Scripture Reading: Luke 5:27-32
How to Treat LGBTQ People
Intro.
1. https://goo.gl/75Px2k (Sep. 20, 2017 - 2:43 - Author of “Building a Bridge,” James Martin, S. J. shares insight on how the Catholic Church can form a better relationship with the LGBTQ community.) *
a. Martin says RCC has an obligation to welcome LGBTQ people.
b. Why? Because they are human beings, and because of the Pope’s statement, “Who am I to judge?”
c. Martin says, because Jesus “was always trying to include people, and made a point of specifically reaching out to people who felt marginalized.”
1) True that Jesus reached out to sinners, Lk. 19:10.
2) Not true that Jesus ever endorsed/encouraged sin, John 6:60-68; 8:11, 44; Lk. 14:26-27; Matt. 15:12-14.
3) Like Jesus, we must speak the truth in love, Eph. 4:15.
d. Martin said welcome them because the RCC catechism “calls on Catholics to treat LGBTQ people with respect, compassion and sensitivity.”
2. “Christian Author Jen Hatmaker Gives ‘Free Mom Hugs’ During LGBT Pride Parade” (faithwire.com). **
3. How should Christians treat LGBTQ people? (Illus. of importance: Now, “bullying” is twisted to mean not accepting transgender.***)
I. TREATING SINNERS WITH RESPECT. (God loves sinners!)
-Bible says to show respect to all: The aged, Lev. 19:32; Rulers, Prov. 25:6; One’s host, Luke 14:10; One another, Rom. 12:10; Phil. 2:3; 1 Pet. 2:17.[1]
A. Treat LGBTQ Sinners No Differently than Other Sinners, Rom. 3:23; Acts 17:30-31; cf. 1 Cor. 6:9-10.
1. Do we view anyone as a sinner today?
2. LGBTQ not “born this way” (choices, influences, decisions…).
3. Gospel call is for all sinners to repent, Acts 17:30-31.
* 4. We can (must) love LGBTQ as God loves them, John 3:16.
a. We must sacrifice to try to save them – like Jesus did.
b. Jesus did not accept sin; He challenged sinners to stop sinning, Jno. 8:11-12; Lk. 13:3, 5.
c. Be like Jesus was with sinners, try to save them, Lk. 5:27-32.
B. We Do Not Respect any Sin, including LGBTQ Sins, Rom. 3:23; 6:23.
-cf. Liars, adulterers, sexual harassers (Harvey Weinstein, et al.), pedophiles, rapists, etc.
1. Sin put Jesus on the cross (1 Pet. 2:24).
2. Sin brings the scourge of despair and eternal death (Rom. 6:23).
3. Sin puts people in hell (Rev. 21:8).
C. We Do Not Respect Sin because it is Against God’s Will and Dishonors Him, Matt. 7:21, 24-27.
D. We Do Not Respect What is Against Nature, Rom. 1:24-27.
-LGBTQ is against nature, arranged and ordained by God.
E. What Do We Do?
1. We love them in the Bible way: Teach, exhort, and warn them of their sin and repentance, Acts 18:8 (1 Cor. 6:9-11).
2. We cannot receive practicing sinners into fellowship, 2 Jno. 9-11; 2 Thess. 3:6, 14-15.
II. TREATING SINNERS WITH COMPASSION. (God loves sinners!)
A. The Compassion of God, Matt. 9:35-38; Luke 15.
1. God’s compassion identifies sin, Lk. 15:1-7.
2. God’s compassion rebukes sin, Acts 8:19-21.
3. God’s compassion provides solution for sin, Acts 8:22-23 (Mk. 6:34).
4. God’s compassion does not excuse sin, Rom. 6:1-2.
B. God’s Responses Toward Sinners (His people and others).
1. Israel, Exo. 20:1-6; 32:1, 6-10.
2. Nineveh, Nahum 1:1-3.
3. Sinning Christians, Acts 8:22-24; Gal. 6:1; Jas. 5:19-20.
C. You Cannot Correct What You Will Not Admit.
1. Must admit and repent of LGBTQ sins to be forgiven, Psa. 32:5.
2. This does not give us the right to be mean, rude, dismissive, etc. –Just as we ought not be so toward any other sinner, Rom. 12:18; 13:8 (peace and holiness, Heb. 12:14).
3. This means we do not have fellowship with those whose practice dishonors God (sin), 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1; 1 Jno. 3:10.
III. TREATING SINNERS WITH SENSITIVITY. (God loves sinners!)
A. Not by Using an Emotion-based Rationale for Accepting Sinners into Fellowship.
1. Told we must be sensitive to the anxieties, insecurities, the doubts and the journeys of LGBTQ people.
2. Paul’s sensitivity did not indulge and coddle sin, 2 Cor. 11:28-29; It compelled him to correct sinners, 1 Cor. 6:9-11.
B. Sinners are Sensitive to the Light, Jno. 3:19-21.
1. Should we turn off the light of truth because it exposes the sin? Of course not. We must shine the light of truth, so those in darkness can find their way to salvation. Jno. 8:12
2. Includes Christians we have withdrawn from, 2 Thess. 3:14-15.
Conclusion
1. Jesus came to save sinners:
a. Not by respecting our sins, but by respecting the value of our souls.
b. Not by giving forgiveness to sinners who remain in sin, but by giving forgiveness to those who forsake all and follow Him.
c. Not by constraining Himself to a sinner-defined sensitivity that ignores sin and truth, but by challenging sinners to become sensitive to the light of truth.
2. LGBTQ people are lost. They need to learn and obey the truth, just like all other sinners. (Matt. 11:28)
NOTES
* https://goo.gl/75Px2k (Sep. 20, 2017 - 2:43 - Author of “Building a Bridge,” James Martin, S.J. shares insight on how the Catholic Church can form a better relationship with the LGBTQ community.)
Martin asks:
“Is there a place for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the Catholic Church?”
“How can they know God loves them?”
“How can bishops reach out to LGBT Catholics?”
“How can LGBT people find a place in a church, that often seems like their enemy?”
“Should church officials fire LGBT officials for entering into same-sex marriages?”
He continues:
“The Catholic Church has an obligation to welcome LGBT people, to show that they’re beloved children of God, to celebrate their gifts, to listen to them, to accompany them, and to suffer with, and even for, them.”
“Why? Because they’re human beings. They’re Catholics, too. They’ve been baptized, and so they’re as much a part of the Church as me, their local bishop, or the Pope. And recently, there have been more signs of that acceptance. Pope Francis’ most famous phrase may be, “Who am I to judge?”
-Other signs of acceptance: “The catechism of The Catholic Church calls on Catholics to treat LGBT people with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Those virtues can also help the LGBT community as it interacts with the Church.”
“Or Jesus, in his public ministry, was always trying to include people, and made a point of specifically reaching out to people who felt marginalized, because to Jesus, there was no one who was ‘other.’ For Jesus, there’s no ‘us’ and ‘them;’ there is only ‘us.’”
** “Christian Author Jen Hatmaker Gives ‘Free Mom Hugs’ During LGBT Pride Parade” (faithwire.com)
“Hatmaker, who faced backlash in 2016 when she departed from traditional Christian teachings and declared same-sex marriage to be “holy,” shared about the outreach event in an emotional Instagram post.
“My beloved little church went downtown to the [Austin Pride Parade] and gave out free mom hugs, free dad hugs, free grana hugs, and free pastor hugs like it was our paying jobs,” she wrote.”
(An acquaintance of a Christian “shared” this article, saying, “and they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love! And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”)
*** “A 9-Year-Old Colorado Boy’s Death by Suicide Highlights the Challenges Facing LGBTQ Kids” (By Jamie Ducharme, August 28, 2018, time.com)
By: Joe R. Price
Posted: August 30, 2018