Gender Redefined - Redefined Pastor Kile Baker - March 19th, 2023 Five Big Questions around Gender What is transgenderism? Why do we want to change our gender? What does God have to say about our gender and identity? Can we be born with the wrong gender and the wrong identity? What should Christians do in response to transgenderism? 1. What is transgenderism? Sex - A person's physical characteristics that traditionally are labeled as male or female. Transgender - Those who have a gender identity that differs from the sex assigned to them at birth Cisgender - An individual whose gender identity and gender expression align with the sex assigned at birth. Non-Binary - Those who have a gender identity that differs from the sex assigned to them at birth. Gender Identity - Gender identity is the internal sense of being male, female, neither or some combination of both. Gender dysphoria - the feeling of discomfort or distress that might occur in people whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth or sex-related physical characteristics. Gender Expression - typically involves how gender identity is shown to the outside world through the way a person looks or acts. Transgender Woman - may be used for someone whose sex at birth was assigned male and who identifies as a woman. (Transgender man would be someone whose sex at birth was assigned as female, and who identifies as a male) 2. Why do we want to change our gender? Everyone is either discovering or determining their identity. Discovering our identity is from the outside in. Determining our identity is from the inside out. 3. What does God have to say about our gender and identity? Genesis 1:26-28 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” God created two genders —male and female— to complement one another. According to science, “sex” is biological. It is determined by DNA. According to culture, “gender” is optional.. It is determined by choice. According to God, “identity” is relational. It is determined by Christ. Getting your gender right isn’t the greatest benefit to your identity. Scripture tells us that the greatest gift in our lives is to accept God’s gift of eternal life, which will benefit us in our current life. Getting your gender wrong isn’t the greatest barrier to your identity. Scripture tells us that the greatest challenge to our lives is not determining our identity, but discovering our identity as sinful human beings apart from Christ. We must look at our lives through the lens of being human beings that desperately need God because of our sin; and desperately need community after salvation. We need both. 4. Can we be born with the wrong gender and the wrong identity? John 3:3-8 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. No one is born in the way they should be. Everyone needs to be reborn through Christ. We aren’t reborn as adults with everything figured out. We’re reborn as children, discovering what a new life with Christ looks like. 5. What should Christians do in response to transgenderism? We can acknowledge people’s suffering. Romans 8:15-25 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Now in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? Now if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience. “God had one son without sin, but never one without suffering.” — St. Augustine We can provide a loving, accepting community based on grace and truth. We can repent of and condemn any dehumanizing or disrespectful behavior. We can guide our kids to know and love Christ in order to find their identity. Who God is. Who they are to God. Who God is to them. We can be…