Shane Idleman addresses the LGBT agenda, emphasizing the need for the church to speak truthfully and lovingly about God's design for marriage and sexuality. He highlights the distinction between the LGBT agenda and individuals struggling with same-sex attraction, advocating for love and compassion towards the latter while standing firm against the former. Idleman stresses that the church must not shy away from discussing these issues, as they are critical to upholding biblical truth in a culture increasingly at odds with it. He encourages believers to engage with love and truth, reminding them that feelings cannot dictate truth and that the Bible remains clear on these matters.

I had the privilege of flying to New York with my wife this week and was on Fox News. They actually threw in another video about can you be good without God and we're going to share that as well. And how that really happened, people have been asking me, it's real simple, it's God. That's how it happened, I have no clue than that. A lot of people are watching the videos and reading the articles and they thought it would be a good idea to have me out there. It's actually under foxnews.com, Lighthouse Faith with Lauren Green. It was a privilege meeting her, what a classy lady and professional at Fox. It was a great experience and you can find it online, Does the Bible Say Anything About Homosexuality? I would encourage you to actually listen to the one hour audio. That eight minute video is just a teaser and you really get into depth in the one hour audio. It was sent out on bulletin, if you're listening to this on live stream or later we can send it to you or you can just Google, What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality? Shane Eidelman and Stan Mitchell was the other pastor there. And we actually had the privilege of talking with him about 40 minutes before the show and we hit it off great, really, really good guy. I want to reinforce that, it's not this fighting and this angry battle going on. There's a deep battle, a battle for truth I believe. But I just wanted to let you know that he was a gracious man and hopefully we're going to build a relationship from that. But people have also been asking, Why does the church need to say anything? Why can't we just focus on the gospel here and not worry about all these other things? And I wish I had the answer for that. But I'm going to talk about something this morning that's very important. The title is, The LGBT Agenda, 10 Things You Need to Know. The LGBT Agenda, 10 Things You Need to Know. And you might say, What does this have to do with church? Well, I'm glad you asked. Two things. Because we just finished a marriage series. And I don't know if you're aware, but the direction of our nation is going away from God's Word. It's going away from God's definition of marriage. And instead of the church doing this, we need to do this. We need to preach. We need to proclaim what God's Word says. Because I'm pretty sure He has an opinion in this matter. And when we're talking about marriage, we just finished the marriage series. It's good to end on something like this to redefine what God's Word says. Number two, to give you some godly ammunition to know what you believe and why you believe it. What does the Bible say? What's going on here with all of this? And at critical times in history, the pulpit needs to be the voice of truth. So the church isn't getting political. The church is actually, when we speak on these issues, is bringing truth to the culture who needs to hear it. And there are critical times in history where we need to speak from the love of our hearts, but also from the truth of God's Word. And it's a good point here also to clarify, there's a difference between the agenda, the LGBT agenda, and what they're trying to push in the schools from down to kindergarten grade, up on the healthcare system, into the churches, into the culture. There's an agenda that's getting pushed where grown men can use restrooms with girls. There's an agenda. That's really what my fight is against. My prayer is for and against that. But then you have those who are caught in the lifestyle, and we love that person. So see, they feel that, why is there a battle if you love me? Well, we love you, but we're battling for the truth. And we're trying to uphold what God's Word says, but at the same time, loving the person caught in that struggle. So that's why it gets confusing. That's why you'll see bold preaching against the agenda, but loving conviction when it comes to the individual. I hope that makes sense, because you have to differentiate between the two. And hypothetically speaking, let's say that this lifestyle is wrong, which we believe in the church it is, but hypothetically speaking to those who might not believe that, how would God go about showing us and telling us? He would go about showing and telling us through His Word, what's been revealed in His Word. And I've had the honor of, well, I guess it would actually be the privilege, of listening to a lot of pastors on the other side of this. There aren't too many, but on the other side of what I'm saying. And a lot of them use words such as progressive revelation. And I'm hearing that more and more, progressive revelation. In other words, what they're saying is, what the Scriptures taught 2,000 years ago, God has been doing a new thing. He's been revealing a new truth now that we're more open, we're more teachable. We've come to know more about God, so that truth is changing. That's not true. If it's new, it's not truth. And if it's truth, it's not new. What God set in motion when He first spoke and proclaimed absolute truth, that does not stop. So I'm better understanding the movement is really repackaged liberalism. It's really just changing and turning certain things, and just trying to be as humble and loving as I can here. But I feel it's a very prideful movement. Did God really say no? Here's what we think He said. And so we have to be careful in this area as well. So I'm going to cover the ten points quickly. I think it's important, it ties everything in. This is what I spoke about on the audio cast. Some of it, a lot of it went different directions. Number one, tolerance tolerates. Tolerance tolerates differences, right? You're hearing a lot about tolerance. Just tolerate differences, tolerates differences. Tolerance tolerates differences, but love embraces regardless of differences. See, tolerance is, I'll hold my nose because I have to put up with you. I just tolerate you. That's not biblical, that's not good. Real love loves, regardless, you can be the love side. Real love loves despite differences. So that's something we have to remember in this. It's not about tolerance on our end, it's about loving, genuinely loving someone. And I challenged people, and I'll challenge you today. I was to go onto YouTube, if you want to see what this looks like. And I actually, I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but in 2016, Jan, I think it was December, I got a call that a friend attended church here. Her brother was suicidal. And he said, sure, I'll meet with your pastor. She threw that out there, and so I was making plans. The next day, come to find out, he's in North Hollywood, living with his partner, and he's a gay prostitute. So I went down, it was raining, I canceled my day, went down for about two hours, shared with him. She was there, the prodigal son story, God, hope in Christ. He was receptive, it was a wonderful conversation. I am so thankful I had that privilege. He's only in his 30s, very fit, in good shape. But he was also sick, I think, with pneumonia. And just encouraged him. So once I left there, I actually gave him a book, Desperate for More of God, we've got copies, free copies available. And I got a call about a month later that he passed away. He was just pneumonia at night and asleep, and I was just shocked. And they asked if I would do his memorial service. He was coming back to the Lord, and it was an honor to do that. And he had friends from North Hollywood there. And you could tell that it was many people in that lifestyle. So if you want to hear what love and truth sounds like, it's on YouTube, God's Scandalous Love. Just YouTube, God's Scandalous Love. And the family gave me permission to share it, and let people know that it's not about anger and hatred. It's about loving, truly loving people. It's a good reminder that Christ doesn't tolerate, He loves. Christ doesn't tolerate you, He doesn't tolerate me, He loves us. Regardless of what is going on. And here's a couple scriptures I want to put on the screen. 1 Corinthians 13, 4-7. You've read this before, but it ties right in. Love suffers long. So let's define love. Both sides are talking about love. What does it look like? Because love is not lust, right? We know that. Love is not how I feel. It's not lust. Love is something much deeper. It actually is a choice. Love is a choice. It's not a feeling. It's very easy to love someone you feel good about, isn't it? I mean, that's easy. But here's the definition. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Check this out. Love does not parade itself. It's not puffed up. Parading itself. Parading. Puffed up and prideful and parading and flaunting itself. That's not love. Love does not behave rudely. Does not seek its own. It's not provoked. It thinks no evil. It does not rejoice in sin, in iniquity, but it rejoices in the truth. This is the definition of love. It's not rude. So how are we doing so far in this area? And when we talk to this group of people. It's not rude. It doesn't seek its own. It's not provoked. It thinks no evil. It does not rejoice in iniquity, but it rejoices in the truth. See, the truth is, that's why we don't single out a particular group. Because without Christ, a person is considered lost and a sinner. It doesn't matter if it's drunkenness. It doesn't matter if it's, let me use some terms the Bible uses, debauchery. I mean, you've got to love these terms, right? Basically, the party lifestyle, fornicating, getting drunk, this whole thieves and covetousness. And it's just without Christ, we're all lost. So there's not just one people group that's worse off than everybody else. In God's eyes, the sin is the sin. And we'll get to a verse in a minute, but we have to remember that. Love also bears all things. It's like holding. This bird bears all things, believes all things. Now, this isn't just being naive, or I just believe whatever. Believes all things is we look for the good in others. We believe in the best in others. We don't come with a critical heart condemning, I believe in you. I believe that God can change you. I believe that he can resurrect this deadness that is happening in your life. It hopes all things. It endures all things. Now, when this resembles your character, everything I just read, love is patient, love is kind. It doesn't envy. It doesn't boast. It's not proud. It's not rude. When our character resembles this, not perfectly, but we're getting there. God's chipping away at things, and we have this heart of love. And that's one thing. I will tell you this. I don't know where it came from, but during that whole debate, I just felt surreal. Not even an ounce of anger. People were asking, how did you get? I'm not sure myself, because normally, you know, but it's just, it was just this, just this feeling of just love and brokenness and humility and longing for people to know the truth. And it was just every, it was trying, Lord, you've got to speak and underscore everything with love. You've got to help me here this morning. And it was encouraging, too, that on this area of love is reading of cross-referencing Ephesians 4.15. It says, speak the truth in love. So see, when you have the love of Christ in you, when you truly can feel God's love, then you're able to speak the truth in love. One of the most misquoted scriptures you'll ever heard. I've probably heard it, not exaggerating, 20 times since the debate, right? From the negative people that didn't like what I had to say. Who are you to judge? Who are you to judge? Haven't you read Matthew 7, Shane? Oh, sure, I've read Matthew 7. Jesus says, don't judge, right? Who are you to judge? Do not judge your brother. But first, remove the plank from your own eye. Humble yourself. Come with the spirit of gentleness and love. Don't think more highly of yourself than you should. Don't come with a condemning spirit, a judgmental spirit. And then you can remove the speck that is in your brother's eye. But we think, oh, don't say anything. No, actually, you can. Actually, some of the most bold people that I know and that you know that are effective are filled with love. Because you can look at somebody in the face and smile and tell them the truth because you love them. So you can speak the truth in love. Don't fall for that. Where we're getting in trouble is most people aren't speaking the truth in love. And I had to apologize. We both apologized to each other off-air with how both sides are treating. I mean, some posts I read from Christians, it's like all capital letters. Words in there I would not use. It's like, oh, and you're going to win them with that argument, really? It's because they're not filled with love. They're filled with judgmentalism and pride and anger. And it comes out in how they say. If they put that stuff on my post, I just delete it if I can. Because it's not appropriate. Pictures, they'll put things in. Emojis, is that what they're called now? They've got little signs with things on there. It's just terrible on both sides. So that's the first thing I wanted you to understand, that it's not about tolerance. We don't tolerate. It's not about tolerance. We actually love. We love people enough to share them the truth. It would be much easier, ask my wife, if I didn't have to talk about this issue. The whole time in New York, I could not tell one person why we were there. Flight attendants next to us, hotel. Because you know what they would say. Oh, what are you there for? Oh, really? What are you talking about? Well, I'm taking the position that it's not good in God's eyes. Really? We want that hatred? We want those people being upset? But see, the love of God, just like Paul, the love of God, the love of Christ compels me. There's this yearning. I mean, hey, we're going to put you on national TV and ask you questions. Well, let me just cower down, and I don't want to offend. No, it's time to ruffle some feathers in love. It's amazing. People are emailing to you. They're saying, we've never heard this. Where is this coming from? I mean, pastors usually are politically correct, and they don't want to say anything. So people are looking for somebody to say something in love. So that's the first point. It's not about tolerance. I want to make sure you know that we don't tolerate, we love. And the second point, challenging those with whom we disagree is often a characteristic of love, not hate. The reason I'm making this a big deal is because it is a big deal. You're going to start to see legislation at some point that is going to remove all these difficult passages of the Bible, in my opinion, because it's being labeled hate speech. And if it's hate speech, then you can make laws against it. That's the whole reason behind hate speech. I mean, I've countered people. I've cornered them lovingly, of course, right? You know I don't hate you, right? Of course we know that. Even he admitted it. If you listen to the audio, we both admit it. It's not about hate. He knows I'm genuine. I know he's genuine. But you can be genuinely, you can be sincerely wrong as well, right? So it's not about hate. But that's the only way you can silence the messenger. And there's laws, I think in California it was recently passed, in a nursing home, if you use the wrong gender, you know, if it's a man, you say, Phil, you know, if you don't call him by his, I guess his name's been changed to a woman, and you don't use the proper gender, you can be fired, you can be imprisoned. I mean, these things are, it's just getting ridiculous. So that's why. So you must understand that challenging those with whom we disagree is often a characteristic of love. Do therapists or doctors challenge destructive lifestyles because they hate their patients? Do parents challenge their children because they hate them? Of course not. And we have to remember that Christ challenges us because He loves us. See, when we challenge somebody, if you went through life, try going, well, don't try it, but just assume, if you went a whole month without being challenged in anything, you would not be going in a very healthy direction, I have a feeling. Because when we're not challenged, we just keep, God must be blessing me, God must be doing this, and we're just not challenged in anything, we just keep going in the wrong direction. So being challenged, convicted is another word, helps us reestablish our course and get back on track. Here's something, another scripture up on the screen, you could even turn to if you had your Bibles, James 5.19-20. It's a good one to remember, James 5.19-20. Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the what? So there is a truth. What's the truth? It's been laid out. If he wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the air of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. Now if we had time to put this in context, it was dealing primarily with sickness, a sickness leading to disobedience against God, and people were sick because they were disobeying God. But what James is also saying here is if anyone among you, so if we know somebody who's wandering from the truth and we turn him back, how do we turn him back? You might have to challenge him, right? You can't walk in the same direction. You have to challenge them. Hey, let me get you turned, right? Let me point you back in this direction. Do people like to be turned? That's uncomfortable. Get your hands off me. You don't tell me what to do. But if somebody turns him back, turns him back, and that was really my whole point of going, is not to preach to the cheerleaders on this side. The cheerleaders are going to preach on the other side. But I'm trying to talk to the people in the middle that want to see what genuine Christianity looks like, what God's Word looks like. Also, Galatians 1. I've got a lot of Scriptures. It'll be in the sermon notes underneath the sermon when it's posted on our website. But you could also look at Galatians 6. Galatians 6. It actually encourages those, this is amazing, who live by the Spirit. What does live by the Spirit mean? You know those who are filled with the Spirit of God. Right? They're walking with God. They love the Lord. They're filled with the Spirit of God. Galatians 6.1 encourages those who live by the Spirit to those who are caught in sin. Go to those and restore that person harshly. Is that what it says? Gently. Restore that person gently. Gentle. But restoring is not easy. Have you ever restored a car? There's a lot of banging going on at the hammer and restoring something. It hurts sometimes. So restore that person gently but be careful that we do not fall into the same sin. Now, people are, you know, you can take this a couple different ways. I look at it this way. Be gentle. Go with the right spirit. Filled with the Spirit. So if you go to correct somebody you may fall into the same sin. It's like the person who goes to correct a person possibly caught and possibly going to cheat on their spouse and they go, listen, they come with the judgmental attitude, how could you do that? I thought you were better than that. I would never think of that. I would never do that. How could you? And the enemy says, open door. Open door. Pride cometh before a fall. So that's why Galatians, Paul was reading to the church there, go in a spirit of humility and gentleness. Point number three, the Creator made His plan obvious. Right? I'm not getting technical, but things work. Male and female. Right? I mean, come on. Look at it. Leave it there. Christ said since the beginning of creation God created them male and female in order that they would be joined together and become one flesh to be fruitful, to multiply. So you just have to look at the design of the Creator. How did He create His creation? And when certain things don't work, or you know, again, leave it there. It's a G version. It makes sense. And then it goes into number four. The exception proves that there is a rule. What I mean by that is this. People say, well, what about, be fruitful, multiply. What about those who can't have children, Shane? God's Word doesn't give a provision for that. Well, the exception doesn't make the rule that it's wrong. Homosexuality is wrong. It doesn't mean that, oh, now homosexuality is right. The exception proves that there's a rule. Also, in my opinion, that's one reason why we have adoption. God sees this in God's adoption. And we also, this is a side note, I talked about in the audio, when anytime you get two fathers and a child, that's very unhealthy for that child. The way God designed it. God designed the impact of the mother and the impact of the father to raise that children in the best setting. You can look at secular psychologists in this area. They know the best model. See, and we start to drift away from what God has said. See, this whole thing really is a battle over truth, right? I mean, this whole, I could've just said that and just gone into worship. I mean, that's what we're, did God really say? Did God really say? Didn't that happen in the garden? You're not gonna die if you eat of that pomegranate, apple, whatever it is. Right, you see pictures of apples, it wasn't apple. We don't know what it was. Partake of this fruit. He didn't really say. And so when you can get a subtlety in there, you know what, that's a good point. Then you can start to open up the mind to other things that are not scriptural. Here's another one. 1 Corinthians 7, 2. Each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. Christ said, therefore what God has joined together, what has God joined together? Man and wife. Let not man separate. Then the fifth point. There is no, and this is a biggie. There is no scriptural support for homosexuality or gay marriage. There is, and I asked this question on the audio. You can listen to it, the answer. Not one scripture, 66 books of the Bible, written over 1,500 years, not one scripture paints it in a positive light. Not one scripture talks about a union of two men or two women in a positive light. Nothing. So you've got to take all the verses that speak against it and try to tweak them, twist them to say what they don't say. And of course it comes up, well Jesus never mentioned homosexuality. That word wasn't really there in that time. He also didn't mention bestiality. He didn't mention pedophilia. He didn't mention necrophilia. All he had to say was one thing, pornea in the Greek language. It's a Greek word that means all sexual activity outside of marriage between a man and a woman. That's what he said. You don't have to sit and list all these things. Not only that, why would he have to list it if it's already reinforced in the Old Testament? I didn't come to abolish the law. He said I came to fulfill it. He would quote Deuteronomy. He would quote the prophets. Feelings are not a gauge for truth. Feelings are not a gauge for truth. And this point I really feel for people on this one because a lot of, I've been watching videos and a lot of people are changing their mind when their children come out as embracing this lifestyle. And I feel for them. I mean my heart breaks. I don't understand as far as experiencing, but that would be difficult. But if a child or one of our kids or whoever we know say that they struggle with anger or lust or lying, we don't change the Scriptures to conform to their struggle. We take their struggle and we conform it to Scripture. And I'll just tell you something that did bother me about the Fox interview, the eight-minute segment. I don't like he got the last word in. I mean, I was just shocked. Laura, can I have one minute? Just give me one minute. Because he talked about the suicide rate among teenagers. But the 14-year-old who is suicidal who you don't give an answer to is going to be a 21-year-old who is still suicidal because he's still feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit. You can't just erase conviction, the conviction of the Holy Spirit, because it is not popular, they would say. Or you just can't erase that. It's going to be there. So see, when teens aren't just suicidal for that, here's the reason behind. If you look at the statistics, I went to the top 10 reasons and they talked to teenagers after attempts. And look at all this. The bottom line with all of them is hopelessness. Many are coming from broken families. Divorce. Why don't we talk about that? How divorce affects children. That's why when you don't have hope, you're suicidal. And teenagers, all this burden, all this responsibility. We should say, listen, that's okay. God loves you. Let me point you to the answer. Hey, I struggle with whatever. I used to love alcohol. Couldn't ever kick it at your age. It was a daily struggle. I got it. We're right there. Let me point you to the answer. Really? Yes. And then they light up. They light up. The article, I don't know if you have it. It was on the Christian Post, Hello Christian. A lot of news places picked it up. I just saw the Fox News thing on Yahoo the other day and I got a little nervous. It's like, uh-oh. You know, not Yahoo News. But the person who helped me edit that article struggles with same-sex attraction. He's a friend of mine. You know, I don't look down on... I mean, we all have our struggle. Now you have to be careful with different things, right? But the struggle, there's hope. And I just met... It was a very sad story. I was up on the aqueduct and I heard a guy yelling, like cussing at me and yelling. He's like doing this. I got a picture on my phone. He's like doing this up on the mountain. I'm like, what's wrong with this guy? I just want to go jog in the morning. He takes off his jacket. And you know, he's running and talking. So, I'm praying. Lord, what do you want me to do? Man, what do you want me to do? So I try to walk away and then I get convicted. So I finally walked up the mountain. And I said, hey, what's going on? He goes, oh, hey sir, hey sir, sorry. What's wrong? He goes, I'm schizophrenic. You go to church? And he said, yeah, out in Little Rock area. Can I pray with you? I said, yeah, please, because I can't hear. I don't know what to do with these voices. So I'm thinking, well, if yes, I'd rather struggle with same-sex attraction than that every day. Or what about people who are struggling? They just diagnosed their daughter, a four-year-old, with leukemia. They've got to deal with that for as long. I mean, see, we forget that we all struggle with something. There are things out there that are worse than this. It's appointing people to the answer, because feelings cannot be a gauge for truth. That's why there's a big push here. Feelings, loving people. The sixth reason, the Bible is crystal clear. Here's the main crux here. The Bible is crystal clear on the issue of homosexuality. And it's funny, because people say, you can't say it's crystal clear. Why do you always say that? Well, it's crystal clear. And I cringe every time I hear people misrepresent statements in Romans or Sodom and Gomorrah. And I talked about this, and you can listen to it. But there are a lot of Scriptures. You can just Google the Scriptures on it, and you just read it. You don't have to have people interpreting it. Just let them speak to you. Let me look at the primary one first, or the only one I'll get to this morning. On the screen. If you have your Bibles, it's in Romans 1. Romans chapter 1. This is a wonderful chapter on, before I get to 1.26. God is saying, my invisible attributes are clearly seen. You can tell there's a God. People are suppressing the truth. They're pushing the truth down, and they're believing a lie, exchanging the truth for a lie. That's what people are doing. So it says this. So God, for this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For even their woman exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind and to do things which are not fitting. Any time a person suppresses the truth and they reject God, whatever their predisposition is, they're going to go to it. Alcoholism, thievery, opiates, homosexuality, lying, whatever it is, they're going to that when they drift from God. So that's the reason behind it is any time we suppress the truth, we reject God, but God says, you want it, you got it. That's not my plan. It's not my best. I don't want that, but because you are free agents to some degree and living with your choices, He gives them over. So if this doesn't mean what it says it means, then I don't know what it means. I remember Dallas Theological Seminary, I don't know if I could say it right. If the plain text, if the plain sense of the text makes sense, seek no other sense, lest it becomes nonsense. You know, and that's what they read into this thing. Well, that really didn't mean that. It meant, you know, pedophilia. It meant people who are not in committed relationships. See, you're just reading into things that's not there to try to support something. And another argument that comes up is people are convicted about this because the church is pressuring them. Everybody's pressuring them. They feel, you know, they feel like, oh, I feel bad about this. However, that was true maybe 34 years ago, 30 or 40 years ago, but now it's the opposite. The media confirms it. The educational system will push it. The laws will protect it, and Hollywood will promote it. So now the majority is this belief. So if your thinking is true, then I should change my beliefs because of all the pressure I'm receiving. All the pressure I'm receiving. Well, I should just... That's why I feel... See, it's not because they're feeling all this pressure. It's their feeling conviction of God. A conviction that things are not right with God. And we should be able to say those things in love. Verse 7. I like this one. God can advise against eating shellfish as well as homosexuality. Do you know what that means? You're probably going, what does that have to do with anything? Well, I'm glad you asked. The big argument that is out there is God said, thou shalt not eat shellfish, pork. These are abominations. And Leviticus, a man shall not lie with a man as he does with a woman. It is an abomination. Obviously we can eat shellfish. Obviously we can eat pork. So obviously, homosexuality is no longer wrong. That's the connection they made. However, they forget that the dietary laws, the ceremonial laws, and the moral laws are all different. The ceremonial laws we don't follow because they were fulfilled in Christ. The dietary laws were given to the children of God to eat things that are clean and pure and good for them. Guess what? Pork and shellfish are still not good. I don't want to rain on the parade of sushi eaters, but shellfish stay at the bottom of the ocean and they eat all of the toxic material, the dead animals, the nasty things. That's what shellfish and shrimp and things and lobster, that's what they eat. They clean up all that area. So when you eat that animal, guess what you're eating? So when the Bible says, eat fish with scales on them. These are healthy fish. When God says, don't eat a rabbit, don't eat the camel, they're unhealthy. See, it's interesting. God doesn't do anything for silly reasons. These are all very good. So shellfish and pork are still not good for you. And then when you get to the moral law, any time God says, thou shalt not do this morally, it still applies. And I ask, give me one moral law that doesn't apply anymore. That adultery stuff? Man, don't worry about it. That killing your neighbor? That's passé. Any moral law. Any moral law on how to conduct yourself is still relevant today. Now this comes up as well too. And it would take probably a sermon to explain. But what about slavery? Two things, in a nutshell. First, you have to realize that the Bible doesn't paint slavery in a light that, yeah, this is God's plan. Also, we think of what happened in the 1700s, 1800s, and it was actually initiated from Great Britain onto the United States of America. Many pilgrims and Puritans, early Americans, abhorred the practice, fought against it. Ever heard of a man named William Wilberforce? I mean, they fought against it. So this idea that America's bad, they all had slave owners, it's just absolutely wrong. There are a lot of people. You can grab a book out there, One Nation Above God. I've got pages and pages of founders who abhorred the practice. But when the Bible talks about it, they didn't have something called welfare, or food stamps, or people reaching out. When a person 2,000 years ago lost everything, they lost everything. So you have a man, his wife, maybe a lawyer or something, and their kids. Listen, I lost everything. Can I live on your property and work for you and be your bond servant? I am bound to you. That's why the Bible says, if after seven years and your debt's paid and you want to remain with your master because you love them, you can. So it was a system of economic strength that had to happen. How else? You would just die in the desert. So now if you get a good person who says, yes, I would do that for you, and they love, there's a good relationship, they help them rebuild their life, but then you get wicked owners. It's not unlike us going and working somewhere 40 or 50 hours a week. But we're able to go home. Trust me, MasterCard still owns you. You're an employer. You will stay there for 30 years because you are indebted. It's the same thing. The difference is they would live under the roof. So we think of the slavery, the movie Roots came out. Oh, we try to put that into the biblical context. And also, when Paul said, slaves, obey your master. He's not endorsing slavery. He's saying, no matter how people treat you, have the character of Christ within you. Now, people did use that to support slavery, but see, they twisted the Scripture. They got away from the heart of God. So all these things can be answered biblically. Do not be scared of what the Bible says. And it's funny, I just have to tell you, I felt like I had the total advantage. Here's why. I'm not being prideful. Hopefully I didn't come out wrong. All I had to do was say, here's what the Bible says. Here's what the truth says. See, the truth is like a lion. Just let it out of its cage. So let me have the philosophical discord on showing scientific studies and based on psychological analysis and based on statistics. Oh, here's what the Bible says. Here's what the truth says. You're just presenting the truth. That's it. That's it. That's all you're doing. Here's what the truth says. And I actually listened to one guy yesterday. You can listen to Dr. Michael Brown who's become a friend of mine. He's helped to mentor and run a lot of things by him. A great guy. He sent me a clip where he interviewed a Methodist pastor who was defrocked. Didn't even know what that was really. I guess it's not Christmas season. They removed him from being a pastor because he married his gay son. Because he believed in gay marriage. And the conclusions they come to. And they often say this. I hope I'm right. I'm not sure. And I heard that in New York. I hope I'm right. I'm not sure. And then Dr. Michael Brown asked this guy. Do you believe that Jesus is the only way, the only truth, and that's what you're going to stand on when you die? I'm not sure. I mean, I'm kind of sure. I'm sure, but what about if I was born in the Middle East and I believe the Koran? So see, a lot of these people aren't solid in the area of theology. They don't know what they believe. I don't know. Some of them might not have a relationship with God. It's either that or they're not filled with the Spirit of God. Those are the only two options. Boy, that one's going to get a lot of negative feedback on that comment. Let me make a note for the editor to make the other video. Just kidding. Of course, it's the truth. And I love people enough to tell them the truth. You have to look at do you truly know Christ? Because if somebody asked me that question, I'd say absolutely. Yes, I know. There's a lot of things I don't know, but I know I'm going to stand before God one day because of what Christ did. He is the way, the truth, the life. The Scriptures are inerrant. They are God-breathed. I'll bank on that. Now, other things that aren't essential people have questions on, but those things are essential so that we know. Another screen up on the verse. Psalm 51.5 Behold. Oh, here's the point. Point 9. I'm almost done. Don't worry. Here's the big one. But I was born this way. I was born this way. How many of you were born? Don't raise hands. But how many of you were born to do something that's not right? Everybody in this room better raise their hand. Right? Even that cute little four-year-old, boy, they can lie. They can tell some whoppers. No, no, Daddy. I don't know where it went. It's in her room. Right there, born to lie. So I'm not going to say, well, she was born that way, Morgan. She's not in trouble. And I'm trying not to make light. Please understand my heart because I have people right now I'm reaching out to that struggle with this lifestyle and they're not sure what they believe in. But I want to get this point across. It doesn't matter how a person was born. Christ still offers the answer. It's not an excuse to indulge in sin. Psalm 51.5 Behold, David says, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. It's interesting. I don't know if we've released it yet, but Fox surprised us. They said, let's do another clip. Can you be good and still not know God? Oh, I wasn't prepared for that one. Right? Like when they do, they've got five minutes to throw that. So it turned out great though, but I come to find out we have different views in that area. He would say that we are innately good. I would say we are. What does Scripture say? See, that's why it's easy. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and sin my mother conceived me. Romans 1.23 For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. See, to me, that makes more sense because ah, that's the problem. That's the problem. What's the solution? That's the solution. See, I might turn to preacher mode for a minute here because I get so passionate about this. Here's the solution. Here's the solution. Christ's redemptive work on the cross. That's what you need to point people to. Not theology that's off course. Not hatred and misunderstandings. Point them to the cross. So it doesn't matter how a person was born because we were all born to sin. And finally, number 10. This one I don't understand. This struggle for gay rights is not a civil rights issue. The color of a person's skin cannot be compared to a moral choice that I can make or that you can make. There's no comparison. The Bible doesn't even put it in the same ballpark. It's not even comparable. Now this one you could say, but I was born this way. And you're okay. I was born African American. I was born Hispanic. I was born Caucasian. Yeah, it's actually skin pigmentation. Did you know that? That's why racism is silly. It's a skin pigmentation. All related, all brothers in Christ. There's no difference. But when it comes to a moral choice now because of our fallen nature, that's when we have to make a decision. So here's the bottom line. Here's the question I proposed that he didn't like. One will say, Lord, I followed Your Word. I upheld the Scriptures and I anchored my life to the essentials of the faith. Your Word appeared crystal clear in this area. When I stand before God, that's what I will have to say. But the other side will say something like this. Lord, I believe that You gave us a fresh and new perspective in this area. I know that many Scriptures as well as church history cast homosexuality in the same light as other sins, but I don't think that applies now. Truth is progressive. Whose shoes would you rather be in on Judgment Day? That's the question. That's why this is so important. A.W. Tozer said, when we become so tolerant that we lead people into a mental fog and spiritual blindness, we are not acting like Christians. We are acting like cowards. And for just a minute, I want a lot of us, not even in this room, but even nationally, to think about just for a minute, have we ever stopped? We're so worried about offending people, right? Even me, I get caught. I don't want to offend. Have we ever stopped to think that we might be offending God? I mean, that's what is so important. I'm going to leave you with this verse. 1 Corinthians 6.9 This is the truth. This truth hurts, but it's the truth. English Standard Version. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? He says, do not be deceived. That tells me a person can be deceived. Listen, if Paul could preach this, I guarantee you he would not be with anger. He would be weeping. Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor the idolaters, nor the adolaters, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor the drunkards, nor the rivalers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Here's my concern. When you validate a sin that will put somebody in hell, that's a bad thing. Now, thank God for the word practice here. Those who practice. See, practice is, I don't care what God's Word says, I'm going to indulge into my flesh until the day I die. He's not saying those who struggle with lying, those who struggle with putting things first, idolatry instead of God. Shane, I have these tendencies that I love God, I don't want to act upon that. You're not practicing at all. Now, emails on this too, well, can a person be cured of being gay? Does God set them free? And many times he does. But I've talked to other people that still struggle with it, that love the Lord. Same thing, I've seen people, Shane, I've never touched a drink in 20 years. God just set me free that night. And I know other Christians, as soon as they hear that ice clanking in the glass, as soon as they see that ice cold beer being passed by by the way, that temptation rises up again, they've got to fight it. Day in and day out. But they're not practicing. They're not saying, I don't care what it says. So see, it's not the sin that actually leads to hell. It's the unrepentant nature of man. The sin just reflects what's going on in the heart. So if I continue in drunkenness, and everything they just said, idolatry, not homosexuality, I just continue in all these sins, not homosexuality, if I don't care what God says, I'm just going to continue, and I die in that state, that shows that my heart was unrepentant towards the heart of God. It's unrepentant sin. So as all sermons, they should take us back to Christ. Do you truly know Him? Do you truly know Him? And if you're caught in any of these sins I just mentioned, and you've never repented from anything I just mentioned, take that step and repent. And say, God, this is wrong. Would you help me? That's a prayer He will answer. And I want to throw this out there to believers already. Are you being truly led of the Spirit? Are you truly being led of the Spirit? I hope I'm right. I'm not sure it won't cut it. You've got to know that you know. Because God's Word is not divided. The Holy Spirit is not divided. When the Holy Spirit leads you, there's peace, there's assurance. You've got to know that by surrendering to it. One of the highlights of our trip, and this is really the closing, is, boy, I think we got up around three in the morning to catch a plane. You've got to get down the road, you know that. And then you get there and you're like, oh, you're three hours ahead. Isn't that nice? So it's already five o'clock when you get there. Hour and a half, hour and ten minutes, hour and fifteen, if I believe, from the taxi at the airport to the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Jim Cimbala's service there Tuesday night. Dead tired. I almost chose dinner at the hotel over that. Get there. So glad we went there and experienced that 3,000 people on a Tuesday night worshiping. And they can worship. This is people from Harlem and probably Bronx. My goodness. And it was over, and Morgan goes, oh, you should go up there and meet him. I'm like, no. I don't want to. And I look up there, he's only got like three people. So I go up there and we introduce ourselves, and I told him what I'm doing, and it set everything in motion for the rest of the next couple days. He said, just trust the Holy Spirit to speak through you. That's all you've got to do. And the fear, the anxiety, they're like, I've got eight pages of notes. Because you know, they take bullet points. Shane, what do you say? Oh, that's wonderful. Thanks for that one minute. What do you say? You know, you've got to know what you've got to know. And so that relieved all the fear of the trip. I just walked into there, like I said, surreal. Here's what the truth is. Now, you've got to have the truth in here, right? You can't just wing it. You've got to know what you know. But that was life-changing. And I thought, I've got to share that with you because you've just got to trust the Holy Spirit. But that doesn't mean trusting Him in your rebellion. See, you've got to get in the right relationship with God. Surrender and say, God, I want You to lead me. I'm surrendering to Your will. I'm surrendering to the work of the Holy Spirit. Would You do that? And He will lead you. He will guide you. I can't tell you how much of a difference that made. To just go in there, everything seemed surreal. Like, am I actually doing this? I'm not angry? Wow. I mean, they're challenging God's Word. I'm angry usually. It's just that work of the Holy Spirit. So don't discount that because we are a Bible-believing, Spirit-led, Spirit-filled church. We're not worried about talking about the work of the Spirit.