The Standard

The Standard

• By some estimates there is over 200 million counterfeit bills in circulation. 1 in 4000 bills could be counterfeit. It’s big business. How do they find the fake?
• Feel the texture of the Bill, Compare it with another bill of the same denom, look for flatness and lake of detail of the printing quality. Look for Fibers in the paper. Examine the serial numbers. Look for security features. 
• It is the job of the US Secret service to find and prosecute counterfeiters. Keep bad money out of circulation. counterfeit currency reduces the value of genuine currency, has an impact on the consumer through inflation, and leads to monetary losses for companies. Fake ruins the real
• But who cares? the federal reserve, which controls the money- can decide who gets to use it
• Truth- Whoever creates something decides its value and can make whatever demands on it
• God has a standard for sexuality and gender. He can make those demands because He made us. 

1. You were created by God

• Genesis 1:27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Psalm 139:13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. Hebrews 3:4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, Romans 11:36 Ephesians 2:10
• What we’re talking about today is God’s standard for his people in the church.  if you are not his people, this doesn’t apply to you. You are welcome to sit and listen, but people get upset at the Church for what they believe when the Church is not supposed to be like the world. 
• There’s lots of dos and don’t’s in Christianity. Just like if you were a Muslim. No pork. 
• The problem is that the “Church” is full of unregenerate people who don’t want to hold to God’s standard. Christianity has ceased to be of God, for God, unto God instead- unto me. 
• Because God created you, he can have whatever standard he wants for anything
• align your beliefs and practice with what God requires, not what you or culture thinks. 
• Cannibis, Prostitution, Drugs, Strippers, Stealing, etc. All legal. Does not make them right
• There are things that are legal right now that are not for the church. They aren’t. 
• You have to resign yourself to the fact that the world labels us hateful bigots. I do not hate. 

2. God has roles

• Genesis 1:27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
• The first role that God has in his creation is male-female. Biological male/Female
• Why? Procreation. Companionship. Gender roles within the church. Current 105 genders. 
• I don’t have time to go through and refute and discuss them all. I want to focus on standard. 
• Within the Church there are Male-female. The exceptions and arguments are not the point. 
• What is acceptable in Christianity is clear- male-female married, together forever. 
• You can be single and still live in this role. Single parents, admit not the best plan. Its ok. 
• Within this male-female relationship there are roles- 
• According to the Bible- Husband is the head. Woman submits to the man in MARRIAGE

• 1 cor 11:3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Eph 5:22-23 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Gen 3:16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be [a]for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Col 3:18 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
• What about last week pastor? bible says wives submit to husbands, not women submit to men. 1 tim 2:12 proper- “I do not permit a woman to teach she has authority over man” covered. 
• This is a hard truth for some to gather- Amy Coney Barrett caught flak because of this- 
• BY ASSOCIATED PRESS SEPT. 29, 2020 2:52 AM PTWASHINGTON —  Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has close ties to a charismatic Christian religious group that holds that men are divinely ordained as the “head” of the family and faith. Former members of the group, called People of Praise, say it teaches that wives must submit to the will of their husbands.
• To the world- they say- how can a supreme court justice walk out her job and be submitted to someone else. Well- she’s Transformed. New creation. Roles dif in life and church- STANDARD
• The problem is, whenever you talk about submission or headship people paint pictures in their heads of what they think it is based on TV, Movies, others, and the worst possible scenario
• Submission is not a dirty word. Eph 5:21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.
• Submission is not a one way street. Anyone who says it is is taking bible out of context
• There are ROLES of leadership. Has to be. But submission is MUTUAL not INDIVIDUAL
• My wife is not to submit to me. We are supposed to submit to one another and I lead as head. 

3. What it looks like. 

• Submission can be misconstrued as ultimate authority to those who are afraid of giving someone authority who does not wield it biblically. People ask- do I have to? Not if unbiblical. 
• The STANDARD for submission is HIGH. To the one being submitted to. Not submitter
• Eph 5:28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.1 Pe 3:7 Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. Eph 5:25-26 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
• Do you notice the language? Love as your own body. Giving honor. Dying for her. 
• This isn’t light my pipe and gimme a sammich. Its I’m going to love you, honor you and die for you as you submit to me. Wife-How can I not? Loves me, serves me, protects me, honors me
• Its not being emotionally inconsistent, unavailable, self centered, self serving, Getting what you want, doing what you want, not helping, not working, not raising your kids, all for YOU
• Its being emotionally consistent, available, others centered, dying to self, not getting what you want, not doing what you want, helping , working hard, raising your kids, serving in church. 
• It setting the highest biblical standard possible for leadership under the headship of Jesus
• If you want to have a wife that follows your lead, lead like Jesus  (Chuckie and Raplh)
• Ma 20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Jn 13:14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. Ph 2:5-8 Let this mind be in you.. 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 
• Service. Foot washing. Humility. Obedient to death. That’s the leadership of Jesus and Husbands
• This ‘do as I say’ ‘I’m the man’ ‘I’m in charge’ Machismo bravado- NO- be the way of JESUS
• How does woman submit? What are you submitting to? Being served and lead to Christ?

4. Why is it this way?

• If you read throughout scripture, God has constantly referenced his people as his treasured possession, often in the language of marriage and family. 
• Isaiah 54:5 For your Maker is your husband, The Lord of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.
• And the language of betrothal, love, submission. God viewed and had a relationship with Israel as a Husband does a wife. And when Israel went away from God it was adulterous, whores, harlotry and the like.  This constant image of marriage throughout bible sets a standard
• Jer 3: 8 Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.
• The image of Israel to God is husband and wife. Image of church to God is husband and wife. 
• Picture of Christ and His Church God’s picture for humanity is natural born man and woman.
• 2 Co 11:2 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Eph 5:24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Rev 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” Rev 21:2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
• And here’s the argument that people miss when it comes to the verses that specifically prohibit sexual acts and relationships outside of one man and one woman- The whole picture
• Look at the WHOLE story. When do you see deviance, divorce, debauchery, discord and such normalized and supported in Scripture? 
• Do you see people gender confused, sexually deviant, morally bankrupt as normal in scripture? Divorce, fornication, confusion, genital mutilation as ordained by God?
• Just like the women last week- You’d see it over and over the descriptions outside the standard
• Nope. Because God, through the relationship of husband and wife is cosmically trying to show to the world what relationship with him looks like- and the man is in the role of Christ- BIG DEAL
• This is why all manner of deviations from the norm of one man one woman are wrong
• You are not the center of the story of God. God is redeeming a church to himself. 
• Self centered living produces self centered desires and this religion is not built on SELF

5. But what is sexual immorality?

• Out of the 105 genders and combinations therein, I don’t have the time nor the stomach to describe to you what is wrong. Here’s whats right- biological male and female in marriage. 
• Acts of sexual immorality in the Bible often translate as porneia; a Greek word that also means prostitution, whoredom, and fornication. Notice that the meaning of the word did not directly translate as adultery as it is not limited to it. Any sexual activity that goes against God’s standard written in the Bible is considered as sexual immorality. STANDARD- Male/female in marriage
• And that means that even if a doctor prescribes and describes to you some sort of fetish or mental state outside of that standard, it goes against God and you submit to the standard. 
• There may be historical justifications from an individual of the ‘why I am this way’
• Psychological problems bring deviancy that strays from the norm- abuse, exposure, 
• That explains it, it doesn’t justify it. I have things in my brain from the pain of my past
• People say we live in a different time- No people are people. We just live in America 
• Talk to it with your kids. Watch what you expose them to and what they take part in
• Romans 1: 26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. 28, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; Jude 7 given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh2 Pe 2:6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;Ge 13:13 But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord.1 Co 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? 
• The things that people are currently doing are all of this- vile passions, debased mind, things that are not fitting, strange flesh. Unrighteous. Not centered on Christ. Not submitted to HIM
• Not only is so much of this stuff biologically incompatible, its just wrong. Shouldn’t have to expl. 
• Parents- You want to keep your kids from this? Highly restrict or remove smart phone, internet, who they hang out with, movies, music etc. Keep them from sexual immorality and abuse. 
• Demonstrate to them what masculinity and femininity look like. They become what you want. 
• Display what honorable biblical love looks like. Hug and kiss your spouse and your children. 

6. We are all called to die to self

• Many times in scripture, those who go against god are called adulterers and whores. There is a standard in the New life. God wants all of you. None of who you are is up for discussion
• And this is the problem with the ‘your destiny’ ‘loved the way you are’ ‘plan for your life’ 
• When you come to Jesus, he makes you new and then you live for him and deny your desires. 
• Ep 4:24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Col 3:10-14 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 2 Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Ro 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
• This “but I feel this way” to justify what you are doing outside the biblical standard is WRONG
• We are supposed to Ro 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. ( I don’t care what you FEEL. You just have to fight it forever)
• That means that if you have a feeling contrary to scripture- all manner of things outside the standard either sexual, emotional, etc. You fight it and line your life up with the standard. 
• Gal2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
• There are things, in this life, that are labeled as sin that I will never experience. I will die without ever fulfilling that lust of my flesh. The desires that come upon me from the flesh will not win. 
• Gal 5:24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
• And the process of sanctification is that over time, fighting the good fight, those desires subside
• Ro 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
• I’m not going to be slave to sin. I’m not going to give in. My walk is with him and for HIM. 
• And this is everything with desire based living- You don’t get to live for yourself anymore. 
• 2 Co 5:15  He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Gal 6:14 world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
• UPHOLD THE STANDARD- A counterfeit bill is not a real bill no matter what it looks like. 

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