"God is Love" vs. "Love is Love" (Romans 1:21-27) | Louis Azuma

Speaker: Alright, well, well, tonight, um, so we've been going

through the book of Romans, right?

Romans and Romans chapter one talks about a really, really important.

Issue something really important that, so important that I thought

it would be best if we just took a night to talk about this topic.

So tonight we are going to talk about homosexuality and LGBTQ

plus all of that because in Romans one, verses 26 and 27 talked about

how the, some people who had, um.

What's called, what they said were unnatural desires, desires for, uh, men,

desiring men and women desiring women.

And so that's what we're gonna talk about.

We're gonna talk about all of that.

And so, um, it's gonna be, uh, hopefully really helpful for you to

see what God says, why he says it, um, why certain things that the, the

Bible says about what we would call sin and how to talk to people about.

This topic, because I'm sure this is not your favorite thing to

talk about with people at school.

So, um, that's what we're gonna talk about.

So this is what we're gonna do.

We're gonna be looking at what the Bible says about LGBTQ plus ideas and

thoughts and desires and all that.

Okay?

So what I want for you tonight, this is my goal for you, is I want

you to be clear and confident.

About God's design, God's design for marriage, God's design for gender, God's

design for attraction, God's design for romance, for all those things.

I want you to be clear.

This is what God says.

This is how God made people to live and to interact with each other.

I want you to have clarity about that.

I want that to make sense.

I want you to understand what God says, and I want you to be confident.

I want you to be like, that's a good thing.

I'm so glad God says what he says.

I'm so glad God made people the way he made people.

I want you to be clear about it.

I want you to understand it, and I want you to be confident.

I want you to feel really good about it.

I want you to, to affirm it, and I want you to not be embarrassed about it.

Especially in today's culture, it's, it's easy for someone to make you

feel embarrassed about what God says.

I'm gonna make you feel like a bad person for believing what the

Bible says about these things.

So I want you to be confident.

I don't want you to be embarrassed.

I don't want you to be ashamed, and I don't want you to, to feel

like this is a bad thing, that God says these things, okay?

That's what I want for you.

So here's our starting point, okay?

Our, our number one starting point when we're thinking

about all of this stuff, right?

When you think about, um.

All the different, all the different aspects of, of gender and sexuality

and identity and all of these things.

The number one thing I want you to start with is that God is love.

That's where I want you to start.

God loves you more than you love yourself.

God loves you more than you love yourself.

That's not our first point, but that is where I want you to start, that God

loves you more than you love yourself.

In fact, God loves people so much that one John four says that he

sent his son to die for people.

He God took on flesh and died for people.

That's how much God loves you.

He was willing to do that for you.

God loves you more than you love you, and so because of that, God wants

what's best for you, more than you want.

What's best for you, right?

God wants you to be happy more than you want you to be happy.

Maybe you've never thought about that before, but this is our, our starting

place because a lot of people will tell you, well, it's unloving for

God to say these things about me.

It's unloving for you to tell me X, y, and Z about my gender or

who I'm allowed to marry or what I'm allowed to say about myself.

So our starting point is that, that God loves you.

God loves people so much.

So that, that's our starting point, and we even see that here, right?

In one John four, beloved let us love one another.

For love is from God.

So love is God's idea, right?

In our title.

There's that, that phrase that you hear thrown out a lot.

That love is love, right?

Don't let anyone tell you who you can love.

Well, actually, love is God's idea.

God invented love.

Love actually existed before the world existed because God,

the Father loved God the son.

Before he made anyone so love actually has existed before the

world existed before Adam and Eve were created before Sin entered

the world, God made us out of love.

Actually.

God made people so he could love them.

So love is God's idea.

Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

So the only way you can love truly is if you have a relationship with God.

You see that the only way that you can actually love someone has to do with God.

You cannot love apart from God.

It's, it's really not love.

It's just a fake imitation of love.

Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Anyone who does not.

Love does not know God because God is love.

Now, these three words are three of the, this is one of the most

important phrases in the Bible.

God is love.

It's not saying that God is loving, it's saying that God is love.

What's the difference there?

Well, the difference is that, God, this is, this is a definition, right?

Who God is is love.

So whatever love is has to be.

Consistent with who God is.

You can't make love something that's not consistent with who God is.

I heard one theologian put it this way, he said that, that Jesus

is love covered over in flesh.

Jesus is love in a human body because God is love.

So the way we define love is by God.

So.

Well, how?

What does it look like to love someone?

Well, what's God like?

That's where we start.

We start with God.

That's how we learn what love is.

You can't learn what love is unless you know God.

So that has to be our starting point.

God is loving God.

In fact is love.

God invented love.

Love is God's idea.

So that's the first thing I want you to start with it.

That love has to be.

From God has to be in relationship to God.

The second thing I want you to start with is that your identity, who you are

is defined by God, not your body, not your emotions, and not your experiences.

Who you are is not dependent on your physical body.

If that, which that has to be true.

Because if, if you believe in life after death, well your body's dead,

but you're still alive, right?

So who you are has to be more than just what your body says, right?

Your emotions don't define who you are, how you feel doesn't define who you are

and what you go through in life, right?

The things that happen to you.

Don't define who you are.

God determines who you are.

God made you right?

God made people.

People are God's idea, right?

No one thought of people until God did.

God made people.

People like a human being is God's idea.

So you can't just be like, well, I know you made humans God, but actually this

is what I think humans should be like.

'cause it doesn't make any sense, right?

That's like telling the person who.

Made a piano to be like, well, actually I think a piano should have symbols and

should have a, you know, have, like, you should actually play it with a bow.

Or you should actually, it should, you know, I, I think a piano

should actually be, um, I think it should actually have a screen.

Like, and, and like, that's not a, that's not a piano.

Right.

You, you've changed it into something.

It's not because whoever came up with the piano.

What they made, they made this thing, and if you change it, it's

not what it is anymore, right?

Your identity is defined by God, not your, your body, your

emotions or your experiences.

So, so people are, are God's creation.

People are God's idea.

And so God gets to tell us who we are and God gets to tell

us how we're supposed to live.

But that's why this is so important too, right?

Because it's a loving God who's telling us all these things.

It's a loving God who made us.

It's, it's a God who, who wants your joy, who made you, and who

made you to, to be a very specific.

Person and to live a very specific way.

It's not just like he God's like, oh well you know, you better do what

I say just 'cause I told you to.

Right?

Like when you were a kid, the worst answer from your parent

was always, 'cause I said so,

which is true 'cause there's authority there, but also it's because I love you.

Whenever God tells you to do something, it's not just 'cause I said so.

It's because I love.

I want what's best for you, and I have something good for you in mind

that's supposed to come from all this.

So God loves you and God gets to tell you who you are.

Those are the two foundations.

Now there's gonna be three things, three terms that you might run into,

you may have already encountered them, that I just wanna briefly define for

you to get us all on the same page.

Okay?

There's three things that I think you need to know when we talk about

homosexuality and L-G-B-T-Q and transgender and all this stuff.

Okay?

This sounds like health class.

I don't like health class, so let's pretend it's not health class.

Okay.

Orientation.

Your orientation is who or what you're attracted to, right?

So, um, that includes romantic and emotional attraction,

not just physical attraction.

So if you hear about someone's like, oh, they're their orientation, right?

That's who or what you're attracted to.

We good?

All right, sweet.

Your gender identity is a subjective.

Subjective.

What does subjective mean?

Objective.

Right?

Subjective.

That means it's biased.

That means it's not necessarily true, it's just how I feel.

Gender identity, our subjective understanding of ourselves as male,

female, both new, et cetera, right?

Whatever.

It's, you can be wrong essentially.

That's what subjective means, right?

It's an opinion.

So it identity, your gender identity is your pers your idea, your own

understanding of, of who you are.

And then your expression is how you present that identity to other people.

By the clothes you wear, the, the way your voice sounds, the way

you look, that's how you express your perceived identity, right?

So for example, right?

I perceive myself to be male, so I present myself as a male.

I wear boy clothes, I try to look like a boy, et cetera.

Now, those are just some terms that.

We all need to be on the same page.

Gonna be using them.

Okay, so the first thing I want you to see is that, like we talked

about, God's design is a good thing.

God made us the way.

He made us for good, for for a good purpose because he loves us.

And the way the Bible talks about humans and how humans are supposed

to live and interact, the way God made humans is a really good thing.

So for our first point tonight.

I want you to defend the goodness of God's design.

Defend the goodness of God's design.

Turn to Mark chapter 10 in your Bibles.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Defend the goodness of God's Designs, our first point, and when you're writing

that down, turn to Mark, chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

So remember, I want you to be confident, right?

That the way God made people and the way God made relationships, the way

God made marriage is a good thing.

And I want you to be confident enough where you can defend it.

I want you to be clear about it so you know what God says, and I want you to

be confident you're not embarrassed, that when someone disagrees, that you're

not like, oh, sorry about that, my bad.

I want you to be able to defend.

So Mark 10 is where we're going.

We're gonna be listening at verses six through nine.

Now, if you're in a conversation with someone about what God says about

marriage, this is a great place to go because one, it's Jesus talking.

And a lot of people, even if they don't necessarily believe the Bible, they'll

at least respect something Jesus said.

And two, Jesus quotes Genesis, which is a big deal because he's tying

what he says into God's creation.

He's tying what he says about marriage to God's creation.

He's affirming what God did in Genesis one and two.

So Mark chapter 10 verses six through nine.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Okay, so some, we're gonna make some quick observations here about

this chapter about God's design.

Okay?

So, but from the beginning of creation.

God made them male and female.

So see the quotes, that's a quote from Genesis.

I think that's Genesis 2 24, if I remember correctly.

So there's a couple observations here right off the bat, from the

beginning of creation, this was always God's intended design.

God always had an intended set design for how humans are supposed to be.

Here's how he made them.

God made them male and female, right, and again.

Your parents probably never would've thought this was a controversial

statement, but today in 2025, this is a controversial statement, God made

people to either be male or be female.

That is a controversial statement today, right?

So

the implication here, what Jesus is saying there, the Pharisees are asking

about marriage, is that this is God's design from the beginning of time.

When God created people, he designed them with gender.

He designed them with marriage in mind.

And after this, you'll see he designed them with attraction,

with a right orientation.

So God designed people to have a, a, a correct gender identity, to have a

correct gender expression of that identity and to have a correct orientation.

That's God's idea, right?

That's not just someone's opinion or someone's subjective.

Understanding of how they feel.

Right?

God has a design for your orientation, for what you're attracted to.

God has a design for your identity, what gender you are, and God has a

design for how you express that gender.

So the first thing God designed, love, marriage and attraction

as a gift to point back to him.

And we can see more of that in Ephesians five.

We're not gonna go there, but what Ephesians five says is

that marriage is about Jesus.

Marriage is about God.

So.

That's the first thing.

God design.

It's God's idea.

Love is God's idea.

Marriage is God's idea.

Attraction is God's idea.

Gender is God's idea.

He made all of these things, so he owns them.

They're his idea as a gift to point back to him.

That's the first thing I want you to see.

Now, second thing that I want you to see here, which we already talked about, God

made them male and female, and now notice.

The, the very specific language he uses in this passage.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother.

He doesn't say parents.

He says, father and mother, and a man shall leave his father and

mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

So what Jesus is saying very clearly is not in marriage.

Marriage is between a man and a woman.

It's very clear this is what God's design is from the beginning of creation.

God designed.

People to be male or female and to stay that way.

And he designed marriage to be between one man and one woman.

That's what, that's what God says about marriage.

Now, that's probably not news to you.

I hope that's not news to you, but I want you to be absolutely clear about that.

That is God's design for marriage.

One man, one woman.

So he also expects people to express themselves that way.

Not just to say, oh yeah, I'm a man, but to consistently

express themselves as that.

So the second thing about God's design that I want you to see here is that God

created people to express themselves as male or female from conception, right?

Not to confuse people about their gender or not to pretend that

they are something they're not.

That's how God designed people to live.

God designed people to express themselves.

As their designed gender and to not confuse people with how they

present that gender to others.

And you can see that in the Old Testament law when, when God makes the

Old Testament law, he tell he cares about the clothes that people wear.

He says, if you're a guy, don't dress like a girl.

And he says, you shouldn't have relationships that are outside

of this design for marriage.

So that's the second thing I want you to see about God's design.

So God designed love and marriage and attraction.

It's his idea.

He created people to express themselves as male or female from

the time that they were born, right?

From the time that they exist.

It could actually in conception.

What else?

Well, we already covered this.

He, you see there's, there's one man and there's one woman, right?

There's, there's only two, right?

There's, there's, God did not design there to be more than two people

in a romantic relationship, right?

So maybe you've heard.

Someone at school who says something about a throuple

that's not part of God's design.

God designed romantic relationships between one person and one

person, one male and one female.

So again, God designed marriage between one man, one woman, right?

Two people, which again, hopefully this is not news to you, but this

is very clear about what God says.

So this probably isn't new to you, and this probably isn't shocking to you.

Hopefully.

But this has to be our starting place.

What does God say?

Right?

Because we have to start with what does God say about this?

And then when, when we see an idea right in the culture that's presented

to us that well, you know, why can't one man and one man get married?

Or why can't a woman try to express herself as a man?

Or why can't a woman be oriented towards another woman in her attractions?

Then we say, well, what does God say?

This is what God's design for marriage is, and his design for

attraction follows suit, right?

So I want you to be able to clearly defend what God's design

for marriage, for marriage is.

Okay?

I want you to be able to be able to articulate these things, to explain

these things to someone, okay?

But when you encounter an idea right at school, when, when your teacher

or the book you're reading, or you're a friend or your teammate.

Or that person you see on social media presents an idea

that is against God's design.

I want you to be able to see why it's wrong.

Okay, so that's our second point.

Address the sinfulness of lgbtq plus thinking.

Address the sinfulness of it.

It's not just incorrect, it's sinful, right?

It's not just misguided, it's sinful.

And this comes back to what we define sin as, right?

What makes something sinful.

Now hopefully you know how to get here.

We're gonna go to Romans chapter one.

Okay.

Romans chapter one, and this is where it's gonna be really helpful to

remember the stuff that we've talked about for the past couple weeks.

Okay.

Romans chapter one is where.

Uh, we're gonna look.

Okay.

Romans chapter one.

So what makes something sinful?

What makes something sinful?

We talked about this the past couple weeks.

What makes something sinful?

Well, what makes something sinful is what it says about God, right?

That's what we learned from Romans one.

What makes something sinful is what it says about God.

Romans one talks about how people exchange God's glory for created things.

Romans one talks about how people exchange the truth about God for a lie.

What makes something sinful is what it says about God.

So the first reason that we're gonna see that LGBTQ plus thinking is

sinful is because it's a rejection of God and his good design.

It's a rejection of God and his good design.

That's what the Bible says.

So look with me at the first.

We're gonna look at Romans 1 21 to 23.

Okay?

Romans 1, 21 to 23.

So like we talked about, we see these people, right?

Romans one is talking about, about people, and it says they knew God.

They didn't honor God.

They didn't honor him as God.

They didn't thank him, but instead they, so they knew about

him, but they rejected him.

And so they started to, to think a different way.

They started to.

To think, well, God's not worth honoring, God's not worth glorifying,

God's not worth living for.

And they thought they were really smart about it, but instead they became foolish.

'cause they, like we said, they fell for the trap.

Right?

They fell for the trap of sin is better than God.

So they're foolish.

They, they made a bad trade, right?

They, they made a bad trade.

They fell for it and they, they traded God and all the joy that he gives them.

And they said, we want this.

Worst thing instead.

And that's foolish, right?

That's, that's dumb to do that to, to give up God for sin as foolish.

You're making a bad trade.

So what do they do?

Why was that foolish?

They exchanged the glory of the immoral God for images resembling.

All of these created things that aren't as good as God.

That's what these three verses are saying.

So we know where this is gonna go, right?

We know that the next word is therefore, and then it starts talking about

this spiral, and that's where we.

Ran into the topic of homosexuality.

So the, the core issue with L-G-B-T-Q thinking or desires is not that it's bad.

The core issue is not that, well, it used to be wrong in the 1920s and now it's not.

The core issue is not that the Republican party votes against it.

That's not the, that's not what's wrong with it.

What's wrong with it is it's a rejection of God.

Because what you're doing, if you, if you follow these sinful desires, you're

saying, God, I know you made me this way.

I know you made me to be a man, and I don't want that.

That's not good for me.

I know better.

You see that?

See how it's, it's saying, God, I'm smarter than you.

God, I know better than you.

God, I can make me happier than you can.

That's what you're saying to God.

What all sin is,

but especially this sin, these type of desires and thinking, it's saying,

God, I know you made me this way.

I know you made people to work this way.

I know you made marriage to be this way, but I think this way is better.

It's a rejection of God.

It's an it's lack of trust in God.

It's saying, God, I don't trust you to make me happy.

I'm gonna go my own way because my way is better.

It's rebellion against God, it's rejection of God just like every other sin.

You understand that, right?

This is not really that different.

Your, your friends at school or your classmates who believe these

things, it's really just a more obvious rebellion against God, right?

It's, it's the same root cause as your sin and as my sin.

And that's what's so cool about Romans one, right?

Is it, it puts all of us in the same bucket.

We all reject God.

All sin is a rejection of God.

All sin is a rebellion against God and saying, God, you're not good enough.

I want something else.

And that's the core issue.

So if you have a friend, right, who, who says that, that they're gay, this, this

is their biggest problem, they reject God.

Their biggest problem is not who they're attracted to.

Their biggest problem is not that they think they're a girl

when they're actually a boy.

That's not their biggest problem.

Their biggest problem is they don't love Jesus.

They think Jesus is boring, lame, unhelpful, useless,

not glorious.

Right.

Not worth their time, not worth following, not worth living for.

That's their biggest problem.

And that's everyone's biggest problem, right?

That's my biggest problem.

That's your biggest problem, is we, we think.

We think God is lame.

We go worship other things and ask other things to make us happy.

So that's the biggest problem.

So if you're ever talking about this someone, or thinking through

issues like this, remember that that's the biggest problem.

That's what's, what makes it sinful, is what it says about God.

So the second thing.

That makes this sinful.

Is it redefines goodness and love, right?

We saw that in one John that God is love, but, but with these people who

believe these things or, or maybe some of your classmates or maybe even some

of you who, who believe these things say, well actually this is what's good.

This is what's love.

I know God said this is good.

I know God said this is how love works, but actually I

think this is how it should go,

and we see that.

And we keep going in our passage in Romans verse 24.

Now, therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to

dishonoring their bodies among themselves.

He's talking about, oh, immorality here, because they exchange

the truth about God for a lie.

You see that they redefine something.

They say, I know this is true, but actually I'm gonna believe this Instead.

There's a, there's an exchange there of, well, I, God said this is loving,

but actually I think this is loving.

I know God said this is good, but actually I think this is good and it's

the same root cause for all of us, right?

All of our sin starts that way too.

Proverbs talks about there's, it says, there's a proverb that says

there's a way that seems right to a man, but at its end it leads to death.

That's all of us.

Right?

Last week we talked about the illustration of the wolf licking

the knife until it dies and chokes on its own blood and bleeds out

'cause it thinks it's eating food.

It, it thinks it's living and it's really dying.

That's the same sinful thinking that our sin is caused by, and

that this sin is caused by.

It's, I think this is good for me, and it's really not.

It's really gonna kill you.

So that's the second reason that it's sinful.

The third reason is it redefines our identity by our

feelings and not by God's word.

It says, I am who I am because of how I feel, not because of who God says I am.

I heard one person this week, this is really helpful.

They said that, um, LGBTQ plus, right?

Whether you say you're bisexual or you say you're asexual or queer or whatever,

that doesn't describe who you are.

It describes how you feel.

You see the difference there.

It's not who you are.

That's how you feel.

That's not your identity.

That's how you feel.

Just like.

Any other sin, right?

Just because you feel that way doesn't mean that's who you are.

So

it redefines our identity by our feelings and not by God's word.

And that's what we see here, right?

I see.

See this word passions here, passion, passions, that's

desires, that's things you want.

So these people, they say, well, this is what I want, so this must be who I am.

You see how that that logic goes, this is how I feel, so this must be who I am.

This is what I want, so this must be how I am.

Now, what we don't realize is that we're all sinful.

We all want bad things, and so we all want bad things.

And so we, if we define ourselves by those bad desires, then obviously

we're gonna follow a really bad path.

So we can't define ourselves by our feelings.

We have to define ourselves by what God says.

And now the last thing.

Is that these desires are inherently sinful.

The desire itself is sinful,

so to be attracted to someone of the same biological sex is sinful.

That desire is a bad desire, and so there is no God glorifying way to express.

That's the fourth thing that's that's wrong with this is there's

no God glorifying way to express a desire that's inherently sinful.

Just like if someone had a desire to murder someone,

there's no good way to do that.

You could say the same thing about if someone had a desire to cheat on their

wife, there's no good way to do that.

There's no God-honoring way to express that desire.

Same thing with these type of desires.

If, if you, if someone has that desire to a, maybe it's just a romantic attraction.

Maybe it's not physical attraction, maybe it's just romantic attraction.

For, for if you're a girl, you have a romantic attraction to another girl,

that's a sinful desire and there's no God honoring way to express that.

You can't feel that for the goalie of God.

That's not something, that's not something you can feel and,

and honor God while doing so.

The desire itself is a sinful desire.

Why?

Well, because all these things, it, it goes against God's design, right?

It's saying, God, I know you made me to be oriented this way, but actually

I'm gonna be oriented this way.

You're saying, God, the, the orientation that you say in

your word is actually not good.

That's why it's a sinful desire.

It redefines goodness.

It says, well, I, I know you define this to be good for me,

this orientation or this identity.

I actually don't want that.

I want this identity or this orientation instead.

So it's a rejection of God.

It's redefining what love is and it's saying, it's, it's, again, these two

things kind of bleed into this, right?

So that's what's wrong with it, right?

That's what's sinful about these desires.

That's what's sinful about, um, redefining what love for someone looks like.

Because you can't love someone in a sinful way because again, love is from God.

Love is God's idea.

God can't love you in a sinful way.

Love can't be like real love can't be expressed in a sinful way

because it's, it's God's thing.

So it's really not love if it's sinful.

So if two people are loving each other in a sinful way, they're not

really loving each other, right?

They are actually being bad for each other.

Which then isn't loving.

'cause if I'm being bad for you, I'm not loving you.

If, if I'm being bad for you, that's not love.

I should stop love.

I should stop loving you in that way and actually love you by being good for you.

So

I want you to be clear about what God says right in his word.

And I want you to be confident that it's a good thing.

That it's actually this being, like feeling this way is

actually really bad for someone.

Just like being anxious is really bad for someone, right?

It, it, it stinks.

It's not good for you

or having impure thoughts isn't good for you.

In the same way these kind of desires and this I try to identify yourself by

these type of ideas is not good for you.

It's, it's sinful.

Um, and so I want you to, to love people enough to be clear about that

and to not be embarrassed, right?

You wouldn't be embarrassed.

So people a lot of times worry about my health because I love Mountain Dew.

I love Mountain Dew.

I think Mountain Dew is like the greatest thing ever.

And so a lot of people will tell me, Hey, you shouldn't drink that.

You know, that's banned in Europe.

Like, you shouldn't do that, right?

You shouldn't drink that.

There's no way that's good for you because they love me, right?

They season, they see me drinking something bad for me and

they're like, Hey, I love you.

So don't do that.

Right?

I hope, I hope that, that if, if you have maybe friends.

Who believe these things are good for them, that you're loving enough to

be able to tell them, you know what, that's really not gonna make you happy.

That's really not good for you.

'cause if you really love someone, you are going to be clear about that

and you're gonna be confident that you know what, this really is good for you.

So I wanna tell you what is good for you.

That's following God's design, right?

Having an orientation that God gave you.

Rather than the orientation that you feel or having the, or embracing the,

the gender that God made you as not the one that you feel like you should be.

That's what's best for someone.

So this last few minutes here, I want to prepare you for

loving and wise conversations.

Okay.

I want to give you just, we're gonna walk through some, like a few

common questions that people have.

About this that you might have about this.

Um, and hopefully this will help you engage in conversations.

Now remember, these conversations need to be loving and they need to be wise.

So if you're just gonna walk around telling people that

they're terrible people, that's not loving and that's not wise.

If you're just gonna argue with people that's not loving

and that's not wise, right?

We want to.

Be loving about this.

We want to actually care about the people.

We don't just wanna be right.

We want to be thoughtful and and compassionate with how we talk about

what God says, because Christians have a very bad reputation for how they talk

about this topic, because a lot of times Christians don't do this very well.

So I want you, I want you to help you do this well, but I

also want you to be clear, right?

And sometimes when you're clear, people are gonna take that

as unloving, and that's okay.

Right?

They're.

As you know, someone recently in part got shot because of this believing stuff

like this and saying stuff like this.

And so some people will just not want to hear it, and that's okay.

But some common questions that you might have or you might run into first

one, isn't outta my control, right?

It's not my fault.

I, I'm, I'm the way that I am, it's not my fault.

How can God tell me to be someone I'm not?

How can God tell me to feel a certain way?

How come this is the way I am?

Well, the first thing I want you to think about is that all sinful desires come to

us naturally because we're all born and sinners, all of our hearts are sinful.

Jeremiah 17 says that your heart is deceitful and desperately sick.

James four says that your desires are at war within you, and all your

sins come from your bad desires.

So every sinful desire comes from our hearts because of who we are.

We are sinful people.

Our hearts are very bad.

They are very sinful.

They are inherently opposed to God, opposed to to what God says, and we

don't want to love God initially.

So.

In a sense, every sinful desire is

natural to you because you're born in sin.

You're born with a sinful heart, so you are wired to want sinful things.

So it shouldn't be surprising when you, when someone who's not

a Christian wants sinful things, because that's how their heart is.

Their heart is.

Wired to want sin.

Does that make sense?

If it doesn't make sense, you can shake your head and I can

explain it a different way.

That's okay.

Right?

But you're so, however, scripture is clear that we are responsible for those sinful

desires because we really want them.

Because like you're responsible for, for your anger because you really

did hate that person in the moment.

Like you really wanted that.

You really wanted bad things to happen to them and you really did

hate them, and that's, that's sinful because you actually wanted it.

So yes.

In a sense that, did you, did you like intentionally think, you know

what, I'm gonna be born in sin and I'm gonna want sinful things and whatever.

No, but you really did want those things and so Yes.

Maybe it's not something that you asked for, right?

Maybe someone's.

Someone's attraction to the wrong, the wrong gender that God didn't

design them to be attracted to could be something they didn't ask for.

They didn't wake.

Maybe they didn't wake up one day and say, you know what?

I'm gonna reject God's design and I'm going to be attracted to the same gender.

Maybe they didn't ask for that and decide that, but if they really want it, then

that's them having a sinful desire.

Just like if, if you compare it to impure thoughts, right?

You don't necessarily say, you know what?

I really want to have these impure thoughts, but you really do want them, or

coveting, or anxiety or whatever, right?

You don't necessarily say, oh, I really want these impure thoughts or

these anxious thoughts, but you really do feel them and they really are

something that comes from your heart.

So.

We are responsible for those desires.

We might not always know why we feel the way we do, but we are responsible for

our response to those desires, right?

What you do with what you feel is your responsibility.

If you have a sinful feeling, you're, you're accountable for

what you do with that feeling.

Do you feed it and embrace it, or do you take it to the Lord

and ask him to help you kill it?

So that's the first thing, is you're responsible for your.

Response to your sinful desires.

But then, right.

You might have heard this one.

What if my desires or my orientation isn't hurting anyone else?

Right?

Maybe you heard this one.

Why can't those two people just love each other the way they want to and move on?

Well, first of all, right, what makes sin a sin?

What it says about God?

So does sin have to hurt anyone else for it to be a sin?

No.

Right if, if you decide to, to go be Hindu and live in a monastery

for the rest of your life.

By yourself?

Are you hurting anyone?

Not necessarily.

Are you sinning?

Yes, you're worshiping a false God, you are rejecting God.

So just because it doesn't hurt anyone else, doesn't mean it's not sinful

because it's a rejection of God.

It's a rejection of his goodness, his design and all that.

Now, what about this one, right?

This is probably the most common one you've heard.

What if two people really love each other?

Why can't they be together?

Two people.

They really love each other.

What if they're really nice to each other?

They're really kind to each other.

Maybe they're really good for each other, all that stuff.

Well, first of all, like we talk about what is love right now you're

all singing the song in your head.

Do these people really love each other?

If they're loving each other in a sinful way?

No, they don't.

They don't really love each other according to God's definition of love.

They're affirming someone's sin, right?

They're saying, oh yeah, you're sinning.

That's great.

Let's do that together.

That's not loving, that's actually hating someone because you're

saying, you know that thing that's gonna kill you and send you to hell.

Let's keep doing that.

That's not a good, that's not a way to love someone.

So just because two people really like each other and want to be

together doesn't mean they should.

And, and you can say the same thing about God's design for marriage, right?

God designed two people to stay married, right?

To not get divorced.

That was God's intended design.

So that's why if, if you get married, you can't just be like, oh, well I don't

feel like loving this person anymore.

I'm just gonna leave and start loving someone else.

Well, what if we really love each other?

Well, that's a bad feeling.

That's a sinful feeling, right?

You wouldn't want your parents to do that, or if your parents have,

it's been really hard for you.

That's why you just 'cause you feel something doesn't mean

it's a good feeling, right?

You have to evaluate your feelings by what God says.

Now this one can be really fun.

Can I be LGBTQ plus and still be a Christian?

So

the question I would ask then is.

Can you embrace your sinful identity and embrace Jesus as

your treasure and your Lord?

No.

Right?

Just like there's no adulterous Christians, there's no murdering

Christians, there's no coveting Christian.

You can't identify yourself by your sin and say, oh yeah, I'm with Jesus.

Right?

You can't love your sin and say, I follow God.

Scripture is is clear, right?

Like we talked about.

God has a good design and any desires outside of that design are sinful

because they're bad for you, right?

They'll kill you.

They don't make you happy, and so

you can't embrace Jesus and embrace your sin, right?

Jesus says you can't serve two masters.

So that's, there's a very clear answer to that.

But what about this one?

I'm a Christian, but I struggle with these desires.

Am I just always displeasing God right now?

Maybe you've heard that before.

It's like, well, can this person ever become a Christian if they

just, this is just the way they are.

They have these desires.

Well, I would ask you the same question.

When you became a Christian, did all your sinful desires go away?

No.

So what does this mean then?

Right?

What does struggle mean?

Right.

Because a lot of times we say, I'm struggling with something,

and what does that mean?

It means I'm getting beat up by it and I'm just giving into my sin.

That's not struggling.

There's no struggling going on.

You're getting, you're getting beat up, right?

It's kinda like, you know, in sports when they say there's a rivalry game.

It's really just like one team always beating the other team.

That's not a rivalry.

There's no rivalry there.

Right.

There's like recently, right, there's been some, some rivalry games.

Like the, the Ravens were playing the Browns, right, and it's a rivalry

game, and it was like 41 to 17.

That's not a rivalry.

I'm sorry.

Like when was the last time the Browns beat the Ravens?

I have no idea.

Right.

Not, or like remember the, the Dolphins and the Patriots, or, no, not Dolphins.

Actually.

Dolphins beat the Patriots.

But like the, the Bills and the Patriots, right?

The Patriots won that game for like.

13 years in a row.

That's not a rivalry.

I'm not, no, we're not going there.

Um,

so again, if, if you're a professing Christian, or you know, someone

who's a professing Christian and they struggle with these desires, are they

struggling or are they embracing them?

'cause here's what we remember we talked about with this question.

Are they embracing those desires and saying, oh, I, I wanna keep these?

Or are they saying I hate these?

And I'm asking God to help me kill them.

Those are two very different things, right?

Are you at war with those desires or are you feeding those desires?

Are you at peace with those?

Just like as a regular Christian, you have sinful desires, but

what you do with them matters.

Are you killing them or are you giving into them?

Same thing here, right?

Am I stuck constantly, displeasing God because I have a, a wrong orientation?

Maybe someone who feels these things is asking, well, are you Christian?

Constantly displeasing God because you still covet, or you're still

anxious, or you still lust?

This is where the gospel comes in, right?

The gospel is also for gay people, for lesbian people, for bisexual

people, for transgender people, for queer people, for asexual people, for

pansexual people, for whatever, right?

The gospel.

For those people because just like any other Christian, if, if having sinful

desires made you displeasing to God, would anyone ever be pleasing to God?

No.

Jesus righteousness makes you pleasing to God.

So if, if someone who struggles with these desires says, I repent of these things,

I'm not the way I'm supposed to be.

I'm I, I don't feel the things I'm supposed to feel.

I'm messed up.

I need, I, I, I'm guilty of my sin.

I need a savior.

I need Jesus to give me his righteousness 'cause I'm not good enough and I need

Jesus to pay for my debt because I do terrible things and I feel the wrong

things and I think the wrong things.

I need Jesus to pay for those sins.

And they put their trust in Jesus to do that.

And they turn from they sin and they say, that's not who I want to be anymore.

I wanna live God's way.

God's design is better.

I trust him.

He's my king.

He's my shepherd.

I wanna follow him.

And they go to war with these desires every day and say, I love

Jesus more than I love my sin.

That's what every Christian does.

That's how every Christian lives.

I hope that's, if you're a professing Christian, I hope

that's how you're living.

So

just because you have sinful desires doesn't mean you can never be a Christian.

But if you are just following your sinful desires everywhere they take you,

you're probably not a Christian, just like we'd say for any sinful desire.

Right?

Same thing.

So

I hope this was helpful for you asking these questions.

Um, if you're talking with someone at school about this or whatever, right?

And you don't have to like go looking for people to talk to.

I'm not asking you to do that.

Um, but if this comes up in a conversation and someone asks you a question.

And you're not sure how to answer it, guess what?

It's okay to say.

I don't know.

Let me get back to you.

Just like with any question, if someone asks you some random apologetics question

you don't know about, I don't know.

Let me get back to you.

Let me, and talk to your leader about it.

Talk to your parents about it.

Talk to me about it.

But this hopefully was a, it was helpful for you to see,

okay, here's what God says.

Here's why this is wrong, and here are maybe some things that

can help you think through it.

Okay.

What I want you to see with all of this is that our goal is

to, to see people love Jesus.

To see people trust him, right?

Our goal is not to just tell people that they're sinners.

The reason we tell people that they're, they're, they're sinners is because we

love them and we want them to turn from their sin and trust in Jesus because Jesus

is amazing, and having a relationship with Jesus is the, the best thing ever.

So

I hope that this wasn't just you hearing, okay, this is bad.

Don't worry about it.

Right.

That's not, I'm not in those shoes, so forget about it.

Right.

I hope for you, this is okay.

This is, this is why God's design is good.

I'm not embarrassed about it.

I'm, I'm not ashamed to, to talk about it if it comes up, but I hope also you

see that this is, this is really a, just like any sin, it's a gospel issue.

The, the gospel is.

For all types of sinners,

no matter what those sins are.

And Jesus' righteousness is necessary for every sinner.

And Jesus' death pays for every sin.

And so, um, our goal is to see people trust Jesus and to turn from their sin

and love him and live his way because his way is the best way to live.

So.

We're gonna go talk about this in small groups, so let's pray

and we'll head over there.

God, we are grateful that you love us enough to tell us what's wrong with us.

Um, we don't often appreciate that about you, but we're grateful that you show

us, um, what's good and what's not good.

And so I pray that you help us to love the right things.

Help us to feel the right way about who you are and what you say.

I pray that we wouldn't be embarrassed about, um, how you made people and

how you made things to, how you made your, your people to interact

and to relate to each other.

I pray that you help us to be loving towards people who might,

um, struggle with these desires or might embrace this type of thinking.

And I pray that we would love them enough to.

Tell them about you.

And I pray for anyone here who maybe does struggle with these types

of desires and, and thinking that I pray that you help them to see

that you have a good plan for them.

That you don't, that you love them enough to offer them salvation.

And you care so much about their joy and their happiness even more

than they do, and that they would put their trust in you to, um, to

have eternal life with you forever.

We pray this in Jesus name.

Amen.