 Bye. Don't drop it at the end of the video. Don't put it there, don't put it there. Woo! We're pushing no shopping, we're putting no buy-time. As a Christian, I've been thinking through how we can navigate this month of June, pride month, how we can do it in a biblical way, a loving way, a truthful way. I have three things that I want to share with you in this video that will hopefully help you navigate not only this month, but the whole year. In the video we just watched, is becoming very apparent that these ideas and ideologies are being focused in on children. You think about it, schools, they have access to them, tons and tons of kids. So why wouldn't you push your particular belief system or agenda? I think this is where we need to understand that there is no neutrality when it comes to education. Personally, I was homeschooled. I really am an advocate of homeschooling because I do believe that there is no neutrality in education. You can't just have a neutral school that doesn't really lean one way or the other because every teaching comes out of a worldview. Even when you're teaching math, when you're teaching science, it's coming out of a worldview. And that's not even counting all this LGBTQ propaganda that's brought in on these children and they're just following the crowd. Hey, what are they gonna do? They're gonna stand up against it. No, why would they? This is what they're being taught. This is how they're being discipled. So my first conclusion is that we must protect the vulnerable. We must protect those who are young children that do not know we need to be raising these children according to what God has said in his word, not according to what culture has dictated is true. People often mock the idea of sheltering your kids and I understand to a certain degree, exposing your kids to certain things, certain belief systems and ideologies in order for them to learn and process those things and not be totally ignorant of the world. I understand that. But there is a degree of sheltering that needs to happen with your children because, hey, look, some of this stuff is just toxic and wicked and nasty and disgusting. Like I don't want my kids to have to witness a drag queen getting up on stage and singing like, that's gross, that's weird, that's nasty, that's not right. And so I don't want them to experience that. I wanna shelter them from that. Sure, by the time whatever their teenager, they know all about it. Okay, that's fine, they can deal with it then. But for a five-year-old, a six-year-old, a seven-year-old to have to sit in a place where they're constantly being kind of attacked by this stuff, it's like, no, I wanna shelter my kids from that 100%, that's why I'm gonna homeschool my kids. Psalm 82.4 says, rescue the weak and needy, deliver them from the hand of the wicked. This is wickedness. If you're leading a child down this ideology to believe that they can be whatever gender that they want, that they can be attracted and marry whoever they want to be, that there is no right and wrong when it comes to sexuality, that's just messed up. Now with all that being said, the second conclusion that I've come to is that we need to understand the difference between an advocate and somebody that's just a regular person. So an advocate is those who are seeking to lead like these little children astray that are seeking to bring this propaganda, these ideologies to places that are vulnerable and people that are vulnerable. Hey, like somebody that's an advocate that's leading these people, you know, little children astray, this is my enemy. I'm commanded to love my enemies, yes, but this is my enemy. This is the enemy of the gospel, right? Jesus said to love your enemies. He didn't say to not have enemies. And these folks, these are specifically, these are the folks that would have a better time being cast into the sea with a stone around their neck than for having one of these little children stumble because of them. But then we have the regular person, the person that maybe identifies as part of the LGBTQ community, maybe they're your neighbor, they have a pride flag in front of their house. This is not somebody that you're trying to take up the culture war against, that every time you see them, you're like, this is my enemy, I need to destroy them, I need to debate them, I need to da, da, da, da, da, da. No, your goal there is to be present, to listen to them, to be compassionate towards them, to show them the love of Christ, but to speak the truth in love. It doesn't mean that you're compromising on what you believe, but it's this idea of bringing your acceptance but not your approval of their lifestyle. Like you accept them as a person, right? Accept that they're created in the image of God, that they have dignity, that they have worth, that you love them, right? But you don't approve of their lifestyle. This is something that's often misunderstood in our culture that we can't disagree with somebody and love them at the same time. Like these things are at odds with one another. That's just completely ridiculous. If you can't truly love somebody, if you can't be truthful with them, right? You can't love somebody, if you can't say, hey, like I love you so much, I'm willing to say that this is gonna be harmful for you. I still accept you, I still love you, but I don't approve of this because I think this is gonna be negative for you in your life. And if I truly love you, then I want what's best for you. And what's best for you in this context is for you to follow the design that God has ordained. Now how that plays out, that is complicated. It takes time, it takes love, it takes patience, it takes actually being a friend to somebody where these topics stop becoming just purely issues that we need to talk about, but they become real people that are going through these feelings and these emotions and they're trying to sort out who they are and what they believe. That takes kind of a faithful friendship that you're willing to show up with them and be present with them. I'd encourage you, don't stray away from those friendships just because they make you uncomfortable or because you don't have all the answers. It's easy to be online when you're disconnected from it and say, okay, hey, this is a sin, we just need to stop doing this, you gotta repent, all that kind of thing. And all that is true, absolutely. And I encourage you to share that with folks too. Out of love, just based on my personal experience, people respect you a lot more if you come out and say, hey, I disagree with your lifestyle, but I love you as a person and I appreciate you as a friend. People would appreciate that a lot more than you kind of staying hidden and trying to hide it until the last second and all of a sudden you speak up a little bit and they're like, hey, why were you hiding this? That almost feels like kind of a backstab, almost like a betrayal where at the beginning, a little bit earlier, if you have a neighbor or you have a friend, you're like, hey, I just want you to know, like I'm a Christian, I can't approve of your lifestyle because it's against the word of God, but that doesn't change my appreciation and my love for you, but I can't approve of this aspect of your life because I don't think it's best for you. And hey, after you say that, they might be like, okay, get out of my life, like that's happened, right? But then other times they're like, okay, I respect that. The third conclusion that I've come to is the importance of sharing the gospel of this new identity that people are invited into, the fact that we have all sinned, we have all fallen short of the glory of God, that we all have desires in our life and temptations that are pulling us and fleshly desires like, hey, these things are at our throat, really, and they're trying to get us to succumb to them. But God says we're supposed to lay those things down. We're supposed to pick up our cross and follow Christ. That God wants to make us into a new creation where we no longer find identity in our sins or our tendencies of our sinful flesh, but rather in God and who he's making us to be and who he's made us to be. I often say this to those who are same-sex attracted that your desire or attraction towards the same sex might not change. Like you still might be tempted in that way, but what does change is that your identity is no longer in that desire and that God has given you everything that you need to overcome that temptation. I often need to remind myself, what a weighty culling that this is on those who are same-sex attracted, those who would want to have that romantic relationship with someone of the same gender. And yet, according to the scriptures, they're supposed to deny those things, deny those desires. They might never be attracted to someone of the same sex. They might never really desire that in that way. So in a sense, hey, like they're forced to be single their whole lives. And that is a tough thing to swallow. Like I can't imagine if that was me, that would be really, really hard. Just recognize that this is what these folks are thinking through. It's not just kind of a simple little decision, but there's so much connected to it. Recently, we had our pride parade in our city and it's just driving by. My heart was broken because out there, I saw so many people that are looking for love. They're looking for community. Yes, they're in rebellion against God. Yes, they're sinning against Him. Yes, they're embracing their fleshly desires. And also they're looking for these core needs that we all have, the need for love, the need for community. And they're looking for it truly in the wrong places. They're looking for it in these relationships or changing their gender or whatever else as part of the LGBTQ community. But they're looking for it in these places and what I want to offer people is not only escape from their sin and rebellion and ultimately God's judgment, but also an invitation into love, into community, into something that will truly fill them that is only found in God and who He is. Thanks for watching this video guys. If you got something from it, I encourage you to subscribe because I'm putting out new videos all the time. A huge shout out to all my patrons on Patreon. You guys know that these videos are kind of a risk for me to make because YouTube doesn't like them very much. Monetization is tough on here when I make videos like this, but the reason that I can do it is because of the folks on Patreon. You guys support this ministry and keep it going and growing. Thank you for supporting my mission of equipping people to follow Jesus daily. I love you guys. We do all sorts of video calls and exclusive videos and there's a discord on there too. So if you wanna join, help support my mission, click the link in my description. I will see you guys later. God bless.