We are followers of Jesus, not culture.

  

4 ways people look at Scripture:

1 - As a Fixed Anchor

2 - As a Sea Anchor

3 - As a Historical Landmark

4 - As a waste of time

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

-2 Timothy 3:16-17

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.'

-Romans 1:16-17

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness...

-Romans 1:18

Orge: the release of God’s settled anger, little by little to catalyze repentance.

Thumos: the immediate and powerful release of God’s judgment at the culmination of History.

Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

-Romans 1:19

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

-Romans 1:20

Phase 1 - They become futile in their thinking.

  

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

-Romans 1:21

Futile thinking: Metaiotis: the way you are presently thinking will not achieve the intended goal.

Phase 2 - They exchange the truth of God for a lie.

  

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

-Romans 1:22

Wise: Sophos: Insight into the way things really are.

Fools: not Moros: moron: you know the truth but you refuse. But Asunetos: Asinine: unintelligent, stupid. You have actually become so darkened in your understanding that you’re ignorant.

Exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images..

  

Image: Eikon: icon.

Phase 3 - God gives them over to their depravity to degrade their bodies with one another.

  

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

-Romans 1:24-25

Gave them over: Paradidomi: lowered His hand. No restraint.

Degrading of their bodies: Atimia: "dishonor" their bodies with one another. To disgracefully use something designed for nobility.

Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.

-1 Corinthians 6:18-20

Actual Greek translation:

They changed the truth of God into the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the one who created who is blessed unto the ages, Amen.

-Romans 1:25

Worship: "to give worth to." Over and above God.

Phase 4: God allows the due penalty of idolatry to take its course.

  

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.

-Romans 1:26

Shameful: Dishonor: Atimia: "dishonor" their bodies with one another but this time, with the same sex.

Use: Chresis: sexual intercourse.

In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

-Romans 1:27

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

-Colossians 4:6

In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

-Romans 1:27

Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

-Romans 1:27b

What is the due penalty?

Men who have sex with men and gay men are at increased risk for certain types of chronic diseases, cancers, and mental health problems.

-Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Life apart from God does not work!

  

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

-Romans 1:29-32

Then the Lord said to him, 'Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.'

-Genesis 15:13-16

Gender Dysphoria: the distress someone experiences when they have a disconnect between their bodily sex and internal sense of gender.

Among children who struggle with gender dysphoria, 80-95 percent of those who are allowed to mature naturally through puberty resolve their dysphoria. In contrast, those who undergo physical transition interventions such as puberty blockers and other irreversible surgeries, often do not see any lasting benefits with regard to mental health. In fact, many patients experience permanent damage to their cardiovascular health, bone density, and reproductive functions.

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-having a form of godliness but denying its power.

-2 Timothy 3:1-5

And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

-Romans 13:11-14

  

  

  

  

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