WHO AM I?
Genesis 1:26-31
INTRODUCTION: Isaiah 29:13-16; Luke 6:46-49. Some of the hottest topics of conversation across our nation and around our world will be our topic for the next couple of weeks. We will be looking at what society has to say about these topics and we will see what our Lord’s Word has said about these topics from the very beginning of time. We will look at our culture’s view on gender, identity, and sexuality and what our Lord’s Word says about those same topics. Our purpose is not to put anyone down who has a view opposite our Lord’s on these topics but to bring clarity to our families, friends, and neighbors who are wondering about these topics. These next few weeks expect to be made uncomfortable at times: 1 Corinthians 2:14-16. We will be looking at God’s truth not my truth or your truth or our church’s truth.
- WHO AM I?
In our world today, many people are asking that question: “Who am I?” When we are young our parents tell us who we are. As we age it is our teachers and friends, our coaches and our mates that try to define who we are. Our Bibles tell us who God says we are: Psalm 139:14-18. For Christians we find our identity in Jesus Christ: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Ephesians 1:3-8. When it comes to identity, God’s Word says one thing but our society says many things about who we are. Satan and our world create confusion where our God offers clarity. Satan has always tried to confuse mankind: Genesis 2:15-17; Genesis 3:1-6. The confusion starts early for our children today. Even in pre-school and the cartoons our children watch today the teaching on identity is exactly the opposite of the teaching on identity found in God’s Word. Who I am is not determined by how I feel or who others expect me to be. Who I am was determined by the God who created me in my mother’s womb!
2. GOD IS THE DESIGNER OF GENDER, IDENTITY AND SEXUALITY!
Gender, our identity, and our sexuality were all God’s idea. God is the Designer behind all of our identities. God is the Architect behind male and female and this goes back to the very beginning of time: Genesis 1:27. God tells us two very important truths about ourselves here: first we were created in God’s image and second we were created male and female. Our Lord Jesus Christ confirmed that this truly is the teaching of God’s Word: Matthew 19:3-6. God’s original design of male and female was two-fold: We were created equal and to compliment one another. God made male and female different from one-another but also He made us for one-another. God founded the foundation for the family. The Bible uses terminology the world does not like: It uses words like: son, daughter, girl, boy, brother, sister, young man, and young woman. Today we use different pronouns so as not to offend anyone about their gender identity but God says: John 17:17. The Word of God speaks with great clarity when it speaks of our roles and responsibilities within our families: Ephesians 5:22-23; Ephesians 5:25-32. Because of the fall of mankind into sin, now the husband is to rule over the wife and the wife is to submit to her husband. The husband is to love his wife as Jesus Christ loves His church. This is God’s design. God was and is the inventor of gender and He founded the family; make and female roles and responsibilities. God has a purpose for creating both sexes and for marriage: Malachi 2:15-16.
3. SEX WAS DESIGNED BY GOD FOR HIS GLORY AND OUR PLEASURE!
Some people teach their children that sex is bad, but that is not what God says about it at all. God created sex called it good. Sex was created for both procreation and pleasure. When sex happens according to God’s design it is not something that leads to shame. Sin brings shame but God designed sex for His glory and our pleasure. We bring glory to God when we follow His blueprint for marriage. Marriage is not just physical, it includes the mind, the body and the soul of both the man and the woman.
When a man and a woman’s relationship is only about sex it doesn’t take us long to figure out that that does not work out very well. Intimacy in marriage was designed to come from true companionship and communion. When we follow God’s plan for sex and intimacy we bring glory to our God and blessing to each other.
Sex was designed by our God to be exclusively between one man and one woman in the bonds of marriage and a life time commitment to God and to each other exclusively: Hebrews 13:4.
When we step outside the plan the Designer made for marriage there are always consequences that result from our disobedience. Satan has used our courts and our laws to give us divorce for any reason today. That was never God’s design.
Our God created the sexual organs of a man and a woman with great intentionality. Your body was created by God in such a way as to bring ultimate pleasure to the opposite gender from yourself. When that happens according to God’s plan it bring Him glory and honor and us great pleasure and purpose.
When we chose to operate outside of God plan for sexuality it always brings judgment from God: Hebrews 13:4. When God says He will judge those in sexual sin, He is not just talking about people who engage in sexual sins you disagree with. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
God in His Word speaks of many different types of sexual sin. He speaks of lust, fornication, adultery, pornography, rape, homosexuality, incest, bestiality, and pagan sexual activity. When we forgo God’s plan for our sexuality and make our own plans or follow someone else’s plans we bring judgment upon ourselves.
Many today think that God does not judge sexual sins . Many say that Jesus honors all sexual preferences and He celebrates all different types of faith. They would say Jesus is only loving and never condemning. My friends, that Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible. That Jesus was made up by sinful men and women led by the master of confusion and lies, Satan. God says He will judge sexual sin and we will all reap what we have sown: Galatians 6:7-9.
Your decision today will determine your destination tomorrow. God is giving each of us who have sinned sexually in the past a chance to repent in godly sorrow: 2 Corinthians 7:10.