It's Not Adam And Steve

IT’S NOT ADAM AND STEVE

Romans 1:26-27

S: Homosexuality

C: God’s design of sexuality

Pr: MAN AND WOMAN ARE MADE FOR EACH OTHER.

?: What? What are the issues for the church?

KW: Issues

TS: We will find in our study of Scripture, three issues that the church should consider when dealing with the topic of homosexuality.

Type: Proposition, Clarification

The ____ issues is the…

I. MYTHS

II. MOTIVES

III. MINISTRY

PA: How is the change to be observed?

• Affirm the truth of God’s design of sexuality.

• Confess any departure from God’s purposes.

• Love everyone equally.

Version: ESV

RMBC 13 November 05 AM

INTRODUCTION:

ILL Design: Nails

There were two friends who weren’t very handy but decided to put siding on their house. The one who was nailing down siding would reach into his nail pouch, pull out a nail and either toss it over his shoulder or nail it in. The other, figuring this was worth looking into, asked, "Why are you throwing those nails away?"

The first explained, "If I pull a nail out of my pouch and it’s pointed toward me, I throw it away ’cause it’s defective. If it’s pointed toward the house, then I nail it in!"

My second friend got completely upset and yelled, "You moron! The nails pointed toward you aren’t defective! They’re for the other side of the house!"

Well, have you ever noticed that…

1. Sometimes, it is the obvious that escapes us.

There are things that, when you look at them, they just make sense.

They fit together.

Yet, so often it is missed.

ILL Design – continents

I was thinking of this concept the other day, when I remembered my first reaction to the theory of continental drift. I thought that it was crazy.

And then I looked at a map. The continents do look like they are pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle that fit together to make one giant super-continent. The bulge of Africa fits the shape of the coast of North America while Brazil fits along the coast of Africa beneath the bulge.

It seems rather obvious when you look at the evidence.

I think the same is true when it comes to our sexuality.

There has been much discussion over the last year and a half in our country over the definition of marriage, of whether it should include same-sex relationships along with opposite-sex ones.

To this, I want to say…

2. There is a clear and evident design in sexuality. (Genesis 2:18, 21-25)

We are not to miss this!

Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."

…

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

"This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man."

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

There is something that we are not to miss here, because it is obvious.

God made woman for man.

She was made to be an equal partner that was a helper that complemented him – emotionally, spiritually…and most obviously, physically.

Woman is for man.

Man is for woman.

It is so obvious, all you have to do is look.

TRANSITION:

But, today…

1. Our culture increasingly challenges us to be tolerant of relationships outside the biblical norm.

ILL Homosexuality – Newsweek, May 24, 2004 [note the source]

For Richard and Jeanine Benanti, opposing same-sex marriage was an easy call. "It’s against nature, it’s against society and it’s against the Bible," says 49-year-old Richard, who works for the Boys and Girls Club in Springfield, Ill. His wife, Jeanine, a 46-year-old stay-at-home mom, shared his feelings. "The way I was raised, as a Catholic, marriage was always between one man and one woman," she says. "I don’t see how you could make it anything else."

The Benantis took their three children to church regularly and sent them to Catholic school. So it was a shock when their 18-year-old daughter, Diana, recently announced her support for gay marriage. Diana says her views solidified after she saw a just-married gay couple on TV. "I just thought how sweet it was that they finally got what they wanted," she says. "Allowing them to be married is something that America is all about."