All right, let's begin with a word of prayer. Thank you, Father, as we dig in this evening on the whole subject of practical theology and how your word, how our understanding of it applies to the things that we come up in life. And certainly tonight, as we deal with some of the issues that are actually coming up in the election here in just a few weeks, that we can go to your word and have very clear understanding of your desires and that is your followers, we can then follow that. Not be swayed by the philosophies of men, or persuasive speech, or even our own internal desires, but instead by what you say is true, and live in a way that's gonna glorify you, in Jesus name. Amen. All right, we're gonna start with proposition one, Most because this is what I actually mean by practical theology. There's all sorts of things that come at you in life and there it is, what are you gonna do with it? How do you react to it? How do we start thinking through it? And proposition one is a good example of this. So this thing got thrown out to us, made it through the courts, it was not put in the way it's supposed to be. It's another one of these things that happen Albany behind closed doors late at night, we get shoved out. But the courts said, no, we're going to still have it out there. And if you first read it, it has all these nice terms about equality. And that sounds really nice, right? But you have to start thinking through it. Sarah and Dan who told me that the polling a week ago was running like 80% in favor of it. So it's trying to get information out for people to look at it, because most people are low information voters. They just don't bother to look themselves. Especially with something like a proposition means you actually need to read it. Can you really trust media to tell you the truth? I don't. I hope you don't. But you'd be amazed how many people think that CNN, well, they're after the truth for you. Communist News Network is not after the, I'm sorry, it's not communist, is it? Something else, C. Corrupt News Network, something like that. Or even worse, PBS or something. We're gonna go back to the word of God to know what truth is, and we gotta compare everything in life to that. And that includes things like propositions that are coming up. Now, those of you who are from other states, whatever's happening here will eventually get to you. Okay. These are the trends, New York and California tend to be major movers and shakers and within all the states and what happens here tends to filter out other places for a variety of reasons. So the first is just we'll read through it and then started thinking, well, how do you react to this? Okay. It was slickly done because if, if you even read these, Well, here's how politics works. If you look on the back page, the abstract is supposed to be a fair evaluation of what it says. Here's what it says. This proposal amends article one, section 11 of the New York constitution. That means this is much more serious than a law. This is harder to get out. Section 11 now protects against unequal treatment based on race, color, creed, and religion. This proposal will amend the act to also, here's the language, protect against unequal treatment, notice how they very carefully made it sound like it's the same thing, we're just extending it, based on ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, and pregnancy outcomes, as well as reproductive health care and autonomy, the amendment allows laws to prevent or undo past discrimination. So by putting it that way, it can sound like, well, I'm just trying to get equality for everybody, right? All right. So if you look at the resolution itself, what is in brackets, it's what's taken out. What's in bold is what's being added. So here's what it says. No person, A, so they have a subsection now. So now this original law, which was very simple, is amended, it's more complex. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws of this state or any subdivision thereof. No person shall because of race, color, they've added, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability was in their creed. or added religion, added or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, reproductive healthcare and autonomy, be subject to any discrimination, take out his or her, put in their civil rights by any other person or by any firm corporation or institution or by the state or any agency or subdivision of the state pursuant to law. The section B is all added in there. Nothing in this section shall invalidate or prevent the adoption of any law, regulation, program, or practice that is designed to prevent or dismantle discrimination on the basis of a characteristic listed in this section, nor shall any characteristic listed in this section be interpreted to interfere with, limit, or deny the civil rights of any person based upon any other characteristic identified in this section. So if you want to identify with one section and you want to claim something against another section, well, you can't do that. So it becomes a little more autonomous. And they resolved that the foregoing amendment be submitted to the people for approval at the general election to be held in the year 2020 forward in front of the election level. So you have someone comes to you, they hand like, what am I supposed to do with this? What does it mean? How do I respond to it? All right, now we'll have a discussion. If you're here Sunday, you already know what I think of it. A lot of this is kind of familiar with like the affirmative action for jobs, because that already includes ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed, religion, or sex, which already when they added that was an issue, you know, being an employer. because it just added things, you know, what do you define as religion and creed and, you know, things like that. So the fact that if this gets approved, now all of this will just be added to that. Okay. So we're going to pick on your expertise here, Chrissy. So you are in HR, Union Resources, for a long time. Yes. And there were multiple reasons why you finally decided to get out of it. Yes. Can you add that to the explanation? Yes, so I was in HR. So HR, when you work for the company, especially the role that I was in, you're supposed to be the one that promotes and encourages the company's policies and things like that. We started off with the vaccination requirement and then right before I left, we started on the whole DEI. diversity, equity, and inclusion, which basically is you do not discriminate against anybody in any of these things. And they would have these group sessions, and basically whatever your belief was, if you sat there and said, well, I don't believe in homosexuality, well, you're discriminated against that group, not realizing you're actually, you know, the one being discriminated against for your belief. And we did add ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed, religion, or sex probably three or four years ago to our affirmative action, which basically says whether it's in the interview process or upon hire that we can't discriminate against this. And we had a lot of issues with religion, actually. For people that used to travel, we had a couple of Jews that refused on the Sabbath to sit there and go to hotels because of the keypads or lighting issues and things like that. So that became an issue. And then right before I left, we actually presented a job offer to somebody that came presented as a guy, was a guy. And once we presented him with a job offer, and then he started coming into work, he was fully dressed as a female, it got to the point where he wanted us to call him a different name. I would not You know, I would not change his name in any system, just because legally, unless it's your social security and you went through the legal process, but our company allowed it for like teams and zoom meetings and emails and stuff like that. So essentially to the public and. And the company, his name was changed and then they were going to enforce in our email signatures where you had to affiliate if you wanted to be she, her, they, their whatever. And we actually had a couple of problems with this gentleman being hired, one to be called a female where managers didn't feel comfortable calling them that, but not only were they transgender, they were also black. So that ties into the whole race thing. So it just, it became very complicated. And I just decided I didn't agree with the whole DEI. I wasn't going to keep going against like my moral beliefs and stuff like that. And the company, again, it just, our company, I'll speak for my company, it just keeps catering to this small minority group. So it became very difficult to support the company anymore. So I think one thing that when you see this, or if you don't have a biblical mindset, These are the keywords that you hear in a regular basis. If you go in a company, sexual orientation, gender identity, those are keywords that people push us in every agenda. This one's like, wow, this must be good. I'm going to support this because it sounds like this is really very inclusive in nature. So you have a liberal Christian comes in and says, well we shouldn't be discriminating. Aren't we supposed to love everybody? Exactly. So how do we respond to that? I think this is where, I mean as Christians, right, I mean we talked about what is right is basically what the biblical how you view things, right? And we have to go back to what is right, right? Which is the only source of right is the scripture. We have to go back to what God has said. Exactly. Right. I mean, we can't like going back to the judges. They were like looking based on what they think is right. You know, we have to have one basis and going back to the scriptures. Right. And we can't make it It's difficult to, you know, you're probably going to have a difficult time explaining it to them. But the thing is, your basis has to be okay. So, how can we simplify things up? So we should be able to explain it to them. Okay, because we're gonna have to right we can. show scriptures to them themselves. And you can read it yourself, where we stand on homosexuality or deviant behavior, and then just take them to scripture. Because how I look at this type of terminology, because it was moving like this in the military, this is really moving towards and against the church, really. It starts out in the fringe area, but it's really when we understand that we are living in this world, it's going to start pushing its way towards the church. Because if we're talking about gender expression, what does that even mean, gender identity? And then if we say, well, this is what we stand by, uh what the bible says now it's going to move towards well now we're discriminating uh discriminating against because we also have problems with um soldiers not wanting to conform to this but even in the civilian market where it's like if i'm a business owner and there's certain traits that i don't want to participate in it's almost forced participation and then if you stand on the ground that you're saying no, then you're the problem, even though they're the one pushing like how Chrissy said, then it's like, oh, well, you're actually discriminating against me. So I think especially if we're talking with like a liberal Christian or a Christian that is not as studied up on the Bible, then I think it would be our best to just show them, because then it's more than how I think or feel. I'm just showing what God's word. And if you have a problem with that, you can take it up with God. That's where we want to go. How do we move it to then to making sure what we're talking about is what God has said about it. Otherwise, politics gets worked into it and they want to take the higher, what they position themselves to do philosophically is take the high moral ground. We're not discriminating. You are. even though it actually is flipped the other way. The second paragraph here removes you from being able to say, well, according to the religion I follow, I cannot do that. There is that where you can't discriminate based on your religion. Do you see where this has gone? So it's crafted well to be so vague that you don't know actually what it means, which means anything can get in there. So aside from the fact that it's extremely poorly written, law. I thought it was intentional to be that way. I think this is what it means, and they kind of tailor it to whatever they want, right? I mean, I think that's the, I would say, the genius of this evil man, right? Exactly, yeah. Okay, let's make it vague so that, you know, as we go along, we can kind of use it for our own purpose. The judge can squeeze anything in there. would this law supersede our freedom of religion, though? The way this is written, yes. It would completely remove you from being able to be the parent to your children if the children want to do something they want, because they want to do it. If your child wants to be, the boy's going to be girls and the girl wants to be a boy, well, you can't do anything to stop it. And the school doesn't have to tell you. And the school doesn't have to tell you. So you have all that's going to be shoved in here. There's a lot of things that get thrown in here. That's why it's being proposed as the Equal Rights Act, ERA. That sounds really good, doesn't it? I know several others have used one. Moms for Liberty is saying that what has a lot of traction if you I like that it will destroy women's sports because a boy wants to play on it. You can't discriminate. He can play on the sport that's already causing crime has been for a while and it's causing huge problems to other states. If so they're putting out is protect women's sports, vote no on Prop 1. So that's just one aspect. Another one is being pushed is protect rental rights, because it does remove your right as a parent over your children. If your children want something, well, then they have a right to it now. So that removes that. gender expression itself. So you have the same thing with the DEI, except on steroids, whatever they want to do, and you can't discriminate them. So what are you really looking at? That's why I said on Sunday, you're looking at their right not to be offended trumps your right to live in righteousness and follow truth. That's why I said, it's probably better to call it the Elimination of Biological Reality and Sanity Act. Okay, that's how it's written. But why can I say that? it's because there is truth, and we're going to go back to what truth is. So I start off with what does scripture say? I mean there's so many things you could start working in here, but we'll just start with the sanity of it. How many genders are there? Two. How many according to the state of the city of New York? Well, last time I saw it was about 39. And up, I'm sure it's much more than that. I've seen some reports, there's more than 60 genders. They get 60. I have no idea. Some of them, you see the name, like, I don't even know what that is. Aren't you just male, female, or both? Well, same thing is that they have a problem philosophically with the idea that a male can be a female, but they also wanna support that the female can go back to the male, so they can go back and forth. And yet, if you say that that can happen, that they're mad at you too. So it's whatever they want. Whoever has the most brownie points for discrimination wins. That's how these things are written. But we're gonna have to go back to what the scriptures say, right? So you both had mentioned that. So what are some scriptures that we directly go back to and start from scratch? I think before we go there, I think the key one is that, I mean, one of the biggest deception now is that there's no God, right? And if there's no God, no one is, you don't have to be answerable to anyone, right? So you can do whatever you want. That's what they're after, right? And you can see that in Romans 1, it's basically, they rejected the truth about God. Okay, so Romans 1 is a good place for us to go to, right? Exactly. So that's a good, scripture to go to of just, how did we get here? And explaining to somebody, here's where we are, there is. So you can start off with creation itself, right? How many of you are familiar with creation evangelism? Well, it's been pushed by groups like Answers in Genesis for a long time, From the standpoint is we are no longer a society with a biblical mindset. So you have to start with from scratch and it starts with, there is a Yod and he has created you. So hence creation evangelism, let's start from scratch, what you were saying, Sam. So let's go back to creation. So Romans chapter one, starting in verse 18, going down to the end of the chapter is the declaration of God about creation. that no one has an excuse because of it, and then the decline into depravity. So why don't we start there? Romans 1. Now this is provided whoever you're talking to is willing to actually have a discussion. Just realize most of the time they just get mad and they call your name and they leave. But they're willing to actually talk. That's fine. So, well, let me throw something before we get in there, but how can you get someone to actually have a conversation with you rather than it just matter you and shut you down and off they go. Things also approach approach and my. not reacting to whatever comments aggressively. Like if I'm hoping for a dialogue, then that means I also need to be able to let them explain where they come from, but not also take over the conversation. Because sometimes they'll talk three, four, five minutes straight. It's like, all right, well, let me get in here and talk with them. I think that's a big one is your approach and how you react when they share. I think that plays a big part. OK, that's going to figure into some of the questions I ask later. How do you deal with these things? It's a series of questions. Somehow, I have to be able to engage with them. Your approach has to be one of, instead of walking in, they say this, and you immediately condemn them. They just turned you off, and you're not getting anywhere. We have a purpose that's greater than winning an argument. And I think, too, it's that when you think about them, have it in love, right? Because the thing is we could easily be them, right? But for God's purpose, the Holy Spirit opened our eyes and our minds and that we understand it and they don't. You know, it's not because we are any smarter or whatever points we have, it's that because God has opened up my mind, your mind, and for them, we have to feel love for them. That somehow We pray for them that God would open their minds just the same way that you open your mind. Right. I mean, you shouldn't feel anything that we shouldn't boast of something that we received. Right. Because we received it. And for some reason, God is did not. So it's just that we do it with love. We do it with gentleness, not being boastful, but with love. You know. OK. Is that necessarily going to be easy to do? It's not going to be easy. If some guy is standing there with makeup all over his face and a false chest. Yeah, because sometimes this is not going to be easy to do, and that's part of what you have to think about when you're dealing with people. I have to be careful how I react, because I have a goal that's different than winning an argument. because it's easy just to blast somebody and go on your way thinking you did something, but I'm not trying to do that. I'm actually trying to get them to think if I can at all do that. So we can start with Romans one or just, this is what God has said. So God made them male and female. He didn't make anything else. It's one or the other. So now I could ask, so why would you say, there's more than one gender. Where would you get that? In other words, you can start asking questions of what is the foundation for their belief with, I have a foundation for my belief, and it starts with God. God created us. I'm not here by an accident. Now, that may sidetrack into an evolution debate, but that'll be a different topic later on. But this one's dealing with sexuality, human sexuality. So I have to get them back toward what Sam had said earlier with, how do I get them to, there is a God, here's what he has said. Yeah, go ahead, Alex. Would it be appropriate, right before delving into the scriptures, to try and re-translate some of the verbiage into what the actual biblical words and scientific terminology is? Well, if you have a discussion, you can probably get into that, but. It would be very flowery, fluffed words to identify sexuality, sexual perversion, transvestite, Probably with this one, it's just saying, do you know what any of these mean? They probably don't either, because most people don't. Do you know what this would allow? You can get in discussion. But in practical theology, I'm always trying to get it. I want to understand first for myself to make sure I'm not going to be the know fit the accusation you just you're you're an ape with your head in you know the sand or something i guess that's nostrils that puts his head in the sand you're just an ape you're ignorant you know you don't know you're so just you're so uneducated okay all right you're gonna be accused of all those things right uh what are you just a bible bash your own no i'm not a bachelor my bible i value it too much to bash you with it but i will point out what it says so you have to be affable the same time of being pointed, I'm going to go back to it. This is going to come up. The first thing you have to make sure, do I know where I stand and why I stand there? That's the first thing you're going to have to make sure you know. Because if you don't know that, you will be rolled over very quickly on any issue. You've got to know what does the scripture actually state on this. You can start with Romans 1. All creation has been declared by God. So he says this, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and righteousness of men who suppress the truth and righteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power, divine nature have been clearly seen being understood that what has been made through what has been made so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. They became futile in their speculations and professing their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. Exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for the image of the form of a corruptible man of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. So you've already laid out a foundation for yourself to understand is creation itself declares there is a creator. position that I need to know who this creator is and what he wants from me because I'm a creature. Now that goes against all human philosophy again because they want to somehow it's about me, not about the God who created me. I'm sorry pastor, I think even though it might deny it, deep down because we're creation, we deep down in our hearts that we know that we are creation, right? And that there's a creator. The only way to create an agnostic or an atheist is work hard at it. Okay? Cause every kid always knows there's a creator. It's just automatic. And I mean, this was a frustration by evolutionists, even in the eighties, nineties, early two thousands is that people coming out of college still didn't believe evolution and their ideas. Well, the more education on them, we got to get this into them. They still recognize it's a fairy tale for grown-ups. So the creation, everything around us just shouts it. So you actually have a high ground here. You recognize, I am a creature made by a creator who is far superior to me. So I'm going to start with that. The first thing is, Professor B. Wise became fooled. So he had idolatry. The first thing he lists out there. people were worshiping images. Now, usually you can get them on your side with that one very quickly. You think it's wise to be falling down and asking, well, you can use Isaiah as an example. I take a piece of wood, cut it in half, with half of it I've crafted into an idol, half that I burned and made my meal out of it. It got heat, I've seen the fire, I'm warm. And then the other part, you've carved it up and you bow down to it and worship it. Please save me. my idol. The foolishness is right there. In this kind of society, that's going to be very easy, but then it continues on. This is where we gain a greater understanding for ourselves. What is God's view of this? Now, we've got a lot of other passages, but here's a good starting place. Therefore, God gave them over in the lust of their hearts the impurity that their bodies might be dishonored among them. They exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions, for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. Same way, also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman, burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts, receiving their own persons the due penalty of their error. The Bible is careful. A lot of times we use euphemisms or descriptions without being graphic. What is this talking about? It's easy to say. Paul is Jewish, so he knows the Jewish law. What passage would I go to in the Old Testament that explains exactly what Paul is talking about? Do anybody know offhand? Leviticus chapter 18, right? Because there Paul lists out the rule's relationships, including consanguinity. That's relationship that's too close of a relative. And then all of these things are listed out, and each of them are listed as abominations. So I can go back to scripture and explain exactly what Paul's talking about here, if someone needs that much of an explanation. Generally, most people can go, yeah, they know what he's talking about. So real quick, what happens when the liberal Christian goes, well, there wasn't really homosexuality back then. This is more like in the dominant hierarchy. It wasn't about love though, right? And they try and rewrite the whole context of it. Yeah, well, why would they do that? It's because they want to fit in with the culture, and they don't believe the Bible is actually true. So what would you do with that? They want to say, well, that's not what Paul is talking about. Like, well, Paul is Jewish. He's going off the Jewish law. So what did God say? When God has said something is an abomination, that's a moral declaration. That's not about culture anymore. So we'd go back to explain what passages are behind it to explain it. Scripture interprets the scripture. This is one of the reasons why it's important to have a good theological grounding. So you need to know the Bible, the whole thing. If you haven't read through the whole thing, make it a plan, read through the whole thing. If you do it by January, I'll even take you out to dinner. Well, I promised that last year, so I'll keep my word in January, but you have to have read the whole thing. You need to read the whole thing. You need to understand something about systematic theology. All systematic theology is taking all the doctrines of the Bible and systematizing them so that subject matters are together. If you're looking at what is the theology of human sexuality, why are we looking at all these passages? That gives me a grounding back in Scripture. Now, how do I know that theology is correct? Well, you have to have a You have to have an understanding of what's called hermeneutics. I know how to approach the Bible to understand it in its context. That's its historical context and grammatical context. You can't follow the modern way of reading things. It's whatever I want it to be. We actually believe that you understand what an author means by looking for the intent of the author. Imagine that. The author actually meant to communicate something. And I won't know what that is unless my quest is to understand what the author was communicating. That's not the way modern literature is going. They'll read anything into it. And I think that's what the liberals did though, right? They were reading God's word. It's that basically, you know, they just like putting in words into the Bible rather than that the Bible. Yeah. You know, explain what it's saying, right? Well, that's exactly what they've done. So anybody know how the liberals would view things like Sodom and Gomorrah or the end of Judges, where there's a pretty nasty case of real debauchery? What do they look, what do they see that as? Anybody know? Oh, just hospitality. Yeah, hospitality. The reason God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah is, you know, they didn't welcome him in. They weren't kind to the angels. They should have been showing hospitality. So God destroyed them because they weren't hospitable. Or in Judges, you have the man who he comes in, there was no one going to take him in. He's in the square in one of the Benjamite cities. And a man from Ephraim comes home. He's living there, and he goes, to come onto my house, and all the men gathered around. God destroyed them and caused a civil war because they weren't hospitable. Well, that's stretching a whole lot trying to get to, I want to justify something that God has declared to be an abomination. And that's what we see a lot, is that they're doing a lot of mental calisthenics to explain something so that they can justify their actions. And their mental calisthenics is much more difficult than if you really read it in normal sense. Or what you've seen more simply is, well, it's just love. Right. Well, well, when a burger fell paint went through wasn't that was plastered all over everybody's social pages love wins. Love didn't win. Lust won, not love, and actually perverted lust won, but love didn't. Because what does love actually want? Well, love would actually tell them to sin, because love desires holiness. Love wants what's best for you. Love doesn't cater to whatever your desires are. Those of you who are parents, have raised your kids, Do you just give your kids whatever they want because that's what they want? If you did, you're a bad parent. Do you want more candy? Why can't I have a Hershey bar for breakfast? I mean, it's a milk chocolate. I got dairy in there. I got beans in there. It's come from, you know, cocoa bean. I mean, I got carbohydrates in there. It's wonderful for you. Anybody from the CIA will agree with me on this one? Okay. We can work our way. No, your parents are like, no, you're going to eat this. This is good for you. And the kids said, but I want the Cocoa Krispies. I want the sugary cereal. And I know we have something better for you. Here's some fruit. Fruit? Well, if you're Southern. Eat your grits. That's right. You got grits better than any of that other stuff. And I brought some back up from Tennessee because Quaker is not all that good. All right. So you're going to do what's best for your child, right? Do you let your child go out of the house wearing anything they want or nothing at all because they just feel free today? No, you don't. You dress them and you dress them appropriate. That's what love does, right? A husband's command to love his wife for what purpose? for her holiness, and that's missed a lot. He sacrificed himself for her, but the purpose is that he might present her as holy. That's what Jesus did for us. So we have to go back to scripture, but that's all part of it. So I need to know the Bible. I need to know theology, systematic theology. I need to know hermeneutics, how to make sure I'm actually understanding it in its context. So the liberals who would do that with Sodom and Gomorrah and everything else is they don't even understand its context. And when you actually point it out to you, you can see how ludicrous. So you're saying that God, hospitality is so important. He destroyed two cities and the surrounding area with fire and brimstone because they weren't hospitable. Man, I don't know about your God. I can't find anywhere it says that that's an abomination to him. So. Of course, you could use that the problem like, you know, so how hospitable are you? But yeah, they will do whatever they can, mental gymnastics, to get around whatever they want. So I'm gonna go back to the scripture. So that's the first degration. Actually, the first one is worshiping other things, so false religions. That's all part of that, all false religions. Now you have another one. What point in American history did homosexuality arise and become a favored class? Do you know when that was? Some of you are young, you wouldn't know because Well, the 60s is a sexual revolution. So that's just prior to that. So this is giving her the lust of their hearts. That was verse 24 and 25. Now verse 26, we go one, two more steps. The 60s is a sexual revolution. What was considered abhorrent is now accepted. Well, I'll give you an example. So when I was in high school, so that's the 70s, If a girl was sleeping around, she was considered a slut. If two people were living together, they're shacking up, and it's an extremely small percentage of the population. It just wasn't done. Divorce was still looked down on very severely, although it was becoming more accepted even by then. So when does homosexuality become an accepted thing in our society? I think in the 90s. It's in the 90s. All right. So if you know something about history, the 1890s, that decade was referred to as the gay 90s, the 1890s. The 1890s referred to as the gay 90s. What do you think that meant? Happy. It was happy. It was good times. It was great. 100 years later. It was. Economy was good. Everything was just going great. It was just so it's called the gay 90s. Yeah. A hundred years later, she could say the 1990s or the gay 90s. What are you talking about then? Uh, well, you're not talking about happiness. Okay. So words change the meaning. So yeah, really in the 1990s, it becomes accepted and then the Supreme Court's decision in 2016, I forget which year it was now, is then solidifies it. Well, let me ask you a different question on that one. Did the Obergefell decision make homosexual marriage the law of the land? This is a test on your knowledge of how the constitution works. Go ahead, Jason. The state's laws don't accept it. The states would have to accept it. So did it actually make it the law of the land? No, it didn't. But the states just acquiesced to it. Many states still have their laws and the books against it. There's a lot of pressure to get it off of it, but it actually didn't. How many states actually stood against what happened? This is my own trivia. One, Alabama. Alabama. Yeah, Judge Roy Moore stood against it. And he was the only one that seemed to even understand how our law works. Because he pointed out is your decision, actually not decision, your opinion, the Supreme Court doesn't make decisions. It gives opinions. Your opinion only affects that small area on that one case that was in the Midwest. I thought it was in Ohio. It was somewhere in the Midwest. My vow, I swore allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Alabama. I cannot allow this in my state. He was the only one that did that. And he ended up being removed from office by the Ethics Committee. So the second time that happened to him. The first time was trying to defend the Post-Sanctuary Commandments in courthouses. Oh, he was that guy. Yeah, he was the guy. brilliant fellow, but obviously he's going against culture. So that's just my own trivia. I'm sorry, it's just things I get interested in. Those are freebie. So we can see we're bucking up against culture, and this is certainly part of the culture of change that's going on, but we still have the truth with us. So where are we going to find the truth? You go back to scripture. So I go there. So 1990s, you had that change. The next step down, And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to depraved mind. to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boasters of ventures, of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they do not only do the same, they also give hardy proof to those who practice them. That was one reason why I cited in Notes for Resources the two sermons on this section of Romans, because this is where we are at now. We're dealing with people with depraved minds. They cannot actually think correctly. Their minds are blocked. They're darkened in their understanding. Does that mean they're impossible to reach? But how can they be reached? it's going to require the work of the Holy Spirit. So any of these kind of discussions you always get into first with prayer, right? I've got to be praying about when I'm going to talk with someone, now I've got to go back to truth. Okay. I think that's when it's important not to sugarcoat it because sometimes when you're in that discussion, you might feel like sugarcoating it a little bit so that it's much more palatable to that person. But the thing is, you're actually doing a disservice when you do that. You are. Right. All right. So from the practical standpoint of how would you help someone protect themselves from these dangers, dangers of homosexuality, what might you point out to them that would be for their benefit of why they should stop? I think there's some physical implication. There's a lot of physical and emotional stuff, right? I think you talked about different stuff. Uh, y'all know what AIDS is. Okay. That's 1980s. It's going through, it started off as grids, but you know what grids is gay related. Immunodeficiency syndrome. Right. It was grids. Okay. But that wasn't because it was offensive. It was offensive. I actually Googled what that means. And they said, it's an, it's an obsolete term that it's no longer like, we can't talk about that. Well, What they also won't tell you is that was just that and AIDS became the first federally protected disease. And that's the only way to describe it. It was protected by law. So normally any contagious disease, but you're our medical guy. If you have a contagious disease, what do the law in our land usually require? You have to share that with somebody now that you have it. You can't do it in secret or with intention of that. It's not secret. Then you do a tracing of, well, who have you had contact with? Why? Because you're trying to stop the disease progression because it's contagious. Now, you know something of that because we started having that with the COVID stuff, right? They want to know where you were and who you had contact with and contact tracing. Okay. So with AIDS, that by law, that was blocked. you couldn't ask either. Yeah, I know that sounds shocking. It was shocking back then too, but it was probably protected disease, but that's okay. We can be forthright with people as there's all sorts of things. So AIDS was just one of many diseases. Homosexual community has so many diseases, especially the bowel and gut that exists only in the male homosexual population. I was asked some years ago when I hadn't been here that long, Dutchess Community College used to have an extension right down the street in some of the buildings down there. And there's a guy teaches a course in human sexuality and the pastor, he normally has come in, wasn't available because he's passing here. He called me, said, sure, I'll come in. And so college kids think they're gonna embarrass me. Like I have three kids, I kind of know how this works, you know, but they think they're gonna embarrass me by the pictures they have up on the screen or something like that. I just started off with is, look, I'm going to tell you up front, none of you are probably going to be interested in what I have to say, because you don't want to do what God says, but here's what God says about it. I'll just explain. Here's the Christian view of human sexuality, and you present it as a very positive thing, but it's only within marriage. God has a plan for it, and it's to protect you as well. The question of homosexuality comes up. So I just asked them, did any of you know how many diseases are related that are only within the homosexual population? And do any of you know what the average age of death is for the male homosexual? Of course, no one did. Now, I don't know what the current one is, but at that time, that would have been in the mid nineties, it was 42 years old. That's like the pre-AIDS at the time probably. AIDS was just getting going. But the average age for the male homosexual, he died by 40. It's probably a little higher. They got more drugs to try and keep him alive a little longer. You can point out other things. For police and being called to domestic violence, what are the worst cases? Lesbians. That's for the worst cases. The most violence has been between lesbians. These are things that are not going to be out there. CNN is not going to tell you that. PBS isn't going to tell you that. But these are truths, so we can share truth. That's just coming back to some of this part of our biblical theology. Truth matters, because God is the God of all truth. I want to take it back to him again. God is the God of truth. He wants us to live according to truth. So should we ever be afraid of science? Through science. Through science, but not fake science. And you understand most of the stuff that's floating out there is fake science. Going back even to the stuff from COVID, you can set up your experiment to prove anything you want. So unless you actually get the actual report on it, on how they designed their experiment, you don't know if they're telling the truth or not. So we can use that to our advantage. So the whole thing here with this thing that's coming up, we can oppose it. We can oppose it strongly. And I will be putting some things out. I will probably put, if I can fit it in, I don't know if I haven't figured that out yet, on the church, no on Prop 1, The Elimination of Biological Reality and Sanity Act. If I can get it on there, I'm going to get that on. So. Small fonts. I have one size. That's all there is to it. So we can be thoughtful. We can put things out there. But if I end up talking with someone, I want to talk it from the standpoint of, I actually care about you. I care about my society. What this will do to society is destroy us. New Yorkers. I actually highly recommend everybody to subscribe to New Yorkers for constitutional freedoms, they actually sent out within the last couple of weeks to really good emails actually giving examples of why to oppose it. So like I know I probably since to every woman in the church with email address I had. and family and friends, but a couple of people actually church and, you know, friends were like, wow, thank you for sending that. Because even the examples, like they gave the example of like faith based hospitals may be forced to do abortions because it says reproductive health care and autonomy. Well, that's in regard to like abortions and stuff. And they even sat there and said, which actually made a lot of sense is like, when you think of like race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age and disability, those are things that you know, are not within your control, right? They're not changeable. But then you look at sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, all of that's based on your feelings and beliefs. So that shouldn't be protected. But they gave, like I said, they've sent out two really good emails. So I recommend... Yes, take advantage of the resources that are out there on any of these issues. And that's part of what you do in practical theology is you're looking for the resources to help you work through the issues. That's what we wanna do in our Christian life constantly. How do we do these things? There's a lot of stuff out there that can help us. So I'm just using this one as an example. That's a real example that's right on our face. We voted on a couple of weeks. If it passes here in New York, we will probably see even a greater flood of people leaving. Something similar to this passed in California a couple of years ago and a lot more people left. In fact, even one of the state senators, when it passed, he said, I'm leaving the state. I will not raise my children here and endanger them with what's now been passed. It's something similar. So it affects things. It will make chaos in our land for a long time. Cause no one will know what it means until the judge decides and another judge will decide something else. Okay. Now for us, for me, it's like, okay, I was in jail ministry when I got started and I may still be in jail ministry. but they can't get away from me if I'm in it. So you can poke, you know, I poke some humor at that, but I know it's a reality. It could really happen because I will not bend to what is not true. Let me throw another aspect here that maybe you may not think if someone asks you, cause you, you had the male who want to pretend to be a female and call me by a female name, which was not his name, right? All right. If you participate in that, should you or should you not and why? You shouldn't because then you're almost condoning it or encouraging it. Well okay you've been condoning encouraging it but isn't that just being I mean nice I mean that's what they want to be called I mean we're calling you Chrissy. We should call your full name Christina. Because we're living in reality. You're tolerating sin. Right. You're tolerating sin. What else is going on? If you start playing with the pronouns and you're acquiescing to that what else are you doing you're condoning it you're disregarding the truth you're disregarding the truth that's something we have to take into account we act you're disregarding truth if this is not who you are and what you are and i am saying okay i'll call you that i'm participating in a lie and this can get very serious i'm participating in the lie And that's what they're asking to do. They're not asking for tolerance. That was a long time ago. Tolerance was, is I will not have you executed for an abomination, okay? That's tolerance. At one time here in the colonies, in the early United States, you would have been. So toleration is I didn't have you executed. Are they wanting toleration or something else? This is not toleration. This is, I want you to accept it, condone it, and celebrate it. I think the key word there is celebration. Well, this can fit in there too. It's discriminatory if you don't join in the celebration. There's a lot of stuff in here. So it's a really bad law, but this is just the kind of stuff that comes up all the time. This is just a really bad flagrant example on it. So we thought about this a long time ago, so I did send out a link to our statement of faith, the church under separation, and we had a whole paragraph we added in It was either in 2008, 2009, 2010, somewhere in that, because we already could foresee what's gonna happen in New York. And the state senator for our area, Steven Saland, Republican, 2011, June. Well, Diane and I were on a cruise in Alaska. We picked up a newspaper and his name was in it because he's the senator that voted to approve homosexual marriage in New York. He did not make it through the next primary. He sure tried a lot of shenanigans on that one, but we anticipated that. So we knew that we needed to put something in our constitution as a protection, not in our bylaws and our constitution that these are our beliefs. So this was crafted in anticipation of these things coming. So the second paragraph, well, the first paragraph, we believe that the scriptures clearly teach non-conforming to the world for every believer that born again people should be separated from the world under Christ. That is clearly commanded by God that all believers should live separated from all religious apostasy, worldly and simple practices. To be holy as he is holy, John 17, 9, 20, Romans 6. 8, 1 Corinthians 6, 11, 19, 20, 2 Corinthians 3, 18, 6, 14 through 17, 7, 1. Well, they're all listed there. There's a lot of scriptures. We know as Christians, this is just basic Christianity, we are to walk with Christ, not with the word. Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, Romans 12. too. So this is basic Christianity, and all we're saying is that we believe the scriptures, so we believe that we should follow them and walk in the basics of Christianity, which is separation from worldly practices. Practices by the world that are contrary to what God has declared for us to do, contrary to holiness. So we added this one in. We believe the Bible teaches that God established marriage as only between a man and a woman, Genesis 2.24 and Matthew 19.4 and 5. is a quote of Genesis 2.24. For this cause, a man shall leave his mother and father and cleave unto his wife. The two shall become one flesh. That is the establishment of marriage. That all sexual conduct outside the bounds of marriage is sent, 1 Corinthians 6, 9, and 10. That's an amazing passage because Paul is telling these new Christians, immature Christians, quit going up and visiting the temple prostitutes. think they should have gotten it. But these were Greeks, they weren't Jews, so they didn't know Leviticus 18, so they thought that was just normal life, so had to crack them on that. Fornication, adultery, incest, homosexuality, bestiality are all described by God as abominations. They're specifically listed at Leviticus 18, six through 30. We further believe that the physical condition in which a person is born, including their gender, is established by God, Exodus 4.11 and 9.3. Both are references to, there's only two genders, there's male and female, and God made you that way. Exodus 4.11, anybody familiar with that one? That is when Moses was trying to find a way to get out of what God had told him to do. I don't speak so well. And God finally says, well, I'll have Aaron speak for you. But this one is God's response, which basically could be summarized as, who made your mouth? I made your mouth. If I want you to do this, you will do it. I can equip you to do it. But that's just the lame, the weak. God made them. He made each person. John 9, 3 is the man born blind, which is a great chapter. God was, he did that and he did it for his own glory. Therefore claims of an innate sexual confusion are false, transvestism and its related perversion, including sex change operations or abomination before God, Deuteronomy 22, 5, that's specifically against men wearing women's clothes and vice versa. So anything beyond that is just that much more of an abomination. further believe that declaring God's Word and warning people of the temporal and eternal consequence of their sins, including sexual perversions, is an act of loving concern." That's what you were talking about earlier, Sam. It is an act of loving concern. I should have compassion on them. Especially coming from LA where we were, we interacted with a lot of homosexuals, especially Diane. She worked in West Hollywood. West Hollywood was the very first city that elected a homosexual mayor. That's where her hospital was located. So they had a lot of homosexuals there. So she worked with a lot of them. There was compassion on them. There's a better way of life than what you're doing. God can save you and he can change you. We further believe that, let's see, God's word remains true. His prohibitions, including those on sexual perversions, immoralities, cannot be satisfied or amended by any human government authority. So our declaration with that is saying is they can change the constitution. It makes no difference to us in terms of how we're going to live because we don't believe you have the right to do that. God hasn't said it, so it's not true. You can declare, I try to be careful even, so we have quote unquote homosexual marriage. Is it marriage? No. It's legalized shacking up between sodomites and lesbians. That's really all it is. And sodomite's actually the better term. And it's not the government that formed the institution of marriage. The government didn't form it. So that's another aspect of our theology is we're going to go that, well, who established marriage? All right. This is a new thing for New York. This is them trying to get involved with this. We're going to declare what marriage is. And the state of New York, when a marriage license is signed, you can sign it either as, if you're some sort of government official, there's a signature or it's a religious one. They don't get involved with any of that. It simply is, the state simply recognizes what religious institutions do or what a secular institution, you know, judge the peace or something has signed that you're married. state simply recognizes. They didn't create it. They only recognize it. Now they want to create it, and they don't have the authority to do that. You can use those as direct things, including those who might want to say what Romans 13 tells us we have to submit to the state. It's like, I can't submit to the state when they're telling me it's something that's false. It's wrong. I obey God first. We'll go through these questions. to where we get with it, what are God's purposes in creating human sexuality? First, it's for creation in Genesis 1. For creation. How do you fill the earth if you don't have kids? You've got to multiply. You've got to multiply. So how many kids is that? As many as you can. However many you're quiver, right? Some of you are young enough, you don't know what your quiver is going to have, right? I'm old enough to know my quiver only held three. We wanted a whole lot more, but he only gave us three arrows. Intimacy between husband and wife. Pleasure. It's a pleasure. Yeah, there's pleasure involved too. Part of growing close to each other. Right. Okay. So those are there. There's differences in between men and women that compliment each other so that together you're a lot stronger than you would be apart. One of my sons got onto me when I mentioned about the singles as they get older. And my familiarity is more with the guys. You know what? They're just weird. And then it's like, how about your brother? Yeah. He'd say the same thing. He recognized that. It took him a long time to figure out why he was the way he was. When he found out, he felt really liberated. He has Asperger's. He does not relate the same way as other people do. It's a shame it wasn't figured out earlier. He could have done a lot better. You admit it. Women help a guy become what he's supposed to be. And the women need the guy too. Otherwise, they just become emotional messes. Am I being fair? Yes. Okay. You need someone to keep the line. Okay. So we need each other. So that's part of it too. And that's God's design. I think I see my wife's like complimenting me on the areas that I might have blindsides, you know. I'm very grateful. I'm a much better man because of Diane. I'm a much, I think I can serve God a much better because of her too. Two, what is God's original design for marriage? That's it? Pretty simple, right? All right, so why did God tolerate polygamy? Well, he makes it pretty clear in quite a few different passages that it was, in Jesus as too, it's supposed to have been one man, one woman. So why does he tolerate it? I'd phrase it that way. I know in Matthew it's talking about divorce and it's part of the Old Testament because divorce was allowed because of the hardness of your hearts. Yes. Yeah, that's going to have something to do with his hardness of heart. What did he tell David after his sin with Bathsheba? It's an interesting passage. He said, I would have given you even more wives. Why'd you take somebody else's? So who was the first polygamist? Earlier. He had two wives, right? It wasn't good. So it's never presented as positive, but it was tolerated. He did not condone it, He tolerated it. He tolerated it. He tolerated it. And I've seen in my research, and this one is that there are several ideas that they think why he tolerated this. Is that possibly because a way to increase the population? Which is what Jason said. And the other one, too, is protecting the women. They would rather be protected in a family area rather than just like they're all over the place or something like that. Does Levitical law prohibit polygamy? It actually doesn't. That surprises a lot of people. There is a law in Levitical code that you cannot marry sisters. I think that was pretty obvious from, yeah, it didn't work out for our forefathers, so don't marry sisters. So there is a prohibition against that. I realized it. Well, sometimes it's interesting to look at what's prohibited and like, okay, and there's no statement about anything else. Like, well, you're prohibiting that, which implies is okay. You can marry two they're not sisters. So you can share that with some Jewish fellow you want that wants to live by the law and his wife will get very upset with you. Why did we end up where Christianity has been strong without polygamy, that it's wrong? Because we go back to the New Testament, we see what Jesus says about it. The intent from the very beginning was one man, one woman, going back to Genesis. Then what's the qualification for an elder? That's one wife. And for Ethan. That's one wife. Yeah, it's actually his husband, one wife, or one woman, man. He's only got one. I've always said that it's a pragmatic aspect that I can only handle one. Some of the guys, I can only handle one. Why would you handle two? I don't know. Can you imagine Solomon with 1,700 and 300? You can have two. You ain't doing it. You're doing what you want. So I actually point that out, because sometimes we have to be careful when making declarations. What does the Old Testament say? And don't read the New Testament into it. There is, in theology, a progression of God revealing what he wants. For example, even when it comes to marriage. Who did King Mary His sister. Was there any prohibition against it? No. When is there a prohibition against it? Not until Leviticus 18. There's no law, there is no transgression. So he says you can't do it. There was no law, okay? That's why Abraham, the father of the faithful, is married to his half-sister, okay? And he's considered a righteous man. Kind of makes sense. With the chinpo, you know, originally it's much more robust. It was robust. And so we can look at it from this, a genetic standpoint and see is why there would become a prohibition is because the gene pool gets smaller, you end up with more genetic problems with a small gene pool. But initially, Abinid had every gene, the perfect complement. And so it's not until you get to smaller, smaller gene pools, If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll just use my eyes as an example. I have blue eyes. My wife has blue eyes. What color would my children's eyes be? Blue. Could they get anything different? No. Well, it's a little more complex than just blue and brown. They could get hazel. Could they get brown? Absolutely not. They can't. Brown is a dominant gene. Now that means genetically I'm deficient. I don't carry a gene for brown eyes that Adam and Eve would have had. They would have had the perfect complement of genes between them. Well, if you get a compliment, for example, whatever the genetic mixture was for Diane and I, our kids got the worst part of it. If there was something genetic, it seemed that'd be a problem, they got it. So whereas I had asthma as a kid, well, Jonathan has asthma. Jimmy's asthma is so bad, he actually, he would cough before he could start wheezing. He'd get a treat and he'd probably start wheezing. Turned out it was also figured in with artificial colors and flavors. We changed his diet and he'd never had that problem. But David and Jimmy both have celiac disease. Jonathan, myself, and David all have Hashimoto's. All that's from genetic deficiencies. So you can see the importance when later on he says, okay, don't marry too near a relative. You need diversity in your gene pool. Otherwise you end up with genetic problems. So there is a progression of flaws that God has given. Marriage is one of them. So what he tolerated at the beginning, tolerate is the right word for it. As it progresses by the New Testament, it's among Christians is no, this is a no. Okay. Now I have some fun here. How about Islam? How many wives can you have in Islam? No, no, no, no, no, no. I think that's their goal. How many did Mohammed have? No, not until he gets to go to whatever heaven is, all right? And those aren't the ones he was married to here. He had 12. All right, so the common Muslim man, how many can he have? Four. But they usually has three because he can have marriage for a day. That way he can go anywhere he wants and have marriage for a day. oh islam is islam's fun yeah it's sick all right why did god include in the mosaic law restrictions on jewish kings and multiplying horses wives or silver and gold from 17 14 through 17 establishes that so so the king is supposed to rely on god for us for strength and for essentially everything. Look at the examples that he has, right? Horses will support military power, right? Wives, they use them to gain some military allegiances, right? And then silver and gold obviously is power and money, right? Okay, we actually have something a little more specific with the wives as another danger. What happened to Solomon? Oh, it's like idolatry. I mean, Right. Right. He allowed their beliefs to creep in. His wives influenced him away from walking with God. Right. So that was actually one of the part of prohibitions. You don't need a harem and your wives will affect you. And they turned his heart away. Consequences of Solomon multiplying wives for himself. We just answered it's the first Kings 11.4. They turned his heart. Now that's because Solomon did not do what he should have done. is you're going to become part of Israel. You're going to worship our God. But he tolerated them worshiping their own God. Is that a kind of a danger for men still? Yes. It happens a lot. I love her. Okay. So what does she believe? It doesn't matter. I just love her. She's going to influence you. Okay. You need to be careful. What did Jesus teach about serial marriage that resulted from divorce, Matthew chapter 5 and 19? It says there, whoever divorces his wife makes her commit adultery. Except for some sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries the divorced woman makes her commit adultery. So basically, you have this. And chapter 19 gives the other case of a person who marries the one divorced, as well as the one who was divorced and married somebody else, except for one exception. sexual immorality. OK. What was their divorce based on? Why was their divorce? So if divorce was based on sexual immorality, the innocent party could remarry without committing adultery. If it wasn't on that, everyone involved is going to end up committing adultery. So you cause it. Now, at that time, a woman was pretty dependent on a man to provide for her. Okay. There wasn't going, you know, lots of careers out there for you to do something so that she didn't have some kind of dowry to make it or some means of income. She was going to get remarried again, simply so she could live. So that's why it says, if you divorce your wife, you end up and she remarries, you have forced her to commit adultery. So it actually is blaming the guy for what he did. The women at that time in Judaism did not have right to divorce. They couldn't divorce their husband, but the husband could divorce her. And it was pretty simple to do it. Basically it was, I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you, you're divorced. The Pharisees could always act like they were still holy, because they only had one wife at a time, but they could divorce someone and get a different wife, and then divorce that one if you burned the bagels. The locks were a little bit strong today on that. Burn bagel, I divorce you. That was a view of marriage and divorce at that time, among some of them. Others held a very strict view, so it varied a little bit. But it just complicates things. It just increases the amount of adultery. That's the point of that. Seven, why did Paul include qualifications for elders and deacons of being the husband of one wife, or more literally, a one-woman man, for Timothy three? I think this one has to do a lot on the sexual purity of that person. Because the thing is, this one has the connotation of a man that's playing around. So this actually applied to a single guy too, right? He's not playing the field. He's one woman. He's committed to her. He has a proper focus. And if he's doing what Christ, or Paul had explained what we're supposed to be doing, loving her like Christ loved the church, then that takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of effort. All right, what is the solution for singles who have strong sexual desires, for instance, in seven? Get married. And that wasn't hard, was it? Okay. What is pornography and why is it simple and dangerous? What is pornography? Why is it sinful and dangerous? Mark? Yeah. Pornography is printed or visual material containing explicit display or description of sexual organs or activity for erotic stimulation. Basically turning people into objects and having unrealistic expectations for your spouse and leads you away from God. Okay. What did Jesus say about lusting? So pornography easily ends up with adultery. So add one more layer of seriousness here. And yet within our own culture, pornography is almost universal, even on women now. Diane was surprised to find that out a couple of years ago when she was doing some research on that. It's become very common among women, and a big problem are these things, because you can be completely isolated. When I was a kid, if you wanted to get pornography, you had to go to a smut shop. and hide it. Boys would hide it in the locker rooms. I guess by the time you got in the military, it was pretty more open, but it was hidden in the locker rooms and that kind of stuff. Now it's in your face. I think that's the major issue. The thing about pornography is the secrecy. And it's bad. I'll be talking about that in a couple of weeks in the service. So what are some of the solutions to help those battling pornography? I think having accountability with somebody, right? That helps a lot. Having a brother cry saying, I'm battling this. Just working with them on a regular basis. Okay, accountability. So that can hold you. Yeah, perish. Memorizing scripture. Memorizing scripture is huge. All right. All right, what scripture would tell us to do that? Proverbs 27. Okay. I don't remember. It says, how can a young man keep his wife apart? That's from 119, 1911. Go ahead. You can go quote it. I can't remember those, but memorizing verses. Psalm 119 verses 9 to 11. How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping according to thy word. Of all my heart I have sought thee. Do not let me stray from my commandments. Verse 11. Okay, so memorizing scripture, which seems to be almost like a last resort for some people, it should be the first thing you're going to do, all right? Okay, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. How are you going to renew your mind? I'm going to renew it by going back to what the scriptures say about it, so that I'm operating upon truth rather than the lies that are part of it, and pornography is a big lie, okay? Even the images you're looking at aren't real. They're Photoshopped. That's a big part of it. I think that's the issue about this photographic stuff is that you're looking at something that's not real. Then you're like lasting for something. That's not real. So your wife is not going to satisfy you at all because you look at imaginary stuff, like something that Photoshop maybe. It's a fantasy world, and the more you get into living life based on the fantasy rhythm of truth, the farther away you're going to get from truth in more ways than just one. It won't just be the one area. It is very destructive, so it's very sinful. because we are moving away from what God says He wants, and actually moving into mental adultery. Another thing is, I share my password. I don't have nothing hidden. with Chrissy. So she just has access email, if you want to take a look. But also to help, another thing is you can, when I was talking with David about it, you can get an app, give it to somebody else, your accountability partner, and they have a password. It's not you that have the password. So that if you have the password, of course, you can change it. Right. You'll find a way around it. Yeah, parents usually find out they put these passwords on their electronic devices and the kids know more about it than they do and easily switch it. So yeah, it has to be. So accountability software, blocking software is good for not getting it in your face, but it's still going to come down really more to your own mindset. Parrish, I thought you had your hand like, it was moving. So I thought maybe, I got another one. All right. Job tells us he was accused, maybe he was lessening after the women. He said, how could I do that? I had made a covenant with my eyes that I should not have provoked a virgin. So you actually train yourself, you don't look, you look away. You can't prevent the crow from flying over your head, but you certainly can prevent it from building a hair in your nest, or a nest in your hair, a hair in your nest. A nest in your hair, right? You don't have to dwell on it, you look away. And that is that's a skill you learn. And there's also some practical things that you can do, like you were talking about the blocking, but also making sure that you don't get into that situation where, you know, you're alone and whatever, your systems and computers are like in a corner or something like that. If you walk into my office, there's actually three computers there. They all face outward. There's nothing hidden. They face outward on purpose. I had three sons. They were going to face outward. There's a lot of practical things you can do, but you have to have someone who can encourage you. Keep your mind where it needs to be. Dangers of fornication. Personal, physical, medical, emotional, societal. Well, what's the biggest problem with it? The abomination of God. Okay, this abomination of God. Does it say that anywhere? say it anywhere. I didn't make it up. Not directly, but isn't it implied, like in Genesis? Well, it does say it. It's part of all through the Levitical code, right? So it is. It's an abomination. Fornication is playing married, and you're not married. So it's adultery. If you're with somebody who's married, it's fornication. If not, it's the same sin. So it is an abomination to God, just like adultery. Okay, physical, medical. Of course, like diseases. STDs. Pregnancies, abortions. Pregnancy. And I've also thought about this too. It's like, if you're running through a lot of what you want to call it partners or whatever, then it leads to like also comparison. You can start thinking about someone else and then that can Stay on your mind instead that if you didn't Participate in that that wouldn't be an issue then they wouldn't right Okay Paul Washer talks about test drive dating. And he said the difference between a car and a woman is that you can test drive a car and walk away. The car's not changed. You're not changed. Yes. But you can't be with a woman and either of you, both of you walk away and change. You walk away, you are changed. All right. All sorts of medical issues with it. Pregnancy is just one of them. There are a host of diseases. We are in a infertility crisis in our nation. Our replacement rate is currently, I think, was 1.63 last time I saw the figure. Replacement rate is 2.1. We're not even replacing ourselves. It's just become very common. People are having a hard time getting pregnant. Well, this is actually part of it. Diseases figure into that, are part of it. Some of them, like Louie's syndrome, you go insane. It's a spirochete, and as you get older, you go insane. Those figures are also skewed because of how many abortions we're having too. We're killing what we have. Between all of it, we're way down. But there's a real hard time. People are having a real tough time getting pregnant now. When Diane and I were having kids, that was extremely rare. I don't think we even knew anybody personally that wasn't able, everybody was having kids. Now we have a lot of couples in our church. They've had a really tough time. So that's part of it. Emotional. Sorry, but I mean, these aren't people necessarily that There's lots of other things going on to it too. But I'm just saying this adds to it because a lot of the diseases will leave you sterile. So that just adds to the overall population. There's other factors. Jonathan and Danielle did a lot of research on this. There's a big movement against plastics because it seems to be somewhat related to that. There are some thought that it could be some of the injections we're getting, all sorts of inoculations, but what are they really and how are they affecting us? That infertility rate, even among those who are not, that are walking impurity, and it's only, there's just the two of them, it's just it's skyrocketed but this just adds to that so it's another medical problem emotional yeah you already mentioned that right you leave a piece of you if you look at first corinthians chapter six i don't know anybody yeah we do not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her and he says the two shall become one flesh but the one who joins himself to the lowest one so you're leaving a piece of yourself emotionally with every person you're with and Paul had to warn about that. So it's 1 Corinthians 6. Societal. Relation, I mean, single parents, broken homes and all that kind of stuff. Okay, yeah, parish. Well, it has a lot to do with the family structure and the role of the family in society as kind of the base level of order. It's destroyed it. Patrick Moynihan, you're New Yorkers, you know who that is? Oh, Juan, Juan does. He was US Senator for New York. He was in charge of a committee that did a lot of research on these related issues. And he had warned back, that would have been the seventies, about the rise of single parents. At that time in the black community, it was about one third And he's pointing out this is already causing lots of problems. It's ghettoizing. The single moms are usually impoverished compared to those who are married. And it's creating gangs because there's no dads around. Currently, in the Black communities, the single parent rate is about 3 quarters or more. My figures are a couple of years old now. Overall, in the United States, we're about one third single parents. Over half of kids will now spend at least part of their growing up years in a single parent house. Notice anything with our young kids? What they're like? You don't grow with a father. Anybody notice daddy issues with young men? What's it mean to be a man? It's tough, it's rough, and it does affect the church. Even with my boys, most of the young men they grew up with, David always described, they had their daddy issues. Their dad wasn't there. Some of them didn't even know who their dad was, or not seen him since they were a little boy, or the dad was not involved. They did not know what it meant to be a man. So it has a lot of ramifications. Or as someone said, why buy the cow if you get the milk for free? So it puts off marriage. What is the average age for first marriage now for men? It's in the 30s now? It's in the 30s. I'm not sure where it is exactly. It's over 30. Right. It used to be mid to early 20s. Oh, it was lower than that. Right. When I, in 1989, I know those statistics did seminars on that. It was 27 for men in 1989. Wow. 27. Okay. The average age for a woman at that time was 24. You know what it is now? As of a couple of years ago, 27.6. Wow. It's getting later and later. So now she's starting to be running up against a biological clock, too, being having kids. A lot of pressure. Fornication is a big part of that. We just keep putting off it. It was interesting, I was in Australia doing seminars in 1989, which is why I know the statistic for that. They have a whole different system. At 16, you have to decide if you're matriculate or you go to trade colleges. Matriculation was you're going to go to college. So most would go to trade colleges. They were usually married by their late teens, early 20s. It was amazing how much more mature they were. It just night and day because there's a lot of maturity comes when you have to pay your own bills. Or you're 20 years old and you have a child. Well, I am responsible. You gain a lot of maturity with that. Whereas in the United States, we're having a real problem with the guys staying in their mother's basement and playing video games. So when are they going to grow up? This is just part of it. But fornication fits in there. The sex drive is usually something that pushes toward marriage. Well, if it's being fulfilled in a wrong way, then the marriages aren't happening. All right, dangers of adultery. Destroys the family unit. It destroys the family. Destroys you, destroys all those around you. Some of you may have that as your own background. I mean, if you don't have your background, your kids have to deal with it. Your family's stable, but they're talking to their friends, their friends are products of divorce, and the kids come home wondering like, are you and daddy gonna get divorced? Are you and mommy gonna get divorced? Because they just see it just unstabilizes everything, aside from the confusion that goes on. Physical, medical, same as with fornication. Lots of diseases come with that. Emotional. It destroys the trust between the man and the wife. It's absolutely destroyed. It's just the family. So family is destroyed, societal, it's destroying us. It's interesting, Ronald Reagan, was governor in California and he signed the first no-fault divorce. That was his own experience. He had a bad divorce and he thought it would just be able to remove some of the acrimony that went into it. It was his wife that messed around and divorced him. Before he died, he went back to that one and said it was one of the worst bills he ever passed. Because he didn't foresee what was gonna end up happening. Every state now has no fault divorce. So now you end up with a problem of the laws that used to protect the wife and the children now exploit her. It's just a matter of dividing assets. Doesn't matter who caused it, it's just divide the assets. It's caused no end of problems. But what do you expect by laws that are written by men who are lawyers at the legislatures? They'll write it for their own benefit. Societal is destroying us. 13, what are some solutions to help those who are tempted toward either fornication or adultery? Prayer. You can start with prayer, because it's going to have to take the Holy Spirit to change their minds and hearts. All right, parents said earlier. Memorize scripture. I think the best one would be Galatians 5.16, right? But they say, walk by the Spirit, you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5.16. Paris, you want to add something else to that? I was going to say, a right view of God is the fear of God in your life will keep you from a lot of sins like that. That's huge. It does make a difference. The beginning of wisdom starts with the fear of God. Okay. 14, according to Romans 1, what is the basis for men and women turning to sexual perversions? It's right with what Paris just said. It's a turning away from God. And so there's a downward decline. And it happens fairly rapidly. Nothing satisfies anymore. I think that's why the evolution is so nasty, right? Because the thing is, if there's no God, You can do whatever you want. You're not answerable to anyone. They're not answering anybody. You think that they're going to follow evolution, at least they think through it, but they don't. 15. What sexual person is Paul describing in Romans 1, 26-27? We already talked about that. 16. What are the sexual perversions described in Leviticus 18? We already talked about that and list them out. They're all there, and they're all practiced. 17. What did the Lord warn them would happen if they practiced these perversions, and what did historically happen? Death, and that's exactly what has happened. They destroy themselves. They will reap the consequences in and of themselves. So death, horrible diseases, it's simply a consequence of what they're doing. Destroyed relationships, isolation, suicide, all sorts of things happen. 18, what are the dangers of sexual perversions? They end up being the same, don't they? Except worse. Except worse. Even more diseases. Even more problems. It gets worse and worse, you know, just like it's increasing in nature. Well, think about it. So homosexual males, a lot of them end up with colostomies. A what? Colostomies. You have a bag. So you grab a bag, okay, you carry it around with you, okay, because you can't hold it in, okay, that's just a normal consequence of it. That's what about these transsexuals, they're getting altered surgeries. It becomes really heartbreaking. There's several, especially mostly women that are really going against it and suing and all the rest of it and saying what had How is it that no adult protected me? I was a kid and you all pushed me into this and they're suing, but what they've gone through is horrible. And all of them end up, it's a lifetime of drugs. So the whole thing really, there's a lot of money found in it. We've well advanced past a hundred million dollars being made on this stuff by the those pushing it. Thousands of children have been pushed into this. And they end up on a lifetime of drugs. Well that's a pretty good income stream isn't it? Drugs, You have to go see a psychologist because you're nuts. It's a good income stream. There's all sorts of things, personally, physically, medically, emotionally destroyed, and families, absolutely destroys a family. And society, we're paying the price. There's a lot more to it than might meet the eye. Society functions the basis we can trust each other. All these things destroy trust. Can you trust each other? Society functions on being healthy so we can do our part and work whatever work we do so someone else can purchase that thing that we made and they can purchase mine. What happens when the workforce is destroyed because they're all homesick or they can't function? Well, suddenly you have a few people trying to carry everybody. So it destroys the society. No society has survived that goes the direction we've already gone. That's just history. Which is worse, sexual perversions or interpreting scripture to excuse or eliminate God's condemnation of sexual perversion? Explain. It's the latter. So what's the worst that sexual perversion can lead you into? What is the worst that a sexual perversion can lead you into? What's the worst thing that could happen to you? Death, right? You could die, right? What's the worst thing that perverting scripture could lead you to? Eternal death. Okay, no truth, it's eternal death. So it is very serious. And another thing I was thinking about, like even with what, like how Jason is saying, it was like with the sexual perversion, it can almost, it's like individual kind of. So then, but if I'm interpreting on purpose, I'm affecting more than just me, right? I'm leading others, right? You're pushing them into it. and I think I see this too, it's a willful sinfulness. Because you know that it's true, but you're still willfully doing it. So someone's tripping and misinterpreting scripture, twisting it that way, you're giving cover for them, so they will continue in it. So these churches that are, you know, quote-unquote LGBT plus affirming, they're bad places. They're evil places. and really they're missing just some basic compassion for those who are coming in through their doors, which is the next question. How should we respond to those who are trapped in these sexual perversions? We need truth spoken in love. I got a reminder a while ago, I was reading through Proverbs, Lying is an abomination. You're in the same boat, Trevor. Well, I think it's an abomination. I can be brought out. Okay, listen, I've committed abominations. I'm not picking on you. We all, we're in the same boat. We need the same savior. Yes. So that's where compassion starts coming in because we recognize our own sinfulness. And that gives a compassion that we wouldn't have otherwise. So there's no room for being thinking you're somehow morally superior and holier-than-thou because we have our own sin. Now, is there sin at a higher, at a worse level? Actually, it is. Romans tells us that. And there's greater consequences for what they're doing. But ultimately, we need to have what you just said. I recognize my own sin. It still condemns me to eternal hell. If I can get them to understand that salvation from sin is what I'm presenting to you in Christ, you can be forgiven and you can be changed, now you give them hope. They don't have to stay there. They don't have to be like that. That's not easy to get across to them, because they believe that they have no choice. That's why you keep hearing that. I was born this way. I'm sorry, there's still nothing that demonstrates anybody was born that way. Nothing. keep looking for it. They're looking for the gay gene. They haven't found it yet. It's interesting to watch homosexuals fight with the transsexuals because they want to say, I was born this way, and that gives me the reason. And if you can go back and forth, well, then you weren't born that way, were you? So it's interesting to watch some of these groups Always looking for an excuse, Pastor. They're always looking for an excuse. And it isn't. It's a choice. We choose to sin. It doesn't feel like that a lot, but we choose to sin. If you lie, you chose to lie. We choose to do those things. If you get angry and you blow up and you break things, you chose to do that. So we'll pick on any of those things, right? We choose to do it, but truth moves us, exposes it, so we can walk in truth and recognize, I can make choices by being transformed, by renewing my mind, knowing what God says, and choosing to do it His way, and let Him take care of the results, whatever that's going to be. This one should be easy. How did the Obergefell et al. versus Hodge-Skodes opinion demonstrate our society is in the last step of depravity described in Romans 1, 20 through 32? It's the same as the approval, isn't it? It is approval. Approval. Giving hearty approval to those who do these things. Not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. And that's what they end up doing. According to biology, what determines the sex gender of a human? I thought they're 64. Well, that's why I said, according to biology, not according to New York City government. XX female, XY male. So they're chromosomes. What if you were a diploid, you had two sets of chromosomes? Then you were born this way. Yeah, you're born with two sets of chromosomes. What still determines your sex? The predominant one. If you have a Y, you're a boy. If it's not all Xs, you have a Y, you're a boy. Even if you have two sets of chromosomes. Now it does mean there are some interesting physical anomalies. that can occur with that, but the genes themselves tell you which one actually functions. So the boxer during the Olympics, he has a, why? He's a guy. It's that simple. Cause they want to make out with something because there are some strange things that happen anatomically, but he didn't, he wasn't functioning. So there can be people who are born with both sex organs. One doesn't function. But if they test them they would... All you have to do is test the genes. There's a why there. It's a guy. So the reason I asked that question is because they want to present something like the boxer in the Olympics. Like oh look at he's At this point, they're like, it's still pretty simple. It's that simple with biology. So what God says is still true. He made them male and female. All right, there's genetic decline. There's corruption and corrupt genes as well. But if there's a why, it's a guy. So how do you know it's a guy? Why? Can the biology sex gender be changed? Why or why not? You can't chain the genes in every single cell. You'd have to change that. Why is agreeing with the confusion of person with gender dysphoria ultimately cruel to him or her? You read this on the constitution, right? Yeah, I've read that. Ultimately, it is cruel to them, because they're going to be living on a lie. And as they pursue all those things, they're going to become mutilated. What have already should be what has already been, or what has been. Man, that's terrible English. What are the consequences of citing laws and regulations that require a society to agree with confusion and those with gender dysphoria? Chrissy lost her job. Other people lose their jobs. And you have the children. Lawsuits. Children are confused. Nancy Wugen has a niece who is legally attached to another woman. They have a little boy they're raising as a girl. That's the kind of stuff that goes on. Approved. And it just gets worse and worse and worse. Society can't function with that. you have the emasculation of men in the military. I was talking to Jeff a little bit about that. I should let you talk. So what happens if you've got a guy who thinks he's a girl and he's gonna be on the front lines? All right, what about the girl that thinks she's a guy and she's gonna be on the front lines? Well, she's probably shooting the gun, but can she carry it? Right, because anatomically, it's just, it's not the same. Like, okay, I can go into thinking this, I can take the medications, but let's just go by bone structure. She's not going to be able to handle the same weight as a male. can. No matter how fit, how cross fit, whatever, it's just it's not the same. And then the same thing is like also the acceptance like uh with the men uh now they're cross-dressing in the service and things and everything else and it's like when we're on the world stage We're being attacked so bad. We are. So military can't function. No, they can't. So that makes it dangerous for everybody. And at this point, if China, this is my own view here, if China and Russia were not so mad, they could easily take us out. Because the military can't function the way it did. You will not see a repeat of what we did in Iraq. that military doesn't exist anymore. All right. How can you respond to a person with gender dysphoria with godly compassion? First is prayer. Start with prayer. Speak the truth in love. Help them understand the truth. We're not condemning, but we're pointing out the truth. The difference is a condemnation. There's no hope for you. We point out the truth is, no, you're not whatever you think you are. You're something else. And no, I'm not joining in your lie. Okay? And you can be kind when you say that. I can't join your lie. You are deceiving yourself. I won't join in with that. And can it cost you? Yes. Linda Walter has a granddaughter who thinks she's a boy sometimes. She wants to go buy a different name than her given name. And Linda says, I can't call you anything other than what your actual name is. That's not who you are. So every time they go to visit, she finds some way to not be there. It hurts. It hurts greatly. But Linda's like, I cannot compromise. It would be cruel to her to affirm her in something that she's not, and to keep praying that at some point, truth will reign in her mind and heart, and she'll recognize the importance of a grandmother who actually really loved her. All right, we worked through our questions. I already posted some material for next week. I did go back and correct the sermons on Romans, which I found were all messed up on the website. But now they are in order. The Greek is the Greek. It's more legible. I did check the other stuff. There's lots of resources for next week's discussion. And that's going to be on finance. rapidly changed a whole different kind of stuff, Julie. You will have the same format where you'll send out the question, questionnaires. I actually didn't have a question on this one, but I probably should put out something. There's a lot of questions most people usually have about finances to begin with, but we'll start with some of the sermons and stuff, the whole stewardship series. And it's like, well, how do we handle that? We are in a society, I might get some basic economic things or questions about that. Maybe I'll even throw out a few for you to think about. Why is capitalism superior to communism economically? So you think about it. What's wrong with socialism? What's wrong? What's the problem that we're not on the gold standard? There's some macro economics on that one. How should things be priced? Why is GDP a figment of the government's imagination? Should there be a Fed? I could have a lot of fun with this, but I'll try and keep it more practical on simple economics as should you spend more than you make? What's the problem with debt? What's good debt? What's bad debt? We'll take in some of those things, okay? How do you get out of debt? I think we can have some fun with that, okay? How can you go from poverty to being wealthy? A lot of things in Proverbs about that. So if you don't get to any of the other ones, at least read the sermons on Proverbs on economics. It's really encouraging. We don't have to live like the rest of the world. And God is good. And maybe even share some stories how God meets needs that you knew you couldn't. because he does. And how do we put those biblical principles? I'll give this one for Paris. So what verses should we memorize as we think through finances? That'll be your assignment. I probably have a list of them or something. All right. I hope this was helpful to you, making you think through things. Some of it is very uncomfortable. There's no question about it. Some of it is enough to make your stomach turn when we recognize what's going on around us, but we have the answer for people. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he can change anybody. He can change anybody. People who were, that doesn't mean not everything will be there, but he can change them. I was taking counseling class, this would have been a 1980, war. That's a long time ago now. It is a long time ago now, 1984. This subject was going to be part of it. The guy who was leading it said, well, this is what he had. He had these two guys come into his office and he's a Christian counselor and said, well, we both have just become Christians, but we now have a problem. Can you help us with it? So I went on to explain is one was a guy, one was a guy who had had surgery to be a girl. Now, as soon as he said that, I went, I could wrap my head around what he was saying. I really couldn't. Like, what? 1984. 1984. The surgery has been done for a long time, but it was that rare. I never even heard. I had psychology classes in college. I'd never heard of this before. So he gave us a little time and he explained it a couple times just so we would get it. And then so he went on how to use calcium is you're a new creature in Christ. But you obviously have a problem here is you're not married. That's impossible. Marriage is between a man and a woman. You're two guys. You're gonna have to divorce because there's a legal aspect here. that because you can't be married as Christians. You may still be friends, and unfortunately for you who have gone through this, you will live the rest of your life as a mutilated man, because that's really what all you are. You're a mutilated man, but you can still live for the glory of Christ, which is what he went on to do. And that's going to be some realities. There are severe consequences of some of these things, but Christ still has the ability to change someone into being something completely different. And there's a lot of these stories about those who quote-unquote de-transitioned that have gone on to live very successfully. A lot of them there's there's constantly never gonna have children or a woman who's never going to be able to breastfeed her child. There's a lot of these consequences for a woman who is going to have a deeper voice the rest of her life, because she started taking the hormones, or a guy who's going to be, I just call him squeaky, because he took things, but they can still live for Christ and still bring glory to their God and Savior. That's the hope we can offer people. no psychologist can offer that kind of stuff. They only can see it more and more deeply into their sin, and it destroys them. I think 1 Corinthians actually really gives that hope, because in 1 Corinthians, such were some of you, and included in that list were homosexuals, and the actual word there would be feminine. Those were guys who were acting like girls. There is hope. So there is hope for them. Such were some of you. 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9, 10, and 11, there's where we have hope for anybody we're dealing with. Father, thank you for the time we've had this evening to talk about these things. Obviously, some of this is really hard, and yet what joy we have that we have a message of hope, even for those who are in the most wretched of conditions. Father, you can change them. We know it begins with prayer and then pointing to truth, being quick with the scriptures that give that very hope, like 1 Corinthians 11. Father, as we go our separate ways, that we be mindful of these things and be used by you for your glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.