Finding Truth and Identity in Christ Amidst Chaos

So, these young people and those outside of the church their same age, they're growing up in this world where they doubt, they're taught not to trust truth. And even memes are just things ripped out of context. But we have a source of truth. We have the Bible. It's so freeing. And we're here to talk about gender identity and some of those challenges. [00:01:14]

And of course, the first thing that we find is that we are created in the image of God. And as we read these opening verses of Genesis, we also learn that gender is not a social construct. We learn that God created male and female. And so, when we think about this search for my identity, or even a search for my dignity, and we think about this idea of confusion over gender, we can just go right to Genesis 1 and 2, and we can have such a solid foundation there. [00:02:39]

I think kind of working off of what Dr. Nichols said is to one, welcome them in the name of Christ. I'm prepared to be thought of by others as making compromises because I dine with sinners. What I'm not doing is telling those sinners they're not in sin and undermining the clarity of God's Word, which gives clarity as to who they are, made in His image, made in God's image, and the freedom that God gives them with who they are. [00:04:46]

And I do think the word "freedom" is significant. Scripture uses it regularly throughout the New Testament, the idea of being able to be free in Christ, no longer a slave to sin, with sin as your master. I think sometimes the challenge can be we can see the sins of others more clearly than we can see our own, and wish them to stop sinning, if nothing else, just to make us more comfortable. [00:07:40]

Well, the Word of God says, praise God, the Word of God says, "No, no, no, no, no, no. Your identity does, your desires do not determine your identity. Furthermore, that desire you have for same-sex attraction is just a broken expression of a sexual desire of what heterosexual desires can be doing the exact same thing." When a man lusts for another woman that's not his wife or a woman who's not married at all, that's a broken desire, but just expressed in a heterosexual way. [00:08:14]

And that idol will take different shapes, that idolatry will take different shapes for different people. But whether it's same-sex attraction, same-sex sin, transgender sin, or just wanting to be the center of attention. All that's reflective of being in Adam, and none of that will bring fulfillment. And that's what is so tragic. I think what the cultural gatekeepers are promising people, "You go pursue this, and you will find fulfillment. [00:12:43]

And if we're in Adam, we have the wrong pursuits. And it's only by being in Christ that we can have that freedom that you talk about, because being in Adam is really bondage. And then the trick for us is, even as we're Christians, to remember that we are in Christ. So, you said this in your talk, or in the interview about our identity. And, you know, here's Paul in Colossians 2:10. We are complete in Christ. [00:13:54]

Some of them are actually gifts from God that we make idols. So, for example, some of you have not had a boyfriend or a girlfriend and you're like, "I cannot wait to have my first boyfriend," if I'm a girl, or, "my first girlfriend," if I'm a boy. And you have that desire. The problem is not the desire, assuming it's an ordered desire from God's Word; the problem is when that desire becomes so dominant, you find your sense of identity, security, and assurance in accomplishing that. [00:15:43]

And the Lord in His wisdom is pleased at times to withhold those things from being fulfilled in our lives, to show them they were never meant to provide something that only He can provide. That does not mean God intends us to be perpetually disappointed, and just discouraged. But it does mean is He as a good Father knows what's best for His children who are in Christ. [00:17:28]

And at the end of the day, that's what matters. And all of these other things, they begin to lose their importance for us because in the light of who Christ is, they really aren't the important things. And we have good things in our lives. And if you have gifts and talents, and God's given them to you, you have an obligation to develop those and use them in the service of the church, and for His glory, and to cultivate the garden that we live in of this earth. [00:19:17]

We have to recognize this as sin. This is not normal. This is not part of the created order. It is again, not only do we see male and female, but we also see heterosexual marriage as the natural order with Adam and Eve. This is God's plan. So, it is not normalized. And you need to to realize that. And when we hear things like sex assigned at birth, no, your sex is assigned at conception. You have to remember this. [00:20:07]

And then secondly, to be clear, this issue, both in the world at large and particularly in the church, for the last two thousand years of church history, no one has believed that this is somehow okay and that God's Word somehow allows this. Heterosexual marriage has been God's standard for not only procreation, but for the representation of Christ in the church. It's a theological defining reality, not just an anatomical reality of procreation. [00:22:09]