God's Design for Gender

Rules of engagement:

1. Honor the Lord (Jn. 13:35; Col. 4:6)

2. Commit to learning together (listen to understand, not respond)

3. Be respectful of one another

4. Believe the best in one another, not the worst

Sermon Notes

I. __________

A. A real ________ for some

B. Transgenderism is _______, not treated

C. T ______ with LGB

II. God’s ______ for gender (Gen. 1-3)

A. Created in God’s _____ (Gen. 1:26-27)

B. God made us ____ and ______

1. In His _____ (Gen. 1:27)

2. To __________ one another (Gen. 2:18-24)

C. The ____ of mankind affects everything (Gen. 3)

III. The Christian ________

A. ______ the vulnerable

B. The Church is a ________, not a country club

C. Winsome _______

1. _____ firm on God’s Word

2. Show __________

3. Declare the whole ______

Going Deeper

On May 29, 2014 a cover story in Time Magazine declared: “Another civil rights movement is poised to challenge long-held cultural norms and beliefs. Transgender people are emerging from the margins to fight for an equal place in society.” How have you seen this unfold in the last seven years?
Transgender ideology has been brewing for some time. In 2008, the American Psychological Association and the National Association of Social Workers called for the “full normalization” of transgenderism. The American Psychiatric Association followed in 2012. What does this tell us about how our culture views gender?
Feminist Janice Raymond, in Transsexual Empire, says:“In some very real sense, female biology shapes female history – a history that men don’t have because of their sex – including the history of menstruation, the history of pregnancy…the history of childbirth…the history of certain bodily cycles and life changes, and the history of female subordination in a male-dominant society. Note that I keep saying history. To deny that female history is, in part, based on female biology is like denying that important aspects of Black history are based on skin color. Female biology…confers a historical reality about what it means to be born with XX chromosomes…No so-called sex-change has ever begged for a uterus-and-ovaries transplant; if uterus-and-ovaries transplants were made mandatory for wannabe women they would disappear overnight…There is a witness to the transsexual’s script, a witness who is never consulted. She is the person who…brought up [the transgender person] as her son or daughter. Whatever else it is gender reassignment is an exorcism of the mother.” In what ways is she right? What is she missing?
Read Genesis 1:26-28; 2:1-24. What do you notice about God’s design for humanity? For gender?
Read Genesis 3:1-19. How did disorder come into the world? How has it affected the complementarity of men and women?
Gender transition is an affront to God Himself. Andrew Walker points out: “When we as creatures reject the Creator’s blueprint, we are both rebelling against the natural order of how things objectively are, and (though it may not seem like it) we are rejecting the life that is going to be the highest good for us.”Do agree with this statement? Why or why not?
Read 1 Pet. 3:7. How are men and women different? How are they equal? How can we be complementary of one another in everyday life?
Albert Mohler says: “In the very beginning, human beings are defined as male and female, not just as abstract genders. They are biologically sexed individuals who are created for the glory of God, for each other, and for a conjugal (marriage) relationship that has as its end the one-flesh relationship of the marital act and aim of procreation.” -We Cannot Be Silent (in the RC)Gender is rooted in God’s design and sacred order. How does transgenderism trample on God’s sacred order?
Nancy Pearcy says: “A biblical worldview grants value and dignity to our identity as male or female. Gender theology is rooted in creation theology. What God has created has intrinsic value and dignity.” -Love Thy Body (in the RC)
David Platt says: “Equal dignity does not eliminate distinction. Genesis 1 makes clear that God creates humans male and female, and he does it for a reason. Right after He blesses them, he commands them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth’ (Genesis 1:28). This command is only possible by virtue of the peculiarity of male and female.”
Andrew Walker says: “Our value and worth does not come from ourselves; it is God-given.” -Andrew Walker, God and The Transgender Debate (in the RC)How does this change the way we view ourselves and our identities?
Part of the Christian response is to have compassion on others. Nancy Pearcy says: “Christians ought to weep for people so confused about their identity – people who have absorbed a Darwinian view of nature has having no purpose or moral significance.” -Love Thy BodyDo you have this kind of compassion? How can you develop compassion?
Dr. Martin-Lloyd Jones says: “If you begin to play fast and loose with the authority of the Scriptures and with the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, you are of necessity involved in difficulties of the person of the Lord Himself.”
G. K. Chesterton wrote: “The result of ceasing to believe in God is not that one will then believe nothing; it is that one will believe anything.”How is this true of the transgender revolution?