Is Homosexuality A Sin? How Do We Respond As Christians?

Is Homosexuality a Sin? What should my response be to those who chose this lifestyle?

Pastor Glenn Newton, July 7, 2013

Prayer –

I put a question on our sign this week, “How do you decide what is true and false? And for the answer, I put “We use God’s Word”. So this morning I want to share with you what God’s Word says specifically about Homosexuality…and we will together let the Holy Spirit teach us the Truth. There are 9 specific passages that I found, 4 in the OT, and 5 in the NT that directly speak to this topic, there are many more that deal with the subject of what God desires for us in our relationships and how that relates to our sex life. In this message I will be sharing all nine passages….they will be on the power point if you want to write the references down for your own study this week.

First, let’s start at the beginning….our Creator has a plan for our families, He has a plan for our intimate relationship, we call it marriage, He has a plan for our sex lives. He created us for not only intimate relationship with Him, but He also has made it clear this is what he wants for us with our mates…let’s read Genesis

Genesis 2:18-25

18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

23 The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called ‘woman,’

for she was taken out of man.”

24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

When a man and women come together as God intends, in marriage…they leave their homes, they commit to each other, they bond together physically, emotionally, and spiritually…they become one flesh. Simply said, sex inside the marriage relationship protects us physically, it protects us emotionally, and it protects us spiritually. The opposite is also true. Sex outside of marriage, it destroys us physically, it destroys us emotionally, and it destroys us spiritually when we disobey Gods Plan for us….sin always brings destruction…God’s Wrath.

So very quickly, that is in a quick summary of God’s intention for marriage and I believe it’s clear what it says….that a man will be united to his wife….amen?

After God created Adam and Eve…we know what happened…devastation came upon all mankind when they chose to sin….they chose to exchange the truth that God had given them for a lie….the one Satan sold them…and from that time on we have all been affected by this curse…

Romans 3:23 says, “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”…. So this morning we are not here to claim to be superior, to be self-righteous….we are all sinners who have had to come to a place where we realized we were lost in our sin…and without Christ we would never experience Heaven…so this morning understand the reason I speak the truth of God’s Word is out of Love…not Hate.

We humans are all broken. We all fall short of the glory of God and are in need of His grace. Thus, Christians recognize that people in a homosexual lifestyle are people, made in the image of God, who should be treated fairly by all.

While it is very important to strive for fairness for everyone, it is equally important to consider an important concept: While all people are created equal, not all ideas or behaviors are equal. Your Intuition tells you this is true, and the Bible also makes this clear….this is a key statement when we are having this debate. Let me give you an example…

Adultery in not morally equivalent to being Faithful sexually. Two different ideas about sex…One is superior Biblically and even in the eyes of our Justice system…To be Faithful in your marriage is a superior behavior…vs Adultery.