Beyond It's Wrong : A Christian Response to Homosexuality

So we're gonna kind of do a hodgepodge of things tonight. But a lot of times people will ask me, so really, what does the Lord say on the issue of homosexuality? And, you know, how do I share this with my friends? What do I say? Where do I take them in scripture? And frankly, my favorite place to go in dealing with the issue of homosexuality is First Corinthians chapter 6. So if you have your Bibles, open up to First Corinthians chapter 6, and we're gonna look at verses nine through eleven. And what this says is, this is Paul pinning this to the church at Corinth, and basically this is what Paul says. First Corinthians, chapter 6 verses nine and, nine through 11, and it says this. "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God." And you might think, well, that's a really weird place. And why would that be one of your favorite verses? Well, the Lord really showed me a lot through that. And what the Lord showed me is I was raised in a Christian community where many of us often have the feeling that homosexuality is just a little bit worse than the rest of the sins. And what the Lord showed me through this is that, really, it's an even playing field. No one is going to inherit the kingdom of God that is embracing some type of sin, whether that's the homosexual, whether that's the drunk, whether that's the woman that's slandering somebody else with her tongue. And so, what the Lord showed me in that was that my sin was no worse than any other sin. That I-and those, that embracing those, ultimately need the saving grace of our heavenly Father. And that's why I love verse eleven, which says this, "And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, and you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." And so, again, I love that verse because it evened the playing field and it said that, you know what, all of us aren't going to heaven, but by saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, no matter what our sin area is.