I heard a question recently where a person asked how to share the gospel with LGBTQ folk. As a teacher I encounter youngsters of the LGBTQ preference fairly often so I thought it might be somewhat illuminating to share my thoughts on the matter.
Before going into detail about how to witness to these somewhat challenging individuals I think we need to visit three foundation scriptures from the book of Romans. Now Romans 3:10 says “...as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one.” and Romans 3:22 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...” Finally Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Now so often we Christians go in to witness without acknowledging that we ourselves are loathsome creations in need of the grace of God. In fact we need his forgiveness just as much if not more than the poor downcast creatures we seek to lead to our loving Savior Jesus Christ.
So when we go in to witness we need to come from the position of the humble and lowly servant of Jesus Christ. Not the spiritually proud justified and sanctified saint who stands in judgement of these lowly sinners. Bear in mind that we are not righteous nor do we have the glory of God and if we reapt the wages of our sins, even now as believers we would die in our sins. But we have God’s freely given gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. In short when we look upon the lost in their fallen state and dead in their sins. “There go we but for the grace of God.”
We often hear secularists espouse their doctrines of tolerance and the syllabus in public schools teaches this widely to all of our youth. However in reality our youngsters may preach tolerance but they often don’t practice it themselves. So our LGBTQ folk are used to the condemnation and lack of acceptance that comes from their peers and society as a whole. In general they are greatly troubled, often depressed and quite sad most of the time. This has been my own observation in any case.
Therefore if you as Christian want to reach these people you need to reach out to them in love as Christ Jesus did with the adulteress in John 8: 1-11. The adulteress was brought to Christ and presented to him as an adulteress caught in the act of adultery. Her accusers asked his opinion and sought to stone the woman. Jesus said “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” One by one her accusers left and in the end there was just Jesus and the woman. The bible tells us what finally happened. “Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you? She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more”
So if you want to reach out to the LGBTQ person you need to approach them in love and without the slightest hint of judgment or disdain. You need to put aside all of your spiritual pride and ego and show them love in your actions. Sometimes this means putting aside sharing the gospel at first and developing a relationship with them as you have with Christ Jesus through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Let your actions demonstrate your walk with God. Accept them as you would any brother or sister in the Church. If you see they have needs then meet them. If they are sad encourage them. If you can help them in a meaningful way, do it. Show your life to them. Sing hymns as you go and speak of eternity. Pray for them extensively that they might seek Christ themselves and the God might provide opportunities for you to witness to them.
As I bring this piece to a close my dear brothers and sisters in our dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I’ll let the apostle John have the final say from his epistle l John 4: 7-14 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world...”
Reference List
All scriptures reproduced from http://biblehub.com/ from the NASB Version of the Holy Bible.
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