Sy Rogers: the MAN, the MYTH, the LEGEND

One word.

www.syrogers.com.

At least click on it or look it up. This guy is INCREDIBLE. He told me more today than I have EVER learned at one time in my life. He broke down 9 reasons we sin and 9 redemptive factors in life. It broke down life into easy-to-understand aspects that covered everything... I can't even BEGIN to explain it. This man is needed SO BAD in this generation of sexually wounded people, or even if you aren't, any sin you have or any problem you have can be addressed according to the way Sy breaks life down.

He uses cutting-edge research the APA publishes along with twenty-plus years of experience to explain what's happening psychologically when, say, a boy is raised with no male father, or a girl is sexually abused, or a guy self-identifies as homosexual in an attempt to get love from the same sex because his father didn't self-express love to him. He explains it so well, it all makes sense, it was just great stuff, and he has DVDs online at his website... and it was the BEST TALK OF MY LIFE! Clarified so many things for me and gave me a clear vision of how to handle life even if I don't have all the answers right now.

This man will change your life if you watch his life story speech and his other stuff. He condensed a 45 hour course into 6 hours, so that's how long we sat and listened to him, with three breaks in between. It flew by.

Special thanks to God for bringing Sy to speak with us and to Sy himself, for the man was once trying to obtain love by being a self-professed homosexual, but God saved him. And he genuinely had those desires.

BEFORE READING. If I get emotional, it's because I have a lot in my past that still makes me grit my teeth. I'm giving it to Christ, but it is not an instant event. Jesus never said forgiving took seconds, or days, or any other time.


Sy told us this key pivot point of his talk. God didn't say "try to be straight, Sy.", but rather "give up your past and follow me!" Do not focus on the symptoms people, focus on the cause, don't criticize people and tell them to stop being gay, focus on the cause, redeem them through Christ and show His love! What redeems you is not "being straight" but being redeemed through Christ and having faith in him! Read Galatians and Colossians 3:23! Why do you think that God made being gay even possible? Surely you don't think it's incurable! Surely you don't think it's an inescapable stigma! Surely you aren't convinced that it is somehow greater than any of your least noticeable sins!

For in the end it is not obeying the law that saves us. It is not following norms and pleasing people's expectations or obeying any rule at all. And all sin is equal... for it makes us fallen.

I never heard this version of Christianity before college.

We are saved by faith in Jesus. What a revolutionary idea! That suddenly in order to "win", we must first not "try to be sexually straight", but rather painfully and slowly give our burdens and emotional insecurities to Christ! THANK GOD FOR THAT! Thank God that the goal is not simply becoming straight (becoming righteous through what we do is impossible, just read Galatians), but rather THE GOAL IS INVITING JESUS IN and saying YES GOD IT IS YOU I NEED SO MUCH RIGHT NOW, my life is in ruins and I'm shattered, I SUBMIT my filth and my heart to you! Teach me to resolve my problems and address them, not rely on you for a magical zapping instant cure! Teach me to LOVE YOU more than any other thing!

For with sin, the only way to conquer it is to love God more. It all comes down to desires. Colossians 3:23. Look it up. Rules like "don't eat, don't touch, don't masturbate, don't cuss, DON'T SPEED, don't flick someone off" DON'T WORK! They do NOT WORK! How do you stop then? BY FREAKIN FAITH! FAITH FAITH FAITH! Faith in Jesus when you give Him your life in utter submission and you say to Christ "no matter how long it takes, make me into the kind of person You want me to be".

Everybody is fallen.
Everybody hungers for love.
Everybody is a sexual creature.

For these reasons, we mess up, and big time. And although people will HATE you, and devalue you, and spit in your face however metaphorically, God WILL PICK YOU. God picks the people that NO ONE ELSE picks.

Ultimately, God didn't say "Obey me and love!" to be a contolling rule freak. It was out of love!

Psalm 103. David says, "God does not treat me like my sin deserves." That is the definition of grace.

And because most pastors in the conservative Christian church seldom if ever take an active role in self-disclosing the truth that they aren't perfect, somehow they establish this air about them that they are. By default, if they don't go into detail about how they're ordinary fallen people, we are led to believe that they are somehow more righteous, especially in the sexual realm. But according to Sy, anointing and appointing do not make you invincible to sexual impurity. Look at all the scandals! Don't you think they all thought they were above that? If they hadn't, they wouldn't have hid it so long.

Do you hunger for good, applicable sermons? Try addressing some REAL issues! How about sexual violation? At least one in eleven boys has been sexually violated by their late teenage years! At that rate, don't you think your church has some? Don't you think they need to hear that? What holds you back as a distributor of God's love from preaching about that stuff? It messes people up, it's a real problem! You are like the people written to in Hebrews who are living off of spiritual "baby food"! You aren't maturing and exploring deep applicable issues, but instead, you are going over the same material year after year! Feel-good stories! and what's more, you do little to get diverse opinions of the same story or parable for different perspectives! Bible reruns are NOT GOOD for the soul!

The world is crying out for you and me! People are hurting! And Sy said that most of the time, it's not that they don't know God, it's just that they doubt his character. Are you ready to model the kind of tolerance and love that God showed you, as filthy as you and I are? Can you really stand beside a lesbian her whole life and watch her defoul her body and waste away in unfulfillment while you withdraw your love and attention from her? Have you not misused your body before too? Have you not drank or masturbated or had sex or smoked or anything physically or psychologically harmful, that you are without sin? Get out there, make friends, and DEAL WITH IT. If you want mercy, give it. But to forgive, you have to accept forgiveness first. And to accept forgiveness, you have to realize you are utterly more sinful than you ever deemed possible. People are confused about Christianity because they do things in the wrong order. Do it in that order, and you will understand that there is a stepping stone #1, and 2, and 3...

Lastly, I'll make a point regarding bad relationships. Ever wanna know why two people stay together even if it sucks? Because everyone needs love, bad love is better than no love at all. Feed off of God or off of somebody, but feed you will. Bad bread is better than no bread.

Amazing thing about Christ, according to Psalm 107, is this: He doesn't take away my appetite. He just satisfies it rightly.

~

Praise God that I finally have something to live passionately for! Even if I do go on "talking on and on like a fool", as Paul puts it in one of his church letters.