go through these pretty quickly. Realizing the fact that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and the profane, for those who kill fathers and mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals, and kidnappers and liars and purgers, whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.

So Paul right there is telling Timothy, listen, whatever's contrary to sound doctrine, he even breaks it all down. These things are not encouraged today. A lot of people, what they're doing is they're grasping for the wind.

They're taking all these things and they're trying to say, well, see, the Bible is so clear on this that it makes me wonder how they miss it, unless it's intentional. It is intentional. Number five, Jesus never said that homosexuality is wrong.

Jesus, the Law, and Sexual Morality

Yes, he did say it was wrong. Matthew 5, 17, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter nor the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.

Jesus, and I've quoted this before last week, but I'll do it again. In Matthew again, Matthew 15, nine, he said, out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, and fornications. These defile a man.

Notice the word plural, fornications there. Anything outside of sex between a man and a woman, Jesus said is evil. It's a perversion of the truth, anything, anything. And I like this one too, John 8, 10 through 11.

Jesus, remember the story when he straightened up and the lady was accused of adultery and all the people left, everybody left, and Jesus said, where are your accusers, woman? And she said, Lord, there are none.

He said, then neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. But they always use this, even those that embrace this lifestyle, they use this verse. See, he didn't condemn the lady, but he said, go and leave your life of sin.

See, compassion and mercy were there, so he didn't condemn her right there to judgment. He said, listen, I don't condemn you, but go and sin no more. I do not condemn you does not mean I approve of your lifestyle.

Jesus said, I did not come to judge just yet. I will, there will become a day when I will judge the living and the dead. But he said, right now I've come that I may give life, that I seek to save the sinner, that they find me, that they repent of their sin.

So he's not condemning her right now, but he's also not saying I agree with your lifestyle, because he said, go and don't do this anymore. So all we have to do is put these scriptures in context when people throw out things out there.

Just look at what the Bible says. It's solid answers in confusing times. Now, what about this one? Number six, but I was born this way. You ever hear that? I was born this way. What would you say if somebody told you that?

I was, somebody told me this. I remember it clear as day. And I shocked them, and I'm gonna shock you. You know what I said? I was born a thief. I was born a liar. I was born to lust after women other than my wife.

I was born to steal. I was born to cuss. I was born to curse. I was born to blasphemy. I was born to gossip. I was born to hate. I was born this way, too. But had it not been for the cross of Christ, I was born a sinner, too.

See, how's that an excuse? And then he said, oh, yeah, but you have a release for your desires, I don't. There's some good questions here. I'm just being open with you, what these guys, this is what, we're gonna get to that in a minute, but I was born this way, right.

Right, I don't, I mean, the whole debate, is there a genetic gene? It doesn't matter to me because we're born into sin. What David said right here, surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time of my mother conceived me.

Romans 3 .23, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace through redemption in Jesus Christ. But you have to embrace that redemption. It's there, but we have to embrace it.

Many people come to church, think they're saved. They're not saved. They need to embrace that redemption. They need to repent of their sin and trust in Christ. So many times when somebody says, I was born this way, you say, of course, I was born a sinner, too.

Doesn't make it right. Does that make sense? Just because somebody was born this way, now there's arguments against this, you know, there wasn't a male role model, and at a young age, there's a lot of studies, a lot of research, and persuaded that direction.