If you were to read the book, "The Wizard of Oz",
and maybe you have or maybe you've seen the movie,
do you think the author of that book
wants you to believe that the Wicked Witch of the West
is good
or wicked?
You might think that's kind of a dumb question.
Um, obviously, wicked.
That's very, very clear.
And how do you know that?
Because you read the book and the author
is communicating something very, very clear.
If you read any of the books in the Harry Potter series,
would you expect that in those books
you're going to find advice on how to change the oil in your car?
Well no, of course not.
Because the books don't address that.
And so you shouldn't go there looking for anything.
If you were to read a biography on Peter the Great,
who was a ruler in Russia during the 1600's and 1700's,
would you expect that that book is going to celebrate
the presidency of Abraham Lincoln?
No, of course not.
Because the author isn't talking about that.
You read a book and you know what the author is talking about
and the content of the book is very, very clear.
This week we are, we're going to be talking about
one particular book.
And we're going to be talking about one particular area of content in that book.
And the question we're going to be asking is,
"Does this book speak very clearly on this
particular area of content?"
And the book that we're going to be talking about is
the book that is known as the Bible.
And the piece of content we're going to be talking about
is homosexuality.
And the question we're going to be asking is,
"Does the Bible speak very clearly on homosexuality,
identifying whether it is good or whether it is evil.
And does it do that,
in particular, to how we talk about it
and how it applies in today's world?"
I am not going to be trying to convince anyone
that they should read the Bible,
or that they should even respect the Bible.
Or that they should even believe the Bible.
Instead, we're just going to look at the basic content of what the Bible teaches
and answer the question,
"Does it speak clearly?
"What does the content say?"
Because we know,
we know how to identify clear meanings from the content of books,
Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter, biographies,
different things like that.
So, I'm going to run through a couple of different Bible passages
that talk, that address homosexuality
in the Bible and just give you some insight.
I'm going to give away the answer right away.
And I'm going tell you that the Bible does
address homosexuality very specifically.
And it does, very specifically, identify homosexuality as a sin.
And these are the passages,
there are some passages here that I want to read
that talks about that.
First one is from 1 Timothy, chapter one, verses 8-10, where it says,
Obviously the phrase that jumps out there is the phase,
"those practicing homosexuality."
And if you go back into the Greek language,
which the New Testament was written in,
it was written in Greek,
it seems that the Apostle Paul, who wrote that letter,
may have invented the word
that is translated there as those practicing homosexuality,
where he took two words, that were otherwise well-known,
the word for "male",
as in male as opposed to female,
and the word for "bed."
And he just put those two words together
to say
"males who share a bed with each other."
And after this,
after this was used, in other literature outside the Bible,
it seems that that word was picked up
and in every case where it's used in literature outside the Bible,
it always refers to same-sex intimacy.
So, Paul is not speaking positively about those who practice homosexuality.
The next passage is from the book of Romans, chapter one,
where it says,
So what Paul is saying
is that men and women, they abandoned the natural way
that God created things
related to intimacy between a man and a woman.
The next passage is from the book of Jude,
Jude seven.
And the key word there is the word perversion.
Perversion back then was, would have been a,
in literature outside the Bible,
it was a slang term that was always used for same-sex intimate relationships.
And so Jude connects it with Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament.
Then a couple of verses from the book of Leviticus, from the Old Testament.
And the reason, the reason I read all these verses together is because some will say,
"Well, passages in the Old Testament, they no longer apply."
And so even though that verse that says,
"Do not have sexual relations with a man
as one does with a woman. That is detestable."
Even though the content of that is crystal clear,
some will say that well, in the Old Testament,
you can just disregard anything the Old Testament says.
But to be completely consistent with that,
you would also have to say
also disregard the other ones.
You know, say, do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife.
I don't think anybody is going to say that that's a good idea.
Or do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek.
There are no groups out there who are saying, "Well, that's a good idea.
We should really support child sacrifices.
Or we should really support sexual relations
with animals or anything like that."
And I only bring it up for that reason.
That there needs to be some consistency in how we talk about it.
One more passage.
1 Corinthians 6:9 and 10.
And that is that same word that we talked about earlier.
The one that the Apostle Paul took the word for male and the word for bed
and he put it together and he says
very, very clearly that homosexuality
is one
of many sins
that will keep a person out of heaven.
And the key point I want to emphasize there is that it's one of many sins,
is that the Bible puts homosexuality
on the same level as
being greedy,
getting drunk,
slandering somebody,
talking down with somebody.
It's one of, it's one of many sins.
Someone might also say, "You know it's one of many sins that
Jesus never talked about."
And that's true.
If you look for just the places in the Bible where Jesus, himself, speaks,
people will say that Jesus never condemned homosexuality.
And that's true.
But the reason he didn't, it seems, is because he felt he didn't need to.
Time and again when somebody asked Jesus,
"What does God say? What does the Bible say,
you know, what does God say? What does God want me to do?"
Jesus responded by saying,
"Well, what does the Bible say?
What do you read in Scripture?"
Because Jesus believed that
God's Word is all of Scripture.
All of it.
And so he didn't feel he needed to address every topic
and it is one of many topics and
one of many sins that he doesn't address.
But Scripture does put homosexuality on the same level as
so many other sins
that don't get as much attention these days.
But God gives it equal attention.
And then one more Bible passage related
to all of these things
and how we talk about all of these sins
that can keep any individual out of heaven,
if they are practicing them.
And that's from the book of Hebrews,
where it says,
And just speaking on the topic of homosexuality,
as we talk about this, as we consider this,
as individuals deal with it in their own lives
and in their own families,
it is a topic that often reveals many of our weaknesses
in a lot of different ways.
Our weaknesses in loving God
and loving one another and what that looks like
in our lives and how we do that the best.
But with any of our weaknesses,
that passage reminds us that when we come to Jesus,
we will always receive mercy
and we will always find grace.
Mercy is God looking at our hurts
and responding in love.
Grace is God looking at our mistakes
and responding in love.
Always responding in love.
And however or whatever hurts this topic is
revealing in your life or in anybody else's,
this week we're going to take a look at how God's mercy
and God's grace give us guidance
and how to move forward in the best ways.
We threw a lot of Bible passages at you today.
It can be a little bit overwhelming.
But if there's somebody that you feel needs to
take a closer look at what the Bible says
on the topic of homosexuality, please
feel free to share this video.
And I'd also encourage you to
keep learning and to keep growing.
Dig into the Word as much as you possibly can
and dig into it to such a strong degree
that you're able to talk about this topic with your own words.
So that you're able to say, "Well, this is what the Bible says.
This is what the Bible says."
Not, "This is the way that I was taught it."
Or "This is what my pastor said."
or "This is what my church body says."
or "This is the way that my parents shared it with me." But,
but "This is what I read,
this is what I read in the Bible."
It is the,
to be able to come back again and again
with "What does God say?
What does God say? What does God say?
What does God say?"
It takes, um it takes the,
it just puts the conversation in a safer place.
It becomes less of a personal thing,
which is hard to do with this topic,
and it becomes more just a question of,
"What are the words on the page?
What's the message that God wanted to convey?"
However a person feels about it.
"What does God say?
What does God say? What does God say?"
God's blessings to you as you continue to learn and grow.
We'll see you tomorrow.