Homosexuality

Tom Shrader addresses homosexuality as part of his 'Sexuality by Design' series, examining what Scripture teaches about God's design for human sexuality within heterosexual marriage. He emphasizes that homosexuality, like other sexual sins, is a deviation from God's plan while stressing that it is not unpardonable and that change is possible through Christ. Shrader calls Christians to maintain biblical truth while offering hope and redemption to all sinners.

“Anything sexually that deviates from permanent, monogamous, heterosexual is a perversion of God's design.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Sexuality by Design (1999)

Recorded: October 21, 1999

Duration: 42 min

Themes: sexuality, marriage, sin, redemption, truth, hope, forgiveness, design, struggling with sexuality, same sex attraction, questioning faith, new believer, pastor, parent, counselor, young adult

Scripture: Genesis 2:24, Genesis 19, Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:18-32, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 10:13

Theological Themes: biblical sexuality, sexual ethics, gods design, biblical authority, sanctification, sexual purity, scripture, redemption

Full Transcript

We are halfway through this eight-week series titled Sexuality by Design. Let me remind you of the premise. The premise is very simple: in God's planning there are no accidents. When we deal with our own composition emotionally, spiritually, and physically, God has a design for that. When we come to this area of sexuality, it's important to understand that God has a design and a pattern and a plan for that as well.

What we've tried to do over these eight weeks is to look at various topics that are very important to us today, right now. What does God have to say about them? Ninety-four to ninety-five percent of the American public say they believe in God, and I've been a Christian since March of 1980. In that time frame, this number has stayed fairly consistent between 93 and 95 percent. What changes are the definitions when they talk about God, what that God looks like to them, and how that God communicates to them.

Our Foundation: God's Timeless Word

We come from a position that is the historic position of the faith, the evangelical position. We believe that God has communicated to us through His Word, through the Bible. In this Bible, God has given us timeless principles. The old phrase we use is: a timeless God does not produce dated material. This is material that we can use in our life, and principles that apply to our life forever.

When we're looking at issues, and God has spoken to these issues, we understand that His principles that guide those issues are timeless in nature. God's not sitting in heaven saying, "Wow, I need to rethink this. It's 1999, and I never dreamed that we would be at this point." God says, "No, I am the sovereign God, and I created you. When I did that, I put in place some of these principles that are universal and apply to man."

When we talk about sexuality in here, I hope you understand that you're not coming to get a balanced view. If you want a balanced view, both sides on the issues, watch Nightline. That's not what we're about. We're going to give you what we think, with all of our heart, is a biblical view. What does God have to say? We've tried to stay consistent to that in every topic that we've tackled, but especially in this one.

The Series Overview

In these eight weeks, we're dealing with issues like fornication. That would be sex between two people who are not married. What does God have to say about that? He's against it. Adultery. That is where one of the partners in a marriage is involved with someone outside of that marriage sexually. What does God say? He's against that. We're going to talk about sex and marriage. Then, our last session, and this is great, we give you homework on this one: sex in marriage. All the guys said, "Really? That's great."

Last week, we talked about pornography. Next week, we talk about abortion. I have to tell you, it's funny, as you're putting these together, after a while, you start to get hints, feelings, gut reactions. I thought, when we did this series, that next week's lesson on abortion would be the one that would generate the most controversy, that would generate the most mail, the most emails, by far the most response.

That was not at all what happened. Got almost no negative, and just an extraordinary amount of positive response to the abortion issue. The lesson that got the phones ringing and the voicemail humming was this lesson right here, today. I was surprised by that.

Why This Topic Hits Home

I think the reason is, as I sit and listen to the people, over the last five or ten years, almost everyone has had a brother, or a niece, or an aunt, or a parent, or a child who has come to them and said, "I am gay." These are not awful people that fit into some stereotype. These are people that you know, and you love, and you've been with, and all of a sudden, that relationship begins to paint or challenge your view on this issue. Here's what we want to do. We want to find out, what does God have to say about this?

Personally, it's one of those issues that seems to get a lot of attention, and then the attention fades away, and then they get a lot of attention. This is one of those that, right now, is just suddenly creeping around everywhere, this issue. For a long time, the general perception or thought process has been that about 10% of the adult population in the United States is gay. There are different numbers right now that really challenge that, and say those studies are really distorted, that the number really is somewhere about 1 or 2%. I saw something the other day where a guy claimed it was 15%.

Here, let me give you my clue: I don't care. It doesn't matter whether it's 1% or 99%. That doesn't affect how we view this, because we look at it as God looks at it, whether that touches a small portion or a large portion of the population. So that's how we view that.

The Civil Rights Framework

I think the second reason that we got so much response last time is this is now not cast as a sexual issue, but really as a civil rights issue. I had not seen Phil Donahue for a long time. I forgot how great that felt, until the other day when I saw him again. He's back, and one of Phil's hot buttons was this issue of homosexuality. He just goes over and over again to say one of the harshest, most critical things you can do is to try to tell a homosexual to change, or give him the idea that

God's Design for Marriage

He can change, or she can change. That can't happen. There are homosexuals just like you're a man, and just like you're white, or you're black, or you're Hispanic. It's just the way they are. Now, the Scripture doesn't take that view.

What's the Bible have to say about this issue? That's how we'll approach this this morning. We'll look at five issues that the Scripture raises as we talk about this, and then some specific instructions. You may be one of those people that say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's get these guys out of here." You need to listen all the way through. I'm just going to ask, all of you are going to have to be fully engaged for the next 30 minutes, or you're going to walk out of here misunderstanding what we're saying. So hang in there for all of this.

Number one: God has designed fulfillment in heterosexual marriage. "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and will cleave to his wife, and the two will become one." This is God's design. When we talk about marriage, so important, do we have heterosexual or homosexual marriages? The answer to that would be no, because God has a design for marriage.

You and I are sexual creatures. Got that figured out. God has said, "I have no problem. I created you that way. I have no problem with expressions of that sexuality within the boundaries that I have painted for you," and those boundaries are the boundaries that you find in marriage. So marriage is three components. Number one is permanent. Number two is monogamous. Number three is heterosexual.

Understanding Sexual Perversion

Now at the risk—I am almost paranoid about this—of being accused of being a homophobic, at the risk of making certain you understand that's not the case, I want you to understand that anything sexually that deviates from permanent, monogamous, heterosexual is a perversion of God's design. So if you're a guy and a gal here, and you're single, and you're involved in sex outside of marriage, that's as perverted as homosexuality or lesbianism or adultery. Sexually, those are all perversions of God's design.

The way God designed us is to leave and cleave. J. Vernon McGee, when he was still alive and now on tapes, used to say, "We ain't got a lot of leaving, but we got a whole lot of cleaving going on." The word "cleave" is one of those words—one of you are so smart, you're going to know what the definition is or what the word is—it's one of those words that in its definitions has two meanings that are exact opposites.

When we think of cleaver, we think of two things. Number one is to cut. It's an instrument to cut. The other is Ward or June or Wally or the Beaver. But cleave on one hand means to cut and it means to sever. On the other hand, it means to inseparably link together on a permanent basis. I'm to leave this relationship and to cleave, to be inseparably linked on this permanent basis, this basis of marriage.

God's Judgment and Tolerance

Here's the second thing. In this whole issue of tolerance, God deals in tolerance and in terms of judgment, frequently has harsh judgment for those that are intolerant of sin. Again, our discussion today is on homosexuality, but the principle can be used in a variety of ways.

This is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. I cannot even—every time I even think about this, I think about when we talked through the book of Genesis and we arrived at this point in Sodom and Gomorrah. I came into the study one morning and as I came in the door, there are two guys there with suits and ties and earpieces and microphones. I got inside, there were two more around and I'm thinking, "Wow, this is a lot of protection today."

It happened to be that Governor Mecham decided to come to the study. It happened to be at his, depending upon your definition, at his high or low point when he was attacking everything. Sodom and Gomorrah was a perfect setup for that. It happened to be that the governor decided to come that day. That also led me to one of my great moments when he said, "You know, I'm really happy to be here. Would you like me to say something to the people?" And I said, "No, not on a bet." I mean, I got enough problems as it is. I don't need you. So I said, "No, governor, we respect you, but not now."

The Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah

In this issue of Sodom and Gomorrah, we understand that God unleashes a judgment on the city for a variety of reasons. I don't think there's any one singular reason. The book of Ezekiel, this is interesting as you study, the book of Ezekiel says that Sodom was destroyed partially because they had lost their compassion for the poor. But we also understand that part of what was going on there was extraordinary sin.

God has decided to send a message to Lot that He's going to destroy the city of Sodom. He sends this message through two angels in human form. They come and they visit Lot at his house. "And before they'd all go to bed, all the men from every part of the city, both young and old"—now that's not saying every guy in Sodom, but all the demographics are represented here—"they came, they surrounded the house, and they called to Lot, and they said, 'Where are the guys who came to see you tonight?'" That'd be these two angels in human form. "'Bring them out so we can have sex with them.'"

You got a couple of things. Number one, you remember Lot's response. Lot's response is really sick. Lot's response was, "I could never do this. This would violate principles of guests that you would have in the house, so I have some virgin daughters. Take them." Well, that's not good.

Liberal Interpretations and Their Problems

Liberal theologians, and they are ever clever in their ways of trying to avoid the obvious, say that what's going on here, and the condemnation here, is that Lot and the city is really being condemned for their lack of hospitality. Well, it seems to me they're being very hospitable here, and they're sending their own version of welcoming.

The welcome wagon came around to say, "We're glad you're in the city. Come and visit us." What's going on here is God has had it with this city for a variety of reasons. When He destroys the city, He destroys not just those actively engaged in a singular sin, but those who've reached the point where they decide they're going to tolerate this sin.

Here's the third point: God's standards condemn homosexual practices. At no time in the Old or New Testament will you ever see homosexuality painted in a positive light. I might even go out to say even in neutral light, but I don't know that that's accurate, but never positively. Here's what God says: "Don't lie with a man as one lies with a woman. That's an abomination." "If a man lies with another man as one lies with a woman, both have done something detestable," and then again, under that code, this is something that's worthy of a very serious punishment.

I saw a guy on television who was gay, openly gay, practicing gay, unrepentantly gay, who had just been ordained by his denomination. His comment was, "I am celebrating my homosexuality," and here's a direct quote: "it is pleasing to God." Well, it isn't pleasing to God. It's an abomination to God. Never, Old or New Testament, do we see this practice painted in a positive light.

God's Glory Is Dishonored

Here's the fourth point for us: God's glory is dishonored by the act of homosexuality. In Romans chapter one, Romans chapter one is just such a great study. When we're dealing with this, Paul is writing—I got a call from a lady from the church the other day, and she apparently, BSF is studying the book of Romans this year, and so she is leading the study, or a study, and she's coming in to get some material. She wanted to know if she'd be great. She came in, and we sat and we talked, and I think she said they're at Romans 3:20 or something right now, and I said, "Well, how's that going?" And she said, "Well, it's—I'm having a lot of people saying, 'Boy, this is really a negative study.'" Well, duh, that's the whole point of those first three chapters.

The first three chapters of Romans are to say: if you're a natural man, you're lost. If you're a religious man, you're lost. If we missed you, all are lost. No one does good, no not one. That's the bad news before the good news.

The Downward Spiral of Culture

In this indictment of mankind, God paints for us a picture of man downycling, in a culture downcycling. He says right before this, man is without excuse. You have no excuse for denying God. What the scripture says is that you can look around, and you can see God. You cannot necessarily look around at creation and see a Jesus Christ. There may be principles that have to be delivered to me and communicated to me through the revealed Word of God, but through general revelation, man ought to understand that there is God. They are without excuse.

They're godless. Why? They knew God, that is, they knew about God. They had evidence, but they denied that. They neither glorified Him as God, nor gave thanks to Him. They became futile in their thinking. Here's what they did: they looked around, and they decided that they wouldn't give Him thanks, and that they wouldn't honor Him, and consequently, they were godless.

Romans chapter 1, verse 22: "Professing to be wise, they became fools." They looked around. They're without excuse. They look around. They don't give God glory. They don't give Him thanks. They become futile in their thinking. They profess to be wise. They're very educated, but they are a fool.

The Fool's Choice

Carl Sagan was this. Carl Sagan would look around and see all of these things and all of this different thing, and yet he would have to say, "No, there's not a creator behind this."

This is a great quote. This is George Wald. He is a Nobel Prize winner in medicine in 1967. He's a professor emeritus at Harvard. Listen to this. This is great: "There are only two possibilities as to how life arose. One is spontaneous generation arising to evolution. The other is a supernatural act of God. There's no third possibility. Spontaneous generation was scientifically disproved by Pasteur and others. That leaves us with only one logical conclusion, that life arose as a supernatural act of God."

No problem so far. Two more sentences: "I will not accept that philosophically because I don't want to believe in God. Therefore, I choose to believe that which I know is scientifically impossible."

Now, I don't know—again, I'm not going to—I can't even laugh at this guy because I know he's way smarter than I am. But I'll tell you what: that is exhibit A of "professing to be wise, they became fools." Creation demands a creator.

The Projector Illustration

I know many of you have heard this illustration before, but many of you are new to this. I love the illustration because it's so beautiful and it's so simple. We point right to this overhead projector and we say if we didn't have any other evidence other than this projector, we would know that there was a 3M. We would say somebody had to make that.

If I came in to you and I said, "Well, let me just tell you what happened. There was a bulb and a cord and there was some casing and some mirrors and this reflector and a handle and this steel gauge and they were all over. Here's what happened: they just kind of came together and they were a projector." You'd say, "Oh, that's stupid. That's silly. That could never happen."

And I would say, "Yeah, that's right. It happened over a billion years ago. It just was billions of years ago. Over a billion years, a little bit each day, that overhead bulb got closer to the cord and before you knew it, there was a projector." And you would say, "That's stupid." And you would be right because you know.

But even in that illustration, it breaks down because you have to ask the more important question: where'd the bulb come from? So you go back and back and back. Why that's so simplistic, it drives home the point. You're going to say, "We understand not even a stinking

little bulb could have come from nothing. And now we look around at all of this earth and all of this universe and we think that somehow it just sprang into existence from nothing, with no mover, no creator. You don't buy that for a second.

I believe, and I've said this to you before, I believe this guy is brutally honest with you. He said, "I won't accept this philosophically because I don't want to believe in God." You won't believe in God because you won't believe in God. That's all. At least have the courage to say that. Sin boldly.

Here's what he says. There's the downside. All of a sudden, man starts to down cycle and as he does, one of the symptoms we see is that women exchange natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way men abandon natural relationship with women, are inflamed with lust for one another, and men commit indecent acts with one another. It perverts the glory of God and the creation of God.

God's Kingdom and Unrepentant Sin

Here you go. What do we got? One more aspect to this. God's kingdom is devoid of unrepentant homosexuals. First Corinthians chapter 6: "Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, the idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexual offenders, thieves, greedy, drunkards, they're not going to be in heaven. They're not going to inherit the kingdom of God."

And you're going, "Yeah, that homosexual is not going to be there. I don't have a problem there. I'm just a greedy little guy." Let me point out to you again, you fall into the same category. We are not taking the sin of homosexuality and dealing with that and somehow raising it above all the other sins. The problem is not there. The problem is when we drop it off the chart and don't call it what God calls it, which is sin.

Unrepentant is the operative word. There are not going to be any unrepentant people in heaven, period. If you're here today and you're involved in homosexuality and you're practicing this and you're unrepentant, you need to know that if you die in that unrepentant condition, you will not be in heaven.

A Message From the Grave

I was talking to somebody this morning right before the study started and he was saying that he was just at a funeral of a young lady, 45, and her parents were there. She was a believer and her parents weren't. She specifically left instructions in the eulogy that was to be given for the pastor to say to the parents and to everyone, but the parents especially, "If you don't come to Christ in repentance and faith, you are not going to see me again." I love that.

See, that's the issue here. We all kind of get soft at these funerals. The reality is, if you don't know Christ, here, I love this, this is the girl from the grave, probably saying what she had said to them face-to-face, and she's saying, "Listen, I'm telling you this, if you don't accept Christ as Lord and Savior and come to Him in repentance and faith, don't you kid yourself for a second, you aren't going to see me again. You're going to hell." That's the message.

The Universal Need for Salvation

And it's not just the sin of homosexuality. You're here today and you're an unrepentant person. You have not confessed your sin and come to Christ in repentance and faith and put your faith and trust in Him alone. Not in the church, not in priority living, not in a Bible study, not in your own figuring it out, but put your faith and trust in Him alone. If you have not come to that point in your life or that understanding in your life, you need to understand that your salvation is lost. And if you die in that condition, you spend eternity in hell.

So how do I do that? It just simply means to cry out from your heart, "God, I'm a sinner, I'm separated from you, I believe you sent your son Jesus Christ to die on the cross. When He died on the cross, He paid the price for my sin. Father, I accept that, I believe that, and God, I want you to change my life."

Here's what you need to do at that point. You need to get your chubby little cheeks into a good Bible teaching church. Priority living is not church. I ought to be able to hit a button at this point and have the next part of this message because we say it so many times. This is not church. This is something and it's terrific that you're here. It's terrific that literally hundreds of people every week want to come and hear this teaching, but this is a part, a tool, something you can use. You need to be in a good Bible teaching fundamental church.

Our Response: Homosexuality is Not the Unpardonable Sin

How do we view all this? If this is God's view, how do we respond to that? Here we go, five points. Number one, homosexuality is not the unpardonable sin. Right after that passage we just looked at in First Corinthians 6, Paul writes this: "And such were some of you."

If you've been around through these last few weeks, we've gone to this passage I think every week because we find in it the truth, we find in it the judgment of God for our sin, but we find in it also the hope that we can be forgiven. I'll guarantee you in this study at noon today, I'll guarantee you that we have people who've been involved in adultery, I'll guarantee you we have people there that have been involved in fornication, people who are involved in homosexuality and probably lesbianism, drug abuse, all these sorts of things, but they have been delivered from that.

One of the great lies that I hear is that God made you this way and you can't change. I did a great hour interview with a guy who heads up a group and this guy was gay and by his own admission had hundreds of partners and he's now married. He's HIV positive so

The Reality of Transformation

There's not going to have any children, but it's really interesting to me to listen to the testimony. How can you deny this? There are hundreds and hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands of men and women who have left the gay lifestyle and who have changed, not on their own, not on their own strength, but through the power of a risen Christ.

Here's a second thing, and so I understand that there's forgiveness there and there's hope. By the way, let me just finish that—there's hope for all of us regardless of our sin.

Distinguishing Temptation from Practice

Here's the second thing: remember this, that there's a difference between temptation and practice. This is especially true. There are a lot—and I assume that you know this—the young people now are very confused with this whole sex thing. More and more young men and women who are wondering about sex with people from the same gender, they're thinking about it, they're wondering, "Does that make me gay? Am I gay in that process?"

Maybe you've had those. We frequently get people who will say, "I've been tempted in this area." There's a big difference between temptation and practice.

Paul writes—this is comforting again—1 Corinthians 10: "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man." You're here today. Again, it doesn't deal with the issue of homosexuality, but you're here today and you're involved, there's some sin out there, and you're saying nobody's ever had to struggle like this. And God says, "No, it's not the case at all. There's a lot of people that have been down this road before. No temptation has seized you except which is common to man, and God is faithful."

He won't let you be tempted beyond that which you can bear. Every time you yield to the temptation and the temptation becomes sin, you're saying to God, "You're not faithful," because God says, "I'm going to give you the strength." I don't care what it is. What's your sin? Pride? Arrogance? Is it a sexual sin? Are you just a greedy little guy? You're just a little drunkard? What is it?

I don't know, but whatever that temptation is—and every one of us have a singular sin, some more than that, but at least one where we look at it and say, "If these urges are so strong, I don't know if I can stop them." You can't on your own, but God will give you the strength in that area. Big distinction between temptation and practice.

Dealing with Professing Christians in Sin

Here's the third point. Yeah, before I put this up, now it gets a little rugged. What do I do with people who are involved in this, and they're friends of mine? I got an uncle, and He's coming over for Thanksgiving dinner. What do we do? I got a sister, and she has come out of the closet. What do I do with them?

Here we go, because this gets harsh, but it's not new to you. If this person says they're a Christian and continues in that lifestyle, you don't have anything to do with them.

First Corinthians 5: Paul writes to this church at Corinth. They got a problem in the church. They got a guy, apparently a guy who's visible within the church, recognized by those in the church, and He's involved. He's having sex with His stepmother. And Paul says, "I'm telling you, bounce Him out of there. Don't have anything to do with Him."

Now, they misunderstood and thought Paul was saying, "Don't have anything to do with those who are involved in sex," and He said, "No, no, no. If I was telling you, get rid of everybody who's involved in sex and don't have anything to do with them, you have to leave the world to accomplish that." And that's what we looked at a couple weeks ago.

The Key Distinction: Claiming to Be a Christian

Here's what He's saying. If you have a person who's involved in sexual immorality—so you can expand this to adultery or fornication or any of these—and anyone who calls Himself a brother, now that's the key word. This is the person that says, "I'm a Christian." The guy that says, "I celebrate my homosexuality and it's pleasing to God," or the guy that says, "I'm involved in this act and I'm totally unrepentant."

We got a call and dealing with a guy right now who is separated from His wife. He's shacking up with another chick, and His comment to us was, "Do whatever you want to do with me because I'm not going to stop and I couldn't care less." That's fairly unrepentant. And what do you do with that guy?

Well, you just lay the wood to this guy, not because you don't like Him, but because you love Him. And for the purity of the body, you can't allow that sin to continue, but also for His own good, it's to isolate Him so that if He's truly converted, His desire is to come back, or her desire is to repent. "Don't even eat with Him."

Now, eating there was much more than it is now. The whole idea there was the idea of fellowship, the idea of being together.

Conviction Is Not Phobia

And again, this is not—and I think I've done, give myself high marks here today—I think I've done a good job on not focusing exclusively on the issue of homosexuality. We had a gal who used to come to one of the studies, and she said, "I'm not coming anymore. I have two friends that are gay. I'd love to bring them to this, but you're homophobic, and they'd be offended by what they hear."

And I said to her, "They would not be offended by what they'd hear. They'd be convicted by what they hear, and that happens every week to people." We talk about pride. We talk about greed. We talk about those issues, and I can watch every week. And for some of you, you know, you need to understand. You would sit there, and this means nothing to you, but you can look around the room, and God convicts.

The Spirit of God applies the Word of God to the heart and the mind of the man or woman of God, and encouragement takes place, and comfort takes place, and conviction takes place. It's not homophobic. This is what God's saying.

The Cultural Danger of Calling Evil Good

He's saying to you, "Listen, this culture is taking yet one more step in the process of losing the remnant of moral restraint." Don't—and one of those issues is when you call bad good. We're so sick here, we're closely reaching a point where we're

calling good bad. We take someone who takes a stand for the person of Christ, and we say they're intolerant, and they're bad. That's really sick, but that's where we teeter. We teeter on that brink, and I'm not one of these great political guys that is saying, get out there and figure all this stuff out. All I'm saying to you is, here's what you've lost.

We were talking about this at coffee the other day. My sense is, what's happened is, even the moral restraint that came with even false religion is now exiting the society we live in. By that I mean the people that would at least go to church, and at least have some restraint, even though it wasn't saving faith, at least that religion provided some moral restraint on them, but that is gone.

Can you imagine today having the gas lines we had during the Carter administration? We're shooting people for no reason at all. Now, after three and a half hours of sitting in line, we've lost moral restraint. I've talked, and you're probably Cardinal season ticket holders and all this, and you don't have any problem, but of the last four or five people I've talked to that have just gone up and bought tickets to go to a Cardinal game, every one of them has said to me, I will never go again. I couldn't put my family through that again. We got fights breaking out here, and we got drunks over here, and we got obnoxious behavior all over, and it's not just at a Cardinal game, it's everywhere in public. We don't know how to act anymore. We're just giving away moral restraint.

When you can't deal with this issue without being accused of being intolerant, it has nothing to do with tolerance. What's God say?

Reaching the Unbelieving Homosexual

Here you go, refrain from condemning the unbelieving homosexual. This is the other side of that coin. We talked about the guy that says, "I'm a Christian." What about the guy that isn't? Hey, God will take care of that. To that person, you have one message, and that is the message of hope, the message that you can change.

Again, you expand it beyond the issue before us today, but it's the message to a lost and dying world. There's hope, and I look at these groups, and I take them the message of hope. I'm going to speak tonight at a Young Life banquet, and these are one of those awful venues because there's not one person there who came to hear me, and that's perfect because that means I don't have to stay up there very long. But my whole point to them is you look at all this fun, but Young Life, I hope, and I don't think it is, is not about fun.

Young Life is about the person of Christ. Anybody can go have belching contests with these kids. Anybody can throw them down water slides, and hold them underwater, and jump off balloons, and stick pies in their pants. Anybody can do this stuff. The whole point of this is Christ is the hope that we have. It's not a hopeless situation that you're in today, and it is legitimate, I believe, to target sinners as people who are not just worthy, but people that God says are deserving of your time.

Jesus is involved in ministry, and the Pharisees say, "Why do you eat and drink with the sinners?" And Jesus said, "It's not the healthy who needs a doctor, it's the sick. I haven't come to call the righteous to repentance. I've come to call sinners to repentance." You ought to be actively engaged, not just in a ministry specifically to homosexuals, although if God puts that in your heart, go for it. Your life ought to be a ministry to sinners lost and separated from God.

God's Plan for Sexuality

When we deal with this issue of sexuality, it's important for us to understand that God has a plan. God has a plan for how we're to use our sexuality, and it's within the confines of marriage, leaving and cleaving. Anything, I cannot be more clear than this, anything other than that is a distortion. Anything other than that is a perversion of what God has for you.

I know in these areas that there are a lot of you who are tempted on a daily basis. Don't buy into the lie that says, "I can't stop." We talked about before, forget homosexuality for now. Some of these areas of adultery and fornication, you're planning your next sin right now. There used to be a Holiday Inn out by my house back home in Davenport, and they every once in a while would run the billboard in front, "Plan your next affair with us." And I thought, well, that's good. I like that. I think they meant parties like Christmas and stuff.

But I know some of you that are planning that right now, and you're just beginning to act that out, and you're saying, "I can't stop that." Sure you can. You're just like that doctor. You won't stop it. You can. Here's how you can stop it: Don't do it. Yeah, it's more complicated than that. All right, well, don't do it now. You can stop it.

Looking Ahead: The Abortion Issue

Next week, we look at an issue that has torn apart the country. That is, I think at the core, it's funny, I watched my favorite presidential candidate the other night, the Donald, and I love the Donald. I find the Donald absolutely fascinating. I'm not sure I'd want him for a son-in-law, but they even asked the Donald this question, and it's the question of abortion. There's not been a presidential candidate yet that hasn't had to deal with, "What's your view of abortion?"

There seems to be, at this point, two dominant thoughts that are emerging politically, and one that's unacceptable. It's unacceptable anymore to say, "I'm pro-choice." That's gone. What's replaced it is to say, "Abortion's awful, I hate abortion, it's terrible, it's disgusting, but," and then the "but" trains us into, "but I'm pro-choice." We're going to look at this whole issue of abortion.

and we're going to try to do it next week again, from God's perspective. What does God say about this? I didn't get hung up on all a bunch of political stuff. What's God have to say, and how do we respond to that? We'll look at it next week.

Father, help us see the truth of this today. Now, I know that many of these words are harsh to some, but of great comfort to others. God, thank you that you created us in such a way that we fit within your pattern, in your design. What we ask is that you would conform our wills, and our heart, and our spirit, also to your design and your pattern.

In all the areas of our life, our deepest desire is to please you, to bring honor and hope to you. God, we pray that you would use us in this way. We pray that we could bring to you our sin, and trade it for your righteousness. Father, thank you for that promise. Thank you for the promise that we have in Jesus' name. Father, thank you for the Savior. We pray to you today in His name. Amen.