Is God Affirming? (God.LGBTQ.You. 3 - Pastor Mike

Is God Affirming? (God.LGBTQ.You. 3 - Pastor Mike

Author: 922 Ministries April 27, 2026 Duration: 50:12

What does the Bible actually say about gender, sexuality, and same-sex marriage? In week three of our five-week series "God. LGBTQ. You.", Pastor Mike opens Scripture from Genesis to Romans to answer one of the most personal and consequential questions of our day: Is God affirming?
This isn't a theological position to debate or a lifestyle to label — it's about people. Your friend. Your son. Your sister. The person sitting next to you in the pew. Maybe you. With roughly 1 in 4 Americans under 30 identifying as LGBTQ, this conversation matters in every home, every relationship, and every church.
In this message, Pastor Mike walks carefully through every key biblical passage on the subject — including the original Hebrew and Greek — and addresses the hard questions head-on:
* Genesis 1 & 2 — God's original design for gender and marriage
* Genesis 19 — The story of Sodom and what it does (and doesn't) say
* Leviticus 18:22 — How to read Old Testament law as a New Testament believer (yes, including the bacon)
* 1 Corinthians 6 & 1 Timothy 1 — What the apostle Paul wrote, and what the Greek word "arsenokoitai" actually means
* Romans 1 — A faithful reading of Paul's most direct passage
He also wades into the questions you may already be asking. Why would Jesus say this? What about Christian hypocrisy that picks and chooses convenient sins? Why doesn't God change my desires when I ask Him to? And the question that holds it all together — can we be saved?
Whether this message is brand new to you, brings comfort, or challenges what you've always believed, lean in. Take notes. Keep listening. There are two more weeks in this series, and every part of the plot matters.
If this is your first time joining us, please go back and watch Parts 1 and 2 first. The whole series fits together as one cohesive biblical and pastoral conversation.


Each week, the communities of St. Peter Lutheran and The CORE in Appleton, Wisconsin, gather to explore faith, life, and scripture. This audio feed brings those weekly sermons directly to you, offering a consistent source of reflection and teaching grounded in Lutheran Christian tradition. You'll hear messages that connect ancient biblical wisdom to the realities of modern living, tackling topics from everyday relationships and personal struggles to the broader call to community and service. The voices from 922 Ministries-The CORE & St. Peter Lutheran aim to provide more than just information; they seek to foster a deeper understanding and a practical, resilient faith. Whether you're a long-time member, a spiritual seeker, or someone simply curious about a thoughtful perspective on Christianity, this podcast serves as an accessible way to engage with these teachings on your own schedule. It’s like having a regular, grounded conversation about what it means to live with purpose and hope, drawn directly from the heart of a Wisconsin ministry. Tune in for a straightforward, substantive addition to your weekly routine.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

922 Ministries - The CORE & St. Peter Lutheran
Podcast Episodes
Sex and the Bible (Sex Love Work and War 1 - Pastor Mike) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:24
Sex will either bless you or mess with you — there's no neutral setting. In Week 1 of our new series, Sex, Love, Work and War, we open Ephesians 5 to ask what the Bible actually says about sex, and it starts somewhere su…
Walk His Way (Sex Love Work and War 1 - Pastor Timothy) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:57
Have you ever noticed you can tell almost everything about a person just by the way they walk? In this message from Ephesians 5, we find a spiritual law just as reliable: your inner identity determines your outer walk. P…
No Ordinary Days (Worth Fighting For 5 - Pastor Michael) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:20
Lying. Losing your temper. Taking things that aren't yours. Talking trash. Holding a grudge. None of these would make your "top 10 worst sins" list — so why does the Apostle Paul stop to call them out? Pastor Michael unp…
Worth More than Words (Worth Fighting For 5 - Pastor Jared) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:19
We all know the basics: tell the truth, don't hold a grudge, be a good person. But when Paul gets practical about the "new self" we have in Christ, he doesn't point to the mission field — he points to the dinner table. Y…
Leaving the Old (Worth Fighting For 4 - Pastor Steve) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:02
There's an old you, and there's a new you — but let's be honest, the new you can act a lot like the old you. In this message from 922 Ministries' CORE campus, we look at Ephesians 4 and the apostle Paul's encouragement t…
Made New (Worth Fighting For 4 - Pastor Jared) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:17
You can tell a lot about a person just by watching them — sawdust on their clothes, grease on their hands, how they react when a flight sits on the tarmac for an hour. But God isn't just interested in what shows up on th…
MATURE. Ephesians 4:1-16 (Worth Fighting For 3 - Pastor Michael) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:10
Faith was never meant to stay the same. A faith that is not growing is a faith that is vulnerable, and Ephesians 4 gives us a clear picture of how God designed our faith to mature. Immature faith gets tossed around by fa…
Built for This (Worth Fighting For 3 - Pastor Steve) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:17
You were not made to drift through life as if everything revolves around you, but you were also not made to fade into the background. Christianity holds both truths in tension: you carry infinite value in God's sight, an…
An Apostle’s Prayer (Worth Fighting For 2 - Pastor Bill) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:48
In Ephesians 3, the apostle Paul is so overwhelmed by the goodness of God that he falls to his knees in prayer. Rather than asking for easier circumstances, he prays for something far more foundational: strength in the i…
More Than You Know (Worth Fighting For 2 - Pastor Jared) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:02
Most of us spend enormous energy managing how things look on the outside while neglecting what is happening on the inside. In Ephesians 3, Paul drops to his knees and prays not for better circumstances but for something…