Sexual Identity

Brian Boswell

Identity - Who are you? • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

Sex

Identity

0 ratings

· 1 view

Notes

Transcript

Announcements -

Welcome Online & Visitors

OFFERING

Happy Father’s Day! - Gentlemen - We love you. You are doing a great job. Thank you for loving your family well. Thank you for leading them toward God. Thank you for being a great role model.

Parent’s Night Out - This Friday

Introduction:

I’m going to start this sermon off by saying the most offensive thing a man can say is today’s current culture:

A man is a man.

A woman is a woman.

This may be one of the most inflammatory things you can say in today’s society. Men are men and they are different both biologically and psychologically than women. And women have unique features that cannot be truly replicated by surgeries or implants.

In other words, to say it plainly. Men cannot be women and women cannot be men, regardless of what the culture tells you today. It’s simply an impossibility. And any surgery or “therapy” that says it can turn you into something you are not is lying to you. At best it could only make you into a cheap imitation of the real thing, and I’m not talking about Dr. Perky pretending to be Dr. Pepper type of thing. The best the surgeries can do is more along the lines of Buzz Lightyear and Buzz Aldrin. One of them is an astronaut, the other is a piece of plastic.

Today’s culture is trying to make people believe these things are the same. You can add plastic to a man (remember it is called plastic surgery) but you cannot make him into a women. The same can be said for women. Even if you cut off her breasts, it does not make her any less of a woman and it certainly does not make her a man. It makes her mutilated. It deforms her. It takes the beautiful thing that God created and it attempts to de-create it or destroy it.

And this is fundamentally against our own identity. You see God created us. He is a creator. We are made in his image, which means we are to be creators. In fact, when we destroy things, this goes against who we were created to be. Now, many of us love to destroy things, essentially, we like to tear down, destroy, deform and degrade. But this isn’t the way we were created to be.

Now, for some of you, when I talk about a subject like this, you might be thinking, you are preaching to the choir a bit, you are in a room full of Christians. But the truth is, even the church is confused about gender and sexual identity. Churches have become increasingly influenced by the culture and it has resulted in confusion on this subject.

There is an old saying that says if you repeat a lie long enough and loud enough, people will eventually believe it. And that’s where we are at. The answer to that is to start speaking the truth often. So today, rather than focusing on what is wrong in the world and what is wrong in society, I want to point you towards the truth.

We are continuing our series on Identity, which I believe is one of the most important and foundational subjects needed in our world today with this important sermon today on Sexual Identity. And this whole topic has to be based, built upon the foundation we’ve laid the last few weeks, so if you missed any of those sermons, you can catch with them online or on the app.

Let’s hear what God’s word says together.

Genesis 1:27 ESV

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

When it comes to identity here, is the main verse. We are created in His Image, God created us and he replicated himself in us. That’s the fundamental truth of this world. Now this is the basis of where society has gone wrong.

If you get cosmology wrong, you will get everything else wrong that follows it. Cosmology is the study of the origin and design of the universe. And Genesis lays that as the foundation of the Bible. It starts with cosmological statements - God created the heavens and the earth. He creates stars and moons and fish and bear. He creates all of the world and everything we see in it and then for his penultimate creation, what does he do?

God creates mankind. He creates men and women. And he doesn’t do it the same way as he creates the universe. He creates mankind in his likeness, in his image. This is the foundational starting point of all things. If you don’t agree with this, you won’t agree with much else I have to say today. This is the basis of who we are. We are his creation and he created us with an identity and a purpose.

Now when it comes to sexual identity, he creates mankind with a purpose (be fruitful, multiply, have dominion) and he creates man and woman with unique identities.

Let’s dig a little deeper. Let’s turn to the next page in our Bibles.

Genesis 2:20–25 ESV

The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found 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.

Adam is created in God’s image. He is given dominion over the all of the animals (sorry PETA) and he told to name them. Now God has already recognized that it is not good for man to be alone. In other words, man needs community. So God decides to create a helper for him. In the animal world, there was no helper to be found. What does that mean? It means that no matter how much you love your dog, men, he is no replacement for your wife. Women, that works both ways. No, it means that Adam needed his other half as we would say. He isn’t complete without her.

With no helper found for Adam, God causes a deep sleep to come on man and he takes a rib and forms woman from man. In other words, God makes woman to be like man. They were both created in God’s image. They were created to be like Him, but in different ways. God created man out of the dust of the earth, but woman came from man’s side. So while they were both image-bearers, they are not the same.

Men and women are different

So this is an important truth that I want you to hold on to. Men and women are different. They just are! And they were created differently. They were created in different ways and as different creatures. Now, God could have built us the same or created us in similar ways or even the exact same way, but he chose to do it this way and I think that is because he wanted us to be able to appreciate the complex nature of God. Again, just what I think, but I could live my entire life and for the life of me, I will never fully understand women. I will also never fully understand God. And both of those things are ok.

Men and women are just different. What I mean by this is that men and women are different physically, emotionally and psychologically. In other words, not only do we look different, but we also think different and experience emotions differently. One way is not superior to the other, we are just different. And it’s in those differences, that I think God is glorified. We both image Him and there is something beautiful about the way he created both men and women.

Men and women were created to be one flesh

We were created to be one. God joins the man and woman together and they become one flesh. This is the ideal creation. That man and woman would be joined.

Man and woman together are the image of God.

Anthony A. Hoekema

Look at the context here. Adam and Eve don’t have a mother or father, so verse 24 isn’t written to them. It’s written to us. Moses is writing this text and he’s adding a bit of commentary and it’s incredibly important. When we get married, how we see ourselves should change. Here are two ways:

1. Before marriage, we can see ourselves as an individual. We make individual decisions. I will do what I think is best for me. I’m concerned about my needs. I’m concerned about my happiness. I’m concerned about what I will eat and so on. But once we get married, we become one with our spouse. That means as a husband, I’m predominately concerned with my wife’s needs. I put my needs on the back burner and really focus on serving her and loving her. Wives, it’s the same for you. You are one.

2. Before married, we identify with our father/mother family. Our parents and siblings are our family prior to marriage. Once marriage happens, we start a new family. It’s husband/wife/kids. For momma’s boys and daddy’s girls, this is especially hard. When you get married, you don’t put your parents wishes ahead of your spouse. That’s a recipe for disaster. You don’t put your in-laws first. You put God first and his word says that you are one flesh now. You aren’t joining his family and he isn’t joining your family. You are starting a new family.

We were created to be naked

Now we are going to look at one of my favorite verses in the Bible - verse 25. The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Now. This has a lot of implications, there’s a beauty to this in the simple understanding of it. They were in paradise and they were not wearing any clothes and neither of them felt any shame in that. That’s contrary to some of us who may still feel shame when we get naked. That is not God’s intention. We see here in the garden his intention was that man would be able to be naked and have no shame.

So the natural reading of this text is wonderful, but I think it goes much deeper than that. I want to look at some of the implications of this:

Vulnerable - When you are naked you are vulnerable. Now, it’s one thing to be naked or vulnerable by yourself, but it’s another thing to be vulnerable with someone else. Good marriages happen when both people can be vulnerable. Listen, just because all of this happened in paradise, doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want to see this happen here and now. We should make ourselves vulnerable in our marriages. It’s only in our vulnerability with our partner, where love is reciprocated, do we experience true marital bliss. This means practically that I can share my faults and failures with my partner and expect love and encouragement.

Transparent - With Adam and Eve, there was nothing hidden. In my own life and as a pastor, I’ve spoken to so many people who hide things from their spouse. They cannot be authentic, they cannot be transparent around their other half. Transparency means you can share your thoughts, feelings, actions and emotions without being harassed, guilted or hurt. Happy marriages are marriages where the husband and wife do not have secrets.

Innocent - When I look at Adam and Eve, you get the picture of innocence. Sin has not entered the picture, they are perfect and righteous. Their consciences are not stained with guilt. Now, we know in the next chapter that they do fall into sin, but we also know that because of the death of Jesus on the cross, we can reclaim this picture of innocence in our own lives. God does not intend for us to live our lives feeling like filthy failures. We are to reclaim our innocence through the blood of Jesus Christ.

We were created to be unashamed

Both men and women were created in such a way that God did not intend for them to carry shame. Now this is one of the biggest things I’ve seen people struggle with and I know personally, this is one of the biggest things that I have struggled with. Shame is one of the biggest tools of the enemy. If he can make you carry your own shame, rather than giving that shame to Jesus, then he can cause you to become completely useless to the Kingdom. He has neutered you.

In 3:7, after eating of the tree they discover their nakedness and immediately feel shame. So they find some fig leaves and sew them together to make a covering for themselves. Now think about this, they were living their lives, who knows how long, in the garden totally naked and unashamed, but as soon as sin enters the picture, shame rears its ugly head and they try to cover their sin.

Now, the interesting part is sin does need to be covered. In fact, Jesus died for you, to cover your sin. That’s what He did. But, you were never designed to carry shame. If you remember, the story, God looks for Adam, and Adam is hiding in the bushes. God asks him why he is hiding and Adam answers that he heard God walking through the garden and he was afraid because he was naked. So Adam was feeling and incredible amount of shame about his nakedness. And what does God do? God doesn’t condemn Adam in that moment. He gets to the bottom of the shame that Adam is feeling and he makes garments for Adam and Eve to wear. He kills an animal and covers the sin. That’s what God does. He hasn’t changed and we haven’t really either.

We still hide whenever we sin. We still try to cover our sins ourselves. But God is saying, let me do it. My son’s blood will cover that. Will you give it to me? We were created to be naked and unashamed. Give your shame to Jesus. Stop holding on to it.

We were created to be co-creators

The final point I want to hit, is that God created us to procreate. We are made in his image and in his likeness. Male and Female are made to image God. And one of the biggest ways we do that is in having children. Now the beauty of having children is this. It takes three to have a child. It takes a man, a woman and God to make a child. God created us to image Him in that way. The Trinity himself, created us in his image and we create children in our own image.

Now, this does not mean that people who are unable to have children are less than those that can. They would be the exception, not the standard though. The same would go for those that remain single. They are not less loved or cared for by God than anyone else. That’s not the point. But those are exceptions. Predominately what we see is that God blesses marriage and the biggest blessing he gives a marriage is children.

Do we agree in our hearts with the Bible’s positive view of children as a blessing from God, or do we agree with a modern secular view that children are an inconvenience and a burden?

Wayne Grudem

The world tells us children are not a blessing, but God says they are…who do you believe? Our identity as co-creators with God is one of the primary ways in which we are to view the world. And out of it flows all other types of creation.

God values the arts, music, and the like because he created us to be creative. It’s part of who we are. It’s how we are designed to be. That’s what is beautiful about the Lord. He allows us to create beautiful things because he is beautiful and we image him well in that creation.

Takeaways:

We should be content in who God created us to be. God created us. There is nothing to be ashamed of in that fact. We should embrace the fact that he created us. We may have a funny looking nose or big ears, we may be short or tall, male or female, pretty or ugly. But God created us and he loves us and while I am joking about the pretty and ugly. there is some truth there. We should be comfortable in our own skin, not because we meet the world’s standard of beauty or we don’t, but because He created us and we are beautiful because of that.

There is hardly a man or woman who dares to be just what he or she is without doctoring up the impression.2

A. W. Tozer

2. We need to see transparency as a blessing. When we look at transparency, we shouldn’t look down on people when they share their secrets or sins. We should applaud transparency. When we can stand before others, or with our friends and be vulnerable, admit our faults, then those people should be applauded rather than ridiculed.

3. We should be creating things. Too often Christians spend way too much time tearing each other down and almost no time actually creating things. We should be the people who start businesses. We should be those that create music. We should be making our own art. We should make our own movies. We should be creators rather than consumers.