maybe minorities sexual and gender minorities have something to teach the church about dying to self about New Life about [Music] it [Applause] that is not a sign of God's judgment okay [Music] yay and all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived continue thou in the things which thou has to learn and has been assured of knowing of whom thou Hast to learn them and that from a child that has known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee
wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works [Music] thank you okay so the question is how do people decide what to believe in the Bible since there are so many contradictions and the reality is that indeed there are lots and lots of contradictions you know why there are always contradictions in the Bible well because it was written down by the
people over a period of about 1500 years so given given that people are going to have different kinds of things and and I am one who does not believe it was dictated by God I think that the scripture the Bible is human beings trying to make sense of who of their experience of God and and people in different times experience God in different ways people have called you Mother Nature Mother Earth today holy mother God for you are more than any single description of gender or personality or role there is nothing in all creation that
can separate us from the love of God of Jesus Christ so I read the whole Bible that way for example and there are certain things there that you know don't seem to fit that and so then I have to make interpretive things and I have to sometimes I say I'm not going to pay any attention to that to me it's about God is love and if it doesn't fit that it isn't there it doesn't make sense to me 280 years as a place of worship memories and Community now engulfed in ferocious Flames the iconic steeple
of the First Congressional Church of Spencer tumbling into a roaring fire the pastor expressing how much the church dating back to 1743 means to the community but they're Brokenhearted there are no words investigators think the church was struck by lightning during an earlier thunderstorm firefighters say the Flames started from the steeple and quickly spread people are deeply attached so it's gonna be really hard for folks to figure out what comes next and that's the part that blows me away is how quickly you know that what looks so permanent and solid disappeared I mean just within
a few hours and I just watched this thing burn those buildings become invested with with holiness uh just because that's where we where we encounter God not the only place but it is a significant place for that two weeks ago it seems like much longer than that but two weeks ago the meeting house not the church The Meeting House of the Spencer Congregational Church burned to the ground and you may or may not know that as a result of that the initial response we got from people was our hearts are broken we love you we
pray for you and we pray that God will be with you and then there was this became this trickle at first and then there was this larger uh assault if you will upon our Facebook page uh upon even some things being sent more directly to us saying that that fire was because God was mad because God is punishing you I think God wants the best for everybody I think God loves everybody without exception whether you're good or in kind of whether you're following Jesus or whether you're not God has a place for you in your
heart and if that's not the God who is is the God of all creation then and this could get me in trouble all right but if God is more about judgment and vengeance and not about loving our neighbor then that God is not worthy of praise of worship or gratitude see where they're going with this that's what I'm saying and they will say he's not preaching the gospel he's not preaching the word don't deceive God is Not mocked for whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to his flesh shall of
the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life Everlasting foreign he which testifies these things says surely I come quickly amen even so Lord Jesus