I had the privilege of flying to New
York with my wife this week and was
on Fox News.
They actually threw in another video about can
you be good without God and we're going
to share that as well.
And how that really happened, people have been
asking me, it's real simple, it's God.
That's how it happened, I have no clue
than that.
A lot of people are watching the videos
and reading the articles and they thought it
would be a good idea to have me
out there.
It's actually under foxnews.com, Lighthouse Faith with
Lauren Green.
It was a privilege meeting her, what a
classy lady and professional at Fox.
It was a great experience and you can
find it online, Does the Bible Say Anything
About Homosexuality?
I would encourage you to actually listen to
the one hour audio.
That eight minute video is just a teaser
and you really get into depth in the
one hour audio.
It was sent out on bulletin, if you're
listening to this on live stream or later
we can send it to you or you
can just Google, What Does the Bible Say
About Homosexuality?
Shane Eidelman and Stan Mitchell was the other
pastor there.
And we actually had the privilege of talking
with him about 40 minutes before the show
and we hit it off great, really, really
good guy.
I want to reinforce that, it's not this
fighting and this angry battle going on.
There's a deep battle, a battle for truth
I believe.
But I just wanted to let you know
that he was a gracious man and hopefully
we're going to build a relationship from that.
But people have also been asking, Why does
the church need to say anything?
Why can't we just focus on the gospel
here and not worry about all these other
things?
And I wish I had the answer for
that.
But I'm going to talk about something this
morning that's very important.
The title is, The LGBT Agenda, 10 Things
You Need to Know.
The LGBT Agenda, 10 Things You Need to
Know.
And you might say, What does this have
to do with church?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
Two things.
Because we just finished a marriage series.
And I don't know if you're aware, but
the direction of our nation is going away
from God's Word.
It's going away from God's definition of marriage.
And instead of the church doing this, we
need to do this.
We need to preach.
We need to proclaim what God's Word says.
Because I'm pretty sure He has an opinion
in this matter.
And when we're talking about marriage, we just
finished the marriage series.
It's good to end on something like this
to redefine what God's Word says.
Number two, to give you some godly ammunition
to know what you believe and why you
believe it.
What does the Bible say?
What's going on here with all of this?
And at critical times in history, the pulpit
needs to be the voice of truth.
So the church isn't getting political.
The church is actually, when we speak on
these issues, is bringing truth to the culture
who needs to hear it.
And there are critical times in history where
we need to speak from the love of
our hearts, but also from the truth of
God's Word.
And it's a good point here also to
clarify, there's a difference between the agenda, the
LGBT agenda, and what they're trying to push
in the schools from down to kindergarten grade,
up on the healthcare system, into the churches,
into the culture.
There's an agenda that's getting pushed where grown
men can use restrooms with girls.
There's an agenda.
That's really what my fight is against.
My prayer is for and against that.
But then you have those who are caught
in the lifestyle, and we love that person.
So see, they feel that, why is there
a battle if you love me?
Well, we love you, but we're battling for
the truth.
And we're trying to uphold what God's Word
says, but at the same time, loving the
person caught in that struggle.
So that's why it gets confusing.
That's why you'll see bold preaching against the
agenda, but loving conviction when it comes to
the individual.
I hope that makes sense, because you have
to differentiate between the two.
And hypothetically speaking, let's say that this lifestyle
is wrong, which we believe in the church
it is, but hypothetically speaking to those who
might not believe that, how would God go
about showing us and telling us?
He would go about showing and telling us
through His Word, what's been revealed in His
Word.
And I've had the honor of, well, I
guess it would actually be the privilege, of
listening to a lot of pastors on the
other side of this.
There aren't too many, but on the other
side of what I'm saying.
And a lot of them use words such
as progressive revelation.
And I'm hearing that more and more, progressive
revelation.
In other words, what they're saying is, what
the Scriptures taught 2,000 years ago, God
has been doing a new thing.
He's been revealing a new truth now that
we're more open, we're more teachable.
We've come to know more about God, so
that truth is changing.
That's not true.
If it's new, it's not truth.
And if it's truth, it's not new.
What God set in motion when He first
spoke and proclaimed absolute truth, that does not
stop.
So I'm better understanding the movement is really
repackaged liberalism.
It's really just changing and turning certain things,
and just trying to be as humble and
loving as I can here.
But I feel it's a very prideful movement.
Did God really say no?
Here's what we think He said.
And so we have to be careful in
this area as well.
So I'm going to cover the ten points
quickly.
I think it's important, it ties everything in.
This is what I spoke about on the
audio cast.
Some of it, a lot of it went
different directions.
Number one, tolerance tolerates.
Tolerance tolerates differences, right?
You're hearing a lot about tolerance.
Just tolerate differences, tolerates differences.
Tolerance tolerates differences, but love embraces regardless of
differences.
See, tolerance is, I'll hold my nose because
I have to put up with you.
I just tolerate you.
That's not biblical, that's not good.
Real love loves, regardless, you can be the
love side.
Real love loves despite differences.
So that's something we have to remember in
this.
It's not about tolerance on our end, it's
about loving, genuinely loving someone.
And I challenged people, and I'll challenge you
today.
I was to go onto YouTube, if you
want to see what this looks like.
And I actually, I don't know how many
of you are aware of this, but in
2016, Jan, I think it was December, I
got a call that a friend attended church
here.
Her brother was suicidal.
And he said, sure, I'll meet with your
pastor.
She threw that out there, and so I
was making plans.
The next day, come to find out, he's
in North Hollywood, living with his partner, and
he's a gay prostitute.
So I went down, it was raining, I
canceled my day, went down for about two
hours, shared with him.
She was there, the prodigal son story, God,
hope in Christ.
He was receptive, it was a wonderful conversation.
I am so thankful I had that privilege.
He's only in his 30s, very fit, in
good shape.
But he was also sick, I think, with
pneumonia.
And just encouraged him.
So once I left there, I actually gave
him a book, Desperate for More of God,
we've got copies, free copies available.
And I got a call about a month
later that he passed away.
He was just pneumonia at night and asleep,
and I was just shocked.
And they asked if I would do his
memorial service.
He was coming back to the Lord, and
it was an honor to do that.
And he had friends from North Hollywood there.
And you could tell that it was many
people in that lifestyle.
So if you want to hear what love
and truth sounds like, it's on YouTube, God's
Scandalous Love.
Just YouTube, God's Scandalous Love.
And the family gave me permission to share
it, and let people know that it's not
about anger and hatred.
It's about loving, truly loving people.
It's a good reminder that Christ doesn't tolerate,
He loves.
Christ doesn't tolerate you, He doesn't tolerate me,
He loves us.
Regardless of what is going on.
And here's a couple scriptures I want to
put on the screen.
1 Corinthians 13, 4-7.
You've read this before, but it ties right
in.
Love suffers long.
So let's define love.
Both sides are talking about love.
What does it look like?
Because love is not lust, right?
We know that.
Love is not how I feel.
It's not lust.
Love is something much deeper.
It actually is a choice.
Love is a choice.
It's not a feeling.
It's very easy to love someone you feel
good about, isn't it?
I mean, that's easy.
But here's the definition.
Love suffers long and is kind.
Love does not envy.
Check this out.
Love does not parade itself.
It's not puffed up.
Parading itself.
Parading.
Puffed up and prideful and parading and flaunting
itself.
That's not love.
Love does not behave rudely.
Does not seek its own.
It's not provoked.
It thinks no evil.
It does not rejoice in sin, in iniquity,
but it rejoices in the truth.
This is the definition of love.
It's not rude.
So how are we doing so far in
this area?
And when we talk to this group of
people.
It's not rude.
It doesn't seek its own.
It's not provoked.
It thinks no evil.
It does not rejoice in iniquity, but it
rejoices in the truth.
See, the truth is, that's why we don't
single out a particular group.
Because without Christ, a person is considered lost
and a sinner.
It doesn't matter if it's drunkenness.
It doesn't matter if it's, let me use
some terms the Bible uses, debauchery.
I mean, you've got to love these terms,
right?
Basically, the party lifestyle, fornicating, getting drunk, this
whole thieves and covetousness.
And it's just without Christ, we're all lost.
So there's not just one people group that's
worse off than everybody else.
In God's eyes, the sin is the sin.
And we'll get to a verse in a
minute, but we have to remember that.
Love also bears all things.
It's like holding.
This bird bears all things, believes all things.
Now, this isn't just being naive, or I
just believe whatever.
Believes all things is we look for the
good in others.
We believe in the best in others.
We don't come with a critical heart condemning,
I believe in you.
I believe that God can change you.
I believe that he can resurrect this deadness
that is happening in your life.
It hopes all things.
It endures all things.
Now, when this resembles your character, everything I
just read, love is patient, love is kind.
It doesn't envy.
It doesn't boast.
It's not proud.
It's not rude.
When our character resembles this, not perfectly, but
we're getting there.
God's chipping away at things, and we have
this heart of love.
And that's one thing.
I will tell you this.
I don't know where it came from, but
during that whole debate, I just felt surreal.
Not even an ounce of anger.
People were asking, how did you get?
I'm not sure myself, because normally, you know,
but it's just, it was just this, just
this feeling of just love and brokenness and
humility and longing for people to know the
truth.
And it was just every, it was trying,
Lord, you've got to speak and underscore everything
with love.
You've got to help me here this morning.
And it was encouraging, too, that on this
area of love is reading of cross-referencing
Ephesians 4.15. It says, speak the truth
in love.
So see, when you have the love of
Christ in you, when you truly can feel
God's love, then you're able to speak the
truth in love.
One of the most misquoted scriptures you'll ever
heard.
I've probably heard it, not exaggerating, 20 times
since the debate, right?
From the negative people that didn't like what
I had to say.
Who are you to judge?
Haven't you read Matthew 7, Shane?
Oh, sure, I've read Matthew 7.
Jesus says, don't judge, right?
Who are you to judge?
Do not judge your brother.
But first, remove the plank from your own
eye.
Humble yourself.
Come with the spirit of gentleness and love.
Don't think more highly of yourself than you
should.
Don't come with a condemning spirit, a judgmental
spirit.
And then you can remove the speck that
is in your brother's eye.
But we think, oh, don't say anything.
No, actually, you can.
Actually, some of the most bold people that
I know and that you know that are
effective are filled with love.
Because you can look at somebody in the
face and smile and tell them the truth
because you love them.
So you can speak the truth in love.
Don't fall for that.
Where we're getting in trouble is most people
aren't speaking the truth in love.
And I had to apologize.
We both apologized to each other off-air
with how both sides are treating.
I mean, some posts I read from Christians,
it's like all capital letters.
Words in there I would not use.
It's like, oh, and you're going to win
them with that argument, really?
It's because they're not filled with love.
They're filled with judgmentalism and pride and anger.
And it comes out in how they say.
If they put that stuff on my post,
I just delete it if I can.
Because it's not appropriate.
Pictures, they'll put things in.
Emojis, is that what they're called now?
They've got little signs with things on there.
It's just terrible on both sides.
So that's the first thing I wanted you
to understand, that it's not about tolerance.
We don't tolerate.
It's not about tolerance.
We actually love.
We love people enough to share them the
truth.
It would be much easier, ask my wife,
if I didn't have to talk about this
issue.
The whole time in New York, I could
not tell one person why we were there.
Flight attendants next to us, hotel.
Because you know what they would say.
Oh, what are you there for?
Oh, really?
What are you talking about?
Well, I'm taking the position that it's not
good in God's eyes.
Really?
We want that hatred?
We want those people being upset?
But see, the love of God, just like
Paul, the love of God, the love of
Christ compels me.
There's this yearning.
I mean, hey, we're going to put you
on national TV and ask you questions.
Well, let me just cower down, and I
don't want to offend.
No, it's time to ruffle some feathers in
love.
It's amazing.
People are emailing to you.
They're saying, we've never heard this.
Where is this coming from?
I mean, pastors usually are politically correct, and
they don't want to say anything.
So people are looking for somebody to say
something in love.
So that's the first point.
It's not about tolerance.
I want to make sure you know that
we don't tolerate, we love.
And the second point, challenging those with whom
we disagree is often a characteristic of love,
not hate.
The reason I'm making this a big deal
is because it is a big deal.
You're going to start to see legislation at
some point that is going to remove all
these difficult passages of the Bible, in my
opinion, because it's being labeled hate speech.
And if it's hate speech, then you can
make laws against it.
That's the whole reason behind hate speech.
I mean, I've countered people.
I've cornered them lovingly, of course, right?
You know I don't hate you, right?
Of course we know that.
Even he admitted it.
If you listen to the audio, we both
admit it.
It's not about hate.
He knows I'm genuine.
I know he's genuine.
But you can be genuinely, you can be
sincerely wrong as well, right?
So it's not about hate.
But that's the only way you can silence
the messenger.
And there's laws, I think in California it
was recently passed, in a nursing home, if
you use the wrong gender, you know, if
it's a man, you say, Phil, you know,
if you don't call him by his, I
guess his name's been changed to a woman,
and you don't use the proper gender, you
can be fired, you can be imprisoned.
I mean, these things are, it's just getting
ridiculous.
So that's why.
So you must understand that challenging those with
whom we disagree is often a characteristic of
love.
Do therapists or doctors challenge destructive lifestyles because
they hate their patients?
Do parents challenge their children because they hate
them?
Of course not.
And we have to remember that Christ challenges
us because He loves us.
See, when we challenge somebody, if you went
through life, try going, well, don't try it,
but just assume, if you went a whole
month without being challenged in anything, you would
not be going in a very healthy direction,
I have a feeling.
Because when we're not challenged, we just keep,
God must be blessing me, God must be
doing this, and we're just not challenged in
anything, we just keep going in the wrong
direction.
So being challenged, convicted is another word, helps
us reestablish our course and get back on
track.
Here's something, another scripture up on the screen,
you could even turn to if you had
your Bibles, James 5.19-20.
It's a good one to remember, James 5
.19-20.
Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the
what?
So there is a truth.
What's the truth?
It's been laid out.
If he wanders from the truth and someone
turns him back, let him know that he
who turns a sinner from the air of
his way will save a soul from death
and cover a multitude of sins.
Now if we had time to put this
in context, it was dealing primarily with sickness,
a sickness leading to disobedience against God, and
people were sick because they were disobeying God.
But what James is also saying here is
if anyone among you, so if we know
somebody who's wandering from the truth and we
turn him back, how do we turn him
back?
You might have to challenge him, right?
You can't walk in the same direction.
You have to challenge them.
Hey, let me get you turned, right?
Let me point you back in this direction.
Do people like to be turned?
That's uncomfortable.
Get your hands off me.
You don't tell me what to do.
But if somebody turns him back, turns him
back, and that was really my whole point
of going, is not to preach to the
cheerleaders on this side.
The cheerleaders are going to preach on the
other side.
But I'm trying to talk to the people
in the middle that want to see what
genuine Christianity looks like, what God's Word looks
like.
Also, Galatians 1.
I've got a lot of Scriptures.
It'll be in the sermon notes underneath the
sermon when it's posted on our website.
But you could also look at Galatians 6.
Galatians 6.
It actually encourages those, this is amazing, who
live by the Spirit.
What does live by the Spirit mean?
You know those who are filled with the
Spirit of God.
Right?
They're walking with God.
They love the Lord.
They're filled with the Spirit of God.
Galatians 6.1 encourages those who live by
the Spirit to those who are caught in
sin.
Go to those and restore that person harshly.
Is that what it says?
Gently.
Restore that person gently.
Gentle.
But restoring is not easy.
Have you ever restored a car?
There's a lot of banging going on at
the hammer and restoring something.
It hurts sometimes.
So restore that person gently but be careful
that we do not fall into the same
sin.
Now, people are, you know, you can take
this a couple different ways.
I look at it this way.
Be gentle.
Go with the right spirit.
Filled with the Spirit.
So if you go to correct somebody you
may fall into the same sin.
It's like the person who goes to correct
a person possibly caught and possibly going to
cheat on their spouse and they go, listen,
they come with the judgmental attitude, how could
you do that?
I thought you were better than that.
I would never think of that.
I would never do that.
How could you?
And the enemy says, open door.
Open door.
Pride cometh before a fall.
So that's why Galatians, Paul was reading to
the church there, go in a spirit of
humility and gentleness.
Point number three, the Creator made His plan
obvious.
Right?
I'm not getting technical, but things work.
Male and female.
Right?
I mean, come on.
Look at it.
Leave it there.
Christ said since the beginning of creation God
created them male and female in order that
they would be joined together and become one
flesh to be fruitful, to multiply.
So you just have to look at the
design of the Creator.
How did He create His creation?
And when certain things don't work, or you
know, again, leave it there.
It's a G version.
It makes sense.
And then it goes into number four.
The exception proves that there is a rule.
What I mean by that is this.
People say, well, what about, be fruitful, multiply.
What about those who can't have children, Shane?
God's Word doesn't give a provision for that.
Well, the exception doesn't make the rule that
it's wrong.
Homosexuality is wrong.
It doesn't mean that, oh, now homosexuality is
right.
The exception proves that there's a rule.
Also, in my opinion, that's one reason why
we have adoption.
God sees this in God's adoption.
And we also, this is a side note,
I talked about in the audio, when anytime
you get two fathers and a child, that's
very unhealthy for that child.
The way God designed it.
God designed the impact of the mother and
the impact of the father to raise that
children in the best setting.
You can look at secular psychologists in this
area.
They know the best model.
See, and we start to drift away from
what God has said.
See, this whole thing really is a battle
over truth, right?
I mean, this whole, I could've just said
that and just gone into worship.
I mean, that's what we're, did God really
say?
Did God really say?
Didn't that happen in the garden?
You're not gonna die if you eat of
that pomegranate, apple, whatever it is.
Right, you see pictures of apples, it wasn't
apple.
We don't know what it was.
Partake of this fruit.
He didn't really say.
And so when you can get a subtlety
in there, you know what, that's a good
point.
Then you can start to open up the
mind to other things that are not scriptural.
Here's another one.
1 Corinthians 7, 2.
Each man should have his own wife and
each woman her own husband.
Christ said, therefore what God has joined together,
what has God joined together?
Man and wife.
Let not man separate.
Then the fifth point.
There is no, and this is a biggie.
There is no scriptural support for homosexuality or
gay marriage.
There is, and I asked this question on
the audio.
You can listen to it, the answer.
Not one scripture, 66 books of the Bible,
written over 1,500 years, not one scripture
paints it in a positive light.
Not one scripture talks about a union of
two men or two women in a positive
light.
Nothing.
So you've got to take all the verses
that speak against it and try to tweak
them, twist them to say what they don't
say.
And of course it comes up, well Jesus
never mentioned homosexuality.
That word wasn't really there in that time.
He also didn't mention bestiality.
He didn't mention pedophilia.
He didn't mention necrophilia.
All he had to say was one thing,
pornea in the Greek language.
It's a Greek word that means all sexual
activity outside of marriage between a man and
a woman.
That's what he said.
You don't have to sit and list all
these things.
Not only that, why would he have to
list it if it's already reinforced in the
Old Testament?
I didn't come to abolish the law.
He said I came to fulfill it.
He would quote Deuteronomy.
He would quote the prophets.
Feelings are not a gauge for truth.
And this point I really feel for people
on this one because a lot of, I've
been watching videos and a lot of people
are changing their mind when their children come
out as embracing this lifestyle.
And I feel for them.
I mean my heart breaks.
I don't understand as far as experiencing, but
that would be difficult.
But if a child or one of our
kids or whoever we know say that they
struggle with anger or lust or lying, we
don't change the Scriptures to conform to their
struggle.
We take their struggle and we conform it
to Scripture.
And I'll just tell you something that did
bother me about the Fox interview, the eight
-minute segment.
I don't like he got the last word
in.
I mean, I was just shocked.
Laura, can I have one minute?
Just give me one minute.
Because he talked about the suicide rate among
teenagers.
But the 14-year-old who is suicidal
who you don't give an answer to is
going to be a 21-year-old who
is still suicidal because he's still feeling the
conviction of the Holy Spirit.
You can't just erase conviction, the conviction of
the Holy Spirit, because it is not popular,
they would say.
Or you just can't erase that.
It's going to be there.
So see, when teens aren't just suicidal for
that, here's the reason behind.
If you look at the statistics, I went
to the top 10 reasons and they talked
to teenagers after attempts.
And look at all this.
The bottom line with all of them is
hopelessness.
Many are coming from broken families.
Divorce.
Why don't we talk about that?
How divorce affects children.
That's why when you don't have hope, you're
suicidal.
And teenagers, all this burden, all this responsibility.
We should say, listen, that's okay.
God loves you.
Let me point you to the answer.
Hey, I struggle with whatever.
I used to love alcohol.
Couldn't ever kick it at your age.
It was a daily struggle.
I got it.
We're right there.
Let me point you to the answer.
Really?
Yes.
And then they light up.
They light up.
The article, I don't know if you have
it.
It was on the Christian Post, Hello Christian.
A lot of news places picked it up.
I just saw the Fox News thing on
Yahoo the other day and I got a
little nervous.
It's like, uh-oh.
You know, not Yahoo News.
But the person who helped me edit that
article struggles with same-sex attraction.
He's a friend of mine.
You know, I don't look down on...
I mean, we all have our struggle.
Now you have to be careful with different
things, right?
But the struggle, there's hope.
And I just met...
It was a very sad story.
I was up on the aqueduct and I
heard a guy yelling, like cussing at me
and yelling.
He's like doing this.
I got a picture on my phone.
He's like doing this up on the mountain.
I'm like, what's wrong with this guy?
I just want to go jog in the
morning.
He takes off his jacket.
And you know, he's running and talking.
So, I'm praying.
Lord, what do you want me to do?
Man, what do you want me to do?
So I try to walk away and then
I get convicted.
So I finally walked up the mountain.
And I said, hey, what's going on?
He goes, oh, hey sir, hey sir, sorry.
What's wrong?
He goes, I'm schizophrenic.
You go to church?
And he said, yeah, out in Little Rock
area.
Can I pray with you?
I said, yeah, please, because I can't hear.
I don't know what to do with these
voices.
So I'm thinking, well, if yes, I'd rather
struggle with same-sex attraction than that every
day.
Or what about people who are struggling?
They just diagnosed their daughter, a four-year
-old, with leukemia.
They've got to deal with that for as
long.
I mean, see, we forget that we all
struggle with something.
There are things out there that are worse
than this.
It's appointing people to the answer, because feelings
cannot be a gauge for truth.
That's why there's a big push here.
Feelings, loving people.
The sixth reason, the Bible is crystal clear.
Here's the main crux here.
The Bible is crystal clear on the issue
of homosexuality.
And it's funny, because people say, you can't
say it's crystal clear.
Why do you always say that?
Well, it's crystal clear.
And I cringe every time I hear people
misrepresent statements in Romans or Sodom and Gomorrah.
And I talked about this, and you can
listen to it.
But there are a lot of Scriptures.
You can just Google the Scriptures on it,
and you just read it.
You don't have to have people interpreting it.
Just let them speak to you.
Let me look at the primary one first,
or the only one I'll get to this
morning.
On the screen.
If you have your Bibles, it's in Romans
1.
Romans chapter 1.
This is a wonderful chapter on, before I
get to 1.26. God is saying, my
invisible attributes are clearly seen.
You can tell there's a God.
People are suppressing the truth.
They're pushing the truth down, and they're believing
a lie, exchanging the truth for a lie.
That's what people are doing.
So it says this.
So God, for this reason, God gave them
up to vile passions.
For even their woman exchanged the natural use
for what is against nature.
Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use
of the woman, burned in their lust for
one another.
Men with men committing what is shameful and
receiving in themselves the penalty of their error
which was due.
And even as they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, God gave them
over to a debased mind and to do
things which are not fitting.
Any time a person suppresses the truth and
they reject God, whatever their predisposition is, they're
going to go to it.
Alcoholism, thievery, opiates, homosexuality, lying, whatever it is,
they're going to that when they drift from
God.
So that's the reason behind it is any
time we suppress the truth, we reject God,
but God says, you want it, you got
it.
That's not my plan.
It's not my best.
I don't want that, but because you are
free agents to some degree and living with
your choices, He gives them over.
So if this doesn't mean what it says
it means, then I don't know what it
means.
I remember Dallas Theological Seminary, I don't know
if I could say it right.
If the plain text, if the plain sense
of the text makes sense, seek no other
sense, lest it becomes nonsense.
You know, and that's what they read into
this thing.
Well, that really didn't mean that.
It meant, you know, pedophilia.
It meant people who are not in committed
relationships.
See, you're just reading into things that's not
there to try to support something.
And another argument that comes up is people
are convicted about this because the church is
pressuring them.
Everybody's pressuring them.
They feel, you know, they feel like, oh,
I feel bad about this.
However, that was true maybe 34 years ago,
30 or 40 years ago, but now it's
the opposite.
The media confirms it.
The educational system will push it.
The laws will protect it, and Hollywood will
promote it.
So now the majority is this belief.
So if your thinking is true, then I
should change my beliefs because of all the
pressure I'm receiving.
All the pressure I'm receiving.
Well, I should just...
That's why I feel...
See, it's not because they're feeling all this
pressure.
It's their feeling conviction of God.
A conviction that things are not right with
God.
And we should be able to say those
things in love.
Verse 7.
I like this one.
God can advise against eating shellfish as well
as homosexuality.
Do you know what that means?
You're probably going, what does that have to
do with anything?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
The big argument that is out there is
God said, thou shalt not eat shellfish, pork.
These are abominations.
And Leviticus, a man shall not lie with
a man as he does with a woman.
It is an abomination.
Obviously we can eat shellfish.
Obviously we can eat pork.
So obviously, homosexuality is no longer wrong.
That's the connection they made.
However, they forget that the dietary laws, the
ceremonial laws, and the moral laws are all
different.
The ceremonial laws we don't follow because they
were fulfilled in Christ.
The dietary laws were given to the children
of God to eat things that are clean
and pure and good for them.
Guess what?
Pork and shellfish are still not good.
I don't want to rain on the parade
of sushi eaters, but shellfish stay at the
bottom of the ocean and they eat all
of the toxic material, the dead animals, the
nasty things.
That's what shellfish and shrimp and things and
lobster, that's what they eat.
They clean up all that area.
So when you eat that animal, guess what
you're eating?
So when the Bible says, eat fish with
scales on them.
These are healthy fish.
When God says, don't eat a rabbit, don't
eat the camel, they're unhealthy.
See, it's interesting.
God doesn't do anything for silly reasons.
These are all very good.
So shellfish and pork are still not good
for you.
And then when you get to the moral
law, any time God says, thou shalt not
do this morally, it still applies.
And I ask, give me one moral law
that doesn't apply anymore.
That adultery stuff?
Man, don't worry about it.
That killing your neighbor?
That's passé.
Any moral law.
Any moral law on how to conduct yourself
is still relevant today.
Now this comes up as well too.
And it would take probably a sermon to
explain.
But what about slavery?
Two things, in a nutshell.
First, you have to realize that the Bible
doesn't paint slavery in a light that, yeah,
this is God's plan.
Also, we think of what happened in the
1700s, 1800s, and it was actually initiated from
Great Britain onto the United States of America.
Many pilgrims and Puritans, early Americans, abhorred the
practice, fought against it.
Ever heard of a man named William Wilberforce?
I mean, they fought against it.
So this idea that America's bad, they all
had slave owners, it's just absolutely wrong.
There are a lot of people.
You can grab a book out there, One
Nation Above God.
I've got pages and pages of founders who
abhorred the practice.
But when the Bible talks about it, they
didn't have something called welfare, or food stamps,
or people reaching out.
When a person 2,000 years ago lost
everything, they lost everything.
So you have a man, his wife, maybe
a lawyer or something, and their kids.
Listen, I lost everything.
Can I live on your property and work
for you and be your bond servant?
I am bound to you.
That's why the Bible says, if after seven
years and your debt's paid and you want
to remain with your master because you love
them, you can.
So it was a system of economic strength
that had to happen.
How else?
You would just die in the desert.
So now if you get a good person
who says, yes, I would do that for
you, and they love, there's a good relationship,
they help them rebuild their life, but then
you get wicked owners.
It's not unlike us going and working somewhere
40 or 50 hours a week.
But we're able to go home.
Trust me, MasterCard still owns you.
You're an employer.
You will stay there for 30 years because
you are indebted.
It's the same thing.
The difference is they would live under the
roof.
So we think of the slavery, the movie
Roots came out.
Oh, we try to put that into the
biblical context.
And also, when Paul said, slaves, obey your
master.
He's not endorsing slavery.
He's saying, no matter how people treat you,
have the character of Christ within you.
Now, people did use that to support slavery,
but see, they twisted the Scripture.
They got away from the heart of God.
So all these things can be answered biblically.
Do not be scared of what the Bible
says.
And it's funny, I just have to tell
you, I felt like I had the total
advantage.
Here's why.
I'm not being prideful.
Hopefully I didn't come out wrong.
All I had to do was say, here's
what the Bible says.
Here's what the truth says.
See, the truth is like a lion.
Just let it out of its cage.
So let me have the philosophical discord on
showing scientific studies and based on psychological analysis
and based on statistics.
Oh, here's what the Bible says.
Here's what the truth says.
You're just presenting the truth.
That's it.
That's all you're doing.
Here's what the truth says.
And I actually listened to one guy yesterday.
You can listen to Dr. Michael Brown who's
become a friend of mine.
He's helped to mentor and run a lot
of things by him.
A great guy.
He sent me a clip where he interviewed
a Methodist pastor who was defrocked.
Didn't even know what that was really.
I guess it's not Christmas season.
They removed him from being a pastor because
he married his gay son.
Because he believed in gay marriage.
And the conclusions they come to.
And they often say this.
I hope I'm right.
I'm not sure.
And I heard that in New York.
I hope I'm right.
I'm not sure.
And then Dr. Michael Brown asked this guy.
Do you believe that Jesus is the only
way, the only truth, and that's what you're
going to stand on when you die?
I'm not sure.
I mean, I'm kind of sure.
I'm sure, but what about if I was
born in the Middle East and I believe
the Koran?
So see, a lot of these people aren't
solid in the area of theology.
They don't know what they believe.
I don't know.
Some of them might not have a relationship
with God.
It's either that or they're not filled with
the Spirit of God.
Those are the only two options.
Boy, that one's going to get a lot
of negative feedback on that comment.
Let me make a note for the editor
to make the other video.
Just kidding.
Of course, it's the truth.
And I love people enough to tell them
the truth.
You have to look at do you truly
know Christ?
Because if somebody asked me that question, I'd
say absolutely.
Yes, I know.
There's a lot of things I don't know,
but I know I'm going to stand before
God one day because of what Christ did.
He is the way, the truth, the life.
The Scriptures are inerrant.
They are God-breathed.
I'll bank on that.
Now, other things that aren't essential people have
questions on, but those things are essential so
that we know.
Another screen up on the verse.
Psalm 51.5 Behold.
Oh, here's the point.
Point 9.
I'm almost done.
Don't worry.
Here's the big one.
But I was born this way.
I was born this way.
How many of you were born?
Don't raise hands.
But how many of you were born to
do something that's not right?
Everybody in this room better raise their hand.
Right?
Even that cute little four-year-old, boy,
they can lie.
They can tell some whoppers.
No, no, Daddy.
I don't know where it went.
It's in her room.
Right there, born to lie.
So I'm not going to say, well, she
was born that way, Morgan.
She's not in trouble.
And I'm trying not to make light.
Please understand my heart because I have people
right now I'm reaching out to that struggle
with this lifestyle and they're not sure what
they believe in.
But I want to get this point across.
It doesn't matter how a person was born.
Christ still offers the answer.
It's not an excuse to indulge in sin.
Psalm 51.5 Behold, David says, I was
brought forth in iniquity and in sin my
mother conceived me.
It's interesting.
I don't know if we've released it yet,
but Fox surprised us.
They said, let's do another clip.
Can you be good and still not know
God?
Oh, I wasn't prepared for that one.
Right?
Like when they do, they've got five minutes
to throw that.
So it turned out great though, but I
come to find out we have different views
in that area.
He would say that we are innately good.
I would say we are.
What does Scripture say?
See, that's why it's easy.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and
sin my mother conceived me.
Romans 1.23 For all have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God.
See, to me, that makes more sense because
ah, that's the problem.
That's the problem.
What's the solution?
That's the solution.
See, I might turn to preacher mode for
a minute here because I get so passionate
about this.
Here's the solution.
Christ's redemptive work on the cross.
That's what you need to point people to.
Not theology that's off course.
Not hatred and misunderstandings.
Point them to the cross.
So it doesn't matter how a person was
born because we were all born to sin.
And finally, number 10.
This one I don't understand.
This struggle for gay rights is not a
civil rights issue.
The color of a person's skin cannot be
compared to a moral choice that I can
make or that you can make.
There's no comparison.
The Bible doesn't even put it in the
same ballpark.
It's not even comparable.
Now this one you could say, but I
was born this way.
And you're okay.
I was born African American.
I was born Hispanic.
I was born Caucasian.
Yeah, it's actually skin pigmentation.
Did you know that?
That's why racism is silly.
It's a skin pigmentation.
All related, all brothers in Christ.
There's no difference.
But when it comes to a moral choice
now because of our fallen nature, that's when
we have to make a decision.
So here's the bottom line.
Here's the question I proposed that he didn't
like.
One will say, Lord, I followed Your Word.
I upheld the Scriptures and I anchored my
life to the essentials of the faith.
Your Word appeared crystal clear in this area.
When I stand before God, that's what I
will have to say.
But the other side will say something like
this.
Lord, I believe that You gave us a
fresh and new perspective in this area.
I know that many Scriptures as well as
church history cast homosexuality in the same light
as other sins, but I don't think that
applies now.
Truth is progressive.
Whose shoes would you rather be in on
Judgment Day?
That's the question.
That's why this is so important.
A.W. Tozer said, when we become so
tolerant that we lead people into a mental
fog and spiritual blindness, we are not acting
like Christians.
We are acting like cowards.
And for just a minute, I want a
lot of us, not even in this room,
but even nationally, to think about just for
a minute, have we ever stopped?
We're so worried about offending people, right?
Even me, I get caught.
I don't want to offend.
Have we ever stopped to think that we
might be offending God?
I mean, that's what is so important.
I'm going to leave you with this verse.
1 Corinthians 6.9 This is the truth.
This truth hurts, but it's the truth.
English Standard Version.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will
not inherit the kingdom of God?
He says, do not be deceived.
That tells me a person can be deceived.
Listen, if Paul could preach this, I guarantee
you he would not be with anger.
He would be weeping.
Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral,
nor the idolaters, nor the adolaters, nor men
who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy,
nor the drunkards, nor the rivalers, nor swindlers,
will inherit the kingdom of God.
Here's my concern.
When you validate a sin that will put
somebody in hell, that's a bad thing.
Now, thank God for the word practice here.
Those who practice.
See, practice is, I don't care what God's
Word says, I'm going to indulge into my
flesh until the day I die.
He's not saying those who struggle with lying,
those who struggle with putting things first, idolatry
instead of God.
Shane, I have these tendencies that I love
God, I don't want to act upon that.
You're not practicing at all.
Now, emails on this too, well, can a
person be cured of being gay?
Does God set them free?
And many times he does.
But I've talked to other people that still
struggle with it, that love the Lord.
Same thing, I've seen people, Shane, I've never
touched a drink in 20 years.
God just set me free that night.
And I know other Christians, as soon as
they hear that ice clanking in the glass,
as soon as they see that ice cold
beer being passed by by the way, that
temptation rises up again, they've got to fight
it.
Day in and day out.
But they're not practicing.
They're not saying, I don't care what it
says.
So see, it's not the sin that actually
leads to hell.
It's the unrepentant nature of man.
The sin just reflects what's going on in
the heart.
So if I continue in drunkenness, and everything
they just said, idolatry, not homosexuality, I just
continue in all these sins, not homosexuality, if
I don't care what God says, I'm just
going to continue, and I die in that
state, that shows that my heart was unrepentant
towards the heart of God.
It's unrepentant sin.
So as all sermons, they should take us
back to Christ.
Do you truly know Him?
And if you're caught in any of these
sins I just mentioned, and you've never repented
from anything I just mentioned, take that step
and repent.
And say, God, this is wrong.
Would you help me?
That's a prayer He will answer.
And I want to throw this out there
to believers already.
Are you being truly led of the Spirit?
Are you truly being led of the Spirit?
I hope I'm right.
I'm not sure it won't cut it.
You've got to know that you know.
Because God's Word is not divided.
The Holy Spirit is not divided.
When the Holy Spirit leads you, there's peace,
there's assurance.
You've got to know that by surrendering to
it.
One of the highlights of our trip, and
this is really the closing, is, boy, I
think we got up around three in the
morning to catch a plane.
You've got to get down the road, you
know that.
And then you get there and you're like,
oh, you're three hours ahead.
Isn't that nice?
So it's already five o'clock when you
get there.
Hour and a half, hour and ten minutes,
hour and fifteen, if I believe, from the
taxi at the airport to the Brooklyn Tabernacle.
Jim Cimbala's service there Tuesday night.
Dead tired.
I almost chose dinner at the hotel over
that.
Get there.
So glad we went there and experienced that
3,000 people on a Tuesday night worshiping.
And they can worship.
This is people from Harlem and probably Bronx.
My goodness.
And it was over, and Morgan goes, oh,
you should go up there and meet him.
I'm like, no.
I don't want to.
And I look up there, he's only got
like three people.
So I go up there and we introduce
ourselves, and I told him what I'm doing,
and it set everything in motion for the
rest of the next couple days.
He said, just trust the Holy Spirit to
speak through you.
That's all you've got to do.
And the fear, the anxiety, they're like, I've
got eight pages of notes.
Because you know, they take bullet points.
Shane, what do you say?
Oh, that's wonderful.
Thanks for that one minute.
What do you say?
You know, you've got to know what you've
got to know.
And so that relieved all the fear of
the trip.
I just walked into there, like I said,
surreal.
Here's what the truth is.
Now, you've got to have the truth in
here, right?
You can't just wing it.
You've got to know what you know.
But that was life-changing.
And I thought, I've got to share that
with you because you've just got to trust
the Holy Spirit.
But that doesn't mean trusting Him in your
rebellion.
See, you've got to get in the right
relationship with God.
Surrender and say, God, I want You to
lead me.
I'm surrendering to Your will.
I'm surrendering to the work of the Holy
Spirit.
Would You do that?
And He will lead you.
He will guide you.
I can't tell you how much of a
difference that made.
To just go in there, everything seemed surreal.
Like, am I actually doing this?
I'm not angry?
Wow.
I mean, they're challenging God's Word.
I'm angry usually.
It's just that work of the Holy Spirit.
So don't discount that because we are a
Bible-believing, Spirit-led, Spirit-filled church.
We're not worried about talking about the work
of the Spirit.