Our, ‘What About?’ series, aims to answer the most common questions we get asked as a Christian Church in Texas.
Watch the sermon or read the manuscript to find out where we stand on Abortion.
What About, Transgenderism?: Sermon Manuscript
This morning we are finishing up our series called, “What About?” Next Sunday we will launch into Advent as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, but if you want to catch up on the series you can check out our YouTube Channel.
We’ve talked about the role of women, abortion, those who have never heard about Jesus, sex before marriage, racism, politics, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and this morning we are talking about transgender.
I don’t have to tell you that this conversation is massively sensitive. It is one that is contentious, complicated, and as a result people in general tend to avoid the conversation as a whole.
It’s possible that some of us are asking the question, “Are we sure we should be talking about this on a Sunday morning?” But we’re talking about this conversation everywhere else.
Teachers in schools are having this conversation with our children. People in sports are having this conversation. The legal community is having this conversation. The workplace is having this conversation. Television shows and movies are definitely having this conversation, so it would be weird to talk about this conversation in every area of our life, but not on Sunday morning.
Therefore, our hope isn’t talk about this conversation, so we never have to talk about this conversation again, but we are trying to open up lines of communication to help us engage something we need to engage, because the good news of Jesus applies to all areas of life.
Pew research conducted in 2021 reported 4 in 10 Americans say they personally know someone who is a transgender person, and a 2020 Gallop poll said that number is increasing with the younger generations, therefore, we want to be clear how the good news of Jesus applies to every area of life.
That’s been one of the benefits of us going through these conversations as a church family. We can be confident in our faith in Jesus. We don’t need to be ashamed of God’s Word. We can navigate these conversations full of grace and truth because Jesus and His Word applies to every area of our life. You with me?
Therefore, this morning we are going to begin to step into this conversation and try to walk through three areas; 1. Where Does Our Culture Land? 2. How Does God’s Word Respond? 3. How Do We Respond? Let’s look at our first sub-point; 1. Define the Conversation.
- Where Does Our Culture Land?
Perhaps some of us remember in 2015 Vanity Fair featured the former Olympic Champion Bruce Jenner on their cover with Bruce identifying as a woman, wearing lingerie, and a caption that read, “Call me Caitlyn.”
Culturally, it felt like that was the tipping point, the moment the conversation around transgender people began to make its way into our everyday language, so that today we seem to be settling on this definition:
Transgender: Transgender people are those whose gender identity does not match their sex assigned at birth, that they can be trans men, trans women, and also, non-binary, meaning the do not identify as men or women.
Up to this point in history your “gender identity” was determined by the objective fact of your biological sex, but for many people in our culture today the facts of biology do not determine your “gender identity” but instead it is your subjective perception of your “gender identity” that ultimately matters. One person put it this way:
“Gender is about what’s between your ears, not what’s between your legs.”
I know this is a lot to jump into on a Sunday morning, so lean in with me. A key term that is used in this conversation today is a term called “Gender Dysphoria:
Gender Dysphoria: Gender dysphoria is a term that describes a sense of unease that a person may have because of a mismatch between their biological sex and their gender identity.
As a result, a person might have considerable psychological and emotional distress about their physical body not matching what they feel they have emotionally, and that creates a state of unhappiness, restlessness, and frustration for people with gender dysphoria.
In addition, it’s important to clarify that for our culture this conversation is a conversation of equality, justice, and civil rights for how people are treated.
Our culture believes a person cannot flourish as a person unless they are able to embrace their inner identity, and it’s the responsibility of the community at large to accept, affirm, and celebrate their inner identity.
Which is why people are genuinely asking, “What kind of restrooms need to be made available, what kind of uniforms need to be required, who can be on which sport team, which dorm does someone stay in at a youth camp,” and it’s likely these questions are only going to increase.
It’s possible some might be asking, “What causes gender dysphoria?” Nobody knows. How many people have gender dysphoria? Nobody knows. It’s internal, it’s subjective, and it’s really complicated to understand one another in this conversation.
I’ve tried to identify two types of people in this conversation, and I landed on these two categories:
- Compassion Perspective: If people feel this way, then lets bend toward those people. Male and female are just labels. It’s the loving thing to do.
- Congruent Perspective: Generally speaking humanity has always functioned under male and female categories based on biology; therefore, it is disorienting to simply say, “Those things no longer matter.”
If you’re home for Thanksgiving and find yourself in a conversation on Transgender People, it’s like people are in one of two groups. (Read descriptions)
If you are in the Compassion Perspective Group, you would do well to have “compassion” toward those who find this conversation really disorienting. Right?
Yelling, protesting, and emotional outbursts about “loving people” doesn’t come across as a very loving person. Does that make sense?
In addition, if you are in the Congruent Perspective Group you would do well to convey empathy and concern for all people.
Saying things like, “Transgender people are just a fraction of our population” doesn’t help, because a fraction of a people is still people.
Therefore, we would all do well to identify which group we might be in, and then begin to work really hard to find common ground with the other group, so that we can have a healthy conversation with one another. Let’s look at our second sub-point; 2. How Does God’s Word Respond?
- How Does God’s Word Respond?
Obviously, the Bible doesn’t have the word “transgender” in it, but there is wisdom in Scripture that can speak to how we walk through this conversation today. Let’s look at Genesis 1:
Genesis 1:26-27, “26 Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
It’s possible that we might see these verses as outdated verses, but these verses teach us about the character of God.
In Genesis 1 we see the God of Scripture is benevolent, because He creates us. He is powerful, because He speaks creation into existence. He is relational because we are made in His image, and then in verse 27 we see humanity is set apart as “male and female.”
I understand our culture says “male and female” are just social constructs, but I want us to be careful we aren’t overlooking the importance of our physical bodies.
We saw this in our conversation on “Sex before marriage” and that our bodies aren’t physical inanimate objects. Our physical bodies matter.
The God of Scripture could have identified us by our ethnicity (Arab and Egyptian), by our physical height (short and tall), by our weight, by our hair color, but instead we are identified as male and female, so that early on we see the significance of our physical bodies align us with being made in the image of God.
In addition, Scripture places an important emphasis on the intentionality of our physical bodies:
- 1 Corinthians 15:42, “42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body.”
- Psalm 139:13, “For You created my innermost parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.”
- Romans 8:23, “23 And not only that, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons and daughters, the redemption of our body.”
- 1 Corinthians 6:19, “19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”
Femininity and masculinity might be a social construct. What we consider feminine, and masculine might change over time based on the culture at the time, but not male and female, because in Genesis 1 we are made male and female.
Now, it’s possible a person might say, “Genesis-Smenisish. I don’t care what Genesis 1 says, this is how I feel.”
Fair enough. But, the good news of Jesus applies to every area of our life, and God’s Word teaches us that Genesis 3 is coming.
It is in Genesis 1-2 we see the foundation of humanity established as “male and female”, and in Genesis 3 we see all of humanity, and all of creation begin to break down spiritually, socially, and sexually through a process commonly known today as our sin, and we see this practically in our lives today.
We don’t see the perfection of Genesis 1-2 today, but instead we see spiritual brokenness (we worship anything and everything, but God), social brokenness (we constantly hurt one another), and sexual brokenness (polygamy, pornography, promiscuity, homosexuality), which means “how we feel” isn’t always accurate, and that doesn’t just apply to transgender people, but all of humanity.
It’s possible you are thinking, “Did you just say transgender people are broken people?” No, I said all people are broken people; spiritual, socially, and sexually, so that our “feelings” aren’t always accurate. You know this is true!
In my life personally, my natural desire sexually is to see people as sexual objects and use them accordingly. My natural desire socially is to isolate, avoid people, judge people, and mock people. I am not saying these things are okay, but these are my natural desires, shaped by how I feel.
My natural desire spiritually is to worship myself, seek my self-interests, bring attention to myself, and the gospel is that Jesus has come, God in the flesh, to expose the brokenness of my soul and call me turn to Him and find life, not in how I feel, which changes from day to day, and generation to generation, but in Him. (Pause)
I am guessing that some of us are thinking, “And, we’re basing all of this on some verses in the Old Testament?” Jesus did.
It is in Matthew 19 Jesus is speaking about divorce and marriage, talking about sexuality, and Jesus doesn’t say, “I love you; you do what feels right.”
No, Jesus quotes Genesis 1 and 2, and references humanity being made male and female, becoming one flesh in marriage, so that these verses aren’t just old verses, but foundational verses that shape all of life.
Lets talk about how we might respond.
- How Do We Respond?
- God’s Word speaks into our mind and our bodies. It’s possible that today we have elevated our mind and emotions over our bodies, but God’s Word speaks over both.
There was a season when a young female lived with our family as she battled bulimia. Outwardly she was fairly thin, but inwardly she believed herself to be grossly overweight, so she had built up an unhealthy pattern of expelling her food to help her outside match her inside.
In that moment we wouldn’t want to say to her, “You should listen to how you feel.” She was completely sincere, but she was objectively wrong, so that as a follower of Jesus our final authority in life isn’t our bodies or our minds or our emotions, but God’s Word speaks into our body, mind, and emotions. - God’s Word teaches us to lead out in these conversations with humility and compassion. When we talk to people who disagree with us, or people who agree with us, we must lead out with humility, because the gospel is that we are all broken people in need of a savior, therefore, our tone with ourselves, and with others should drip with compassion.
All people might not all be able to relate to gender dysphoria, but followers of Jesus know what it is like to have levels and layers of discomfort with our bodies.
We know what it is like to live with failing bodies. We know what it is like to wish our bodies looked different on some level, therefore, might we drip with compassion.
Proverbs 18:13, “If one gives an answer before he hears it is our folly and shame.” Therefore, might we be slow to speak and quick to listen, because we’re not going to speak well if we aren’t listening well.
Might we ask people, “If you’re comfortable, will you share more about your experiences.” Might we learn from one another, because people around us might be battered and bruised from the challenges of life, and we have a Savior who is gentle with our bruises, therefore, might we do the same. - God’s Word speaks to how we should respond in practical conversations. I am sure many of us are engaging the conversation around preferred pronouns, and I am sure we all have a myriad of feelings. Consider God’s Word:
Proverbs 26:4, “Do not answer a fool according to his foolishness, or you will also be like him.”
Proverbs 26:5, “Answer a fool as his foolishness deserves, so that he will not be wise in his own eyes.”
Well that’s great. Do we or don’t we, and God’s Word says, “yes.” There is wisdom in sometimes answering people in their non-biblical assumptions, because sometimes running with that concept we can show them how it might fall apart.
If a person asks me to address them by a certain name, or a certain pronoun, and it helps me further the relationship so that I might more fully show them Jesus, then absolutely I will give ground on something as simple as a name or a pronoun.
But, if there is a committed partner in our church family who has expressed faith in Jesus, maturing in Jesus, and then one day asks me to address them with a different name or a different pronoun then in that instance it would be best to not answer them according to their folly, because I would be affirming their folly.
In the end, if you are a person who is walking through gender dysphoria, going by preferred pronouns, or living as a transgender man or woman, then please know, you are always welcome here. In no way will we mock or belittle someone as we walk through these conversations, but we invite you here, welcome you here, and want you here, so that we might all gather to be reminded of the living hope we have in Jesus.It was Jesus who approached the blind, deaf, and hurting, and people would ask, “Is the pain and brokenness the result of their sin, or their parents’ sin?” The people wanted to know the purpose for the pain. Who to blame?
Jesus answered, and said, ““It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” This isn’t Jesus denying sin, or Genesis 3 that we talked about earlier, but Jesus is lifting our eyes to see that we can turn to Him with all of our pain at every level and find hope in Him.
It’s not by side-stepping the pain, blocking out the pain, ignoring the pain, or renaming the pain, but turning to Him with our pain, the One who experienced the greatest pain we could ever imagine at the cross, and the One who says there is pain now, but one day that pain will be completely removed.
Therefore, might we turn to Jesus with our pain, so that the works of God might be put on display as we share a meal with one another in communion? If you have yet to trust in Jesus then we ask you to hold off, but if you have, then we ask you to come forward and celebrate with us as a church family.
The bread is a symbol of Jesus’ body, the juice a symbol of His blood as Jesus laid down His life at the cross, conquered in the resurrection, and invites us into a living hope in Him. Will you pray with me?
North Village Church
This sermon is brought to you by North Village Church, a non-denominational church in Austin. established in 2009 and built around Jesus and Bible teaching.
Are you looking for a church in Austin? At North Village Church we put Jesus at the center of our church family. We worship together every Sunday at 10:30am, encourage Christ centered fellowship through groups, and host special events such as Bible studies and Theological Training, to ensure that we are rooted in in God’s Word. We also serve our local community in association with several Austin based organizations.
North Village Church is made up of professionals, married couples, singles, and families who are wanting to experience the life-transforming power of Jesus. If you are a family with children or teens, we can support you with either or both our Kids Ministry and Youth Ministry.
Check out our North Village Church calendar highlights such as our Christmas Eve Service and Easter Sunday Service.
You are welcome to contact us if you would like more information.
NVC Online
Unable to attend this Christian Church in Austin? Don’t worry, because, through God’s provision, we have created NVC online, an Online Church streaming a worship service every Sunday from 10:30am Central Time. You can also watch our short, powerful sermons on demand and follow us on Instagram for daily Christ centered content.