You can listen to this sermon at http://generationschurchofgranbury.sermon.net/main/main/2223356
Today I will not be doing a gay bashing sermon nor delivering some sort of homophobic diatribe.
What I do hope to do is to speak the truth in love - about sin - from the pages of the New Testament.
Unsatisfied with the known answer to a similar question, “Can a homosexual be an Episcopal Bishop?” our culture will likely be asking today’s question many times in the years to come.
Biblically, the answer to this question is a no brainer, so why devote a Sunday Sermon to it?
I think it was voted as important enough to address - by our survey participants - because in their quest to advance the gay agenda, radical homosexual activists make it an issue for contention.
Turn on several popular secular TV Shows and you can see the activist's hard work through the media at manipulating and changing the overall opinions of our culture, be it through humor, intelligence or simply mocking conventional values and/or Christianity.
Just last night at the Oscar Awards, the winner of the award for best short live action film was one in which the story was about two intelligent homosexuals, with the rest of the film’s characters being evil and/or insane.
Watch the Gay TV Channel and you will hear constant whining about conservatives and those who are not moving fast enough in facilitating the changes they are pushing for.
Follow politics closely wherever the causes of this subculture are being advanced and you can see their progress.
QUOTE: In this month’s issue of Texas Monthly, there is an article by Mimi Swartz entitled, “Out and About, the social politics of being the first openly gay mayor of Texas’ largest city.” In it, Ms. Swartz reports on how lesbian Annise Parker won the Houston’s Mayoral Race last December. From which I quote: “If Houstonians aren’t exactly fazed by having an openly gay official lead them, it has a lot to do with the years that she – and plenty of other gays – devoted to inoculating them.”
While I am mentioning these things in introduction to today’s question, I am also doing so to emphasize the fact that the radicals in the pro-homosexual movement want to impose their views on Christianity to the point of perverting and diminishing the importance of the Bible.
Their pushing for our acceptance of "monogamous homosexual relationships", is leverage for the entrance of a Trojan horse that includes bisexuality and transexuality.
While recently scanning through Gene Robinson’s book, The Eye of the Storm, I noticed the gay bishop repeatedly used the acronym LGBT in his writing, which stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, & Trans-gender. It then occurred to me that while using man-made theology to defend "monogamous homosexuality" - that some have accepted and Bishop Robinson himself has devoted his life to defending - this unscriptural hoax soon becomes obvious because it is impossible for the practice of bi-sexuality to be monogamous.
What Robinson and others like him fail to understand is that true Bible believing Christians will never abandon the instructions of the Book that has brought such blessing to their lives in order to embrace and encourage fornication, i. e. sexual sinning.
If you would like more in depth information on homosexuality and the Bible you can hear the two following sermons at the links below to download and/or listen to them.
THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS AND HOMOSEXUALITY
http://generationschurchofgranbury.sermon.net/main/main/2223355
SUCH WERE SOME OF YOU
http://generationschurchofgranbury.sermon.net/main/main/2223357
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Now back to our question; CAN A PERSON BE GAY AND BE A CHRISTIAN?
Let's look at these two adjectives first.
CHRISTIAN: formerly meaning to be like Christ (Christ-like), as it was first used in Acts at Antioch by unbelievers to describe those who believed and followed Jesus. This word is now often used by unbelievers who want to identify themselves or others in some way with western culture rather than having a real relationship with the person of the Lord. (This is why we should be think twice before calling America a Christian nation).
GAY: formerly meaning to be happy and lighthearted has now been hijacked by social activists in the homosexual community who want to manipulate our thinking in their attempts to be granted a minority status - as though they were a nationality or a segregated race fighting for equal rights - rather than simply being the subculture they really are. (The use of the French theatrical term "gai" is a weak argument for saying that no one is perverting the word "gay.").
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TRUTH: regardless of its causes, homosexuality is an iniquity to be repented of; rather than something to be celebrated and embraced as an identity. Those who do so risk removing all hope - for those of us who are so enslaved - to ever be able to walk in victory over such transgressions.
To clear any confusion, here is how this important question should really be seen: CAN A HOMOSEXUAL INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD?
Let’s let the New Testament, the book of Christianity, give us the answer.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:9b-11
….Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
11) And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.-
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There is some good news in the words, "such were some of you."
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RE-THINK: CAN A PERSON BE A HOMOSEXUAL AND BECOME A CHRISTIAN?
ANSWER: YES!
RE-QUESTION: SHOULD A CONVERTED HOMOSEXUAL CONTINUE LIVING AS ONE?
ANSWER: NO!
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ROMANS 6:1-2
What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
2 CORINTHIANS 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
EPHESIANS 4:17-19
This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
EPHESIANS 5:5-8
For this you know, that no fornicator*, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light…..
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*NOTE: The word fornication speaks of any kind of sexual activity that is not between a man and woman who are married to one another, thus, by definition, making homosexuality a form of fornication.
While legalizing homosexual marriages may appear to be simply a legal matter, spiritually it will result in further deceiving and blinding people to the fact that they are still fornicating. Even though radical homosexuals may succeed at changing dictionary definitions and acquiring rings, as well as marriage licenses from the state, they will still be fornicating until they repent.
HEBREWS 13:4
Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled;but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
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It would be hypocritical to speak of the sinfulness of homosexuality and to ignore the same about other fornicating sins, i. e. heterosexual fornication.
Notice what Paul wrote;
1 TIMOTHY 1:8b-11, 15
….knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.
15) This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.Notice some of the closing verses of the Bible.
REVELATION 21:7-8
He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
REVELATION 22:14-15
Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
NOTE: Some will defend fornicating by saying, “It is natural, so it must be alright.”Many justify their participation in a variety of behaviors by calling them "natural." However, the following quote from M. Scott Peck uncovers this flawed thinking:
"Calling it natural does not mean it is essential or beneficial or unchangeable behavior. It is also natural to defecate in our pants and never brush our teeth. Yet we teach ourselves to do the unnatural until the unnatural itself becomes second nature. Indeed, all self-discipline might be defined as teaching ourselves to do the unnatural."
JOKE: WHO IS GLAD TO BE LIVING AMONG THOSE WHO HAVE LEARNED TO DO AN UNNATURAL THING LIKE CONTROLLING THEIR BOWELS?
FACT: All fornicators, including homosexuals, can change their sinful natural behavior with God’s help and the help of loving people, who are not afraid to care.In the following is a non-Christian testimony of homosexuals changing their lifestyles.
Robert L. Spitzer, the Columbia University psychiatry professor who convinced the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1973, is now stirring controversy again by saying that homosexuals can change their orientation—if they want to. "The subjects' self-reports of change appear to be, by and large, valid, rather than gross exaggerations, brain-washing or wishful thinking," he summarizes.
Spitzer interviewed 153 men and 47 women who said counseling had helped to change their sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. ABCNews sums up the data: "66 percent of the men and 44 percent of women reached what he called good heterosexual functioning—a sustained, loving heterosexual relationship within the past year, getting enough emotional satisfaction to rate at least a seven on a 10-point scale." Ted Olsen, "Gays can change, says Columbia University professor's study," Christianity Today Weblog (5-9-01)
CONCLUSION: The Bible says that we can be changed and helps us out in the process.
QUESTIONS FOR US TO ASK OURSELVES
IS ANYTHIING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD?
IS HOMOSEXUALITY AN UNFORGIVEABLE SIN?
IS A HOMOSEXUAL AN UNREDEEMABLE PERSON?
ARE WE FORGETTING WHAT THE LORD SAVED US FROM?
ARE WE SHOWING THE LOVE OF GOD TO SINNERS OF ALL KINDS?
ARE WE LIVING WHAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL?
SHOULD WE BE A SAFE PLACE FOR HELPING THOSE TRAPPED IN BONDAGE?
SHOULD ALL WHO COME TO FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST BE GIVEN ROOM TO GROW?
SHOULD WE SHOW GOD’S LOVE TO ONE WHO IS TRAPPED IN HOMOSEXUAL SIN?
WILL YOU?
Let us be faithful to be aware of deception and to respond by "speaking the truth in love" always. EPHESIANS 4:11-16
FINALLY TO MY FRIENDS WHO MAY BE STRUGGLING WITH HOMOSEXUAL TEMPTATION: The strength of our bondages should define our chains but never ourselves.
You have been created in the image of God and have fallen into sin like the rest of us, but Christ came to redeem us and to transform our lives, including your's.
There is help and hope for you if you will pursue it and distance yourself from those who would seduce you and your future.
The fact that you do not want to obey your homosexual compulsions is proof enough that you desire God's promise of redemption.
Do not fall for a false gospel, a powerless Jesus and a chicken church!
Anyone who would use the contents of this sermon to bully anyone is in need of a genuine revelation of the real love of God and should repent.
