Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz19970504.htm

GOD'S RENEWAL FOR HOUSEHOLDS
"Part IX: Renewing Household Marital Courtships: Addressing Roadblocks - Overcoming Aberrant Sexual Orientations"

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Increasingly, homosexual orientation seems to be today's norm:

(1) Last week, television's first openly gay personality, Ellen Morgan (played by Ellen DeGeneres who announced mid April that she has a lesbian lover) starred in a "coming out" (as a lesbian) special and Dennis Rodman of the NBA Chicago Bulls revealed las t week that he'd had an affair with a transsexual.

(2) Gay groups abound in Christendom: the Roman Catholic community has the gay group "Dignity", "Integrity" represents gays in the Episcopalian church while the United Methodists use "Affirmation". (Waterbury Rep.-Am., Oct. 20, 1990, p. 8A)

(3) Harvard University, begun by the Puritan forefathers to train ministers of the Gospel, has as its current reigning Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes who is gay! (Ibid., Jan. 4, '97, "At Harvard: Black, gay, Christian")

(4) Rev. Louis Linardini, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Fairfield, was reported by Mark Azzara in the Republican-American last week as saying, "Many sincere, dedicated, Bible-believing Christians do not believe a person chooses his or her sexual orientation. They believe we are born into this world with these decisions made for us by forces we don' t fully understand . . . I don't think we have a final answer from Scripture (on the morality of gay orientation) and I don't think we have final answers from science (on if it has a genetic cause)."

(4) One day our Church librarian, Sonya Swatsley loaned me a book by Anthony Campolo, a nationally-known Evangelical leader. She wanted me to examine it for possible use in our library. Well, in that book, Dr. Campolo stated he felt Churches should hire those with homosexual orientation providing they didn't practice the orientation! He feels only the act-- not the orientation -- is sin!

(5) A young woman who used to attend our Church regularly and claimed know Christ as her Savior bought a book from an area Christian bookstore and read from it that you could be gay and godly! Since then, she has left her husband and lives with a lesbian lover!



Well, should Christians fellowship with homosexuals? Should our youth DATE with same-sex partners if they choose?!

(We turn to the sermon's "Need" section . . . )

Need: "Now that even some EVANGELICALS defend homosexual orientations, is it acceptable to court those of the same gender? Is homosexuality a genetic disposition that we must accept? WHY?!"
  1. The Bible shows God made man as a heterosexual, Gen. 2:20-25.
  2. However, secular media-hyped scientific studies beg to DIFFER:
    1. Simon Levay (Salk Institute) reported in Science (Aug., '91) of differences in brain structure between homosexual and heterosexual men, implying a genetic cause behind their sexual orientations. (Bob Davies, "A Genetic Cause?" Moody Monthly, May '94)
    2. Psychologist Michael Bailey of Northwestern Univ. and psychiatrist Richard Pillard of the Boston Univ. Sch. of Medicine showed that homosexuality occurred much more frequently among identical twins than fraternal twins, implying a genetic cause to homosexuality. (Ibid.)
    3. Five researchers led by Dean Hamer at the National Cancer Institute released a study in July, 1993 trying to link homosexuality in men with a specific genetic region of the X chromosome. Hamer said this study was "by far the strongest evidence to date that there is a genetic component to sexual orientation." (Ibid.)
  3. Yet, science has NOT proved homosexual bents to be GENETIC:
    1. Re: Levay's findings (II,A above), only 35 men were in the study, 19 of whom had died of AIDS, and the control group of 16 men were "assumed to have been mostly or all heterosexual." Of this study, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Prof. of Medical Science at Brown Univ., in Time magazine, said, "My freshman biology students know enough to sink this study." (Ibid., Davies)
    2. Re: Bailey and Pillard's conclusions (II,B), the twins studied grew up together, not with different parents, etc., and only 50% of the twins studied were both gay; if their sexual orientations were genetic, the correlation of such identical twins should have been 100%! (Ibid.)
    3. Re: Dean Hamer's study (II,C above), (1) J. Nicolosi, director of the Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic in Encino, California notes that "Homosexuality is much more complex than mere behavior." (2) Charles Socarides, pres. of the Nat. Assoc. for Res. and Therapy of Homosexuality says many psychoanalysts treat homosexuality well, and this " . . . change would be unthinkable if there were any truth at all to the biological or hereditary causation of homose xuality." (Ibid.)
    4. George Rekers, prof. of neuropsychiatry & behavioral science at the Univ. of South Carolina Sch. of Med. says, "There is no such thing as a 'neutral' inclination toward homosexual involvement. Instead, there are adverse situations in a child's life that can lead to homosexual temptations." (Loc. cit., B. Davies, "What Homosexuals Need Most")
  4. In reality, as the BIBLE teaches, SIN distorted original, created heterosexual orientations, leading to EVIL gay and lesbian ones:
    1. Gay acts are Biblically condemned as abominations: the men of Sodom desired to be intimate with God's angels who visited Lot, Gen. 19:1-5 NIV. God's wrath rained down fire and brimstone, killing them as an example that God will judge such men in eternal hell because the act of gay sex is evil, Gen. 19:13, 24-25 with 2 Pet. 2:7 & Jude 7.
    2. Gay AND lesbian acts are ADVANCED SINS, meaning that even the sexual ORIENTATIONS involved are ALSO wicked, Rom. 1:18-32!
  5. Since SIN causes gay and lesbian sexuality, and Christ provides victory over SIN, aberrant sexuality is o vercome through Christ:
    1. The Apostle Paul claimed that a number in the Christian community at Corinth had once been gay and lesbian, destined for missing the kingdom of God and going to hell, 1 Co. 6:9-10 NIV and Jude 7.
    2. Yet, by faith in Christ's atonement and its resulting sanctification of the Spirit, they had been washed, sanctified and justified, 1 Cor. 6:11!
    3. Once they had been thus positionally saved, they had to (1) confess lapses into such past things as sin (1 Jn. 1:9) and (2) lean on the Holy Spirit for behavior control to remain godly in orientation and action (Gal. 5:16-23) or (3) live like they did before salvation, 1 Cor. 3:1-3.
    4. Thus, empowered by God, these formerly gay and lesbian believers could live in monogamous, heterosexual marital unions, 1 Cor. 7:1-40.
Application: (1) If we are gay or lesbian, (a) know that GOD defines even our sexual orientation as sin, and (b) believe on Christ for salvation FROM it, Jn. 3:16; 1 Co. 6:9-11. (c) Then, live by means of the Spirit for proper gender orientation. (2) If we are "straight", (a) instead of despising the aberrant, hate the ir SIN but have God's love for the SINNER, (b) and disciple them! (3) For help in making disciples, (a) for relatives of gays and lesbians, see: Spatula Mins., P. O. Box 444, La Habra, CA. 90631; (b) For gays and lesbians, see: ((a)) Exodus Int 'l., P. O. Box 2121, San Rafael, Ca. 94912. Ph. (415) 454-1017 OR ((b)) His Heart Mins., 12162 E. Mississippi Ave., P. O. Box 12321, Aurora, CO. 80011. Ph. (303) 663-7778.

Lesson: Gay and lesbian orientations and behaviors are signals of deep sin, a condition that is overcome by a personal relationship with Christ!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the lesson . . . )

 The Last Days Ministries has a tract out on a man named Sy Rogers. His testimony is a living proof of a complete transformation that Jesus Christ can perform in one with a homosexual orientation.

Sy was once so committed to his female gender role that he planned an sex change operation to be performed by the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He underwent numerous therapy sessions with psychiatrists, and gave them all of the "right answers" so t hat they had officially diagnosed him as a transsexual, suitable for sex reassignment surgery. Pushed beyond their ability to cope with this move, Sy's church-going parents gave their consent for the surgery, resigning themselves to losing him to a lifesty le that appalled them.

However, while waiting for his surgery, Sy became restless, not knowing why. Songs like "Jesus Loves Me" flooded his mind from childhood, making him weep uncontrollably. Frustrated, he prayed to God, "Please show me if You don't want me to pursue this se x change."

Three days later, Sy was awakened by the morning news on the radio. He could hardly believe his ears! Johns Hopkins Hospital was announcing that they would no longer perform sex change surgery. They were canceling the waiting list of patients, saying se x change surgery wasn't the answer for the majority of transsexuals.

Becoming more and more restless, Sy turned to the Bible, and came across Isaiah 1:18-20: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they be read like crimson, they will be a s wool." The passage convicted him of sin, and told of real hope out of his lifestyle.

Sy accepted Christ as his personal Savior, and the Lord immediately reversed his sexual orientation back to being heterosexual.

A photo in the tract is that of Sy and his Christian wife, Karen who were married after Sy's conversion. His relationship with his parents has been restored, and Sy and his wife, Karen work together today in full-time Christian service!



Christ is the cure and the hope for those afflicted with gay and lesbian sexual orientations! Just ask Sy Rogers! Turn to Him for the solution!