Taking Pride in Perversion

[0:00] for those of you who are visiting because the people who have been in our church and are my friends and have known me for a while know that I never preach politically from the pulpit.

[0:23] This isn't the place for me to do that. I have my own views, of course, but you're here to hear the word of the Lord. So everything that I'm about to say to you in the course of this message has absolutely nothing to do with my political persuasion.

[0:38] It has everything to do with what I'm going to tell you it is. It's me standing as your pastor, loving the Lord Jesus, and fighting the good fight because war has been declared against the truth.

[0:55] And I am a preacher of truth. So for God's grace working in my heart, Lord Jesus, help me as your servant to preach the truth in love.

[1:07] And I want to say at the outset, given the fact that we record these messages and they do go out to some people, if someone who loves and cares for you has suggested that you listen to this message as it's being recorded, thank you for taking time to listen.

[1:27] I have prayed and I do pray that you will please listen carefully and hear all I say as we move through this message. Joe Biden was inaugurated as president of the United States on January 20th, 2021.

[1:44] Less than six months later, on June 1st, 2021, the White House issued a press statement celebrating the Biden-Harris administration's historic progress made towards LGBTQ plus in that short time.

[2:06] Among the list of their achievements being celebrated were the following. I'm going to put these up on the screen for you beyond my title, Taking Pride in Perversion, because I want you to see these quotes for yourself.

[2:23] I'm not making this up. This is what's been released by the White House. This is what they're taking pride in. This is what they're celebrating with this first one.

[2:36] Within hours, this is quoting, within hours of taking the oath of office, President Biden signed an executive order preventing and combating discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.

[2:51] Just two months later, on March 31st, 2021, President Biden became the first U.S. president to issue a proclamation commemorating Transgender Day of Visibility.

[3:08] The proclamation honored and celebrated the achievements and resiliency of transgender individuals and communities and recognized the generations of struggle, activism, and courage that have brought our country closer to a full equality for transgender and gender non-binary people in the United States and around the world.

[3:40] On June 21st, or June 1st, 2021, President Biden issued a proclamation affirming June 2021 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Plus Pride Month, marking a time of hope, progress, and promise for LGBTQ plus Americans across the country.

[4:10] seeking to ensure that pride flags fly on U.S. embassies around the world, the State Department announced it will allow U.S. diplomatic outposts to fly the pride flag on the same flagpole as the U.S. flag at their embassy and or consulate, demonstrating that the United States will lead on LGBTQI plus human rights around the world.

[4:51] Friends, our president and his administration believe that it is a basic human right for people to pursue sexual immorality such that our legal system is being used to advance, support, and protect sexual deviancy at every level of our society.

[5:20] Related to our president's agenda for leadership in our nation, President Biden has assembled the most diverse administration in our nation's history and is proud to serve alongside the 14% of all appointees who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer.

[5:48] Many more descriptions were listed of LGBTQI plus progress. almost one year later, on May 31st, 2022, the White House released the following statement, and I'm only going to read selected parts.

[6:09] Please just bear with me. I know this is very difficult, but I want to present the reality to you because I need to answer it. during lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex Pride Month, we reflect on the progress we have made as a nation in the fight for justice, inclusion, and equality while reaffirming our commitment to do more to support LGBTQI plus rights at home and abroad.

[6:46] I often say, now this is our president saying this himself. I often say that America can be defined by one word, possibilities.

[6:59] This month, we celebrate generations of LGBTQI plus people who have fought to make the possibilities of our nation real for every American.

[7:15] This month, we remind the LGBTQI plus community that they are loved and cherished. My administration sees you for who you are, deserving of dignity, respect, and support.

[7:31] As I said in my State of the Union address, especially to our younger transgender Americans, I will always have your back as your president so that you can be yourself and reach your God-given potential.

[7:50] That's fighting words to a preacher of righteousness who cares about the people of his congregation and loves the young people who are being targeted by this ridiculous evil.

[8:06] And so it's time now to speak. And I'm going to speak, thus saith the Lord. Today and every day, my administration stands with every LGBTQI plus American in the ongoing struggle against intolerance, discrimination, and injustice.

[8:25] That's what I'm doing right now. I am being intolerant, I am discriminating, and I am being unjust by telling the truth. We condemn the dangerous state laws and bills that target LGBTQI plus youth.

[8:46] Friends, I'm going to show you that if anybody's doing any targeting, it's our administration, and they are coming after your kids. And we remain steadfast in our commitment to helping LGBTQI plus people in America and around the world live free from violence.

[9:06] people. This month, we honor the resilience of LGBTQI plus people who are fighting to live authentically and freely.

[9:21] we affirm our belief that LGBTQI plus rights are human rights, and we recommit to delivering protection, safety, and equality to LGBTQI plus families so that everyone can realize the full promise of America.

[9:44] Now, therefore, I, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me, by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2022 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Pride Month.

[10:14] I call upon the people of the United States to recognize the achievements of the LGBTQI plus community to celebrate the great diversity of the American people and to wave their flags of pride high.

[10:39] When the president of the free world stands up, people and puts on his battle clothing and goes to battle for perversion, the church has to speak up.

[10:55] I want to respectfully respond to President Biden's view that America can be summed up in the word possibilities.

[11:06] given his track record of leadership and support for sexual immorality, I would suggest that our president's view of America be summed up in a very different word, perversion.

[11:23] Promoting and celebrating perversion is a death sentence. the standard English definition of the verb pervert is to affect with perversion, to lead astray morally, to turn away from the right course, to lead into mental error or false judgment, to turn to an improper use, to misconstrue or misinterpret, especially deliberately, to distort, to bring to a less excellent state, to vitiate or debase, pathologically, to change what is unnatural or abnormal, to convert or persuade to a religious belief regarded as false, or wrong.

[12:28] Friends, when a nation embraces, celebrates, and displays a sense of honor for what God says is perversion, it turns itself away from what is right to pursue what is unnatural and abnormal.

[12:48] Now, I want to go on record. I am not preaching this message in hate. the people who are caught up in this terrible perversion are our mission field.

[13:01] We need to reach these people with the truth. We need to be compassionate and patient. We are not fighting a war against flesh and blood.

[13:13] These people who are caught up in these things are our children. They are friends. children. They are someone else's children.

[13:26] We need to reach them with the love of Christ. We need to give them hope for the struggle that's going on inside of them that makes them vulnerable to these kinds of lies.

[13:38] as a matter of conscience then. As a matter of love for all of the young people that I see sitting in this congregation right now.

[13:52] And from my loyalty to Jesus Christ, I cannot be silent while our highest office targets our young people to believe lies that will ruin their lives and damn them to a devil's hell for eternity.

[14:08] How can we be silent? Mr. President, you are gravely wrong. There is nothing about the pride movement and what it stands for that is God given.

[14:28] There is no freedom in sin. There is no future in sin. There is no hope. no progress and no promise in sin.

[14:42] And God does view the pride movement as sin. If there is any hate in my heart, it is a hate for sin and what it does to ruin the lives of the people who would fly the flag of immorality and perversion in our nation and around the world.

[15:04] And they need the gospel. to avoid the cumbersome label LGBTQI plus, I'll simply refer to all of that as the pride movement, which is ironically, biblically appropriate as a designation.

[15:24] as I think about the myriads of people in our community and around the world who follow the flag of the pride movement, I offer this sermon as an earnest plea for them to embrace the truth of the Lord and flee from the wrath to come.

[15:42] God And while I have the gravest concern for those involved in the pride movement, this message is primarily aimed at the young people I have the privilege to shepherd.

[15:58] As you are led to pursue false views of your authentic selves, I want to help you see what is authentic about you. As your pastor, I want to dispel the lies you are being told about your sexuality by your leaders, your teachers, your counselors, and other people that you should be able to trust to tell you the truth.

[16:26] I want to tell you about the God who made you, about who God says you are, and about your sexuality as God's good gift and God's good design for your life.

[16:41] my young friends, please hear the truth from the word of the Lord about you. The first thing that I want to point out to you, and I'm talking to all of my young friends who are in my congregation now under the age of 20.

[17:03] The first thing that I want to point out to you from Scripture as the truth about who you are, who you really are, your authentic self is this.

[17:14] God made you. God made you. Psalm 139, if you'll join me there, we'll look at verses 13 through 16 primarily.

[17:27] for you formed my inward parts, you wove me in my mother's womb, I will give thanks to you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

[17:44] Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.

[17:55] your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.

[18:08] How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God, how vast is the sum of them. If you'll look with me at verse 13 and zero in there with me, the first thing that we need to establish is that you were made.

[18:28] You were designed. You were created. You were formed, fashioned, designed, and woven together to be who you are.

[18:44] You have a maker. in all of the lies and nonsense that are being propagated today, the kinds of things that I just quoted to you in the first fourth of this message will not change that reality.

[19:03] God made you. He designed you. He fashioned you. He fitted you together in an intricate way in your mother's womb.

[19:18] And He knew you before you were ever formed. He saw your unformed substance. This is the God of the universe, the maker of heaven and earth.

[19:31] So who made you? God made you. God used your parents in a biological way to create you. as a human being.

[19:42] The Bible tells us that God personally knit you together in the womb. You understand the analogy there, the picture there. If you've ever watched someone sit down and knit, it's a very detailed and intricate process.

[19:59] Every little bitty tiny piece coming together in the greater whole. But it's every little piece being fashioned. That's the idea of God himself making you.

[20:15] Knitting you himself while you were in the womb. How personal is that? Perhaps you've never even thought about that before.

[20:30] Verse 14. I will give thanks to you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works and my soul knows it very well.

[20:44] You are no accident. Do you know, have you heard maybe parents before say things like, well, here's our accident.

[20:56] We weren't planning for it. But we understand what we mean. We don't mean to be derogatory or anything when we say that. But we all understand there's no accident to you.

[21:07] God made you. He designed you and fashioned you. Here's something that will blow your mind. Before God ever made the world, he knew you.

[21:21] Before God ever made the world, he knew your parents. before God ever made the world, he knew your parents would come together and that you would be the result.

[21:35] Before he ever made the world, God knew that he would use your parents to bring you to life. That's a big God.

[21:49] I think if I'm going to choose whom to trust, well, I may my choice a long time ago. I'm going to trust what God says about me. You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

[22:06] Fearfully, fearfully made means, hear this, astonishingly, awesomely made. I am astonishingly and awesomely made.

[22:20] wonderfully has the idea of extraordinarily, marvelously. So God fearfully and wonderfully made you.

[22:34] He made you astonishingly and awesomely in the womb. He made you in an extraordinary, marvelous way.

[22:44] and he brought you to life. It is God almighty that has given you the gift of your life.

[22:55] You are alive because God gifted you life. And the design against your sexuality is a design to rob you of that truth.

[23:11] so that you will not honor God for who he is and for what he's given you. The lie comes from the devil.

[23:26] The truth is God intentionally formed you in every detail of your inner and outer parts. God made your nose, your ears, your feet.

[23:42] He made every part of you inside and out. So I want to ask you something. All my young friends now look at me as your pastor and listen to me. I want to ask you something. Are you happy with your nose?

[24:01] Do you like your ears? Are you good with your hair? too brittle, too thin, too thick, not curly enough, too straight?

[24:14] I wish I was blonde. No, you don't. Are you okay with your teeth? Too straight, too crooked, too this, too that.

[24:28] Your feet? Too big, too small. I wish my eyes were blue.

[24:42] I wish my eyelashes were longer. Down to the eyelash, your God fashioned you and delighted to do it.

[24:55] God wants you to celebrate his workmanship in making you who you are.

[25:13] It's very, very sad that so many of you in our community and around the world cry yourselves to sleep every night worrying about things that don't matter and being told that those things are the things that make you who you are.

[25:35] Your ears don't make you who you are. Your feet, your teeth, your hair color. And in a few moments I'll talk to you a little bit more about the kinds of things you feel inside about all that.

[25:48] Right now it's enough for you to know that you are an astonishing example of God's handiwork and craftsmanship. That's who you are.

[26:01] That's what the Bible says. And God delights in what he's made you to be. In verses 15 and 16, my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.

[26:21] Your eyes have seen my unformed substance and in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was not one of them. In these verses from 13 down through 16, the psalmist is basically saying, I will give thanks to you, Father, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

[26:42] Wonderful are your works. In other words, I could say it this way and be perfectly content with the design and sense of this passage. It's this, I thank you, O Lord, for the wonder of myself.

[26:58] Now, you know, here at Grace, we are fond of saying it's not about me. Well, right now, the psalmist is saying, thank you for making me, me.

[27:17] Introspection in terms of God designing us in the womb and making us unique isn't supposed to make us proud of ourselves and puff us up.

[27:29] It's not supposed to make us go away fretting about the fact that one ear is a little lower than the other. My teeth aren't as straight as I want them to be, or my nose is too big, or too this, or my eye.

[27:43] No. As we contemplate with the psalmist, the intricate nature of God making us in our mother's womb, it's supposed to make us thankful for God, for who He is, for what He does, and for what He gives.

[28:00] He gives us life in His name. It was His good pleasure to create you. He didn't have to. There's nobody making God make you.

[28:11] you. You know, technology can show us images now of you in the womb. And I'm astonished at some of the clarity of those pictures.

[28:27] I remember when Suzanne and I had our sonograms done, there was this form, and I remember the first time I ever saw it, and I was supposed to be excited, and I got excited, and I looked, and I looked, and I looked, and I just couldn't see a baby in that picture.

[28:44] But I trust it was there, because my wife said, there it is. Okay. But God knew, God knew you and saw you before you were being formed.

[29:04] You say, Jeff, how in the world? I don't know. I'm not God. That's just what the Bible says. Even before you were conceived, God had already marked out the number of the days of your life.

[29:19] One of the things that this text possibly is giving us, there's a couple of nuanced meanings that it could be, either one of them. When he talks about your days being ordained and written in the book, it could refer to the days of your development in the womb, that God marked off and knew every single detail of what would be developed every hour of the time that you were cooking in your mama.

[29:48] Or it could refer to all of the days of your life that God had given you. For me, I read it all and thought through it and I thought, why can't it be both? The text would allow for both and the Bible teaches both.

[30:03] So I'm good with that. You pick either one. Here's the point. God made you. And God knows you. The next thing I want to show you is this.

[30:14] God made you in His image. He didn't just make you. He made you in His image. I don't even know if I can begin to tell you how marvelous that is. This is Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 and 27.

[30:32] There are other places we'll see this, but we'll just camp here for a few moments. As the creation story is given to us here in chapter 1, we come to verse 26, then God said, because God has said a number of things to bring all that we know into existence.

[30:55] Then God said, let us make mankind, that would be man and woman, let us make mankind in our image according to our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

[31:18] God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. what an incredible two verses of scripture right at the outset of the first chapter of the Bible establishes this reality for us.

[31:40] Do you see why this is under attack? If Satan can undermine the truths of the first chapter of Genesis, he wins a huge battle.

[31:52] These truths establish who we are, who God is, why he made us, why we're here. What our purpose is on the planet. You are made in the image of Almighty God, the God who created everything that you know and beyond.

[32:11] One of the things this means, young friend, is this. You are not a higher form of animal. You are human, made in the image of God, and distinct from the animals.

[32:27] animals. You have been given the mandate to rule over the earth and rule over the animals. You were made by God, in the image of God, to reflect the nature and character of God in unique ways.

[32:45] God's image. The fact that you feel, friend, the fact that you think, that you plan, that you hope, that all reflects God's image in you.

[33:00] The joy, sadness, pleasure, peace, love, concern, even the sense of justice you experience all reflect God's image in you.

[33:12] The animals don't have any of that. Man's crowning glory is his relation to God.

[33:24] Derek Kidner. Friend, as you struggle to make sense of your young life, please allow God's wisdom in Scripture to guide you.

[33:41] You were made to image your maker. That means you were made to reflect in how you speak, in what you prioritize, in what you give your life to, and how you go about living your life in your future job, the marriage partner you'll have, the children you might have, everything about your life.

[34:07] You were made to reflect God in how you live, to reflect him, to reflect his character, his nature. That's so unique about you.

[34:21] As a human being, it's a privilege and a gift that you could do that. Satan wants to squash that.

[34:32] He wants your life to reflect you, your sin, your confusion, your fear, your doubt.

[34:45] He doesn't want you to reflect the joy, the peace, and the love that Jesus Christ brings to your life as you trust in him as your Lord and Savior. There's so many things that I could say about that, but I want to move on and give you a couple more.

[35:01] God made you either male or female. I'll spend a little bit more time here. If you look at Genesis chapter five, we just saw that in the passage we looked at in Genesis one, but now I wanted to show you another place that you might not often turn to to see these truths.

[35:22] In verses one and two of Genesis chapter five, this is the book of the generations of Adam in the day when God created man. He made him in the likeness of God.

[35:36] He created them male and female, and he blessed them and named them man in the day when they were created.

[35:50] Did you notice that following on the statement that God created all of us, either male or female, it says that God blessed them.

[36:03] It is a great blessing of heaven for you to be who you are as a boy or a girl. That is a good, good thing, and it's by design.

[36:18] You weren't born a boy or a girl by accident. You didn't have a 50-50 chance of being either one. On our side of the equation as your parents, it was a 50-50 proposition.

[36:36] At least that's the way I thought about it. Now I know what I prayed for, but boy or girl. But God designed you to be either a boy or a girl.

[36:51] And he knew before you were ever made, you'd be a boy or a girl. In other words, I'm saying as much as we understand the biology of chromosomes and how all of that works and you becoming a boy or a girl, it's God who decides whether or not you're a boy or a girl.

[37:08] Because you're made by him. You see, there's no part of who you are as a boy or a girl that's an accident. Every bit of it is designed by God. And God wants you to celebrate being a boy or a girl.

[37:25] If I ask for a show of hands of how many men, after watching childbirth, looked up into heaven and said, thank you for making me a man, I'd probably see every hand go up.

[37:35] I'd be one of them. Amen. I've said many times, if men had to have babies, there'd be nobody on the earth. The ladies should have amen'd that.

[37:46] They're just very humble. They're being very meek right now. Thank you, ladies. ladies, you are no accident. God made you either male or female.

[37:58] Now, please hear me on this, young friends. Your sexuality, sexuality means whether you are male or female. Sexuality has the idea of I'm a guy or I'm a girl.

[38:13] So my sexuality is I'm a guy. Your sexuality might be you're a girl. Your maleness or your femaleness is a gift from God marking your distinctive identity from the opposite sex.

[38:33] I am this. I am not that. So when Adam, knowing that he was this, saw that, he went, wow.

[38:46] Wow. That ostrich didn't do it for me. That elephant didn't do it for me. That's doing it for me. Wow. Whoa, man.

[38:57] Wow, man. Wow. You know what? That's okay. That's okay. Because that's how God designed it to be from Jump Street.

[39:08] The fact that that gets perverted is the result of sin. not the design of a good and gracious God. God made you to relate to him and to others as either a man or a woman.

[39:28] There is no in between. There is no other design. There is no plan B. It is man or it is woman.

[39:39] man. There is much talk today about gender dysphoria, non-binary, transgender, and about being free to pursue sexual expression.

[39:56] These are new labels. Hear me, please. These are new labels, but none of this is new. If I asked right now, and I'm not going to, if I asked right now for a show of hands from your parents and all the other adults in this room about how many of them in their teenage years struggled in some way with their sexuality, I bet every single hand would go up.

[40:26] Now, if you're a young person sitting here right now, you'd be like, are you surprised? My mom and dad wrestled with, struggled with, and had some issues with their sexuality while they were growing up?

[40:41] I'm willing to bet that they'd say, yeah, I did. I don't know what that struggle might look like for them. I could guess some things.

[40:51] I know what it looked like for me. Here's the point that I'm trying to make with you. Listen very, very carefully as I say this to you. As you grow up, it is normal for you to have questions about yourself.

[41:06] It's normal for you to ask, who am I? Why am I here? What do I really want? It's normal for you to ask this question.

[41:21] Am I normal? I don't feel normal sometimes. What are these feelings that I'm having?

[41:35] What do I do with these feelings that I'm having? Am I pretty? Am I ugly? I feel ugly.

[41:45] Is my body normal? My body doesn't look like his body. My body doesn't look like her body. Am I normal?

[42:02] Am I different? Why am I so different? For all that we hear about individuality and being your authentic self, it's so strange, isn't it?

[42:17] That you can walk into any social setting where you have young people congregating together and all of them want to fit in.

[42:29] For all their mantra about being different, what they really want is just to fit in and be accepted. What about this question?

[42:41] Will someone ever want to marry me? All I'm saying to you is every person, every person is challenged to try and understand what it means for him or her to be male or female.

[43:00] We all go through that as we grow up. Every single person struggles at some level with their sexuality.

[43:14] Being curious, being uncertain, being uneducated about these things and asking questions about your sexuality are not sins in and of themselves.

[43:28] And it doesn't make you hear me, please. It doesn't make you weird or crazy. That you struggle with these things as you're growing up. What matters as you grow up with these questions, with these doubts, maybe even with some fears, confusion and concerns is who you ask and listen to for your answers.

[43:55] That's what matters. And that's why I'm preaching this message. Because people you ought to be able to trust are lying to you. So your parents have you here in this church because they want you to hear the truth.

[44:14] That is where the lies that you are being told do so much damage. The sinful wisdom of man is trying to fill a void and answer an issue apart from in battle with God's wisdom.

[44:33] Man is offering something that is countering the truth of the Bible. That's what makes this so dangerous. One quick example of this is gender dysphoria.

[44:47] Gender dysphoria is a diagnostic label from the DSM-5. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders. It's an invention of man.

[45:01] Now hear this carefully. It means a profound and persistent unhappiness related to being either male or female. Now I just told you that every person goes through a time of being profoundly and persistently unhappy with who they are.

[45:22] Some people are just better at hiding it and denying it than others. Some people are just better at coping with it than others. What do you think a bully is friends? A bully is someone who hates themselves.

[45:35] We talk about oh. We say all kinds of things about that. But at the core of it a bully knows who they really are. And they found a way to cope.

[45:47] It's by lording it over other people. There are all kinds of ways that human beings find to cope with the realities of our insecurities, our fears, our doubts. This isn't psychological.

[45:59] Woo. These are things that God addresses in Scripture. Why? Because of sin. Because of the ravages of sin. God addresses these things with truth and with love.

[46:15] That's where we need to turn. It doesn't make you weird or crazy that you struggle. Here's what it means.

[46:27] It shows your need for God. God. Young friends, it shows your need for God's love, God's wisdom, God's forgiveness, and your need for God's truth about who you are and what he designed you for.

[46:47] God's love. God's love. God's love. That's coming next. Even if you change the way you dress, even if you change the way you act, and even if you can change your anatomy to reflect the opposite sex, you cannot change God's design for your inner sexuality.

[47:15] You will always be a girl or a guy, no matter what you do or tell yourself.

[47:28] There is no such thing as a man trapped in a woman's body or vice versa. We know that because God designed you to be either male or female.

[47:42] male. And there is no good reason for you to desire to be other than the wonderful design of God's own handiwork in your life.

[47:54] You should be thanking the Lord that he made you a boy or a girl. You should be celebrating that you're a guy. You should be celebrating that you're a girl.

[48:04] And in that celebration, you need to look to the God of heaven and say, thank you for making me who I am. And that's what the lies want to rob you from doing, from being.

[48:17] They want to turn your celebration. I'm going to give you another word in a minute for that. They want to turn your celebration in on yourself and to something else and off of God.

[48:32] You say, Jeff, how can you say that? Do you really think that these people like our president know that? You know what? It doesn't matter to me at all what their motives are. What matters to me is they're lying and their motives don't change the fact that they're lying.

[48:49] And that's what we need to address with truth because they are targeting our youth. They're coming after them in our schools, in the different systems of our government.

[49:00] They're singling them out and they're targeting them at a time when they're vulnerable, when they're doubting and fearing and confused, when they're not happy with some aspect of their body that they're dealing with.

[49:12] And they bring them into offices and counseling rooms and they start talking to them about things that put these ideas in their minds that they never should have. And we've got to address it.

[49:24] We've got to prepare the young people in the hearing of my voice right now to understand God's design for them and the truth of why God made them. Folks, you can't control what your kids are ultimately going to choose other than I can control my kids' choices.

[49:41] But you can do all you can to be faithful to the Lord, to teach them the truth and pray for them. That's where we have to start. Any efforts that you might make to change or to express your sexuality in ways that are different from God's design, you move yourself away from what is wonderful and towards what is twisted and perverted.

[50:09] The pride movement is about flaunting perversions of sexuality under the guise of freedom in expressing personality, individuality, and equality.

[50:27] But God did not design sexuality and sexual expression as ways for you to display your personality and individuality. That is not God's design for sex or your sexuality.

[50:41] You do not find yourself and deepen yourself by moving into perversion and selfish expressions of who you are. That is a devil's lie and a death sentence.

[50:53] And I'm on record. I'm saying it as clear as I know how. God designed sex and sexuality as an expression of service, humility, and the gift of giving to another.

[51:08] Our sexuality has everything to do then with servanthood and the stewardship of our bodies as living sacrifices offered to God in a spiritual service of worship to prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect.

[51:34] Romans 12, 1 and 2. That is God's design for our bodies and for relating to each other as men and women, boys and girls. The only place that God allows for sexual expression is between a man and a woman committed for life in marriage.

[51:54] Anything outside of that is a perversion of God's design. It's that straightforward. God knows your heart.

[52:08] God has the answers to your questions because he made you. So I'm asking you to ask God and to listen to God by reading what he said in the Bible about all of this, because it's all here.

[52:27] Of course, I couldn't cover it in one sermon. I couldn't cover it in 50 sermons. But I wanted to give you a few of these things just to encourage you. We are in this national thing called Pride Month in June.

[52:47] And I suppose that as long as the administration that we have is in place, June is always going to be Pride Month. So we have to answer this. The last thing I want to share with you, God made you a worshiper.

[53:01] Here's where it all comes together, young friend. God made you a worshiper. Let me just quickly share these scriptures with you. Psalm 95, verse 6.

[53:13] Folks, that is the basis of sound theology.

[53:25] The Lord, our maker, deserves our worship. We start there. Everything else flows from that.

[53:38] But when you're being lied to and taught to worship yourself, there's no room for God as maker, as Lord, as Savior. Many of you know this passage in Exodus 20, verse 3 and 5a.

[53:56] You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not worship them or serve them. And then finally, in Matthew 22, Jesus said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

[54:17] This is the great and foremost commandment. And all of us are under that commandment. Everybody. The fact that we suppress that truth in wrong living, unrighteous living, is the result of sin.

[54:35] Friends, God designed you to love Him and to love others. The pride movement perverts God's design for using our bodies to honor Him.

[54:46] And when we use our bodies to relate to others and to God in ways that pervert God's design for us, we sin against God and each other.

[54:58] It doesn't matter to me at all how unpopular it is to talk about sin. Sin is real. Your sin is the rebellion and nature of selfish pride in you.

[55:13] It is a barrier spiritually separating you from God. You feel sin's weight. In your loneliness, your doubt, your fear, your insecurity.

[55:29] But friends, you don't have to be alone. You don't have to live in fear. You don't have to be insecure. All due to your separation from God.

[55:40] It doesn't have to be that way. God has made a way for you to be spiritually reconciled to Himself. Reconciled is a fancy word that means brought near, brought together with.

[55:54] You can be brought together with God because sin separates you from God. It separates you from the love of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God, the goodness of God on your life.

[56:08] As you know Him as your Lord and Savior. By His love, God has made a sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus Christ, for you.

[56:21] I just want to take you to a few passages of Scripture that you would be able to see and hear this for yourself. Will you turn to Romans chapter 5 with me?

[56:33] What a wonderful, wonderful chapter of Scripture this is.

[56:47] We'll zero in here. Verse 6 says, For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

[56:59] Verse 8, But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

[57:10] Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. This is my appeal.

[57:22] That all of those people who are caught up in the pride movement would flee from God's judgment and the wrath to come by looking to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and seeking Him for the forgiveness of their sins.

[57:42] If you look at verse 10, For if while we were enemies, that's what sin does to us. It makes us enemies of the God who made us. If while we were enemies, we were reconciled or brought near to God through the death of Jesus, much more having been brought to God or reconciled with God, we shall be saved by His life.

[58:09] The life of Jesus Christ credited to you is life now and forever. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, again, so many wonderful things said in this chapter.

[58:38] I want to draw your attention to verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, that means anyone who has trusted in Jesus to forgive them for their sins, he is a new person, a new creature.

[58:56] The old things passed away, new things have come. Now, all these things are from God who reconciled us to Himself. How?

[59:07] Through Christ, His Son, and gave us the ministry then of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.

[59:22] And He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, those of us who have trusted Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and are looking only unto Him for life in His name, we have been made, verse 20, ambassadors of Jesus Christ.

[59:40] As though God were making an appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. That's what we're begging. That's what we're pleading.

[59:51] That's what we're praying here at Grace Church. We don't hate you. We love you. We don't want you to see your life ruined because you believe lies.

[60:03] We want to see you rescued from the devil's lies and from a devil's hell. And we plead with you to come to Jesus Christ and to know Him.

[60:15] Here's an invitation for all of those who might be listening to the recording because someone loved you enough to say, will you please listen to this? If you're ever in the vicinity of Grace Church, Williamsburg, Virginia, we invite you to come here.

[60:29] Bring your doubts. Bring your fears. Bring your questions. Come and sit with us and give us an opportunity to love you to Jesus. Give us an opportunity to show you that we don't hate you. That we would never turn you away from seeking truth.

[60:43] and that we want to offer you hope. Hope that will save your soul and give you life. There are many mothers and fathers out there who are praying that prayer for their kids.

[61:01] Asking God to put someone in their path that will love them enough not to ridicule them, not to mock them, not to tease them, not to look down on them and condescend to them, but to give them the hope and love of Jesus.

[61:15] And that's what we pray. That's what we pray we would be as a congregation. Knowing. Knowing what the results will be if you do not listen to God and flee from the wrath to come by fleeing to Jesus.

[61:31] Bring your sins to God and cry out to Him for His forgiveness. Ask God to make you His child. As you put your heart's trust in Jesus Christ, as your substitute and your Savior.

[61:44] God's love for you in Jesus is real, dear friend. But so is God's holy anger against all who pervert His designs and pridefully flaunt themselves in sexual sin.

[61:56] As a worshiper, it comes down to who you worship. Yourself or God? Will you base your worship on lies or truth?

[62:11] On idols or in the God who made you? Now, some of you will have recognized that I've not used the Bible to show places in Scripture where God says being and supporting the pride movement is wrong or sinful.

[62:27] I could have done that. That's not what my heart wanted to do as I prayed through this this week. I've done that in other sermons.

[62:39] And there's nothing wrong with that. We all need to see how God views these sins that the LGBTQI plus movement stand for and celebrate.

[62:50] But this time, for this moment, I want to appeal to you to consider what God made each of us to be. What God has done to rescue us from sin's perversions of God's design.

[63:07] And I pray that having given you these four basic points about who God is and who God made you to be, that you will look to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and for life.

[63:22] Will you pray with me? Almighty God in heaven, we pray that in the presentation of the gospel, people hearing this perhaps on tape will have their eyes and their hearts opened to the beauty of who you are and your design for them made in your image.

[63:46] that you made them to be worshipers so that they could know you and worship you. That they would know joy in life and fulfillment in life apart from all of these lies about who they are and what they need to do with their bodies.

[64:04] I pray that you would help these precious young people lay themselves down on the altar of a living sacrifice because they are looking to trust you for the forgiveness of their sins.

[64:14] God may you do a mighty work in our community through this church's stand on the gospel that we would love people to Jesus and hold out the grace and hope of Christ.

[64:30] Thank you for your goodness to us as a congregation. Thank you that I have like-minded souls that are willing to sit under the word of God and listen to these kind of messages and take the truth of the Lord to their friends and family members and co-workers.

[64:46] God we pray do a mighty work in your spirit's power of moving through our community and rescuing many souls from hell. In Jesus name we pray.

[64:57] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.