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Coming Out Ministries

Wayne Blakely

Identity Matters

Some of you were here last night, some of you were not.

This ministry is about 4 individuals redeemed from homosexuality.

The church didn't come and get us, God did.

And then he put us together by divine appointment, he reached us through divine intervention.

We didn't know each other existed, we're from all over the United States, and so this is certainly not a contrived ministry, but it was an amazing feat that God put together for us to help reveal to others that victory is possible through Jesus Christ.

Some people wonder, wow, That's a little misleading, isn't it?

So I tell people about when we're at conferences like GYC or ASI and people walk by and they see our booth and they see that logo and they kind of like move by.

Ah, wait, come here, what do you think that means?

I said, do you think it has something to do with homosexuality?

I said, well, you know, we wanted to give the true meaning to the phrase coming out.

And that comes from 1 Peter 2, 9, that says he brought us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

And so we've stuck with the name coming out.

It draws a lot of people to engage in conversation with us.

Jesus is not forceful, he's invitational.

And so we want to be invitational to someone who is wondering, who's questioning what their feelings are telling them.

And the enemy would have us believe that feelings equal truth.

And feelings are something that we haven't talked about in the history of this denomination.

We shove those feelings underneath the church pew and they just think that they'll take care of themselves.

And So Satan has laid claim to those secret sins, but they're really not secret.

They may be secret to those in the congregation or between ourselves, but God certainly knows our secrets.

I want to ask you to bow your heads with me as we have prayer and invite the Holy Spirit.

Heavenly Father, you know again the delicacy of this topic and how controversial it is today.

It was always known that homosexual behavior was sinful, but now that people have exposed themselves and their feelings, many are having sympathy towards those feelings instead of towards that individual and what's possible as a result of the power of Jesus Christ.

So I ask today particularly that you will send your Holy Spirit here, that you will pour your blood out over this auditorium, that you will provide us with safety over the equipment, over myself and over those listening, that you'll send the Holy Spirit to convict people's hearts and that because of the blood that you shed for us that you will send Satan and his angels far away from here.

You know, that's the 1 thing God can't do, right?

He can take care of all the other problems, but he can't do anything about the person who's gay.

Usually the prayer goes something like this.

And almost every gay person has prayed that prayer.

And so God answers every prayer, but he doesn't give us something that isn't necessarily what his plan is for us.

So is the emphasis on the kind of sex that I'm having, or is the emphasis on the fact that he wants my heart?

James 5.16 says, therefore confess your faults to 1 another and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

That's something that we haven't done a very good job of as a denomination.

We don't even share our faults with each other because we're afraid of another sin that we've whitewashed.

There's often prayer meetings where people will say, please pray for me.

Please pray for my grandmother, she's dying of cancer.

And how many people do you see raise their hands and say, please pray for me, I'm suffering from same-sex attraction.

Now why wouldn't you get a request like that?

And so today, judgment is being used as a big excuse.

And so then we kind of negate everything and we just let people be.

But I wanna share with you that it's not my position to ever judge anyone else, but it is God's position to act as judge and his word is judgment.

And so it is important that we can direct people in being led and directed by the Holy Spirit to God's word that we can trust for all time.

Don't be caught in that cycle that's going on, don't judge me.

But let's make sure that we're loving somebody.

It's not my job to either condemn or to condone, but to love that individual without compromising the truth of Jesus Christ.

For me, I will tell you that the only way the gay goes away is in a constant, surrendered, abiding relationship with Jesus Christ, which involves much, much prayer.

And so That's the only way I have a safeguard against what comes natural to me.

Romans 5, 8 says, but God demonstrates his love for us in this, while we're still sinners, he died for us.

Your son, your daughter, your friend, they are not hopeless just because they're gay.

And they don't need your stamp of approval, they need your love and they need your prayers.

And they need you to walk with them through this journey.

You don't pray for somebody tonight and ask for the change to take place and then tomorrow they're just like you.

You know, they become heterosexual as though that's the antidote for sin.

I would guess that there are married couples sitting in this audience right now that would tell me that marriage isn't the antidote for sin.

So it's not about making sure that I have a girlfriend or that I get a wife so that I am now in the same playing field as everyone else.

It's about praying that I will have an engagement with Jesus Christ, that I will fall in love with him, that I will trust him, that I will take every care and concern to him, and that I can rely upon him to see me through whatever temptation comes my way.

That goes for somebody who's same-sex attracted, as well as somebody who's heterosexual, who desperately wants to get married.

Claiming the victory has to start at the very first sight of temptation.

Is it starting to sound like we're all in this together?

Today I want to help you recognize that we're all level at the foot of the cross.

And we've been called to love and to support 1 another.

I was asked after a television interview with someone a few years ago, how did gays gain so much power?

I answered this gentleman and I said, you know, I think that I can give you the answer but I'm not sure that you're going to like it.

What happens to children who are in primary and junior class and they're reciting scripture and they become youth and they are in front of the church and they're singing special music.

And so as they become young teenagers, and they wake up, and they begin to have attractions, They don't dare expose to anyone that they have same sex attraction.

And the church hasn't done a very good job at reaching out and helping people.

They've whispered and pointed, and I hate to say it, but our congregations have often been largely responsible for pushing people into the very community that they didn't want them to move into.

I was 1 of those people, it happened to me.

If we fail to pour out God's love to every sinner, what happens?

God has invited us to be caretakers for those who are hurting and who need healing that Jesus promises us.

Your theme, my theme today, is to be bold in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Identity Matters

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