My Truth, Part 4

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Genesis 1:27, 28, 31
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…and God saw everything He made, and behold, it was very good…

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Genesis 2:24-25
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.

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Romans 1:21-27
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men…

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Recent Shifts
1. Sex has been disconnected from child-bearing and family.
2. Sex has been disconnected from marriage.
3. Sex has been disconnected from male/female relationships.
4. Sex has been disconnected from love, emotion, and commitment of any kind.
5. Sex has been disconnected from human beings.

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The Lie
I determine my own sexuality and sexual behavior.

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Matthew 19:3-6
And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

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How do we live out our identity is response to the work of the Holy Spirit inside of us? In a word, holiness.

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Holiness for a follower of Jesus in the area of sexuality:
1. Refrain from sex outside of marriage.
2. Practice faithfulness in your marriage.
3. Praise singleness.
4. Extend grace to and embrace those within the LGBTQIA+ community and those who are wrestling with same sex attraction and gender identity.
5. Teach your kids biblical sexuality.

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Rosaria Butterfield
“Christians get tripped up by being focused on the particular sin of a person, and they become bad listeners. Don’t get sidetracked into focusing on sins (plural) about anybody, whether it’s your neighbor who identifies as LGBT or someone whose life manifests other “known” sin categories. Get to know people well enough to know how to be both earthly and heavenly good to them. Everyone has a longing for those things that eternal souls need—and the Word of God is the only food, and the person of Jesus Christ is the only friend, for all of humanity. Don’t get sidetracked by other people’s visible sin patterns. It’s not helpful, and it’s not even kind.”