How Should Christian Parents Respond if Their Child Comes Out as Gay?

How should Christian parents respond if their child comes out as gay? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

We pray that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends or family. This is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question. Here's the phone call. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites. And of course, you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

First up today, here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Russell. What do you think about pastors calling their ministries legacies? It just seems kind of like blasphemy to me. It hits me hard and like a wrong note just to hear it.

Yeah. So pastors or ministry leaders who are referring to their own ministry as a legacy, you know, the legacy that I'm going to leave, the name that I'm going to leave here on this place, that also hits me the wrong way too, brother. And so I sympathize with your concern. The one thing we want to leave with people as pastors is the gospel.

That's the legacy. That's what we're clinging to, guarding, and handing down to the people that God has entrusted to our care. I think specifically of what the apostle Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 6, verse 20. Oh, Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.

What is that deposit? It's the rule of faith. It's the gospel. It's the doctrine that was given by Christ to the apostles and that the apostles handed on to the elders and pastors that they established in these local churches. In 2 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 14, he reiterates this same thing. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

And then in the very next chapter, in chapter 2, he says, this is verse 2 of chapter 2, what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So the legacy is not my legacy or your legacy. It's the legacy of Jesus Christ. It's the proclamation of the gospel. It's the word of God that we platform and preach and then entrust to others who are going to be faithful teachers and preachers as well.

We're not here to platform ourselves. In this age of social media, what we want to do is platform Jesus Christ and his message. And so, yeah, I don't know exactly the specific pastor that you're referring to or what exactly he meant when they were talking about leaving his legacy on a church or whatnot, but we should be leaving the same legacy as pastors, and it's the legacy of Jesus Christ, the proclamation of the Holy Gospel. It's not about the person, the pastor. It's about Christ. He's the one that we preach. And so I appreciate your concern, and I share that concern as well.

Well said. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, theology, hey, we are open to your questions.

Also, if you have maybe some doubts about the Christian faith, we'd love to talk to you as well. If you consider yourself to be an atheist or an agnostic and you'd like to ask Adrian a question about why he believes what he believes, here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Raymond calling in from Tennessee. Raymond, what's your question for Pastor Adrian? Yes, thank you, Pastor. I was just wondering, it seems like God took a long time to do everything because he wanted to give you as much chance as possible. You know, before Babylon came and got Israel, he gave 120 years to Noah to build ark and 25 years for Abraham to have Isaac. I just wonder why he only had Jesus for three years in his ministry. He's supposed to be saving, I mean, he did give the world and gave us, you know, grace, but in only three years, it just seemed like, I don't know, I wonder why.

Yeah, I mean, you look at redemptive history and, I mean, it's a long history. You think of the call of Abraham, for example, the promises that were given to him and the time that elapsed from that promise that was given to Abraham in the book of Genesis all the way to the Messiah, Jesus, or even prior to Abraham's life, you know, the promise that was made there in the garden that the seed of the woman was going to crush the head of the serpent in Genesis 3, verse 15. Well, then the Messiah shows up and he's here for a short time and his earthly ministry is only a period of three or so years.

Well, what gives? The focus is not on the length of his ministry, but on what his ministry accomplished. He came as the true Israelite to perfectly fulfill the works of the law in the place of his people and then to suffer and die for our sins so that we might be justified, so that we might be adopted into the family of God, receiving the grace of God. He rose again from the grave, ascended into heaven, finalizing the great redemption that God had promised throughout the Old Testament there beginning in Genesis chapter 3, but that you also see exhibited in the types and shadows of the sacrificial system under the Old Covenant. So it's not as if we don't have the gospel or the work of Jesus spoken of throughout redemptive history. No, it's there very clearly, in fact, and that's why Jesus could tell the religious leaders in John chapter 5, you search the scriptures, you know, searching for eternal life, but these are the very scriptures that testify of me and you're not willing to come to me that you may have life. And so I would say that Jesus wasn't just speaking through his earthly ministry, those three and a half years or three or three or so years, but that he's been speaking throughout the scriptures. In fact, the prophets spoke of Christ and the Spirit of Christ, we're told, was in them prophesying about the sufferings of Christ.

And so that's one thing I would say is here's the good news. Even though Christ, in terms of his earthly ministry, was just a short period of time, the eternal word of the Father, the Son of God, has been speaking and acting for all history. And we see him doing that throughout the Old Testament, even delivering the children of Israel out of Egypt, for example. That was Jesus Christ, the rock that followed them, we're told, in 1 Corinthians 10, was Christ. And so all scripture is God-breathed and it's Christ speaking to us, the Son. And so that's one thing that I would say, and then just in terms of his incarnation and earthly ministry, he came for a very specific purpose to fulfill the work that the Father had given him to do. And that didn't take a thousand years, it only took the time that our Lord took. And so having accomplished that, he fulfilled his ministry, his purpose, and we have him as our great high priest.

And we give thanks to God for that. And so Raymond, appreciate your question, thanks for calling us from Memphis. God bless. Hey Raymond, thanks so much for listening to CORE Christianity. By the way, we are excited about a new book that is written by one of our good friends here at this ministry, Bible teacher Nancy Guthrie. Yeah, I'm really excited to be able to offer Nancy's book.

It's called Saints and Scoundrels, again by Nancy Guthrie. And in the story of Jesus, you know, this book in particular, In the Story of Jesus by Nancy Guthrie, Nancy is a good friend of the show. And the story of Jesus in the Gospels includes all kinds of interesting people, saints and scoundrels.

This is one of the things that shocked so many during Jesus's earthly ministry. And so this resource is going to be an encouragement to you in your walk with the Lord. I know Nancy, I've had the privilege of reading many of her works.

She's such a wonderful writer. And so I want you to get a hold of this resource again. You can get it over at COREChristianity.com for a donation of any amount. Hey, a reminder, when you donate and order these resources from us, you're actually helping the entire mission of CORE Christianity and everything we do, from answering some of these tough questions on the radio to supporting us as we write our Bible studies and our great web articles, many of those are absolutely free. You can find them at COREChristianity.com.

To get this particular book by Nancy Guthrie, Saints and Scoundrels in the story of Jesus, just go to COREChristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, COREChristianity.com forward slash offers. And of course, you can always call us for that resource or any one of our resources. Here's the phone number, 833-THE-CORE.

That's 833-843-2673. Well, we do receive voicemails here at CORE Christianity, and here's one that came in from one of our listeners a few days ago. This is Maricela, and I have a question. My son is gay, and I'm having trouble with that.

I haven't told him that, but I know it's a sin, and it says on the Bible. I just want your advice. Hey, Maricela, thank you for giving us a call here at the CORE. You know, this is a question that we've received before on the broadcast. And so, I mean, it sounds to me like you're wondering, well, what do I do?

How do I approach this? First and foremost, your son is made in the image of God. In our world today, so many people think that the core of their identity revolves around their sexuality, and so I am my sexual desires. I'm attracted to men or I'm attracted to women. That's who I am. I'm gay.

I'm lesbian. Well, that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that first and foremost were creatures, people made in the image of God, called to reflect his goodness, his beauty, his law. Now, we don't because of sin, and homosexuality is a sin. Being gay or lesbian, acting in those ways, that's something that's contrary, Paul says in Romans 1, to nature.

And so, how do you approach this specifically? I would say, one, you continue to love your son as your son and as an image bearer of God. But love does not, and this is where our culture goes off the rails again, love does not necessarily mean, it doesn't mean just affirming an individual in whatever they want, in whatever decisions that they make. We can disagree about things, and we can see things differently, and we can still love each other even though we have those very significant disagreements. Sadly, in our culture today, love seems to be defined not in the way it's always been defined, and certainly not in the way that scripture defines love, but just as, hey, you're supposed to accept and even celebrate whatever I choose.

Well, that's not love. Biblical love looks very different. It looks like serving each other, laying down our lives for one another after the example of Jesus Christ, and so you can still love and serve your son and certainly continue to pursue him. But I think that you can also be honest about the reality and should be honest about the reality of what the Bible teaches. And it sounds to me like as a Christian, Maricela, I'm assuming that maybe your son knows that you have a difference with him on this, and so maybe just broaching the subject, opening up the doors for conversation and talking about, okay, well, what is it that's happened in your life that's brought you here?

How long have you felt this way? And then maybe bringing God's word to bear and talking about the fact that you can continue to and will continue to love your son as your son, that you care about him and that you're gonna be involved in his life. I think all of those things are important, but that you believe what the Bible teaches, what God has said about what it looks like for us to thrive as human beings and to follow him. And each of us are called to follow Christ. We have different sins that we struggle with and patterns of sin that we wrestle with, but we're called to lay those things at the feet of Jesus and follow him and pursue him. And that's something that you have to do, sister, and that's something that we call the people around us and including our loved ones to do as well with whatever it is that is between them and the Lord. And so may God give you wisdom, charity, but also courage and boldness to cling to the word of Christ, what God has said so clearly in scripture, but also to love your son and to continue to draw near to him even though there is this disagreement. And I pray, again, that God gives you wisdom in that and much grace.

Some great counsel. Thanks for that, Adriel. By the way, we have a great core guide on this topic. It's called Ten Things You Need to Know About the Bible and Homosexuality. It's absolutely free. You can find it by going to our website, corechristianity.com.

Just look for the core guides there. Well, let's go back to the phones. Don is on the line from Kansas.

Don, what's your question for Adriel? I have not heard any theologians address this, but with the with the overturning of Roe versus Wade, you know, you got the Republicans and Democrats are fussing with each other. The three branches of government are fussing. Could it be that God is showing us that he's still on the throne because it was just up to the 50th year, which is the Jubilee year, which would return everything to its normal state? Maybe a crazy idea or crazy question, but just would like to have your thoughts on that.

Yeah. Hey, I mean, I think whenever we have really significant events happen in history, current events, you know, a lot of times our minds immediately go, OK, where was this spoken about in scriptures? Is this something was prophesied in the Book of Revelation or elsewhere in Christ's preaching or whatnot?

We want to be really careful. I mean, I think I think it's good that we're wanting to see everything through the lens of the teaching of the Bible. But I certainly wouldn't say I think I think that would be taking those texts about the Jubilee out of context and then applying it to something in our day today.

Now. Now, again, certainly we praise God and we really should any time there are just laws that are implemented. I mean, the job of civil government is the preservation of of society doesn't have to be, quote unquote, Christian in order to do that. God has placed his moral law in each of our hearts. And we should we should appeal to that and call civil government to honor the Lord and to seek to to implement laws that are just and good and protect the vulnerable, including the vulnerable that are in the womb from the most vulnerable today. But but was that something you know, was this specific event something that was prophesied about or is this in relation to the Jubilee year?

No, I don't think so. I think that this is just the hard work and the many prayers of of a lot of people, faithful people who have who have, I think, a proper understanding of the importance of life, what we should all have and pursued that in in their daily lives and in their in their callings. And and I think that that's a good thing.

And so I wouldn't want to read too much into it. But but certainly, I mean, we give thanks to the Lord for that and appreciate your question, brother. May the Lord bless your day. Hey, Don, thanks so much for calling in on core Christianity.

We really do appreciate you. Hey, we've got a question that came in from Mark in Columbia, Missouri, and he says his preacher was referencing the Lord of the Rings in his sermon. He wants to know, should we go to a new church is referencing magic?

Okay, or is it wrong? I mean, I happen to like the Lord of the Rings, but I and I mean, here's what I would say. Preaching is first and foremost communicating the word of God to people. God speaks through faithful preachers. And so if if what you're talking about is a pastor who is basically not preaching the word, but just giving a bunch of, you know, movie illustrations and and telling jokes.

Well, then, well, then, yeah, I would say you probably want to find a different church because the job of the minister, the pastor, as he stands in the pulpit is to represent God and to and to, you know, proclaim the word of God. And now there's nothing wrong with illustrating scripture. And I happen to think that illustrations are an important part of of a sermon in terms of helping people to see and follow and and apply the text of scripture, even at times in their own life. And so, you know, if that's all your pastor was doing, if he's preaching the word of God faithfully, but he gives an illustration here or there from the Lord of the Rings or some other, you know, thing in popular culture, there's nothing there's nothing wrong with that. My big question is always is the text being taught? Is is it expository preaching that is drawing out of the text of scripture?

What's there for us, for the people of God to feast upon? Now, you also ask, you know, is it a problem because in Lord of the Rings, there's fantasy and magic and all that stuff? No, I don't think that that's I don't think that that's a problem at all. Now, again, if your pastor was was saying something like, hey, there's a there's a whole spiritual world out there and we should be engaging in magic and fantasy and so on and so forth, then, well, that would be, again, something something else. But in terms of using this story, which I think is a really great story that you can you can bring out a lot of really neat, I think, biblical applications from from, you know, the characters and the friendship and the quest that they're on.

There's nothing wrong with that. So I would encourage you, so long as the word of God is being faithfully taught to continue to grow there and to encourage the minister that God has placed in your life. And I hope that it's it's a blessing for you and your family. So, Mark, thank you. And Mark, just one thing to add, just from a historical perspective, J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings, was actually the one that led C.S. Lewis to Christ there at Oxford.

So something really important to to know about the history of that particular author. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, feel free to give us a call. Eight three three.

The Core is the number. Let's go to Leland in St. Louis, Missouri. Leland, what's your question for Adriel? Oh, yes. I'd like to know why is it that first of all, hallelujah is the highest praise we can give to the father, which is not it's one of the highest praise. It's not the highest, but churches teach it.

That's the highest praise. And why is it that we, churches and pastors in their sermons, they imply and teach that Jehovah, Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Jireh, Father, God, El Shaddai are the names of God. Those are not the names of God. Those are the names of the attributes of God. But they're taught in churches that those are the names of God. The only name that God gave Moses was I Am, and Jesus is also Jesus.

That's the only name Jesus gave, I Am. So did I make myself clear? Mm-hmm. Okay.

So, okay. Well, one, you started talking about hallelujah. It's a compound word in the Hebrew Bible that means praise Yah or praise Yahweh, the divine name Yahweh or Jehovah. It's actually, you know, we use that word for praising the Lord very frequently in our churches, but it's actually a word that doesn't appear a ton in the Bible. You see it in the Psalms specifically, and you also see it, I believe, in the Book of Revelation. And so it's identifying the name of God.

It's praising the name of the Lord. Now, with regard to some of those other names that you mentioned, like Jehovah Jireh and so forth, you know, these are names typically that we see attributed to God, in the Old Testament specifically, focusing upon God's provision and care for His people or identifying a particular aspect of God's goodness toward His people. Now, none of the quote-unquote names of God, and I think it's really important for us to understand this, fully encapsulate His glory, if you will. I mean, God as He is in His essence is incomprehensible. Everything that we have in Scripture is like baby talk given to us so that we might begin to, by faith, know this God who is beyond knowing.

Isn't that amazing? I mean, it's the incomprehensible God of heaven and earth, totally distinct and separate from us as the Creator. We're the creature. We can't even begin to wrap our minds around Him, and yet He stoops down to our level, if you will, and begins to speak to us through His word, through His revelation, in ways that we can understand. And so He says, I am the God who provides for you, Jehovah Jireh, and the God who sees, the God who knows. It's how God is communicating who He is to His people. These are real truths that we are comforted by, that we take in. And so I think it's important for us to talk about these things because it's how God reveals us. It's how we know the Lord. The only way we can know God, Leland, is through His revelation. We don't know God by just sort of looking into the sky and coming up with our own ideas. God is the one who meets us, and the way He meets us is through His word. And ultimately, it's through the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, who was sent into the world. Jesus is, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. He identified Himself in John 8, verse 58, as the great I Am. If you want to know God, Jesus says, look to me. And so what I would say is, wrapping this up, Leland, is what we're seeing in scripture is God's condescension, God coming down to us, revealing to us what He's like. He's good, and He's for us, and He's for our salvation. And we're called to embrace that by faith, to take that and say, yes, Lord, I believe I receive these truths.

And in response, what do we do? We say hallelujah, praise the Lord, because we realize His goodness and His glory and His grace, especially in Jesus Christ. And so thank you for your question, for bringing us into just some of these ideas. And for us to grasp these things and to reiterate again that the way we know God is through the Holy Scriptures and what He's spoken to us there. God bless you. And a great reminder for all of us as we approach the Christmas season to talk to friends and family about the reality of the Incarnation, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is one of my most favorite times of the year, meditating upon the Son of God made flesh for us in our salvation. So may the Lord bless you as we meditate on that together in the days ahead. Join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.