Love God Most (God.LGBTQ.You. 1 - Pastor Mike)

Love God Most (God.LGBTQ.You. 1 - Pastor Mike)

Author: 922 Ministries April 13, 2026 Duration: 39:07

This series aims to move beyond social media snippets and explore Christianity and sexuality with biblical depth, empathy, and "dripping compassion".
The Question Before the Questions Before diving into the complex "what abouts" regarding pronouns, policies, or specific Bible passages, this sermon poses one fundamental question: "Do you love God the most?". Drawing from Matthew 22, Pastor Mike highlights Jesus’ teaching that the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This means placing God’s Word above personal desires, cultural trends, and even church traditions.
The sermon outlines two primary reasons why we must prioritize God’s perspective in the conversation on sexuality:
1. God always speaks the truth: Unlike human experiences or cultural shifts that can be mistaken, God's Word is always right, true, and faithful.
2. God always acts in love: God is the definition of love, demonstrated most clearly through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, who took on the "muck and mire" of our sin so we could be washed pure.
Pastor Mike shares the stories of individuals like Beckett Cook, St. Augustine, and Rachel (a lesbian student at Yale), all of whom discovered that finding God was "bigger and better" than their sexual passions. Their lives testify that when we are persuaded by God's character of truth and moved by His gospel of love, we are finally ready to navigate the nitty-gritty questions of identity and orientation.

What to Expect in This Series: This sermon is a commitment to a holistic, five-week journey. In the coming weeks, the church will tackle:
* Imitating the God of love in our hospitality and mercy.
* Imitating the God of truth regarding specific passages in Genesis, Leviticus, and the New Testament.
* Practical questions regarding same-sex attraction, gender identity, and how the church should respond to the LGBTQ community today.
Join us as we commit to being here for the "whole thing," starting not with ourselves, but with God.


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…