The New Creation Begins in How We Love

 




On a recent Sunday I preached a message from Revelation 21. This is a brief summary created from the transcript of that sermon. The focus of this blog is to show how m this passage challenges us to love and stand with our LGBTQ siblings. You can watch the Message here (starts at 23 Minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr3kyacqDRo&t=3802s

Revelation 21 offers one of the most breathtaking visions in all of Scripture. John sees a new heaven and a new earth—creation restored, humanity redeemed, and God making His home among us. The tears, grief, and pain that have marked our world are wiped away. Everything bent is made straight. Everything broken is made whole.

This picture is more than a promise for someday; it is a calling for how we live today. Revelation was written to real believers walking through real challenges, encouraging them not with fear, but with hope. Hope that God is moving the story toward restoration. Hope that Christ reigns. Hope that love, not fear, gets the final word.

And that hope shapes how we love the people around us—especially those who have often been pushed aside or wounded by the church, including our LGBTQ neighbors, coworkers, friends, and family

The truth is: every one of us needs grace. All of us have fallen short. All of us have been carried by mercy. None of us earned our spot in the Father’s family—we were adopted by grace. And because adoption is forever in God’s Kingdom, we don’t get to decide who’s “in” or “out.” We don’t get to withhold love, dignity, or kindness from anyone God created.

When we talk about loving the LGBTQ community well, we’re not talking about politics or culture wars. We’re talking about people—beloved image-bearers longing to be known, seen, and valued. Intimacy, in the biblical sense, is about being fully known and fully loved. And one of the most Christlike things we can do is create relationships where people feel safe enough to be fully known without fear.

Revelation 21 shows us where the story is heading: a world healed, relationships restored, and God dwelling with His people. As we move toward Christmas—the beginning of that hope—we carry the responsibility of reflecting the heart of Jesus in the present.

Here’s my invitation as we approach the holidays:

        Let the future God promises shape the way you love today.
        Let the new creation begin in the way you treat other; 
        especially those who’ve been told they don’t belong.

May our LGBTQ neighbors experience, through us, the nearness, gentleness, and steadfast love of Jesus.

May we become a people who never withhold the grace we ourselves depend on.







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