James Merritt - Model Marriage
There there are some things that I'm sure sometimes I say them and you think I make them up and I'm not making this up. Believe it or not, even as I was putting the finishing touches on this sermon a few weeks ago, the United States Senate took a vote and they were preparing the way to pass what they call the Respect for Marriage Act. And what they were doing was, they were codifying the same sex marriage in the law. Now, here's what the law said, it's passed and I quote, "This law would prohibit the recognition of marriage between two people on the basis of their sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin".
So in effect, what the law does, it repeals the 1996 defense, a Marriage Act. And now it requires that both at the Federal level and at the State level, that same sex marriages are to be recognized. Now, I want to just add two very quick observations. Number one, they did add a little caveat. They did add a little bit of like a little footnote. They said, I'm quoting, "This would not require or authorize federal recognitions of polygamous marriages". In other words, what they said was, "We're cool with a man marrying a man or a woman marrying a woman. But don't get the idea that, one man could marry two women, or one woman could marry two men".
Now, I don't have time to go into all of that except to be honest. If you're going to be honest, there is no logic and there is no rhyme and there is no reason why, if you're not going to limit marriage to gender, why should you limit marriage to number? You can't have it both ways. If you're gonna change marriage and say, "No, it's okay for two men to marry, two women to marry, then how can you say, but one man can't marry two women, or two women can't marry one man". By the way, that's not what I'm saying. The late columnist Charles Krauthammer said that, Dr. Robert P. George, a former professor of Princeton University, said exactly the same thing.
But here's the problem. The problem is not when they say, "Hey, we want people to be able to be married regardless of their race, ethnicity, or national origin". I'm all for that, no problem at all. But then they throw in the word sex. So now here's what they just said. If I oppose gay marriage, I'm a racist. Read my lips, I'm not a racist. If I was a racist, we wouldn't have the church that we have today. If I was a racist, I wouldn't have stood up in the Southern Mass Convention seven years ago, and called a lot of red flag for it and said, "We ought to add a resolution that our convention condemns the display of the Confederate flag".
So I've got my bonafide, I am not a racist, but this law would say that I am. I'm not against marriage on the basis of ethnicity, origin or anything else, but when it comes to sex, we're gonna see that's an entirely different matter. Now, some of you may have already turned me off, so I can't talk to you. But those of you're still with me, we're in a series we're calling "Facing the Truth" and with admittedly, we're dealing with some of the most controversial, contentious topics the church is facing today. We say, "Why would you do that"? Because I just believe what Jesus said about truth. He's the one that said, "You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free".
Well free from what? Free from living a lie, free from being deceived, free from buying what somebody else is selling when you really shouldn't be buying it to begin with. And if you're a follower of Jesus, I don't want you enslaved in error. I wanna give us a reason for the hope that lies within us. So let me just kind of clear something up in case some of you came hoping to hear one thing and you're not. As we talk about gay marriage, you're gonna find out today, my emphasis is not on the gay part. My emphasis is on the marriage part. Because what a lot of people don't understand is, this whole argument over gay marriage, is only secondarily over gays. It's really primarily over marriage.
And I'm well aware as we address this question, I get it. We're living in a world and a culture today, that would basically say something like this, "Truth is bigotry, real love is hate, silence is golden, and if it feels good, it is good". I get that, I also realize I'm not an idiot. I know what the elephant is in the room. I realize that legally and culturally the gay marriage has shipped. I understand that, I get that. But I wanna make something very plain. I realize the legal ship has sailed, and I realized the cultural ship has sailed. And I realized by law, by large, the public opinion ship has sailed. But I want you to get one thing straight. The moral ship has not sailed and the spiritual ship has not sailed and the biblical ship has not sailed. And even the real social ship has not sailed.
There was a man named Theo Hopson, he wrote a book entitled "Reinventing Liberal Christianity". He summed up the three marks of the modern moral revolution that we're in. And make no mistake, you better make sure your kids understand and your grandkids understand, we have been and we are in the middle of a moral revolution. Theo Hopson put it this way, he said, "What was what's universally condemned is now celebrated. What was universally celebrated is now condemned. And those who refuse to celebrate are condemned".
So there's a line that is clear and you're gonna be on one side or the other. You're either gonna be on the side of celebration by affirming what culture says or you're gonna be on the side of condemnation by affirming what God says. So my simple message today, I could give it to you in one sentence, here's my message. "Moral marriage is what God has designed and what God has defined". Moral marriage is what God has designed and what God has defined. Now, in order to get this right from a Christian viewpoint, we gotta do something. We gotta go all the way back to the very first book in the Bible. We've gotta go all the way back to the very first wedding that resulted in the very first marriage.
You say, "Wait a minute, stop right there. Why would you do that? How did you get that"? That's not my idea. You know why I'm doing that? Because that's what Jesus did. When they came to Jesus. When the Pharisees came to Jesus, you're going to see, they asked Jesus a question about marriage, which actually was a question about divorce. You're gonna see this in a moment. They said, "Hey, we wanna talk to you about marriage and divorce". And what did Jesus do? He said, "Let's go all the way back to the first book. Let's go all the way back to the first wedding. Let's go all the way back to the first marriage". And he said, "When you do that, you'll see what a true model marriage is".
So what are the marks of a true model marriage? What are the marks of a real marriage? What does God say real marriage looks like? Well, we find out, number one, "We must understand the divine pattern of marriage". If we're gonna get marriage right, we've gotta understand the divine pattern of marriage. Now let me just tell you what's going on before we go to a verse of scripture. There was a debate that was going on back in Jesus' day and it used to be a debate in the church today. We don't debate it much anymore, but there was a debate going on about divorce and the debate was very simple. "Can a person divorce a wife, a husband divorce his wife for just any reason? Or do you have to, are there specific requirements? Are there restrictions on this whole principle of divorce"?
Well, Jesus does something that's very, very surprising. They asked Jesus about divorce and Jesus said, "Well let's don't talk about divorce. Let's talk about marriage". Because he said in effect, "If you wanna understand the rules about divorce, you've gotta understand what marriage really is". For example, if Jesus were here today, if I said, "Lord, why don't you come preach today for me? Why don't you do it"? And let the people ask a question. This suppose we're having a Q&A and some of you raise into you say, "Hey, hey Lord, so, what should we think or believe about gay marriage"? He would do what I'm going to do. He'd say, "Okay, let's go all the way back to the very first wedding". You could ask Jesus about anything, marriage, polygamy, divorce, same sex marriage. His go-to is gonna be all the way back to the Book of Genesis.
So he did this with the Pharisees, "Hey, what about divorce"? Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 19, "Haven't you read"? He replied, "that at the beginning, the creator made them male and female and said, 'for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother be united to his wife. And the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate.'" So Jesus right off the bat says, "Hey, I don't care if it's 6AD or 2023 AD, doesn't matter". He said, "Where do you go to find out what marriage is all about? Go all the way back to the first book of the Bible, because you've gotta understand marriage in light of the one who created it from the very beginning".
So Jesus right off the bat says, "Alright, let's establish this principle. 'Marriage is a divine creation, not subject to human alteration.'" Marriage is a divine creation. It is not subject to human alteration. So he says, "Look, the first marriage was intended to be a model marriage". This was God's visual example of why marriage is important, what it ought to be like, and who ought to be married. Now I want to go back to what Jesus said. I want you to notice what Jesus did. I never noticed this before until I studied this passage. Never seen it all the years and it blew my mind. 'Cause remember they're not talking about marriage, they're talking about divorce, that was the topic.
So Jesus quotes two verses out of Genesis. He quotes Genesis 2:24, which was really related to the question of divorce. That's why Jesus quoted that passage that says, "What God has joined together, let no man separate". Jesus said, "That's basically my view on divorce. What God's joined together, let no man separate". That's all Jesus had to say. But I'd never noticed this before. He goes out of his way to quote another verse of scripture. He quotes Genesis 1:27. "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female, he created them".
Now let's just talk as a theologian for just a moment. Let's just be practical. That verse in and of itself has nothing to do with the question they ask Jesus. "Lord, we're not asking you about, we're not asking you a gender question, we're asking you a divorce question. But you just said, 'Yeah, but I just want you to know God created them male and female.' But Lord that's got nothing to do with divorce. Well it really does 'cause it got everything to do with marriage".
You say, "What do you mean"? He said there's a sexual difference between a male and a female. Now you might think that would be irrelevant to the question of divorce today because if someone's sex doesn't make any difference in marriage, why would Jesus quote that? If it doesn't matter if it's a man or a man or a woman or a woman, why did Jesus go out of his way to say, "Oh, by the way, before we talk about the marriage part, let's get to the gender part. Male and female is what God has created". Here's the clear point Jesus is making right off the bat. He says, "Okay, well let me just give you a fundamental principle here just so you guys get it straight. Marriage is bet is to be between a male and a female".
End of discussion, end of discussion. No debate, no equivocation. God created male, God created female. And he said they're the ones that are to be joined together and become one flesh. So Jesus goes all the way back creation. He says, "The model marriage is this. Gotta have two qualities. It's gonna be a model marriage. Number one, it's gotta be monogamous". Not polygamous, you don't play around. It's not polyamory, it's monogamous. One man, one woman. "And then it's got to be exclusively heterosexual". Because God did not give Adam two or three, four helpers and he didn't give Adam another male helper. He gave Adam a female. I mean you can't deny that that's in the text.
And by the way, that has been true from time in Memorial. A traditional doctrine that marriages to be between a man and a woman. And a monogamous relationship meets the classic criteria. I'm gonna teach you something today, about what we call Catholic Doctrine. Now let me just stop. When I say Catholic, you think Roman Catholic, that's not what the word originally meant. The word Catholic literally means universal. It means for all believers at all times. So in other words, this whole teaching that I'm giving you right now, that marriage was always meant to be monogamous and always meant to be heterosexual.
That was for thousands of years a Catholic doctrine. Everybody believed that. Baptist believed it, Methodists believed it. Presbyterians believed it. Episcopalians believed it. Lutherans believed it. Interdenominational people believe it. Non-denominational people believe it. It was a Catholic doctrine accepted by all Christians everywhere until the 21st century, always been the divine pattern. Now question, here it comes. "Wait a minute, what's the big deal? What's wrong with allowing those who don't accept what the Bible says about marriage? And don't accept the traditional meaning of marriage? Why can't you just live and let live? Why does it bother you? Why do you care that a man marries a woman or a woman marries a man And we call it a marriage"?
Well, I could give you a lot of reasons. let me just give you one fundamental reason. Once you change the definition of marriage, you just devalued marriage. You just destroyed the meaning of marriage. I'm gonna give you practical illustration. If I said to you what is the definition of the word America? Well, according to American. According to offering dictionary an "American". This is the dictionary, "Is a native or a citizen of the United States". That's what it means to be an American. In other words, if you're an American, I know one of two things is true about you. Either like me, you were born here, or you came here and you became a citizen.
Now what if all of a sudden we said "Anybody in the world is an American. Everybody in the world is an American". So we say to the Chinese communist, "You wanna be an American? You're in". We say to the Russian soldier, "You wanna be an American? You're in". We say to the terrorist, "You wanna be an American? You're in". You know what you just did? You just destroyed the meaning of American. Because if everybody is an American, nobody's an American. If everything means American, nothing means American. When you change the meaning, when you change the meaning, you actually just devalue the meaning and destroy the meaning.
So listen again to Genesis 2:21 through 22. "So the Lord God calls 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. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man and he brought her to the man". God takes a rib. God takes the man and out of the man, God creates a woman. And when he did that, he made a permanent statement about our sexuality. He separates the masculine from the feminine. Why does God do that? He's telling us something again, right at the very beginning. He's saying, "Look, in marriage you're going to have a similarity and you're going to have a dissimilarity. There's gonna be a sameness, but there's gonna be a difference".
So for example, Eve is just like Adam. She is a human being, but she's also unlike Adam because she is a woman, why? Because God said there has to be a sexual complementarianism to marriage. That's why Jesus knew what he was doing. That's why Jesus said, "You can't separate Genesis 1:27 from Genesis 2:24, why? Because only a male and a female can become one flesh". You see, a man and a woman become one flesh both relationally and organically. Here's the problem. Same sex couples cannot become one in the same way, because just physical contact, holding hands does not make you one flesh. Seeking your finger in someone's ear does not make you one flesh, that does not unite two people organically.
And by the way, it can't fulfill any biological function whatsoever. That is the difference between a male and a female. That is the divine pattern of marriage. I want to emphasize one thing. I wanna make it clear about one thing, opposition to gay marriage. Same sex marriage is not about hate, it's about debate. The argument about gay marriage is not about gays, it's talking about marriage. And see people say, "well we need to extend marriage". Gay marriage is not about extending marriage, it's about ending marriage as we've known it for thousands of years. It violates the divine pattern of marriage as we know it. That's fact one.
Number two, "You have to understand the divine purpose of marriage". There's not only a divine pattern to marriage, there's a divine purpose for marriage. So we're told this is what God said, this is what Jesus said, "God created the male and the female in his own image". They were alike in that they were human, but they were different in their sexuality. And that was for a reason. Why did God make the first couple a male and a female? God had a purpose, God had a reason. What was that purpose? You've heard it before, "God bless them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase the number. Fill the earth and to do it.'"
So the very first responsibility he gave to the very first marriage couple was, "Hey, by the way, your job is to multiply. Your job is to reproduce. Your job is to increase the number. Your job is to be fruitful. Your job is to procreate. You're to procreate children in my image there to be multiplied. So both through both men and women, 'cause I want both men and women not only to rule over the earth, you know what I want? I want future generations of people who will love me and worship me and serve me and follow me and inherit the blessing that I have promised to them".
Now I'm gonna state something that's very, very obvious. You don't even have to have a first grade education to understand what I'm about to say. If God had created two men or two women, we wouldn't be here. If that makes you mad, you apologize, I'll forgive you. That just ain't the fact. If God had created two men and two women, we wouldn't be here. And besides that, he would've never given two men or two women the command to be fruitful and multiply because two men can't multiply anything and two women cannot multiply anything. But by the very fact that this is a unique physical relationship that can produce children, guess what else God was saying?
God was also saying, "Children ought to be raised by a mom and a dad. Children ought to be raised by two parents". 'Cause there really only two kinds of people who have that ability, sorry to produce the kind of physical love in a relationship that makes children possible. And that is male and female. And I'm gonna ask you a question right now. It's really a silly question but I'm gonna make the point. Do you realize there's not a single human being who has ever lived at this point in time? We've had about 30 billion people who have lived so far. Do you realize there's not one single person who has ever lived, that did not have both a mother and a father? I mean I can ask you right now, "Did you have a mom"? "Yes I did". "Did you have a dad"?
Well, you can't say no, if I reverse the question, you can't say no. We all have one thing in common. We had a mother and we had a father. And nor can any marriage without both a mother and a father ever become a generator of life and another human being. So Christian philosopher Os Guinness put it brilliantly when he said this, "Natural marriage between a man and a woman is therefore essential for healthy and sustainable societies, whereas genderless marriage is suicidal for a society in the long run. Natural marriage is after all the only form of marriage that spans the two basic gaps in human anthropology. The gender gap between male and female and the generation gap between parents and children".
So you see, God says something that we don't like to hear. He says plainly, though lesbian mothers would say, a father is irrelevant to gay parenting. And though gay fathers would say, a mother is irrelevant to parenting. The divine creator of marriage says, "No, a mother and a father are extremely relevant to parenting. And they're both needed for parenting". And it simply is it true? I know this, I grew up in it. Two men will never replace the love of a mother, and two women will never replace the love of a father. That's not just biblical. Let me tell you something. There's two words to that. It's just called common sense. And that's why God says, "You know what? I think I know what I'm doing".
Now, no, I get it. Well, not every mother's a godly loving mother. I grant that. And not every father's a godly loving father. I get that. But the simple truth is this, children need a mother to understand the feminine side of life. Children need a father to understand the masculine side of life. And by the way, forget what I'm saying, "So you're not an expert". I'm not. But one of the greatest experts in family life in America, the late Sara McLanahan who was a sociologist at Princeton University, not a bastion of conservative thinking by the way, here's what she said, quote:
"If we were asked to design a system for making sure that children's basic needs were met, we would probably come up with something quite similar to the two parent ideal. Such a design in theory would not only ensure that children had access to the time and money of two adults, but it would also provide a system of checks and balances that promoted quality parenting. The fact that both parents have a biological connection to the child would increase the likelihood that the parents would identify with a child and be willing to sacrifice for that child. And it would reduce the likelihood that either parent would abuse the child".
Well, what Dr. McLanahan said, God said thousands of years ago. Because God had a divine pattern for marriage and God has a divine purpose for marriage. But then there's one last thing and this is what a lot of people miss, particularly if they don't follow Jesus and don't know the word of God. And that is we have to understand the divine picture of marriage. See there's more to marriage than meets the eye. There's more to marriage than just having a ceremony. And preacher gets you married and you go do the honeymoon, that's it. There's a lot more to marriage than that. See, one of the things I love about God, God loves pictures. He loves to teach truth by what we would call visuals.
Let me give you an example. So we take the Lord's supper and there's a visual that we use. We use bread and we use wine or the fruit of the vine, grape juice. We use wine, it's a picture. The bread, pictures the body of Christ, the the blood pictures, the blood of Christ. It's a picture, God loves pictures. Baptism, baptism is a picture. When we baptize, we're not just dunking them and getting the wet, just for the, we don't have rubber ducks in there. We're not playing, why do you baptize people? Because the scripture says, "It's a picture of the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus". Which why we believe that's the biblical method of a baptism. It always paints a picture.
Well guess what? Marriage paints the picture. There's a picture behind every marriage. And you say, "Well what is it"? Where we're kind of clued into what the result of a marriage between a man and woman produces. Let's go back to Genesis two one more time. He said, "That's why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife". And then this is important. He says they become, what's that word about to say it real loud? Yeah, "They become one flesh". And we read that verse, we kind of blow that word one. That's probably the most important word in that verse because that word one is not just usable becoming one in marriage. You know where else that word one is used in the Bible? It's used in the most important way you can imagine.
That word one is used for God. Because in Deuteronomy 6:4, we're reminded, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is," what's that word? "One". Same exact word he used in in marriage. Same word. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Now there's only one God as we know, but he's made up of three co-equal persons. There is one God, but he reveals himself as father, son and Holy Spirit, guess what? Marriage is exactly the same picture of the Trinity. There ought to be three people in every marriage, three beings, the husband, the wife, God. Teresa and I are one, but we're not the same. Teresa and I are one, but I'm in the marriage, she's in the marriage and hopefully believing God is in the marriage. So is diversity within unity, Teresa.
There's a reason she's not me and there's a reason I'm not her. But there's also a reason we are one. So as a matter of fact, here's what's really fascinating. When you go back to the whole story of creation, guess what you see? You see how God continues from the very beginning. He takes two things that are similar, but they're also different and they fit together and they're complimentary. For example, God didn't just create the heavens, God created the heavens and the earth, right? You can't have one way out the other, they go together. He created the sun, he also created the moon. He created morning, he also created evening. He created day, he also created night. He created created sea, he created dry land, he created plants, he created animals.
And then guess what? You'd expect him to do this. He created male and female. He didn't create animals and animals. He didn't create day and day. He didn't create night and night. He didn't create water and water. It's always different, but it was complimentary. So he creates male and female. Each one belongs with the other, but they cannot be exchanged for the other. Well there's an even bigger picture that marriages to portray. Not only is marriage to picture that perfect unity within diversity of the trinity, the husband, the wife, and God, father, son, spirit. Guess what? It's also a picture of Jesus and the church, and his relationship to Jesus and the church.
Now watch this. We're in Ephesians chapter five. Paul said this, "For this reason". He's quote the same verse Jesus said, "For this reason, a man will leave his father and his mother be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh". Now watch what Jesus said. He said, "This is a profound mystery". Oh but I'm talking about Christ and the church. What did he mean? Alright, we'll make this easy for all of us to follow. There's the church and there's Jesus. Now we are not the same. Jesus is not the church and the church is not Jesus. But we are united. We are the body of Christ. There is diversity, but there is unity. And Jesus Paul said, "It is that marriage between the male and the female, that is to be a reflection of the heavenly marriage between Jesus and his people".
So here's the truth. A man and a man or a woman and a woman, cannot reflect the union of Christ and the church, otherwise it would be Christ and Christ, or the church and the church. Because Christ is not the church and the church is not Christ. And a man should not be the wife, and the wife should not be the man. They are united, but they are different. So now we're beginning to see how this first marriage was to be the model for every marriage. And that's why marriage is so important.
That's why what marriage should be and that's who should be married. Because marriage is not my idea. It's not your idea. It wasn't the Congress's idea, it wasn't the president's idea. Marriage was God's idea. And it was an ideal idea. He said, "this is the way it ought to be. It is a man, it is a woman who are joined together. They are different, but they are united, and is in that uniting that I can procreate the earth with people who love me and worship me and serve me. And they can reproduce and they can rule over this earth. That's what marriage ought to be".
So I wanna just say two things about marriage. That one may shock you. I do not go to sleep at night fretting about gay marriage. If I had a couple that lived next door to me and they were two men or two women married, I'd wanna witness to them. I wouldn't wanna be kind to them, I wouldn't wanna love them. I would I really, I'd want to entertain them. I wanna build a relationship with them. I wouldn't lose sleep over their marriage. I'd lose sleep over their souls. I would lose sleep over gay marriage, because I wanna make something very plain. The greatest threat to marriage is not gay marriage. The greatest threat to marriage is divorce and adultery and premarital sex and pornography.
That's why if you're gay and you're married, I'm not trying to throw flames at you and I don't hate you. And you know you don't have to agree with anything I've said. I just want you to understand my point is not that, "Boy you are a threat. I'm telling you the world's gonna come apart because you got married". No, it's worse than that. The cold hard truth is we in the church have been guilty of turning down marriage way too long and sweeping things under the drug. 'Cause those are far greater things. So if you think I'm singling out gay marriage, let me assure y'all I'm not. My emphasis and thus whole message is not on the gay part. Message is on the marriage part. God's word is very clear. It ought to be heterosexual. It ought to be monogamous. And oh by way it ought to be permanent. What God has separated, let no one, "What God has joined together, let no man separate".
Now that's a lesson for all of us to hear. But there are those of you may be some of you in this room, be father some not, certainly some that may watch or not. And you just absolutely disagree with everything I've said. You just said all you can do to sit here and take it, fine. I wanna close with this thought. Just hang with me just for a moment. I want to echo something that a fellow pastor said, but I'm gonna put it in my own words. I'm gonna give him the credit.
So you believe the Bible is the word of God like I do. And let's say you believe the Bible condemns gay marriage like I do, and you believe the Bible condemns premarital sex like I do. And you believe God condemns adultery like I do. And you believe God condemns pornography like I do. Alright, let's just suppose that's where you're coming from. Let's suppose one of the things, let's suppose furthermore, that God wants children to have both a mother and a father. And let's also suppose one last thing, that only a marriage according to God's word, fulfills the divine pattern, the divine purpose and the divine picture of marriage. I just wanna assume, just for a moment, you're buying into what I just tried to give you.
Now I believe all that. I'm gonna close with this. If all I have said this morning is indeed God's truth, what you cannot say is it's hateful. What you cannot say is it's bigoted. What you cannot say is it's intolerant. What you cannot say is it's narrow-minded. What you cannot say is just a bad thing to oppose gay marriage. Because I wanna make something very plain. As much as I believe God is opposed to gay marriage. And as much as I am opposed to gay marriage, God is far marriage. I am far marriage and I'm for marriages that till death do you part and live happily ever after.
I'm just convinced in the long run it's not hateful. But by the grace of God it is helpful to both marriage and the family when marriage is between a man and a woman. And when children are raised by moms and dads, I just don't believe you can improve on the maker. I don't believe you can improve on the guy that built the whole thing to begin with. And I'm not the only one that believed it. That's what Jesus believed. And the God who sent his son to die for us and come back from the dead so we could become his bride, we could become one with him and we could become a part of his family, for his family forever. He was right then. He is right now and he'll be right until the end of time.
So would you pray with me today? Would you pray with me right now? Let me just, I wanna be so sensitive. I wanna really be sensitive here. I've told you the truth, as much as I can tell the truth from God's word. I haven't told you one thing that Jesus would not say Jesus. Or if you're one of those people that say, "Well I wish you were more like Jesus". That's what I've tried to be today. And I just wanna say to you whether you're married to another person of the same sex or whether you have homosexual tendencies or whatever, it doesn't matter. It's not the unpardonable sin. We're all about grace, we're not about judgment. I just wanna tell you today that, there's a truth that'll set you free.
Here's the truth. The truth of the matter is that, whatever gender you were born with, that's the gender God wanted you to have. That's the truth. And here's the truth. If God wants you to be married, he wants you to be married to someone of the opposite sex. That's just the truth. And if God wants you to have children, His idea was that those still will be raised by the two people that brought them into this world. That's just the truth. 'Cause God always wants what's best for us. And put all that aside. Nothing else matters. If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, it doesn't matter. Believe what you wanna believe about anything I'm talking about. It doesn't matter.
'Cause at the end of the day, the one thing that will matter more than anything else if you leave this earth is that you have a personal relationship with the God that made you, the God that loves you so much, he sent his son Jesus to die for you and brought him back from the grave. So you could have eternal life and you don't have to live the lives of this world. You don't have to buy Satan's deception. You don't have to be imprisoned in sin. And if today God has convicted you, whether you're in this room or you're listening right now, God's convicted you. And if you would say today, "You know my problem's not gay marriage, my problem's not gay this or gay that or straight this or straight this. Here's my problem, I don't know Jesus. I don't have a relationship with God. I'm a sinner and I need a savior". Would you just do this right now? Would you just tell Jesus that? Would you just tell Jesus:
Lord, I'm a sinner and I realize you died for my sins and I believe that God raised you from the dead and I want you to become my savior right now. I repent of my sin. I turn away from my sin. I ask you to come into my heart. I ask you to save me right now. Forgive me, I repent of my sin. Turn away from my sin and help me on God, give me the strength to live for Jesus the rest of my life.