The beginning of the sermon was not recorded and is transcribed below.

Prayer

Recently a group of passengers boarded a London flight to West Germany. Everything about the flight was smooth, even the landing. However, what happened next sent the entire plane into mass confusion. The pilot thanked the passengers for flying with them and welcomed them to Scotland. The passengers laughed at the random joke until the flight attendant asked them why they were laughing. When someone said, 'Well, of course we're in Germany..." the attendant asked everyone who agreed with this statement to raise their hands. Everyone did. Only then did the crew recognize the mistake. They had taken the plane over 500 miles off course. How could this happen in the modern world of GPS navigation? The crew had read the wrong day's schedule that morning. Their starting assumption was based on a different day of the week, on faulty information, and the result was an absolute mess that was involved a loss of time for the passengers and costly consequences for the airline.

We face the same problem when it comes to the topic of sexuality in America and within American Churches. Why are there ever changing views, opinions, and beliefs about marriage, gender, and intimacy creating conflict, rage, pain, division, frustration, and perhaps most of all, confusion? Simply put, we all have different starting assumptions from which we form our opinions and beliefs. Neither our nation nor our churches are unified on what the starting assumptions should be, on what truths and principals we should understand sexuality by, and therefore we face confusion of epic proportions.

This is exactly why we need Genesis 1 and 2. For in these chapters of Scripture God defines sexuality as he creates the world. From the very beginning of the world, the one and only Creator God not only made sexuality but designed, defined, and blessed it with clear intended purposes. It was a gift. And so this morning I want us to realize that we will only find clarity about sexuality when we start here. What will we see? Two crucial truths.

First, In sexuality, we will see that God created complimentary differences. What do I mean by that? On one hand, God created men and women to be fundamentally similar. When we think of men and women, in terms of biology, gender, identity, or sexuality we must start with the similarities that God gave them. There are two of these. The first is a shared image and likeness. We see this in Genesis 1:26-27. Let's read that now. "Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Men and women, together as humanity, were the final act, the crown jewel, of Creation, specifically blessed and celebrated by God. But more than that, they together were made in God's image and likeness. That reality is not easily or quickly described but ultimately it points to the fact that..." (Sermon picks up here)