One of my favorite sermons is by a dear friend of mine, Matthew Vines, who directs a non-profit ministry called The Reformation Project. Matthew was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas. In his late teens, he headed off to Massachusetts to attend college at Harvard. But, while there, he began to wrestle with the question of faith and sexuality. The burden reached such a point that he left school to return home. Over the next six months, his dad and mom compassionately studied the issue alongside him. (Go parents!) The result of that discernment process led both Matthew and his family to accept his reality as a gay man.
Matthew has a deep love for God, Scripture, and the church. In fact, those three things drive his ministry work, which seeks to create greater understanding of LGBTQ people and encourage churches to fully include sexual and gender minorities into fellowship and active leadership. At the last Reformation Project Conference, Matthew preached a classic gospel message entitled, “Yesterday, Today, and Forever: The Heart of Christianity.” I hope it will encourage you, as much as it encouraged me.