Homosexuality Sermon

I watched an amazing sermon today on homosexuality that is followed by a Q & A period from the audience. I found it extremely interesting, gracefully related, as well as strikingly honest. No matter which side you are on, the speaker, Matt Chandler, asks that everyone would just listen and ask any questions they have afterward. If you have questions you'd like to ask him directly, you can email him here. If you'd like to send a note to the Living Hope Ministries, who helped with the Q&A session, you can email them here.

Here is the sermon as well as some of my notes (I took down a lot of one-liners), although this is not nearly a comprehensive summary of the actual message, just something to help remind me in the future.

Sermon :: "Homosexuality" 

By :: Pastor Matt Chandler

The Village in Flower Mound, TX

5/21/10

NOTES:

Part 1

Hiding from God is always an ironic game.

What was the first thing Adam & Eve did when they committed treason against God, realizing they were naked and feeling ashamed? They hid from God.

God is merciful & gracious 99% of the time and every now and then extends justice. And when He does, we say, "How dare You!"

"If you'll really pay attention to the scriptures, God's lining us up with how He created the universe to function for our joy." It's not about begrudging submission to vow - it's about a joyous heart.

As God pursues us, so is man's pursuit of woman a creation to reveal such.

Paul was not making a cultural argument, he was making a creation argument (Romans 1).

"What this text says [Bible] is that mankind not only thinks he's smarter than God and prefers God's stuff to God, but it also steals from God what is rightfully God's."

Part 2

6 Arguments for Why Homosexuality Is Not a Sinful Lifestyle Choice

1) If you're not hurting anyone else, there's nothing wrong with it. (Matthew 22:36-40) If you love God then you also love people. But how do you love God? By obeying Him.

2) If I'm a sinner, who am I to call out sin in another? The question isn't "Do I sin" or "Who are we to call out sinners," but "am I actively walking in repentance?" Accountability.

3) Argument of silence; Because Jesus doesn't speak directly to this subject, it's not wrong. (Matthew 15:18-20) Teaching by Jesus against pornanea, encompassing all different types of sexual immorality.

4) Because it's in nature, it's natural. If you continue to roll out this argument, the fact that spider mothers eat the spider fathers after giving birth would also be acceptable and natural for humans; hippo fathers trying to kill their sons so that they won't lose control of the herd would also be normal and acceptable behavior for humans if the "it's in nature" argument is to be consistently held. Natural Selection support biblical view. It says in theory the best/strongest genes will carry on the species, which would mean that if homosexuality is a genetic/physiological trait, that it would be an abnormality at best, or else the species would go extinct. It defies the law of Natural Selection.

5) Homosexuality in the Bible is not the same type of homosexuality we see today. Today's view: "The bible says it's gruesome, related to slave sex, but now it's monogamous, loving, and reciprocal." History's view: "Loving, monogamous, reciprocal homosexual relationships were shown in writings and on pottery thousands of years ago." To say the bible addresses something different than what we have today isn't true, because it has always been the same. Just because you have an orientational urge, does not make it correct.

SIDE NOTE: Idiots have defined masculinity as something so specific and tough that sensitive men who are artistic, tender-hearted men, have found no place to go.

6) Argument of Modern Scholarship: the Bible doesn't really mean what it says. For example, Paul didn't literally mean what Paul said, he really meant to say "this." Modern scholars will pull out "fairy Jesus" texts only and forget about judgment and wrath for rebellion. Modern scholarship is really just going into the Bible with a previously formed opinion and finding scriptures to support that position, rather than looking at what the Bible says truthfully.

What's Our Response

Love :: Patience :: Welcoming

Our message is the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, not of orientation. Our hope is transformed hearts that lead to transformed lives; it doesn't work the other way around.

"If you are someone who is in Christ and struggle with same sex attraction, how do we handle that?" It's not the nature & character of God, if you are His, to put you in situations you can't handle with His mercy and grace to you.

2 Great Lessons from the Puritans

Vivification :: filling your life with things that stir up your affections for Christ.

Mortification :: making war with & putting to death your sin.

Community and the Holy Spirit will help you with these (Romans 8). Knowing that so and so and such and such are praying for you builds in you confidence and courage for protection in Christ.

"Men and women are not projects. If you don't LOVE them, just shut the hell up."

Q & A from the Audience

Q: "How do you share the gospel with someone who is homosexual?"

A: The same way you share the gospel with anyone, orientation doesn't matter.

A: Ask, "What is God going after?" God is after your joy in Him, not your begrudging submission.

A: "Let the Holy Spirit dig around."