If Jesus Walked Into a Drag Queen Reading Hour, He Would Say This

I have been thinking recently that none of what is happening in this world is catching God by surprise. None of it! Throughout history, people have treated God the same way they are today. It's been wild—full of pride, full of hate for Him, full of anger towards Him. For centuries, this is nothing new. Our behavior looks really bad through our lenses because well, things are challenging right now. Right now, we're in this season where society is a little out of control and a little off balance. It’s a perfect opportunity for God to clean it up again. I want to remind you of that today; if you're feeling a little hope less because of the state of the world, be filled with hope because God is God and He knows what is going on. He knows the past. He knows the present, and He definitely knows the future.

Are you feeling like it's too hard to go on? These last few years have shaken things up, and the current trajectory is a little wobbly, but I want to remind you that we need to remember our mission; we need to remember the call. It's so easy to get caught up in what's going on in the world and lose sight of our purpose in the world.

I recently released a podcast titled, “If Jesus Walked Into a Drag Queen Reading Hour, He Would Say This.” You know why Jesus would know what to say? It's because He knows His audience. We need to remember to know our audience. Jesus did not back down from going to eat with sinners. He dined with them. And why did He do that? He didn't go there because He wanted to say their lifestyle was okay or what they were doing was okay. He knew that His presence changed people because He was filled with the Holy Spirit. He didn't always have to say a word. People, oftentimes throughout Scripture, would actually confess their sins, and He wouldn't even need to say what they are. Other times, people were excited to meet him, like Zacchaeus, who ran ahead of Jesus so he could climb up in a tree to see over the crowd because he needed to see Jesus. And because he needed to see Jesus, Jesus saw him and changed him. It wasn’t because Jesus accused him of all the wrongs he was doing, but simply because Jesus knew his name.

Today, if Jesus walked into a drag queen reading hour, He would know every single person's name, their stories, their hurts, and their pain. He would know all of it because He knows his audience. He wouldn't be teaching them the things of the Bible. He wouldn't go through all of that because they first need to know how much they are loved. That's what Jesus would do. We have the same opportunities. We have the opportunities to go into a room and change the spiritual atmosphere there. We have the ability to do that because we have the Holy Spirit in us. We need to remember our audience; we need to know who we're talking to. 2 Timothy 2:10 says, “Therefore, under everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” If we're out there yelling and screaming at people, they're not hearing the Gospel. They're hearing our flesh. Our words don't change people; the Holy Spirit changes people. We've got to remember the core of our mission as Christ followers. When we're reaching those who don't know Christ, we need to share the Gospel. There's no way we can just sit there and screech everything the Bible says because they can't hear the Bible, they don't have the Holy Spirit in them. They can’t hear the words because they haven't been touched by the Gospel yet.

It's hard because there are things out there that make us upset. It does not make me happy to think that I would have to go to a drag queen reading hour because I would not want to go. I would not bring my children. However, if the Holy Spirit one day woke me up and said, “You're to go to this public library.” I’d have to go. It's for a purpose, right? It's not for me to go and sit and enjoy the show, and it is not for me to go and say that what they're doing is okay. It's not even for me to go and say anything necessarily, though, because the Holy Spirit resides within me, and just my presence in that place should affect somebody. He never sends us on a mission without purpose, and His missions don't always make sense. If you find yourself in a season right now where you're just completely repulsed by this task the Holy Spirit might ask you to do and you find yourself saying, “I would never”, or “They are so far gone, lost, demented, and sick”, I think you need to check your heart because if you have this feeling about them in your heart, you won't ever share what's on Jesus's heart for that person.

Just to give an example, when I'm at a Christian music concert and there are people standing outside, who apparently are fellow believers, holding a sign telling me that I'm going straight to hell, I don’t receive that very well. And I'm a believer! So just imagine if you're a non-believer and you see that and you're like, “What in the world? Like, are you kidding me? That person? That's what I thought, you know, the Christians are all crazy.”

We can't scream at people. We can't change them. We can't march outside of drag queen hours saying hateful things. We need to gently instruct them in the hope that God will grant them repentance, leading them to knowledge of truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will (2 Timothy 2:25–26).

If Jesus were to walk into a drag queen reading hour, He would might say nothing at all, His presence would fill that room, and He would know their name and look at them. He would love them, and we would hope that God would grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth of who Jesus is and could be for them.

Just like Him, we need to know what to say and not forget the mission. The mission is to present the Gospel so that people have the opportunity to choose repentance, and to say yes to Jesus. Because then, and only then, will the hearts of men and women change once they encounter Jesus and understand the love He offers and the forgiveness He has for them.

To listen to the entire podcast episode, click HERE.