GYC 2015: Called. Chosen. Faithful.

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Unraveling the Gay Spin

Wayne Blakely

Michael Carducci

Danielle Harrison

Ronald Woolsey

1. Transgender vs. Transformation

This message was presented at the GYC 2015 conference called Chosen Faithful in Louisville, Kentucky.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

Heavenly Father, I thank you, Lord, for the people in this room, for the men and women who are here, and I ask Lord that you would use me however you see fit.

Lord, once again I hide myself behind the cross because that's the only safe place for me and that's the only safe place for them.

So Lord, speak to us, share with us Lord the things that you want to talk to us about transgenderism.

Give us more insight I pray in Jesus' name.

I want to let you know if you have your pen, write this phone number down.

We're going to have a powerful Q&A session on Sabbath afternoon.

Last year we had, Wayne said, over 1, 200 people in the Q&A.

So we're only going to address the questions that you submit.

And so if you'll just write this phone number down that you can text your questions to, you'll have complete anonymity.

Okay, Carson is working on getting us some video feed.

Our discussion today is about transgender versus transformation.

And so I want to talk about how in the media we are being constantly bombarded by transgender issues.

We know, of course, the most popular 1, the most famous 1 is Bruce Jenner, of course, and the transformation that he made As a woman as what he says is a woman so I want to talk about what are the myths about that?

Transgenderism 1 of the things that happened for me at a very early age is I didn't realize that I had gotten derailed even before I was conscious.

If you've heard my testimony, before I was even conscious, I had already rejected my father as my male role model.

What happens, every little boy and girl, they're born with wet cement.

They don't know that they're male or female.

And so what happens is little boys between the ages of about 1 and 3, they start to realize that they're different than mommy.

And if there's a healthy male in the home, doesn't have to be a father, but it helps.

If the father is there and he's healthy, then the little boy has to make this transition from the mother to the father.

And what happens is then the cement starts to take hold.

That's why little boys like to wear baseball caps and cowboy boots like their dad.

All of this is healthy masculine affirmation.

So between the ages of 1 and 3 for me, my father was in the Navy.

And so he'd be gone in the Navy sometimes 3 to 6 months at a time.

He was providing for his family, but what happened is during that time when I needed to identify with masculinity, he wasn't available.

I was raised by a single mother and 3 sisters.

There were no other uncles or men in the family that I could relate to and so Because of the fact that my father wasn't available to me.

I identified more with my mother But then when my father was home, he was abusive He was verbally abusive.

And so as I started to make this transition and realize that I wasn't like my mother, I looked at my father and I thought to myself in an unconscious child's mind, I said, if that's what I'm supposed to become, no thank you.

I rejected my father's masculinity completely.

This was manifested to me when I was 10 years old.

I remember when my father took us to the lake to tell us that he was getting a divorce.

My father had been having an affair with a backslidden Seventh-day Adventist waitress that worked in our restaurant.

Yes, that's how the Adventist message came into my home.

So while my sisters and I are sitting in the car, my dad said that my mom and him were getting a divorce, my sisters, they started sobbing and screaming, no, daddy, no, don't go.

And I remember that the first thought in my mind was good, You're out of here.

This to me is a confirmation that I had already rejected my father even before I was conscious.

All I knew was that the thoughts inside my mind did not match my body.

I played with dolls, I dressed up in my mom and my sister's clothes.

I remember watching my sisters get those pretty red shoes and those nice little purses and the frilly dresses and I remember secretly desiring that I could have that.

I remember going to the store and getting my brown loafers or my black school shoes and going to school and I remember fantasizing that that if God was really loving that he would recognize that he made a mistake and that I would pray at night and Pray that I would be a little girl when I woke up the next morning So, can you imagine that following somebody for 20 years?

They have laws now that actually say that if your child, if your 7-year-old child realizes that there are a little girl trapped in a boy's body, did you know that the state can step in and give that little boy hormones to retard the puberty process so that that child can have the sex change that they desire?

If that happened in the 60s, I would have been first in line.

But what happened for me is I realized when I turned 20 years old and I came out into gay culture, I realized for the first time in my life what I really wanted, what I really needed, was the affirmation of men.

When I went to school, the boys started to see my feminine mannerisms in first and second grade.

They started to call me sissy, queer, fag.

The Bible says that our words have the power of life and death, and they were pronouncing a judgment on me.

I didn't have attraction to the same sex, but I knew that I was different than the other boys.

The 1 thing that I was desperate for was male affirmation, but that's the thing that became the most elusive for me.

When puberty comes, the sex that is the mystery becomes the attraction.

And so for me, when puberty came, the sex that was a mystery was not female.

I didn't know how to fix it or change it.

I prayed that God would make me straight, but I was praying for the wrong thing.

What I needed to be praying was that I would have the intimacy of Jesus Christ and have his blood working in my behalf.

I still know that God was sincere and was guiding me and watching me.

But by the time I was 20 years old, when I came out into gay culture because I felt like the church had no answers, 1 of the things that I realized is masculinity was much more valuable than femininity.

And if I'd butchered up a little bit and if I'd worked out in the gym, I got all the attention from men that I ever wanted and I finally, for the first time in my life at 20 years old, I was finally satisfied with being a male.

Can you imagine the damage that would have been done if I was that little boy that had a sex change when I was 12 or 13 years old?

Can you imagine the confusion that that would have caused me?

Because remember, man judges the outside, but God judges the heart.

God knew that this was a heart issue for me and that had to be addressed.

And while it took 40 years, even though I'm 55 years old, I still find some of the struggles that were apparent when I was young, they still come up.

But the 1 thing that I recognize is that God took responsibility for the damage that happened to me even before I was conscious.

And while I didn't ask for this thing, and I didn't want this thing, the 1 thing that I recognize is what I thought was my greatest curse is now my greatest blessing because it's shown me the power and the magnitude of God.

And so when we accept homosexuality as God's blessing to men and women, what we're saying is that Jesus just isn't strong enough to change you or to help you.

He didn't just smooth it over and just give me heterosexual desire because he knew my problem was much deeper than that.

And what he did is he went deeper and he started to address the rejection from my father and the kids in school and all the lovers that I took in my sexual addiction for 20 years.

And while it's been a process and wouldn't it be nice if God just took a magic wand and said, bing, now you're straight, right?

Go date, mate, procreate, but that wasn't what I needed.

What I needed is I needed a loving God who was going to be faithful to me, far more faithful to me than I was to him.

And as he led me out, he started to show me that he had something beyond anything that I could ever imagine that was even possible for me.

So, I have some really incredible pictures.

2. Identity Matters

Heavenly Father, thank you once again for this incredible opportunity.

Lord, these are current day issues and you have not abandoned us, you have not left us without answers.

And Lord, your word has been provided for all time.

Help us to see that, Lord, even in the words that may sound different in speaking in the way that we speak today, to realize that this was put in place to be there for a guide for us, to be there for security for us, that we can know who we are in Jesus Christ, and that there is no 1 on this earth that you do not love, and that you don't love 1 person over another.

Lord, help us to see that we're level at the foot of the cross.

Help us to come together and walk together, even though someone else is different than ourselves, to have that deep love.

Help us to remember, Lord, that Romans 5.8 says that you loved us while we were still sinners.

Lord, it is a delicate topic and so I pray and ask for the presence of the Holy Spirit, but I pray, Lord, that you will cover us with your blood, that you will protect the equipment, that you will protect the people here, that, Lord, you will speak through me, and that you will send Satan and his angels far, far away from here.

Lord, put a band of angels around us and help us to listen to the small whisperings of the Holy Spirit upon our hearts.

And the way to do so would just be to say, who are you?

And let's see here, let's get some variety.

What a profound answer Thank you, I think it's important for us to recognize today who we are.

And the world is talking all about who we are.

And so if we are just being ourself, without some kind of guide, we can end up with all kinds of different kinds of identities.

And so it's important that we that we go to God's Word that we can trust for all time and make it relative to our lives today that we can understand who we are in Jesus Christ, because Satan's campaign will not end until Jesus comes to redeem his own and take them home with him.

If he can get you to believe in a false identity, then he believes that he has won the battle.

Remember, Satan knows God's plan of salvation better than you and I know it.

He knows the Bible better than you or I know the Bible.

And so we run the risk today if we are not secured in God's Word.

There's lots of opinions today, lots of people talking today, and what the danger is that's taking place is that there is an equation of human knowledge to God's knowledge.

That's the danger zone that we're facing today.

So before I go any further, we have a lot of people surmise a lot of different things about us and the message.

In fact, a lot of people are surmising about us today who haven't even heard our message.

Things are pinned on us like, oh yes, coming out ministries, they support conversion and reparative therapy.

Let me tell you that the only conversion therapy that we support is the conversion that comes from the Holy Spirit on your heart about giving your heart over to Jesus Christ.

All things are possible through Jesus Christ.

So I'm not going to limit that, that somebody today who suffers from same-sex attraction, God may gift that person, as he has my colleague Ron Woolsey, with a wife and family.

But he may also ask for Wayne Blakely, who lived a life full of illicit sex, he may say to me, Wayne, you've had that kind of intimacy in your life for many, many years.

What my plan is for you until the day I come, it may be intimacy with Jesus Christ.

Or is it a gift of eternal life in the long run?

Some of what I'm going to share with you today is going to be really difficult for you to listen to.

And so try not to judge me, and we're going to talk a little bit about judgment, but listen to what I'm saying and then go back to the Word of God, no matter who you're listening to today, whether it's your pastor, Whether it's a professor at an Adventist college, whether it's a book you're reading or you're listening to someone from Coming Out Ministries, go back to the Word of God and search God's Word to see if what you're hearing is in agreement with what the Word of God is saying.

I'd like to start today by asking a few questions.

There are lots of things that have the potential to shape our identity.

Actually, I'm going to save the questions for just a moment.

Some of you may have not heard my testimony before, so I'm going to try to give it to you in like 3 minutes.

When we are born, we are born with a fallen nature, right?

We don't arrive perfect, and I don't think that we leave perfect.

And so my mother, my birth mother, did not want a boy under any circumstances whatsoever.

And so prenatally there was a lot of influence that was taking place on the fetus.

By the time I was born, it was likely that already that my attractions were not going to be towards my mother because before I was 2 years old, she had broken my arm in 2 different places on 2 different occasions.

But God already intervened in this precious life, knowing, I believe, that what God would be doing with me today put me in the presence of an aunt and uncle, Adventists, both of them who raised me.

And by the time I was 3 years old, I was running around the house wearing a dress, screaming, I don't want to be a boy, I want to be a girl.

And where would it have been that I thought that I would gain love and affection, that I would matter and that I would belong if it wasn't to try to please my birth mother and to be the little girl that she always wanted me to be.

It was stuck in my head for a long time, probably up until I was about 18, 19 years old.

What would have happened if my parents at the age of 5 or 6 would have done what many parents are doing today and getting me a sex change operation?

But then I realized that I am comfortable in my masculinity and that God reveals my masculinity to me at the age of 18, 19, 20 years old.

Isn't it a little too early to making those kinds of decisions or shouldn't we be looking to God's plan very early in a child's life, introducing Jesus Christ to that child.

We're missing today much of the conversation that needs to take place and so that's why we're reaching out through coming out ministries to help provide some education from experience itself.

There are a lot of people that are reaching out today from scholastics, from academics, and yes, we're going to talk about some of those positions later in the presentation.

By the time I was 18 years old, I realized the church wasn't going to help me.

In fact, they were the ones that were whispering about me and pointing at me and laughing at me.

And so it was an Adventist friend that I got acquainted with who said to me, Wayne, Adventism breeds homosexuality.

Well, he said, you're gay, I'm gay, I go to school with some guys at La Sierra College who are gay.

The church does a real good job of telling us that homosexuality is sin.

And then it's silent from there on out and nobody talks about what it is that we should be doing with what?

And so now we're starting to have the conversation.

Well now the pendulum has swung the other way because now many people who used to laugh and point at me, well they're still laughing and pointing at me today but it's for a different reason.

They think I'm an extremist, a religious fanatic.

Because God has done something new and what he's done for me, he's capable of doing for you, whether you suffer from same-sex attraction or some other kind of temptation or desire.

And so we have to put faith and trust in the word of God because it's there for all time.

The enemy will let you down, but God will not let you down.

And so it is my prayer that through this presentation today that you will understand what a changed life is.

And the changed life isn't about taking somebody who's gay and making them straight.

Because if I'm having the kind of sex that you're having, or the kind of sex that's recommended from the Word of God, the sex alone doesn't make me acceptable to Jesus Christ.

That's not what my redemption is about, is it?

Isn't the activities that I do and participate in my life the result of putting my faith and my trust and my belief in Jesus Christ and walking with him, won't he let me know, won't he be my compass as to what's right and wrong?

3. Sharing the Cross Connection

Dear Heavenly Father, what a privilege it is to come before your throne of grace and to speak to you.

Lord, we're here at GYC and there's so much going on, there's so much information we've already heard and Lord you know that I have a lot to share today.

So I pray that you will help our minds to be focused on this message here right now and that Lord you would come and speak through me.

That the words that I speak would not just be my own words but that they would be what is pleasing in your sight.

I pray that you would not allow me to step in the way of what you want shared today.

Lord, I pray that each and every person here will have a fertile mind to receive what is shared and that it won't stop here, Lord, but that it will spread and that many people will be touched as a result of what we talk about.

So my presentation is called Sharing the Cross Connection.

So we're going to be talking about how exactly we can reach out to the LGBT community.

How many of you have friends, family members, acquaintances that are LGBT?

So friendship evangelism is what we're gonna talk about.

I think sometimes it's really easy to look at a person and make assumptions.

Do you have people like this in your life?

Have you seen someone like this on the street?

Did you, in your heart, Did you pray for them?

If you did interact with them, what did you say?

I think unfortunately a lot of us don't really know how to minister to people that we can tell have vast differences from us.

And just like Michael said earlier, there's no formula or equation that says this is what makes a person transgender.

And it's the same for lesbian, bisexual, and gays.

But through my experience and the collective experiences of my colleagues, and through the many conversations that I've had with other people, and from studies that I've looked at, I've seen a common denominator.

Now, I'm going to share some points with you that I've observed.

And you'll notice that none of the stats say 100%.

So None of these things that I share apply to everyone, but I think that they apply to a great number of people, and we're going to take a look at that.

Many of the people that we see who come to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered have suffered in the past.

Many of them have suffered some kind of abuse of 1 shape or size.

And Many of them have deep-seated emotional pain.

Some people have never identified anything in their life where they would say, I was rejected or neglected or abused, but they do have some kind of emotional pain that they haven't addressed and they don't know what to do with.

What these people are really searching for, what they're looking for in their life, is worth and purpose.

And a lot of them are struggling with guilt or regret.

What they're looking for is forgiveness and love.

This is from the Rolling Stone magazine, and this was an article written about a girl who came out to her mom.

It says, after what felt like an eternity, her mom finally responded, I don't know what we could have done for God to have given us a fag as a child, she said before hanging up.

And I think historically, a lot of Christian parents haven't known how to really address the situation when their child comes out to them.

And they feel like they cannot accept their choices, and so they cannot accept their child.

But if you as a Christian are bearing the name of Christ and you reject them, what is that teaching them that Christ is going to do?

Do you think that when someone says in their mind, you know, I must be homosexual, I must be transgender, do you think God says, you're just a fag and hangs up the phone?

And so I don't think this is the right representation of Christ.

As many as 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBT.

Of all that 40%, those clients, 68% have experienced family rejection, and 54% have experienced some abuse in their family.

This is a quote from the Williams Institute study.

I saw that 46% ran away because of family rejection of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

43% were forced out by parents because of sexual orientation or gender identity.

And 32% had been abused at home, either physically, emotionally, or sexually.

And 14% said that they were on the streets because they were aged out of foster care.

So we'll just say that's the heterosexual population.

The green is lesbian, gay, or bisexual, and the yellow is transgender.

This is a body of middle school students, and this was done by the Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

This group of middle school students of the group, 18%, had seriously considered suicide.

It jumps to 49% for the LGB and 57% for the transgender.

Series

Unraveling the Gay Spin

2. Identity Matters

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

Devoted Devotions: A Vibrant Devotional Life for the Last Days

Bound by Devotion

59m

Knees, Keys, and Please!

5. Victory in the Final Conflict

1h 4m

Testimony

So You Asked Now What?

58m

Distinct Advent Message- A1

A Moment or A Millenium?

2h

Testimony

Flying Butterfly

57m

Devotions For Decisions

1. Devotions, or Just the Motions?

1h 2m

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Gay Puzzle: Loving Gays to Christ

06-Turn Around: Q&A

1h 16m

Remnant Identity: Who We Are and Why It Matters

3. The Remnant & the SDA Church: Will the Church Survive or Will there be a Remnant of the Remnant?

1h

Morning Devotionals

Grounded

1h

Sanctuary Under Siege

6. The Omega Apostasy

1h

Plenary

Keynote Address

1h 47m

Evening Devotional

The Practical Nature of Scripture

1h 34m

Sound Doctrine