Controlled Burn - Week 3
John 8:31-32 (ESV)
“If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Matthew 7:24-27 (ESV)
“Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
On the topics of sexuality, money, and pain,
our temptation is to choose our way instead of God’s way.
Discerning God’s Way:
• Scripture
• Tradition
• Reason
• Experience
“Holy Sexuality and the Gospel”
“Clarity comes not from trying to decide which approach is more compassionate, but by observing which approach is grounded in the correct version of truth - God’s truth.”
“With good intentions, we may rush into doing what is right. But, if we don’t begin with right thinking, there is a good chance we could be doing what’s wrong.”
“Both compassion and wisdom are virtues, but compassion without wisdom can be
careless, even reckless. Wisdom without compassion is useless, even pharisaical.”
-Christopher Yuan
“True compassion flows from wisdom, and true wisdom results in compassion. There should be no dichotomy. The real Christian life is built on Godly wisdom.”
Your version of truth you choose doesn’t make it true.
“What do you believe about sexuality and why?”
• What is my definition of Godly marriage and sexuality? • How did I get this definition?
• How do the Scriptures support this definition?
Matthew 19:4-6 (ESV)
He answered, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female…”
Genesis 2:18-20 (NASB)
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” And out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
Who do you think would be a suitable helper for him?
Genesis 2:18-20 (NASB)
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “At last this is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of man.”
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” And out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
“helper suitable” = ezer kenegdo
• Ezer is a Hebrew word
• Far more powerful than “helper”
• Ezer = woman, ally, warrior
“helper suitable” = ezer kenegdo
• Kenedgo is a Hebrew word
• Far more powerful than “suitable”
• Kenedgo = opposite as to him, corresponding as to him
-Preston Sprinkle
“If it were simply Eve’s humanness that made her a helper, then the word “ke” (like) would have been just fine. The verse would then read: I will make a help like (ke) him.” But to make the point that Adam needed not just another human, but a different human - a female - God used the word “kenegdo”.
“Eve is a human and not an animal which is why she is ke (“like”) Adam. But she’s also a female and not a male, which is why she is different than Adam, or neged (“opposite him”)
-Preston Sprinkle
According to God, a sexual relationship requires:
1) Both partners need to be human
2) Both partners need to come from different families
3) One partner must be male, the other partner must be female
Romans 1:24-27 (ESV)
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;
Romans 1:24-27 (ESV)
and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
1 Timothy 1:8-11 (NIV)
We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which He entrusted to me.
1 Corinthians 6:9 (NIV)
Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men…
Preston Sprinkle’s “Does the Bible Support Same-Sex Marriage”
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:26-27 (ESV)
“LGBTQIA2S+”
Temptation is not sin
• Jesus was tempted.
• We must guard ourselves against this.
• The goal is to reflect the image of God in our lives.
Only God has the authority
to determine identity and gender.
But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:12 (ESV)
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Genesis 2:24 (ESV)
Marriage and sex were created by God,
so only He can define it.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4:7 (ESV)
As we face confusion and frustration,
we should involve God instead of behaving like God.
“If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:31-32 (ESV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
In a culture that equates identity with sexuality, God made a way to have His identity.
Love is unconditional.
Love is not affirming all behavior.
Love does not require agreement.
Love is both grace and truth.
“What do you believe about sexuality and why?”
• What is my definition of Godly marriage and sexuality? • How did I get this definition?
• How do the Scriptures support this definition?