Gender Sermon

LIES everywhere, it is important that the Church is willing to say the Truth. I have probably done a poor job of this in the past, but I want to speak as clearly as the Bible will allow about these things, I want to make sure that if you are looking for help on how to think through these things as a Christian, that you know you can come here.

There are two Ideological issues that are in the forefront of America’s cultural minds at the moment

ABORTION - not going to spend time here today because of – Wednesday Nights - exhaustive

You may have seen that multiple bills or amendments have been passed that allow abortion without limit (MI, VM, CA), and apparently one in Montana that says a doctor does not have to give medical treatment to a baby that is born alive, whether because of failed abortion or otherwise.

You cannot forget what is true. Biblically (scientifically), that is human life in the womb, not just the mother’s body, human life made in the image of God, with its own DNA, its own blood type, its own soul, with inherent and inestimable value, anything you can’t do to a baby outside the womb, you can’t do to a baby inside the womb.

GENDER

The mainstream view (rapidly changing) is currently that Sex is Objective – biology and anatomy MALE FEMALE – Gender is Subjective – MAN…

Since it is subjective, you are whatever you say you are, and there can be no ends to how many genders there are

Nourishing, refreshing, continual uniting

Presence of Christ beyond normal presence

GENDER = SEX

Man = Male . . .

The Bible does not distinguish between the two / There is no such thing as Gender (Scientifically) - LITERARY term

Gender was always used interchangeably with sex until just a few decades ago, and really until just a few years ago

It’s incredible how fast we have gotten here, where gender is its own thing, disconnected from sex

Just a few years ago – everyone of all shapes and sizes were doing gender reveals – equating gender and sex

GOD CREATED TWO SEXES/Genders

Gen 1:26-27

God created the two sexes as good and as complimentary to each other and as needing each other

In the image of God he made them. God made a very good world with no flaws, in that good world with no flaws he made 2 sexes, 2 humans that are first identified by their sex.

Maleness and femaleness is essential to humanity, essential to who you are is your maleness or your femaleness – and God is the one that made the decision about which one you would be

Additionally, Men and Women are necessary in a way that nothing else is or could be

“Be fruitful and multiply” – God’s design is the reproduction of God’s image bearers which can only be accomplished by 1 male …

God’s Good Design was 1 Male 1 Female àReproduction of God’s image bearers

GOD IDENTIFIES THOSE SEXES BY THEIR BODIES

Be fruitful and multiply – assumes certain bodies

Gen 2:24 - “What is a woman, what is a man?” A man is a human who can be joined to a woman physically (Jesus quotes marriage)

Man and woman are More than their anatomy, but they are not less

“You are a soul IN a body”. . .

When God created the perfect garden of Eden, he created Adam and Eve in BODIES

God has called your Body good, and you will have bodies in heaven!

Your soul and body will be separated at death, but that’s a result of the curse of sin and it will not be permanent…

1 Cor 15:42-44

BODY means BODY, it doesn’t mean spiritual body as in NOT physical, it means NOT fleshly, holy, not tied to sin

Phil 3:20-21 – Like Christ’s body – what was his body like?

1 Cor 6:15 – your BODY is a member of Christ

It is a mistake to say, “I am a soul and I have a body.” Your body is unique to you, and so it is not like a pair of glasses or a wig. If your body is injured, YOU are injured. An injury to the brain leads to the inhibiting of the soul. The brain affects the soul by occurrences such as losing consciousness, or an inability brought on by something like suffering cruelty in childhood. Your growth in maturity from infancy is made possible by the growth of the body.

Your body is unique to you, and it IS you.

One of the causes of the sort of ideology that says your body can be different than your gender is this awful idea that your body isn’t YOU.

This is why as recently as a couple decades ago, if you went to a doctor and said “I am a woman trapped in a man’s body . . .

Our anatomy tells us what gender we are, our bodies do not lie to us.

Our bodies are one of the only things that are always honest with us. I was talking to a friend about taking up running and he asked how fast I thought I could do 5K, I had no idea, but I figured I could do it in 24 or so. I tried the next day, my body told me the truth, I couldn’t even run half that far. I identified as a decent runner, my body told me to take that identity and shove it.

Your body isn’t lying to you about who you are. There are absolute differences in men and women, chromosomes and anatomy. The broad shoulders of men aren’t coincidental, the wide hips of women aren’t coincidental. Its almost like it was part of a plan of some sort. Or the more general differences like the FACT that Men tend to choose work that prioritizes things, like engineering and architecture, women tend to choose work that prioritizes people, like education and nursing. Man and Woman are different, and the world desperately needs us to be different.

SN – by their bodies, not by their interests

We’ve gone too far at times with unhelpful stereotypes. If you don’t like football it doesn’t mean you should question whether you are actually a man. If you don’t like to cook it doesn’t mean you may not actually be a woman. A 5 year old boy who likes dolls isn’t a girl in a boy’s body, he is a nurturing boy. A 7 year old girl who prefers football isn’t a boy, she’s a competitive girl. EVERY HUMAN EVER UNTIL 35 SECONDS AGO KNEW THAT INHERENTLY.

These things aren’t evidence of gender issues, they are evidence of the beautifully vast variety that God is capable of …

David writing Poetry didn’t make him less manly, Jael driving a steak into Sisera

GOD CREATED YOU

Colossians 1:16, Psalm 24:1-2

You exist because YOU were an idea in the mind of God – God decided to create you

You were uniquely crafted by the hand of God and he made you exactly as he intended to

Intricate, beautiful, designed to be a window to Him

That creator can better tell you what you were made for then you can

“Only you know who you are” is a uniquely modern and western idea, you don’t know who you are better than God does

Therefore your identity cannot be chiefly in your skills, your looks, your family, where you were born, your skin color, your identity is one made in the image of God to glorify God.

To strive to become what God has not made us is rebellion and can never lead to our flourishing.

I am who you say I am

I am who I say I am (Difference in the Christian and the non-Christian isn’t one has gender issues and one doesn’t, one has sexual sin issues and one doesn’t . . . )

Coen loves Spiderman, he runs around saying I am spider man! And that’s cute and we play and all that, but there was a moment early in this love, he was younger, where he broke down in tears because he went up to the wall to try to climb it . . . What would have happened in that moment if I would have said NO NO YOU ARE SPIDERMAN COEN! Keep trying! Let’s go to the roof and jump off. If I allowed him to believe something that wasn’t true, I would be lying to him and leading him to harm that he could avoid by knowing the truth. I know better who my 3 year old son is than he does.

So much of parenting is reminding your kids who they are. When they are bullied, when they lose, when they come home in tears, when they feel like failures, when they feel like a loser, you tell them that is not who they are, that is not the truth, they are yours and they are loved . . .

The Father knows better than you who you are, it is his Love that cries out to you to tell you the truth, even when you don’t want to hear it.

To those struggling with these things

1. Your Father knows best, he knows you, and he knows what you were made for, and where your joy is.

2. You are not struggling with anything that is foreign to me or any other Christian in this room. We struggle against sin too. We struggle with identity issues too. We struggle with idolatry too. You have found a home here, with people struggling against sin, being reminded who we really are.

The answer for the person with gender confusion is the same as the answer for the person with keeping up with the Jones’s confusion, the answer for the person with homosexual lust is the same as the answer for the person with heterosexual lust.

Christ has promised to break the leash that sin is controlling you with. He doesn’t promise your wrong desires will cease entirely, but he promises you strength for every step, his own strength as he will dwell in you, he promises to set you free from its grasp, only one can rule in you, he will take that sceptor so that sin can have it no longer, and instead it will be held by the one who has given everything because of his love for you.

If you aren’t a Christian yet, and cant agree with the things God says, we love you, we honestly desire your good, God loves you and honestly desires your good, and neither of us is deserting you or going anywhere.

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