JAN 15 2017 | Stealing Eden S1E1 | Genesis 1

Sea Change Church · Stealing Eden S1E1 · "Genesis 1" · Adam Stadtmiller · January 15, 2017
Genesis 1
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Good to have you here this morning. Welcome to church. Good to see you. You guys look good. Look really good. I love coming to church on Sunday. I can't look forward. I mean, I can't look forward. I look forward to it every week around Thursday. I start looking forward to it and excited. Let me pray. And then we're going to jump into this. Lord Jesus, you're a good God and worthy of praise. We love you. We are finite human beings that are seeking to know you.

But you say that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And you reach out to us regardless of who we are or what we've done. And you call us home. We give you praise in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Well, good. Well, if you have your Bible, open up to Genesis 1.1. We are beginning a two-week series called Stealing Eden. And it is a series on human sexuality. And I've been working on it for about four years.

And I'm not kidding. I've been thinking about it. What to say is I've been seeing continual shifts in our culture in regard to this. And also been trying to measure my own heart. I've been trying to measure Christian culture, Christian response. I believe that the church has a valuable response in all matters of justice and all matters of human relationship. And we need to speak.

And I feel that there are a lot of churches that have decided not to speak anymore. And in the midst of that, I've had many people come up to me when they heard I was doing this sermon series. And say, I would say, in sometimes a smug way. People that don't even go to this church, oh, I'm glad you're going to talk about that. I'm glad you're going after that.

Almost as if there's going to be some chance for me to get some pleasure in striking down ideas of the day that perhaps the Bible or perhaps myself personally disagree with. And I roil against that. I hate that. I hate the idea of a prideful understanding that we have got everything figured out and that we should speak about it and tell everybody where they're wrong.

I want to come from a place of brokenness. I will say that if you knew me growing up and also through my PB days, which I talk about a lot, my Mexico days, I was no Mother Teresa. I was no saint. And I understand the brokenness that has been part of my own life. And one of the things I want to say, especially when we talk about any sin, because it's so easy to immediately pick our, you know, to pick our favorite sins of the day, whatever the culture is talking about.

And then we kind of focus on those certain sins. And I want to say we need to be careful not to do that and to realize that all sin is brokenness and that all people have brokenness in their lives, us included. And whenever we speak about sin, whenever we speak about wrong, whenever we speak about right, we need to do something that I think pure Christian discipleship often lacks.

A soft and gentle heart, realizing that that that we are all born sinful. We are all born broken and Jesus died on the cross that we might be saved. And so with that, I want to say that at the same time, we have to balance with saying what we think the Bible says, because if we don't say what the Bible says, or if somebody who came up to me not long ago and they said, can't we just change the Bible as the culture changes?

Maybe. I mean, we can definitely change the way we go about our business for sure. But does the Bible change? Does God change his ideas? I would say that you wouldn't have much of a religion, no matter what religion that is, whether it be Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, whatever. Just the way in which we speak to a culture, but the truth perhaps remain the same.

And so we're talking about human sexuality. And with that, let me begin with the premise of this. I believe that it's possible, one could argue, let me not say I believe, but let's say one could argue that this is the most sexual book in the world. It is far more sexual than pornography. And let me tell you why. Because pornography focuses on one element of the sexual experience.

And I would say oftentimes that element should not even be included in what I would say is true human sexuality, where it is completely for your own gratification. Pornography doesn't speak about that. Pornography never speaks that I know of. I wasn't a porn guy, but it doesn't speak about marriage. It definitely doesn't speak about procreation.

It actually leaves out tons of elements of what human sexuality is. I would say it's probably the most base, shallow level of human sexuality would be pornography. The Bible, on the other hand, has pornographic things it speaks about. The Bible is an adult book. If you look at the prophets, it talks about Israel being like a whore who whores herself out towards other foreign gods.

And it uses very stern, I would say, and very provocative language. It talks about Israel also being like a young girl before she is hit puberty, being molested by her suitors. It talks about, in the book of Judges, a man who gave his concubine and his virgin daughters to an unruly mob so that that mob would not kill his house guest, who was a man for the day.

He put her out on the street. They had come. Men had come, and they had asked to sleep with the man that was in. This is Judges 19, perhaps the worst story in the entire Bible, if you've read it. And he says, the men came, this crowd, and said, we want to sleep with your guest. And he said, do not dishonor me. I have two virgin daughters and a concubine.

You can have them. Now, this is not from God. This is what this man decided to do. And because the Bible says that, it doesn't mean that that was God's idea. He's just following God. Absolutely not. And so he throws the concubine, and I'm not sure about the virgin daughters out there, and she is raped to death and killed, and she dies in the morning.

If you know that story, perhaps you haven't read it. It's Judges 19. It is perhaps the most horrific story in the Bible. But the Bible also has beautiful stories, stories of Ruth and Boaz. And I love the story of Ruth and Boaz, a story of love about a woman who perhaps has no place to go, who is down and out on her luck, but also this man named Boaz, who I think oftentimes wrongly is seen as this man that had it all together.

I don't think he did have it all together. I think he was a little bit older. I think he had never found the love of his life. He never thought he would. And God brings him this beautiful woman. It's this great story. Perhaps Abraham and Sarah. I would say Bathsheba, and not David, but Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite. Uriah the Hittite is one of my favorite characters in the Bible.

He is one of the most godly men in the entire Bible. I like David. We're going to be speaking on David. I love David. But if I had to be friends with someone, I would be friends with Uriah, not with David. David couldn't keep a friend. And if you look at how his best friends, the mighty men, how he treated them, and what happened in his relationships, and especially his relationships with his sons, he was a horrible father.

Absalom, his son, actually comes and tries to take his own life. But Uriah had a beautiful relationship with Bathsheba. And it's disgusting what David did. David took her. He committed adultery with her. And then he killed Uriah the Hittite. It's absolutely disgusting. It's absolutely for the purpose of self-gratification. The Bible is perhaps the most sexual book in the world.

The Bible also speaks about the creation of gender. This Bible speaks about the purpose of gender. The Bible begins and ends with individual people. Single people. Adam was single. And then his wife is created from him, the scripture says. And it speaks about the creation of gender. We'll talk about gender next week. But it also begins with a marriage.

The Bible also ends with a marriage. The Bible ends with Christ being the bride. And the scripture, as we say, shows us that there is no marriage in heaven. And so marriage is a thing that will pass away. But God uses marriage to teach us something about how he desires to have a relationship with himself. And so let me argue, and one could argue, if you haven't read this, and perhaps I've blown your mind right now with child molestation and people, you know, and all these things I've talked about.

Perhaps I've blown your mind. I encourage you to read this book. It's fascinating. It's fascinating. Now, with that, each of us then must decide, in regard to human sexuality, the foundation for your beliefs on the matter. Will it be science? Will it be emotions? Will it be the things that you think? Will it be reason? Will it be scripture? Will it be some of a poultice of all of those things?

I want to say that faith-based spirituality, let me say that again, because there are Buddhists with faith, there are Hindus with faith, and they have, I believe they have an equally strong faith believing what they believe in. But Christian spirituality believes that God gave us a rule in regard to how to, the best uses rule for all things, whether that be parenting children or whatever it would be.

And so Christian spirituality finds its foundation and believes that there is some truth, that not all truth, but there is some truth in this Bible, because there's a lot of things that the Bible doesn't speak about. There are truths in the world that the Bible just never mentions. So it is not the host of all truth, but it will lead you to the source of all truth.

And the question is, in regard to human sexuality, you have to ask yourself, where do you find your roots? Where do you make the decision on what you believe about human sexuality? Now that for me, and like for most people, has changed throughout the years. It's gone back and forth, and it's still, faith is not static. Faith is something that looks at new revelations and sees things that are happening and tries to find answers and go back to the revelator of truth to see what that is.

I believe, though, that the Bible is true. I've staked my life on it. I believe that the Bible is true, and I believe that what is in here is the salvation of all mankind. But more than salvation, God didn't come to be a lifeguard. His job wasn't to come and die on the cross to be a lifeguard. God's purpose is for you to be the beloved, for you to have an intimate relationship with the God of the universe.

That's what it's all about. You know, we, I think we diminish salvation when we make it all about God being a giant lifeguard. Like I've said before, if Jesus is a lifeguard, then he has the same relation to you as a lifeguard after he saves you in the water. He gives high fives to his buddies and goes and has a beer. But what if your father saves you?

What is the difference between that? It is a relationship of intimacy. And I believe that human sexuality is a pathway that God created that we might understand the depths of intimacy with God. Because that is why he removes marriage to each other. As Jesus said, there will be no marriage in heaven between each other. But we will be married to who?

Married to God. And there is a wedding feast. And so everything that we experience within human sexuality should be part of the road that leads us to understanding God ultimately in a relationship of intimacy as his chosen and as his beloved. Look at your notes. Genesis 1. So, finding our roots. I understand that not every person believes what I am going to say.

And that is okay. Because God has given us free will to choose to believe what we believe. But you must believe everything. I had a conversation with my daughter today, my nine-year-old, on the way to church. We had these philosophical conversations. And we were talking about faith and does God exist? And she said, sometimes I do not know if I believe God exists.

And I said, that is great. I said, that is, I mean, faith is supposed to be difficult. Faith overcomes doubt. Without doubt, there is no such thing as faith. Because faith, in order to be faith, has to have an obstacle to overcome. But I said that I can also say, if you can't prove God, let me also say that you cannot disprove God. And you have to have an equal amount of faith to disprove God.

And I would say, you can look clearly at the universe. And for me, it is so much easier to believe in God from what I see. Because it says in Romans that what you see around you will clearly show you. It's simple. You don't have to spend a lot of time. A child can see it. Look into a fox's face. I did that yesterday. We were looking at National Geographic.

And I looked in a fox's face. And I looked at its eyes. And I said, really? That just happened. Like a fox. I can look clearly around me and see that God exists. And so we had this conversation. And so where will you draw your roots from in regard to what you believe about human sexuality? And a host of other things, ideas, as a matter of fact, as well.

The first will begin with this. The story of God, of human sexuality, begins with this for Christian spirituality. In the beginning, God created. That's the basis. The basis of everything for me and what I teach and how I understand the Bible is in the beginning, God created. That is the beginning. And it goes on as you see God's amazing handiwork in the book of Genesis.

He creates fish and he creates animals and he creates trees. And he creates all of this for a purpose. Also core to human sexuality is the acceptance of the fact that he created. But number two in your notes is this. That God had a purpose within his creation. Do you believe that everything that God created tells a story about who he is in the same way that a DNA chain tells the story of the human or the person or the animal that it represents?

And if you are to remove just, if you had a DNA chain that would go all the way to the moon. And they talk about these, you know, a human being have a DNA chain. I guess they can go to the moon or something like that. If you just remove one sequence, one letter, then all of a sudden the truth, the representation of who that person is, is no longer correct.

And so believing this is that if God had a purpose that God created and he had a purpose in his creation. And that purpose is to tell us the story about who he is. Then if we are to remove elements of that or change those elements or, excuse the phrase, bastardize those elements, we are no longer telling a true story. Even if you remove the smallest sequence from the chain.

God speaks about this. And so Christian spirituality, as it says in Romans 1, that in the creation you can clearly see in Romans. It will be later in the notes, I think. It says you can see God in creation clearly and it tells the story of his invisible qualities and his divine nature. That there is nothing you can look at in creation and not learn a little something about God.

The same is true for human sexuality. Number three, Christian spirituality believes that God has given us guidelines for the highest, best, and most healthy use of his creation. These laws and commands are clearly stated in the word of God. Now let me just give a caveat here. I'm not saying that you have to agree with everything this book says.

I'm not saying that you have to like everything the book says. And this is something that I was under the false assumption of when I was being discipled. You have to give a hearty thumbs up. I totally agree. I am for that. I am a cheerleader for that. I got to say there's a whole bunch of things in this Bible that God says to do and things that happen that I disagree with.

And there are absolutely things that I don't like. I don't like God being able to tell people who they can have a relationship and who they can't have a relationship with. Or what the balance of that should be. I don't like that. And if it was up to me, I probably wouldn't do the things the way God does them. But at some point, I have to, because I'm a man of faith, or at least hope to be a man of faith, say, will I believe what I don't like?

Do I have the ability to believe and follow what I don't agree with? Let me give you an example of my children. My children, I will come to them and I will give them their chores or responsibilities. Or I'll say, don't run into the street to chase the ball. And my child will say, but there's no cars coming. I will go get, but I'm old enough to get it myself.

And they will disdain. They will disdain my, they're not really commands. They will disdain my guidelines, the things that I give to them. They don't agree, but they obey. I would say that it's the same way for me in the scripture. I don't get any pleasure looking at the scripture. I think some people do get pleasure. It's like the Bible says this, and you're a sinner, and you shouldn't do this.

And because, and they just get this, this pleasure, this arrogance at telling people what they should do. I hate that. I know where I come from. Thank, you know, I just thank God for my broken past. Because I'm not sure I would have any ability to speak with a soft heart. Are we speaking with a soft heart? And so balancing this, as Pastor Mark Foreman says from my former church, a baby skin heart, a baby skin heart with the truth of God is the, is the greatest challenge.

One of the greatest challenges of my life. Other than learning how to love my wife well. One of the greatest challenges of my life. And so do we believe, and I believe as a faith-based Bible, that this is true for creation. Let me say the next thing. Look into your notes. If, and this is an if, because God doesn't make you believe anything, and nor do I.

We have people in this church who have all different types of belief systems. And let me tell you one of the things I love. People keep coming to my office, and this is what you always hope would happen. And they say, hey, I disagree with your stance on marriage. They'll come to my office. Multiple have come. Five in the last two years? That's a lot.

Trust me. For people to come and be willing to speak to a pastor. Let me say, the fact that I'm a pastor, and I feel really good when people are willing to come talk to me. That they feel that there's not a wall, and they're willing to have a conversation. They say, look, I don't agree with this, but there's something happening at this church that I can feel, and I know something's happening.

Can I keep coming if I disagree? I say, absolutely. Absolutely you can keep coming here. Jesus didn't turn, the people he turned away oftentimes were the people who considered themselves righteous. The people want to come here. I know multiple people in this congregation whose children have had divorces. We always want to talk about, you know, whether it be homosexuality, or just, you know, find the one little thing.

But we will, shh, shh, don't talk about divorce. Shh, shh, don't talk about divorce. Because, you know, 50% of your church is divorced, and they tithe. Shh, but you probably only have about one or two gay people, and they're in the closet anyway. So, shh, shh, shh. No. Are we going to talk about everything in regard to human sexuality, and say it with truth, but say it with a soft heart.

And not continue to cherry-pick the issues that matter the most to me. And so that people are here, and there are multiple people who come to this church who are either in gay relationships, or have been, or have family members. Multiple people that are very close and that are within the church. And so I want you to know, whenever I speak about these things, it's not something I enjoy doing.

But I have to say that I believe that there is a belovedness of a father who wants to know his children. And I believe that the things that happen in human sexuality, all of them, not just our favorite ones that talk about and point out where we, you know, cloister every other thing that happens. Like pornography in the church that is rampant and all these other things.

We cloister them, and we'll just talk about these two issues. And you're so bold, Pastor Adam, because you spoke about these two issues. But shh, don't talk about pornography when they say that 85% of the church, I think that's a high number. It might not be, but Josh McDowell, who went out to lunch last week, said that he thought anything was going to destroy the church, it's going to be pornography.

It's not, you know, people are like, well, it's going to be the idea of marriage or transgender. You know what? We can't stay off our phones looking at things we shouldn't. We can't stop the romance novels that give women a sense of understanding, that aren't looking for pornography. They're looking for relationship and the basis is shh. So if you want me to talk about these things, let's just talk about it all.

Is that okay? Can we do that? Is that fair? I want truth, but I only want the serum that you want to give, you know, that I want. Give me the sweet stuff. If you choose not to accept God's guidelines, commands as a rule for your best and highest use of creation, then you must decide where you will derive your truth. That's true for all people. You have, everyone will decide, and you will have faith in that.

I will say today, and you can tell me if I'm wrong, but today Western civilization has largely deemed that truth is relative. To an individual's person's self-determination. This is classical humanism. This is not new. Matter of fact, the first temptation in the garden was to encourage Eve to want to be like God. To be more important than God and to have what she thought should be done and what she should be right to put herself above God.

I believe we are moving in an age of, it's just classic humanism. Go read the, if you want to know what's happening in society today, first of all, it's not new. Second of all, go read the Humanist Manifesto and you'll get a real understanding. When God is not God, then human beings are God. Someone's going to be God and make the decision. And when individuals become God, I believe you have a thing called social anarchy.

I really do. In regard to what are you going to believe in, is there a rule that can say no to you? Is this not the hardest thing in spirituality? Pastor Mark Foreman, again, my old pastor, says when you work with somebody, he says don't give them a promotion until you've said no to them to see how they respond to a no. No. I'll tell you what, if you're a business owner, you've been in the world, when you say no to somebody, oftentimes their true character comes out.

And the Bible has a lot of no's in it, but every no is for the purpose of a yes. I say no to this, that you might know me better. I say no to this, that you might be blessed. I say no to that, that you might experience full fulfillment. And so how are you with no? How is each of us with no? Because I doubt that anyone in the church has a clean slate when it comes to human sexuality.

Maybe there's a couple nuns here, or before you know, there, but who even knows what goes on in their minds. And so we see that today, Western civilization, and maybe I'm wrong, you let me know after the service, is about self-determination. I say this is otherwise anarchy. I also believe we're living in a post-truth society. Just the rise of, what do we call it, fake what?

Fake news. Like, what's true, you know? Do we have any sense of what is true? I believe that there are, I mean, something is simple. I mean, it's simple to me, but it's not simple to all. But in regard to gender, it's simple to me. But I don't have the issue of feeling like I identify with that part of God's personality. Because the feminine side of God's personality, even though he shows himself as masculine in the scripture, he created woman.

And what a woman represents is a part of God's personality. And then masculinity is also a part. But God is not a human being. God is not a man. God is not a woman. God represents himself in these things. And I would say today we are living in a society that says whatever you decide is what is true. Whatever is right for you is what is true. In post-truth society, you'll see this.

It says we're living, I believe, these are my notes, that we are living in an age of sexual anarchy. Right. Sexual anarchy, I do believe that. Pretty much, you can do whatever you want as long as you love somebody, which I'm not even sure that's true. As long as it doesn't hurt somebody else. That's what I'm hearing. I mean, I think, let me know afterwards if I'm wrong with this.

I mean, I've been looking at it for a while. But you can do whatever you want as long as someone is not hurt in the process. That's where I think the line is right now. I think that's where the line has gone. And so when we see that, we look and it says this. Today we're living in an age of sexual anarchy. I wrote those. Those are my words. Where truth has become the servant of personal desire and understanding.

What you believe about something is of the highest importance. What you feel in your heart, what you desire, is of the highest importance. And as you'll see at the end of the notes, one of the things about Christian spirituality is the highest goal of Christian spirituality is not personal fulfillment. And I know that our Christian book companies have sold that to you for a bunch of years.

But your personal fulfillment is not the highest order of the universe. The highest order in classical Christian spirituality is to know God and to be loved by him. That you will have personal fulfillment in that, but that your desires are fulfilled is not the highest. I want to say this. This is key as well. And I know this is a heavy, I mean, look, this is a lot of, this is a fire hose.

You're probably going to need to listen through this a couple times, maybe more. Because I've been working and thinking about this for four years. And I want to continue to do so in a soft heart, realizing that we all come from broken places. But let's be clear in regard to discrimination. Because the greatest sin of the day is discrimination, right?

I think, or one of the top ten. If you're going to say there's a top ten sins today, one would be discrimination. I just have to be ultimately clear about the word of God. The Bible discriminates. The Bible is discriminatory. Matter of fact, I don't know of a religion that is not discriminatory in some way. It is, I believe it's impossible, unless it's a self-serving religion, to have a religion that does not say something is right and something is wrong.

And the Bible is a discriminatory book. And so I would also say that today you could easily say that this is a book of hate speech. If you look at the things that Paul said, you could easily say that this is a hate speech book that should be banned. But once again, let's not just point at the sins that we love to look at the most. Does the Bible not discriminate against divorce?

That if you were divorced, it says, I think it's in Timothy, that if you were divorced, you can no longer, you have forfeited the right to become an elder in your church. Does the Bible say that? The Bible absolutely says that. It is discriminatory. The Bible says that there are ways, and it does. And I'm not going to hide from that. There's been this huge push to kind of make the Bible more malleable or a little more taste, put a little more sugar on it so it tastes a little bit better.

I just, look, I'll just, I'm going to go open up my restaurant if that's what it's all about. Because there's no reason for me to stand for truth. I get no pleasure. And I put myself, by the way, great risk bringing this up. Do you understand that? You put yourself at great risk. But I'll say that the belovedness that you understand and that people understand the belovedness of God is so important to me, I don't care.

They can have it all. They can have the house. They can have the title. They can have it all. Because God has shown me how much he cares for me. And I want people to know it. And I ultimately believe that these things are true for the salvation of mankind. It can't be about celebrity. It can't be about anything else. Doing good, having a comfy job in La Jolla at a church or something like that.

It's got to be about that or else it has no meaning. And so let's understand that once again going forward that the Bible discriminates and it makes me angry. Does it bother you that the Bible discriminates? It bothers me. It bothers me. But God knows what he's doing. And ultimately I have to believe that he knows what it's doing. And so we are here in this age.

Perhaps you saw Chip and Joanna Gaines. You know who they are. They have that house show that they're really, really popular. And they go to a church and somebody put on the news recently because they're doing really well. And their books are selling. And they have a TV show. And they're really nice. And they're friendly. And they smile. Somebody did a smear campaign that said they attend a church whose pastor preaches what?

That homosexuality is a sin. Okay. And like I don't know why that's news. But all of a sudden it was news. I don't know why it's news. But I don't know why anybody would do that. But you do. We are living in a society, I believe, where if you were going to speak truth. And I'm not saying that you have to shove truth down people's throat. Because I have no desire to do that.

But to be a Christian and to follow, I would say, a classical understanding of God's word in regard to human sexuality. It's going to cost you something. It's far too long since being a Christian has cost us anything. And the church does best when it costs you something. The question are, are you a jerk when you say it? Or can you say, hey, I just love you so much.

I can't. You can. Are you asking me to deny my faith? Are you asking me to stop saying what I believe that God wants me to say that you might be saved? Are you asking me to ask me to forfeit my faith? Would probably be on the same level as asking someone who feels that they identify with being a female but they're a male. To ask them to abandon that.

That would be incredibly difficult. Because there are people who are struggling with that. And I believe it's really tragic. I believe to be in a body where you don't feel that you identify with it. You can easily look at that and say, you know what? That they're wrong and it's obvious. And just, you know, look at your genitals and you'll know. And you make all these jokes about it.

No. I believe it's tragic. I can't imagine being like that. And the journey it would take. And have a soft heart for people that struggle with these things. To have friends that are gay. Or people in this church that are gay. Or their family is gay. And be able to tell them, hey, there's another way. And I believe it leads to God. That is difficult.

And to have a heart that breaks. And not to stand up. So let me just say once again. I get no pleasure. And for anybody who has come to me. And nobody has from this church. But people have come to me with this smug appreciation that I'm going to get up and just bash away at sin. I'll just leave it at that. It bothers me. So I won't swear. Are we clear where I stand?

Problem with relative truth is this. Look on number three on your notes. Here's the problem, I think, with relative truth. Because I believe that sexual relative truth is happening today. Whatever you feel is right. There is a problem with relative sexual truth. Is that the nature of mankind to supersede given boundaries. Whatever boundary you give mankind.

Be a student of history. Whatever boundary you give mankind. They will try to step over the boundary. So you have to decide whether you're a Christian or not. Every person. Whether you're a transgender. Whether you're divorced. Whatever you are. You are going to decide what is allowed. And what is not allowed. Perhaps you have heard of Nambla. The, excuse me, Man-bla.

I can't even get it right. But, yeah, thank you, Jim. The pedophile association. And you can look it up online. It's in your notes. That believes that it's a social justice issue. That men should be able to have sexual intimacy with boys. And they fight. And they give a whole civil rights justification of that. Let me ask you this. Do you draw your, is that where you draw your line?

You would say no to that. So, you know, sex within marriage. Between like gender. Do you draw your line there? Or is it like gender? Anybody can have sex whenever they want. By the way, I've got to say, we've lost that battle in the church. The amount of couples who come to me. Who are sleeping together. Are living together. And they show up to the door.

And they're like, hey, we're getting married. Would you marry us? I have a first question. You want a first question? Not my first question. One of the first questions at the door is, are you sleeping together? We're actually, we've already moved in. But we're engaged. Awesome. I might not be your guy to do that wedding. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Okay, well, let's talk about it. Are you willing to move out? Are you willing to be celibate? Are you willing to have a season to that? Because I believe that sexual intimacy before marriage, actually, I can't get into the whole thing today, actually can destroy a marriage. It can destroy intimacy afterwards. And so we have these conversations where I ask them, where do you draw your line?

And so you draw your line there. And many Christians no longer draw it within marriage. But as long as you're in a committed relationship, probably heading towards marriage, maybe heading towards marriage, then that's good enough. I'm not willing to sweep that under the carpet any longer either. And so do you draw your line there? Or do you draw your line?

And I hate to bring these things up because it is not the best conversation. But if you go to Belgium and other countries, and you'll see in your notes where they now have animal brothels, you can go, yeah, yeah, exactly. It kind of makes me sick to my stomach, okay? I want you to know that that actually happens. So do you draw your line there?

Or can you not make an argument? And tell me, look, no matter what side of the aisle you're on, do not look from the other side of the aisle from the one that I'm on. And I would love to have unity. And look to me with a disingenuous look on your face. Don't tell me that I could not make an argument to say that there is something positive about a young boy experiencing love with another man.

Don't tell me that I cannot make an argument because they make an argument. Or that if a person loves their animal, I know we're way off here, but the Bible talks about this too. Why should they not? Tell me why. Tell me why they should not be able. If you're going to have a relative sexual truth that is if you love somebody and it doesn't hurt anybody, then tell me why, without being disingenuous, why a person cannot have a sexual relationship with an animal.

Tell me why. Because I don't see an argument against it. And so let me just assure you that no matter where you are in this understanding of human sexuality, almost everyone draws a line somewhere. And when you draw that line, there will be somebody else, because it is the nature of mankind to supersede boundaries, and you will see that in the book of Romans.

The law gives the desire to step over the law. That a person will make an argument saying, you are holding me back from my rights. That you are holding me back from that. And when you draw that line, I believe, and this is just my argument, that if you draw a line anywhere, wherever it is, at some point, society will push that line, and you will be put into the realm of hateful bigots.

I'm just thinking through how this works. Now, I could be wrong. I could be wrong in this, but we see this, and that is what I see is happening with relative human sexuality. And so I ask you this, no matter where you stand on human sexuality, where do you draw your line? Where do you draw your line? And when you draw your line, how are you not disenfranchising and speaking against other people who might be on the other side of that line?

We draw a line in the sand. I would say in your notes, it says this, sexual intimacy in the Bible is only in the confines, the Bible says, and this is, I mean, I'm not telling you anything you don't know, right? You know what the Bible says and what people have said for a long time. That sexual intimacy is only in the confines of a God-ordained marriage between a man and a woman.

Or you can have a host of other choices. Here's the key in regard to Christ. Now, once again, I'm speaking to Christians, I believe, or people that are seeking. This is Christian spirituality. What I say to Christians is not what I say when I'm out on the streets talking to people. Because people come to church to learn what the Bible says, and my job is to tell you what I think the Bible says.

I am not going to go down to Bird Rock Coffee or go to the restaurant and have this conversation with people outside of the church, although it will be on my podcast. And if they click in, it's their decision to click in. But my desire is to tell Christians what I think that the Bible says. When I am out in the world, I want to say I have a whole different way of how I talk to people.

And I want to start with that beating heart that's soft, that realizes my own failures and fractures. You know, we all have different things that bother us. For me, issues, once again, to cherry-pick issues of, like, homosexuality, I mean, they're not at the top of my list. You know what the top of my list is because I come from it? Divorce. Because it jacked my life up.

And we've talked about that. We've had counseling, and there was alcoholism. Thank God my mom got saved when she was, and I wanted to say this to you today. I absolutely love you, Mom. You are a crown jewel in my life. I absolutely love you. And don't ever let the enemy tell you anything different. I absolutely love and care for you. And you deserve to be honored, and you're righteous.

With that said, we all know, and she knows as well, and she comes and tells me, I wish it would have been different. But I don't know. You don't raise your hand. But maybe divorce has jacked you up as well. And when it comes to judgment, I get along with gay people really well. I like gay people. I have a lot of gay people. I don't like the ones that want to close my church down.

That's just people, though, people. But I have a lot of gay friends that I hang out with, gone out to eat with, talk to all the time. And I don't start every conversation I come with them with this idea of Christian spiritual truth. I just want to have a relationship. I just want to, I really like a lot of gay people. Shh, don't tell anybody. A lot of them.

And I believe that they have really loving relationships that are actually better than a lot of Christian marriages that I see. I'm not saying I would do that marriage. If they asked me to marry them, that I would do it because I believe that that would violate what I believe in my faith. But nonetheless, can we begin to start with a thing of a soft heart?

And for me, the soft heart, the loss of marriage really bothers me. We have some friends. We were long-time friends with us, and they went through a divorce, and it was messy. And you've all seen that around and experienced that, and it's just messy. I've got to tell you what. I had the hardest time guarding my heart. I still do. They're remarried.

The kids, and they're on trips with the new person. And many of you have experienced that. And I have another, some of our closest friends got remarried. And they have one of the most godly relationships I've ever seen. And they're amazing. And God has blessed their relationship. And they do a ministry for people that are struggling with infertility.

And they're the most, it's amazing. So I'm not saying that God doesn't redeem things, okay? But the hardest thing for me is when I see a messy divorce. Why? It strikes closest to home. We all have something. You have your thing, whatever it is. Strikes closest to home. I want to say what I want this church to be about. And what somebody said yesterday, somebody said to me, you have the gift of reconciliation.

And I thought about it. And I thought, that's true. I love reconciliation. I want to be reconciled to every person, no matter what they've been doing. No matter where they have been in regard to what kind of sin or whatever it is. I want to see families restored. I want to see walls broken down. And I want to say if there is going to be a wall between Jesus and a person, it's not going to be me.

Now, you might look at what I've said today and say, well, you're a wall. You're a hateful bigot. Well, perhaps I am. But I do not want to be that wall. I am not going to be the guy out on the street with a sign. I'm not going to be the person yelling at, you know, telling people who sin is. Because I know about myself. And I know the darkness of my own depravity.

Let's go to the end of your notes and we'll be done. Until next week. And then I'll be happy to be done with this series. I dare you to get up and do it. Try it. Go ahead. Try it. We'll see. I want to say that understanding. Here's one thing before I was going to say it. I didn't yet. Christian spirituality is not about our rights. It's about God's rule.

Philippians chapter 2 says Jesus did not consider his rights or equality with God something to be grasped. But what did he do? He gave up all of his rights that he might obey what God told him his father told him to do. I want to say I know we live in a society of rights. And I think rights are important. Civil rights. I get the argument and the balance.

But let me just speak to Christians. It's not about your rights. If it's all about our rights, then God will never have a rule. Now, I don't expect the world to swallow that. I don't expect the world to accept that. And as a matter of fact, the scripture says that when you speak about these things, the world itself will say that's foolishness. It's absolute foolishness.

And I understand why they would say that. But it's not about our rights. It's about God's rule. And so in the midst of that, once again, speaking to Christians, how often is it about your rights? Christian, and you'll see in your notes there, it says Christian spirituality does not place a person's individual sense of fulfillment as the goal of a meaningful existence.

Can you just chew on that for like a month? Like, let me just say it again. And then go to the bookstore. Now, I'm part of the Christian publishing industry, okay? I write books. I do articles. I'm part of it, okay? They pay some of my bills, all right? I get that. But if they could learn one lesson about Jesus, and perhaps reading The Imitation of Christ or The Cost of Discipleship, if you want to have something that will give you an elixir for self-fulfillment of Christian spirituality, read Thomas Akempis, The Imitation of Christ, or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship.

It will be a quick detox. Trust me. Like the one you don't want to do after, you know, the New Year starts. It will be a detox. And so this is it. It says this, that Christian spirituality does not place a person's individual sense of fulfillment as the goal of a meaningful existence. I'm going to read it one more time. Christian spirituality does not place a person's individual sense of fulfillment as the goal of a meaningful existence.

What should our response be? Now in closing, don't judge. You know, I love when you hear, hey, don't judge. You hear that all the time. Don't judge. Don't judge. Don't judge. Let me tell you as a Christian why you don't have to judge, okay? And Christians shouldn't judge. Matter of fact, Jesus came and what did he say? I did not come to condemn. He didn't come to be a judge.

Why? Because God had already judged. Believing in God's judgments is not judging. Does that make sense? Judgment is when you look at a person and you say they're no good, filthy. That's judgment. But understanding what the Bible says and saying God has made judgments. He's the judge. I submit myself. This Bible will rule my life. I submit myself to these judgments.

And I submit myself to God. That is not judging. It is understanding the judgments of God. And a lot of Christians believe, well, I just, you know, I see a lot of Christians walk away now. They're like, well, I can't judge. And there's, you say, that's judgment. That's judgment. No. Understanding judgment is different. I understand that I can't cross the street.

But if, you know, unless the light is green. But if somebody does, I don't have the right to go and judge them and say, you owe me $15 for that fine. It's the same way with God. That I can know that it's wrong to cross a street. And if you cross it, I don't have to come and exact a toll from you. Because there is a judge and it is not me. Understand God's judgments.

Understand God's judgments. But be very careful about how you present God's judgments. Because you know what? God has a real hard time with people who try to get in the place of him being the judge. Okay? So, with your judging, you can just go to Google and put verses on judging other people. Go put that in and read it for a while. It might change the way you live.

And finally, I'm going to have no one left at the church next week. Going out in a blaze of glory. Don't hate. Don't hate. I have the hardest time not being angry. I'm not saying I hate. I just get angry. Right now, we live in a culture that gets clicks and makes money on your jealousy, on your anger. On your pride, on all the malice of the seven deadly sins.

They make money as you click on it. And everything is there. You won't believe what happened here. You won't believe who said this. This will infuriate you. Have you seen that? You know? I'm going to think, why do I want to read it if it's going to infuriate me? Click here. You are going to be so ticked off. It's going to ruin your day. Did you hear what Trump said?

What did Obama do with executive order? Ah! Ah! Help is right. I say, you never need to get angry about sin. You never need to get angry about sin unless it's your own. Why? Because the scripture says that God has wrath. And that when mankind stepped away from God through a decision to be like him and not be ruled by him, that the wrath of God was on mankind.

That wrath of God still exists today, but Jesus came and he put a cleaver through that and provided a pathway that once you believe in Jesus and you say, I want to follow you in all steps of following. Because I believe that there are people who are struggling with all different types of sexual addiction, sexual things that are following Christ and they are in that stream of being covered by Christ.

But in the midst of that, God's wrath is available. And it says in Romans chapter 1 that the wrath of God is being poured out on the world. And as you see these things, there is also a safe place within that, which is Christ following. This is why you don't ever need to be angry. I remember somebody came to me years ago. Madonna crucified herself at a conference in a G-string.

And they were so upset, so angry. Madonna crucified herself. She hung herself up. I'm so angry. I said, why are you angry? I said, that's the world being the world. The scripture even says in Romans, the world's the world. I don't judge the world. I'm upset if Pastor Jim does it, but bad, bad visual. Hey, look, there's a wrath of God. Why did Jesus not condemn?

Because the wrath of God, he didn't come to condemn. He came to save people from the wrath of God. That's what we're doing. You cannot add anything to the wrath of God. What good is your anger over someone's sexual sin or someone's personal political beliefs or whatever you think is wrong? What good is it? What can you add to the wrath of God? Is not the eternal wrath of God enough?

You know what? He has freed you as a Christian to quit being upset. I won't use the other word that I like to use, but I won't use it when I preach. He is free. You know you're free from being mad about it? Because the wrath of God is there. You know what he's given you? A key for freedom for people. To say, a key for freedom. I want to come bring light.

I want to come bring good news. I want to tell you how much God loves you. And so that's it. That's what we want to be about at this church. We want to be a church that loves people. I want people to continue to come and say, look, I don't agree with you. I don't agree with this book. But I know something's happening at that little church on the corner.

And I'm going to keep on coming. Because you figure out how to follow Jesus on your own. I have a friend. They said, I want to follow Jesus. And maybe you can help me. But I also want to follow Krishna. And I also want to follow, I forgot the other God that they named, Kali or something like that. And I said, cool. I said, cool. I'd love to be part of that journey.

I'd love it. As opposed to like what I was taught to do in the 80s. Ah! No! Only one God. Let's get the scripture. Only one God. I'm going to tell you. I've got to tell you right now. No! I want to be part. You know, God is working in a whole bunch of people's lives that you think he would never work in. Why? Because every single person is his beloved.

Every single person is the beloved of God. And he would empty heaven if it was just for them. That is the salvation. That is the Jesus I would die for. And if I tell you the truth, if I could only kiss his wounded feet and never look at his face and never get a treasure in heaven, but only kiss his feet for eternity, it would be enough for me.

Amen? Amen. I'm not saying I got it all right and I have it all figured out, but I know Jesus is good and he saved me. Amen.