Sarai and Hagar
Transcript
Good morning. Grab a Bible. Go to Genesis chapter 16. If you do not own a Bible, there should be, or if you didn't bring one with you, there should be a blue one on your row. If you don't own a Bible, take that one home with you. We want you to own a Bible.
We want you to read it. But you will need a Bible today, so I would encourage you to grab one. There won't be any verses on screen, and we have a lot of reading to do. We're going to be working our way through kind of a longer story. The story we're going to look at today will span several chapters. We'll actually skip a few because in the middle of kind of this story playing out, there's some other things that happened, and so we'll come back to those later.
And so it's the first time we've kind of moved around a little bit. We'll do that. And the story that we're looking at has great theological and historical implications. I mean, massive for how humanity plays out, for how the rest of the world is going to work, and we are going to talk about none of that today. We will talk about that next week. So next week we'll look at a lot of the similar texts and look at the historical significance and the theological significance.
And today we're really just zooming in and kind of seeing this story as it happens, in the time it happens, to see how God interacts with these individuals. And I'm hoping that as we go through it, we're going to be pretty straightforward today. We're just going to read the story. We're going to talk about the story. We'll draw some things out kind of as we go. And then hopefully as we move through it, we will see how God chooses to interact with these individuals.
And we'll learn a little bit about what does God do and what do we do when life gets sideways, when our circumstances are just terrible, everything's bottomed out, when people have sinned against us and we are in a bad spot, when we in our hearts have grown angry and bitter and frustrated and lost hope and lost faith, when our circumstances are bad, when we are sinning, when others are sinning against us. And for most of us, that is how life plays out. I think sometimes we like to think that we are the, at least I do, I like to think I'm the main character of my story. And, you know, like in a good movie, there's a few plot twists, but mostly like I develop character over time.
There's like things I'm going to overcome and then there'll be this resolution and everybody will be happy. At some point in my life, I'll just freeze and there'll be words at the bottom of the screen that say, you know, the last little bit of facts that happened, but they're not super important because I already accomplished all this stuff. But that's not really how life works. For most of us, we have, I have whole seasons where my character doesn't develop at all, you guys. And they just be terrible to watch. Like, it's like, when is this guy going to grow?
And it's like, I don't know, keep watching, maybe never. You know, it's like sometimes my life looks like, what's the police show where it's the same thing every single time you watch it? Like, it just feels like that. And if I remember that, that would have been helpful, but I don't remember the name of the show. So, um, it goes, don't, don't, you know, it's all I'm talking about now. No, not helpful.
Law and order. It's the same thing every single time you watch it. Sometimes my life looks like that. No character development, no change, no whatever. Even if the character dies, I just swap them out for the same person who does the same stuff. So, uh, there's whole seasons of life like that.
There are other times where you feel like, oh, I've conquered this, I've overcome it, I've gotten better. And then, no, you haven't. And so that's kind of what we're seeing here is real people in a real story in real life. And it's a mess. What does God do? How does he interact?
What happens in the middle of that? And so let's pray and then we'll start reading. God, we pray that your word, um, would train us, would correct us, would encourage us today. and that ultimately as we see this story, um, that we would see you more clearly and more fully and in a real, genuine way that sinks into the depths of our hearts. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Um, Genesis chapter 16.
So we'll, we'll read through 16, we'll read through a good bit of 17, we'll read through half of 18, and we'll read through some 21. So we got, we got our work cut out, but it is a story and so hopefully it'll be better than if we just read through all of Ephesians or something at once. All right. Now, Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. Okay, so we hadn't talked about Sarai in a little while. Uh, when they introduced her at the beginning of this in chapter 12, they say Sarai, or chapter 11, they say, uh, Abram's wife, Sarai, was barren, she had no children and this is kind of her marker throughout life.
This is, uh, her identity is wrapped up in, uh, barrenness. And so it seems that, uh, for Sarai, this would have been part of who she understood that she was, part of who, how she understood her life. And if you think about this, there's a lot of pain wrapped up in that one verse that we just read. She, at this point, is in her seventies. she would have gotten married fairly young, most likely. Um, so if she got married somewhere between 15 and 25, she has been married for 50 to 60 years and has born no children. And in this culture, even in our culture, but in this culture, that was specifically, uh, consistently painful. she's actually married to a great man who's the head of a clan.
And that's very surprising because they have no children. He actually, at one point, has to go to war. We already read about that. He took 300 trained men that were born in his household, but he doesn't have a physical offspring. He doesn't have a physical household. He has a household that he has amassed through, uh, growth over time, but he's married to Sarai and she has never born children.
And this has to hurt that for a long time, she prayed and hoped and wished nothing. The people kept kind of thinking, right, is this going to happen? And then eventually the assumption would be there's something wrong with her or God is displeased with her or at least he hasn't put his favor on her. Forty years go by. I'm assuming at some point she accepts this. This is how it's going to look.
This is what it's going to be like. And then God, God, goes and speaks to her husband and says, you're going to be the father of a great nation. You're going to be a father of a great offspring. Your children won't be able to be numbered. And I'm assuming when he went back and told Sarai that for the first time in a long time, she had some hope here. Sarai the barren wouldn't be barren any longer.
When we pick up here, that was ten years ago. So for ten years, she waited, hoping, longing. Abraham waited. Abram waited. I'm assuming every month, no, not pregnant. Okay.
Every month for ten years, no, not pregnant. Now, Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. It's possible they picked her up while they were in Egypt. If you'll remember that story, they went there. Abram said, you're really pretty, but that's a problem.
Pretend to be my sister. He let her marry another guy. It was not his finest hour. Don't worry, though. He learned from it and does it again in chapter 20. So, she, it's possible that's where they picked her up.
It's possible at some other point. They kind of live on a trade route, so it's possible that people were going back and forth throughout there. They are Chaldeans, or at least they come from that land, and this is an Egyptian servant. And Sarai said to Abram, Behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my servant, it may be that I shall obtain children by her. So, Sarai comes to Abram, she says, Behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children.
It is most likely, it's possible that she lost hope over the course of ten years, but she's reached 70, she's in her 70s, it is most likely that what she is saying is, I have ceased to have my cycle. That she has entered menopause or gone, completed menopause, which you know that had to be so painful the first time that, because when you enter menopause, and I looked this up, I don't know much about it, your menstrual cycle becomes irregular. And so for Sarai, who's been hoping and praying and longing for an irregular menstrual cycle, one time it doesn't happen. she waits. She's not pregnant. She goes through menopause and is no longer able, biologically, factually, to bear children.
I assume this crushed her. She goes to Abraham and says, the Lord's prevented me. God has chosen to say no to this. And I guess the hope that was in her, that maybe that was going to happen through her, that she was the one who was going to receive the promise that God was going to make a great nation out of her, that finally this thing she had longed for was going to happen, that she would no longer be Sarah, the barren, is gone. And so what she does is she comes up with a plan. She immediately enters in with, okay, I've got the backup plan.
She kind of tries to take control of the situation. I think she probably felt pretty insecure in her situation with Abram anyway, if he was willing to let other people marry her. I think that probably damaged their relationship a bit. And so she now is no longer able to bear children, but this promise to Abram is that he will have children. She was never mentioned in the promise. It was just to Abram.
It was assumed. Maybe she longed for, hoped for, that it would be her, but it's not. And I think if you went to her and you said, well, just hope, maybe it's still you, she would say, hope is gone. Look at the facts. We were wrong. It's not me.
But she comes up with this plan. She says, I'll give you Hagar, and maybe by her, I'll bear children. Now, that may sound crazy to us, and maybe it doesn't sound crazy to you, but that was a common practice. to have a surrogate practice in this way was common in this time. I don't think it was ideal. I don't think God blesses this as we read the rest of the story, but this was a common practice. That someone who was in a position of power, someone who had means and had servants, would present a servant to their spouse and say, she's going to bear children for me, and the children would actually be hers.
That's what Sarah says. Now, I wish this story stopped here. Let's read. It says, Go into my servant. It may be that I shall obtain children by her. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarah.
I wish that it didn't say that. I wish it said that Abram looked at Hagar and said, I'm sure you're very nice. I'm sure you're a lovely person. And then he looked at Sarah and said, Boo. You are the only woman for me. And then the lights got dim and he said, baby, baby, baby, baby.
I wish that was the story. Or at least he said, hey, maybe we ought to pray about this. God's the one who gave us the promise. Maybe we ought to seek him a little bit. It does seem like maybe that's not what's going to happen. I don't know all the stuff you've got going on, but you're saying you're not going to have children.
Maybe we ought to pray about this. Maybe we ought to seek his face. What it says is, and Abram listened to the voice of Sarah. Now, most people would argue that listening to your wife is a very good thing. This phrase, however, when used in Genesis, has only ever been used negatively. It was what God says to Adam when he shows up.
He says, because you listened to the voice of Eve, because you listened to the voice of your wife, and now it says he listened to the voice of Sarah. It does not mean just listened. It means obeyed. Abraham's the idea that he just took her word and submitted. He took her word and followed. It's what we're supposed to do with God.
Listen to the voice of God. If it said, and Abraham listened to God, what it would mean is he took it, he took it to heart, and he acted on it. You see, Abram is supposed to lead, love, defend, care, and he doesn't. Abram's in this story throughout the rest of this time, and he's the first sitcom dad. He does this. That's pretty much what he does in the rest of this story.
He just is kind of there. There's a lot of times where you're like, okay, do, okay, no. Okay, you're going to, okay, no. And he doesn't lead, love, serve as he ought. Abram listened to the voice of Sarah. Verse three.
So after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, so that's when the promise came when they came, so she's had ten years of trying to be pregnant. Sarah, Abram's wife, took Hagar, the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram, her husband, as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. So that's Hagar.
When she saw that she was pregnant, she suddenly viewed Sarah as worthless. she hated her. She looked on her with contempt. Now, Hagar hasn't had a say in this. This historically plays out this way that those who have no means, often what they do have, their body, their talent, is taken from them by those who do have means. that those who have the ability to pull some strings and have some money and have some ability will take those who have nothing really and will use them for their own purposes, their own value, use them up. They're only good for what they're able to do. They have no value in and of themselves.
So Hagar is in this position and her response is hatred, contempt, towards Sarah. She suddenly feels like, okay, hold on a second. First of all, it confirms very quickly according to the text that Sarah was the issue, that she was not able to get pregnant, that it was something going on with her, not with Hagar. And so Hagar immediately is pregnant and then looks down on Sarah. Treats her differently, Acts differently towards her. And it also can kind of hold the idea, contempt can mean that she just kind of rejects this idea, she's going to keep the child, it's not going to be Sarah's.
There are places in the Bible where it says that you have contempt on the plan, you're not going to do this until it seems like that may be what is happening. She looked on contempt with her mistress. Verse 5, And Sarah said to Abram, May the wrong done to me be on you. I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between me and you. But Abram said to Sarah, Behold, your servant is in your power, do to her as you please.
Then Sarah dealt harshly with her and she fled from her. So Hagar gets pregnant, she treats Sarah with contempt, she becomes maybe haughty, she looks down on her, she treats her as worthless, Sarah goes to Abram and says, This is your fault, may the wrong done to me be on you. She had told herself that if Haggai got pregnant she would feel better, that this would work, that this would be beautiful, that this would fix the plan. And she had, in the midst of her turmoil and hurt, she had grabbed the reins and just said, I'm going to work this out. I'm going to make sure I'm still in control here, I'm going to make this work, and it doesn't.
And that's played out in human history, that's played out in our histories over and over again. This will fix me, this will make me happy, if I can just make this work out, I'm just going to step in, I'm going to pull some strings, and then when we get it, it's worse. When we get what we wanted, it falls apart, it makes it worse, it's more hurtful, it's more painful, that's what happens. And she goes to Abram and says, this is your fault, and she's not entirely wrong. And all he says is, hey, hey, hey, hey, she's your servant, do whatever you want. So it seems as if Sarai beats her, she dealt harshly with her, and Hagar flees.
The angel of the Lord found her, that's Hagar, by a spring of water in the wilderness. So she runs away into the wilderness. This would not have gone well for her. She is pregnant. We don't know how pregnant, but obviously pregnant. She runs off into the wilderness where we're told in the land that they are in it is not well watered, so she finds a spring.
She's hanging out there. She has no real hope of a future. She can live in the woods and try to have a baby by herself, which probably won't go well. She can get picked up by somebody else and be a servant or a slave. She can die. She finds some water, she's there.
The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going? We're told at the beginning that that's her name, is Hagar. She's not called by that any time that Abram or Sarai speak of her. She's called the servant. Servant, servant, servant, servant, servant.
Until God shows up, until the angel of the Lord shows up and he says, Hagar. Because her value to him does not come from what she's able to do. Her value comes from who he has made her. His love for her. That she is a person that he cares about and he calls her by name. And I'm assuming the voice that she heard both instilled her with fear and with longing and with hope.
He said, Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going? She said, I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai. The angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit to her. Those are not words of hope. That sounds terrible. He says, no, go back.
Submit to her. Change your attitude. Change your posture. Be there. The angel of the Lord also said to her, I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude. So there now lies hope that the baby will live or that eventually she'll have more children, that she will live.
And the angel of the Lord said to her, behold, you are pregnant and you shall bear a son. And that's exciting. She got to do an old fashioned God version of an ultrasound. And you shall call his name Ishmael, which means God hears. He doesn't say that, but that's what it means. You shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord has listened to your affliction.
He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him. And he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen. Now, when we hear that, we might think, okay, is that like, is that good? Is that Bible talk for something good to be a wild donkey of a man? Because I've read Song of Solomon and he says your teeth looked like sheep and he was trying to be nice. Your neck is a pomegranate.
Like, is this just one of those weird? No, it translates about as well in English. It's not a nice thing to say about someone. If you're like, yeah, my neighbor is a wild donkey of a man. You're going to be like, he seems nice. So it's not a good prophecy.
He will be great. He will be a great multitude, but he will be against everyone and everyone will be against him. That plays out in history. Very significantly, and we're not going to talk about it. Verse 13. Talk about it next week.
So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her. You are a God of seeing. For she said, truly here I have seen him who looks after me. So she says, I'm seeing. He knows me. He hears me.
That's what he says. I see you. I hear you. I know you. Only person in the Old Testament, male or female, to give God a name. Right here.
You are a God of Abraham. Abraham a son. Abraham called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abraham was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abraham. So Abraham is excited.
He has a son. The promise is being fulfilled. She comes back and says, God says he's going to make him a great multitude. He's going to be a wild donkey. We'll talk about that later. Abraham is like, what was that?
She's like, you're going to Abraham was 86 years old. Now he's 99 years old. This is a 13 year old. Ishmael is 13 now. So Sarai, she's not mentioned.
Hagar comes back, says, God met me, told me to come back. Hopefully she changed her attitude and did what God told her to. There's a son. Sarai watches Ishmael grow to be 13. the promise has moved. He's going to be the great multitude. That's the situation Sarai is in.
When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God almighty before me. I'm God almighty. Walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly. Then Abram fell on his face, which is a good response. And God said to him, behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, which means exalted father, but your name shall be Abraham, which means father of a multitude.
Be Abraham, which means father of a multitude. For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly
Fruitful and I will make you into nations and kings shall come from you and I will establish my covenant between me and you and
Your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you and I will
Give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession and
I will be their God so Abraham is laying on his face and God is just saying this is what I'm going to do
This is my promise this is what's going to happen and God said to Abraham as for you you shall keep my covenant you
And your offspring after you throughout their generations this is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after
You every male among you shall be circumcised you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign
Of the covenant between me and you he who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised which is interesting that's when blood
Begins to clot in a human generations whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not your
Offspring both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised so shall my covenant
Be in your flesh an everlasting covenant any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from
His people he has and we're not going to talk about that verse 15 and God said to Abraham as for Sarai your wife
This is the first time that we've seen God speak about Sarai as for Sarai your wife you shall not call her name Sarai
But Sarah which means princess so all of you who get really down on little girls being called princess and being taught that they're
A princess boom proof text Sarai is a princess I will bless her and more over I will give you a son by her
I will bless her and she shall become nations kings of people shall come from her then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and
Said to himself you ever laugh at an inappropriate time Anna and I were at a wedding reception rehearsal dinner they were doing toast luckily we were at the
Back table we got to laughing so hard we were both crying I couldn't look at her it was terrible this is worse Anna and I really shouldn't go places together
It's a problem he laughed and said to himself shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old shall Sarah who
Is 90 years old bear a child and Abraham said to God oh that Ishmael might live before you and God said no but
Sarah your wife he says that over and over again by the way he says Sarah your wife Sarah your wife a little bit of hey next time
She says marry this other lady say no Sarah your wife shall bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac this
Is great y'all Isaac means he laughs so Abraham falls over laughing I guess he thinks God didn't know and he said you know
What you're going to name him you think this is funny it's going to be hilarious that's what it says that Abraham falls over
And Esau is the same it says Abraham falls over he laughs he says yeah that's what we're going to name him I will
Establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him as for Ishmael I have heard you behold I have
Blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly he shall father twelve princes God shows up when Ishmael is thirteen and
He says hey Abraham your name is Abraham now which is good because that's what I've been calling him the whole time hey Abraham
Remember that covenant that we cut I'm about to cut it into your flesh we're going to cut it into your flesh and it's
Going to be with you and Sarah your wife and I'm assuming that when Abraham went back to Sarah and he said it's you
You you're the one he said her her her she she she Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah I even I hate to bring this up
I was like are you sure and he was like yeah Abraham has great love for his son Ishmael but God says no I'm going
To do it through Isaac and it's interesting the Bible doesn't place a lot of circumcised who conceives Isaac God comes in and says no this covenant wasn't clear
Enough I'm making the promise to you and to her and we're cutting it into your flesh the rest of this chapter says that
Abraham got up and did what God said and on that very day circumcised himself and everybody in the household which I can just imagine some
Guys watching some sheep and some people came running towards him and they were like what's going on and they were like God just
Spoke to Abraham God spoke to Abraham what'd he say the covenant he's gonna have children do what now everybody I wasn't even born
Here I was bought bought too he clarified twice when right now okay this is all coming on a little fast I'm gonna be
Honest well they got it over with and Abraham did what the Lord told him to 18 and the Lord appeared to him by
The oaks of Mamre and as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day now their tents would
Have been goat skin tents so these are big black tents made out of goat skin and they would have during the summer most
Likely rolled the sides up so it was just like a big open air kind of thing and during the winter they rolled the
Sides down because it gets pretty cold but it says he's in the heat of the day he's sitting out in his tent so
It's probably pretty warm he's sitting out underneath the covering also remember he's very old as he sat at the door of his tent
In front looked and behold three men were standing in front of him I said earlier that the Lord appeared to him so these
Three men it says the Lord is among them and behold three men were standing in front of him when he saw them he ran
From the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said oh Lord if I have found favor in your sight
Do not pass that you may pass on since you have come to your servant so they said do as you have said and
Abraham went quickly into the tent and said quick three seeds of fine flour knead it and make cakes and Abraham ran into the herd
And took a calf tender and good and gave it to the young man who prepared it quickly then he took curds and milk
And the calf that he had prepared and set it before them and he stood by them under the tree while they ate I
Don't know if they fried the cheese curds but if you ever get a chance to eat fried cheese curds are delicious verse nine
They said to him where is Sarah your wife I want y'all to see this God shows up to Abraham the first thing he
Says when he sits down he says where is Sarah he cares about her he reinstituted this promise and he says this is for
Sarah and he says where is she he said she is in the tent and the Lord said I will surely return to you
About this time next year okay if we're sitting next to a tent just think about this for a second we're sitting next to
A tent or in the so she wasn't even like she was at the door she was at the flat behind him now Abram
And Sarah were old advanced in years the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah so Sarah laughed to herself saying after
I am worn out and my Lord is old shall have pleasure meaning will this come true will this finally be real now immediately
You're like is that a good laugh is it like a joyous laugh is it like a not good laugh it's not good one let's see how
God respond Lord said to Abraham why did Sarah laugh and say shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old is
Anything too hard for the Lord so her laughter was lack of faith she scoffed we'll talk about that in a second is anything too
Hard for the Lord at the appointed time I will return to you about this time next year and Sarah shall have a son
But Sarah denied it saying I did not laugh I did not laugh she just pokes out behind the curtain or she just shouts
It what no laughing in here something else was funny for she was afraid and he said no but you did laugh no you
Did Sarah you did okay here's what happened God said I've made a promise to Sarah and then he reiterates it and she goes
Yeah okay we do that somebody comes up to you you're in the midst of a situation you can't see past the situation all
You know is pain all you know is hurting they say let me tell you something God loves you and in your heart you go
Okay do we do the thing I know I do this I don't necessarily laugh but I'll do the thing where it's like theologically
I know God can do whatever he wants secondarily I know he won't she has facts on her side after the way of women
Has ceased it's just how she wants to walk out and say don't you know biology I thought you created stuff ain't happening it's
Not a joyous laugh when Abram came back and told her this promise she was too shut down she was too hurt she didn't hold
On to this because it says about the same time next year twice meaning that God shows back up the first question he has
About Sarah is because when the news reached her that the promise was to her she did not believe it and God wants to
Talk to her about it this is where is she about this time next year she's gonna have a son and he says why
Are you laughing is anything impossible for so many of us we get in these situations where all we can see is impossible and
Then somebody comes along in your group and says let me remind you how much Jesus loves you let me remind you what happens
When the Holy Spirit works on somebody that they might repent let remind you and you go yeah okay and he says no but
You did laugh all right Sodom and Gomorrah happens situation with Abraham and Abimelech where Abimelech marries Sarah again somebody else marries her it's not great he thinks
You get over some stuff they would quit doing this anyway chapter 21 it's an exciting chapter you'll notice a little heading that was added
Later the birth of Isaac kind of giving away the ending here but okay chapter 21 the Lord visited Sarah as he had said
And the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised meaning that God fulfilled his promise he said he was going to do this
He did and she conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him now think about this she just
Started gaining weight y'all she's 90 wasn't like she was on a menstrual cycle that she could notice was missing all of a sudden one
Day she was just like no maybe she started throwing up first I don't know I don't know how this went she started having
Problems and then she was like wait a second Sarah conceived bore Abraham a son his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him Abraham
Called the name of his son who was born to him who Sarah bore to him Isaac and Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old as God
Had commanded him Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born to him and Sarah said God has made laughter for me
Everyone who hears will laugh over me I love that verse she said who would have said to Abraham and Sarah who would have
Said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children yet I have born him a son in his old age she has a son 75
80 Years late 25 years after the promise and she says I get the joke he made laughter for me so much joy in
That moment she also says everyone else will think this is funny and it is funny picture a 90 year old woman now picture
Her nine months pregnant it's startling yet humorous she gives birth to this child she does not die she has a healthy child she
Is healthy she nurses she says who on earth would have ever said this would happen and she now believes the impossible she says
The Lord did this and I get it I get the kind of laughter that this Isaac was going to be I get it
And the child grew and was weaned started eating solid food and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned
Men take a note here if you're the husband the dad the head of the household find things to celebrate this is one of
The cool things that Abraham does here he says you're eating solid food now well you're about to get all kinds of solid food
This is going to be a celebration find things to celebrate put your foot in the ground on some stuff don't always just be
Like it about time you started eating food I've been telling your mama I thought you were behind on that don't do that say boy
You ain't even have fried chicken for have you like just throw down find things to celebrate find things to be excited about don't just
Fuss when things are bad but celebrate but Sarah saw that the son of Hagar the Egyptian whom she had born to Abraham laughing he's
15 16 At he had an attitude so she said to Abraham cast out this slave woman with her son for the son of
This slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac her heart towards Hagar has not changed cast out this slave woman her
The son of this slave woman will not be an heir with my son and the thing was very displeasing to Abraham he's that
Word pretty heavy he's very frustrated very angry on account of his son he's like that's my son you can't just say get rid of
Your son but God said to Abraham be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman whatever Sarah says to
You do as she tells you for through Isaac shall your offspring be named so I just want to point this out earlier was a problem when he
Listened to his wife because God wasn't involved now she has some wisdom God steps in and says no listen to her so it's
Not like a general rule don't listen to your wife no she's helpful but listen to God as well what God said to him
Be not displeased because of the boy because of your slave one whatever Sarah says you do as she tells you for through Isaac
Shall promises for Sarah and Isaac that's where the promise has always been send them out I think this is a big messed up
Situation I think God also thinks it is but this is what should happen they're still facing the consequences of their sin and their
Desire to take control in their own hands so Abraham rose early in the morning he took bread and a skin of water and gave
It to skin was gone so this is some days later she had a skin of water they've been rationing it I'm assuming they're
Trying to figure out a place to go they're trying to make it somewhere safe when the water and the skin was gone she
Put the child under one of the bushes then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off at the distance of the
Shot for think it means he was refusing water and letting her drink that's my guess so she lays him parched lips chapped lips
Cheeks sunk in she drags him under a bush when he finally falls over because they're out of water and they've been out of
Water for a while and she just goes off somewhere kind of close but not too close because she doesn't want watch her son
Die she sits down let me not look on the death of the child and as she sat opposite him she lifted up her
Voice and wept and God heard the voice of the boy and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to
Her what troubles you Hagar fear not for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is his name is God hears
He said I have Ishmael Ishmael and it's like M. Night Shamelan signs or whatever when all just comes together at the end he
Was going to hear him all along I heard the voice voice the boy where he is verse 18 up lift up the boy
And hold him fast with your hand for I will make him into a great nation then God opened her eyes and she saw
A well of water she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink and God was with the boy
And he grew up he lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow he lived in the wilderness of Paran and
His mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt she's like I'm done with these Chaldeans okay you read this who's
The person that you think ah let's learn moral lessons from this character Hagar isn't the main character she does she's not terrible from what
We can see she has a lot of really bad circumstances happen to her but they're not really highlighting Hagar Sarai has this moment
Of redemption where she's laughing and it's almost like you got it you see what God was doing and then she sees Ishmael laughing
And says the joke is not for him kill him and you're like like y'all were having a party what what on earth she
Goes to Abraham in the middle of the party and says they gotta go he'll have nothing to do here and there may be
Some he was a threat to her son she's afraid of it but she's not saying send him away give bread give him some water and they
Can go die Abraham is not the hero in this he's not held up as like they wrote this so that everybody would think Abraham was awesome
That's not how it's written Ishmael seems okay from the little bit that we see Isaac started eating solid food that's pretty good I think he's the
Best character he made people happy and then he ate food and it's like all right Isaac this story is a mess and that's so
So good because your story is a mess and do y'all see how good God is in this story how tender he is how loving
He is like I want him to show up and bang some people's heads together like you want him to show up and say
What are you doing come no come here Abraham come sit down Sarah you think this is funny too come here both y'all in
Trouble like you want him to do that when he shows up to Hagar like he there's just these moments where you're like but
He just shows up and he's so kind and he's so gracious and he's just walking with them through this we so often think
That he's just so disappointed in us and he's so slow to anger and so slow to wrath and so welcoming and gracious and
In the middle of this he's just working it out with them and he's saying it's going to be okay no no let me
Clarify that the promise was for her now I hear you about Ishmael but I will bless him but it's not for him and
He just the whole time is just working through this and I want y'all to know that that God definitively does that for us
In Christ that he calls our name that he works out our problems that he accomplishes his purpose for our good in Jesus that
Ultimately Jesus is the Isaac that we get the laughter and the joy in the midst of our broke down inability to get there if you are
Not a Christian today I want you to just think and be like Hagar for a moment and know that God calls your name
I want you to hear him call your name and know that he knows you and that he sees you and that he loves
You and he can work in the middle of this and you can't see past your pain I want you to know that he
Works with you so similarly to the way he works with Sarah the promises don't break down because you actively worked to destroy them
He shows back up he renews him he reminds you and he works for your good and he calls you princess or prince if
That's better for you that you're a son or daughter of the king and his promises will hold fast a band is going to
Come back up here Matt and Bianca are going to come back up here we're going to sing we're going to worship a God
Who in the midst of our chaos and our sin and our lack of faith and our contempt and our scoffing at his promises
Consistently works to draw us nearer to him loves us so deeply is so kind and so gracious and that's what those pages are drenched
With the love of God for them and I don't know where you are I don't know what you've got going on right now
I don't know the circumstances you can't see past I don't know the promise you've been waiting on for 5 10 15 25 35
45 60 Years I don't know I know what you've been holding out on I don't know what you thought was going to happen
In life that hasn't happened in life I don't know what you have seen just crash around your ears but I know that there
Is a God who sees you and knows you and knows your name and through Christ is at work for your good and who
Cares and who loves and who in the midst of you being so devastatingly disappointing is not disappointed but comes to you and says
No and that through Jesus we can have that eternally secured for us forever let's pray God we thank you for your grace that you
See us thank you that you hear us and we thank you that when we are a catastrophic mess you call to us you
Clarify you walk with us you address us and you drag us forward towards your hope and your joy we pray that those who
Don't know Jesus would be forever changed by him would hear him calling their voice today would step out in faith we pray those
Who have grown hardened to your promises that you would soften them they would see the joy and laughter and the hope and the
Promises that are given from you and they would know that nothing is impossible with you in Jesus name we pray amen
October Baptism Party
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here with Mill City Church. Welcome to our baptism gathering. Welcome to a gathering with lots of our families in the room. Today is going to look a little bit different.
We're not going to be in Genesis this morning. We're taking a break. For this week, we're going to be in Galatians 3. So you have a blue Bible around you. It's on page 566. I encourage you to turn there as we will read through it.
So today's a little bit different. We've got all our families in the room. So this is going to be a little bit shorter for the sake of the attention spans that we have in the room. And today's exciting. It's Baptism Sunday. It's one of the most exciting Sundays we get to celebrate.
We celebrate that Jesus has changed four lives that we get to celebrate in baptism. In sports, one of the more exciting things you get to see, especially if you're a hopeless fan like me, if you love the Gamecocks or the Colts, you're always looking forward to new players. That's an exciting time. Whether it's in college, you're looking forward to signing day when players are going to declare, this is the school I'm going to go to. Whether it's in professional sports where there's a draft when a player is going to get chosen and they're going to put on a jersey or a hat, when that moment happens, everyone's excited.
Fans, players, families, coaches, because someone has been added to the team. And this moment that we get to celebrate today blows that out the water. What we get to celebrate as a church family that Jesus has changed four lives is so much more exciting because of the eternal implications of what are happening here today. So we're going to work through Galatians 3 as a church family together. And as we work through verses 22 through 29, we're going to see three different pictures. We're going to see a picture of who all of us were coming into this world as captives.
That we are all captives before faith in Jesus. And then we're going to see how faith brings us into freedom. That we have freedom because of what Christ has done for us and that that freedom was purchased and brings us into a family. The third picture we'll see today. That we belong to a church family. And as we work through these three things, we're going to see that baptism gives me a picture of how faith brings us from captivity into freedom and into a family.
So I'm going to read through this. We'll pray. And then we'll dive in. Verse 22. But the scripture imprison everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek.
There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. I'll pray and then we'll jump in. God, thank you so much for your word.
God, I pray that you would make the gospel so clear and evident as we walk through this. As we celebrate what you have done. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, so the first part of this passage, we're going to see how we all come into this world as captives. This is in verse 22. But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin.
So the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law. Imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came. In order that we might be justified by faith. That is the reality for all of us.
That is the picture of all of us before we encounter Christ. That we are imprisoned. We are captive by sin. And chasing sin is actually an ironic picture in comparison to how culture looks at this. Because culture looks at us as Christians and says, No, you guys aren't free. Y'all are the ones that are in prison.
Your faith has imprisoned you. Everyone else gets to be free to do whatever they want. The classic caricature of this shows up all over the place. But specifically you see it in the Simpsons. Over the last two decades of that show being on, Who's the classic Christian next door neighbor? Ned Flanders.
And for over two decades, he has been the stereotype of what Christians are. He's not fun. He's kind of boring. He can be kind of awkward. And his kids get to see that. And they look over and over again at the next door neighbor, the Simpsons.
They look at Homer Simpson and Bart Simpson. And all the fun and all the things they get to do. But they have to go inside and read their Bible and pray. And it's best captured, I think, in the full feature movie they did. Towards the end of the movie, the kids look at the Simpson kids and their father. And they say, I wish Homer was our dad.
And Ned Flanders says, well, I wish he didn't have the devil's curly hair. That's the caricature that gets put on us. That we're the ones that are in prison. That everyone else is free. But that is a false picture.
Because it's not actually freedom. The pursuing sin, pursuing the things of this world, isn't freedom. It actually reveals that you're not free. It actually reveals that you are a slave. That you are captive to your desires. That your desires, your sinful flesh, your pursuit of the world, that drives the train.
And that your free choices to pursue that further shows that, no, you're just a slave. Let me just give you one quick picture of what this looks like. There are millions of Americans that have lots of credit card debt. Because in our culture, the economy is really built on buying things and pursuing things. How many of us, I mean, to keep up with the Joneses, like if you want the newest and nicest phone, you've got to drop like $1,000 every year to keep up. On top of all the other data plans that you might spend on.
I mean, Americans shop regularly. How many of us have credit card bills that are loaded with shopping? Beauty is pushed in our culture. So hundreds of dollars every month in some budgets are spent on beauty. There is always the pursuit of newer and nicer vehicles where the prices go up and up and up. There's always a pursuit of toys, of things, of guns that we keep adding and adding and adding.
And many of us are swimming in this. And what it reveals is that you are actually a slave to materialism. That you actually worship comfort. And that out of that, your free choices to spend your money the way that you like it actually reveals, no, something else is driving the train. You weren't free at all. And you can pretty much do that with every other sin set there is.
Because it boils down to idolatry. Worship things in the place of God. And that is what drives the train. You are not actually free. Because worldly freedom is not freedom. And it's actually further imprisonment.
And the law reveals this. That's what this passage says. The law reveals this. The law is talking about the Old Testament law, which is the first five books of the Old Testament. But it gets expanded in the New Testament to mean all of the Bible.
That the Bible stands guard. And what it reveals is, is that these, you will never live up to what God has called you to. And also it reveals that you are a slave. That you are not actually free. And it stands guard and it reminds us of this. And if that was just it, if that was the whole of the news, then we wouldn't have this baptism water soon.
We wouldn't be celebrating this day. But, verse 25, But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you were, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. What we see here is that baptism begins to be a picture of how faith takes captives and sets them free. That's the exchange that happens.
It's faith. Our faith differentiates us, it separates us from every other belief system, every other value system in the world. You can look at Buddhism. In Buddhism, and I know there's different, there's Therafada Buddhism, there's Mahayana Buddhism, I get this, but the whole gist of Buddhism is that there's an exchange that happens. You bring self-denial to the table in exchange for the final state, which is nirvana. In Islam, you exchange submission to Allah, you exchange that, that's the currency, and then you get paradise.
We see this in the American dream, a value system that we're all so familiar with, that you put in your work, you put in your blood, sweat, tears, identity, and then you get to level up. We used to say you used to get the house with a white picket fence, but I don't really see houses with white picket fence as much anymore. But it is, I want all the shiplap, I want all the luxury vinyl plate floors, I want all the quartz, the granite, the works. I want the cars, I want to level up in all of that. And I exchange all of that to get into that. Another value system you see that's been prevalent over the last couple decades is kind of the find yourself movement.
I mean, basically the last couple decades has been different forms of expression. You exchange expression for acceptance. You exchange identity for acceptance. That there are different tribes in our culture that will accept you, and you give yourself, you give a piece of yourself and express yourself and your identity in this and you will be accepted. You can do this with every value system, with every different religion. There's always going to be some type of exchange that you give of yourself, and the gospel cuts through all of that and says the opposite.
It says, some will say that you bring nothing to the table and Jesus takes care of the rest, and that's not even completely accurate. Because you don't just bring nothing to the table in our faith. No, you bring sin debt. You bring an accumulation of sin that stands against you with its legal demands. So we bring that to the table, and Jesus makes an exchange.
I want you to picture with me for a moment. Picture with me for a moment if you are in prison serving a life sentence. You've been serving this life sentence in prison for years. This is pretty much all that you know. And that every day is the same. You wake up, you leave your cell, you go eat breakfast, and you go, and maybe you go to the yard to do some, to work out, to play basketball, and then you go to a prison Job.
Or you work the job, go eat lunch, continue finishing the job, maybe you get done, have some more time for reg, then you eat a meal, then you go back to your cell, and then you wake up and do the same thing over and over and over again. Sounds like more than prison, sounds like reality for some of us. And you keep doing this over and over again, and then finally, someone comes and visits you. They sit across the table, and they say, this isn't actually freedom. This reality that you have isn't free at all. So here's the exchange.
You can walk out of here today. You can leave the barbed wire, you can leave the fences, you can leave the cell, you can walk out of here today. You just have to trust my word. Trust me, and you walk out, and I will take your place. I will take the sentence that you deserve, and you get to walk out. It's that easy.
That seems like a no-brainer. That seems like, absolutely, that's what we should do, but there is a chorus of lies that comes from everyone else in the prison that says, no, don't do that. No, that is a backwards system. That's archaic. That is, his followers are crazy. Don't do it.
And it's easy to get caught up in the chorus of lies. But that's all it takes in Christ, is to simply trust what he has already done. That in Christ, he went to the cross, he took death for us, so that we might not have to be slaves to sin, we might have to be, we might not be captives anymore, that we might be free. And all it takes is simply trusting in his life, his death, his resurrection, and he stands for us, that we take off the orange jumpsuits, and he gives us robes of righteousness, that all of his work will stand for us. And that's as simply as it gets in faith, that faith brings us from captivity into freedom.
And that's what we're going to get to celebrate today with these four stories that step into these waters, that they were once captive in sin, but through believing in his life, death, and resurrection, he made them free. As it says in verse 27, for as many of you were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, that from this point forward, after placing their faith in Jesus, that Jesus' perfect record stands for them. That they get a point to that. They can't be accused anymore. All of their sin paid for at the cross. And that lastly, that they were purchased and brought into a family.
That's what we see in this last part. It says, verse 28, There's neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free. There's no male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring.
Heirs according to the promise. This is what baptism gets to be a picture of. How faith brings us out of captivity, into freedom, and into a family. I've had some friends over the years that have adopted children. My wife and I actually currently were praying through this as adoption. It might be an option for us in the future.
There's one specific family I remember. This guy that I looked up to a lot. He has four kids. All four of his kids are adopted. And all of his kids come from different backgrounds. They're from different parts of the country.
They're different ethnicities. They have different stories. And some of these kids, they bounced around from foster home to foster home, from family to family. When you are a kid, the common questions you might have when you go through something like this is do I belong? Do I matter? Does anybody actually want me?
And these kids would land up on his doorstep and he would make it very clear. They'd make two things very clear. He'd say, listen, this is your forever family. This is the last stop. You belong. You matter.
You are here. This is your forever family. You are forever a part of this. And the second thing he would make clear is that you are a Jones. That's their last name. He'd say, you're a Jones now.
That's the most important thing you need to hear. You are a part of this family. And you are a Jones with everything that comes with that. And man, what a beautiful picture that we get in the gospel. That we are adopted into a family. We're adopted into a forever family that is so diverse with different people, different stories, different backgrounds.
That's what this passage is highlighting with some of these differences. It says, he intentionally pairs up different categories. He says, Jews, Greeks, which are different backgrounds, different stories, different cultures, but also what he's highlighting here, as we've talked about in Genesis, as we've been walking through the story of Abraham, is that the Jews ethnically thought that they were heirs to the original promise, but what happens in the New Testament in passages like this is that that gets blown up. It's not by ethnicity, it's by faith. You are heirs to the promise by faith. Jews and Greeks are different.
He says, slave, free, male, female, all different backgrounds. And that's true for us. You have black, white, rich, poor, male, female. The local church, the global church, we're all different in our backgrounds, different in our stories, but the New Testament makes it so clear. The most important thing about you when you have trusted in Jesus as your only hope is that your chief identity is Christ. Your whole, the whole of who you are is Jesus and that you are part of a forever family where God has sealed you with his blood.
And that's what we get to celebrate in these baptism waters as each steps in the water. What's going to happen afterwards is there's going to be a celebration. There's going to be people who celebrate and that's your church family as we celebrate what Jesus has done. So as we get ready for baptism, here's a couple things you're going to hear and here's a few things you're going to see. You're going to hear some stories. There's going to be some videos and it's going to tell the stories about each of these four individuals of who they were and now who they are in Christ.
And then, as a church family, we're going to celebrate which is a reminder that you've been adopted into a family. A family of different people with different stories as we celebrate the gospel together. And then, as the band comes up, I just have two closing thoughts. Church family, this is exciting. This is a fun moment that we get to celebrate together. Let's do what we do.
Let's go crazy. Let's celebrate that Jesus took people who were dead in sin and made them alive in Christ. That what happens here in these waters is that they're going to be, they're going to declare that Jesus is their Savior. They're going to be dumped under water which is symbolized that they were dead in sin. That they were once captive. And when they come out of the waters, they are free.
They are alive. It is a picture of the hope that they have trusted in. So, church family, let's celebrate. Let's be glad. if you, if there's anyone in here that has not trusted in Jesus as your only hope, if you are not a Christian, this is our hope for you today. That you would hear this word, that you would see these stories and you would see this is better. That you are actually in prison.
You have not experienced freedom and the hope of the gospel is that you can experience freedom in Christ and all it takes is faith. Faith will bring you out of captivity. It will bring you into freedom. And the hope of the gospel is that you will join our family as we celebrate what Jesus has done, as we get to celebrate together today in baptism. Let me pray. God, I am thankful so much for your word.
I am thankful so much for this holy symbol that we get to practice today. God, I pray that if there's anyone here who's not trusted in you as their only hope, they'd stop running. they'd see your freedom is better and they would surrender to you. God, I'm so thankful for how you work. Let's let this be a joyous celebration in Jesus' name. Amen.
The Covenant
Transcript
Good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are going to be in Genesis chapter 15. So we've been walking through the book of Genesis, and we are in a section we're calling the Patriarchs, which is just we're looking at the life of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And so the beginning of Genesis chapters 1 through 11 is kind of this the history of humankind and kind of how we have spiraled out of control after we rebelled against God and spiraled into sin. And then God's promise that he's not going to let sin win. And it zooms in on this one man, this one family, and kind of the rest of Genesis is going to carry out of this family. And really the rest of the Bible is going to carry out out of this family, out of what God does with Abraham and then Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and just this family as it plays out in history. And is he going to be able to fulfill his promise to not let sin win, to not let us all be overcome by sin and rebellion and death?
Can he somehow redeem us? And that's where we are. We're in the story of Abraham in Genesis. God hasn't changed his name yet, so it's still Abram. We're in chapter 15. We looked at the first kind of three chapters of Abraham last week, 12, 13, and 14.
And so we're picking up today and we're going to see two massively important kind of events take place in the life of Abraham and really in the life of us as believers. And so let's pray and then we'll study this story together. God, we thank you for your word, for the instruction and for the hope that is found in it. And we pray that as we read this story of something you did with this one man long ago, that we might see you more clearly in it and your son more clearly through it. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so we're going to start reading in chapter 15, verse 1.
After these things, and that just means the events we read about last week, after these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram. I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great. So he comes to Abram in a vision.
He says, fear not. I am your shield. I'm your protector. I'm your defender. I'm what covers you. I'm what guards you.
And he says, your reward should be very great. And Abram responds. He says, but Abram said, oh, Lord God, what will you give me? For I continue childless. And the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus. And Abram said, behold, you have given me no offspring.
And a member of my household will be my heir. Okay, so Abram's response is kind of interesting. God comes to him and says, I'm going to be your shield. Your reward will be very great. And Abram starts interacting with the promises that God's already given him, which is that he's going to make him into a great nation. That he's going to give him land.
He's going to give him a great nation. He's going to give him people. And so Abram's saying, like, if you keep giving me stuff, the thing I really want, the thing that really clinches this deal, makes this wonderful, is that you would give me an heir. And so in some ways he's questioning God's plan. And in some ways he's just trying to understand if I misunderstood what's going to happen here. Do you actually want to continue to bless me and have all this go to the current heir that I have, which is Eleazar of Damascus?
Like, I'm going to give it to a person who's just part of my household, but he's not. He's not. He doesn't come from me. He's not in my family line. Or are you going to do something different? It's kind of what he's asking.
He's questioning God on how is this going to work. And I think maybe some of us have been there before where we're looking at the situation we're in. We're looking at what God says he's going to do. We're looking at how the Bible says things play out, how he treats Christians. And we're going, I don't see it. I don't see how you're going to do that from here.
I don't see how that's going to work out well from here. So that's what Abraham's saying. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and he said, look toward heaven and number the stars.
So this vision happened at night or really early morning prior to sunrise. If you are able to number them. Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. So he takes him outside. He tells him to look at the stars. And maybe you're used to looking at the stars in Columbia.
So you've ceased to try to look at the stars. But at this moment, Abraham walks out of his tent in an area where there is no light pollution. And he stares up. And he sees innumerable little pinpricks of light. Like the pictures you see on your computer desktop. Where it's just insane.
Where it almost looks like you're staring out beyond the world. And you can almost fall into it. That's what he sees. And he's staring at this. And God says, if you can number those, you'll have a good handle on the number of your offspring. And so as Abraham's staring up and as he's hearing the word of God, it says this.
Verse 6. And he believed the Lord. And he counted it to him as righteousness. So what that says is that Abraham believed the Lord. And God counted it to him as righteousness. Okay, so this is very interesting.
And very, very good news for us. What it says is that Abraham believed the Lord. Now that phrase there means that this, it settled. It became firm. That's the first time this word is used. And it means that it kind of, it settled in.
He locked it in. He believes him. Because we've seen Abraham trust the Lord before. We've seen him do things the Lord told him to go do. But this, in this moment, is where it really settles in his heart that he genuinely believes.
He comes to a firm, okay, I trust you. I don't know how you're going to work this out. I don't know when that's going to happen. I'm really, really old. And so is Sarai. But okay, I trust you.
It's this moment where that happens for him. That he locks this belief in. And for those of us who are genuinely believers in Christ, maybe you fully understand what it's saying. Because there might have been times prior when you were studying your Bible. When you were hanging out with a church or something. Where you kind of believed the Lord.
And then you would kind of back off. You would get a little bit tossed to and fro. You would vacillate. There was like this, no, I do believe. And then something would happen. And you're like, well, maybe not really fully.
I don't really know. And then at some point it became so clear to you. That actually in the face of mounting evidence. In the face of doubt. In the face of frustration. In the face of questions.
No, I believe. I trust you. Beyond I trust what you've done or what you will do. I trust you. And that's what Abram does here. And it says that the Lord counted it to him as righteousness.
Now, we need to know what righteousness is. Righteousness means being right. It means being good. It means being holy. It's actually, if you ask people. The majority of people believe that there is a God.
And if you ask them, what does he want from you? The general response is, he wants me to be a good person. That may be your answer. He wants me to be good. There's a big holy creator God. And he looks down at me and says, behave.
Do the things you're supposed to do. Don't do the things you're not supposed to do. Be good. Be righteous. That he wants me to be generous. He wants me to be kind.
He wants me to not hurt people. That's what the term righteousness means. But what did we just see? Is Abram righteous? He is because God credited him with righteousness when he believed him. So that Abram places his trust in God.
And he just says, I trust you. My faith is in you. I believe you. And God says, okay, that counts as righteousness. If you'll think back to school. Some of you are still in school.
So you don't have to think as hard as other people. Some of you got to think kind of hard. If you'll remember extra credit. So there were some people that you went to school with and they had intelligence. They didn't need extra credit. And there were other people who needed extra credit.
They needed something that made up for being able to just show up, take tests, do well. Maybe you didn't test well. Maybe you didn't study well. Maybe you, because you never studied, even though you might have been good at it, you never tested well. I don't know. But you needed extra credit.
You needed your teacher to say, I will trade hard work for intelligence. And there were annoying people in your class who were like, I don't need to do extra credit. And there was you who was like, I'm doing all the journal assignments. I'm doing all the things. I'm cutting clippings out of newspapers and gluing them to some sort of marker board. I'm doing whatever it is for me to get extra credit.
And what your teacher was saying was, I will trade. I will count. I will credit extra work, hard work for good grades. And so what God just said to Abram was, I will credit faith for good behavior. I will credit faith for righteousness. That you, if you trust me, that's the same.
I will credit it as if you have just perfectly behaved yourself. This is, Paul picks this up in Romans. We're just going to have this on the screen. That God applies this to his account, whose account. So if it says for, if Abraham was justified by works, now justified means made right, made righteous.
You're justified that your actions are justified. If you did something perfect and you said, no, I feel justified in this. It means that you did it the way it was supposed to be done. So if he was justified by works, then he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
Okay, so what it says is, if Abraham was just a really good person, and if he was just righteous, then he could walk before God and say, look at my account. I have done so, so well. He would have something to boast about. He would say, everybody else on earth. This is the deal that God would have with Abram. And this is what we're tempted to think.
That God looked around on earth and he said, Abram's got it together. That's the guy I want. That Abram could actually look at God and say, everyone else on earth, trash. They're the worst. But I'm doing great.
Now, if you were here last week and you saw when Abram told his wife to pretend to be his sister so she can marry another guy, you probably aren't sold on his righteousness. Probably aren't convinced that he's the best. He has nothing to boast about before God. He can't walk before God and say, just take it on all my account. Just grade my little sheet and you'll know that I'm perfect. It doesn't say that.
It says, no, he didn't have anything to boast about before God because he believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. If you have a job, when you get your paycheck, your boss says, thank you, not your welcome. It's your due. You worked for it. They don't act like that you somehow are indebted to them.
They're indebted to you. That's what it's saying. So that if God had a system where you behaved and you went to him and you said, look at my behavior and he would owe you, but he doesn't owe you. It's not your due. It's a gift. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies, makes right the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
Now, all of our little hearts should have just started fluttering because what it says is that God justifies the ungodly. Y'all know who that is? Us. We're the ungodly. You can't stand here and say, no, in all my actions and in all my thoughts, I have been like God. I've been godly.
I've been holy. I've been pure. No, you haven't. This is us. We're the ungodly. I know y'all.
That's y'all. My wife's here. Ask her. She can co-sign. That's me. His faith is counted as righteousness.
And then he says this, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord does not count his sins. So not only does he credit us with righteousness, but he doesn't count our sin. He takes our sin away. How?
By faith. That we trust God and he gives us righteousness. Now, some of you are genuinely appropriately excited. And some of you are like, wait a second. That doesn't sound fair. And you're right.
It is not fair. But it's not fair in our favors who don't complain. It's not fair towards the ungodly. We don't get what we deserve. He doesn't hold our sin against us. If we trust Jesus, if we place our faith in God, we get righteousness on our account.
The only people who have a problem with this are the people who think they're good enough. The only people who have a problem with this. That's why Jesus and the religious leaders didn't get along. Because Jesus came along proclaiming this idea. This is what he worked for. This is the people he reached.
And everybody who thought they had it together was really annoyed with him. Because they had been working. And they felt like God owed them. I've been punching the clock. You owe me. But the people who know they're ungodly.
Who know their sin. And who know that they can't work enough to pay it back. Or to be good enough. Who just trust Jesus covers me. God, you are good. And you are gracious.
And you justify the ungodly. Those people are excited. Remember in class. And the teacher, you had homework. But she forgot to take it up.
And you were so happy because you didn't do it. Teacher didn't say anything about homework. And you were like. And then this little greasy hand shot up. In the back. Um.
This is how they talked. I didn't go to your school. But I know what they sounded like. You didn't take up homework. And you were like. I'm going to choke somebody today.
Now do you know who raises their hand and says that? The person who did their homework. Not a single person ever shot their hand up and said. You didn't take up homework. And I didn't do it. But I just felt like being honest.
He justifies the ungodly. Abram is righteous. Not because he was well behaved. Not because he put in work. Not because he was good. Not because we're going to read Genesis.
And be blown away by how magical Abram was. He's righteous. Because he believed God. When God spoke. He's righteous. Because when God made a promise.
He said I trust you. And he placed all his faith in him. And he pushed all his chips over to God. And he says I'm following you. I trust it's settled in his heart. And that's good news for anyone who knows that they're ungodly.
So let's keep going. Because this is going to get more interesting. Where God kind of continues along with Abram in this story. Verse 7. And he said to him. I am the Lord.
Who brought you out. From Ur of the Chaldeans. That's modern day Iraq. I'm the one who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans. To give you this land to possess. But he said.
So this is Abram. Oh Lord. How am I to know that I shall possess it? I want y'all to be really encouraged. We just got told that Abram believes God. And he believes him so much.
Settled so much. That he has faith in him. But he still has questions. Sometimes people think. Like if you're going to be a Christian. It's just blind faith.
You can't question anything. You can't. It's like no. Like we get to wrestle with God. We get to talk to God. Did you read the Psalm we read a minute ago?
The part that Josh read. We don't read the discouraging parts out loud. We read the encouraging parts out loud down here. But did you hear what Josh said? Are you going to be angry forever? Is it going to be terrible forever?
Is everything going to fall apart forever? That's in the Bible. Like we get to wrestle with God. We get to ask him questions. And still trust. And still have faith.
And so that's what he says. Oh Lord. How am I to know. That I shall possess it? Verse 9. God said.
He said to him. Bring me a heifer. That's a female cow. Three years old. A female goat. Three years old.
A ram. Three years old. A turtle dove. And a young pigeon. And he brought him all these. Cut them in half.
And laid them each half. Laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses. Abram drove them away. Okay.
So that got weird. God was like. Go get some animals. And Abram just starts chopping them up. It's like. Hey.
I think he jumped the gun. He didn't tell you what to do with them man. But what happened here. Is that Abram knows what God is asking for. Even though we don't. But we're separated from Abram culturally.
So as soon as he said this. Abram knew what he was talking about. I'll give you an example of like cultural things that we're used to. That would seem weird to like. If you weren't familiar with our culture. And there were two people.
And one of them. They were haggling over. Like a car. They were talking about price. And they were going back and forth. On how much they were going to.
How much they were going to spend on it. How much they were going to buy. How much it was going to be selling. All of a sudden. One of them just said. He just.
Poked his hand out at the other one. The other one clasped his hand. And they jiggled it firmly. Makes perfect sense to us. That's a handshake y'all. But if we'd never seen one.
You'd be like. What just happened here? And then they said. Draw it up. Draw what up? We know.
Contract. Draw it. Like let's write it up. Let's put it up on some paper. It doesn't mean. Draw a picture of the car.
But we would know that. Because we're familiar with the concept. There's just certain things. That were social cues. That we're used to. I was playing football in college.
And one of our coaches. Was chewing out. One of the other linebackers. His name was Chris Hackney. He was chewing him out. About something.
They were arguing. Because there was a disagreement. Over how a play had been handled. And what had happened. And so. Chris was giving his point of view.
On how it went down. And the coach was giving his point of view. And in the middle of this. As they're kind of debating. Back and forth. The coach just sticks his hand up like this.
Which in the coach's mind. Symbolized. Shut your mouth. But in Hackney's mind. It symbolized. I just realized you're right.
Give me a high five. And this was awesome. Because they're arguing. Coach sticks his hand up. Hackney high fives it. And turns around.
And it didn't go well for him. But there's these cultural things. That we're used to. These cues. That we're used to seeing. These things that we understand.
That we know culturally. And here's what happens. When God tells him to get these animals. It's not that Abram lost his mind. Or that he was like. Oh you want me to get animals?
I'm mad at him. It's that Abram knew something was happening here. It's not that every time you tell Abram. He does this. It's like Uncle Abram. I want a pony for Christmas.
Will you get me one? I'll get you a pony. It's not like that. It's not. What he's doing. Is they're entering into.
A suzerain vassal covenant. Or a suzerain vassal treaty. That phrase actually. When earlier. Where it said. I am your shield.
One of the ways to accurately translate that. Is for him to say. I'm your suzerain. So this is how much of the ancient world. Was organized. There were suzerains.
And suzerains were the greater party. They were the kings. They were the stronger party. The more powerful party. And vassals were the weaker party. The humble party.
And they were often kings as well. But they were kings of smaller kingdoms. Or weaker kingdoms. And so here's what would happen. We actually read about this. Some of you were here last week.
In 14. When there was. Kings battling kings. It said that these used to serve that one. But they stopped.
That was actually a suzerain vassal covenant. That they broke. And that was why there was a big war. And it was a big mess. What happens is. A more powerful king.
A more powerful kingdom. A suzerain will have vassals. And that just means. That your kingdom. Submits to my kingdom. That I'm taking you in.
You are a part of my kingdom now. So you still get to reign. You still get to have your kingdom. Or whatever. But you're underneath me.
Your people are like my people. I will protect you. If somebody attacks you. As if you're my people. But you're going to obey me.
You're going to follow me. You're going to. If I muster your army. You're going to show up. You're going to do what I say. You're going to pay taxes.
There's just. That's the agreement. And the vassal would be saying. I obey you. I follow you. I'm going to submit to you.
Often in these treaties. When they were written up. And we have a handful of copies of these. That we know about. They would be called Lord. And servant.
Or master and servant. Or they would be called father and son. So you entered into these treaties. It's a very serious thing. That the suzerain is going to be the father. He's going to be the Lord.
The vassal is going to be the son. Or the servant. And the way they would do these treaties. They would call it cutting a covenant. They would take animals. They would cut them up.
It was different animals. Or a lot of animals. Whatever. They would cut them up. They would cut them in half. They would lay them.
On either side. So that there was this trail. Of blood. In between the animals. And then. There was two ways this would play out.
Way number one. The suzerain and the vassal. The suzerain. The suzerain. The suzerain and the vassal. Would walk through the trail of blood.
It was a mess. They would get stuff caked all around their shoes. Their feet. If they had sandals. They would get it if they had long robes. I'm assuming they dragged those in the blood as well.
And it would soak up. Because the only reason I assumed that. Is if you had a long robe. I think you would look funny. If you held it up like this. While you walked.
So I just. Just as I picture it. They dragged that through the blood as well. But it was to symbolize. So the suzerain and the vassal.
Would walk through. And what they were saying. Was the suzerain was saying. You now serve me. You now belong to me. And if I break this covenant.
Let me be like these animals. That you'll cut me up. That was one way that would happen. The vassal would be walking through saying the same thing. I serve you. I follow you.
And if I break this covenant. If I don't obey you. If I don't do what you say. You can cut me up like these animals. These animals aren't just animals. They're me.
Often. Often. And this makes sense. The suzerain didn't walk through the blood. Just the vassal. They'd cut up animals.
The suzerain would watch. The vassal was the one who would walk through by himself. And say. I commit myself to you. And if I fail to hold up my end of the bargain. You can cut me up.
Like these. Suzerains were allowed to have more than one vassal. Vassals were only allowed to have one suzerain. That's what they're doing. Abram knows that. So as soon as he says.
How will I know? He says. He's already told him. I'm your shield. He already told him. I'm your protector.
I'm the one overseeing you. He says. Go get these animals. And so Abram rolls up. Cuts them up. Knows exactly what he's waiting for.
We're going to do a suzerain vassal covenant. And you know that Abram. While he's cutting them up. He has to think. He has to be thinking. Can I do this?
Can I. Can I obey fully? Can I obey perfectly? Can I actually commit to. This kind of consequence. For not following God.
We're to assume. He decides. Yes. Like he doesn't try to back out of this. He says. No.
I can do this. We actually have. And it'll be on the screen. We have. A segment from a. One of these covenants in another place.
It says. This head. Is not the head of a spring lamb. It is the head of Matai Elu. It is the head of his sons. His magnates.
And the people of his land. If Matai Elu should sin against this treaty. So may. Just. As the head of the spring lamb. Be cut off.
The head of Matai Elu. Be cut off. And his sons. And his magnates. And it's a long document. And it keeps going.
It says. This shoulder. Is not the shoulder of. This is the. It says. We're going to cut you in half.
Like we cut this in half. We're going to cut your wife in half. Like we cut this in half. Like it is a very serious thing. I think. That if we still did covenants like this.
We wouldn't break them as often. If you were at Verizon. You worked out your deal. And he's like. Right. Let me head to the back.
He gets your iPhone. He walks out with a goat. He's like. All right. You sure about this? Family plan.
Two years. That would make those commercials. When they were cutting the bills in half. With like chainsaws and stuff. Those commercials would be more intense. Because they'd be like.
We will fight Verizon for you. You may break your covenant. We will assault them. This is how they did it. And this is the seriousness. With which Abram understands.
He's entering into. This covenant. He chases off the birds of prey. As they're trying to mess with him. He sits out there all day long. Because it was the night.
When he was first talking to God. He goes and gets this. This is a long process. Now verse 12. As the sun was going down. A deep sleep.
Fell on Abram. And behold. A dreadful. And great darkness. Fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram.
Know for certain. That your offspring. Will be sojourners in a land. That is not theirs. And will be servants there. And they will be afflicted.
For four hundred years. So he's prophesying. The Israelites being in Egypt. But I will bring judgment. On that nation. That they serve.
And afterward. They shall come out. With great possessions. As for you. You shall go to your fathers. In peace.
You shall be buried. In a good old age. And they shall come back here. In the fourth generation. For the iniquity of the Amorites. Is not yet complete.
When the sun had gone down. And it was dark. Behold. A smoking fire pot. And a flaming torch. Passed between these pieces.
So a torch. Passed through. Smoking fire pot. These represent divinity. They represent God. Passed.
Through these pieces. On that day. The Lord made a covenant with Abram. Saying. To your offspring. I give this land.
From the river of Egypt. To the great river. The river Euphrates. The land of the Kenites. The Kenizzites. The Kadmonites.
The Hittites. The Perizzites. The Rephaim. The Amorites. The Canaanites. The Girgashites.
And the Jebusites. So God promises him. I'm going to give you this land. And all of these people. Are going to be conquered. And kicked out.
Now. We don't know much about these covenants. We're not used to these. But they just did something very, very weird. If you remember how these covenants work. One way.
The suzerain and the vassal walk through. That's option one. Option two. Just the vassal walks through. Okay. But in this one.
Just the torch. And the fire pot go through. Abram doesn't. God actually. Like knocks him down. Puts him to sleep.
And then. In this moment. He. Dreadful darkness. Goes around him. And then just the torch.
And the fire pot go through. And this should trigger for us. Something. Something strange just happened. It's like if you. You've been to a wedding before.
You go to a wedding. I get to perform weddings every once in a while. It's a lot of fun. I get to stand at the front. Um. With the groom.
We usually walk out. First. We stand there. And then. People walk down. And they play whatever kind of music.
You know. Canon and D. Or whatever. And then. Like the doors will close. Or.
If it's outside. Like. The girl will hide behind a tree. Or whatever. Then the music will stop.
They wait like three seconds. So everybody can go. And then. They start playing the other song. The wedding march. Or whatever.
Which. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum.
Bum. Bum. Bum. That song. And then. She starts walking down.
Everybody has to stand up. If the mom stands up. Or whatever. And everybody's got to look at her. And she walks all the way down. Okay.
But if you were at a wedding. You came walking in. Right when you walked in. To get seated. The bride was standing up at the front. In her dress.
You might. Would be like. Am I late? If you don't know. So you just go sit down.
And. They start playing music. People start walking in. Then music stops. Gets real quiet for a second. And then here comes the groom.
Here comes the groom. Starts playing. You're not as familiar with it. Sounds like the song from Star Wars. And the doors open. And this guy comes walking in.
With his little suit on. You would be like. Okay. It's 2018. And they're making some kind of point. I don't know what the point is.
But they did this on purpose. You would be. You would realize. That this had been done. Different. Backwards.
Whatever. For a reason. And so if you know. Suzerain vassal covenant. You read this section. You go.
Wait a second. I actually was reading. In one of my commentaries. And it said. This setup. Most resembles.
A suzerain vassal covenant. But. It cannot be. Because in. A suzerain vassal covenant. There is no example.
Where just the suzerain. Walks down the aisle. And that messed me up. Because here's what God just did. When he. Is the master.
He's the Lord. He signs off as the servant. And when he's the father. He signs off as the son. He walks through here. And he signs both sides of the covenant.
And he. Takes the position. Of son. And servant. Which is unheard of. And you almost want to yell at the text.
Like you did this wrong God. You're not the son. You're not the servant. That's Abram. Abram's on the hook. For this.
Abram's the one who's got to obey. Abram's the one who's got to make this work. He's the one who's smaller than you. You're. You're the shield. You're the suzerain.
You're the king. You're the Lord. You're the father. And God is. But he signs off.
As son. And servant. And he makes a promise. That Jesus is going to make good on. Which is Abram. You're going to obey me.
You're going to follow me. You're going to do what I say. You're going to be faithful to me alone. And if you don't. I'll make myself like these animals. This isn't the blood.
Of a heifer. It's the blood of me. A son. And a servant. This isn't the blood. Of a goat.
It's my blood. When I'm a son. And I'm a servant. And then we see Jesus Christ come and fulfill this. That we fail. That we fall into sin.
That Abram's family doesn't live this out. But God comes as a son. And a servant. And he says. I didn't come to be served. But I came to serve.
And to give my life as a ransom for many. That the son of God would be nailed to a cross. That we might have redemption. And freedom. And that this covenant. That might be fulfilled.
That God would justify. Those who have faith. Through his own blood. That's how he gives us righteousness. He doesn't pull it out of the air. He takes it from his son.
And he gives it to us. Because he makes good on the promise. That Abram couldn't make good on. And that we couldn't make good on. I want to read. Paul picks this back up.
In Romans. He says. No unbelief. He's talking about Abram. No unbelief. Made him waver.
Concerning the promise of God. But he grew strong in his faith. As he gave glory to God. Fully convinced that God was able to do. What he had promised. This is why his faith.
Was counted to him. As righteousness. So the God promises. Abram. I'm going to make you right. I'm going to be.
Your faith. Your faith will count as righteousness. And then it says this. But the words. It was counted to him. Were not written for his sake alone.
But for ours also. It will be counted to us. Who believe in him. Who raised from the dead. Jesus our Lord. Who is delivered up for our trespasses.
And raised. For our justification. Justification means for our righteousness. That he was raised. That we might be made righteous. That this is the hope.
That we have in the gospel. That every single one of us. We're supposed to enter into a deal. With God. That said. I will behave.
I will be good. I will worship you alone as king. And if I don't. Then I don't deserve you. And I don't deserve love. And I've fallen so far from your glory.
And I haven't treated you. As holy as you are. Then you can destroy me. That every single one of us. By our birthright. I entered into that.
But that Jesus came. And swapped places with us. And he said. No I'll sign off. And if you trust in me. And my work.
It'll be my head. My blood. My body. Not yours. That we get to. By faith.
Approach God. And in trust. And in Christ. And that God raised him from the dead. That he died for us. And that he rose from the grave.
That we get to be made righteous. That God pays our penalty. That he signs both sides of the covenant. And that we do not come to God. To present our good work. Or to boast.
We come to God. To enjoy. And celebrate. And in faith. Love and worship Jesus. Who paid the price for us.
That that is our hope. In Christ. That's why we do what we do. That's why we gather on Sundays. Because we're here. Not to practice being good people.
But to proclaim that Jesus was good on our behalf. To celebrate what he's accomplished for us. That's why we gather in community groups. That we might be on mission together. That we see more people come to know Jesus. We aren't going around and saying.
Hey do you want to join the behavior club? We're going around to our friends. And saying. Hey I've noticed over time. And I just wanted to point out. That you're the worst.
But I have really good news. Jesus saves the ungodly. He redeems people like you. And like me. Because we can't be good enough on our own. But Jesus was for us.
We're going to take communion. We've started taking it more often as a church family. And it's because we need to remind ourselves constantly. That we need Jesus for us. When we take communion. What we're doing.
Is we're taking a piece of bread. That symbolizes Jesus's body. We're taking a cup. That symbolizes his blood. We're reenacting. A suzerain vassal covenant.
That was signed by Jesus for us. And that's not our blood. And that's not our body. Even though it deserved to be. Even though through our sin. We had earned it.
It's his blood. And it's his body. And that he paid the price for us. And so that we get to have a shield. We get to have a suzerain. We get to have God watch over us.
And care for us. And love us. And we get to have righteousness. Through faith. And through the work of Jesus. And so if you're a Christian.
In a second.
The Call, Failures, and Faith of Abram
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. If you will grab your Bibles, we'll be in Genesis chapter 12 today. We are continuing along in Genesis, and we have worked through the first 11 chapters, and Genesis changes. The story of Genesis, the approach of Genesis changes at chapter 12.
So here's what happens in the book of Genesis. The first 11 chapters are kind of setting up the history of humankind, and then at chapter 12 it's going to shift into focusing on one family. And so we're still walking through Genesis, but we're calling this section the patriarchs, and that just means the heads of households that are males. And so the New Testament's going to talk about the patriarchs, and that's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, three Middle Eastern men, as it zooms in on this family. And so here's the book of Genesis starts off with God creating the world, and he makes it beautiful and glorious, and then humanity rebels against him.
And sin enters the world. It's kind of like if you've ever been on Facebook or Instagram, and somebody takes a picture of like, look at this cake I just baked, and look at how beautiful it is. And then like five minutes later you see their next post, and it's the cake on the floor, and it just says, I dropped it. That's kind of how the Bible starts off. It's like, look at how glorious and beautiful it is. And then immediately humans are like, okay, all right, well, all right.
But it was a little more malicious than that. We actively rebel against God, and so then we see that sin enters the world, and God kind of comes in and he makes this promise that he's going to have a seed. There's going to be a seed, an offspring of Eve that is going to destroy the serpent, that the serpent isn't going to win, that sin isn't going to win, that Satan isn't going to win, that ultimately sin isn't going to overcome God's good design. And that's the promise made in Genesis 3. And then we just get to watch humanity kind of carry out until Noah and the flood. And then after that we still don't get it together, and it kind of just continues to go downhill in sin and rebellion until the Tower of Babel and God disperses humanity across the face of the earth.
That's what we read last week in Genesis 11. The back half of Genesis 11 is a genealogy, just kind of telling us this person had this person had this person until we get to Abram and his wife Sarai. And it introduces her in Genesis 11 as Sarai was barren. She had no child. Really trying to make that point, drive that home, because it's going to play out in this story through the rest of this time. So we're going to pick up in Genesis 12 this morning.
Let's pray, and then we'll kind of talk about what we're going to see as we spend our time here this morning. So let's pray together. Lord, we ask that you would bless the reading and the study of your word. We pray that you would bless the proclamation of your gospel, the good news that is for us and found for us in Christ. And we ask that you would help us to grow in our love for one another and our love for your word and our love for you this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.
So we're going to pick up in Genesis 12, and it starts this way. Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So the end of chapter 11 kind of intros Abram.
It just tells us who his parents were. It tells us he's got a brother who passed away, and his brother had a nephew, and the nephew's kind of with him. His name's Lot, and it tells us that he's married to Sarah, and that she's barren. And then it just says God speaks to Abram. We don't know anything really about him other than some basic details. And God speaks to him, and God says, Abram.
Ultimately, later, this is going to be Abraham. God changes his name later, but he starts off as Abram. He says, Go from your country. Go from your kindred. Go from your house. Go.
Go. I'm going to send you to a place that I'll show you. They didn't even tell him what it is yet. He just said, I'm going to show you. I'm going to send you to a place. And he says, I'm going to bless you.
You're going to be a great nation. So he doesn't have any children, but being a great nation means that he will. He's promising him he's going to have children. He's going to be a great people. And he says, I'm going to make you so great that you're a blessing to everybody. And through you, the whole world's going to be blessed.
And then he promises protection. He says, Those who bless you, I'll bless them. If somebody's your friend, they'll be my friend. Those who dishonor you, it's not going to go well for them. They won't be my friend. Like he says, I'll bless those who bless you.
I'll curse those who curse you. This is the promise that comes in Abraham. And this is where the rest of Genesis is going to follow this family. As this answer to the fall, that God now says, I'm taking you and I'm going to use you to bless the rest of the world. So what we're going to see today, we're going to look at three chapters as our introduction to Abraham and to his walk with the Lord.
We're going to look at three chapters. We're actually going to see these three different scenes, these three different stories in Abraham's life to try to understand who he is and how he walks with God. A lot of times when we study the Bible, we zoom in on one particular thing and the Bible's sturdy enough to handle that. We can take one verse and spend a lot of time on it. But sometimes when we do that, especially when there's narrative, we kind of miss out on the fact that as humans, we exist in a story that your life plays out over time and that there are some parts of your story that you fondly remember or you won the championship or you were really generous or you were super kind or there's this good season and there are parts of your story that you don't want to remember at all and you hope everybody else forgets that you've tried to bury.
And we're going to see as we watch Abraham, it's like his story playing out before God and the whole time, Abraham's going to get to choose faith, trusting God's promise because God just comes to Abraham and that's it. We just know, we don't know anything about him other than God promised him. So he's going to get to choose God's promise over what he can see. 2 Corinthians 5 puts it this way for Christians. It says, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Meaning that as Christians, we're called to live our life trusting God over and against what we can see.
That we walk by faith, not by sight. And that's going to be the story of Abraham and that's going to play out as the story of God's people throughout the rest of the Bible. That God designed humanity to walk by faith, not by sight. To trust him and his word and trust his promises. And so we're going to look at three stories in the life of Abraham and we're going to see when faced with circumstances, when faced with what he can see, does he trust God? Does he lean into his promises or does he not?
And then we'll draw some conclusions at the end for how we get to walk in a similar manner with the Lord. Now, God told him, go from your country, your kindred, your father's house to the land that I will show you and I'll make you a great nation and I'll bless you and I'll make your name great so that you'll be a blessing. And he later says, all the families of the earth should be blessed. Now for us, that sounds really nice. Like those are some good promises. Those are good promises that he's going to do all this.
But this lines up a little better with the American dream rather than the Middle Eastern dream because we value self over everything else. We value the individual over everything else. We like the Wrangler man, not the Wrangler, the Marlboro man who rides around on a horse smoking cigarettes. He's like an American hero because he doesn't care about anything and he just does what he wants. But that's not, that's not a Middle Eastern thing.
He's coming from an area where your family was who you were. Your value in life was how you served your family, how you fit in with your group. So for God to come to him and say, I want you to leave your family. He's saying, I want you to leave everything you use to define yourself. I want you to leave your kindred. I want you to leave your people.
I want you to leave your country. And then I'm going to make you great. Now he would have appreciated and understood the idea of being a great nation, but it's not as easy as some of us would have been like, sweet, leave my dad's house and go get to do my own thing. You got it, God. Like this is a little more difficult for Abram. So this is the promise.
This is the word that he has. And so it says this, verse four. So Abram went as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him. That's his nephew whose dad passed away. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Okay.
Now people in Genesis lived longer. We've talked about this before, but still 75. He's middle aged. He's 75 years old. He departed for Haran and Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all his possessions that he had gathered and the people that he had acquired in Haran and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. I want you all to see that.
God says go and he went. Our first impression of Abram is pretty good. God comes to him, speaks, says go do this and Abram obeys. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem to the Oak of Morah. Now Oak of Morah would be a place where the Canaanites were worshipping and it tags that.
It says at the time the Canaanites were in the land. So that means it's like a shrine. It's some sort of setup to a deity. And then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your offspring I will give this land. So he said, I want you to go to the place I'll show you.
He brings him out there. He says this is it. So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on still going toward the Negev.
So God says go. Abram goes. God shows up to him. He's building altars. So far our intro to Abram is good.
He's following. He's obeying. And we're going to get to kind of continue to see this story. One of the things my dad says sometimes is that he thinks when he meets a person he's kind of meeting a blank canvas. He doesn't know anything about this person at this point. And he says the more you get to know him the more you get to color in parts of the canvas.
The more you get to understand a little bit what they're like. And he says sometimes you'll go through a situation and it'll be really good and you'll get to paint this whole section of the canvas of this person as generous or kind or whatever. Sometimes it's kind of like oh wow I didn't realize that's how you watch sports and so you're going to you know realize you're not invited to the next party. Why were you throwing things? Whatever. So it's just like you get to paint in and so we're going to get to do with Abram a little bit.
We're going to get to kind of this is our first introduction to him. Let's see what he's like. How he walks with God. Whether he trusts him when he walks in moments where he's faced with difficult circumstances. So pick up.
This is kind of the first scene the first time we get to see Abram faced with difficult circumstances. We'll read through this together and then we'll talk a little bit about it. Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt he said to Sarai his wife I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance and when the Egyptians see you they will say this is his wife then they will kill me but they will let you live say you are my sister that it may go well with me because of you and that my life may be spared for your sake.
When Abram entered Egypt the Egyptians saw the woman was very beautiful and when the princes of Pharaoh saw her they praised her to Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house and for her sake he dealt well with Abram and he had sheep oxen male donkeys male servants female servants female donkeys and camels. Let's stop there for a second. Okay guys I think many of us have heard about Abram or Abraham maybe even sang the song Father Abraham and many sons we're going to get to that God promises him that. One of the temptations as we walk through the Bible is for us to lift these people up as superhuman heroes of the faith.
Father Abraham and many sons we're going to get to that God promises him that. One of the temptations as we walk through the Bible is for us to lift these people up as superhuman heroes of the faith. This isn't a good introduction to Abram. So far we've only seen his actions God tells him to go he goes but the first time he speaks it's kind of creepy. It's not a good thing so here's what we see
This is the first time he's faced with difficult circumstances as far as we know Abram as far as the story we're getting told there's a famine in the land. Now we don't understand famine. We don't. The best thing to compare it to mentally is probably the Great Depression when the whole society just kind of shuts down and everybody's just trying to survive just trying to find a way to eat because when there's
A famine there's no food and it could be due to a drought it could be due to some sort of blight on the crops could be due to locusts but all of a sudden he goes where God sends him he's in the place where God wants him he's following and obedient so far he's crushing it some of us this is us as Christians it's like I became a Christian and I immediately started doing all the stuff I was supposed to do
I was going to a group and I was repenting of sin and I quit doing some of that stuff and I started doing some of this stuff he's right where he's supposed to be right where God told him to be and all of a sudden there's no food and that's a big problem and so all we're told is he goes to Egypt and at first when we're reading that we're going okay we don't really know is he abandoning what the Lord wants from him is he going down there with good intentions
Is it really just the famine is what it is and you gotta do what you gotta do and then he speaks and we realize his heart is far from God he is way off he's not trusting in the promises of God he's operating out of fear he's entered into a mode of let me fix the problem so ladies let's think for a second you're dating a guy he seems nice he's attractive enough he has a job he bathes regularly he doesn't play video games this is going pretty well you are with this guy
You're going to the first kind of public outing to like a party or maybe like like the club I don't know where y'all are going but it's somewhere like that it's going to be alcohol and other people and he stops right before you get in and he says girl girl you are so beautiful and you're like and then he says and that's going to be a huge problem when we get inside because there's going to be a lot of guys here
There's going to be a lot of alcohol they're going to come hit on you and then I'm going to be in a spot I'm going to be in a pickle because what am I going to do do I have to tell him to stop do I have to like defend your honor defend my honor I ain't trying to get in all that so here's what we're going to do when we go in there you're going to be my sister that way when guys hit on you you introduce me as your brother they'll want to be nice to me
Because they want to get along with you I might even get a free drink or two out of this now none of you would swoon and say this is the man I'm going to marry that's messed up it wasn't just Dana this is his wife and he says hey when we get in here I'm going to need you to tell them you're my sister and his reasoning is I want things to go well with me because of you I want you to take a risk
I want you to put in a weird spot I want you to have your feelings hurt I want you to be I want to harm my marriage but I want to get some stuff out of it that's his plan they're running from a famine they're not trusting God they've left the place they were supposed to be not leaning into the fact that God can feed them God can provide for them not waiting for God's instruction on what to do they show up he comes up with this plan that this is how
We're going to work this out they go in he lets her marry another person at no point he was like okay too far time out there wasn't even like at the ceremony when they say you got any objections I don't know if the Egyptians did that but like at some point you think he would have been like hey guys surprise y'all watch
Soap operas this is about to get interesting he doesn't do that so much so that he takes her to his house we're supposed to assume he just they got married they moved off he was there like throwing rice at the wedding and then he's there long enough to get stuff oxen and camels and female servants and male servants he just hangs out stays in Egypt profits off of this while his wife
Is married to somebody else okay let's pick it back up verse 17 but the Lord thank goodness but the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife so Pharaoh called Abram and said what is this you have done to me why did you not tell me that she was your wife why did you say she is my sister
So that I took her for my wife now then here is your wife take her and go and Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had so God puts plagues on Pharaoh's house and Pharaoh figures out hold on a second something's wrong here they somehow discern understand that he they are being
Punished by God because she is Abram's wife and he is livid the last sentence there where he says here is your wife take her and go that is translated in English so that it is smoother in Hebrew it is here wife take go it is this very curt and the fact that Abram does not respond in the text shows us
That he understands that he was wrong this was poorly done and so the only person who shows up looking good in this is Pharaoh and maybe Sarai she trusts in the Lord in this process but we don't really know where her head is so he sent out God showed up on Abram's behalf on Sarai's
Behalf and he fixes this chapter 13 verse 1 so Abram went up from Egypt he and his wife and all that he had and Lot with him into the Negev now Abram was very rich in livestock in silver in gold and he journeyed on from the Negev as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been
At the beginning between Bethel and Ai to the place where he had made an altar at the first and there Abram called upon the name of the Lord I just want to highlight this because we're Christians and I want us to see this in the text God shows up in the middle of he's made a promise to Abram I'm going to do this
Abram derails and God shows up in the middle of that and brings him right back to where he had him at the first and there are some of us who began following Jesus and trusting him and walking him and circumstances showed up and we derailed and there's this temptation to think well that's it I'm done can't fix that it's over but God
In his grace at times will use circumstances will knock us down will bring us back and get us right back where he wanted us because our hope ultimately is that God makes good promises to us through Christ and that he's the one who upholds all of that not us and not our ability but Abram situation one he's over one had an opportunity to face circumstances and to trust the promises that God had made that he was going to
Look if he's told him I'm going to make you a great nation that means you're going to live through the famine if he's told him I want you here in this land that means that he'll either provide for him in that land or send him somewhere else he's made real promises that Abram could have just said hey God what what do we do and trusted that the Lord could speak to him
That the Lord could provide for him that the Lord would care for him but he doesn't let's see how he continues from here story number two verse six verse five and Lot who went with Abram remember this is his nephew but kind of seems a bit adopted kind of as his son we'll see he doesn't really say that but he's with him the whole time also had flocks and herds
And tents so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together and there was strife between the herds there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock at that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land then Abram said to Lot let there be no strife
Between you and me and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen for we are kinsmen is not the whole land before you separate yourself from me if you take the left hand then I will go to the right or if you take the right hand then I will go to the left and Lot lifted up his eyes and he saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zor this was before the Lord destroyed destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah so Lot chose
For himself all the Jordan Valley and Lot journeyed east thus they separated from each other Abram settled in the land of Canaan while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom now the men of Sodom were wicked great sinners against the Lord the Genesis is kind of tipping its hand a little bit there because it's going to go poorly for Sodom in the next story and then a few stories
Later it's going to go really bad for Sodom the Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are northward and southward and eastward and westward for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever again promising you have children you don't yet Sarah's barren but you're going
To have children I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth so that if one can count the dust of the earth your offspring also can be counted arise walk through the length and the breadth of the land for I will give it to you so Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre which are at Hebron and there he built an altar to the Lord so the second story works like this
Abram and Lot move back and they don't get along their people aren't getting along because there's too much too many of them they're fighting over water they're fighting over pasture land somebody gets hit in the head with a stick like it just goes poorly I read that into the text it doesn't say that but there was strife between herdsmen I think someone swung a stick alright Abram goes to him and says hey let's not do this
Now how would Abram handle the situation if what we know from him about in Egypt carries on well he would try to figure out viewing his circumstances how best to work things in his favor no matter who it hurt no matter the cost but what's he do he looks at Lot and says you pick you go that way I'll go this way you go that way I'll go this way and any other iteration
Of that wherever I can point you pick so Lot looks around and it seems like the choice wasn't actually all that difficult Lot looks around and Abram is the senior partner here he could have just said Lot go I want you to understand that like he he has he is over Lot in the patriarchy system here but he does and he says you pick Lot looks around and he sees a place that looks like
The garden of God you guys it's nice that's what that means it's well watered it's beautiful and then Canaan's over here and not so beautiful and he says I'm going to go this way Abram says okay and then God renews his promise to Abram he says you see where you are this is yours so Abram in that situation just stopped and he said he just leaned into the promises
He leaned into trusting God he knows at this point it seems that God's going to provide God's going to care he saw the plagues in Egypt hopefully he learned a thing we'll see later as Genesis plays out he didn't learn all the things he should have learned but that's kind of how we work and so in this moment he's now one and one
He trusts he leans into the promises and God provides and God cares and Abram shows generosity and kind of a blind choice and some faith alright next story as we continue to see this play out and I think this is helpful for us to continue to walk through some of this stuff because I think sometimes we in the American church have gotten caught up in experiences y'all know this right
You're going to go away to this conference and you're going to have this experience and you're just going to be you're going to come back or you're going to go on a Sunday and it's just going to be this lightning bolt and you'll be fixed forever and that would be awesome but that's not really how that tends to work most of the time we play out our stories in time with God continually having to make similar decisions continually having to
Act the same way in circumstances continually having to choose faith over sight over and over and over and over again that's why we're perfectly fine with a lot of our community groups meetings being kind of boring what was the magical thing that happened we shared a meal with people who will live for eternity we tried to love each other we talked about some stuff
We spent way too long talking about this one weird passage in Revelation turns out everybody in my group is super into dragons and I don't even think that's what that was about because we believe that it's formative that's why we study through whole books of the Bible because we believe it's formative that over time we continually grow by making similar decisions in the face of similar circumstances and that's what we're looking at Abraham
As he continually faces circumstances what kind of decisions is he going to make is he going to lean into the promises that God has made him and trust that God can carry that out because he's God or is he going to which we all want to do take the reins get everything in our control and do what we can to get out of the situation situation number three also I know that at times there are a lot of pregnant ladies in our church family or people who want to be pregnant later this next section
Is I mean loaded down with awesome baby names so get ready chapter 14 verse 1 in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar Ariok king of Elessar Chedeloamar king of Elam Tidal king of Goam these kings made war with Barah king of Sodom Bersha king of Gomorrah Shinab king of Adma Shemabur king of Zeboam and the king of Bella that is Zor and all these joined forces in the valley of Siddam that is the salt sea it's kind of now that was intro telling us a little bit of the backstory here 12 years had
They had served Chedeloamar but in the 13th year they rebelled in the 14th year Chedeloamar and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim and Ashtaroth Karnam and the Susam and Ham and the Emam and Sheva Kiriatham and the Horites in the hill country of Sair as far as El Paran at the border of the wilderness then they turned back and came to end Mishpat that is Kadesh
And defeated all the country of the Malekites and also the Amorites who were dwelling in the Hazazon tomorrow okay did y'all catch that? I feel a little bit when I read that passage like when I listen to people talk about the World Cup it's like I'm sure that means something to you there's a king this is how this would have worked there was a king who would have a kingdom and most of them were kind of small
It was tribal but there were certain kings that had more powerful kingdoms so they would come through and they would basically rock up and they would say you pay tribute or we're going to kill you and there were all these what they would call a suzerain and a vassal and so what we're seeing is there was a bunch of vassal states underneath this bigger king and they did this for 12 years and they kind of get to talking and they're like I don't think he's as strong as he used to be I remember being real scared when I met him a long time ago but I'm really tired
Of shipping off our money and our food and our people to him so let's just stop that and see what happens so they do and Cheddar Lower Mar which I think is the name that wins if you get to choose call him Chet for short marches down through Israel through it's not Israel then but it becomes Israel it's the land of Canaan marches down and just starts just destroying everybody that's what we hear and then let's pick up in verse 8 see what happens
Then the king of Sodom the king of Gomorrah the king of Adma the king of Zeboim and the king of Bella that is Zor went out and they joined battle in the valley of Siddam with Chetalo Amar king of Elam title king of Goem Amraphel king of Shinar and Ariok king of Elessar four kings against five now the valley of Siddam was full of bitumen pits that's tar pits asphalt big pits full of it bitumen pits and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah
Fled some fell into them and the rest fled to the hill country so the ones that rebelled do not win so the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all the provisions and went their way they also took Lot the son of Abram's brother who was dwelling in Sodom and his possessions and went their way did y'all see that coming remember Lot got to choose
Where he wanted to live and he went and lived next to Sodom and then Sodom was full of wicked people and they rebelled and then this guy shows up and takes Lot and now we go oh this is why this is here went their way verse 13 then one who had escaped came and told Abram now Abram wouldn't have had a kingdom but at this point we're going to find out he's actually a pretty big like nomadic tribe that's traveling around that's taking over this area Abram the Hebrew
Who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite brother of Eschol and of Aner these were allies of Abram when Abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive he led forth his trained men born in his house 318 of them and went in pursuit as far as Dan ok so this tribes in areas where it wasn't safe he had trained men 318 of them and they were born in his house which means loyal to him as loyal as it can get because they belonged to him all his life
It wasn't newly people that had joined him it wasn't people who had married in it was people born in his house 318 of them if there's 318 trained men that means there's probably around a thousand that are rolling around with Abram at this time he's a big big nomadic tribe leader in the area 15 verse 15 and he divided his forces against them by night he and his servants and defeated them and pursued them to Hoboth north of Damascus then he brought back
All the possessions and also brought back his kinsmen Lot with his possessions and the women and the people so Chetalo Amar and his group have come down and beat up everybody and they have taken all this stuff and they're heading back and then Abram takes 318 he splits them up at night he's 75 years old or older and he leads an army to attack them they defeat them and they get everything so they defeated them well
Because it wasn't just like they defeated them and they all ran away at night they defeated them and they were like load up all the stuff and so they start marching back down with caravans full of people and all the things that had been taken from all the kingdoms around and here's how this works all that stuff is now under the control of Abram to dispense with as he wishes or to have to defend if someone wants
To take it from him but it belongs to him he's the last person who won and took it now so far Abram has handled this better than we maybe would have thought he would especially if he'd handled it the way he did in Egypt in Egypt he said I want you to take a risk so that I can have good things and so far he's taken a risk on behalf of another
So at least that's better but it's possible he just wanted all the stuff he saw an opportunity to become the most powerful person in the region everybody around him has been defeated maybe he thinks cool I can become the new suzerain over this whole area and everybody in all the kingdoms will bow to me we don't know yet 17 after his return from the defeat of Chetelomar
And the kings who were with him the king of Sodom went out to meet him so the king of Sodom goes out to meet Abram he just ran he didn't fall in a pit but he made it back he's going to go meet Abram just been defeated not in the best most powerful spot meet him at the valley of Sheva that is the king's valley and Melchizedek king of Salem brought out brought out bread and wine he was a priest
Of God most high okay we got to pause for a second just so to make you aware Melchizedek just now showed up he has not been mentioned yet so he has no connection to this whatsoever other than he just appears at this moment Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine he was a priest of God most high we don't know yet
When you're reading this you're going okay is that the God that Abram follows is that the Bible telling you he's the God most high what's happening and he blessed him and said he blessed Abram blessed be Abram by God most high possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand and Abram gave him a tenth of everything he just says every tenth item
Every tenth person whatever is yours and the king of Sodom said to Abram give me the persons but take the goods for yourself but Abram said to the king of Sodom I have lifted my hand to the Lord so that's proper name for God God most high so he says I'm connected with this priest king of Salem he and I worship the same God that blessing was this God I've lifted my hand to him
That I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours lest you should say I have made Abram rich I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me let Aner Escol and Mamre take their share okay we gotta unpack this for a second because what he just did there is kind of amazing
Abram comes back he rolls in as the most powerful person in the region another king just shows up and gives him bread and wine just kind of blesses him prays a blessing over him he's got one king sitting here that represents just this kind of blessing from God his name Melchizedek means the king is righteous and it says he's the king
Of Salem and Salem means peace so this is a righteous king who's the king over peace Hebrews later tells us that Jesus is a better Melchizedek he comes in that line he's the king of righteousness he's the king of peace he's a king and a priest that's Jesus and it says that he's like Melchizedek not that Melchizedek
Is Jesus we'll get that twisted up but Melchizedek points us shows us kind of Jesus is like him all right so Melchizedek shows up he just prays a blessing and then the king of Sodom shows up in a very weakened position and is not gracious he just says hey give me the people he's still trying
To show a little force give me the people but then he's also saying you can have all this stuff and so at this moment Abram gets a guy who's not connected to anything just giving a blessing and he gets the king of this area who apparently is he's listed first every time was the most powerful king in the area saying you can have
All this stuff and he could absolutely have this power position in the area which would seem like it was God doing what God had promised giving him the area giving him power in the area and what's he say he says no I already told God I'm going to trust that he's going to provide
All this and we're not going to have anybody in this area saying they're the ones that blessed me they're the ones that provided for me they're the ones that made me strong it's not going to happen now before he went into Egypt we heard him speak first and then we watched him act
And this one flips we see him act first we don't know his intentions and then we see that beforehand before he even went he said God I'm trusting you you're the one who says you're going to give me this land you're going to give me the land you're the one
Who's going to make me rich you're going to make me a big nation you're going to make me powerful you're going to do it I'm not going to do it my own might I'm not going to trust myself I'm trusting you and see how this plays out he comes
Back he gets to see a blessing from the God most high and then Sodom and he chooses blessing he gives that guy 10% of everything he says we're on the same page this person I worship the God most high
And he says take all your stuff I don't need it now he's two in one he handled this one better and here's the thing throughout the rest of Abram's life and throughout the rest of your life we will consistently be faced
With situation after situation after situation where we get to trust the promises of God or we get to trust our own ability our own strength our own wisdom our own know-how our own effort to make everything work out so Melchizedek
Is this picture briefly here of what Jesus is for us Jesus shows up and he gives a better bread and wine which is his blood and his body shed for us and he gives
A better blessing and better promises if you are a Christian you have better promises than Abram ever had you get an eternal home you get an eternal family you get to reign in the eternal kingdom that God
Says that we will belong to him and that we will relate to him and that we will be his children his sons and daughters not that we'll have a lineage but that we'll have an inheritance from the God of the universe
Through Christ that God has given us better promises and then called us to walk by faith and not by sight so how do we do that when so often we're just bombarded with circumstance we're just bombarded with what we can see
And feel and know you feel really hungry during a famine and you feel very much like you've got to do something real fear real hunger real pain real sadness I think firstly we have to know a deep and in a deep and abiding way we need to know the promises of God
We have to know his word because we're always having to choose between trust in his word and trust in what we see we have to know in a deep and abiding way the promises Abram needed to have repeated those promises to himself over and over and over and over
Again wouldn't it be nice if God promised you you'll have children and you hadn't had children yet when you enter into a battle I guess you'd be like well maybe she's pregnant now and I'm gonna die but otherwise I think I'm making it out of this
One see he gets to lean into these promises there are times as a Christian where you're gonna get to go God it doesn't look like I'm gonna be provided for but I know you say you will it doesn't look like this is gonna work out
But I know that you love me and that you promise that I'll never be you'll never leave me or forsake me so I can trust that you're here in the middle of this God I so badly want all the things that I can see but I know that you've promised me that there's pleasures at your right
Hand forevermore and that I'm to spend my life for something that matters eternally not something that I can have for a few years we're gonna do this throughout our lives you're gonna be in middle school where the primary currency of middle school is coolness and it's middle school coolness so it's not even real
But the primary currency and it feels real it's so real in the daily life of being in middle school and there's gonna be a kid who is so not cool that just talking to her just being around him makes you lose cool points you can feel him just being sucked out of you you get to choose faith or sight you trust a God who says there's more to life than what
We can see and that everybody matters and everybody has a dignity and everybody has worth can you think for a second about what it's like to be this kid who goes home every day just having to be them you're gonna get to choose and that choice doesn't stop in middle school some of you face that situation at work there's one co-worker that everybody just has
So much fun talking about them behind their back and you get to choose am I gonna look like Christ and defend them am I gonna care for them am I gonna befriend them am I gonna join in you're gonna get to choose when you get a job how honest you're gonna be are you gonna bend the same rules that everybody else bends and say well that's just how this industry works you're gonna get to choose in relationships some of us are gonna have
To choose faith oversight and stay with someone we're married to even though it does not look like that'll ever work or be good and some of us are gonna have to choose faith oversight and leave somebody because even though we know that the finances won't work out if we're not living together and going into retirement when the American dream is so palpable and so within reach and it's just like Sodom saying here take all this we're gonna have to say no
I have riches you don't understand from a God who's bigger and more eternal I'm not gonna have the nicest house I'm not gonna have the boat I'm not gonna have the stuff but I am gonna have a God who has a mission and I'm gonna see some people meet Jesus and then I'm gonna go meet him this is gonna play out forever and the hope for us is the same hope that was for Abraham you see when you become a Christian you are saying I am a sinner in need of a savior and I trust that these
Promises are good and our hope for us is that the promises will overcome the fact that we are terrible at carrying this out that the promises are strong enough to get us out of Egypt that when we've derailed when we've run when we've fallen the promises are strong enough that God will redeem us that he will save us that his his cross is bigger than our sin that his resurrection is bigger than our death that we get to trust in him and he'll bring us out and the truth is if you are a Christian he will so that's our hope and
We continue to walk this out with Abraham and see his story we're gonna see all the other times he has to choose between trusting in faith and walking by sight and our hope is that we would do that daily as we trust in Jesus and that we would know his promises so well that nothing else seemed appetizing band's gonna come back up we're gonna sing in a minute we'll take communion my prayer for us as a church is that we would be people who so believed in God and his goodness and his word that we wouldn't be enamored with everything we can see wouldn't be derailed by
Job loss wouldn't be derailed in the midst of pain of relationships and hurt we'd be hurt certainly we'd be confused certainly we'd be hungry we'd but we'd be trusting and that we'd live as people who walk by faith and not by sight and that ultimately God's promises would overcome our failures which is what he promises to do in the cross let's pray God we thank you for your grace and your goodness we thank you that you redeem real people not the perfect not the absolutely moral not those who always keep it together not those people who only go undefeated but those people who are absolutely defeated
And know that they need a savior and we ask that you'd help us to so trust you and so believe in you that even as we walk through the situations that we are in the middle of right now that we believe that you're good that you won't forsake us that we can cast our anxieties on you that you care for us that a peace that we don't understand will guard us that your Holy Spirit is a helper and a comforter that you walk with us God that we would know and love your promises and we would trust that you're the one who takes care who feeds who provides who
Loves in Jesus name amen and thank you thank you so
And defeated all the country of the Malekites and also the Amorites who were dwelling in the Hazazon tomorrow okay did y'all catch that? I feel a little bit when I read that passage like when I listen to people talk about the World Cup it's like I'm sure that means something to you there's a king this is how this would have worked there was a king who would have a kingdom and most of them were kind of small
It was tribal but there were certain kings that had more powerful kingdoms so they would come through and they would basically rock up and they would say you pay tribute or we're going to kill you and there were all these what they would call a suzerain and a vassal and so what we're seeing is there was a bunch of vassal states underneath this bigger king and they did this for 12 years and they kind of get to talking and they're like I don't think he's as strong as he used to be I remember being real scared when I met him a long time ago but I'm really tired
Of shipping off our money and our food and our people to him so let's just stop that and see what happens so they do and Cheddar Lower Mar which I think is the name that wins if you get to choose call him Chet for short marches down through Israel through it's not Israel then but it becomes Israel it's the land of Canaan marches down and just starts just destroying everybody that's what we hear and then let's pick up in verse 8 see what happens
Then the king of Sodom the king of Gomorrah the king of Adma the king of Zeboim and the king of Bella that is Zor went out and they joined battle in the valley of Siddam with Chetalo Amar king of Elam title king of Goem Amraphel king of Shinar and Ariok king of Elessar four kings against five now the valley of Siddam was full of bitumen pits that's tar pits asphalt big pits full of it bitumen pits and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah
Fled some fell into them and the rest fled to the hill country so the ones that rebelled do not win so the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all the provisions and went their way they also took Lot the son of Abram's brother who was dwelling in Sodom and his possessions and went their way did y'all see that coming remember Lot got to choose
Where he wanted to live and he went and lived next to Sodom and then Sodom was full of wicked people and they rebelled and then this guy shows up and takes Lot and now we go oh this is why this is here went their way verse 13 then one who had escaped came and told Abram now Abram wouldn't have had a kingdom but at this point we're going to find out he's actually a pretty big like nomadic tribe that's traveling around that's taking over this area Abram the Hebrew
Who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite brother of Eschol and of Aner these were allies of Abram when Abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive he led forth his trained men born in his house 318 of them and went in pursuit as far as Dan ok so this tribes in areas where it wasn't safe he had trained men 318 of them and they were born in his house which means loyal to him as loyal as it can get because they belonged to him all his life
It wasn't newly people that had joined him it wasn't people who had married in it was people born in his house 318 of them if there's 318 trained men that means there's probably around a thousand that are rolling around with Abram at this time he's a big big nomadic tribe leader in the area 15 verse 15 and he divided his forces against them by night he and his servants and defeated them and pursued them to Hoboth north of Damascus then he brought back
All the possessions and also brought back his kinsmen Lot with his possessions and the women and the people so Chetalo Amar and his group have come down and beat up everybody and they have taken all this stuff and they're heading back and then Abram takes 318 he splits them up at night he's 75 years old or older and he leads an army to attack them they defeat them and they get everything so they defeated them well
Because it wasn't just like they defeated them and they all ran away at night they defeated them and they were like load up all the stuff and so they start marching back down with caravans full of people and all the things that had been taken from all the kingdoms around and here's how this works all that stuff is now under the control of Abram to dispense with as he wishes or to have to defend if someone wants
To take it from him but it belongs to him he's the last person who won and took it now so far Abram has handled this better than we maybe would have thought he would especially if he'd handled it the way he did in Egypt in Egypt he said I want you to take a risk so that I can have good things and so far he's taken a risk on behalf of another
So at least that's better but it's possible he just wanted all the stuff he saw an opportunity to become the most powerful person in the region everybody around him has been defeated maybe he thinks cool I can become the new suzerain over this whole area and everybody in all the kingdoms will bow to me we don't know yet 17 after his return from the defeat of Chetelomar
And the kings who were with him the king of Sodom went out to meet him so the king of Sodom goes out to meet Abram he just ran he didn't fall in a pit but he made it back he's going to go meet Abram just been defeated not in the best most powerful spot meet him at the valley of Sheva that is the king's valley and Melchizedek king of Salem brought out brought out bread and wine he was a priest
Of God most high okay we got to pause for a second just so to make you aware Melchizedek just now showed up he has not been mentioned yet so he has no connection to this whatsoever other than he just appears at this moment Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine he was a priest of God most high we don't know yet
When you're reading this you're going okay is that the God that Abram follows is that the Bible telling you he's the God most high what's happening and he blessed him and said he blessed Abram blessed be Abram by God most high possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand and Abram gave him a tenth of everything he just says every tenth item
Every tenth person whatever is yours and the king of Sodom said to Abram give me the persons but take the goods for yourself but Abram said to the king of Sodom I have lifted my hand to the Lord so that's proper name for God God most high so he says I'm connected with this priest king of Salem he and I worship the same God that blessing was this God I've lifted my hand to him
That I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours lest you should say I have made Abram rich I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me let Aner Escol and Mamre take their share okay we gotta unpack this for a second because what he just did there is kind of amazing
Abram comes back he rolls in as the most powerful person in the region another king just shows up and gives him bread and wine just kind of blesses him prays a blessing over him he's got one king sitting here that represents just this kind of blessing from God his name Melchizedek means the king is righteous and it says he's the king
Of Salem and Salem means peace so this is a righteous king who's the king over peace Hebrews later tells us that Jesus is a better Melchizedek he comes in that line he's the king of righteousness he's the king of peace he's a king and a priest that's Jesus and it says that he's like Melchizedek not that Melchizedek
Is Jesus we'll get that twisted up but Melchizedek points us shows us kind of Jesus is like him all right so Melchizedek shows up he just prays a blessing and then the king of Sodom shows up in a very weakened position and is not gracious he just says hey give me the people he's still trying
To show a little force give me the people but then he's also saying you can have all this stuff and so at this moment Abram gets a guy who's not connected to anything just giving a blessing and he gets the king of this area who apparently is he's listed first every time was the most powerful king in the area saying you can have
All this stuff and he could absolutely have this power position in the area which would seem like it was God doing what God had promised giving him the area giving him power in the area and what's he say he says no I already told God I'm going to trust that he's going to provide
All this and we're not going to have anybody in this area saying they're the ones that blessed me they're the ones that provided for me they're the ones that made me strong it's not going to happen now before he went into Egypt we heard him speak first and then we watched him act
And this one flips we see him act first we don't know his intentions and then we see that beforehand before he even went he said God I'm trusting you you're the one who says you're going to give me this land you're going to give me the land you're the one
Who's going to make me rich you're going to make me a big nation you're going to make me powerful you're going to do it I'm not going to do it my own might I'm not going to trust myself I'm trusting you and see how this plays out he comes
Back he gets to see a blessing from the God most high and then Sodom and he chooses blessing he gives that guy 10% of everything he says we're on the same page this person I worship the God most high
And he says take all your stuff I don't need it now he's two in one he handled this one better and here's the thing throughout the rest of Abram's life and throughout the rest of your life we will consistently be faced
With situation after situation after situation where we get to trust the promises of God or we get to trust our own ability our own strength our own wisdom our own know-how our own effort to make everything work out so Melchizedek
Is this picture briefly here of what Jesus is for us Jesus shows up and he gives a better bread and wine which is his blood and his body shed for us and he gives
A better blessing and better promises if you are a Christian you have better promises than Abram ever had you get an eternal home you get an eternal family you get to reign in the eternal kingdom that God
Says that we will belong to him and that we will relate to him and that we will be his children his sons and daughters not that we'll have a lineage but that we'll have an inheritance from the God of the universe
Through Christ that God has given us better promises and then called us to walk by faith and not by sight so how do we do that when so often we're just bombarded with circumstance we're just bombarded with what we can see
And feel and know you feel really hungry during a famine and you feel very much like you've got to do something real fear real hunger real pain real sadness I think firstly we have to know a deep and in a deep and abiding way we need to know the promises of God
We have to know his word because we're always having to choose between trust in his word and trust in what we see we have to know in a deep and abiding way the promises Abram needed to have repeated those promises to himself over and over and over and over
Again wouldn't it be nice if God promised you you'll have children and you hadn't had children yet when you enter into a battle I guess you'd be like well maybe she's pregnant now and I'm gonna die but otherwise I think I'm making it out of this
One see he gets to lean into these promises there are times as a Christian where you're gonna get to go God it doesn't look like I'm gonna be provided for but I know you say you will it doesn't look like this is gonna work out
But I know that you love me and that you promise that I'll never be you'll never leave me or forsake me so I can trust that you're here in the middle of this God I so badly want all the things that I can see but I know that you've promised me that there's pleasures at your right
Hand forevermore and that I'm to spend my life for something that matters eternally not something that I can have for a few years we're gonna do this throughout our lives you're gonna be in middle school where the primary currency of middle school is coolness and it's middle school coolness so it's not even real
But the primary currency and it feels real it's so real in the daily life of being in middle school and there's gonna be a kid who is so not cool that just talking to her just being around him makes you lose cool points you can feel him just being sucked out of you you get to choose faith or sight you trust a God who says there's more to life than what
We can see and that everybody matters and everybody has a dignity and everybody has worth can you think for a second about what it's like to be this kid who goes home every day just having to be them you're gonna get to choose and that choice doesn't stop in middle school some of you face that situation at work there's one co-worker that everybody just has
So much fun talking about them behind their back and you get to choose am I gonna look like Christ and defend them am I gonna care for them am I gonna befriend them am I gonna join in you're gonna get to choose when you get a job how honest you're gonna be are you gonna bend the same rules that everybody else bends and say well that's just how this industry works you're gonna get to choose in relationships some of us are gonna have
To choose faith oversight and stay with someone we're married to even though it does not look like that'll ever work or be good and some of us are gonna have to choose faith oversight and leave somebody because even though we know that the finances won't work out if we're not living together and going into retirement when the American dream is so palpable and so within reach and it's just like Sodom saying here take all this we're gonna have to say no
I have riches you don't understand from a God who's bigger and more eternal I'm not gonna have the nicest house I'm not gonna have the boat I'm not gonna have the stuff but I am gonna have a God who has a mission and I'm gonna see some people meet Jesus and then I'm gonna go meet him this is gonna play out forever and the hope for us is the same hope that was for Abraham you see when you become a Christian you are saying I am a sinner in need of a savior and I trust that these
Promises are good and our hope for us is that the promises will overcome the fact that we are terrible at carrying this out that the promises are strong enough to get us out of Egypt that when we've derailed when we've run when we've fallen the promises are strong enough that God will redeem us that he will save us that his his cross is bigger than our sin that his resurrection is bigger than our death that we get to trust in him and he'll bring us out and the truth is if you are a Christian he will so that's our hope and
We continue to walk this out with Abraham and see his story we're gonna see all the other times he has to choose between trusting in faith and walking by sight and our hope is that we would do that daily as we trust in Jesus and that we would know his promises so well that nothing else seemed appetizing band's gonna come back up we're gonna sing in a minute we'll take communion my prayer for us as a church is that we would be people who so believed in God and his goodness and his word that we wouldn't be enamored with everything we can see wouldn't be derailed by
Job loss wouldn't be derailed in the midst of pain of relationships and hurt we'd be hurt certainly we'd be confused certainly we'd be hungry we'd but we'd be trusting and that we'd live as people who walk by faith and not by sight and that ultimately God's promises would overcome our failures which is what he promises to do in the cross let's pray God we thank you for your grace and your goodness we thank you that you redeem real people not the perfect not the absolutely moral not those who always keep it together not those people who only go undefeated but those people who are absolutely defeated
And know that they need a savior and we ask that you'd help us to so trust you and so believe in you that even as we walk through the situations that we are in the middle of right now that we believe that you're good that you won't forsake us that we can cast our anxieties on you that you care for us that a peace that we don't understand will guard us that your Holy Spirit is a helper and a comforter that you walk with us God that we would know and love your promises and we would trust that you're the one who takes care who feeds who provides who
Loves in Jesus name amen and thank you thank you so
Tower of Babel
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bible. Go to Genesis chapter 11. Genesis is the first book of the Bible.
If you are new to your Bible or new to here, grab one of the blue Bibles. It'll be on page 5 in that Bible. We're going to look at the story of the Tower of Babel today. Now, we've been walking through the book of Genesis, and we're going to spend a good bit of time walking through the book of Genesis because the book of Genesis is a big book. We think that it is good for us to just study through whole books of Scripture. We believe that all of the Bible is breathed out by God, that it's beneficial to us.
One of the things that may be a danger for us as we walk through the book of Genesis is that it's easier for us to start thinking, kind of, what? That's neat, but what does that have to do with me? It's easier for us to kind of sit in here and go, yeah, that's a cool, cool story, bro. Nice, nice Job, preacher man. But I got, like, kids that won't listen to me, and I got job issues, and I got relationship issues, and to kind of act as if the book of Genesis is a little bit separate from us because there are other sections in the Bible that are just like, do this, don't do this.
If you do this, things will work out. Like, there's more coaching involved in the book of Genesis. It's like, here's a thing that happened. You want to hear another thing that happened? And it just kind of keeps walking through. It doesn't coach us up.
It doesn't tell us how to think about a lot of the stuff that it says happened. And so I just wanted to say that I think for us to approach the book of Genesis, we have to understand a few things about how God works, how the Bible works, and kind of how humanity works for us to get as much out of it as we need to. First of all, the story of the world does not have you as its main character. Now, in your life, you feel like the main character. I understand that. We're designed that way.
But the story of the world does not have you as its main character, that God formed this world, and God is actively at work interacting with humanity. And the story of the Bible is the story of the world, which is that God is the main character, and that we get to play a part in that story, but that we do ourselves a great service by understanding who God is, and what he does, and how he Acts, so that we might interact with him, and enjoy him, and appreciate him, and know him, and love him. And so when we come to Genesis, it's very helpful for us to understand that we're looking at the story of God as he interacts with human history. And that to just look at things through our own life-centered, our own kind of narrow perspective, that we actually miss out on the point of the world, and therefore we miss out on a lot that does directly affect us.
And so it's helpful for us to study all of God's Word, to look at Genesis, because Genesis is not just the beginning of the Bible. It sets the stage for all that we're going to see in the rest of the Gospels, and in the rest of the Old Testament, and in the New Testament, and everything. It lays all that out for us. It's hard to read the New Testament and not know who Abraham is. It's hard to read the New Testament and not see what happened when we made it through to the Exodus and all of that. But it's the Genesis of the world.
It's how human history started. The other thing that I think we run into when we read things, especially like Genesis, is that we're really far removed from them time-wise. So these are people roaming around, watching sheep, living in tents, and there's a tendency for us to think that we're not like them, or that they're not as smart as we are. Like, I feel really smart because I have Google. I'm actually not that smart, but I feel really smart because I can figure things out really quickly, because someone else figured out something that makes me seem smart, and I get to carry that around in my pocket.
And so we just kind of look at these people, and we think that we're different from them, but we aren't. And what we're going to see is that their sin, their struggles, their pain is a lot like ours, and it's very helpful for us to understand how God interacts with them so that we can understand how He interacts with us. And today, we're looking at the Tower of Babel. Now, if you grew up in Sunday school, you've probably heard about this. Even if you didn't grow up in church, you've probably heard references to this. And it is an interesting story, and I'm excited that we're going to get to walk through it.
So let's pray, and then we're going to study this together. God, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that You actively, directly interact with humanity, that You pay attention to us, that You care for us in how our lives play out. And we pray that as we study Your Word today, we would grow in an appreciation for who You are and what You've done, and Your plan for the world. And we love You and we praise You in Jesus' name. Amen.
Genesis chapter 11, verse 1. Now, the whole earth had one language and the same words. So, the whole earth had one language and the same words. Now, if you had been reading and paying attention, Genesis chapter 1 through 10. Spencer, do you mind turning that light on in the back? Well, Genesis chapter 1 through 10.
Spencer, carry everyone. Thank you. All right. Genesis chapter 1 through 10. You would realize that chapter 11, verse 1, causes some problems for us. Because Genesis chapter 10 says things like, From these, the coastland people spread their lands, each with his own language, by their clans in their nations.
Two verses before this one, it says, their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations. So, Genesis chapter 10 is telling us what happens when people get off of, when Noah gets off the ark. If you remember, we talked about this a couple weeks ago. Spencer walked through it. Noah gets on the ark. God's wrath is poured out.
Noah gets off the ark. God looks at him and says, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. That's in chapter 9. Pull it up. That's in chapter 9. And, Nope.
Nope. God blessed Noah's son and said, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. That's the command as soon as Noah gets off the ark. That's what God tells him. And so we hit chapter 10 in Genesis, and it seems like we're doing it. They spread out.
They're covering the earth. It says they moved out by their clans. It gives us this long genealogy in chapter 10. And then as soon as we hit the first verse in chapter 11, it's like, wait a second. Something has happened here. Now, we are right to assume that Moses, who wrote this, did not forget what he had written two verses before when he said there was a bunch of languages.
That he intentionally told this story out of chronological order to make a point. So we have, Noah gets off the ark. God says, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. Genesis chapter 10 says, Here's how that started to play out. And we're like, finally. Finally, humanity is getting it together.
Finally, we're doing what God told us to. Because God made humanity, and this is the first command he gives them, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, have dominion over it. He wants that humanity would spread out to display his glory over the whole earth. That they would be humans everywhere who related to God and displayed his glory over the whole earth. And then they don't do it. They rebel against God.
And so the flood comes because they're sinful. They're running away from God. They're hateful. They're harming each other. And then as soon as Noah gets off the ark, God looks at him and says, The exact same thing he said to Adam and Eve. Be fruitful.
Multiply. Fill the earth. We read Genesis 10, and we're like, yes. We're really getting it together. And then Moses starts Genesis chapter 11 with, Not so fast. I'm going back to before there were languages to tell you a story about how this happened.
And he did it to M. Night, Shamel Amos, and have a twist on the end there. And he stuck it in here to mess with us. So here it is. Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
And as the people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. That's Mesopotamia. Is that area it's modern day? Iraq. And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar.
Now, what that's telling us, they say, come let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. It sounds like some of y'all, when you go to cook a meal, you're like, come, let me make spaghetti and burn it thoroughly. What it's telling us is that they learned how to make bricks, that they figured this out. It's showing ingenuity. It's showing creativity that they had designed. They moved to a plane where they would have usually made stone.
That's what they say. Let's make bricks for stone. They would usually use stone to build things, and they figured out a way to make bricks. And bitumen or bitumen is asphalt. So they would have been big.
If you've ever heard of tar pits, it's actually an asphalt pit. And so that's what they would have had. So they figured out a way creatively to design things really well. So so far, the story is going well. They're doing what they're supposed to. They're spreading out.
And they're using what God has poured in them as image bearers to display his glory. And so that's what they say. Come, let us do this. And then it says this. And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. We're in verse four.
Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. OK, so this next slide is laying that out. It says, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. OK, so let's kind of lay out their thinking here.
They said, let us build ourselves a city with a tower as tops in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves. So build a tower. So they're going to build a city and a tower. With its tops in the heavens. So that's their plan.
They figure out how to make the get creative. They figure out how to make stuff. And they say, we're going to build a city and a tower so far. No problems. We're doing good. Then what's it say?
And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. OK, now we have a problem. Because if you've been reading Genesis, what did God command humanity to do? Genesis 1. Be fruitful. Multiply.
Fill the earth. What did he command Noah twice when he gets off the ark? Be fruitful. Multiply. Fill the earth. We get to chapter 11.
And what did they say? Nope. Not doing that. Their whole plan is to glorify themselves and not be dispersed. So God says, I've poured myself into you.
I've made humanity in my own image. I want you to spread out for my glory over the face of the earth. And they say, how about we come together for our glory? How's that sound? That's their plan. It is an exact opposite of what God has called.
It is a complete rejection of his call on humanity. That's the issue with the Tower of Babel. Not that they built a tower. Not that they built a city. Those things are celebrated. Like God, it designed humans to create things.
He meant for us to do that. Whenever we make stuff. Like I have a three-year-old and he'll say, did Jesus make this basketball goal? And I'm like, he made people. And he made them smart. And he made all the things that we've created and we're able to make it.
So yes, but he likes to do it through us figuring things out. That's how God designed it. Nobody reads this and goes, oh, they built a tower. God's going to get them. He hates towers, you guys. Everybody knows God hates towers.
That's not what's happening here. The truth is what they're doing doesn't matter. They could have come together and said, we're going to dig a big hole and become mole people. It's the reasoning behind it. It's the goal behind it. It's them saying, we don't want to be dispersed.
We want to praise our own name. We want to make our own glory. So it's for their glory, their name, and their will. So if you think about how Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray, he says, our father in heaven, honored to be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. The Babylonians, the tower of Babel, these people who came together, their plan is let my name be honored. Let my will be done.
It is the opposite of God's call on humanity, which means that their heart is far from God. This is very interesting for us because often we think that sin is just the action. We want to think that sin is doing a bad thing. But the truth is you can do really beautiful things. They had a super nice tower, you guys. But they did it for a bad reason.
When we sing, you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why. So we're training our children, you need to behave for greed. You need to so love stuff that you can control yourself. Now I understand that when you're training children, you have to start with a lot of law. You have to start with a lot of regulations. You have to be pretty hemmed in.
I think my son behaves a lot of times because when he does, good things happen. And when he doesn't, bad things happen. That's how it's supposed to work. He's a child. I can't explain to him a lot of these things. But at some point we have to realize that there are ways to train ourselves to do the right actions for the wrong motive.
And it works for a con man who's tricking your grandmother into getting her savings by being really nice to her and driving her around and tending to her house. And then suddenly he's moved in. He's taken over right to a lawyer and all that kind of stuff. You know what I'm saying? Like how this works where he's done a lot of really good actions but all of a sudden for a really bad reason. And that some of us try to con God by having all the right actions.
But our goal, my name, my will. There are many people. We live in the south. There are many people right now on a Sunday morning. Some in here. Many in other places.
Who are very moral. Who show up to church. Who give. Who do a lot of things. And their only goal is to behave well enough that Jesus leaves them alone. Because if they sin, they're in his debt.
But if they can behave well enough, they can hold him far away and he owes them. It's a con game. Because their heart isn't in it. It's not for his glory. It's not for his will. It's if I do these things, this will work out.
And that's what they did. They said we're going to do really good things that God poured in us. We're going to be inventive. We're going to be creative. All things that God would celebrate. That the Bible does celebrate.
That even the book of Genesis celebrates. But they do it for sinful reasons. So let's see how God responds. So they say, verse 4. Let's read that again.
Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves. Lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. I love this verse. The Bible mocks them.
I love two things that happened in this verse. First is, where was their tower going to go? Do you all remember when they built it? It's going to go into heaven. And then the next verse says, God came down to see it. It didn't shoot through the floor of where he lived, you guys.
They didn't quite accomplish what they wanted. Now the point isn't that God couldn't see it. That God can't tell what's going on over the face of the earth. It does indicate that God chooses to be intimate with humanity when he doesn't have to be. He chooses to be close when he doesn't have to be. We see that throughout Scripture.
But it's also meant to be some nice scorn. God was like, hey, I heard they built a tower that's stabbing up into where we live. Y'all want to go down and see it? He went down and he was like, this is cute, you guys. It's meant to mock it, that God comes down to see this tower. And then it says this, that the children of man had built.
That phrase, children of man, it's a Hebrew phrase that the word children can also be sons. The word man is also Adam. So it could just be the sons of Adam, the children of man. All it means was not that these people that lived in Babel were particularly amazing sinners. They were just people. You see, a lot of times we read the Bible and we like to think, those people were bad.
I'm one of the good ones. Those are the people who messed things up. I'm glad God went down there and fixed them. I'm so happy that he went and did that. That's neat. And we miss the fact that what it's saying is this is what humans do.
This is the natural bent of our heart is to, for our name and our will and our glory, to live our lives in a way that God really doesn't mess with us and we get to do what we want. They're just humans. So he goes down to see it. And then he pays them a great honor and he pays humanity a great honor. Let's see what he says.
And the Lord said, behold, they are one people and they have all one language. And this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down there and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city.
Okay, so here's what he says. He comes down, he looks at the tower and he says, they're not going to spread out. They're just going to keep doing stuff. And he pays humanity a great compliment. I mean, he poured himself into humanity. He made us in his image and he says, they're just going to keep creating.
They're going to keep making things. They're not really going to be able to, there's nothing standing in the way of them just sitting here for their own glory forever. And so then he just says, I'm going to make it to where they don't understand what each other are saying. And that'll fix the problem. Which it did. I don't know if y'all know this, but we have historically humans have not gotten along with people that look and speak differently than themselves.
Did y'all know that? We draw little lines. We say, your eyes and skin color are different. The way you talk is funny. We're going to kill you. That's what humans have done.
It wasn't always said in English, but it has pretty much always been said. That's what God did was he just said, I'm going to make it to where they don't get along the same way. And we still, as far as humanity has gone, we've accomplished a lot of things. We have a space station that we have to work out with other people because we speak different languages. We have to translate from standard measurements to metric measurements. We have to do all these kind of things.
I mean, there's two different types of countries in the world. Those who use the metric system and those who've been to the moon. And we have to work that out. We have to overcome these differences. This was God's plan here. And I want you to see how gracious this is.
We just read about the flood. Humanity gets off and immediately rebels against God. I mean, thumbing their nose at him. We're going to build a tower into heaven. We're going to be awesome and we're not going to do what you say. That was their plan.
I told my son something one time and he said, nah. I said, buddy, you don't say nah to me. He said, daddy, daddy, daddy. I said, what? He said, the reason I said nah was that that was not a good idea. I said, brother, that's not how this works.
That's what they did. God said, here's my plan for humanity. You're going to spread out. You're going to display my glory. You're going to have dominion. And humanity went, nah.
We're going to cluster together. We're going to have glory. We're going to do what we want. God could have crushed them. He could have destroyed this city. We just saw his act of wrath in a flood.
By the time you read this, you would think, oh no, here it comes again. He said he wasn't going to flood it, but he's got other stuff, you guys. Ain't just water that kills people. But he doesn't. He also, this is gracious what he does. You see, God has active wrath and passive wrath.
Active wrath is where we pay the direct penalty for our sin. You see that throughout scripture. Passive wrath is when he gives us exactly what we want. And we discover that it is extremely lacking because what we needed was him. I had a buddy of mine ask one time, he's like, why does bad stuff happen to people? Why do they?
If you're, he's like, you're a Christian. You believe in God. Why do people get cancer? Why do people get sick? I said, honestly, man, the biggest issue that humanity has is sin. And a lot of times we don't realize that we need God as long as our bank account's full, our belly is full, and our health's rocking and rolling.
The truth is, a lot of times circumstantial pain leads us to a beautiful savior. Because it's God's wrath on you if everything works out swimmingly until you stand before him and you realize you lived your whole life for your name and your will. And that's a problem because that's not how the world was designed to work. So what God does is gracious and, I think, kind of funny. Because this had to be pretty hilarious. If you were God.
It's pretty stressful for everybody involved, I think. Here's why. You ever been somewhere and you hear people speaking and it takes you a second to realize, oh, wait, that's a different language? Like you didn't realize you were trying to eavesdrop, but then you got annoyed because you're like, I don't know what they're saying. And then you're like, wait a second, that's because I'll never know what they're saying because I'm pretty sure that's Portuguese. And nobody's trying to learn Portuguese.
No offense if you speak Portuguese. A little bit, but that wasn't intended. Or you're watching a movie or you're hearing a song, like you're riding on the road and you're like, I don't understand those lyrics. And you turn it up and you're like, oh, that's a different language. But see, you understand different languages exist.
There was a day when they didn't. And then the next day they did. So if you walked outside and you saw someone and you said hello and they said bonjour, you'd be like, well, that's French. And unless you know English, we're not going to talk much. But if you didn't know other languages exist, you wouldn't recognize it as a French word.
It would be noises. Strange noises. Now, it's possible you woke up and noticed that you were thinking in a different language and you spoke strange noises. But we've seen people who have gone into like car accidents and stuff. They get hit in the head. They wake up from a coma and they speak a different language.
And they don't realize they're speaking a different language. That's just language to them now. We've seen this happen, which is a crazy thing, which makes me think that when you woke up and started speaking a different language, you didn't notice it was a different language. So you walked outside. You said hello to your neighbor. And they went, glee-blank.
Because you wouldn't have recognized it as anything other than sounds. And you were like, what? They said, skeetle-deedle. And everybody did this all day long. Nobody spoke. If you woke up, I'm assuming there maybe were a few people who were still speaking the same language, but can you imagine you walk outside, you look at the street you live on, and it's just symbols that you don't understand?
If you just walked outside and every sign now is in Arabic, and you were just like, that's a heck of a prank for someone to pull off overnight. Do you see why they all left the city? It didn't work anymore, you guys. I guess at some point, I'm assuming he made little patches of people that did speak the same language, so eventually you were just walking around going, does anybody know what I am saying? And you heard someone yell, I do! And you were like, we're best friends now!
Because it's just us! That's what happened! God said, y'all don't want to spread out and invent culture. That's actually what God's desire was. That there would be culture. That they would spread out.
Because most of culture, a lot of culture, comes from not your language, but your location. You know why we have high fructose corn syrup? Because we had corn. We didn't have sugar. We figured out how to make corn taste like sugar, and we've never looked back. We were like, this is what corn is for from now on.
Alright, we'll allow grits and cornbread. But that's it. Don't eat corn. Drink it. It tastes like magic. If you think about it, we speak the same language, mostly, as people from Australia and people from England.
But the culture is different. We're not on the same page. He designed it. He wanted them to spread out and create culture. Because God wants people who look and act and think differently to worship Him and love Him and display His glory. Because there's something about every culture that points back to God.
And they weren't going to do it, so He created language and therefore created culture. And here's what happens. You read it. He says, Come let us go down. This is verse 7. Come let us go down there and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech.
So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth. And they left off building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel. I'm going to get back to that. That's important. Because there the Lord confused.
That in Hebrew sounds similar to Babel. So it's not as clever in English. Babel and confused. The language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. They said, Let's come together.
We're going to build a tower. We're going to build a city. And we will not be dispersed. And then it says God dispersed them. Their plan did not work out. I want to ask you a question.
Did God destroy the tower? No. What was the purpose of the tower? It was to make a name for themselves. It was for them to get glory. Glory.
Whenever anyone sees the tower of Babel. Or speaks about the tower of Babel. Who gets the glory? God does. Because that's the point of the world. Is that God would get glory from his creation.
I want to make something really clear to you. That's how glory works. You can spend your whole life trying to figure out how to develop your name. And make much of your name. And glorify your name. But your life at the end of the day will glorify God.
You will either glorify God intentionally or unintentionally. We will either glorify God by being so enraptured by his glory and his goodness and his love. That we pour our lives out for him and his mission and his will. Or we will reject God. We will run from God. And we will suffer the glorious wrath of God.
But he will get glory from our lives. Either by us paying the penalty for our sin. Either by us standing on our own merit and seeing how woefully short it falls. Or by displaying his glory intentionally. But that's how it works.
The tower does not make much of them. It makes much of God. But he's gracious to them. He does not. He creates culture. Now.
They spread out. And here's what's beautiful about this. As we get to read the rest of the story. As we get to see where God goes from here. Oh. I said that I would come back to this.
Babel is translated everywhere else as Babylon. So it's setting up this kind of dichotomy that's going to play out through the rest of scripture. Where Babylon is kind of the seat of rebellion against God. Even by the time we get to the book of Revelation. It's going to be talking about God making a city. And crushing the city of Babylon.
So that's just the theme that runs throughout. We're not going to keep talking about it this morning. But I just wanted to point that out for you. That's where that begins. Okay. Here's what God does from this.
He calls Abraham in the next chapter. We're going to look at that next week. He just calls a guy and says. I'm going to make a nation out of you. And then he's promised to him immediately. It's through you.
All the families of the earth will be blessed. So he promises. Bless Abraham. To bless everybody else. Then. He makes nation.
Out of Abraham. He brings them out of slavery in Egypt. After they go to Egypt and become slaves. He brings them out. He eventually continues to promise. That I'm going to bless everybody through you.
And he brings Christ through Abraham. And the goal. Is not just to make one nation. But that all peoples. And all languages. And all nations.
Would worship and love God. And so he does this through Jesus. Jesus comes. Lives a perfect sinless life. Dies on behalf of sinners. Which is the children of man.
He even tells people. As he's doing this. He says. I'm going to rescue the house of Israel. But I've got sheep.
That don't belong to this house. That are going to be mine. He keeps saying. Like this is for everybody. This is going to be for everybody. As soon as he rises from the grave.
Having conquered sin on our behalf. He grabs his disciples. And he says. Go and make disciples. Of all ethnicities. You see that God is reversing.
What happened in Babel. Through the gospel. Because he is going to have a world. Covered. By people. Of different cultures.
Who love him. And worship him. He will accomplish that. Pentecost. Is the reverse of Babel. Where they.
The Holy Spirit falls. They begin to speak a language. That everybody understands. Because God is going to have a world. Covered with people who know. Love.
And worship him. And then he sends them out. First to the Jews. Then to the Gentiles. Then to everybody.
Which is the Gentiles. But just further away. And we see in the book of Revelation. That it says. John stands up. And he says.
I see them gathered around the throne. Worshipping him. Worshipping God the Father. And Christ. And it says. This is Revelation 5.9.
They sing a new song. Saying. Worthy are you to take the scroll. And to open its seals. For you were slain. And by your blood.
You ransomed people for God. From every tribe. And language. And people. And nation. And he says.
I look. This is 7.9. Two chapters away. After this I looked. And behold. A great multitude.
That no one could number. From every nation. From all tribes. And peoples. And languages. Standing before the throne.
And before the God. Clothed in white robes. When Christ redeems peoples. He does not make them one culture. He does not wipe away their skin color. Or their language.
He brings them together. And he makes them one family in him. But when John looks around the throne. He says. I see everybody speaking different languages. But they're all saying the same thing.
I see a multitude of peoples. And nations and languages. But they're all saying the same thing. Worthy is Jesus. That's God's plan. He enacts it in Babel.
And he overcomes it. In the gospel. That the world will be covered with people who worship him. And he mixes up the languages. And then he says. Everybody's still going to belong to me.
Not everybody in the world. Because that's not how this works out. But people from every tribe. And language and nation. Will follow Jesus. At least one.
Somebody's singing in French. Somebody's singing in Yoruba. There are people groups on the face of the planet right now. We have not translated the Bible in their language. We have not reached those people group. And I will guarantee you one thing.
Somebody from that people group is coming out. And they will be around that throne. And they will be making much of Jesus. Because that's God's plan. Now. How do we read this story.
And respond. Now. In 2018. Knowing all that we know. Well. I got a few quick things.
First of all. We know God's will for us. So God told. Adam and Eve. Then he told Noah.
Be fruitful. Multiply. Fill the earth. Okay. Done. That's not.
That's not the thing for us anymore. We are still supposed to have dominion over the earth. Which means you need to care for the peace of earth that you have. You need to care for those around you. We're supposed to work jobs. We're supposed to do that.
But then. In the cross. He sends out his disciples. Those who follow him. And he says. Make disciples.
Of all the people. Of the earth. That God has given his church a mission. That we know. His will for us. Now.
You may make disciples. In your neighborhood. You may make your disciples. As a mechanic. Working at a shop. Who gets to know the people he works with.
You might make your disciples. Working at Blockbuster. And then they closed it down. So you start working at Sears. And then they closed it down. And now you work for a call center.
But you're making disciples somewhere. Wherever you are. That all people would come to know him. That all people would worship him. That all people would follow him. And here's what happens though.
Much of our life is not the prayer. Our father in heaven. Honored be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Much of our life is spent with.
Our father in heaven. May my name be honored. May my kingdom come. May my will be done. We spend a lot of our time. Not caring about what God has put in front of us.
To love. To serve. To have a mission for. We spend a lot of time caring about our bank account. Our name. Our glory.
Our will. Guys. I'm a pastor. Father. And it's really easy for me. To not want to preach sermons for God's glory.
But for mine. It's really easy for me. To when we have baptisms. Want to see a lot of people get baptized. Not because that means somebody new. Is going to be around the throne.
Praising Jesus. But because it helps indicate. That we're doing a good job here. It's really easy for us. To do good actions. For wrong reasons.
Where we want our will. And our glory. And that is written. Into the heart of humanity. And we need God to save us from it. I had a friend of mine.
He's a pastor. And he said. That there are times. Where he thinks. He cares more about his dynasty on Madden. Some of y'all.
Understand what those words are. Some of you don't. Than he does about the mission of God. But you can replace dynasty on Madden. With your garden. Your promotion.
Your 401k. Your car collection. Your children. You can replace it with anything. Even really. Really good things.
That we care more about. What God's called us to do. And the mission he's given us. See the truth is. Many of us. Will never have a tower.
That reaches to heaven. But we will have something. That we spent. All of our energy. All of our time. All of our intelligence on.
And often. Far too often. It was for our name. And our will. So that we could be comfortable.
So that we could be successful. So that we could be. Given glory. And it was in complete. And utter rejection. Of what God's called us to do.
So I think the way we respond. Is twofold. I think we need to ask the question. We need to look in our heart. We need to ask the Holy Spirit. To tell us.
Where am I living. For my will. And my glory. Secondly. The way that we respond. To this story.
Of the Tower of Babel. Is we get to know people. Who look differently. Speak differently. Act differently. Than us.
I remember the day. That I went. My cousin came here. He is. First generation. Nigerian American.
I've told this story before. We went. He wanted to know. Kind of some good food around here. So we went to a restaurant.
That's closed now. But it was very good. Mexican food. I got horchata. Which is. It tastes like.
The bottom of the bowl. Of cinnamon toast crunch. It's amazing. And then we went. To another place. That had churros.
And I remember sitting with him. And I was eating a churro. And I thought. I've never thought about this. But churros are going to be in heaven.
I know biscuits will be there. But I had never thought about churros. And I know. Like it was. It just dawned on me. That there's going to be.
Culture in heaven. And that we ought to display. That so beautifully here. That we don't just hang out. With the people who look like us. Think like us.
Act like us. We don't just hang out. With people who like spicy food. Or don't like spicy food. But that we.
We look like the kingdom of God. Which is a bunch of people. Who look and act. And think differently. And so what that means for us. How we respond to the story.
Is that we love God's mission. And we love it enough. To be made uncomfortable for it. For the sake of people. Who don't know him. And for some of us.
That means you are supposed to. Quit your job. Be an international missionary. Go someplace. Or maybe they don't speak. The way you speak.
And maybe nobody there. Loves Jesus. And it's possible. That there are churches. Around the globe. That will consistently.
Send Christians to. The reason that unreached places. Are unreached right now. Is because they are hard to reach. They don't want to be reached. And so there are going to be people.
Who have to die there. For the sake of the gospel. And we're going to send in somebody. And we're going to send in somebody. And we're going to send in somebody. And Christians are going to shed their blood there.
And we're going to do it. Because we know at some point. Somebody's coming out. Somebody's going to be around the throne. Some of you it means. Getting to know someone you've worked with.
For a long time. But you've never really talked to. Because y'all don't see eye to eye. Or you don't act the same way. Or you don't like the same music. Some of you it's going to mean.
Walking across the street. And getting to know your neighbors. Some of you it's going to mean. Stop inviting them to everything. But accept the invitation they've given you.
You go be the only person. With your skin color. You go be the only person. Who doesn't understand the references. You go be mad. Uncomfortable for the gospel.
The band's going to come back up. And I want us to ask the question. God do I care more about your glory or mine? Do I care more about my name? Do I care more about what I want in life? Do I care more about what I think is best.
Most comfortable. Most enjoyable. Or do I care about what you care about? And we're going to repent. We're going to ask Jesus to change our hearts. We're going to ask him to use us.
Through his Holy Spirit. We're going to take communion here in a second. Which is for Christians. Who have repented of sin. And placed their faith in Jesus. Who died for sinners.
The truth is. That we are all going to mess this up. We are all going to fall short. None of us are going to live perfectly. Or be on mission perfectly. Or love God's mission.
In his name. In his glory. More than ours. And that's why we trust Jesus. That he saves sinners. That he loves failures.
That he's strong enough where we are weak. And that we continually get to follow after him in repentance. But that ultimately we're going to stand before him. Not because we were the best at mission. And not because we were the best at diversity. And not because we were the best at loving people.
But because he was. And we're going to stand in him. And so if you are a Christian. I would invite you to take a moment to ask him. Where do I need to change? Where do I need to grow?
Where do you need to purge from me? The fact that I would have fit in so perfectly in Babel. And where do you need to change my circumstances? For your grace. And for your glory. And for your name.
And then I invite you to take communion. If you are not a Christian. Communion is not for you. Christ is. And you can repent of your sin. And have Christ.
But Christians partake in communion. To remind themselves. That they've placed their faith in Christ. And what he's done for them. So let's pray.
The band's going to sing here in a moment. And during that song. After you've prayed. And when you feel ready. You'll come take communion. If you have a celiac disease.
Or a gluten allergy.
Elder installation
Transcript
Well, good morning. Like I said, my name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Today is an exciting day in the life of our church. We are installing Spencer Carey as an elder. And so it's going to be a good morning for us.
We are taking a break from our time in Genesis to install Spencer. He's been doing pastor and training stuff with us for a couple of years. And a lot has gone into this, and we're excited to be able to do this this morning. I hope everybody made it safely through the great mist of 2018. I know that if you live closer to the coast or have family that way, that there has been some significant damage in that direction, although we didn't catch the brunt of it. So thank the Lord for that, for Columbia.
So a little bit about what we're going to do today. It's going to be kind of like a wedding, because in some ways Spencer is going to be committing himself to our church family. And us as a church family, we're going to commit ourselves to Spencer. So there'll be times where I'm talking to us as a church family. There'll be times where I'm just talking generally from what the Bible says. There'll be times where I'm specifically addressing Spencer.
And so in similar ways, when I get to do a wedding, the couple stands. And then there are times where I'm talking to everybody, just kind of what the Bible says. There are other times where I specifically address the couple. Except for today, I think that as we specifically address Spencer, he'll listen. The couple at a wedding usually doesn't. They're just kind of staring doughy-eyed at each other.
But I don't think Spencer's going to be doing that with you all right now. So hopefully he'll listen as we kind of walk through this. I got to meet Spencer in college. And it took us a while to kind of admit it to each other after he had been hanging out here. But we did not appreciate each other's company in college, which I think is a testament both to our judge of character in college and our general attitudes towards humans.
And so we've grown since then. We like each other now. And Spencer's been around for a while. He felt called to plant in Lexington. And so he moved from Sojourn from Louisville, Kentucky, where he was going to Sojourn. No, Sojourn was the church.
Sorry, Southern Seminary is what I'm trying to say. Sojourn was the church he was a part of. Moved from Southern Seminary to be here to plant in Lexington. Called us up because somebody said, Hey, well, there's some guys that are planting a church. You should get to know them. He said, Well, I already kind of know them.
But he had to have a sponsor church. So he thought, Well, maybe these morons will sponsor me and we can go ahead and plant our church. And so we met and it turns out we had a lot in common. We had a lot that we believed similarly about how to pursue the mission and to worship Jesus and to mobilize people and make disciples. And so Spencer started hanging around. Eventually he started feeling like he was actually called to be here.
And that was an exciting moment for our church. And now as he's been doing pastor and training, we are going to install him today. So I want to go ahead and tell you a few things. One that Spencer's already done for our church. One of the things that he did pretty early on was he and he treated it like it was a gospel issue that we have better coffee on Sundays. So he used to be a barista or a barista.
I don't know. He's a guy. I don't know how that works. And he he he kind of just said, We can't drink this. If we believe all the things that the Bible says about how God's good creation, we can't be drinking this on Sundays. And we're like, What?
It's like seven week old Maxwell House. I don't understand what the problem is. And so we've gotten better coffee. He he fought hard for liturgy, which means a set order to worship. It stresses him out any time that we kind of break from that. But he's he fought hard for that.
So if you like responsive readings, you can thank Spencer. If you're like me and they make you uncomfortable, you can thank Spencer. I remember when he would say he's like, Why don't you all do responsive readings? And the answer was basically, I don't like them. And he was like, Well, you know, the Bible, he like went. He pulled the Bible out on us.
And he was like, You know, the Bible says for us to read together, for us to devote ourselves to the reading of scriptures. And I was like, Yeah, but they make me uncomfortable. And so since we didn't have a good point and he did, we've started doing them. And they've actually been really good and helpful. And I do appreciate them now. Other things that we have in liturgy are when Spencer gets up here and says he's going to give us a benediction, which is a blessing for the road.
And we had to tell him, Stop saying that. Just do it. Just say the benediction. He also fought really hard for shorter sermons. And I know some of y'all have been hanging around for a little while and you're like, These are the short ones. Yes, these are the short ones.
These are the shorter sermons. He's done a lot with shepherding and member care. I will also say that we have already made some allowances for Spencer that we hadn't made for other pastors. Everybody who's a pastor so far, the way we did email addresses was your first initial and your last name. But Spencer's name is Spencer and his last name is Carrie.
And he was really up in arms about having scary at millcitycolumbia.com be his email handle. So we already changed that up for him. So here's what we're going to do today. We're going to look briefly. I thought it was an awesome email address. We're going to look briefly.
I was like, didn't your parents do that on purpose? We're going to look briefly at three different passages. The New Testament has a lot to say about pastors and about what the church is supposed to look like. The New Testament church. And we're going to look briefly at three different passages that just deal with the kind of the role of the office of pastor, of elder. And we're going to talk through that this morning.
And then kind of at the end of our time, we're going to call Spencer up here and we're going to go through a list of things that he's going to commit himself to. And then we're going to commit ourselves to him as a church and he will be installed in our church as an elder. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to jump in. God, we thank you for this time and we thank you for what it means for the life of our church. We pray that we'd honor you well as we study your word together this morning and as we install Spencer as a pastor of our church. Thank you.
And in Jesus name. Amen. Grab your Bibles, go to Titus chapter one. Titus chapter one. It's going to be on page 579. If you have a Bible that looks like this.
And we're going to pick up in verse five. So we're going to talk briefly about the character of a pastor, kind of what the Bible outlines. There's several passages that do this. We're going to look at Titus today. Before we do that, I want to answer kind of a big question for us. So he says in verse five, this is why I left you in Crete.
That's where Titus is so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. OK, so what happens is the New Testament, Paul and the other apostles travel around. They share the gospel. People believe the gospel. People become Christians and become disciples of Jesus. And then it would say that they would come back through and kind of appoint elders, make sure that all the local churches and all the churches in all these cities had some organization, had some leadership.
And so that's what's happening here. And so today we will install. We will appoint Spencer as an elder. Now, for some of us, that word, we're not really familiar with the word elder. We use that term interchangeably here at our church. So the Bible also uses it interchangeably.
The word elder overseer are different words in the Greek, but they're used interchangeably. And we also use the word pastor. And so those are all three different words in the New Testament that are used to describe this kind of same role, the same office, this same thing that people are supposed to do. And so we interchange them. Now, some people look at that and go, OK, doesn't elder mean older? And then you might look at us and say, you don't look older, to which I would respond.
Thank you. I moisturize. I appreciate that. No, I would respond. We aren't that old. We are on the young end of kind of pastoring.
We're on the far end of this. And here's the thing. The term does mean older. And it originally meant in the Old Testament, you're going to see it means all the older people, all the heads of families were called together. But as it comes into the New Testament, it is only ever used as an office.
Similar to our term senator. Same root word is senile. Same same root word. It means older. But now we just use it as an office.
And that's how the New Testament uses this. And the primary thrust of what the Bible calls for from an elder is not physical age, but spiritual maturity. And so that's why he lists off these qualifications. In these qualifications, there is a call for maturity, but never a specific age. So that there can be people who are young and spiritually mature, old and not spiritually mature.
And the hope is that we would grow as we are young pastors. We would grow to be more spiritually mature over time. As we age. So here's what he says. Verse six. If anyone is above reproach, means nobody can bring any kind of claim against them.
The husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer as God's steward, meaning that he's a stand in for God. The person who's overseeing a church, an elder, a pastor, is handling God's people, God's word. He's not in charge. He works for God. Must be above reproach.
He must not be arrogant or quick tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain. But hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he might be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. So let's talk briefly about the character outlined for a pastor. So these are character qualifications.
There's only one in here that is a skill, which is the ability to instruct, the ability to correct. The rest of them are character, character qualifications that you have to see over time that wouldn't show up on a resume. So here's what it says. It says if you're above reproach. This is actually why as we went to install Spencer, we would announce we're going to install him on the 23rd. If you have anything to bring against him, anything that he has done, any slight, we need to know about it so that we can approach it, that we can talk to him about it, that we can correct it.
And that we see that he seems eligible for this, but we want to make sure that he hasn't been wronging and harming people in other areas. It says the husband of one wife, which means a one-woman man. This has been an honor to see how Spencer pursues his wife there. He's very busy. He does a couple of days here serving. He teaches often here, which takes a lot of his time.
He works with our member care and shepherding. He's put a lot of work into that, and then he does real estate, which keeps him very busy. And so there's often days where he's here working. He goes and does some showings. He goes and does some pastoral care. He gets home late, and he has to be very intentional with his wife, Anna, and it has been beautiful to see how intentional they are to spend time together, to date one another, to enjoy one another.
But it says husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 1 Timothy 3, which also outlines character qualifications, says that manages his household well and his children are submissive. And so one of the things we see is that one of the first realms that you pastor is your home. And so we did not, when I first became a pastor here, who's considerably younger than I am now, didn't have any children. So now that qualification matters more because I have to keep my children submissive.
At some point, my son, he's three. He can't really be open to the charge of debauchery, although he did feel a little insubordinate last night before he went to bed. But we handled it. Boy, you're being insubordinate and churlish. Like, we walked through this with him. But what it means is that you manage your household well, that your children grow up.
And this is one of the things that we talk about on a regular basis as pastors is that as our children get older, there may be a season where we say, hey, guys, I no longer meet these qualifications. I have children who are rebelling, who are pursuing open, flagrant sin. They're not submissive. I'm not leading my household well. And I need to step back. We talk about that regularly.
This is the thing that we need to be prepared for. This is one of the reasons why not only do we believe it's biblical that we would have multiple pastors. Some people would look and say, you're going to have four pastors for this size church. And our answer is yes, because we believe that elders are supposed to be plural. That's why he says appoint elders in every town, that there should be more than one. And we believe that it's healthy.
It's helpful. It gives us room to shepherd our families well. It gives us the ability to shepherd each other, to be accountable. But there may be seasons where we have to walk through that. For an overseer, God's steward must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable.
He must have his home open to people. He must love good, be self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. So that those who are to lead the church are meant to be, they don't eat too much. They don't drink too much. They're not too aggressive. They're not too loud.
They're tempered. They control themselves. That they're disciplined. That they might set an example. Then he says he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also able to rebuke those who contradict it.
So there ought to be an exemplary character and a love for the scriptures and an ability to rightly teach and correct. We take this very seriously here. If there's two kind of caricatures of pastors, maybe many of you have grown up and you've known pastors who are really genuinely good people. They loved the Lord. They were humble. They were gracious.
They were caring. And that's one picture we have of pastor. The other one is that pastors are messed up. They're sneaky. They're greedy. They're power hungry.
I know that that's in me. When I meet somebody and they say they're a pastor, I'm like, okay, well, you might be weird. And I feel bad that I feel like that because I know I tell people I'm a pastor and I assume they think maybe the same thing. It's like, okay, weirdo. We'll see. But that's the thing.
And so we take it very seriously that we would uphold and display what God has intended. I want to turn. I'm going to talk a little bit more about this, but I want us to turn to the next place before I do. So we're going to look at the commitment of a pastor. So we're going to go to Hebrews 13.
So just a few pages over. And again, there's a lot of different passages, but I wanted to highlight a few things. So the Bible says that the pastor should have a godly character. And then it talks about how we are to commit both to the pastor and the pastor commits to us. And so I want to talk about, Spencer, what you're committing to today and what we as a church are committing to today. Because we are, as a church family, making a commitment when we install a new pastor.
And Spencer today will be making a commitment to us. So let's look. We're going to read a couple of verses and we're going to jump kind of a section and read another couple of verses. Because Paul introduces this idea. He talks about some specifics for this church. And then he kind of closes with this idea.
So we're going to verse 7. He says, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. I didn't have this on there, but I want us to read verse 9 as well. It says, do not be led astray by diverse and strange teachings.
Okay, I just want to read that because it's going to apply to something we're about to have to read in here on verse 17. So verse 17 says this, and this is to the church. The church was talking to us collectively as a church family. Obey your leaders and submit to them. For they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning.
For that would be of no advantage to you. So if you're part of our church family, if you've committed to membership here. One of the things that happens when we install a new elder leader in our church family is that this applies. That we would obey and submit to our leaders. Now, as a pastor here, I wish that was worded differently. I wish it said like, consider it, but you still make the call.
Like, you know, think about it. They've probably been studying stuff, but don't overdo what they say. But that's not what it says. It says obey and submit to them because they're going to be held accountable. That's what the passage says. That's scary to me.
And this is another reason why we take eldership really slowly here. One of the phrases we use is we take it slower than we want to take it. I think Spencer could have been ordained a while back. The truth is if he can be ordained now, he could have been ordained earlier. That's usually how that works. Could have been installed earlier.
We actually had people, I had somebody in my group come to me and say, why isn't Spencer a pastor yet? And she was like, he's the best one we have and he's not even a pastor. And I was like, you said that right to my face. Like, I'm here. You're talking to me. And the answer is twofold.
One, character can only be seen over time. So he just said, remember their way of life. We have to watch way of life. We could tell Spencer could preach when he showed up. I remember the first time he preached when we were doing teacher development. I thought, yeah, we could listen to this guy.
You could listen to this guy week after week. That was helpful. That was good. That was encouraging. But there's certain things that don't show up on a resume that aren't going to show up as you get to talk to somebody.
And that's character. You have to see him in seasons of life. Are they consistently faithful? Do they love their spouse? How do they handle it when they don't have any money? How do they handle it when their child is going through a really difficult stage?
How do they handle it when they're sick? How do they handle it? Character only unfolds over time. So there's no way to do that quickly. Secondly, after we install him today, we as a church family have to obey and submit to him. And we want to make sure he's got some sense.
Because that would be really difficult to do. We want to see that. We take that very, that's a very weighty thing that we would say that we believe that we're going to, he's going to be my pastor after the day. I'm going to have to submit to his leadership. We wanted to watch and see, can we do that now? I've been submitting to some of his leadership.
I've been obeying some of the things that he lays out because he's got wisdom and he handles the Bible well. But we're co-signing that as a leadership team, as an elder team for the rest of our church family. And we want to take that really slowly. And the other thing that we have to see is that the, as Matthew 20 says, Jesus says, I didn't come to be served, but to serve, to give up my life as a ransom for many. What he says is that the leaders of you should be your slaves. The first among you should be last.
So what happens is Spencer's about to move into a position where he can lean into the fact that our church family is supposed to obey and submit to him. And he can do that as someone who is power hungry and loves authority. Or he can do that as someone who understands that his role is a servant. He's meant to die to himself on behalf of those that he serves because they belong to Jesus. One of the things we say often is if you can't take the trash out, you can't lead a church. You can't be an elder.
Or if you can't serve, you don't get to do anything else. Because it seems from a worldly perspective as if he's moving up in the ranks. But biblically, that's flipped upside down and he's moving down to be a slave to more people, to serve more people. So the Bible says, obey your leaders. Now, that does not mean check your brain at the door. We just read where it says, don't be led astray by diverse and strange teachings.
So he says, don't be led astray, obey and submit to your leaders. So what he's saying is biblical, healthy, godly leadership is what we follow. That we open the Bible. There's a reason why we set this out in the middle of everything. And we open the Bible up and we set it on here because this is what is leading us. This is what is teaching us.
God through his Holy Spirit, as he empowers his word, I could fall over dead. And what is important is still here. And so we follow the leadership that's outlined for us in scripture. But there are places where pastors have to make house rules. Because the Bible tells us certain things we're supposed to do and certain things we're not supposed to do. And then there's some areas where we got to make some calls.
Give you an example. It's kind of like parenting. When I was growing up, I had to be in bed at nine o'clock. All the way until I left my father's house. Eighteen years old. At a nine o'clock bedtime.
A little more lax on the weekends and during the summer. But not real lax. Just a little more. During school, nine o'clock, go to bed. You could get away with it a little more if you weren't annoying him. You could push it to like 9.15 or 9.30.
But if he like, if you bothered him, it was close. Bedtime. Now, as a house rule. At your house, you may not have had that rule. I was called to obey my parents. He said, go to bed at nine.
If I stayed up, if he told me to go to bed, and I said, no, I'm sinning. If I was up at ten in rebellion against my father, I'm sinning. Now, at your house, where you had no curfew, you weren't. Because it wasn't a house rule. You were supposed to obey your parents. They said, show up by three.
I remember when I first started dating my wife, Anna. And I said, what time do you need to be home? Because I was trying to, you know. She said, I don't have a curfew. And I was like, your parents hate you. Truth was, she had never done anything that had to be restricted.
She behaved herself. Phillip's voice, home at nine, in bed. There were restrictions at my house. And this messed me up. Because I was in college. And at 9.30, my body started to shut down.
I'd been going to bed at nine o'clock my entire life. People were like, you want to do stuff? And I'd be like, yeah, it sounds. My body's like, what are you doing? You're going to die. I'm like, you know what?
I'll catch you later. I've got to go to sleep. My roommate my freshman year hated me. And he moved out. And it was nice. I had my own room.
And I went to bed at nine. And he didn't make any noise. There are house rules. One of the house rules we have as a church family is our community groups. The Bible does not say you have to be in a group. People ask us this all the time.
What does the Bible say you have to do that? No, it doesn't. But the Bible does say that we're to love one another. We're to serve one another. We're to bear with one another. We're to forgive one another.
We're to be hospitable to one another. And we live in a culture where you are never forced to do any of those things. There's another church right down the road. So as soon as something gets difficult, you don't have to forgive. You can go over there. You can go over there and tell them how terrible everybody was here.
And you know what that church will say? We're so sorry. Because they want to put on a good impression of Christ to you. And they'll say, well, we love you. We'd never do that. And they're well-meaning.
But the truth is you should have stayed here and repented. Or you should have stayed at your last church and repented. We're called to do all these things. And we live in a culture where you don't have to. You can go home and watch, friends. You don't have to have any.
My brother, when they canceled the show The Office, he said, I feel like I've lost a lot of my friends. And I'm not going to see him all the time anymore. Then Netflix came out, and he's fine, you guys. So we say you need to be in a group. Because we're trying to apply what the Bible said. So we made a house rule to help us accomplish what we think we're supposed to do.
And so when the Bible says obey your leaders and submit to them, there are places where that shows up. And that means there are going to be times where, as a church family, we disagree. That's what submission is. It doesn't say agree with your leaders. It says obey, submit. And so we take our time to try to figure out, this person loves Jesus.
Does he love the word? Are we in agreement on how this plays out? Because the truth is, since there are house rules, Spencer might be installable elsewhere, but not here. Because we disagree on what the Bible is saying and how we ought to live that out. So we take our time.
But here's what it says. The two commitments that the church family is making and that we'll make later, we'll actually read and we'll kind of say, by God's grace, that we will. Is we're committing today to obey and submit to Spencer. And then it says, let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. So some of us maybe said, okay, well, I'll obey, I'll submit.
But man, am I going to make that awful. And the truth is, it's not what he says. It says, let them do it with joy. Spencer's supposed to be here. If he's supposed to be here, if he's supposed to serve, he's supposed to do this. Then we want him to do it with joy.
We want him to do it not begrudgingly. We want him to show up excited to be a part of this church family and to serve this church family and to slave for this church family. We want that to be a joy because it does us no good if he's bitter and unhappy, if he's frustrated. That is not how you want your pastors to be. So as a church family, we're designed, supposed to make things joyful.
Now, as a pastor, I want to give you a few tips on how to do this. One, if you are frustrated or hurt by something that one of your pastors has done, just go talk to them. It's one of the best ways to make bleeding a joy. Because someone sitting you down and saying, hey, you hurt my feelings. It's so much easier. It's so much biblical.
So what we're supposed to walk through. There are times where somebody sat me down and said, I think you need to repent. And when they got up, I was like, you're right, I do. I do need to repent. I handled that poorly. My thinking on that's been wrong.
And I get to grow and we get to move forward together in love. Being frustrated and complaining and whispering to other people doesn't help us grow. It doesn't model the gospel. It doesn't display anything good. So when you're frustrated, go talk to the pastor.
Whichever pastor it is. It's probably razz. Go talk to him. Sorry. I do remember I've had people sit down with me and after doing that, because they did it, they thought it was biblical, they knew they were supposed to, they sat down and afterwards said, that wasn't that bad. It's like, yeah, I just look angry.
I'm actually not a terrible person. Tell your friends. Encourage. When you see something that is encourageable, encourage. Fan the flame. When Spencer, and be specific.
When he does something that's helpful or encouraging or blessed you or you see Jesus at work in him, tell him. Because the truth is, often we as pastors run around, we get to work and serve. We've been called to this. We work and serve with everybody who's hurting. Everybody's weak. Everybody's frustrated.
Everybody's in the midst of sin. And we may spend a week, three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, just doing that. And if you're doing well and you see Jesus at work in your life, you see Jesus at work in your group, just grab a pastor sometime and just say, hey, I just want to let you know how this is working and how this is going. Grab Spencer at some point and say that to him, because that helps make this a joy. Spencer. Verse 17.
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. You are committing today to care for the souls of Mill City Church. This is one of the reasons why we do membership is that we want people to actually look and say, no, I commit to this. I believe in Jesus. I'm going to be here. I'm going to belong.
We don't know how it works. We know that as pastors, we're saying we're in charge of care for souls, eternal souls that will exist either in hell or in heaven with Christ and that one day we will stand before God and we will give an account. Not just for how we care for souls, but also the Bible tells us we have a stricter judgment for those who teach that we actually studied, that we actually tried, that we actually were as clear as we could on what the Bible says. But there's going to be a time, and I don't know if we get to go in together, I don't know if the four pastors of Mill City Church are going to stand shoulder to shoulder, I don't know if they're going to read off a list of names, I don't know how it's going to work, but we're going to stand before God and be accountable for souls.
Spencer, you're committing to that today, to have a moment in judgment that otherwise wouldn't exist, to have a moment in our judgment before God that wouldn't be there outside of accepting the call that you think he's placed on your life to do this. To stand before him and say, I wasn't just distracted, I wasn't just in it for gain, I wasn't just in it, but I was praying, and I was weeping, and I was trying, and I was studying, and I was pouring myself out. Because he knows. We can fake it in front of people, but he knows. That's what Peter says, one day the chief shepherd's going to show up, and we're going to be held accountable.
So that's what you're committing to in church family, that's what we're committing to. Turn to Acts chapter 20, it's one of my favorite passages in the Bible, it's where Paul calls together the Ephesians elders, so it's going to be back to the left. This is kind of some of the stories from the early church, after Christ had died on the cross, after he had risen from the grave, and the church had been commissioned and sent out into the world. So we're going to talk about the charge, kind of the commission or the task of a pastor. And yes, they were all three C's, because once you do two C's, you have to do a third one or you get in trouble.
So the charge, what we're called to do. So we're just going to read this passage, and we're going to make some observations about what this is supposed to look like. So verse 26, Paul's called together the elders of a church, the pastors of a church, he's going to call them elders, he's going to call them overseers. We said that's interchangeable. Verse 26. Therefore, I testify to you this day, that I am innocent of the blood of all.
For I did not shrink from declaring you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
So look back at the first thing that Paul says. He says, I'm innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. And so as we stand accountable for souls, what he's saying is that we, Paul says, I'm innocent because I read, studied, knew my Bible and proclaimed my Bible to everybody. I didn't shrink from even saying things that were unpopular or disliked. I proclaimed what was true. One of the most frustrating things, Spencer, is that we cannot help people repent.
We can't make them see it. We just get to say it. We just get to plead with people. We get to sit them down and say, this is what the Bible says. And this is where you're headed. And this is where destruction lies ahead for you.
And they don't see it. They don't believe it. Some of the stuff we tell people sounds crazy about marriage, about sexuality. Paul says he didn't shrink from it. He proclaimed it. And then he can walk away without having the blood of others hanging over his head.
So the first charge I would say for a pastor is that we would know our Bibles, love our Bibles, and proclaim from our Bibles. We would know it. We'd memorize it. We'd believe it. We'd trust it. In Paul's letters to Timothy, he says, I charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead by his appearing and his kingdom, which about as many things as Paul could think of, all the things you could charge someone by, he pulls them together and he says, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.
Then he says, until I come, this is in another passage, I devote yourself to the public readings of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. This is one of the ones that Spencer cited on us that said we had to publicly read scripture. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. We as pastors are supposed to grow in being Bible people. We're supposed to grow in it.
Progress should be seen. From what I understand, this is already true for Spencer. One of his first sermons he got to preach, he talked about the cross and repeated the phrase, gaze upon the carnage so many times that it made people very uncomfortable, but not in a good, here's the gospel way uncomfortable, just in a, you probably should stop saying that way uncomfortable. I'm sure there are more, but that's the one I wanted to talk about. But that this should be a thing that growth is seen, that we grow as men who love and trust our Bibles and proclaim our Bibles.
Because what else are we going to proclaim from? We do not have sufficient wisdom, but the Bible makes the simple wise. And there's our hope. Verse 28. So we would be Bible people.
Secondly, he says, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. So Spencer, you have to commit today to watch your own soul, to pay careful attention to your own sin, to your own proclivities, to your own desire for evil. And then pay careful attention for God's people, that you would love them, that you would care about them, know them, pray for them. They belong to Jesus. He purchased them with his blood. Then he says, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.
Therefore, be alert, remembering for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. So that today you commit yourself to a group of people that you might love, that you might proclaim the word of God to them, that you might weep for them. I remember when I was first doing some internships with Midtown Fellowship, the pastors there said that they felt like pastoring a lot of times was standing next to somebody on top of a roof saying, don't jump. Please don't jump. I can tell you how far it is down there. I can tell you what happens when you land.
I can tell you why jumping is a terrible idea. Please don't jump. And then watching them jump and then immediately saying, okay, I'll meet you at the bottom. That's what Paul says. I didn't cease to admonish with tears to correct, to say, don't do this. Please see your sin.
Please turn. Please love Jesus. Spencer, you're a sinner and you're not sufficient. For the weight of caring and caring for the souls of those who belong to Jesus. In order to kind of highlight how big of a sinner you are, we got your wife to do a video where she outlines some things. No, that would have been fun though.
You are not sufficient for the weight. And that's why Paul ends, as he's talking to them, he says this to them. We're going to end with it. I now commend you to God. So Paul's telling him he's not going to see him again.
And he says, I'm handing you over to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. That those who lead the church are sanctified the same way that everybody else is. They're saved the same way that everybody else is. That we trust that Jesus, through his grace, has accomplished for us what we could never accomplish. That we are sinners who need a savior and ought to be the first to proclaim them. So Spencer, as you take on the weight of shepherding among our church family and among this people for as long as God gives you the grace to do so, we commend you to God and to his grace that you might walk in it and that you might one day stand sanctified along the rest of our church family, trusting that Jesus has redeemed us from our sin and set us free and given us hope, which he is our hope, our only hope, that anything would be good.
That you will not save yourself through pastoring well, that you will not save yourself through people responding well to what you teach, that you will not save yourself through your family being proud of you, that you will not save yourself through how well you lead a group or how often it multiplies, that you will not save yourself by leading people to Christ, that you will be saved the same way that everybody else is saved through the blood of Jesus on your behalf as a sinner who had no other hope. At this time, I'd like to ask our other two pastors, Matt and Raz, to walk up and Spencer to come up as well. So we're going to read a few things that Spencer will respond to, and then we're going to read one that we as a church family will respond to, and I'll tell you when that's coming. Spencer, do you believe by God's grace in your life that you meet the qualifications laid out in Scripture for an elder and have not hidden sin in order to serve in this capacity?
Spencer, do you commit yourself to God's Word, to study it, meditate on it, cherish it, striving to mold your life to its instruction while actively seeking to train others to do the same? Spencer, do you commit yourself to keep a close watch on yourself and your sin, being quick to repent in an error? Spencer, do you commit to keep a close watch over Mill City Church, sacrificially loving and serving and leading those to whom God's Holy Spirit has seen fit to make you an overseer? And Spencer, have you committed your life to Jesus above all else, believing only in the gospel, not your good works or efforts or success in ministry for your salvation?
Okay, church family, this is ours, so if you are a member of Mill City Church, we're going to commit to the things we talked about earlier. So we're going to respond with, by God's grace we do. Church family, do we commit, under the authority of the Word of God, to submitting ourselves to Spencer's direction and seeking to make his time serving here one of joy? By God's grace we do. Spencer, by the grace through Jesus Christ that we have, we commission you to serve alongside of us as an elder of Mill City Church, as one of God's stewards over his beloved people, sacrificially loving, serving and leading those to whom he has assigned to us for as long as God, in his grace, allow us.
Please come stand here, we're going to lay hands on you, we're going to pray. God, we thank you for this moment, for what it means. We thank you for this man. We pray that you would bless him, that your Holy Spirit would be at work in him to do beyond his ability in loving and forgiving and repenting, that you'd help him to be quick to see his sin, that you'd help him to be quick to offer grace, that you would work through him to enable your Holy Spirit and his giftings to serve your church for as long as you see fit, that you might receive glory. In your name, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, and as we collectively gather as a church who belong to you, we appoint Spencer Carey as an elder in our church family to lead, to serve, to sacrifice, and to love.
And we pray that we collectively would respond well to him, that we collectively would serve well together to see more people come to know you in this city. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
That's good. Amen. invite you to in a moment as we stand and sing for you to come down the aisle, for you to take some bread, dip it, and partake in communion as we celebrate that Jesus has covered us, that his blood has redeemed us. If you have a gluten allergy, the metal tins are for you over here. Let's pray and then we'll sing and take communion.
God, we thank you for your grace on us as a church. We pray that you would multiply the efforts of our church in loving, serving, sacrificing, forgiving, and caring for one another and for this city, that you might be given great glory. We love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.
Noah Part II
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer Carey. I'm a pastor in training here with Mill City Church. We are in part two of Noah this week. We're in Genesis 8 and 9. Last week was a heavy week.
We walked through God pouring out His judgment in the flood on the earth. And this week is a big shift into redemption. It's going to feel like a big shift. Every now and then, my wife and I, right before we have friends come over, we decide that that is the time that we're going to have an argument. We just think, what an opportune moment, five minutes before our friends come in the door. And so it starts with a comment, and then it goes back and forth, and then we kind of have this look like, are we going to do this right now?
And then we do, and then it gets a little heated, and all of a sudden the doorbell rings. Or they knock on the door, and we invite them in, and they immediately realize, wait a second, we've just stepped into something. Mostly, mostly because my wife is not a poker player. Like, she's one of the ones I love her. She's one of the most genuine people I've ever met. What you see is what you get.
Like, sometimes she stumbles in on a Sunday morning, and everyone's like, is she okay? She looks mad. It's like, yeah, she is. She had to take two small children, put them in a car by herself this morning. One of them is an emotional three-year-old. And yes, she's not doing well, but she's here.
And our friends will walk in the door, and they'll realize that the mood is a little heavy, and we have to make the shift from, okay, we will settle this later. There's a lot of emotions still in this, but we'll deal with this later. Our friends are here. This is exciting. Let's eat a meal.
Let's hang out. Let's have fun. And that's kind of the shift that we're making this week. There's going to be some lingering kind of thoughts, some lingering discussions, some lingering emotions from last week, but it shifts really hard into hope. And that's where the text starts today. So as we walk through Genesis 8 and 9, we're going to see kind of four movements.
We're going to see God's redemption and restart. That's the first thing we're going to see, his redemptive work and the restart of creation. We're going to see, secondly, sin's cost. That God is going to remind them that sin still has a cost. Thirdly, we're going to see that sin still remains, that the flood didn't fix sin. And then lastly, we're going to see God's covenant of grace.
So let me pray, and then we'll jump into the text. Father, thank you so much for your word. God, I pray that you would help us be present this morning, that wherever we came in this morning, that you would help block everything out. Help us be present. Speak your word to us. In Jesus' name, amen.
All right, so we're in chapter 8, first five verses. It says, But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the water subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed. The rains in the heavens were restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days, the water had abated.
And in the seventh month, on the 17th day of the month, the ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat. And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month. And the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. So we see a hard shift right out the gate in the beginning of chapter 8 when it says, But God remembered Noah. That's the shift that happens. They've been in a season of waiting after seeing God's judgment poured out on the earth, and then God remembers.
That term that's used in Genesis and used throughout the Old Testament is a euphemism. It's a term that is used for, but God is going to fulfill His promise. He remembers what He had promised to Noah, that redemption is coming. We're going to see it show up again in Abraham, in the story of Abraham and Sarah. It is God remembering His promise. So, as hope enters this scene, there's some interesting language in this passage.
It says, And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the water subsided. So that phrase, And God made a wind blow over the earth, that is meant to catch your attention. That is meant to draw you back. In the same way that if I were to say, if I were to sing a song, which I won't do this morning, if I were to sing one line that said, She's got a smile, it seems to me, reminds me of childhood memories, for some of you, that's going to take you back to acid-washed jeans, and big hair, and where you were in the 80s when you got to listen to Guns and Roses. If I were to sing, I'm such a baby, yeah, the dolphins make me cry, that's going to take some of you back to where you were in the 90s, when you were listening to Hootie, when you got to listen to Crack Rearview Mirror, and the whole album, and just all of the 90s, it's going to draw you back.
If I were to say, I go on too many dates, but I can't make them stay, some of you are going to have some memories of how you had a cathartic experience with Taylor Swift, to get over your ex, right? Like, these phrases, these verses draw you back, and that is what the Bible does over and over again. And this is meant to draw you back to Genesis 1. Wind hovering over the earth, just as in Genesis 1, as we talked about last week, God's work was pulling the waters back in creation to make way for land. His judgment was releasing the waters to come back, and now God is recreating, going back to Genesis 1.
If you skip down to verse 15, it says this, Then God said to Noah, Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, birds and animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And hear this, That they may swarm on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. That is language that goes back to Genesis 1. The picture here is God is recreating. He is restarting in this new world as the waters are ceasing.
So then you go back to verse 4, and I love this, the detail here. It says, In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat, and the waters continued to abate until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. I love the detail that is in this passage. I mean, it's wordy. It's giving you specific time.
And then it doesn't just say generally where the ark rested. It says, In the mountains of Ararat. And I love this because the Bible isn't folklore. The Bible is history. It's telling a historical account of what happened. That's one of the reasons that C.S.
Lewis, when he was an atheist, had to come to terms with the Bible. He understood. He had a Ph.D. in folklore literature. And he goes, No, this is different. The Bible is actually presenting itself as history. It wasn't just somewhere.
It landed in the mountains of Ararat. That is northwestern Assyria in the kingdom. That's modern day, somewhere between Armenia and eastern Turkey. This is, I love the detail as it walks through this. This is historical retelling of this account. And then it gives us some more details.
It says in verse 6, At the end of forty days, Noah opened a window of the ark that he had made and he sent forth a raven. Now, we don't really have, from the text, we can't tell exactly why he sent out a raven. We just know that he did. But I had to think, because if you read on, the raven is sent out and it just doesn't come back, I like to think it was probably a little bit disappointing. He's, after a year of being on the ark, he sends out a raven and it just never comes back. They're getting ready for this restart.
And oftentimes, in life, when you restart, when you turn over a new leaf, some people will get, like a puppy, or they'll get a dog, or they'll get an animal. And I feel like the situation had to be like, if you were restarting and you went and you got a puppy from the store and you brought home the puppy and you put it out in the backyard and you're just so excited that you brought it home and then it sees an opening in the fence and it looks back at you and it looks at the fence and it bolts and it never comes back. Like, I feel like that, that's got to be a little bit disappointing. He sends out the raven, it never comes back.
And then the text picks back up and it picks up in verse 8 and it says, he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. So we get a little more detail here. The dove was sent out to see if the water had subsided. Now, a dove is an interesting choice. He could have chosen anything. He could have chosen an eagle or a falcon, but he chose a tiny dove to accomplish this mission.
And that is significant because in ancient Near Eastern culture, a dove represents purity. It represents cleanliness. So it's supposed to be drawing you in to this restart, this theme of a new creation. Now, it should be noted that there are contemporary, there's a contemporary story that is about as old as some of the writings of the Bible. It's called the Epic of Gilgamesh. Alright, so in the Epic of Gilgamesh, there's a, I know some of you love reading old Akkadian literature, but really quickly, let me just tell you what the Epic of Gilgamesh is about.
All kinds of things. And in the middle of, or towards the end of the Epic of Gilgamesh, there is a flood narrative. And it's very similar in some ways to this flood narrative. They sent out a raven, they sent out a dove and a swallow. And what skeptics will do is they'll say, see, this is all just blended stories. The Bible isn't true.
This is all just blended folklore together. Now, aside from the reasons we just stated, this is, this reads way differently than the Epic of Gilgamesh, that it's telling history. What, what, what I don't understand and what logic has been hijacked when it comes to this, is that that doesn't actually, that makes a better case for the Bible because when you have multiple stories that are drawing from the same thing, it's way more likely there is an original source material. And it's way more likely that it's pulling from, the Akkadian people actually came from Noah. So they're going to have glimpses of, of the story.
And what we are saying is the Bible speaks truthfully and this is the original source material and that the Epic of Gilgamesh is pulling from this. So for the three of you that love Akkadian literature, you're welcome. For the rest of you, you need to have a little bit of a working knowledge of how to answer skeptics when they come at you with stuff like this. So, in this story, he sends out a dove and two attempts it finally comes back. It comes back with an olive branch. An olive branch is also symbolic.
An olive branch in ancient Near Eastern culture, it symbolizes fertility and beauty. So all, if you are listening to this with ancient Near Eastern ears, what you are picking up on is that hope has come. The mood has shifted and that God is recreating the world. And you pick up in verse 19. It says, Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth went out by families from the ark. So after a year on the ark, they disembark.
They leave. And as they leave, the first thing the text tells us is that they need to be reminded that sin costs. That's God's first lesson when they get off the ark that sin costs. It picks up in verse 20. It says, Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings to the Lord. Now, as we talked about last week, they boarded one male, one female of all the animals, but they added some extra animals in chapter 7 for this purpose, for animal sacrifice to happen.
Now, it is easy for us to look at passages like this and to go, that's weird. For most of us, animal sacrifice is foreign to us. Some of you may spend Friday nights doing that, but I'd be willing to bet the majority of us say, no, this is actually pretty foreign from us. Now, it is easy for us to pass judgment on things that are so culturally distant from us. In college, I got to study abroad and some of my best friends on my study abroad trip were from New England and they were women and what would happen is we'd go travel together and I would open doors for them and they were thrown off by this.
They go, oh no, is that a power play? Is it because you're a man? I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Ha ha. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, animal sacrifice that you're going to see. And in the Old Testament law, it makes a system of it. And it does two things.
We look at it from the book of Hebrews and the New Testament back at the Old Testament. Firstly, animal sacrifice was meant to give a vivid display of what rebellion looks like. As we talked about last week and the week before, it is cosmic treason when you sin against God. You've sinned against the God of the universe and they needed a visual reminder that said, this is rebellion and this is the cost. It costs blood. And it was a grotesque, I mean, the whole process was gross because it's meant to show the grotesque nature of sin.
So it's a visual reminder of what rebellion looks like. But ultimately what it does is it points forward to the final sacrifice in Jesus, that he was the perfect sacrifice that came. So this is the early workings of what's happening here in the Old Testament and accomplishing those two things. And when Noah and his family get off of the ark, they need this lesson. It's been a year since they saw God's wrath poured out on the earth. They need to be reminded of God's judgment.
They need to be reminded of the cost of sin. They need to feel the weight of it. And then in verse 21, we see why. Picks up in verse 21, it says, and when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man. For the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever strike down every living creature as I have done.
So we mentioned this last week, that sin still remains. The flood did not fix the problem of sin. There is a sinful nature buried underneath the surface. Regularly at my house in my backyard, I have a war with weeds. Like my front yard is really thick, luscious grass. And the backyard is like five types of grass and other things.
And I mean, it's a regular battle for me. And I will go scorch earth on it. I will put roundup out and all of a sudden I'll see more weeds sprout up. I'll get intentional and I'll find them and I will pull them up individually and deroot them. And eventually a little bit longer, it'll pop back up. Because what's happening is underneath the surface, there's an entire root system that I have not pulled up from underneath the surface.
And that is so true of our sin. You can go scorched earth on it. You can have, you can change behaviors, you can change patterns, you can, you can spray roundup all over it and it still creeps up. You can go after root idols, which is something that we talk about regularly in our church. We tackle idols. The reason why that you sin is because there's idols beneath the surface.
There are things we worship in the place of God. So you don't just get angry. There's something underneath the surface. For me, one of my root idols is I have an idol of control. Like I want to be like God. And when things don't go my way, I get angry.
So regularly in my house, when my emotional three-year-old goes off the rails, I get angry. And what's being revealed there is a control issue that I want to control the behavior of my three-year-old. And I get angry. So it's good. I want to go to work on that root idol. But here's the deal.
Underneath the root is a whole sin nature. And it's important that we go after root idols. It's important that we address sin. But we need to have the understanding that ultimately, there's a sin nature underneath. And that is something we're going to have to continue to go to war with because we have inherited that all the way back to Noah, all the way back to Adam. It is underneath the surface.
And it shows up in a very vivid picture here. If you skip over to chapter 9, we're going to see the sinful nature show up first. Over in chapter 9, verse 18 and following. It says, The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah.
And from these people, the whole earth was dispersed. Noah began to be a man of the soil. He planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both of their shoulders, walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father.
Their faces were turned backward and they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants, shall he be to his brothers. And the story keeps going and he gives blessings to the other brothers. Now, in typical Genesis form, it gets weird. His story just, it just, it's a little bit weird. So as you walk through it, what you first see is that Noah, when he gets off the ark, he plants a vineyard, which is good.
If I was on the ark for the year, I probably would have planted a vineyard. And he harvests the grapes and then he makes wine. And then we see what happens. He twists the good gift that God has given him in wine and he gets wasted. He gets drunk and he passes out naked. In humiliating fashion, the sinful nature is on display.
So he passes out drunk, naked in his tent. And then the story gets a little bit weirder. His son Ham walks in, sees that he's naked. And then the text tells us he walks out and he talks to his brothers. His brothers, they walk in, they take a covering, they make sure they don't see him, they cover him up and they don't look at him and they walk back out. And then after this, Noah wakes up and Noah gets angry and he curses the line of Ham, which is Canaan.
And that's why it mentions the father of Canaan multiple times in this passage, that the Canaanites who will come from Ham, if you read the rest of the Old Testament, they end up being the enemies of God. And you read this and you're like, what in the world is going on? That seems like it might be a little bit of an overreaction. What is happening here? Commentators have looked at this for a very long time to figure out what's happening. And here's one thing that is clear from this passage, that the actions of Ham were dishonoring.
They were dishonoring towards his father. We don't know if he was making fun of him, if he was joking, if he came out. We don't know if he was just making a mockery of his father. We can tell from the text that his brothers take a completely different approach. They go out of their way to make sure they walk backwards, that they don't look at their father, that they cover him up, they cover up his shame, and then they walk out. So we don't know the full extent of what happens, but we do know from the context that what they did was dishonoring towards, that what he did was dishonoring towards his father.
And that is significant. You see, we read that and we don't think it's that big of a deal because we are so far removed from what the Bible teaches on honoring your parents. Some of us, if our father passed out naked, we would probably take pictures. We would make light of it. And that's just the reality. Because we don't have an honor culture when it comes to honoring our parents.
And the Bible takes a way different tone. From Old Testament to New, it is a big deal to dishonor your parents. It's a huge deal. And we don't take that seriously. We make all kinds of excuses why we shouldn't do that. Well, that's not that big of a deal.
That maybe our parents don't deserve it. That we didn't, maybe they weren't the greatest parents in the world. So, I don't want to make light of that. I would encourage you, if you are struggling with that concept, to honor your parents. We did preach on this, this spring. We walked through Ephesians 6.
Chet walked through this. And I would encourage you to go back and listen to it because it is a very significant sin that the Bible takes very seriously, that you are called to honor your parents. So, there are two big sins that come out of this story. Noah's drunkenness, Ham's dishonoring of his parents. And what we see here is the flood did not fix sin. That sinful nature is still on display.
It is going to take more than a flood to fix the problem of sin. And that is what is pointed to in the last part of this story. We see God's covenant of grace. It picks up in verse 11 of chapter 9. I establish my covenant with you. This is God talking.
That never again shall any flesh be cut off from the waters and from the flood, the waters of the flood. And never again shall there be any flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations. I have set my bow in the cloud and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring the clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth. So God establishes a covenant and then he gives a sign for the covenant, which is helpful. And we still have this today. The most comparative thing we have for us today is marriage. Yesterday in our church family, I got to perform a wedding ceremony and there were rings that were exchanged.
And the ring is significant because what the ring says is that I have covenanted to have life together, to be one flesh with somebody else. And that is the sign of it. Years ago, when I got married, I chose this ring that was bigger and that was gold for two reasons. I like the classic look. I think graphite was pretty big at the time. But more importantly, I wanted something that was big that would stand out because I want people to see that, no, I belong to somebody, that I've covenanted to life together with my wife.
And it came in handy in the first year of our marriage. I worked at a coffee shop and and there's there's a few times that that women would come up and they would be flirting and they'd start to hit on me. And what I love to do is I would take my hand from behind the bar and I'd say, oh, that's great. And I would just twist my ring. And eventually they got the message. And what I've learned is and what I've noticed is that over the years, as I've gotten older, that girls are a lot better at noticing this.
They haven't been hit on in years because they're really good at really good at picking up on that. It's a sign of the covenant that I have in marriage and God establishes a covenant and he gives a sign for it, a sign that they would remember. Now, covenant relationships by nature are relationships of favor. We're going to get into that more in Abraham and the covenant that he makes coming up in the next month. But is God specifically looking at another party and finding favor on that specific party?
And that God's covenants, what he covenants here in this passage is that he's never going to destroy the earth again by flood. That is not what he is going to do. And it's not just a covenant that he makes with Noah. He makes it with Noah, all future generations, all living creatures, everyone. And the sign of the covenant is a rainbow. It says in verse 16, when the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.
I personally, I love the symbol here. I love that God shows the rainbow to teach us grace. That after the storms, that after the darkness, that after everything they had been through, God puts a rainbow in the sky. And what the rainbow gets to be is it gets to be the backdrop of God's grace. Because here's the deal. You don't find a rainbow on a sunny day.
That's not typically how it works. You find a rainbow after a storm has passed through. And what's happening in this text is that ultimately the rainbow, it points forward to Christ. The word for rainbow here, for bow in this passage, is also the same word that is used for a battle bow in the Hebrew. And what is being said here, and Charles Spurgeon, the pastor from the 19th century, he makes this point, that ultimately the rainbow points to Christ, that a rainbow itself is pointed upward. And what he is making the point is, is that it's pointing up to the one who is going to come down and actually accomplish the problem of sin.
He makes this point, he says, God's rainbow is hung over the cloud of our sins, our sorrow, and our woes to prophesy deliverance. And that deliverance of the battle bow that the rainbow was pointing to is the cross. That is where the battle with sin and evil is going to be won. But as we talked about last week, on the cross, Jesus takes the flood. He takes the flood of God's wrath that is poured out on him, and that we get the ark. And that Noah gets the ark, that like Noah, we get and receive grace.
Tim Keller, another pastor, he puts it this way. He says, on the cross, the storm of eternal justice and the son of God's love comes together. And that's why you have a rainbow. And every time you look into the heart of the storm and you see the rainbow of grace, you see that's where Jesus went. He went into the heart of the storm so that we could get the rainbow, so that we could get grace. And that's the reality, that never do you see God's grace at work without seeing your sin, without seeing grace as the backdrop to the storm.
Some of you came into here in a lot of different places. Maybe some of you are in a season that is really dark. Maybe some of you are in a season where you are tempted by unbelief. Like you've been coming, you've been preaching the gospel to yourself, you've been trying to be in community group, and it's been really difficult. You are just tempted by unbelief. You're like, what is the point?
This season is so dark. I don't know if I'm going to get to the other side. Maybe some of you, it is hard for you right now to talk to God. Like you want to pray, but you are just tempted by believing, does he even care? Is he even listening? Is this even worth it?
Maybe some of you in a really dark season of temptation with sin, that in the darkest parts of the night, in the darkest parts of your soul, you are tempted, whether it's lust, whether it's pride, whether it's bitterness, that sin is crouching at the door. And in this dark season, it is hard for you to see through the other side. Maybe some of you are just generally struggling through depression, that there's this physical darkness that is weighing over you, and it is hard for you to see hope on the other side. The reality is that in seasons, we will come into seasons of darkness, seasons of trials, season of storms, seasons of hopelessness.
And what God is trying to say to you through this story, like a father who looks at his child and with a child whose head is just looking down, he's looking at you and he says, pick up your head. Do you see it? Do you see the rainbow? I know it is hard, but do you see grace? It's behind the storm. In this season, it is difficult, but my grace is still sufficient.
My grace is still there. You don't have to earn my favor. I'm here. I gave you faith. I will carry it through to completion, and I'm not going anywhere. You have to trust me in this season.
We will get to the other side. My grace still remains. Do you see it? That's the hope that we have in this story, that in a season of darkness, you can look past the storm and you can see God's grace, that his redemption is there. And that is the hope that we have in the gospel.
Noah Part I
Transcript
So if you have a Bible, you can go ahead and flip there. If you don't have a Bible, there should be a blue one nearby. If you don't have a Bible at home, please take that. That is our gift to you. In the blue Bibles, it will be page three. My wife and I, we have in movies a guilty pleasure.
We love disaster movies. So like 2012, Day After Tomorrow, classics. We love it. The more over the top, the more ridiculous it can get, we're all about it. There was a movie that came out this year called Geostorm about a satellite system that made the weather turn on the whole globe. And it was amazing.
It was way over the top. It was ridiculous. And we love it. We love movies like that. I feel like we're not alone because America watches them because they keep making them. And I feel like one of the reasons why that we can enjoy those kind of disaster movies is because we are so far removed from the subject matter.
And if we are face-to-face with an actual disaster, we wouldn't be able to enjoy it. We don't appreciate the full kind of horror of the event until we're up close with it. And I feel like that we have done that a little bit with the story of Noah. That we've distanced ourselves from the story. And because of that, we don't want to stare at it. We don't want to wade into it and understand it.
We want to distance ourselves because it's a little bit scary and it deals with the judgment of God. And I think this happens at a very young age. That if you grew up in the church, if you grew up around church, if you had any type of Christian church background, at a young age, you heard this story told as kind of a cute tale with cute pictures. And everyone was kind of happy. Now, I looked at the internet and I found some pictures that I think captured this. I just got three of them.
There's thousands of them for children's ministry. This is the classic Noah selfie. And everyone's happy. Noah's happy. The animals are happy. If this is after the flood, it's severely inappropriate.
But everyone, this is kind of like, this is kind of the pictures you get. Everyone's really happy. I found another one. This one's called Noah's Ark. The white, clean storybook. It has a heavy sense of irony in the title.
That they would make a white, clean storybook to tell the story of Noah. If you didn't get it, it'll come in a second. It's ironic. It's a little bit dark. This third one is classic funny picture you get out of Noah. You got Noah.
He's taking a shower, having a good old time. His wife's doing the laundry. You got some animals that are fishing. There's a nice Titanic moment happening up front. And there are tons, there are tons and tons of pictures that are just like this. That kind of reduce Noah to this cute story.
And that is so far removed from what it actually is. We are uncomfortable with this story. And we have sanitized it. We've sanitized the judgment of it. We've sanitized the horror of it. And that's not the way this story is meant to be read.
It's not a cute story. It is a story that is meant to shock you. It is a story that shows the judgment of God. Now this story today is going to be really heavy. We're in part one of the story and the flood. There's going to be a silver lining of redemption that we'll see at the end.
And it will be more as we focus on next week. But this week is heavy. And as we work through the flood story, there's four things we're going to see. We're going to see the corruption of man, which is how we got to this scene. We're going to see God's sorrow over man's sin. We're going to see that followed by God's response to sin, which is judgment.
And then we're going to see God's promise of redemption kept. So today is going to be heavy. But the more that we weighed into this story, the more that we understand it, the better the redemption is that we have in Jesus. So I'm going to pray, and then we're going to dive in. God, thank you so much for your word, even when it is difficult to read, even when it's difficult to understand and absorb. God, I pray that today that we would be present, that if we immediately are opposed to this story, that we would be willing to listen and that you would speak to us.
In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so we are working through Genesis, which means as you work through Genesis, there's going to be these landmines that just pop up. We could avoid them, but that would be avoiding whole sections of the Bible. We're not going to do that. So before we even get to Noah, there's a setup.
And within the setup that gets to Noah, there's a couple landmines. The first one is found in the genealogy in Genesis 5. Genesis 5 is a genealogy, and like most genealogies, this is where your annual Bible reading plans go to die. I mean, they can be really long. They can be kind of boring. But there's actually some good stuff in this genealogy.
And I just want to read the first three verses. I'm not going to read the whole chapter. I just want to get the first three verses to get a feel for what's happening in this genealogy. Start us out in verse 1. This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.
Male and female, he created them. And he blessed them and named them man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. Now, if you read that, and then you keep reading, you're going to, if you are naturally skeptical, you're going to raise your hand, and you're going to wonder, wait a second, he had a kid at 130 years old, and then it says that he died at 930 years old, and that Methuselah, another character, died at 969 years old. So if you are naturally skeptical, or you're just inquisitive, you're going to raise your hand, you're going to be like, what is your Bible saying?
Are you serious? The Bible is serious. All right? There's two ways to explain this. Chet hinted at one of them last week. There are some theories that help explain why people live so long early on in the Bible.
The first theory, and Chet hinted at this last week, is that early on in the gene pool, the original design for man was that man would not be corrupted by, that man would live forever, and they were not corrupted by sin. So they were created to live forever, and then slowly, as sin started to wade through the gene pools, it started to corrupt man, slowly, you see lifespans, they start to get to where they are today. Now that's a theory, and there's a couple of them that are like that, but here's the more important way of understanding this. When you come to situations like this in the Bible, time and time again, you're going to wonder what is happening, because we live in a world with a natural worldview.
And you're going to see stuff that happens, it's outside of that natural worldview, it's outside, and it's supernatural. The Bible does this over and over again. Our whole faith hinges on the fact that God became man by way of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died the death on the cross, was dead and buried, and raised from the grave, and then floated into heaven at the ascension. That doesn't happen in everyday life. It's outside of the natural. And over and over again, you're going to see in the Bible that there are situations that go outside the natural, and this is one of them.
That early on, this is God's design. And while it is foreign to us, the Bible speaks truthfully. So if you work through that landmine, then you can actually start to see a little bit of what's happening in this genealogy. I'll just make a few quick points on Genesis 5. Firstly, the fact that in all genealogies, people are named show that God cares about our story. That each of these individuals has a story.
That God values humanity. Even in this genealogy, in the front end, it says, he links it to these people that descended from Adam being made in the image of God. Showing that each of them has value. Each of them has worth. God values humanity. What you see after this as well is that each one of these people died.
And it shows, genealogies show the effect of sin. That death is present. Everyone dies. The third thing that we can see about this genealogy is that this is the line of Seth. This is the line of Seth that God has chosen through Seth to bring the seed of Eve, the rescuer, Jesus, who will come. And through Seth, we get to Noah.
So we're about to start. We're in chapter 6. We're about to start Noah. And then the second landmine shows up in chapter 6 in the first four verses. It says, When man began to multiply on the face of the lamb, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took them as their wives, any they chose. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh.
His days shall be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days. And also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. Now, for thousands of years, believers have looked at this and said, What in the world is going on? Why is this story even here?
It is very hard to understand. There are two prevailing theories, two prevailing interpretations that have come out of this text over the last few thousand years. And it deals with, Who are the sons of God? Who are the sons of God? The first view, and this is the more historic view, is that the sons of God in this passage refer to angels. That angels came down, and laid with the daughters of men, and had children.
Yes. Genesis got weird. Alright, that's the first view. And we see that in the Old Testament, you look in the book of Job, you look at the book of Daniel, that the sons of God is how it refers to angels in those passages. So there's some textual way to that actually being true.
That angels came down, and lay with women, and they had children. The second view, is that this is simply the line of Seth. That the line of Seth, these are different from the line of Cana. They came, and this seems to be, on its face, sexual sin. So something was happening here, that was not good.
And that view kind of avoids the weirdness of what, of the first view. But honestly, there's no need to avoid the weirdness, because of what follows next. Because of who the children that they actually had, were called. They were called the Nephilim. The Nephilim is an English word, that went from Latin to Greek, back to Hebrew. And all it means, is giants.
Very large peoples. So they had these children, and they were giants. They were the mighty men of old. And it gets weirder. So I'm like, I don't think you need to avoid, the view of this being weird, because it already is weird.
And I think that, I lean towards, I don't go hard on this, but I lean towards, the historic view, that this is referring to angels. Angels came down, committed sexual sin with humans, and produced giant people. And that gets, you read that, and you're like, that, okay, what's going on here? Here's the point. Why was this even here, in the first place? This is here to show, that the world has gone off the rails.
This is not the way, it is supposed to be. We just saw, in chapter 4, how the world has been ruined by violence. And now we see sexual sin, is all over the world at this point. This is not the way, it is supposed to be. The world has gone off the rails. Corruption has spread everywhere.
And that is the lead in, to Noah. So we're going to be in verses 5 through 8, of chapter 6, for a little bit. This is kind of a header, that explains the whole story, as a whole. And we're going to work through it, starting in verse 5. The Lord saw the wickedness of man, was great in the earth. And that every intention, of the thoughts of his heart, was only evil continually.
That every intention, of the thoughts of his heart, was only evil continually. That's the picture of humanity. It's not just a few bad apples. The whole tree, is rotten down the roots. Every thought and intention, of the heart, is corrupted by evil. And that is why, there's rampant violence, that's why there's rampant, sexual sin.
Now you might think, that's being, is that being overstated? Like every single thought, every intention of the heart, is that hyperbole? And I would say, I don't think so. Think about your own thoughts. How quickly, do good thoughts, get corrupted, and turn to bad? How quickly, in a situation, like maybe you have a friend, or someone in our church family, they get a job promotion, or they get, they level up in a new tax bracket.
And our, our, our Jesus-centered response is, I am so thankful, that God has provided for them. How quickly, does that turn to, but what about me? God, why haven't I moved up? How did I get passed over, for the promotion? How quickly, do we turn, to jealousy? This happens with kids.
You might have, kids, and if you have children, there's always going to be children, that are better at, whether it's grades, your kids might make, good grades, that your friends' kids, will probably make, better grades. Your kid might be good at sports, your kid, their, your friends' kids, are going to be, better at sports. And we get, we go from, celebrating our friends, and their families, and what's going on, to like, moving into a Tanya Harding mode, that we want to take out, other children. Our kid has got to be the best. Our kid's going to advance. Everyone move out of the way.
We do this with lust. You can't just notice, that somebody is beautiful, or somebody is handsome. It quickly goes from that, to I wonder what's underneath. I wonder what it's like, to be with them. We do this with, so many thoughts, that we think are pure. They are actually, there's sin attached to them.
That we are corrupt. And the picture of humanity here, is it is corrupt. It is rotten to the core. And this grieves God. It grieves God. We pick up in verse 6.
It says, And the Lord regretted, that he had made man, on the earth. And it grieved him, to his heart. He regretted, that he made man, and it grieved him. This reminds me, there's a, there's a movie called, American History X. It came out in the late 90's. It was Edward Norton's, big breakout film.
And, and it's about, a guy who grows up, and as, at an early age, he starts getting exposed, to racism, and to prejudice. And, it starts to grow in him, like a cancer. And then eventually, he starts, he gets introduced, to neo-Nazism. He starts to learn more, about that. And the cancer starts to spread. And he starts to, adopt neo-Nazi views.
He eventually gets, a swastika tattoo. And then it goes, so far down the line, that he's a, he's a full, fledged neo-Nazi, that he commits, a hate crime. And in the midst, of his downward spiral, in the midst of this cancer, growing within him, his mother, is watching this happen. And this isn't, the son that she raised. This isn't, who she brought, into this world. And he slowly, starts to get corrupted.
And finally, there's this scene, in the movie, where everything, is unraveling. They had this huge argument. And in the midst, of her grief, she says, I am ashamed, that you came, out of my body. And that is so, picturesque, of what is happening, here in Genesis. That the cancer, of sin has spread. It has corrupted man, so deeply, that God, regrets that he, even made man.
Man who he placed, his image in. That he placed, value and worth, and beauty, and goodness in. Has taken that good gift, and has corrupted it. And corrupted the rest, of creation. That he regrets it. And it also says, that it grieved him, to his heart.
And that might seem, foreign to some of us. Because some of us, grow up with this world view, that God is this, distant deity, in the sky. That he doesn't have emotions, that he isn't really involved, that he doesn't really care. And that is so, far from the view, that we have in the scriptures. That God is intimately involved, that he deeply cares, and he has emotions. And that he is grieved, by our sin.
He is grieved by, the corruption, of humanity. And that grief, is followed up by, a picture of judgment. That follows in verse 7 and 8. So the Lord said, I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the land. Man, and animals, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens. For I am sorry, that I have made them.
But Noah found favor, in the eyes of the Lord. Now for the rest of our time, the rest of this story, these are the two pictures. A picture of judgment, and a picture of redemption. And we'll get more, to the picture of redemption, next week. The rest of our story, mostly sits in, this picture of judgment. Which is something, that our culture, is greatly, they're greatly against.
We naturally, just don't, we don't like, the idea of judgment. In this story, there's two things, that stick out, that our culture, is very much opposed to. The first one, is that, he Judges all of creation. It's not just humanity. He Judges, everything. And that animals, go down with the flood.
That is something, that our culture has, a problem with. But the bigger problem, that our culture has, is that God, that God would judge sinners. That he would bring judgment, on humanity. I'll tackle that first one, fairly quickly. I don't have a lot of time, to spend on it. The reason why, God Judges all of creation, including the animals, is because God has given humanity, dominion over animals.
And that our actions, affect everything. And the same way, that nowadays, corporate greed, can affect, drinking water, and rivers, that has for the last, hundred years, our actions, on this world, affect all of creation, because God has given, that to us. So that when God, is going to wipe clean, the earth, he's going to wipe clean, everything, and start fresh. Everyone gets, the judgment. The second cultural objection, that we have, and this is natural to us, in our culture, is that we don't like, the idea that God Judges, sinners. We don't like the God, we don't like the idea of judgment, period.
And this is mostly, I would say, hear this, it's mostly a western objection, that us as westerners, are the ones who mostly, have a problem with God, being a judge. And I would even argue, and push a little farther, it's mostly white westerners, that have a problem, with judgment. And the reason why, is because we are, largely, shielded from injustice. That we have, as a culture, really experienced, the kind of injustice, that the rest of the world does. Because when the rest of the world, comes across, pictures of judgment, like in, in cultures, where towns, and villages, where there are people that come in, the government doesn't stop them, and they come and take away children, and sell them into slavery, they come and kill people, they read passages like this, they read the judgment of God, not as something, that they don't like, but as a comfort.
Because it is comforting, that God checks sin, that He Judges, those who do evil. So it's a natural objection, that we have, that the rest of the world, just doesn't have, that God Judges sinners. Now I think there's a part of us, that really gets on board with this. I think that, being part of, being made in the image of God, there's a little bit in us, that has an objection, or at least has, that at least supports, God judging sin. I think for mostly, the one sin in our culture, that people are on board with, that should be judged, is murder. Currently there's a case, in Colorado, where it looks like, it's alleged, but it looks like a guy, killed his wife, his pregnant wife, and then also killed, his two daughters.
And as this case, is starting to get momentum, people are getting enraged. There's a part of them, that wants justice. And that comes from, being made in the image of God. That if you actually, don't believe in God, there's not really a grounds, for justice, it's survival of the fittest. But in this, in this, this aspect, that we're made, in the image of God, that has not been, stamped out by our culture, we actually, want justice to happen.
The problem is, is we just limit it to that. We just take murder seriously, we don't take, everything else seriously. We largely don't take, sin as a whole, seriously. But God does. Because sin, corrupts. It corrupts our relationship, with God, it corrupts one another.
Take jealousy, and envy, that I talked about earlier. When you are envious, of your neighbor, what you have done, in those moments, is you have questioned, the goodness of God. God has provided for us, richly, he has given us life. And what you are saying is, what you've given me, is not enough. So much so, that I'm, I'm angered with you, and I am jealous of my neighbor.
And there's hatred towards God, and there's hatred towards neighbor, in that moment. And God does not take that lightly. That corruption spreads, in often really, evil ways. That lust is a big deal. Because what you were doing, when you were lusting, is that you were saying, God, you don't satisfy enough. Union with you, is not enough.
I need someone else. Or maybe you're married, and it's like, the spouse you've given me, she's not enough. He's not enough. I want to unite myself, with someone else. We do this over, and over, and over again. If you actually look at, the sin that is deep within us, and you follow, and trace it out, there is corruption everywhere, against God, and against man.
And God is not indifferent towards that. But in those moments, we have to see that we are, committing cosmic treason, as Chet said last week. We are sinning against, a holy and perfect king. And sin has to be, paid for. And that is where, this picture of judgment comes from. Picks up in verse 11, of chapter 6, says, Now the earth was corrupt, in God's sight.
And the earth was filled, with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh, had corrupted their way, on the earth. And God said to Noah, I am determined, to make an end, of all flesh. For the earth is filled, with violence through them. Let's pause for a second.
I've been thinking, through this. This is an undeveloped thought, so I'm not hanging, a ton of stuff on this. The more I have read Genesis, and the more that I'm studying it, this time around, the more I'm starting to realize, God hates violence. Hates it. And it shows up here, and it shows up throughout, the Old Testament. I don't have anything, to hang that on right now.
I don't have a complete thought, on that. I'm just noticing, that he hates it. And that I'm trying to, I'm trying to, as I'm studying this, and I hope as a church family, we can do the same thing, and looking at this, and seeing the implications of that, and what stirs in us, that we might, what stirs violence in us, what isn't good. I think that's something, that we should wait into. Like I said, not a complete thought, I just want you to feel the weight, of what the text is actually saying. He says, behold, I will destroy them, with the earth.
You skip down to verse 17. He says, for behold, I will bring a flood of waters, upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, in which is the breath of life, under heaven. Everything, that is on the earth, shall die. So he makes this pronouncement, and then he tells Noah, to build an ark. An ark, is a giant ship. This is going to weather the floods, that are coming.
And the picture of judgment, that is happening here, is a reversal, of what happened at creation. That in Genesis 1, God pulls back the waters, and land appears. And what he is doing is, is he's releasing the waters, and bringing judgment on the earth. And when this comes, he wants Noah to be ready. So Noah builds an ark.
And he gives the rest of chapter 6, some instructions, on how to build this ark, in measurements that we understand. It's about 510 feet long. It's 51 feet tall. It's 84 feet wide. It's going to be three decks. He tells them specifically, make it out of gopher wood.
We don't know what gopher wood is, but it was good enough for the ship. Then he tells them, that Noah and his wife, and his sons, and their wives, their family, can board this ark. And then he has a plan, to preserve animal lines. He says in 619, and every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort, in the ark, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. So he tells them, take one male, one female of every animal, and they're going to, board the ark with you.
In chapter 7, we get some additional instructions, where he's going to give some extra animals, they can use, because they're going to have, some sacrifice that happens, when they get off the ark. But we'll cover that, next week. Then he tells them, to store as much food, as you're going to need, because you're going to be on this, ark for quite a while. They're on the ark, for about a year. And then it's time. Picks up, and chapter 6 ends, with Noah did this, he did all the Lord commanded him, and then we skip to chapter 7, verse 11.
It says, In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day of that month, on that day, all the fountains of the great deep, burst forth. So all the aquifers, all the water underneath, it burst forth. And the windows of the heavens were opened, and rain fell upon the earth, for forty days, and for forty nights. As the waters underneath, come forth, the waters above, fall. And this is the part of the story, that gets sanitized. This is the part of the story, that we don't want to stare at, that we don't want, we want to ignore.
It is not a happy, and cute picture. It is a picture, of God's judgment, being poured out, on the earth. It is one of the scariest, and saddest moments, of the entire history of the world. It is meant to, it is meant to shock you, at God's wrath being poured out, on the earth. That for forty days, and for forty nights, God drowns the earth, in judgment. And then chapter seven, just ends.
It says, only Noah was left, and those who were with him, on the ark. And the waters prevailed, on the earth, a hundred and fifty days. And it just has, a bleak ending, to part one of the story. It is descriptive, and it is painful. It's a painful picture, of God's judgment. And there's probably, a lot of questions, that are swirling, as you read this.
But I think, there's one question, in particular, that rises to the top. And that is, why Noah? Why was Noah chosen? Why did he, and his family, get to board the ark? The text, answers this, in part, we see it later, answered in full. It says, in chapter six, verse eight, that, but Noah found favor, in the eyes of the Lord.
These are the generations, of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked, with God. And some have looked at this, and they have taken this, to say, well, Noah must have been, the good God. He must have been, the good God. The rest of the world, was evil.
The text says, that he was righteous, that he was blameless. And on its surface, you might get that, but the more, that you dig in this, you see, that's actually not the case. That's not the full picture, of what's happening here. Because Noah was a sinner. Noah, we're going to see that clearly, in the second half of the story, next week. Noah, was a sinner.
Noah, deserved judgment. So why, did Noah get chosen? Why was Noah spared? And the answer that we get, in the Bible, is by grace, through faith. Noah, Noah, was chosen, by grace, through faith. Hebrews 11, 7 says, by faith, this is the New Testament, looking back, by faith, Noah, being warned by God, concerning events, as yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an ark, for the saving, of his household.
Faith, is what set Noah apart. He trusted God, and it was God's grace, in him, and through him, that ultimately, saved him. That ultimately, Noah finds, unmerited favor. He didn't earn this favor. God, shows him favor, that he did not earn. Faith in him, through God, is what saves him.
And this isn't just good news, because it preserves, the seed of Eve, it preserves the line of Jesus, who will come and save the whole world. That is good news. We will talk more about that next week. It is good news for us, right now, because you, and me, everyone in this room, and everyone who's ever lived, we're in the same boat, as Noah. Noah, we deserve God's wrath. We deserve the flood.
But because of Jesus, we get the ark. Jesus became our ark. And the idea that we deserve wrath, that's for some of you, that's going to be frustrating. You might ask the question, why do we deserve wrath? And it's because we have the same picture of humanity, that is true for them, and their time for us. When it says that the Lord saw, that the wickedness of man, was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart, was only evil continually, that is us.
That did not stop at Noah. That continues through. We see this next week, as we'll cover it in chapter 8. After they get off the ark, this is what God says. He says, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart, is evil from his youth. That post-flood, this is still true.
We are still corrupted. You see that in the Psalms, when David picks up on this, he says, for there is no truth in their mouth, their inmost self is destruction, their throat is an open grave, they flatter with their tongue. We see this in the New Testament, when Jesus is teaching, on the Sermon on the Mount, when he says, for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander, over and over and over again. We see throughout the whole Bible, that because of Adam and Eve, because they sinned against God, they brought corruption into this world, and we inherit that corruption.
We inherit that nature. It is what we do. It is the reason why, when football started yesterday, that we can't just enjoy the good gift of football, that it has given us. No, we have to actually elevate it to an idol, and worship it. It's the reason why, we can't be happy for others, we get to be, we move into being quickly envious. It's the reason why, that when you get slighted, you want to retaliate immediately, whether it's on Facebook, or it's with your fist, because we are naturally children of violence.
We inherit this sinful nature. It is what we do. We inherit corruption, and that costs two things. We see that it costs God grief, that God grieves over our corruption, and that's not just a Noah's time thing, that's even for the people of God, that somehow, mysteriously, God can look at us, those of us who are in Christ, and see the perfect record of Jesus. We don't have to earn His favor. He can look at us and see Christ, and at the same time, He can look at the church, and in Ephesians 4 say, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
That our sin, emotionally, affects God, still. It costs God grief. Ultimately, it costs judgment. Our sin, costs judgment. Somebody has to foot the bill. And the good news, of Jesus, is that the finished work, of Jesus on the cross, means that we, we get, through faith in Christ, that undeserved favor.
That we, deserve, I want you to feel this, we deserve the flood. That's what we, that's what we deserve, because of our sin, we deserve the flood, of God's wrath, poured out on us. But Jesus, goes to the cross, and He has the full cup, of God's wrath, poured out on Him. And, through His death, and conquering death, through the resurrection, we, get life. We get the ark. That's what 1st Peter, he plays on this picture, and relating to baptism, in 1st Peter 3.
He talks about baptism, and comparing it back to Noah. That because of what Jesus, has done for us, in conquering death, we pass through the ark, safely from death, into life. In about a month, we're going to celebrate baptisms. This is going to be a picture, of people who are dead in sin, and are alive in Christ. And the picture is, is that we were spared, we get the ark, we get Jesus, and we get life with Him. So as we sit in this story, I know it's uncomfortable.
And as we discuss this in groups, I know it's not, this is going to be challenging. But if you are in Christ, you get this picture. You deserve judgment, you get mercy. We deserve wrath, we get the ark. Band's going to come up. I don't want us, to just walk away from this, I want us to sit in it.
And I want you to hear this, that if you, if you are not a Christian, meaning that you have, maybe you've been around church, maybe you've been connected, maybe you've been coming, but you have not given your life, completely over to God. It is Jesus plus the world, it is Jesus plus something else. If that is you, I want you to hear this story. It's uncomfortable, but it's real. He's not going to destroy the earth, with water again, but wrath is coming. And we need to feel that.
And the good news of the gospel, is that we had, the God of the universe, who took on flesh, who came to take that wrath for us. And our plea for you, as a church, is that you would choose the ark. And that you would, have your life hidden in Christ. That you would believe in him, that you would lay down your life. And that you would get to experience, the goodness of the gospel, in Jesus. That is our hope.
If you are a Christian, I want this story to sober us. I want us to feel the weight, of the judgment, because I want us to feel, the weight of our own sin. Because I feel like, some of us get into a mode, of not taking our own sin, seriously. We don't think it's that big of a deal. And the reality is, that sin is a very big deal. But also, so is grace.
So is his mercy, that we get to lean into. And that's what we celebrate, with the Lord's Supper. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread, and he broke it. And he said, this is my body, that was broken for you. He took the cup, which is the cup of the new covenant. And he said, this is my blood shed for you.
He said, as often as you eat, and drink this, you proclaim my death, until I return. So Christian, in this moment, I want you, as the music is playing, just to sit for a moment. I want you to reflect, on the seriousness of our sin.
Cain and Abel
Transcript
Good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. I want to talk a little bit about H.G. Wells before we get started today. We're walking through the book of Genesis together, and I think this helps us kind of set up our time today.
H.G. Wells was an author who was born in the late 1800s, lived through half of the 1900s, and he wrote a lot of science fiction. He actually kind of envisioned in his writing airplanes, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television, and something resembling the World Wide Web. I don't know what that something was. I got that from Wikipedia, just trying to give you all background on H.G. Wells.
But he would always write about like a utopian future when he would write science fiction. We always got bigger and better and more wonderful and more amazing. And so this is a quote from his book. He wrote histories as well and kind of social commentary. And this is in a short history of the world. He wrote this in 1937.
Again, he lived in England. He wrote this. He said, Can we doubt that can we doubt that presently our race will more than realize our boldest imaginations, that it will achieve unity and peace, and that our children will live in a world made more splendid and lovely than any palace or garden that we know, going on from strength to strength in an ever-widening circle of achievement? What man has done? The little triumphs of his present state form the prelude to the things that man has yet to do. So he's saying he's looking at the world, he's looking at history, and he's saying, Isn't it just going to get better and better and better and more beautiful?
And the gardens and palaces we know now are nothing compared to where all of our children will live in the future. Now, if you're a student of history, you know that living in England in 1937, this wasn't about to be realized. World War II was about to plunge the world into conflict and pain and strife. And so this is a quote from his book that he wrote in 1946, which is the same year that he died, called A Mind at the End of Its Tether. And a tether is like a leash. So he's saying he's at the end of his rope.
He's about to become completely unhinged. And he says this, So in less than 10 years, this idea that everything would go on from beauty to beauty, and everything would get more wonderful. He sees the world plunged into World War II, and he just says, We're done. I can't believe that this is what humanity does. And as we're looking in Genesis chapter 4 today, and if you want to go ahead and grab your Bibles, it'll be in Genesis chapter 4. We're going to see how this continues.
So what we talked about last week was the fall of humanity, where Adam and Eve rebel against God, and sin enters the world. And we're going to see that it does exactly what H.G. Wells saw. That it goes from a beautiful garden, and it goes from God's good design, all the things that could be, and it turns into ever-increasing evil. That that's kind of as Genesis plays out, there's this two stories that run side by side. That we see that God designed the world beautiful, and all of a sudden there's this current of sin, and the world's descending into chaos, and evil, and hatred, and sexual sin, and violence.
And at the same time, God begins to weave next to that story, this idea that he is going to bring redemption, and he's going to bring hope. And that's what we're seeing beginning in Genesis, and it carries throughout the entire Old Testament. And so what H.G. Wells got to see on a massive scale, we're going to get to see kind of the beginnings of, on a personal scale, in Genesis chapter 4, as we study the story of Cain and Abel. And I have to go ahead and get this out of the way. I have an uncle named Abel, and he has messed me up on being able to call this Cain and Abel.
And so if that bothers you the entire time, I want to preemptively apologize. But I tried. I tried when I was working on this to say Cain and Abel, and I kept going back and forth between Cain and Abel. And there's no telling what's going to come out, but mostly it comes out Abel when I say it, and it's spelled that way, and my uncle talked me into it. So I can't not read Abel when I say it.
So let's pray for our time, and then we'll get started in Genesis chapter 4. God, we ask that as we get to study, in our brief time this morning, these two brothers, and this evil sin that tears this family apart, we pray that you would help us to see ourselves, see our sin, and have you intervene on our behalf before it gets out of control, and before we stand before you, covered by our sin rather than covered by Christ. And so we pray that you would help us to see this clearly today. And we love you, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
Chapter 4, verse 1. It's on page 2. If you have one of the blue Bibles, it's probably very near to page 2 if you have any other Bible whatsoever. But if you don't own a Bible, we got these. We have a pile of them. We want you to take one home.
We want you to read it often. That's our gift to you. So it says, Now Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. Now this is really encouraging to be the way that Genesis chapter 4 starts because Genesis chapter 3 walks us through the story where Adam and Eve sin. They rebel against God. They're cast out of the garden.
And all of the good things that they had have kind of begun to erode and be broken and fall apart. And so it's beautiful to see that they, when Cain is born, she says, No, God helped me. That there's still some faith. There's still some connection to God in this family, even in the midst of sin, that Adam and Eve haven't completely run from God. But she, in faith, responds and says, No, I've gotten a man.
God's blessing me, and humanity is continuing with the help of the Lord. And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. So Cain does what Adam was told to do, which is tend a garden, cultivate, be one who works in the soil. And it says that Abel tends sheep. He's a keeper of sheep.
In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. I want to pause and just give you a little quick thing about the way that Hebrews write, the Jewish people write, when we're getting into these stories in Genesis. And we'll see this throughout. But the way we tend to write stories is we set the stage. We give setting. We give everything's in chronological order.
Or if you do it out of chronological order, when you mention it, you say, Now this happened prior to what I was just telling you about, but we always put it in chronological order. But they don't always do that. They much more often will explain things thematically, and they don't give you information that they don't think really applies to the story. So when it says, In the course of time, we have no clue how old they are, how long this has been. We're told later in Genesis that Adam and Eve lived for about 900 years, which we're going to discuss more because some of you are like, Wait, that sounds made up.
We're going to discuss more, but we believe they were designed perfectly, and that sin hadn't worked its way into the gene pool the way that it has now. So they were designed to live for eternity. They fall into sin, and then sin enters the world and begins to corrode, begins to destroy, but they don't immediately have the shorter lifespans that we see post-flood. So Spencer will get more into that next week. So they had a lot of children.
They had more children. We don't know how long it's been. That's all I'm saying, is that these guys could be like 20. It could be 250. We don't know, and that'll show up later as more characters get added in, and you're suddenly going, Wait, I thought there was just four people. It was Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel.
Abel died, so I thought the character grid got dropped to three, but then there's just other people showing up, and so I'm just trying to help you see like this has been an indeterminate amount of time so that it's less confusing later when we hit some places that are going to be a little confusing. So that was confusing, and I hope it helps. All right. In the course of time, this is verse 3, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. Okay, so we see worship. We see Cain and Abel worshiping the Lord.
They bring to him, and we don't know exactly how they brought it to him, where they brought it. If they can see him, we don't understand exactly how this worked, where God related to them, but they bring to him offerings, that there's this aspect of worship. There's this aspect of them coming to the Lord and acknowledging his place above them. So they bring him an offering, and Cain brings an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. That phrasing is going to be important in a second. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard.
So we're told that they both bring an offering, and that God appreciates, has regard for Abel and his offering, but not for Cain and his offering. And I've heard people try to explain this in different ways, as to sheep is better than fruit, and some different things like that. And I don't think that's actually what the text is showing us. I don't think that's what it's highlighting for us, because one of the things that we see is it doesn't say that God had regard for his offering, or his offering. It says for Abel and his offering, for Cain and his offering. The person comes first.
So that God's looking at the person, not just what they brought. He's looking at the inside. And one of the clues that we have in the text is that we're told that Cain brought some of the fruit of the ground. He brought of the fruit of the ground, but that Abel brought the firstborn and their fat portions. Meaning that Abel brought the best he had. That he, as soon as his sheep were born, he brought those to God.
The ones that you would be the most excited about. The first paycheck in the way it goes for sheep keepers. Like the first thing he could have gotten, he brought it to the Lord and said, this is yours. Like without you, none of this happens. And it just kind of says that Cain brought some of what he had. It says that Abel brought the fat portions, meaning the best of what he had.
And so in that, we're getting a clue kind of into Abel's heart and into Cain's heart. And we see that God looks at Abel and he accepts what Abel does. He has regard for what Abel does, but he doesn't have regard for what Cain does. And then we see that God's looking at their heart and we get a clue next as to the fact that Cain's heart is off. It's strayed from what it would seem with him bringing an offering. And I'll show this to you.
It says, verse six, oh, verse five, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his face fell. That means he showed it. Some of you, you have a poker face, you have the ability to be angry and look happy. You have the ability to be upset and frustrated. Some of you do not.
Cain did not. Some of you, something bad happens and your face turns bright red. One of the tricks that I've always had is to just always look angry and tell people that you're happy and you can get around it. So Cain's face falls. He looks visibly upset. He is, he's very angry.
He's furious. And so this is a clue as to Cain's heart. So let's just think about this for a second. If Cain was genuinely, I'm here to worship. I'm here because God is glorious. I'm here because he's valuable.
I'm here because he's holy. I'm here because I love him. And when he brought his offering, if God said, Cain, this isn't right. Cain, you haven't done this well. And we don't know exactly how he displayed that he had no regard for it, but he does. You would assume that Cain would be hurt, that he would be sad, that he would be mournful.
But that his desire would be for the relationship with God. His desire would be for this to work well. His desire, so it would draw him closer to God. But what we see is that he's livid. He's furious that this would happen. And so we get a picture as to Cain's heart and that it starts to seem as if Cain really, his offering wasn't a genuine love for God.
His offering wasn't a genuine respect for God, a holiness, holding up his worthiness, but that his offer was something else. That what he really wanted was something else. And actually, I think in Cain and Abel, we see the beginnings of true worship, true faith. We're actually told in Hebrews chapter 11 that Abel has true faith and religious worship, religious faith. And I'll explain the difference there because some of you are like, wait, I thought we were like a religion. The concept behind religion, as we talk about it often here, is I will do these things that God wants me to do and therefore God will love me, God will bless me, God will owe me.
That religion is this idea that I'm going to be a good person, I'm going to do what I'm supposed to, I'm going to show up on Sundays and if those people keep saying join a group, then I'll join a group, but God better make my finances work out, he better make my relationships work out, he better make my kids quit acting like their father. He better, he better, he better, he owes me. That's why when something bad happens to religious people, they'll get so mad. Something bad happened to Cain, he got furious and some of us have seen this in ourselves and in other people where something bad happens, you lose your job and you say, where are you God?
You owe me. How on earth could this happen to me? Because your belief is I did the stuff. I'm one of the good ones. I'm not like those other people that I'm one of the good ones. You owe me and that's what we see in Cain's heart.
I've heard a story to help kind of picture this and I really appreciate this image in my head. And so there's a king who has a beautiful kingdom and on different times he would allow people in his kingdom to come visit him and that sort of thing. And so they announced to him that there's a farmer who lives in his kingdom that's come to see him. And he allows the farmer to come in and the farmer comes in and he says, oh king, my king, I have a farm on your land and because of your kingdom I've been well protected and well guarded and free to farm. I wanted to bring to you this carrot. It's the biggest, prettiest carrot I think I'll ever grow.
I grew it. I was so excited. I just, when I was pulling it out of the dirt it just kept coming and coming and it was so bright orange and so carrot-y that I just wanted to share it with you. I just wanted to give it to you, my king, in appreciation for who you are and what you've done because I don't think I'll ever have another carrot like this one. And the king looks at the man and he sees his heart and he sees his love and he's touched by this and the king says, I actually know where your farm is and I own all the land around it and I want you to go speak with, and he tells him what official to speak with and he says, I want to double your track of land because we need more people like you in our kingdom and the farmer's just blown away.
That's not at all what he was hoping for. It's not at all what he imagined. Well, there's an official of the king who sees this entire interaction and he thinks, double your land for a carrot. So the next day, this official actually breeds horses and he brings in the stallion and he says, oh king, my king, I breed horses and this is the finest horse I think we'll ever sire. This is the finest horse I think I'll ever have. It's the most beautiful horse and I wanted to give it to you, my king, because you're so lovely and wonderful and amazing.
The king looks at his official and he can see right through him. He sees his heart and the king says, thank you. Please take that horse to my stable. And he just waits and the guy's frozen in place and he can see his face turning red and he's like, and the king goes, oh, is this about the carrot? You see, you're confused. The farmer was giving the carrot to me but you were giving yourself the horse.
See, the whole point of turning over the horse was just to receive back. It was just an investment. It was just for what he was going to be owed on the other end of it and I think we see that interaction playing out with Cain and Abel that Abel is overjoyed and appreciative towards God and so he brings his first fruits and he brings the best he has and he just says, God, thank you. Abel doesn't even talk in the story. We just see pictures of what he's like and that Cain was bringing the fruit to God but he wasn't really giving the fruit to God. It wasn't really appreciation for God.
It wasn't really a love for God. It was a desire to receive back, a desire to something. Something in Cain is for his own benefit to Cain's furious. And so we see how God responds. So God has no regard for Cain's offering but he cares about Cain.
So it says, so Cain was very angry and his face fell. Now verse 6, the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you but you must rule over it.
So God, as best he can, tries to intervene with Cain. And he says, Cain, if you do well, if you change, if your heart changes, won't this work? Won't this be beautiful? Won't this be good? And he says, but if you don't, if you don't do well, if you don't change, sin is crouching at your door. One of the things I want us to see very early on is that God expects Cain.
He says, you must rule over it. God believes that Cain can change. God believes that Cain can master his sin. God believes that Cain is morally responsible for his decisions and his attitude and his heart. We have culturally bought into the idea that this is what I'm like and this is how I was born and people all the time will say things like, well, you know, I'm just the type of person who, and so Cain can say, well, I'm just the type of person who gets really angry when things don't go my way and God steps in and looks and says, yeah, and you're the type of person who needs to change that. You're the type of person who needs to master that.
You're the type of person who needs to not be overcome with that. You're the type of person who needs to know that that will destroy you. Well, I'm Italian, so I yell and you're the type of Italian who needs to stop. Well, I'm this, I'm that, my family just always, my dad, well, you're the type of person who needs to change that, who needs to, who needs to, and God's inviting him to him. It's not just, do it on your own, it's not just be better, try harder, but it's Cain, come on. This can be different.
We can work differently. You can change. And I want you to see the seriousness of sin. He says it's crouching at the door. It's crouching at the door. I am, out my front door, the way it's set up, on a regular basis for a couple weeks there there was a spider, and he was pretty big, but he kept setting up a spider web right in front of my front door.
And I'm really intelligent, so I walked through this like 17 times. Like I just opened the door, and I'd be like, oh God, and I would see the spider the night before, so I'd be like, it's on me. You know, I'm like, I'm sure my neighbors thought there was something wrong with me, because there's nothing that makes you look crazier than you walking through a spider web other people can't see. You know, you open the door, and you're like, peeling at your face and stuff, and it's like, hey, it's good to see y'all. Y'all hunting to work? Me too.
But I can just imagine the spider consistently, like he's hanging out, setting the web up again, and his friend's like, dude, are you doing that again? He's like, yeah, I'm going to eat like a king. If I can just catch one of these things that keeps walking in and out of this house, I won't have to make a web again for years. His spider friend's like, you're an idiot. And it just never worked. He never got me.
But, that's what sin's doing. It's at our door, laying a trap to destroy us, and we think it's like the spider that actually can't get us. Let me tell you something, if that spider was the size of a tiger, I would have remembered that web was there and I wouldn't have been walking out there. And so often, we think that sin is so small, it's so little, it really can't get to us. But sin's desire is against us.
It's contrary to us. It wants to harm us. You ever watch a movie and there's been a bad guy the whole time and then something happens in the movie and they decide to kind of team up with the bad guy? They're going to work together for a little bit? And how many of us when we're watching that are like, hey, moron, that's been the bad guy the whole time. I don't think he's actually joined your team.
That's sin. That we're like, no, no, no, we're cool. We're friends. This will work out well. And it's like, no, it's desire is contrary to you. It wants to destroy you.
But too many of us think we can have sin as a pet. Too many of us think, yeah, well, I'm doing pretty good. I've got all this, but this one, this one, I don't really want Jesus messing with. This one is really kind of, I'm working on it, but you just say that, you're not. And you just kind of feel like, but sin destroys us. Y'all remember a while back when Roy, of Siegfried and Roy, got attacked by a tiger?
It mauled him. And everybody was shocked. But it's like, bro, that was a tiger. That's a tiger. They don't, there's a reason why you can't just have pet tigers. Because they can do that.
Like, the risk reward on owning a tiger is not worth it. I mean, some of y'all got a dog, and it's like a sweet little dog, and you're like, this dog's never bit anybody. It's like, that dog's got teeth. I had, you know how many, every time I've been bitten by a dog, it's been bitten by a dog that doesn't bite people. Helping somebody move, no, this dog never bites anybody. I turned my back on it, it bit the fool out of me.
I was like, I'm suing, everybody's going to penitentiary. And so many of us think we have this pet sin that we're cool with. And God grabs Cain as best he can, and he says, if you don't change this, sin's at your door, and it will destroy you, but you have to rule over it. And so many of you, I hope you can hear that this morning. I hope you can take the moment to see that in God's word and see God looking at you and saying, it's at your door. And if you don't rule over it, it is not your friend.
It is contrary to you. It will destroy you. Verse eight, Cain spoke to Abel, his brother, and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Cain spoke to Abel, his brother, and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Okay, so when it says Cain spoke to his brother Abel, the best we can guess is that the text put that in there to help us see the premeditation of this. That he was drawing him out.
There's some kind of, he was luring him. That he gets him in the field where nobody is and he just kills him. Now I want to show you something interesting we learn about religious activity. I want to show you something interesting that we learn about what happens when our approach to God is I want you to, I'm doing these things so that you'll love me. I'm doing these things so that we'll be good. Is that if you're approaching God not just for him but for you to be one of the good ones, do you know what that means?
You need some people to be the bad ones. If hard work is what saves you, then you need some people to be lazy because if everybody works as hard as you do, you're not winning. If religious activity is what saves you, then you need some people to be heathens and infidels. You need them. And so what, Cain kills Abel. He doesn't change his heart.
He gets rid of the competition. My offering will be the best offering if Abel doesn't show up. And I also think that for most of us we think this was a really quick turnaround. Cain's very angry and then he just murders somebody. But see, the text told us this is what sin does.
We do things that we don't think we would do quicker than we think we would do them. That we're actually more evil, more quickly than we believe is possible. Sigmund Freud, who will not get quoted often from this stage because he's a nut and most of what he said is slap crazy. There's a quote where he gets this really, really right and he agrees with the Bible and so since he agrees with the Bible we're going to read this. He says this in civilization and its discontents. Men are not gentle, friendly creatures wishing for love who simply defend themselves if they are attacked but that of a powerful measure of desire for aggression has to be reckoned as a part of their instinctual endowment.
What he says is there's actually aggression in them. They're not just kind. The result is that their neighbor is to them not only a possible helper or a sexual object but also a temptation to them to gratify their aggressiveness on him. To exploit his capacity for work without recompense that means to have slaves make them work don't pay them to use him sexually without his consent to seize his possessions to humiliate him to cause him pain to torture and to kill him. Homo homini lupus which is the Latin phrase man is a wolf. And then he says who has the courage to dispute it in the face of all the evidence in his own life and in history.
Without his consent to seize his possessions to humiliate him to cause him pain to torture and to kill him. Homo homini lupus which is the Latin phrase man is a wolf. And then he says who has the courage to dispute it in the face of all the evidence in his own life and in history. He says who on earth could stand up and say that this isn't true given how history works and how your life works. There is sin
In us that once Adam and Eve sinned they delivered it over to their children and that Cain and Abel were not sinless but that it was in them. I also want us to see that what happens with Cain is he has he has anger inside of him and then it leads to actions outside of him that he that he goes from an internal sin
To an external sin and so many of us will say to ourselves well this isn't that bad because I'm not really doing anything I'm just thinking about stuff. Sure I've sat at my desk for the last hour running through what the conversation would be like if I told my boss everything I think about him what he would say what I would say what his little face would look like his beady eyes when little tears came out of it
When he finally heard everything that was true about it like I sure I hadn't really been working I've been doing this I've been nurturing bitterness but I haven't actually acted on it I just thought about choking him I wouldn't ever actually choke him these are just fantasies I'm not actually cheating on my spouse it's all in my head and see it's when it was in his head that God grabbed Cain and said
Change because it goes from here to here way quicker than we think almost everybody who's done big unthinkable sins if you'd have stopped them prior to it and asked them at some point along that road will you ever do this they'd say no I'd never do that and then they do most of us if we're honest
Have things that we've done in our past that we don't fully understand why we did it and that we if you'd asked us beforehand will you ever do that you would say no I would never do that I'm not that kind of person but the truth is we are outside of God intervening on our behalf 1 Peter 2 11 says beloved I urge
You as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions that's desires or lust of the flesh which wage war against your soul James 1 15 says then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death I have two sons and I fight with one of them
The other one's an infant but I could totally take him if we got to fight him I fight with the three year old and if we ever got in a real fight like if he ever just you know pushed it too far and we had to really fight I think I would win you guys here's what James 1 15 just said it says we have desire that conceives and gives birth
To sin and then sin when it's full grown brings death now this is talking on a spiritual level that when we sin the end result of that is death that we deserve punishment but I think it also gives us a picture of the fact that some of us have some baby sins that right now would be way easier to get rid
Of some of us have little sins that are starting to creep up a little bit of bitterness towards somebody a little bit of anger a little bit of frustration a little bit of jealousy a little bit of and we're starting to tell ourselves well it's not that big a deal it's just a little bit I haven't really done anything
Yet a little bit of lust a little bit of temptation you see when it's full grown you're a slave and it's a murder the desire that the desires in us do not always lead us down the right path this is why when people will say things like well I prayed about it and I just don't feel like it's wrong
We'll be something we'll say hey do you see what the Bible says like that's a sin yeah I know the Bible says that I prayed about it I just don't feel bad it's like do you know how far that means you're
Disconnected from the Lord that proved nothing to anyone people are doing something simple and they say it just feels right it's like right because your passions are at war against your soul
Your flesh your desires are contrary to you that sin wants to own you that ultimately what is good for you is that you would have Jesus and that you would have holiness and that you would have love and peace and no sin and that our desires and sin's desire is to destroy
Us and to derail us and we're like it feels good can't be bad it's like that's cute it's not in the bible this is how someone goes from jealousy to lying from covetousness to stealing from anger to abuse to murder from lust to rape
To adultery this is why every time they interview somebody who's just done something ridiculous their friends and family say that wasn't the tina I knew no he was always so quiet and nice so often that happens and it's because sin is at work in
Us and it is growing and if we don't run to the Lord and seek to get rid of it all of us are capable of doing things we never thought we'd be capable of doing Tim Keller explains that one
Of the things that we do with children is we often develop fear and pride in them that we develop it in them that we'll say things to kids like well you don't want to be one
Of those bad people you don't want to be like them and go to the penitentiary and so what we've done right there is we've said we've developed pride you want to be one of and you pick whatever kind of
Little cut down thing you want to use to try to develop fear and pride but this is how we train children so often and he says that for a lot of us fear and pride are our primary motivation not worship
Not love for the Lord not God's grace but fear and pride and he said this is how somebody who for most of their life has behaved really well and been really a good worker suddenly embezzles thousands of dollars because they were operating
On fear and pride and fear and pride for a long time kept them in check but at some point when they were afraid of losing their job or when they were afraid of what was going to happen if they didn't have the money or they
Were prideful to let people know that they were failing suddenly fear and pride took over and led them so far into sin and so many of us have these things that we are just slowly letting grow and then at some point they tip
Over and we run headlong into sin so let's see how God reacts and this plays out so similarly to Genesis 3 and there's brokenness and God shows up to talk God shows up to ask questions and he does he asks questions here even though
God knows the answer it's like your mom when she found out that you snuck out last night or that you went to a different place from where she thought where you told her you were going to go and then she says where were you last
Night and you're like you know we were at Mark's house but where were you were you just at Mark's house oh well she starts asking more questions she already knows the answer and your story starts not making a whole lot
Of sense that's what we're going to have play out with God and Abel no God and Cain I forgot Abel died in the last verse 9 then the Lord said to Cain where is Abel your brother and he said I do not know am I my brother's keeper oh am I
In charge of Abel all of a sudden I thought you liked him better than me anyway now I'm the king of Abel am I my brother's keeper verse 10 and the Lord said what have you done the voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the
Ground and now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand seems as if Cain used his cultivating abilities and tools to bury his brother if not
At least his brother blood has drained into the ground and his body somewhere else 12 when you work for when you work the ground it shall no longer yield to you its strength you
Shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth Cain said to the Lord my punishment is greater than I can bear behold you have driven me today away
From the ground and from your face I shall be hidden I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on earth and whoever finds
Me will kill me real quick this is why I did that age stuff earlier who's going to find him and kill him there's two options
Anyone in the future he just thinks I'll be a wanderer anywhere I go anybody can come find me and kill me most likely he's
Talking about his own brothers his own father because there's been some time it's most likely his parents have continued to have children and
He's just saying I've harmed my brother and now that this is known someone is going to kill me I don't want us to
See the heart of sin here Cain is angry and God gives him a chance to repent God comes to him and says you
Need to change your attitude does he no so he's not willing to listen to God on the front end God comes to him
After it the action after he murders his brother and gives him a chance to come clean to be honest to confess does he
Know when does Cain speak up when there's punishment and what does Cain say this is unfair it's unfair what you've done to me
And don't you know someone might kill me Cain who just introduced murder to the world now says it would be unjust if someone
Would hurt me this is too much and doesn't Cain have a lot of children today we don't want to listen we don't want to
Repent when God is coming to us beforehand after we have sinned we don't want to repent we don't want to confess we just
Want to bury it and then when we see there's wrath coming for sinners we say who on earth does God think he is
A God of grace he doesn't have judgment I don't worship a God of wrath and it's like we do worship a God of
Grace but he does have wrath that's what the grace is for it's for his wrath it covers his justice too often all we
Care about is the consequences not our own actions not our own hearts we can't even see our sin so verse 13 and Cain
Said to the Lord my punishment is greater than I can bear behold you have driven me today away from the ground and from
Your face I shall be hidden I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on earth whoever finds me will kill me then the
Lord said to him not so if anyone kills Cain vengeance shall be taken on him seven fold and the Lord put a Mark
On Cain lest any who found him should attack him then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the
Land of Nod east of Eden so Cain says this is unfair and God says no your punishment is that you'll be a wanderer
Your punishment is that you'll be no longer attached to the ground and I'm going to put a Mark on you that if anyone harms you
His vengeance will be seven fold and God saying he'll carry that out which shows a lot of grace in the midst of Cain's sin
And in the midst of Cain's audacity to argue with God about what's fair and not fair 17 Cain knew his wife so now
This becomes important we don't know when he got a wife who his wife is Cain knew his wife and she conceived and bore
Enoch now some of you were saying okay wait a second some of you were fine with that and I'm about to make you
Not fine with that some of you weren't fine with that because you were like wait I thought there was Adam and Eve and
They had some sons where did this wife come from glad you're all sitting down most likely Cain sister you guys Adam and Eve
Are the only people and all the children come from them Cain married his sister now I want to make that a little bit
Better to talk about dogs for a second so all the dogs we have and all the dog breeds that we have just stay
With me don't don't start guessing what I'm going to say just wait all the dogs we have and all the dog breeds we
Have came from an original wolf like a big dog like there wasn't a bunch of little like chihuahuas didn't roam the wild that
Didn't happen you guys I know you thinking mine is mean enough to no it's not if you're not even paying attention to it
In your yard a hulk will still get that thing like you eliminating strands of DNA and types of DNA and we we kind
Of can whittle them down to make a certain type of dog so you eliminate genetic code to get a specific dog this is
Why purebred dogs have more health issues than mutts because the genetic code is smaller they have less to pull from they have more
Health issues this is why like if you go buy a $1200 to Adam and Eve were like wolves they were the original pair
That had all the genetic code their children weren't they did inbreed but they weren't inbred does that make sense like they didn't have
Small genetic code so actually later in the Bible it's going to say no you don't need to marry your cousin but that is
As they became a nation that had eliminated so God brought all peoples from Adam and Eve and it wasn't the way we imagine
It now I hope that helped it might not have but there you go okay verse 17 came to his wife and she conceived and bore Enoch
When he built a city he called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch to Enoch was born Irad and Irad father Mahujael and Mahujael fathered Methushael and Methushael fathered
Lamech and Lamech took two wives okay so the text just told us Lamech is changing things and it indicates to us that Lamech is pursuing he gives a full vent to his passion that's kind of what the text has shown us here
Because God originally made a man and a woman he brought them together and from this point on there was a man and a woman and we're following this one train through here and all of a sudden it says Lamech took
Two wives the name of one was Ada and the name of the other Zilha also for the record the Bible in Genesis doesn't always give us commentary of what's going on so it doesn't say he did this and that was wrong
It just tells us that it happened and this is the father of polygamy and polygamy never works out well in the Bible it happens all the time in the Bible it's never shown in a good light there's never like this was a
Polygamy a polygamous couple and it was great it's always a mess and some of y'all are like I'm married to one person and it's a mess we're not adding other people into this like imagine all of your arguments but now there's a third person who's in bed like that would
Be great we're gonna see it gets worse you guys when we get to Genesis later there's a lot of polygamous problems other Zilha and Ada bore Jabal and he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock he kind of had a whole people that lived
In tents and have livestock his brother's name was Jubal he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe so what we're seeing is that this line coming from Cain which is sinful still has beautiful things going on there's still culture coming
Out of it there's still cities there's still music there's still creativeness in this and it says Zilha also bore Tubal Cain and he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron the sister of Tubal Cain was Nema and Lamech
Said to his wives so we're going back to Lamech and this is to highlight what Cain's line became what it was like Ada and Zilha hear my voice you wives of Lamech listen to what I say I have killed a man for wounding me a young man
For striking me if Cain's revenge is sevenfold then Lamech's is seventy sevenfold and so it just shows that sin continued and that Cain rather that Lamech declares his own curse somebody just harms him he murders him and then he's just proud of it he doesn't hide it he announces it and he says
If anybody tries to harm me Cain who had a curse placed on him by God to protect him I get to place my own and it's better and bigger than God's and so the text is showing us that Cain's line has deteriorated and then it turns and it says Adam knew his wife again and she bore a son and called his name Seth for she said God has appointed
For me another offspring instead of Abel for Cain killed him to Seth also a son was born and he called his name Enosh and the time people began to call upon the name of the Lord and so it kind of gives this redemptive idea here at the end through Seth that God's going to continue the promise he made that he's going to continue his offspring that he's going to continue to do this beautiful work of redeeming
In the middle of Cain's sin and his line God brings about Seth and begins to continue out the promise that he says he'll one day send a redeemer and that's who Christ comes through is Seth and I want to highlight one thing as we come to a close the band's going to come back up here we're going to sing and we're going to take communion but in verse 10 God says this to Cain says the Lord said
What have you done the voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground the Bible tells us that it was through faith that Abel spoke even though he was dead that it was his faith that declared his presence and who he was and what Cain had done and then in Hebrews 12 right after it says that it says this about Jesus and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks
A better word than the blood of Abel you see the blood of Abel cried out for condemnation all the blood of Abel could do for Cain was display his sin all the blood of Abel could do for Cain was call out for God's justice and God's wrath and condemnation for what Cain had done and so we have Jesus who gives us a better covenant and better blood so many of us have sins that are like Abel we have tried to bury them
And all they will ever do for us is cry out to God for condemnation for destruction for justice for wrath there is going to be a day when we stand before God and you are either going to have all of your past cry out like the blood of Abel condemn or you will get to stand in a new covenant with Christ where his blood cries out forgive that Jesus would come in the line
Of Seth that he would take the punishment for sin that he would die so that we could live that he would rise again that we might have hope and that those who place their faith in him are covered by his blood which speaks forgiveness and life and hope not condemnation so in a second church as we take communion together it's for all those who have placed their faith in Christ to remember
To appreciate to enjoy to take part in the fact that his blood cries out forgiveness and hope and life for us so that we take communion that we might celebrate that his body was broken his blood was shed and we've been forgiven and if you're not a Christian the blood of Christ does not cover you we would encourage you to not take communion but to sit and think about the fact that his blood can cover you
And that if you place your faith in him rather than your sin crying out condemn you'll have Christ crying out forgive and his blood speaking on your behalf let's pray God we thank you for your goodness and your grace towards us we pray that you would help us to trust in you that we might see our sin before it's too late before we've run headlong in it and that for those of us who feel like I'm on the other side
I've already committed my murder I've already done the unthinkable that we would know that God comes to us and he gives us a chance to repent and that he still has grace for us and that Christ's blood will shed for all those who do not deserve it not for the good not for the well behaved but for the sinner I pray that we would repent of our sin that we would partake in communion as those who are forgiven and free and who your blood
Speaks a better word on our behalf in Jesus name amen they're going to play a little music and as you pray and reflect when you feel led get up and take communion and then we'll sing together in a moment I'm going to open up two ahead how are you there you
The Fall
Transcript
Well, all right. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab a Bible. Go to Genesis chapter 3. We're working our way through the book of Genesis.
And we're in Genesis chapter 3. And so far in the book of Genesis, it has been great. Everything is working perfectly. The world is beautiful. The grass is green. The birds chirp.
Everybody's frolicking around naked and happy. And today it's not going to go so well. One of the things that we all collectively agree on, and it doesn't matter kind of your worldview, and it doesn't really matter your approach to faith or your approach to God. It doesn't really matter your understanding of origin. One of the things that we collectively agree on is that this world isn't perfect. That there are things that are broken in it.
There are things that are marred in it. There are things that are wicked. All you have to do is watch the news for a little while. Like if you're at your house and you're like, I'm having a pretty good day. I'd like to be depressed. Just open a news app.
Watch the news for a little while. I know Jimmy Fallon for a little while would do good news. They just had news anchors read made-up good news stories to try to make everybody feel better. So it's like two minutes of them just saying happy things, and it was the weirdest thing to ever see news anchors do. But they'd use their little news anchor voice, and they'd be like, this just in.
Puppies are still cute. And then they would turn to the other camera, and they'd be like, When asked his favorite color, Barack Obama excitedly answered all of them before hugging the questioner. Like it would just do two minutes of like this happy news because that's not what we get. That's not what happens, and it doesn't matter what your belief system is. Everybody can kind of collectively say, no, this isn't how this should work. And then the argument comes not that everything is broken but how to fix it.
That's where we begin politics. That's where we begin these discussions. That's where we have debate is in the answer of how do we fix this. Not that it's broken. Nobody's ever said, we really need to work on this issue. And someone said, I don't even know of those issues at all.
I don't see that. I don't see how hunger is a problem. I don't have a problem. No, we all agree that there's something broken. And so what we're going to see in Genesis is kind of how this unfolds. One of the complaints that happens towards Christianity, and these two complaints happen at the exact same time, and it's kind of interesting, but if you'll listen out for them, you can hear them.
One of the complaints towards Christianity is that it takes a beautiful world. We have this beautiful earth, and everything's nice, and Christians come along and say, no, it's terrible. People are sinful. People are wicked. You're wicked. Like, Christianity is just, like, mad at everybody, and so, like, the world is just, like, happy rainbow place, and Christianity comes by and spray paints garbage on it.
Like, that's kind of a complaint that you'll get. The other side, though, at the exact same time, they'll say that the world is broken and chaotic, and there's death and pain, and Christians come along and just spray paint a little smiley face on it, and we're all like, we're happy, and we have hope. Like, that's, these two complaints are happening at the same time, and the truth is Christianity does 100% say the world is broken, and you are wicked. And if this is your first time hanging out with us, welcome. You're wicked. Intro to Christianity.
You are a sinner. But we also collectively at the same time 100% say, no, the world is beautiful, and it is glorious, and there is hope, and we get to see right now at the very beginning of Scripture where we get that, where that concept comes, that there is beauty and majesty beyond what you understand. There's hope beyond compare, and that we're more depraved and more wicked, and things are more broken than you could believe. So let's pray, and then we'll start reading the text. God, we thank you for this time that we have to study your word. We pray that you would use it to correct us and to train us, to convict us, and to change us.
And we ask for your power through your Holy Spirit to do that today. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so we're going to pick up in Genesis chapter 3, and so far what's happened in Genesis 1 and 2 is that God created everything in Genesis 1. He spoke it into existence. And then we saw that He kind of paused on day 6, and He created humanity in His own image. And then in chapter 2, we see this kind of zoomed-in look of what that looked like and how God created Adam and Eve, and He designed them, and He blessed them, and He surrounded them with everything they needed to flourish and to have joy.
And the last verse of chapter 2 is this, And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. That's where it ended. Now, that's a pretty little picture of marriage. They're in a garden. They have good things to do. Their needs are supplied for, and they're naked and not ashamed.
There's no shame. There's freedom. And some of you think, that sounds awful. And you'll see why in a second, why we can't have that anymore, why that doesn't work the way it's supposed to anymore, why nudist colonies are weird. We're going to get there. But it's a beautiful picture that God began humanity this way.
Chapter 3, verse 1. Now the serpent, it's a snake. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He's sneaky. He's up to something. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. Okay, so we've got to understand a little bit what's going on here because this is kind of a weird intro to this story. So it says that of all the animals God made, the serpent was the sneakiest, the craftiest. We're told later in the book of Revelation that this is actually Satan, that he's the ancient serpent. So that Satan has infiltrated God's good garden.
Satan has infiltrated God's good design, and he is now at work against God. And he starts speaking to the woman, and he asks about this tree, and we read about it in chapter 2 and chapter 2, where God says, You may eat of any tree in the garden except for the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it, you will die. That's all he said. Don't eat of that tree. So the snake comes along, and he says, Now we've got to pause for a second, because if you're new to this, you may want to go, Bible's cool with talking snakes?
Nobody's batting an eye at that? Like, you want to lean and look at the rest of your row like, y'all cool with that? Like, we're just, we're going to pretend like this isn't weird? A few things on that. One is, the Bible doesn't act like animals just talk. There's a later in the Old Testament where a donkey talks, and that was miraculous, and everybody acted like it was weird.
But God used a donkey to speak was a miracle that he performed. It wasn't like, yeah, animals used to talk. They didn't believe that. So they're having the same response, which is, wait, why is the snake talking to her? But it makes sense that Eve would not have been necessarily surprised or thrown off by this.
And the reason it makes sense is that Eve lives in a world where nothing bad has ever happened. She lives in a world where everyone and everything is to be trusted because there aren't any lies, there aren't any evil, there's no brokenness, there's no pain. So a snake talks to her, and she thinks, neat, I guess. I guess that's what she thinks. She doesn't freak out, but that's, it's the same with where you have to teach a children about strangers. Like, my wife was doing something the other day, and she told my son, he's three now, he's going to be sitting in the room by himself.
She was like, if anybody comes to the door, come get me, don't answer the door. He was like, okay. She was like, not even for the mailman, because he knocks on her door sometimes. And he was like, well, I can let the mailman in. And she was like, no, you can't. He's like, yeah, I know the mailman.
She's like, no, you don't. He's like, yeah, I do. And it's like, no, you do not know him. We're having to like explain to him like, no, no, no, no, you've seen him before, but you don't know him. He's not your friend. He's nice, I guess.
He's the mailman. Don't open the door. Like we have to explain to him. He doesn't get the concept. And so snake starts talking to her. And if a snake started talking to you, you would run away.
You'd have a better reaction. But she didn't because she doesn't understand yet. There's no evil yet that she knows about. Okay. So the serpent says, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
And we know that this is Satan. We do believe that Satan is real and he is at work to undercut what God has done. And we, it's really interesting that we get to see this unfold. And I want to, I want to tag something before we go any further in this story. I want to highlight something for us. There are some people who will try to argue that this is just an allegory.
This is just a little picture of try to give us an understanding of our world. But the Bible does not treat it that way. It treats it as if this is a real event with two real humans, Adam and Eve, who are the original pair that God created. And we believe that there was a literal Adam and Eve that God made. That he designed. The Bible treats it that way.
The New Testament assumes they're real. It treats Adam as a real man. It treats just the way it treats Jesus as a real man. And so we believe that this was a real couple with real events and a real description of what's going on. So the serpent says to her, did God actually say you should not eat of any tree in the garden?
And this is interesting because what he does is he comes along and he says something that's kind of outlandish. He stands next to her, slithers next to her. And then he says, huh. So you're not allowed to eat any of this, which isn't true at all. It's we just told in chapter two that God gave him all the fruit to eat except for one tree. But he does this blanket statement.
He still does this to us today. The enemy comes along and says, huh. So God's just anti love. So God doesn't believe that two people who love each other should have a, huh. So God just doesn't want you to have any fun.
Oh, so God just doesn't want you to be happy. Like he comes along and makes these outlandish statements. It automatically puts us off, off guard on the defense. So here's what she says. We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it lest you die.
Now, God did not say that. He said, don't eat of it. He didn't say, don't touch it. Now we don't know if Adam told her that or if she added it, or if she was confused, we just know that that's not what God said. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
What we're going to get to see this morning as we continue through this passage is how sin works. We're going to get to see how we're tempted, how we respond once we have sinned and how we ought to respond in our sin. And so what he says to her is, you will not surely die. And this is something that the enemy continues to do. He tells us that there will be no judgment. What God said won't happen.
That's not true. You won't actually get in trouble. It's not that bad. You won't die. That was an overstatement. That's not really how that works.
Look at it. He knows. And then he tells her that God's a liar. You'll not die. For God knows when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Now, some of that is true.
She will be like God, knowing good and evil. But what he's impressing upon her, what he's making her believe is that God is withholding something good from you. Now, of good and evil, which one does she not know anything about yet? Evil. She knows good. God placed her in a garden and it was good.
God brought her and Adam together and said it was good. God ends creation by saying that everything is very good. What has he withheld from her? Evil. So the enemy comes by and he says, he's withholding from you.
But what's he withholding? Evil. No. And so often that is what we have to understand is true about sin. It's true about the things that God steps in and says, you don't want that. It's that he's not withholding good things from us.
He's withholding things that are harmful, things that will destroy us, things that hurt us. And some of you feel the way she feels today. Is God good? Is he withholding from me? Does he really have my best interest in mind? So, verse eight.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And this is how temptation works. We are always sinning visually and mentally prior to sinning actively. So she looks at it and she starts convincing herself. She sees that it's going to taste good. She sees that it looks good, that this fruit is pretty, it's lovely.
And then she starts telling herself what it'll accomplish for her, that it'll make her wise. She completely buys in to what the enemies told her. She's elevated herself to the position of God and she doesn't even know it. You see, what she's done is she's placed herself to where she gets to evaluate whether what God said was true or good or not. C.S. Lewis said that it used to be that we understood as humans that we were the ones on trial before God, that God got to sit in the judge's seat and we stood before him in the dock, which is the place where you would stand to be judged.
And he says, but we flip this and we've put God in the dock and we sit in the judge's seat. That we're the ones who get to decide whether or not he's right. We're the ones that get to evaluate whether or not what he said was true or not. And so she places herself where she is now convincing herself to do this and elevating herself above God. She wants to be like God, forgetting that she was already made in God's image. So she talks herself into it.
And this is what we do. This is how we approach sin. We see something that we want and we start convincing ourselves that it'll be good for us. We see something that we desire and we start talking about, you know, I'd look really nice with that. That would be really good. My granddad was a pastor and I remember him telling this story one time in a sermon.
He said when he was little, his family didn't have a lot of money and he remembers going to school and kids would bring in 10 lunchboxes. And they started bringing those in and they had different colors and he saw them and he really wanted one, but he knew there was no way his family was going to be able to get one. And so he said, he watched the little kids at his lunchbox next to the swings and go get on the swings and start swinging. He saw the lunchbox. And it started to like glow and get bigger. Like this was his window.
This was his moment. So he snuck over there and he says he stood watching the kids swing up in the air, swing back, swing up in the air. And he said he swung in the air and he owned a lunchbox. And he swung back towards the ground and he no longer owned a lunchbox. My granddad, while he swung in the air, didn't own a lunchbox. And when he swung back down, my granddad was the new owner of a beautiful lunchbox.
He had picked it up when he was in the air and started walking off with it. He had seen something and he had begun to convince himself that he needed that. He pictured what it would be like. He knew how much joy it would bring to him, how much life it would bring to him. And any of us who have actively pursued sin, we should know what's about to happen. We should see what happens next.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. Now we should all be shocked. Everybody's jaw should hit the floor with what happens next. And she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. The text did that on purpose. It's a twist.
They just M. Night Shyamalan'd us. We all assumed Eve is by herself talking to this serpent. And all of a sudden in this moment, she bites and then we're told, and he just almost appears in the story. She hands it to her husband who was with her. What was Adam doing?
I can tell you it was not what he was supposed to be doing. Adam and Eve were in charge over all of creation. Adam was given the role to keep this garden, to guard, to keep it, to defend it. And there's a serpent in here. And we can assume it's okay for the serpent to be there. But as soon as the serpent starts questioning God, Adam and Eve should have said, you don't have a place here anymore.
You're not welcome here anymore. But do y'all want to know what Adam did? And men, do you want to know that we're tempted to do it today? We're told later in 2 Timothy that Eve was deceived, but that Adam was not. She was tricked. Adam wasn't tricked.
He was waiting to see if she would die is my best guess. He just, he was going to see how it went. Did it work out for her? He just kind of put her out in front of him and was like, we'll see. If she dies, I got more ribs. That's my best guess.
He was like, you want to make this decision? We'll see if it works. And husbands still do this. I don't think that's the correct decision. I don't think it's how we should handle our money. But you know what?
Hop out in front. And if it falls apart, I'll stand back here and know I was right. You can take the beating. You can hold the bag. And he let her just, he just waited. She ate.
He was like, is that good? She didn't fall over. Cool. But there was a slight delay on what happened. And all of us who've sinned know this feeling. She gave it to her husband who was with her and he ate.
Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. Now the text is assuming that we know what it feels like to be naked in front of people. But we have a clue as to what showed up. See, what we read earlier in the chapter two was that man and the wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Now they know they're naked and they're what?
Ashamed. Shame enters the world. And I don't know if you've ever been embarrassed or felt shame but it crawls up the back of your neck and it covers you. I don't know if you've ever been in a moment where you got caught red-handed or you broke something and then your parents show up and you're trying to explain to them that you and you can just tell that your face is it feels like your head has swollen up and you've turned bright red and you know they know you're lying and bees like this is what happened. That they got what they wanted which was the knowledge of good and evil. But it wasn't what they thought it would be.
And for all of us who've convinced ourselves to sin and to pursue something. Sometimes it happens immediately. Sometimes it takes a little while but we always get what we chased after. And it ends up being not what we thought it would be. You see my granddad said that after he began to walk away with his new lunchbox for the first little bit he could just tell how handsome he was and how good he looked. People knew how wealthy he was because he had this nice lunchbox.
And the further he went the more he realized he felt like everybody was looking at him and that lunchbox got heavier and heavier and heavier and the weight of it became unbearable. And he felt like he was exposed. That everyone would know that he was a fraud and everybody would know whose it was and like this was going to fall apart and so he said he walked back while the kid was still on the swing and he went up in the air and he didn't own a lunchbox and when he came back down he did. But this one wasn't as easily returned. So here's what happens to us in our sin.
We are exposed. It sticks to us. We feel it. It's that moment in the dream when you're giving the presentation at work or in front of a class and suddenly you realize in your dream that you don't have any clothes on. This has been imprinted in us that we're exposed and shame covers them. And so here's how they respond and you'll see that this is how we respond that we learned all of our beautiful tricks from them.
It says and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. So fig leaves are just a big leaf so they found some and they covered themselves up. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. This is one of our favorite and first responses to sin. We try to cover it up and we try to hide. I'm going to give you some of the ways that we cover sin up.
One of my favorites has been to promise myself very sincerely that this is the last time I'll ever do that. And I'm an honest person so I believe myself. Okay. Alright. That's a fig leaf. That's all that is.
Okay. You know what? I did sin but you know I'm not ever going to do that again. And I can always tell this is so wicked in my heart because that's in that same moment I'll be saying this. The reason I don't have to tell anybody. The reason I won't have to talk to my community group about this is that this was the last time and it'd be weird to talk to them about the last time I ever did something and I don't need to bring that up and this will be the last time and I promise it'll never happen again and I just try to convince myself but that's all that is is me trying to cover it up.
We try to cover it up with religious activity. I don't know if y'all know this but religion the idea that we can do things that make God love us we can do things to stand before God and say we're presentable all that is is elaborate fancy fig leaves. It's ornate fig leaves. See we're Christians. We believe that we don't come to God and present to Him things that we have done that make us worthy and valuable and lovable. We believe that we were made lovable that we fell into our sin and that Christ had to remake us that He had to die for us and that we present what Christ has done on our behalf to God.
We don't present what we have done but good works and religious activity is a fig leaf. I've been bad I've sinned but now I'm going to be good. Now I'm going to work really hard I'm going to turn over a new leaf. You ever heard that? Just add fig leaf to it. It'll be more biblical.
Turning over a fig leaf. I'm going to be good now. I'm going to behave now. I'm going to sow oh you don't even know my sowing skills are beautiful. I will look so good in these fig leaves. That's what we do.
That's what religious activity is. I'm going to work really hard and I'm going to prove to God that I'm okay because I'm going to make up for all the stuff that I did that was messed up. We hide. Oh man we hide. How many of us are sitting in here today and we have a few things that we've told ourselves you can never tell anybody that. I'll confess some things.
I'll confess some sins but I'm not confessing this one. Everything would fall apart if I did. This one I'll take to the grave. This is the one I'm hiding forever. If I tell people this there's no way I can keep going. There's no way they'll still love me and I just want you all to know that's such a trick.
I want you to understand that when you do that when you're in a community group and you've convinced yourself I don't have to confess this. I'll never tell them this. If they really knew about it they wouldn't really love me. But the problem is you never feel really loved because you know they don't know you. You consistently continue to tell yourself yeah but if they really knew and so we hide it. That's what they did.
They covered themselves in front of each other and then they hid from God which means that God's a little more unbearable in our sin. You ever have a friend it's like I remember in high school when I was walking late to class and you're like hurrying and you're trying to I gotta be and then you see someone else who's in your class and immediately both of you are just like hey cool. This is not so bad to walk in late with somebody. Do you know what I'm saying? So there's some amount of in our sin we can find a little bit of company but not before God.
And so we hide and I just want to ask how's that working for you? How's hiding working for you? Because it doesn't work well for them and God in his grace does something that I hope he is doing for us today. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him where are you?
And I hope God's doing that today. And for some of you who have been hiding who have been running who have tried to make the most elaborate fig leaves I hope that God right now in his grace is saying where are you? That he's calling you out. Some of you have no desire there's a part of you that has no desire to follow Jesus has no desire for any of this stuff. You hear us talk about community groups every week and you're like they sound like they're the worst. Some of you have been to a community group once or twice and you're like I hate this but you keep coming here and I'm praying our hope is that it's because God keeps saying no, no, no, no, no, no.
Where are you? Where are you? Where are you? And he said that's Adam I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Now is that true?
Kind of. This is another thing we love to do in our sin. Anybody ever been in a community group and half confess the thing? Just me? Okay, you don't have to raise your hand it's cool. You kind of confess like what he hid because he was naked or because he did the thing that God told him not to do?
Yeah, me and my wife we're just kind of struggling right now I want you to pray for us. You don't say I'm really stressed out at work so when I come home I yell at my children I yell at my wife and then I start drinking just to calm myself down. I do that every day. You say you're struggling and you need some prayer but that's the I hid because I was naked. He doesn't say I'm hiding because you remember that tree you told us not to eat of? We both did and I did and I willfully did it even though I think she was tricked I wasn't and that's why I ran away.
He doesn't say that. It's like a kid you hear a lamp break and you come in the other room and there's a kid there holding the cord and you're like did you break that lamp? And they're like what are lamps? I've never even heard of this. I don't even understand the concept. No, this was I was trying to fix it.
That's what we do. We kind of confess a thing because we know we're supposed to but we have this other part that we hold back or we try to make it sound a little better and we think we're clever. They did this on their own with no help off the cuff and they taught us how. We're going to see the next way that we respond to our sin. I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Just wanted to point out the fig leaves didn't work.
If he had made really good fig leaves he wouldn't be hiding behind a tree. He said who told you that you were naked have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? God does this in an interrogation style but he knows the answers to the questions. the man said here's our next go-to the woman whom you gave to be with me gave me fruit of the tree and I ate. Who gets blamed at the very last part of the sentence? I ate. He doesn't say I ate.
He doesn't answer yes I ate. He says the woman whom you gave to me she he's hoping he gets confused by the end of the sentence. She gave me some food we were there there's a snake like he just and how much do we do that? How many of us downplay our sin and we say things like this? Yeah when I was in high school I made some mistakes because I was kind of running with a rough crowd. So they weren't sins and they weren't willful they were mistakes you know like when you spill milk on somebody it was a mistake and it really what me was the rough crowd.
And it really what me was the rough crowd. I wasn't really a part of them I was there when we made the mistakes but I wasn't like how many of us do that? How many of us do this? Yeah we're having some problems but my wife yeah I know I did that but if you knew my parents if you understood what my husband was like how many of us
Elevate ourselves as Eve did to evaluate what God says and then use blaming others and blaming God God I know your word says this and I know it seems clear but I also know that I'm in a circumstance that you probably don't understand and they didn't really understand the circumstance when they wrote this and if people knew what my wife was like people knew what my children were like
People knew what my boss was like if people like if you just it's in us to sin to cover to hide to blame God you're the one who made me like this I love the movie Fiddler on the roof it's a play but I love the movie I haven't seen the play very often and he says Tevye says dear Lord you made many many poor people and I realize
It's no shame to be poor but it's no great honor either and would it have been so terrible if I had a lot of money he kind of looks at God and that's what we do we look at God and we say we know but why not me why am I in this situation why were my parents like that why did my life work out like that why are my children like that and it's this idea that God
Somehow is to blame for our choices and our actions and our sin and we got it from Adam who passed all this down to us then the Lord God said to the woman so God says she gave me the tree and I ate and the Lord God says to the woman what have you done and she does another thing that we do she says
The serpent deceived me and I ate she was deceived she was tricked he tricked me so we blame evil we blame the concept of evil we say yeah well you know the world's a messed up place we're just living in the system so the Lord God said to the serpent and he's about to curse the serpent he's about to curse Adam and Eve
And we're going to notice something in the text they do not immediately die but death enters the world and spiritual death enters the world we notice spiritual death entering the world the moment that the relationship between them is fractured and they have to hide from God they're no longer alive the way they were they're no longer designed the way they were everything's broken and that's how sin works
It takes a good thing and it twists it there is no evil that stands alone there's only evil that corrupts something that God has already made good and so some of us some people maybe want to read this and go hold on a second time out this seems like a very over aggressive heavy handed response to eating some fruit fruit I think death is overkill but the truth is this it wasn't just that they ate fruit
Every sin R.C. Sproul says every sin is an act of treason it doesn't matter how big we deem it that if God is the king of the universe and we decide to have an uprising against him to revolt against his good will revolt against his good design that we want to elevate ourselves to his position that we want to get rid of his decrees that we want to sit in his throne that we want to be
The king over our lives it's treason and that death is an appropriate punishment for traitors for those who would usurp the throne so the Lord God said to the serpent because you have done this cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field and on your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring you shall bruise your head and you shall bruise
His heel so God curses the serpent and then he says this I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring and we're going to talk about that again in a second but it's kind of this prophecy of what's going to happen and then to the woman he said I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing pain existed before the fall in small measure it was a helpful thing he says he's going to
Multiply it I have two children my wife recently had a baby he's about six months old I think that came true that he multiplied pain and childbearing it's bad and she was like they gave her drugs we've done some things by God's common grace to kind of fight some of that and then he says your desire shall be contrary to your husband and he shall rule over you or your desire will be for your husband and he shall rule over you depending on which way they translate
That phrase in your Bible but there's this idea that what was going to be a beautiful kind of marriage dance like this perfectly leading perfectly stepping in time with one another is now broken and there will be pain when it comes to children and there will be pain in relationships and there will be pain between men and women as a result of sin and to Adam he said because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree I have that I made a big board
And I put that up in my house so that anytime my wife tries to tell me anything I point at it it's not true you guys my wife's small but she's fiery so what his point there is not that you shouldn't listen to your wife what his point is that what we were talking about earlier where rather than leading rather than serving rather than defending he put his wife in a position to take the blame and to take the fall and then blamed her because you've listened to the voice of your wife
And have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you you shall not eat of it cursed is the ground because of you in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat of the plants of the field by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for you are dust and to dust you shall return death enters the world pain enters the world and we will now survive by scratching and clawing and by the sweat of our face we'll be able to make it until we will have fruitless
Active fight scratch claw tooth and nail to eat by the sweat of our face and then at the end of that we die that that's what we have that's what's happened because of sin and that's the world that we live in where everything is beautiful and good and designed by God and there's so much loveliness and there's so much majesty and that it's so completely marred by sin and our relationships are marred by sin and our relationships
To God are marred by sin and to each other and it's broken apart and that's where we live and that's who we are and then he says this the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living and the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them then the Lord God said behold the man has become like one of us knowing good and evil now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life that was also in the middle of the garden and eat and live forever
Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken he drove out the man and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life so God sends them out of the garden he sends them out they've been removed from the place he made for him their relationship with each other is broken their relationship with him is broken and they're sent now cursed
To try to work and make it and eventually die and this is us and this is where we find ourselves but there are three pictures of the gospel in this text and I want to encourage us the way we want to respond to sin the way you want to respond to sin is you want to use Adam and Eve as a playbook cover hide blame I want to cover I want to hide I want to blame I want to get myself
As separate from this as possible I want to do enough good works to make this go away I want to do my little religious activity I want to do these things so that God will love me that I'll be okay I want to try to make up for it I want nobody to know but I want us to see how we ought to respond to our sin in the back part of this chapter that we just read so he looks at pick back up in verse 14 Lord God said to the serpent because you have done this cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts
Of the field and on your belly you shall go and dust you out shall eat all the days of your life I will put enmity meaning you'll be enemies with between you and the woman between your offspring and her offspring he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel now the New Testament does some interesting stuff with this that he's going to have offspring what we see is that the enemy is going to be destroyed he's going to have his head bruised
Although he's going to harm the one who does this he's going to have his head bruised by a specific and that singular offspring it's not ancestors it's ancestor he says I'll put in between you you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring everywhere in the Bible that a genealogy is done it is done father to father to father to son father to son father to son every once in a while the highlight a female if we know a little bit about their story
Here God says there's going to be a woman who's going to give birth the only person in the Bible and the only person in the world that was born without a father on earth was Jesus so God makes this promise to the enemy I'm going to send someone who's going to crush you the first way we ought to respond to our sin is to acknowledge that we're not the ones who get to beat it you're not the one who's able to overcome this you're not the one who's able to fix the promise fix the problem God has promised
Someone else to do it secondly it says this in the text look at verse 21 and the Lord God made for Adam and Eve and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them God did not look at them and say no no no don't cover yourself stay naked he says I've got a better covering I've got a better covering than what you can accomplish the second thing that we ought to do in our sin is to go to God and expose our sin
So that he can cover it that's what happens in Christ see we're told that everything that we hide gets uncovered everything that we hide gets exposed that on the last day God's going to bring it forth that what we whisper he's going to shout from the rooftops but that everything that we expose everything that we bring to him in our sin he covers and so they had to come to him and they had to remove their fig leaves they had to quit hiding
And let him cover them we're clothed in the new heavens and the new earth by God's glory by Christ's grace lastly then the Lord God said behold the man has become like one of us knowing good and evil now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken he drove out the man at the east of the garden of Eden
He placed the cherubim that's a type of angel and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life the way back to the tree of life is for someone to face the sword of God's wrath the only way to make it back to the tree of life is to face God's wrath and so the way we respond is we admit that we can't fix this problem we expose our sin before God and we place our faith
In Jesus who took the wrath of God on our behalf so that we might re-enter the garden and be given life see Jesus Christ fixes what falls apart here in Genesis chapter 3 and that's our hope it's the only hope we have that we would trust him who died for us and rose again that we might have life Raz and Kelly are going to come back up some of you have been hiding you've been hiding for a long time
Some of you have some actual fig leaves that work they work around other people Adam and Eve could have kept on going with the fig leaf thing until God showed up and some of you that's what you've got you've got acceptable fig leaves for your family for your co-workers for your neighbors but one day you stand before God and everything gets exposed and so I would encourage you to go to God and lay yourself bare to confess your sin
To be open about it to admit that you're wrong and place your faith in Jesus who takes God's wrath on your behalf that you might have life that the way to the tree of life is open again because Jesus Christ went to a cross and took God's wrath on our behalf so in a second Raz is going to play the guitar and give us a little bit of time to just pray to reflect some of us believe in Jesus but we've been hiding we have some things we need to repent of some people need to go grab somebody and talk to them that's in your group
And confess some sin and work some things out and then when you're ready when you've confessed when you've dealt with your relationship with the Lord and with others if you're a Christian in the room we'd invite you to take communion which is where we celebrate that Jesus Christ's body was broken for us that his blood was shed for us and that we have a new covenant with him not based off of our work or our labor or our ability but based off of his and if you're not a Christian in a moment while everybody else is taking communion please just stay where you are
And then we'll have a chance to sing and pray and be dismissed and if you've never placed your faith in Jesus you can't because it's not about your work it's about his so we would encourage you to expose your sin have Christ cover you with his love and his good work and then you may take communion as well let's pray God we thank you for how good you are thank you for the love that you've shown us I pray right now Lord that you would help us feel the weight of our shame
And our guilt and our sin before you that we would not grow comfortable with it that we would not begin to accept it and therefore never get rid of it I pray that we would confess that we would be honest that we would be real about where we are that you might cover us and clean us refresh us and give us life in Jesus name Amen
The First Man and Woman
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles, go to Genesis chapter 2. We are walking through the book of Genesis. Genesis is the first book in the Bible, probably on page 1, no matter what Bible you have, whichever which Bible you have.
If you do not own a Bible, we have blue ones in the row next to you. We'd love for you to grab one. We'd love for you to take it home. We want you to own a Bible. We want you to read it often. I have been married for, it'll be nine years this year, and I have gotten fairly competent at building things out of particle board.
There's not much in our house that is made out of any kind of solid material, but we have a lot of particle board. And I have built bookshelves and tables, and we've got a three-year-old now, and he'll jump up on particle board like coffee table, and I'm like, yeah, that thing's days are numbered. Like, this isn't going to last long. But we don't have a whole lot of real stuff, but there's different times when you buy something, and it looks nice in the store, it looked nice on the box, and then you pour all this stuff out, and you have no clue who originally wrote these instructions, and then even less of an idea of who then translated them, but they don't really match.
The pictures aren't great, and there have been times when I've been building something that I hit, you know, step seven, and all of a sudden I'm like, I just have to, like, step back away from it and stare at my creation, and it's like, I think something's wrong here. I think something's out of place. This picture doesn't look like this. I'm not even sure these instructions go to this. I think I'm missing some pieces. This isn't great, and since having a child, I've built even more things that don't even get me started on, like, train tables.
Like, there's just these moments where I have to step back and go, okay, I don't know if my instructions match. I don't know if I'm doing this the way it's meant to be done. And I think for a lot of us, life feels like that. I think for a lot of us, there are moments in life that kind of feel like that. Like, it just started happening. You just started making decisions.
Maybe for you, this kind of starts, I think really kind of starts, people actually start making some decisions in middle school. We've actually encouraged you before to reevaluate all your middle school decisions because some of us made decisions in middle school that we've just stuck with, and maybe we need to think back through those. But there are these decisions we make in middle school and high school, and then we kind of get out of high school, and we kind of pick, we're going to go to work, or we're going to go to college. We date some people. Maybe we get married. Maybe we don't.
Maybe like, and there's all of a sudden, there's these moments in life where you just kind of step back, and you look at your life and go, have I done this right? Is this built correctly? Did I miss a step? Am I missing some pieces? What is going on here? And so as we look at the beginning of Genesis where God is creating humanity, what we want to see today is kind of the good gifts that God places around the first man and the first woman, what he gives them, what he equips them with, so that we might better understand what is our life meant to have?
What are the pieces that are supposed to be involved? What order are they supposed to be in? How are we supposed to understand what's meant to be a part of life, and how do we live well in all the good gifts that God gave us? So that's kind of what we're doing, that as we zoom back on life at times and try to figure out, oh, I have everything here, we're going to hopefully see in God's original creation what he said, no, you need this, you need this, you need this, in order to be designed the way he designed humanity, to flourish and to be healthy. So let's pray, and then let's read the text together.
God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for how helpful it is, and we pray that as we see the beauty of your creation in Genesis 2, that you might help us to rejoice, and you might help us to worship, and that we might leave today grateful for Jesus and his good work on our behalf. Lord, we love you, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to pick up in verse 4, and we're going to kind of throughout the day walk through the rest of this chapter, but it says, these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
This is the first of 10 times that we'll see this phrase, these are the generations, in the book of Genesis. Every time we hit that, we kind of know we're hitting a new section, a new kind of idea is being opened up, a new chapter in the book, and so it's saying, these are the generations, meaning these are the people, this is the stories we're going to tell kind of in this time frame, and so he says, in the time when God was creating and his beginning of creation and him in the time frame, that's what the day means there, in the time that God was making heavens and the earth, these are the people, this is what happened, and so verse 5, when no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground, then the Lord God formed the man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. So in the opening of the Bible, we have Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, and both of them are giving an account of some of the same historical things that took place. They're giving an account of some of the same events.
So Genesis 1 is going to give this big, cosmic account of creation, how God, the God of the universe, exists before everything else. That's why it starts in, in the beginning God, like he was here before everything else was here, and that he speaks everything into existence, and it's this orderly account of God's creating and kind of the way that he created. And then Genesis 2 is going to start back up, kind of in the middle of that, and zoom way in. So Genesis 1 is this big, cosmic picture of who God is and how powerful he is and how glorious he is and how he speaks everything into existence.
And then Genesis 2 is going to jump right in, and the main character is man fairly quickly. It's saying kind of nothing was ready yet, nothing was going on, and then God creates man. And some people will read Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 and say there's some conflict there. There are some places where if you just do a straightforward reading of each, it seems like they're in conflict. I don't believe that they are. I think the purpose is different so that Genesis 2 is telling the same story but in a different way.
And you know this. You meet some people who both were in on the same event, and you ask them how it went, and maybe your granddad says it like just real matter of fact and real logical and real in order, and it's not the best story, but you got some of the facts there. Well, this happened, and then this happened, and your grandmother and I at that time were, and like he tells it that way, and maybe your grandma's chaotic. She's all over the place. She's like telling this part of the story, and you're like, wait, I didn't think y'all had kids then. She's like, oh, well, we didn't, but they came later, and she just mixes it all up, but her story's way better, and it's from the same events, and they're both true.
That's kind of what we have here where Genesis 2 is going to zoom in and say this is the main point of the story. So when it talks about trees, when it brings up these other things, it's just kind of saying God did that, but it's not trying to tell you an order. It's not trying to make this a big, it's saying let's focus in on the main part here. So that's what we have in Genesis 2, and so let's look at as God creates humanity, and as Genesis 2 zooms us in on this, let's look at what God places around man. So go back to 5.
When no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. So in Genesis 1, God speaks, and it is. God speaks, and it is. God speaks, and he sees it. It immediately happens, and then there's this, in Genesis 2, we see that God pauses, and we saw this last week as we looked at the man was formed in the image of God, that God pauses when he gets to humanity, and he approaches it differently.
That he forms, and he breathes, and there's this intimacy that is seen with humanity that is different, and in contrast to the rest of creation. That as the biblical account tells it, the stars have glory, but not compared to the glory of man. That God's good creation, animals have glory, but that God's poured extra distinct beauty and creative work and connection into humanity that is wholly different from the rest of everything else. And the Lord God, this is verse 8. So this is the first thing we're going to see that God kind of gives man.
So he makes him, and then we're going to start seeing kind of what he puts in place. And the first thing is a place, or place. God gives humanity place. Let's look at this idea. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Those two trees are going to play a very important role in the history of humankind, and we'll get more to them in a minute. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are there.
The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush, and the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria, and the fourth river is the Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man, and he put him in the garden of Eden. And we'll stop there. God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden. So the first thing that God gives humanity is a place, and it is a specific place.
Some people will try to argue, and they're like, Genesis 2 is kind of this, it's an allegory, it's a picture, it's like, it's this, it's just kind of a story, but there wasn't like a real first man, real first woman, and we're going to see next week, we'll argue this out a little more. But yes, there were, because Eden is a very specific place. It didn't just say, once upon a time in a garden. It goes, no, in the east, and there was this river that ran into this river, and went to this land, that's not a part of this story, but that place has gold. Like, it just kind of keeps going, because it's telling you, it's a specific place on earth, and God takes Adam, and places him in a specific place on earth.
That we're designed to inhabit space. None of us can teleport. You had to wake up this morning, and move your body, and work really hard to get here. And some of us didn't make it here. There's some people who tried, and they're not here, you guys. They're in another place.
They inhabit other space right now. This is how this works. Some of you left family members at home. You were like, you're ruining this. I'm going. I will be there.
You will not. But we were designed to have a place that is ours, that is a home. And this is one of the beautiful things that God gives man. A place to belong. A place to be where he's meant to be. See, we're looking at just one man here, but this is actually what God is going to do for humanity.
He made earth this way for us, and that we're all only able to live in one place at a time, and only able to be in one place at a time, and that is a gift. It doesn't feel like it when you're at the DMV, but it is a gift that God designed us to inhabit space and to have places where we feel at home. You ever had those moments? I mean, it's not all the time, but there are these moments where you're just like, this is my place. This is where I belong. This is where I'm meant to be.
This is my home, and I don't know for you what that is. For some of you, it's the places that you, as you live in a place, maybe it's the restaurants and kind of your local haunts. I have restaurants. I had a Japanese restaurant when I lived in Lynchburg, Virginia. There's a Chinese restaurant that when I walk in, if I wasn't there the week before, there's a lady who's like, oh, I walked in the restaurant recently, and she went, it's not Thursday. It's like, yeah, my schedule changed.
I'll be here on Tuesdays, though. There are these places where you feel like, this is where I'm supposed to be. Maybe it's when you've come back from vacation, or maybe you joined the military, and when you got to come back from being downrange, there are these moments when you were like, yes, this is my home. This is my place. Maybe it's with family over Christmas or something where you're gathered together and you just have this moment. You can't describe it, and it's one of the things that C.S.
Lewis talks about in his book, Surprised by Joy, where you have this moment and you feel it, and as soon as you try to capture it or as soon as you try to look at it, it disappears. But there are these moments where you just feel, yes, I belong. I'm here. I'm meant to be here. I'm home. That's the first place that God gives it.
I want to point out something about this place that God gives. And I love that it talks about Havilah, and I love what it says about Havilah. So it says, God plants this garden in Eden, and then it starts talking about this river. And in verse 12, it says, in verse 11, it says, the name of the first river is the Pishon, and it is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah where there is gold. Verse 12, and the gold of that land is good. What does that have to do with the Garden of Eden?
As far as I know, it just helps place where it is, but this whole little, like if you were writing this, your teacher would circle the like, why are you talking about gold in Havilah? This has nothing to do with the rest of the story. Does Eden have gold? No. Does Havilah have gold? Yes.
Is it good? Yes. Where did God put Adam? In Eden. To work in a garden. What I love about that is that so often we long for other places and maybe you're supposed to be here where there is no gold.
That God placed you in a place and so often we get so, we wander and we convince ourselves that some other place should be our place. That we don't inhabit where we're meant to be and we don't enjoy the good gifts that are here. Some of you are so bothered by the fact that, you know, Charleston has the coast and they have these good types of food. And it's like, yeah, are you enjoying the river and the barbecue that's here? You've been to the zoo lately? Because if you were in Charleston and you wanted to see a lion, you're out of luck, bro.
And if you see a lion in Charleston, I got bad news for you. Something bad has happened. Like being in a place and enjoying the good things that God put there. That's a good gift that God gives humanity. He keeps going. We're going to see this in three spots.
It shows up in three spots, but we're going to hit it here. The second thing that we see that God gives man, it says this, verse 15, and the Lord God took the man and he put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. So God placed man there and he wasn't just like, hey, here's a beautiful garden. Take a nap. He says, hey, here's a beautiful garden. You got some work to do.
Because if you don't keep this up, it will not be a beautiful garden anymore. Isn't that crazy? I think we have this idea that prior to the fall, prior to sin, like back then, there was like, he just got to nap. That was it. God was like, here's green grass. Take a nap.
You know, he puts him there and he says, you got work to do. Later, he's going to have him name all the animals. Earlier, I love this. Verse five, it says, when no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land and there was no man to work the ground. God designed certain plants to not exist if humans don't exist. Without humans, without us tending and toiling and working, it doesn't exist.
He designed it from the very beginning to need us to be involved, that God made the world that way. I heard a story one time of a pastor who used to ride by this plot of land and it was just overgrown. It was a big mess. He'd ride by it every day to and from work. Eventually, he saw there was a for sale sign in front of it and then the for sale sign was gone and then at some point he rode by and he saw that some of it had been cleared and then slowly over his trips he just kind of kept seeing it getting cleared and cleared and cleared and then things started being planted and it became this beautiful part of his drive.
He was driving by one day and he sees a tractor out there and he just gets out and he's staring at it and the guy kind of stops and gets off and they start talking and he goes, isn't it wonderful? Because he's a pastor so he pastors it up. He says, isn't it wonderful what man and God can do when they work together? And the farmer's like, you know, you should have seen what it looked like when just God was in charge of it. Every time I heard that, like it bothered me but that's actually how God designed it. From day one, there are things that were meant to only be good as humanity got involved.
Do you see the elevation and the purpose and the joy that God brings humanity in on his good work? That's the second thing he gives us is work. Good work to do. That he designed us to have a purpose. That none of us are meant to be here and just inhabit space but we're meant to be here and in the space that we are and in the place that we're put, we're meant to make it better. We're meant to add into it.
We're meant to do something with our hands or our intelligence or our ability to speak to others and love others and work together but we're meant to be a part of God's good work and that's a blessing. And you've had moments like that where you're doing some work, you're involved in something and you just have this glimpse of, now this is what I'm supposed to be doing. This is it. You have days at work when you come home and you're riding home and you're like, yes, that is what work is supposed to be like. I crushed it today. I am a worker and you liked it.
You don't always have days like that but there are days like that. There are times like that when you're doing something, when you finally, you were trying to cook the perfect breakfast and it just worked. You actually flipped the omelet and it landed and you thought, yes, from now on, I am the chef of the house. It was that one day, you've never done it again but you had these moments where it worked, where you felt your purpose and God gave us that as a good gift that was meant to be felt for humanity. It was meant to be a part of how we lived prior to the fall, prior to sin. Let's pick up the third gift that God gives is He gives us Himself and He gives us His Word.
Let's pick up in verse 16. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden. Okay, that's part of place. He gives us food. That's just a blessing but it comes along with the provision of your place. I didn't want to add in food because I would talk forever about that.
I'd have way too much to say but food's good, you guys. Later He gives us meat but that's not until later. Right now it's just trees and like vegetables and stuff. I realize we don't really eat trees. All right, let's go.
And the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. I find this part of the passage so interesting. It told us earlier that God plants a garden in Eden and in the middle of the garden He plants tree of life, tree of knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden, in the middle, somewhere in the middle. It doesn't necessarily mean it was the exact center but it's in the middle. Now, I have a question. If there's a tree that they will eat of and it will kill them, why plant it there?
That's my, I was like, I'm not like a botanist or like an arborist or whatever but why when you were designing the garden did you put it like if I said, hey, I'm making my backyard perfect for my three-year-old and there's going to be a swing set over here and this area's just going to be kind of wooded and I'm going to have kind of where you can hang out and I'm going to put a pit with spikes in the middle and there's going to be a tree house. Like, you'd be like, what's with the pit of spikes? And I'm like, no, I'll tell him it's there. It's like, no, there's this question I have when I read this text.
It's like, why is that there? You want to know the text, the answer the text gives us? Unfortunately, it doesn't give us one. It doesn't tell us why he put it there. We have a lot of people who've made guesses and I think some of them are reasonable and some of them are intelligent but we don't know why God placed it there. We know that God is infinitely wise and infinitely good but I want to point out one thing about this that I think changes the minute that God says, don't eat of that tree.
See, the moment that God looks at Adam and says, you can eat of every tree except that one and if you eat of that one on the day you do, you'll die or in the time you do, you'll die. what happens that moment is Adam now has to trust God in a way that he never had to before. He has to believe God in a way he never had to before. He has to relate to God in a way he never had to before. That God is inviting Adam into a depth of relationship that is beyond what would happen if God had just put Adam in a padded room. We also see that it seems like that death and this kind of this interaction was going to be a part of creation somehow.
God had not designed it for humanity. It was not meant for this to be the way it worked but God places him there and he says, you're just going to have to trust me. And the moment he does that we're invited into humanity's invited into a relationship where we are more dependent on God and more have to believe him and trust him over and against our own desire and over against our own wisdom and over against everything else so there's this moment now where the relationship has changed and God has said you're just going to have to trust me. Those of you who are parents especially parents of older children maybe you've had these moments where you're trying to explain to them why they cannot do a thing you're trying to tell them that they should not act in such a way and their answer is why?
Their question is why? They want you to convince them. They want to be on your team. They want to agree with you and at some point you just land on because I am your parent because I love you because I have wisdom things you can't just you're going to have to trust me. Maybe you didn't say it that way maybe you said because I said so. Maybe some of you said because if you do they will be like I'm coming after you like I don't know how you worded it but there was these moments where the reason they're supposed to do or not do a thing is because you have told them and they're supposed to bank on the relationship and the love and the connection and your wisdom and lean into you in a way they can't lean into themselves and as soon as God says don't touch that tree he invited Adam into that.
That he gives us himself and his word and the truth is we need God to do that. We need God to enjoy life. This comes third in the list but it's first we need God. In the way humanity works we see that God's at work before he begins everything that humanity needs God. We were designed to relate to God. We were designed to enjoy God.
We were designed to walk with God. We were designed to have conversations with God. You ever had that moment I wish God would just tell me. That's how it was supposed to work. He still gives us his word in scripture but we were meant to have this relationship where we listened to him where we understood him where we knew what he wanted from us where he gave us wisdom we couldn't have otherwise. And it's a good gift that God gives us and it's the way it works best that we were designed to be in a relationship with God.
The way that children were designed to have parents and that's the way that it works best. We were designed as humans to be in a relationship with God and that's the way that we are most free and most flourish. There are things about the world we do not understand. There are spiritual aspects to the world we don't understand that God wove in who we are and how it works. We see it in glimpses of things like when you become depressed you also get physically sick. You can be actually sick.
What made you sick? I was sad. It's like how does that work? That there's more to us than we understand. There's more that God's put in the world and we need him to explain it to us and show it to us and we need to trust him and we were meant to. Prior to the fall we were meant to trust God and his wisdom over our own.
The next one we're going to see is that God gives us each other. Let's keep reading. Verse 18 Then the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him. We've spent a decent amount of time talking about this in the past couple years. The first thing that God says isn't good is for him to be alone.
He looks at the man he's created in all of his creation so far in Genesis chapter 1 he said he saw it it was good he saw it it was good he saw it he ends by saying everything's very good. This is the one moment where God was like no it's not good for him to be alone. I will make a helper fit for him. Real quick just to try to for anybody that this is a hurdle for the word helper while having kind of diminutive connotations in the way we use it like oh you're my little helper. like if Archer's helping me do work I'm like oh you're being such a good helper. He's not he's just hitting things with a hammer but it's like yeah good Job buddy.
And so it's like God looked at man and said oh I'm going to make you a little helper. And then that's where women came from. That's not that's that's that's why sometimes it seems like it reads the word helper in the Bible is most often used for God. There's only two instances where it is used to mean someone who is of a lower status. Every other time it's someone who shows up as like a rescuer. So it is not in the text and in the original Hebrew it is not meant to be diminutive.
Helper fit means that phrase really just kind of means a like opposite so he's going to make something that's similar but very different so that he's actually helped. So now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. This does show Adam's dominion over creation and God's place that he's put him in and whatever the man called every living creature that was its name. And the man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field but for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
So Adam you just think he's got a job and then at the end it surprises you because it was like a weird dating game because it's like but he didn't like any of them. None of them worked out. I think God was really putting that on display for him was like everything else is different from you. You are in a different category. So it's like zebras are neat but they're not like cute cute.
They're cute but not like I'm attracted. So that's what he's doing there. He's just kind of saying like this isn't going to work for you. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and he brought her to the man. Then the man said this is at last this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
This is the first bit of poetry this is the first bit of song that we see that existed in human existence. Adam had the urge that every high school guy has had who had a guitar at a party which was to sing and look at a girl. That's what he did. He saw her and he was like I want to write you a poem. That's what happens. This is the last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she should be called woman because she was taken out of man.
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Alright so in this part of the text there's a lot going on here and we're going to zoom way out but there's a lot of things happening here. Adam specifically Adam the one man that God had put on earth did not need to be alone and so God brings him Eve. So what the text is telling us is that Adam needed a wife specific to Adam. It also means that masculinity is incomplete without femininity. That God's distinct way that he displays his glory and himself through masculinity is not going to accomplish what the world needs so he also has a distinct way to display himself and his glory through femininity and they were meant to be complementary like opposites that come together to make a beautiful picture.
It means on another level that humans were meant to procreate and they're not going to be able to have dominion over the earth and be fruitful and multiply and accomplish all that God's meant without males and females but on a very zoomed out level one of the things that God is saying and completely writing into how he designed humans was that we were not meant to be alone and that does not just mean romantically that humans were meant to have relationships. This is why if you get trapped on an island you will start talking to a volleyball because we were meant for other people. We were meant to have relationships. We were designed and so in this moment God says no, no, no, no, no.
Humans need friends. Humans need relationship. Humans need love. That we're made in his image and God's existed in a trinity so that he's been forever loving and relating and being a friend and all of this. God did not make humans so that he could relate to us but he did once he made humans say no, y'all need to relate to each other. And if you think about all the ink that has been spilled all the film that has been used all the song lyrics that have been written about the beauty of friendship and love this is a good gift.
That God did not design you to just be alone but he designed you for family. He designed you for relationships. He designed you for friendship. And how much joy that brings to life. How we were designed to relate to one another and bring things out of each other. It's one of the things where you know like maybe you have a friend and when y'all hang out it's really enjoyable and there's a lot of fun but there's a third friend that when they add in you all of a sudden see a whole other side of this person that you'd never seen before and like you get more out of them because there's more people involved and God designed that to be a thing that happened for humanity that we had friends and enjoyed it.
So God in his goodness to us and his love for us intentionally made it to where you inhabit a place and you're meant to be there to be home to enjoy it to be content there. He designed you to have a purpose to have work to do. He designed you to relate to him and to know his word to trust him and he designed you to have relationships. We don't believe that everybody has to get married. We don't believe that the Bible teaches that. We don't believe that you're an incomplete person without a spouse.
We don't think that jives with the rest of the scriptures. We think that Adam was an incomplete person without a spouse because God specifically brought him Eve but we don't think that this means everybody has to have a wife but we do believe that everybody has to be in relationship. You were not designed to be alone. I'm going to be honest with you. You alone is scary. You need help.
One of the things that I know that is true about me when I'm alone is I let myself get away with a lot of things that aren't healthy or helpful. I convince myself of a lot of things that are harmful to myself and I also believe a lot of lies about myself like that I'm really easy to get along with and I'm the smartest person in the room. When I'm alone I'm super easy to get along with and I'm great you guys and then I get around my wife and she's like you're not that great you got some stuff to work on and I'm like what is wrong with you and I hang out with my community group and they're like why do you do this repeatedly? We've been hanging out in a group with you for years and you haven't fixed this and I need them to grow and to be healthy and to see my sin and I need them to enjoy life.
We're meant for relationship. God in his goodness gave us each other and I have really bad news. We're not going to end the sermon here and it's going to get way worse next week but I'm going to give you a little hint about what happens next week. Y'all remember that tree that God talked to Adam about? Well next week they decide not to trust God and that humanity is more intelligent than God that we know a better idea of what's good for us than God and they completely mess up all four of these things for us. They get derailed they get stolen they get corrupted.
And that humanity is more intelligent than God that we know a better idea of what's good for us than God and they completely mess up all four of these things for us. They get derailed they get stolen they get corrupted. We still long for all four of these. Every single person in this room wants a place where they belong wants a purpose that makes them feel fulfilled wants a job that is great for them
Wants to have a relationship with God even if you don't understand that even if maybe I always want to point it out to you you're in this room some of you think you have no desire for God whatsoever but he's been drawing you he's been pulling on you he's been claiming you he won't let you get away you're here because we know we were meant for we don't understand why but we know that it's missing and we need each other some of you
Think you hate people but you know you're way worse off without them you're like people are the worst and oh my goodness I have to have them I don't understand see what happens is this they sin and all of this good gift that God gives them they lose they're removed from Eden the good work that God had given Adam to do
In Eden is now just kind of dispersed and he has to move and try to try to patch it together everywhere he goes to work the ground but it's going to be harder the relationship they had with God where they walked with him intimately knowing him where he could just speak to them and they trusted him is completely corrupted and their relationship
With each other you know this line at the end of this where it said they were naked and unashamed which is like that's weird to put in here but alright good for y'all as soon as they sin as soon as they rebel against God both of them go I don't feel right they cover themselves up they feel naked they lose the relationship with each other so let me explain what happens let me explain us in this story
You kind of like your house if you just moved in it you think it's great we'll give it some time we have this idea that like this house is great but if my kitchen just and we pick weird things if it was just a different color I'd be happy I'd be settled if our floor looked a little different if maybe we were in a different part of town if maybe our house was a little bigger I realized that I wanted this but now I really kind of want that because the reason is
We were meant for a place and we really wanted to work for some of us we do this with cities you liked it when you were first discovering what Columbia has to offer but now that you're going for the third time to the same place and you realize that the best restaurant near you is like an Applebee's like that hurts you inside and you're thinking man if I could just move to Savannah if I could just move to Denver if I could just go somewhere
Where weed was legal and we need to talk to you we do this we convince ourselves that some other thing would be better some other thing would fill us up some other thing would make us more whole and we have these glimpses of it where I'm home and then it's gone this is my place no it's not because we've lost this and we long for it this happens with work any of y'all ever had the perfect Job just the perfect Job is it still the perfect Job nope
Because that's how it works you get in it and you're like finally I'm at my place this is where I belong and then it turns out this boss is an idiot like your last boss everywhere you've gone your boss is an idiot and it's not your fault it's the boss's fault you don't know how idiots keep getting promoted you have those days where everything worked you remember that day I was talking about you're riding home and you're like yes this is how everything was worked how many more days have you been sitting in traffic
Like wanting to bang your head on the steering wheel like this is I don't even understand how everything broke I don't understand how this all went sideways because we long for work we long for this to work and it's twisted it's broken it's corrupted our relationship with God this is a room full of people who are trying trying to read trying to pray trying to listen to God how's it going you have those days where you're like I don't even know how to pray I don't even know
If I've ever done this right I have days I'm a pastor you guys don't get rid of me I'm going to tell y'all something I have days where I go to sleep I'm about to go to sleep and I'm like did I even pray today? like I have this deep longing for God and this paired with this absolute inability to bridge that gap and we were meant for each other you guys for every beautiful love song just Taylor Swift has written a breakup song
How many people used to be your friend? we can rewind a little bit to the moments where you're like oh we're going to be best friends forever and where are we now? it's broken we hurt each other how many people that you care about have you done some serious wicked harm to evil we're going to talk more about that next week I want to tell y'all something beautiful the story starts off where God says I'm going to make
Everything good for y'all and it's going to be beautiful and he puts Adam here and he equips him with everything he needs and then Adam and Eve mess it up it breaks apart it falls down and the story does not end after chapter 3 see we're here the rest of this is about God fixing the problem and here's what he does he loves humanity so much that the God of the universe leaves his place see he was meant to be on a throne he was meant to be elevated
He was meant to be glorified we sang a song about this earlier that he comes here and he's a baby he's mute he's weak he's helpless he's laid in hay he leaves his place he was meant to be the ruler of the universe and to do all good work and to pour life into everything and his good work that he's sent here to do is to die the author of life the creator of life life itself is going to die
He was meant to have a perfect relationship with the father and every time we see in scripture that Jesus prays he calls him father until he's on the cross and then he says my God my God why have you forsaken me this beautiful relationship this beautiful connection with the father that has existed since eternity passed in a trinity is severed because God poured our sin on Christ
And then poured his wrath on him that the sky turns black because God is pouring his wrath out on Jesus as a human and as God Jesus was meant to have this beautiful relationship with us he's despised he's rejected he's hated humanity gathers together to kill God and he does all of that so that he can
Swap places with us Jesus does that so that we can have a place so that we can have purpose again so that we can have him again so that we can have each other again that's the story of the gospel that everything's been lost and we have this ache and this longing for it and no ability to get it except through Christ if you're here today
And you don't know Christ you haven't accepted Christ I want you to understand that this longing is in you this desire for this to work for you to have a place for you to have a purpose for you to have each other for relationships to be good and I want to tell you definitively you will not get those outside of Christ swapping places with you taking the punishment for you and granting you what only he deserves now which is love
And acceptance belonging and purpose and here's what happens our place all of these get to be twofold now we have a home we're citizens of heaven you will eventually get to heaven and go this is why I liked every little place that I kindly had this is why I liked all the little things I liked on earth are here because I was meant for this place you'll get to heaven and be like yes this is finally home
But it also means that we get to enjoy the place we are now your kitchen gets to be a weird pink you're okay you get to enjoy it you get to live in the neighborhood you live in you get to drive the traffic route you drive you get to enjoy Columbia that's God's grace through Christ for us you get to do good work here and Jesus has given us all a new purpose which is to see people
Come to know him so it doesn't matter where you work there are people that don't know Jesus there that need to know Jesus there and maybe God's already sent in a missionary to work there so that you might know them and pray for them and long for them to know Christ we get Jesus we get a relationship with him we get to be welcomed back into the beautiful relationship with Christ beautiful relationship
With the Father because Christ bridges that gap for us and because Jesus forgives us of our sin and we can have the gap between us and God reconciled then we get to reconcile with everybody and we're given a new family that we will be brothers and sisters in the new heavens in the new earth for eternity that heaven for us will be a place of purpose
Of belonging of family and of love towards Christ and the Father the band's going to come back up we're going to take communion in a second and what communion is is for us a celebration of what we just talked about that Jesus Christ gave his life for us he shed his blood for us his body was broken for us so that we might have life
And we might be forgiven and if you're a Christian in here what I would encourage you to do is prior to taking communion prior to getting up and celebrating that Jesus' body was broken for you and his blood was shed for you I want you to think through place and work and your relationship to God and your relationship to others and I want us to repent I want us to repent
Where we've begun to convince ourselves that we don't belong here that we have to be somewhere else to be happy I want us to repent for all the times that we've begun to convince ourselves that if we just worked this job if we could just move our job if we could just get that we lost our purpose and our meaning for mission for seeing people come to know Jesus and for just doing good work
But God to put us here to do I want us to talk to God about our broken relationship with him and ask Christ to help us to commune with God to pray to rest in him to enjoy him and if you have a conflict with somebody and they're in this room I want you to get up and go talk to them I want you to begin the process of reconciling of repenting of asking them
To forgive you of telling them you forgive them if they're not in this room you have a magic box in your pocket and Verizon through God's good grace and somebody's good work will connect you to that person and I'd love for you to step up step out and go call them here or out there and then come back in and take communion and celebrate the fact that Jesus shed his blood so that we can have
Each other so all around the room we're going to start praying we're going to start repenting we're going to start celebrating the good gift that God gave us through his cross and then when you're ready if you're a Christian we encourage you and invite you to come take communion if you're not a Christian you can be all you need is Christ so you can repent of your sin and you can say I need a place I need good purpose I need to belong
I need you and I want to repent of my sin and where I've run and where I've rebelled and where I've like Adam and Eve chosen to listen to myself over you you can repent and then you can celebrate communion as well let's pray God we thank you for these beautiful gifts that you gave us and we thank you that when we lost them you redeemed them so that we get an eternal family we get a place to belong a home
We get good purpose here and with you and ultimately God we get you back that we might be restored I pray that you would help us to see where we've gotten this twisted and where we've been believing lies you'd help us repent and then celebrate well that we're redeemed by a good God who loves us in Jesus name Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen
Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen 音 Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Rema
Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen
Imago Dei
Transcript
Morning. We're in our second week of our series in Genesis. We're going to spend some time walking verse by verse through this book. It is the first book in the Bible. We're going to be on page one of your Bibles today. We're going to be in Genesis chapter one.
So if you want to grab your Bibles and go there. And you have some deeply held convictions about the nature of humanity. You have some deeply held convictions about human rights. And I don't know if you think about them a lot. Sometimes some people work in certain industries or they're fighting for certain causes. And so they think about basic human rights often.
But many of us don't. We just take these for granted. We understand that this is how this works. If a politician began running for office and they announced that they were pro-cannibalism. You would immediately be like, well, I'm not voting for you. And you maybe haven't thought about cannibalism very often.
But you didn't take much time to know you're anti-cannibalism. Like you don't. You're not on board with that. If they started saying they were pro. They were going to. Hey, like they came and said, hey, I think the purge.
I watched that movie and I like it. And I think that's a really good idea, honestly. And I was thinking maybe just like a two-week purge in the summer. Maybe one around the holidays. Like we would immediately be like, no, we're not. We can't do this.
Nobody can sign on for this. Because we have these deeply held convictions about human rights. About how we ought to treat people who are not in positions of power. How we ought to treat people who have different backgrounds culturally. How different stage of life. We have these deeply held convictions.
And so what we're going to look at today is why do we have these? Where are they founded? How do we know that they're real and true? Because they are a part of our lives. And they are assumed. But what I want us to see this morning is that they come directly from the scriptures.
And without the doctrine, without the understanding of the origin of life that we're going to look at today, you actually lose basic human rights. So what we're going to do is we're going to study this passage in Genesis 1. We're going to zoom in on something we looked at last week. We're going to talk about how human rights grows up out of this. And then we're going to spend a little bit of time talking about failures in this today. Because of sin, there are failures here.
And so we're going to spend a little bit of time talking about how we ought to engage with those as Christians. So let's pray. And then we'll move into Genesis 1. God, we thank you for this time we have together as your people to study your word. We pray for all of those who come in here hurting, who come in here confused about what to do next or how to respond to life as it is. And we pray that in these moments we would not just interact with your word, but that we would interact with you.
That your Holy Spirit would be at work in us for our good and your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. But it's Genesis 1, verse 26. If you're new to your Bible, like I said, Genesis, the first book of the Bible is on page 1. When we say chapter, we mean the big number. And when we say verse, we mean the little number that's kind of smushed down in the text.
So we're going to be in Genesis 1, verse 26. As we pick up here, we're in the first creation account. So Genesis 1 gives us a creation account. Genesis 2 kind of zooms in, gives us another creation account, kind of walks us through in kind of a more intense fashion. So next week we'll get to spend more time talking about creation.
We kind of set it up last week, said that there's some different ways to approach it. We're going to continue that next week. But what we see in this place where we're picking up is that the pattern has been this. God says, and it is, and then God sees that it's good. So God says something.
He says, let there be light, and there was light. It doesn't say, God said there be light, and then he has to kind of go for it. No, when he speaks it, it happens. And so we see that this, God says it is, and then he sees that it's good. And then it says there's evening, there's morning, the first day. And this is kind of the pattern that goes.
God says it's good, and then evening and morning. God says, there it is, it's good, evening and morning. So that's the pattern. We pick up, it just ended at day five. It says there's evening and morning, the fifth day. And then in day four, in day six, he begins to bring forth living creatures.
And it says this, then God said, this is verse 26, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them, that's humanity, that's what he means by man there. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So there's this pause, there's this break in the flow where God begins to speak, and he says, let us make man in our image. And so we as Christians see a reference to the Trinity there. This is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, speaking inside the Godhead and saying, we're going to make humanity different and distinct from all the rest of creation.
And so God makes humanity in his image, and places humanity below God, but above everything else in creation. Verse 27, So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him, male and female, he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it. We're a young church with a lot of young families, and I think we've been doing pretty well with the be fruitful and multiply. I just want to say I'm proud of y'all.
Fill the earth and subdue it. We spent some time talking about that recently with the idea of work and how we're designed to have dominion over the earth. And it says, Have dominion over the earth, over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. So, humanity is distinct above all creation. And we know this. We believe this.
We feel this. And this, every once in a while I'll get on Craigslist, and I kind of just think, Let me see what kind of dogs people are selling. I just get interested, and maybe every once in a while I think I want to have a pet. I don't, but every once in a while I think I do. And I think I do until somebody in our church goes out of town, and they're like, Hey, can you watch my dog? And then I watch it, and I'm like, No, I don't want one of these.
Children make it hard enough to go out of town. I don't want to have a dog that I have to deal with also. But I get on there every once in a while, and I'll look and see what they have, and people will say, like the little Craigslist thing will be, Hey, I'm moving to a new place. Got transferred from my job. I'm needing to move into a one-bedroom house. They don't allow pets, and so I need to re-home my dog.
I love my dog. This is the best dog the world has ever known. It's crate-trained, and I love it, but I can't take it with me. That happens all the time, on Craigslist. That may not be true. That dog might bite everyone, and they're not actually moving, but that's the list thing you see.
I've never gotten on there and seen one that said, Hey, I'm having to relocate to another part of the town. I've actually lost my job. I'm having to get a job that doesn't pay as much. I'm really going to need to move into a one-bedroom apartment, and so I'd like to give up my eight-year-old Ian. He's great. We love him.
He's in the second grade. He can read pretty well, but we're just going to have to move, and it would be best for us if he didn't come, and he's crate-trained. You don't see that, you don't see that, because we know that if you're going to have to get rid of something, your children aren't on the chopping block. You've got to get rid of the dog. You've got to get rid of the parakeet and the fish, but you can't get rid of it. We know this is distinct and different.
We value this, and even for those people who come in and say, No, I think, and we mentioned this last week, but I think everybody comes from an evolutionary process, that all humanity grows out of this process, this long process of this creature turning into this creature, and then into this creature, and then into this creature, and then into this creature, and now we have humanity, and what we actually said last week is that there is room for a theistic evolution. This derails some parts of evolution, though. Humanity does not come in the line of creation. It does not come in the line of livestock.
It is distinct and set apart, so there is some room for there's some microevolution for some changes in, and we're going to spend more time on this next week, but this messes this up because God has made humanity distinct and separate, set apart as something different, and we know this. We don't treat animals the same. I was sitting there in my house, looking out my back window, and I like squirrels. I've owned squirrels periodically throughout my life. I'm watching the squirrels in my backyard. I like having squirrels in my backyard.
We actually raised four and set them loose in our backyard. I used to, when I'd go out there and talk on the phone, they would jump on you, which was great for me, weird for people who visited. So I'm watching the squirrel. He's eating. And out of nowhere, this hawk just goes, snatches him up, squirrels flipping around, and just takes off. And you know what I did?
Whoa. That was pretty cool. I like squirrels, but that was crazy. Now, flip that around. If I was facing out the front of my house, I'm across the street from a playground, and if I saw like an athletic 25-year-old do that to a six-year-old and just snatch him up and take off running, I wouldn't have been like, whoa. My response would have been a little differently.
I wouldn't have texted someone and be like, you wouldn't believe what I just saw. And they'd be like, what did you do? And I'd be like, what? We all know we're going to lose some young if they get separated from the herd. Predators will find them. Nobody, I wouldn't say that.
The response is different. I'm heading across the field. I'm going to go figure out what's going on. I'm calling the police, but I didn't call and say, you guys, there's a hawk and it just ate a squirrel. We don't do that. That hawk is not going to go to trial, is not going to get arrested.
How to Catch a Predator is a different show than National Geographic. You don't ever see the cheetah chasing and all of a sudden the person who was filming shoot it with a rifle and be like, I saved you gazelle, you're welcome. That doesn't happen. We just watch it eat it and they're like, neat. Because humanity is distinct from the rest of creation and we know this because of this. That God intentionally poured his image into humanity.
That humanity is made in the image of God and has the Mark of God on us and this is what this means. Because humans are made in the image of God, therefore, all humans have value and are worth loving, pursuing, defending, and serving. Because humanity is made in the image of God, all humans have value and are worth loving, pursuing, defending, and serving. You can add any other words you want to to that. I grabbed a few to try to help us wrap this picture around the fact that it doesn't matter what skin tone you have, it doesn't matter which gender you are, male, female, pink skin, tan skin, brown skin, this language, that language, this type of food, spicy food, bland British food, it doesn't matter. made in the image of God, worth loving, worth serving, worth defending.
Now here's what happens with this. One of the things that comes along with this concept is that we have purpose. Because we are made by God for a purpose in His image, then we have purpose, we have value. One of the things that has happened, come along in culture, is this idea that you need to create your own purpose. That you need to look inside yourself and find your purpose. You need to figure out who you are, you need to make your own purpose.
And so many people in our culture right now are languishing under the weight of having to prove that they have value when the text tells us that you have value because God designed you and put His image in you. Made you in His image for His glory and placed you here on purpose. That you do not have to prove your value. And here's what happens. This is the foundation for human rights. That humans are distinct from creation, distinct from creatures, distinct from the animals, that we aren't just in a long chain of that and that we all have value because God's placed value in humanity.
This is the foundation for human rights and so here's what happens. If we have the idea that we came out of nothingness, this is chaos, it all just swirled into what we have now and just by chance after chance after chance after chance after chance after chance our world won the lottery and here we are. we lose the foundation of human rights because if you have to find your own purpose it means that we don't just have to find our own purpose, we have to find and create our own morality as well. I want to read a law professor from Yale Law School whose name is Arthur Allen Leff and he's just interacting with this idea that if you have a God morality makes sense. Some rules that we all have to follow make sense and if you don't if you remove God from the picture if this isn't actually how this happened then laws and rules and morality we don't really have a leg to stand on.
He actually says that he uses a phrase that he says you'll find in bar rooms and schoolyards which is says who. You can't do that. That's not fair. That isn't how you should treat people and he says the response is says who? You and what army? And he says if there's a God you have an answer to the says who and if there isn't you don't have an answer.
I want to read this quote it'll be up here. God's will is binding because it is his will that it be. He just spent some time talking about in the scriptures you'll see God says and it is that whenever he says something it automatically exists. That when he speaks something he speaks it into existence so that if God says it is wrong to do this or if it is right to do this it is. It is wrong. It is right.
He's the only one who can speak in that way. Under what other circumstances can the unexamined will of anyone else withstand the cosmic says who and come out similarly dispositive? Meaning that God can say this is how this works this is what is right this is what is wrong and we just have to take it because he's God. But nobody else gets to do that. We examine it and we decide what we think. There are no such circumstances.
We are never going to get anywhere in ethical or legal theory unless we finally face the fact that in the psalmist's words there was no one like unto the Lord. If he does not exist there is no metaphoric equivalent. No person no combination of people no document however hallowed by time no process no premise nothing is equivalent to an actual God in this central function as the unexaminable examiner of good and evil. The so-called death of God turns out not to have been just his funeral it also seems to have affected the total elimination of any coherent or even more than momentarily convincing ethical or legal system.
Just his funeral it also seems to have affected the total elimination of any coherent or even more than momentarily convincing ethical or legal system. So what he's saying is this God gets to answer the question of the grand says who he gets to speak into existence morality he gets to say this is right and this is wrong and if you remove him from the picture then nobody else
There is no other equivalent you can't move the US government over there you can't move the UN over there you can't move nobody else fits into that equation where they can just speak and it's unexamined. He kind of finishes with this he says put briefly if the law meaning this morality this ruling over us is not a brooding omnipresence in the sky then it can only be one place
In us as things stand now everything is up for grabs so if we believe that we grew out of the strong eat the weak survival of the fittest the smartest the strongest the baddest the toughest the biggest need to breed and pass on their genes and the rest need to be weeded out you cannot build a system of global human rights off of that you can build a system of local ones
You can say our government works best if we don't allow murder so you can say that it's best for the United States to have rules and laws but you cannot make the argument that it's not a good idea for the United States and the USSR during the Cold War to just annex everything on the planet and say we own you now and if you don't like that we're going to destroy you because they're more powerful and that's how the system ought to work you cannot
Say this is wrong this is unfair without acknowledging the fact that you have nothing to base it off of for example most people in the United States think that females should have rights be able to drive be able to vote have opinions I agree I think that's good I distinctly and specifically agree whether I had a choice or not because the scripture says he made male
And female in his image and to deny that is to deny what this says but here's what happens we want to outsource this all over the world people who don't believe in God want to take this idea all over the world and so what happens is people will say well we know that women should have rights and we know that they should be treated this way we know it okay but for the majority of the population and the majority
Of the human history we haven't known that and much many many places across the world do not know that and so what happens is when you lose the grand says who when you lose the ability to say this is why this is true when you outsource it when you go over to Saudi Arabia or Libya and say no this is not how to treat a woman this is how women are supposed to be treated these are the rights they're supposed to have
All you really are doing is taking a very aggressively deep held opinion equivalent to whether or not pineapple should be on pizza it's an opinion if I told you that I was going to go to Saudi Arabia and I was going to make sure that they got rid of the ridiculous clothes they wore and the nasty tasting food they had started eating cheeseburgers and pizza and wearing blue jeans because they're all better you would say how on earth are you going to act like your culture
Just wipes their culture out but then we'll say they need to treat women this way and act like that's in a separate category and it is if you're over here where God created humanity in his image and it's not if you're over here in a big line of chaotic everything I weigh 220 pounds my wife weighs 100 pounds if I'm over here who's to say how she's treated if I'm over here it's different now you could say well we have laws
We have regulations but all you end up getting to do is appealing to power might makes right which was the argument I was making you say well the police will come in and they're more mighty than you we can say racism is wrong and we just know it it's common sense but the truth is for the majority of history and the majority of the population of the earth that hasn't been just known or made sense we can say
That a stronger nation shouldn't just plow over a weaker one and overtaken it but the truth is for the majority of the population and the majority of history that's exactly how that's worked and it's made the most sense so you can say that Russia should not annex the nation next to it named Georgia but without this it's hard to back up your argument and so for many of us what we'll say is no no no no I know this
You just want to argue with this you're like I know this to be true and the truth is I agree with you and the reason that so many people who believe this stand over here with us on human rights issues is because God made us in his image and we can't shake it it's been marred by sin but we can't shake the fact that we know that humans are distinct and different from the rest of creation and Christians have modeled this forever Christianity came in and immediately began
To interact with and adjust how the world viewed women how it viewed other races one of the most beautiful things that happens in the early church is the holy kiss we don't know much about it we read it and are sometimes like well that's weird because they'll say greet each other with a holy kiss here's what the holy kiss was in that time period when the church got started when people greeted
Each other on the street they would greet each other with a kiss so if you were of equal level with one another you kissed kind of cheeks we're equal if you were in higher status you could hold out your hand and they would kiss your hand and that demonstrated to everyone when y'all met this person is lower than me and if they were very low they could kiss your feet they'd bow down at your feet and Christianity comes in and goes nope
Everybody gets kissed on the face I don't care what your money is I don't care what your race is I don't care if you're a slave or free I don't care it's a holy kiss and it was this symbolic picture of what the gospel had done and Christianity began to do this very early on because Jesus came and he redeemed humanity he loved humanity made in his image so much that he would die
For us Christians immediately began to model this and how they cared for the poor there's a letter from the Roman Emperor Julian who's writing in the 4th century and he says this he calls Christianity in here and he calls it atheism because Christians only believed in one God and that was a big problem for everybody so you would say well of course all these gods are gods and Christianity would just be like
Nope can't play your game just the one so they called them atheists they were mad at them he says this atheism has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers and through their care for the burial of the dead it is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar and that the godless Galileans that's the Christians care not only for their own poor
But for ours as well while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them what he says is part of the problem with these Christians is they don't just take care of their poor people they take care of our poor people too which is crazy but it's helped them grow but see this idea that poor people didn't have worth was rampant and then Christians came along and said no Christians and the Jewish
People who also believe this no every person's made in the image of God and is therefore valuable worthy of loving serving pursuing defending that's how hospitals began was Christians serving those who couldn't get medical help medical help was given to those who were wealthy Christians started just giving it to everybody there are actually stories where there were plagues
In cities and people were just dumping out someone in their family would get sick they would just put them out on the street or whole people were just leaving cities and the only people that were going back in were Christians started caring for the sick that weren't even theirs because they believed that this is a person made in the image of God and the truth is if I get the plague and die I have a great king that I'm about to meet
What we're about to do is going to be distinctly political so it should be fun y'all like being uncomfortable I assume the reason it's going to be distinctly political is we're going to talk about human issues and human issues always get pushed to the forefront of politics as they should sometimes I'll hear people say well Jesus wasn't political and that's true he didn't run for office he did ride a donkey one time
But he didn't he didn't run for office there we go but he always engaged in political issues one of the reasons he was killed was for political reasons they said he was setting himself up to be a king he was accused of undercutting the power system that the Pharisees had and the balance between them and Rome but the reason he was always interacting with political issues is because he was always interacting with humans on their level
In their lives and in human issues you will find politics so what we're about to do is take this idea that every human is made in the image of God and is therefore valuable and we're just going to apply it to some areas where we see it breaking down currently where we see conflict where we see frustration where we see a divide in the aisle and we're just going to try to point out and say here's how we ought to approach this and understanding that every human
Is valuable we're just going to push it into that area some of these will be handled more quickly than others the whole goal is for us to draw our attention to the fact that Christians have forever engaged in image of God breakdowns in culture and that we are not called to do anything less the first one we're going to talk about is gender we see this playing out in two distinct
Ways culturally you see we've been told that gender is a cultural construct but we just read that it's a divine construct that God made man in his own image and he made them male and female that there is a distinction between males there is a distinction between females and it both hold the image of God and are meant
To put him on display so here's here's where this is falling apart in two places culturally one is we have kind of this idea that gender is fluid that there are no two genders that you can't figure that out by biology and there are a few exceptions that are actually
Mentioned in the Bible but God designed gender two distinct genders on purpose and so one of the areas that we're seeing this breakdown is that this is under attack is maybe a harsh word it is but it's disbelieved and aggressively disbelieved and so we as Christians have to hold to
The fact that no there are two distinct genders but the other way that this is breaking down is that those in our culture who struggle with gender dysphoria those that are transgender in our culture are at increased likelihood for sexual assault they are four times more likely to attempt or to commit
Suicide and Christianity cannot just join in looking at those who are struggling and hurting and made in the image of God cannot just join in to aggressively chant you're wrong when we're called to distinctly love pursue defend and serve that there are those
Who in the middle of this are told that you have to create your own value you have to find out who you are you have to make yourself have worth that those in the transgender community the suicide rate does not change
Prior to or after transition because a lot of times they transition continue to face outside pressure but also continue to face the inside pressure that this didn't fix them and we as Christians know that they're made in the image of God and Jesus loved them
So much that he would die for them and they have value and they're worth loving pursuing defending and serving while we also uphold the truth that there are two distinct genders this is a gender issue as well but I want to we're going to give it a different word women this is a
Current cultural it is it has been a forever problem because God's good design was broken by sin and in God's good design men have been larger created larger stronger have thicker bone density tendon density muscle mass and therefore have gotten away with a lot of
Things they shouldn't have gotten away with that are heinous and evil throughout the history of the world because they've taken advantage of females who God designed in his good design to reflect his glory not as big so that we have the me too movement and I
Celebrate and applaud even where it has been painful and we have seen it cropping up in places where Christians are and in churches where there has been sexual assault and pressure we ought not to just discount everyone who comes forward with this but we ought to celebrate the fact that a voice has been given where there was no
Voice in history no voice attempted rapes and completed rapes according to RAIN which is the largest anti-sexual violence 90% of that is towards females 82% of the total rapes that take place or attempted rapes are towards juvenile females who are often in a position of lacking power lacking a
Voice if you are a female and you are 18 to 24 and you are in college you are three times more likely to face sexual assault if you are not in college you are four times more likely to face sexual assault than other females one out of six women in our nation has either
Been raped or someone has attempted to rape them and this is not okay that we have such a breakdown caused by sin in the image in the image of God that masculinity which was designed by God in the way he designed it
For protection for defense I'm meant to be bigger than my wife so that I can meet whomever's coming in the door so that I might carry more than she I'm meant to do this and it has been twisted and it's not okay we ought not grow tired of the me too movement we ought not discount it
Out of hand because on the other end of it is a human made in the image of God who has been harmed by sin and Christians are meant to swoop in and defend and love and pursue and serve thirdly the unborn and the orphan since day one Christians have joined in
This it was very common in the Roman Empire for a child that was born that was unwanted to be put over to exposure which just meant they would take a child and they would place them out where they might be destroyed die by lack of food
Lack of shelter and Christians knew where these drop off sites were and they began showing up and adopting a lot of females and any child born with a deformity and taking them home because Christians from day one have believed all humans are made in the image
Of God and therefore worth immense value loving protecting pursuing there are about 750,000 illegal abortions in the United States every year according to the CDC that is the equivalent of someone on the first day of school walking into every public school in the
State of South Carolina and gunning every child down since a legalized abortion in the United States there have been 45 million legal abortions there was an article that recently ran by CBS and it said that Denmark it says Down syndrome is disappearing in Iceland you click on
The article and basically the article was about the fact that they do prenatal screenings in Iceland and 98% of children that are prenatally screened to have Down syndrome the pregnancy is terminated they were interviewing I watched this interview and they were interviewing one
Of the ladies that counsels the women in the situations and they said what do you tell the ladies that are in the situation she said tell them this is your life and you have the right to choose how your life will look and that's
True over here but it's not true over here and here's the thing Christians if this changes and as ladies currently choose to not have abortions an unwanted preborn child is an unwanted child and Christians need to be
Adopting there are 400,000 children in the foster system currently and we cannot chant protect the unborn protect the unborn and then care nothing for those children that are starving
And care nothing for the children that are in foster care and care nothing for the children that go home every weekend and don't eat a meal because their parents decided to keep them when that was not a
Financially viable situation we're called to do both all humans are made in the image of God and therefore are given irrevocable value and are worth loving pursuing defending and serving we have two more racial injustice
Systematic racial injustice this isn't just garden variety racism this is what has been brought to the forefront currently consistently in the United States we act as if this is new if you watch videos and riots now they look similar to the 60s we've lapped back around on some
Things they were similar to the ones before that you cannot I don't believe that you can coherently or intelligently act as if the United States does not have historic issue with racism a nation that grew wealthy off of the backs of slaves
And that up until 50 years ago was actively oppressing and removing the right to vote from those who are of different skin color and then to act as if that should have flipped around in a generation I do believe a lot
Of it has gotten better I think a lot of it is still systematically at work to cause problems now our church is predominantly white and I do not believe that if you are white you are racist I don't believe that I believe you might
Be I believe most of us lean towards we're comfortable with our color skin our cultural background our nationality and it makes it easier for us to look down on others but I do want to make the argument that if you are white it is easier in the United States for you to
Pay zero attention to this issue I like to make jokes about people who have gluten allergies and who are lactose intolerant it's really fun to be like oh does that spicy milk get to you they don't
Appreciate it but I think it's funny I didn't care anything about allergies and stuff other than the people that were around me like I wouldn't like if I was hanging out with my friend Raz who has a gluten allergy I wouldn't
Like dip a cracker in his soup or anything ridiculous like that but my son now has a milk protein intolerance so that when we feed him milk he throws up and now I care I am aware of
Where milk is I don't want it near him it's an issue that now matters and I think that if you're white in the United States because we have been the majority and we have been in power it is much easier to just say I
Don't see the problem and that's true because you've never drank spicy milk and you don't understand what the problem feels like so I've ceased to listen to the arguments and what I've got to say is that may be a very good approach if you
Were conservative that may be a very good approach for a Republican but much of the rhetoric is not Christian it is not about our nation it's about a kingdom and there are things that we need to as Christians get very very good at listening
To and walking in that we currently aren't because all humans are made in the image of God and therefore are given irrevocable value and are worth loving pursuing defending and serving this is the same issue but it's in a different area
I'm talking about refugees a refugee is someone who is displaced from their home due to poverty due to famine due to war due to violence 65 million people made in the image of our good
God loved enough by Jesus that he would die for them were sent away from their homes last year now that is a major national and international problem to take in people into your nation that do not speak your language
Do not hold your values do not agree with you on basic human rights in so many areas are not on the same page it is a major national international and national interest and issue when people are flooding over borders I understand
That it needs to be handled by those in politics with wisdom but it needs to be handled by Christians like Christians with a lot of grace and a lot of love understanding that these people were made in the image of God and we cannot deny
That this scripture does not tell us a skin tone of our first parents but it does give us the indication that all skin tones came from them it does not tell us the language of our
First parents but we know that all languages came from them it does not exactly tell us their location we know they're in the Middle East so if you want to make an argument for European
Superiority you are going to be in trouble when you meet Adam other than the fact that he messed everything up but Jesus was also Jewish and he fixed it we we are designed by God with value
And purpose and so is everyone else and we as Christians ought to be at work and at war with all the breakdowns in our culture these are a few there are many many more I have a few questions
For us as we finish out our time the first one is this I want you to ask do I undervalue myself you see because this isn't just a global truth it is a personal truth that you
Were made in the image of God I know in a room this size some of you are considering suicide I know some of you practice self harm I know some of you are languishing and being broken under the weight of I've
Got to prove my value and the truth is you do not you were given value when the God of the universe created humanity in his image and you are an image bearer of our God loved so
Much that Christ would die that you might be his that he might redeem you from your sin C.S. Lewis in his essay The Weight of Glory says this there are no ordinary people you have never talked to a mere
Mortal nations cultures arts civilizations these are mortal and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat but it is to immortals with whom we joke work with marry snub and exploit immortal horrors
Or everlasting splendors this does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn or serious we must play but our merriment must be of the kind which exists between people who have from the very
Outset taken each other seriously no flippancy no superiority no presumption that you are not an ordinary mortal but you have been designed by a God to exist for eternity
And everyone you interact with the same questions that Christians ought to ask is who is marginalized or who is devalued when it comes to interacting with this image of God breakdown in our culture we need
To ask who is marginalized and who is devalued this is systematic this is who doesn't have a voice in our nation who doesn't have a voice who is in a minority but it's also who at work
Is marginalized and devalued who at your school is treated day after day after day and has to go home with the understanding day after
Day after day believing a lie that they don't have worth or they don't have value because of their intelligence because of their ability because
Of their looks when all of that is a lie because they were designed and made in the image of God with purpose and
Value who do you marginalize or who do I marginalize who do I devalue who isn't worth my time who's lower on the scale than I am who am
I biased towards who do I have negative connotations of these are all fair questions for us to ask as Christians as we investigate our heart when it comes
To our inability to walk this out well the band is going to come back up and I want to end with one main idea I know humans and I know this room and I
Know that these aren't these issues that we talked about aren't separate from us but that in this room we are those who have been
Assaulted and we're those who've committed assault and in this room we're those who have trampled the rights of others and in this room
We're we're those who are blatantly blindly racist or coming out of that and every time we think about it we feel shame crawl
Up our spine in this room we've had abortions we've hurt others we've lied about others we've maligned others we've irrevocably harmed others in
Three years in middle school we are image of God failures and offenders that each time we sin we give a broken picture of
What our God was designed to be like and how he was meant to care for our city and our world and how he was meant to
Subdue and how he designed us to give beauty to the world and each time we devalue women or each time we grow in our frustration and our hatred
Towards another race or another language or men we chip away at what was so beautiful you see the scriptures tell us we were made in God's image that Adam and Eve sinned and rebelled and that
Image didn't go away but it got marred and then it tells us in Colossians and in John that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God that he perfectly images God the way that we
Were designed to that he puts God on display in a way that humanity was meant to that he comes here and he so loves us that he dies for us that each time you think about
What you've done to someone or how you've harmed someone or how you've been harmed and each time you begin to believe that I deserve to die God agrees with you but he doesn't leave us there you see in Christ Jesus took our sin and died
For us that we might be forgiven because I know that in this room I listed off a whole bunch of issues and sins that we carry around with us and that we no longer have to carry if we're in Christ you see in this room we
Are blameless in this room if you are in Christ you are free in this room if you are in Christ you are spotless and beautiful washed and redeemed by the blood of Jesus that you might one day stand before the king and he might welcome you as a son or as a daughter he might wrap his arms around you and he
Doesn't know your sin he's forgiven your sin he's wiped it clean because Jesus Christ took it all and died for it so in this room and among the global ranks of the redeemed we engage where it's messy where it's difficult where we say the wrong things where we mess up our wording where we offend where we harm and we engage and we re-engage and we re-engage and we
Love and we serve and we pursue and we open our wallets and we open our time and we open our schedule and we open our hearts that we might love those who the world has lied to and told them they didn't have any value because we have a God who when we were valueless in our sin when we deserved death loved us enough to redeem us let's pray God we thank you that we are redeemed we
Thank you that in you we have hope we pray you'd forgive us for all the times we've trampled on those made in your image and all the times that we've robbed them of the glory you placed in them through our words through our actions we we've asked for your forgiveness for all the times God that we've blatantly aggressively lied about who you are by the way we've treated your world and we've treated others and we
Thank you that Jesus took all the pain and all the punishment that he suffered and was assaulted so that we might be clean that we might be forgiven that he died so that we might live we love you and we praise you Jesus name if you're a Christian in this room one of the ways that we celebrate the truth of the gospel is that we take communion which is where we take bread and we take the cup and see Jesus took these on the night before he died and he he took bread and he broke it he said this is my body
Broken for you he took the cup and he said this is the covenant of my blood poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins one of the ways that we remind ourselves that we are forgiven that we won't be crushed for our sin is that we take part in communion where he was crushed for our sin and his blood was poured out for our forgiveness that we are washed clean that we are made new and if you're not a Christian communion isn't for you but if you belong to Christ it is and if you aren't a Christian and you've never placed your faith in him I would
Encourage you to do that today to trust him with your life and with your salvation with your forgiveness and then you may be free to take communion you pray you repent you talk to Jesus and then when you feel led if you're a Christian take communion otherwise we'll stand and sing you Christoph
Creation
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm a pastor and training here with Mill City Church. As you can tell, we are in Genesis. We wanted to read Genesis as we worship this morning because the point of Genesis 1 is to turn to praise. It is meant to see the glory of God and how he created everything and lead us to worship.
Genesis literally means beginning. Or if you're a superhero nerd, this is the origin story. This is the origin story of all of our stories. All of our stories go back to this chapter in Genesis 1. The book of Genesis was written by Moses. He's the chief architect of Genesis and the first five books of the Bible.
He had some collaboration in it, but he is the chief architect. And he is telling the story in Genesis of how the earth came to be, how the early history of the world and the first 12 chapters of Genesis. And then from chapter 12 all the way to the end of the book is about the formation of God's people, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. There's a whole lot that can be said about Genesis. I don't have time for it this morning because we have a whole lot to get into. So I will just say simply this.
Genesis tells the story of how everything started off, of how it all went wrong, and it tells us the story of why we need a Savior. So we're going to be in Genesis 1. It's in page 1 of your Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, there's a blue Bible around you. If you don't have that, if you don't have a Bible at home, please take that. That is our gift for you.
I'm going to pray, and then we're going to dive in. God, thank you so much that you created us, that you created everything that was made. God, I pray that we would see the beauty of that this morning. Amen. All right, so there are two different creation accounts.
There's two different stories in Genesis that tell how the earth came to be. We're going to be in the first one, which is chapter 1 through verse 3 of chapter 2. The people who put the verses and chapters into the Bible did a pretty good Job, and this one, they missed it just a hair. So this goes into verse 3 of chapter 2. The next one starts in verse 4 of chapter 2. Chet is going to cover that creation story.
There are differences, and the differences are highlighting different things, and he'll get into those when he teaches on the second creation story. But this story, Genesis 1, is meant to capture the glory of God. It's meant to capture, there are a lot of ancient Near Eastern creation stories that had all kinds of different ways they were telling about how the earth came to be. This one is meant to stand out above them. This is the true story. This is how it came to be, and it's meant to inspire worship in awe of the glory of our Creator.
And what happens in our current day is that a guy with a Richard Dawkins tattoo and a penchant for going on YouTube videos and commenting, a really just angry atheist, and there's not many of them that are that angry, but there's a few of them, and they're very loud, and they want everyone to know what they have to say. They stand up and say, hold the phone. Can you explain evolution? Because if you can't explain that to me, the book is closed. It's irrelevant. Your religion's irrelevant.
We don't want anything to do with it. Now, that's a loud, small minority, but then everyone else goes reasonably, okay, but what do you do with this? What do you do with Genesis 1? What do you do with how it interacts with what we know and what we hear in science? And when that happens, it sucks the beauty out of what this story was supposed to be. That because of Darwin's origin of species and the rise of evolutionary biology in the past two centuries, we've lost the point of what this story is meant to be.
This story was meant to be a great slice of cake, to be enjoyed, to be looked at in its glory, and we've traded it out for a cookbook, for a set of instructions. It's supposed to be a honeymoon, and we've traded it out for health class. And we have lost the point. Instead of focusing on why God created the earth and the universe and everything that was made, we focused on how. But the reality is, that's where we're at.
That's the context we're in. We've missed the point. So the elephant's already in the room, so today we need to do a little bit in addressing that. So this is what today is going to look like. I'm going to walk through five principles, five truths that help give us a posture for how we are supposed to approach this. And once we kind of have the posture of how we approach this, I'm going to walk through six different theories on how to reconcile what's happening in Genesis 1 with current scientific findings.
And then once we've done that, we're going to trade it out for some cake, and we're going to look at the beauty of what's happening in Genesis 1. So starting out, here are five principles, five truths that need to form the basis, the posture for how we approach this. The first is, the Bible is authoritative and true. That through faith in Jesus, who transforms our hearts, who transforms our minds, we know that God speaks truthfully. And He speaks authoritatively through His Word. And when He speaks truthfully, and when He speaks clearly, and you hear anything the world has to offer, and specifically scientific theories, we need to hold those theories skeptically, because we know the Bible is authoritative and true.
Second, the Bible is not a science textbook. It was not written to explain quantum physics, and it wasn't written to explain microevolution. Science by nature is limited to the natural, and it is blind to the supernatural. And our faith rests in the supernatural. I don't know if you know this, there's no scientific theories that show dead people rise from the grave. That's not.
But our whole faith hangs on Jesus conquering death, at the resurrection. Science deals with the natural. God created those natural laws. He operates outside of them. The Bible is not a science textbook. Third, God gives us the common grace of a growing scientific field.
Therefore, science is not evil. It's not. Scientific studies are the reason why we have a fighting chance against cancer now. It's the reason why, in the coming decades, the whole world will be run off solar power and wind power, because of scientific advances. So science is not evil at all.
One of my best friends from growing up, my roommate in college, is now a professor at Presbyterian College, my alma mater. He is a professor of biology. He has a Ph.D. in genetics. And I called him this week, and we talked a little bit, in interacting with science and the Bible. And he said something that I thought was really, really helpful. He said the sciences, broadly all the sciences, are trying to make sense of the natural world in an inductive way.
And when that happens, we get a little more info every day, a small piece with every new study. And with every piece, he says, we realize there is so much we don't know. The more he studies genetics, the more that he does research, the more that all of science starts to do this, they realize there is so much that he doesn't know. There is so much that we don't know. He says that most of scientists, most of people who are doing research, have that posture. Most of them have that approach, that there is so much that we don't know.
He said, you just hear about the ones who are the most vocal. He said, the Neil deGrasse Tysons of the world, the Richard Dawkins of the world. He is like, they are the most vocal. And then he threw in a jab, he said. And they are also laymen. They haven't been practicing science for years.
And the reality is, is that they are the most vocal. But most of science is humble in its approach. So we're not afraid of science. We welcome it. We welcome the quality of life that it brings. And if you want to hear more about that, we did a Home Sweet Home series a while back that talks about the Bible and science.
You can go back and listen to that. But science flows out of a ordered universe that God made. It is a common grace to us. Fourth, when everything is revealed and understood correctly, science and scripture are in perfect harmony. When everything is revealed, when all the cards are on the table, science and scripture are in harmony. Much of science is actually very compatible with the idea that the world and the universe were created.
If you talk to physicists, if you talk to people in biochemistry, they're going to point out that there's a lot that points to an intelligent designer. There's a lot that points to a creator. And out of the whole pie of science, there's one very thin slice of evolutionary biology. And there are quite a few people in there that are going to say no. So in knowing that, we understand what science is.
Science, in and of itself, is not fact. Science is not fact. Somehow down the line, we have come to understand that when someone says, oh, it's science, what they mean is it's fact. And science is not fact. It is a collection of theories that help form facts. And those facts become the basis for more theories.
I mean, bloodletting was the scientific way to treat illnesses for centuries. And so finally someone said, I think we're killing people. We're draining their blood. And they need this to fight things. We see this all the time. Scientific advancements keep coming and coming and coming.
We realize what we used to know isn't correct. That is important for us because you will consistently hear news stories that say, a scientific study says this. And I don't even have time to get into how those are funded and what they're going for and what the headlines they're grabbing for. I don't have time for that. But when you hear a scientific study says this, sometimes it's going to come in contradiction with a biblical worldview.
And when that happens, we don't panic. We read our Bibles. We wait for more research to come out. Lastly, Genesis is incredibly complicated and very hard to understand, especially the first few chapters. There's a church father named Jerome around 4th century. He noted that Jewish rabbis didn't allow anyone under the age of 30 to interpret Genesis, which I find ironic because I turned 30 in a month and other pastors are 30 and under.
Yeah, there we go. So, it's incredibly complicated. And if your approach has been, it's absolutely clear, we know it, I would have you pause for a moment and say, it may not be as clear as you think it is. It is very complicated. So, with those worldviews, with those truths in mind to help set up the worldviews we're going to look at, that needs to be our posture. Now, we're going to walk through six of the leading positions, six leading theories that help reconcile science and what evolutionary biology and some of the evidence that we're seeing and the findings we're seeing and the Bible.
Now, I just want to say on the front end, this is an open-handed issue. This is very open-handed. There's some things that come out of it that we can talk about later that are important, but it's open-handed as we walk through this. And the first one that we will cover is six literal day creationism. Some of my closest friends of the years, guys that are really smart, people I love, people that know the Bible so well, this is where they land. This is a view that says that if you look at it, they're going to argue, a straightforward reading of the text is going to argue for six consecutive sequential days.
And they're going to look at verse 5 when it says, God called the light day and the darkness He called night. And they're going to point this out every time. And there was evening and there was morning the first day. And they're going to say, that's sequence. That's chronology. Evening, morning, evening, morning.
That is six days in a row that God made the whole universe and everything in it. So that worldview places the entire universe at around 10,000 to 20,000 years old. And they get that through looking at some of the genealogies from the Old and the New Testament and piecing it together. The reason there's a big gap between 10,000 and 20,000 years is because genealogies and the way they were written weren't meant to record every single person in the line. They were just recording major figures. And they're going to argue that this was the consensus until Darwin came.
And they're going to say, when Darwin came, everyone started to read their Bible differently. And what happens when people do that, they're going to say, is you've elevated science to a place of authority and you've cheapened the Bible. That is going to be some of their arguments. And when pressed on the evidence, particularly the scientific evidence, people that hold this worldview are going to have two main critiques, particularly on carbon dating, which is how we know how old things are. Carbon dating is the measuring of carbon ratios. Obviously, I know so much about it.
But it's how they measure how old things are, how old fossils are. And they're going to look at some of that and say it isn't always accurate. It's not always true. One of the biggest theories they have is called flood theory. It's the theory that when the whole earth flooded at the time of Noah, which we'll get to in about a month, that when that happened, a global flood changed everything and it made everything look so much older than it actually is. That the flood aged the entire earth.
And these guys have gone to flood sites that have happened in the last century. And they've gone and they've looked at some of the artifacts that are just about 50 to 100 years old and they've carbon dated them. And the carbon dating came back as way older than a century. And they're going to say, see, water damage causes this kind of aging. Therefore, this is the leading theory. It's what they're going to say.
The flood killed off the dinosaurs. It killed off different species. And this is the way the world looks now. So that's six-day creationism. I want to walk through some critiques, a scientific one and textual critiques on this position. There is mounting evidence outside of geology and archaeology that show the universe is much older than 10 to 20,000 years old.
Astrologists are going to point out that there are meteors that come into the earth's atmosphere all the time. And we date those and they were never affected by the flood and they are much older than 10 to 20,000 years old. Physicists are going to point out that the universe is expanding and they're measuring wavelengths of light. And they're saying it's way older than 10 to 20,000 years old. And there's all kinds of other different scientists that are studying the earth and they're pointing out different arguments. And they just say, even if you conceded some of the fossils or some of the dating, there's so much more evidence that shows the earth is much older than 10 to 20,000 years old.
Now textual critiques in the Bible, what six day creations have argued for is that the Hebrew word for day, which is yom in the Hebrew, they're going to say that means 24 hours. It is literally a day. And we'll get to that word in a little bit. But there's plenty of Hebrew scholars that say that's not exactly correct. And the other critique that says that while we're just accommodating for what Darwin found, a lot of historical theologians are going to say, no, you can look at Augustine. Augustine in the 5th century, he said this.
He said, what kind of days these words are extremely difficult or impossible to determine? So the African theologian, Augustine, back in the 5th century, was having questions about this. Some of the reformers, like John Calvin, were having questions about Genesis. Some of the medieval theologians were having questions about Genesis. So it has not always been understood this way.
And we're not just accommodating for what Darwin found. All right. So that's literal 6th day. That is in the young earth, young race. Young earth being young universe. Young race meaning human race.
All 10 to 20,000 years old. There is another theory that's in that same category that runs alongside of that. And that theory is called mature earth. Here's what mature earth theory says. When God created Adam as an adult male, was he 30? Because he looked 30.
Or was he a day old? They're going to say, when God made trees, big trees with fruit on them for them to eat, were those trees with 50 rings on the inside, were they 50 years old? Or were they one day old? They're going to say, yes. And that's the point. That God made everything mature.
That everything looks the age that it does because God created a mature universe. And they're going to say that you can hold a 6th day view from Genesis because everything looks older than it actually is. Now some of the critiques that come with this deal with what about the fossils? What about what we find in the earth? So as I heard one atheist comedian say, do you think God put dinosaur bones in the ground just to mess with us?
And what they're getting at and what people in the Bible also are interacting with or getting at is that this kind of makes God look a little bit deceptive. So that's the strengths and the weaknesses of mature earth. The next few theories I'm going to walk through deal with an old earth view, meaning it's much older and some of these allow for a young race, a young human race in the 10,000 to 20,000 year range. And the first one is called day-age theory. Day-age theory looks at the text and when it says day, when it says yom in the Hebrew, they're going to say it does not mean 24 hours. It means in the day of.
In the same way that when your grandpa says back in my day, he did not literally mean a day. He meant in that day, in that era. And this view is going to say there are six consecutive eras. They could be a thousand years each. They could be a million years each. We don't know.
And they're going to argue that that is why the earth looks so much older. And much of this view is going to hang on in the translation of that word in the Hebrew. So does it mean a day, a literal day, or does it mean in the day of? So if you just put Genesis 1 away for a second and try to understand how this word's being used, you've got to look at the next usage that comes out. And the very first usage that comes out is the next creation story. And this is how it is used there.
It says, These are the generations of the heavens and the earth and when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. So the first instance that it's used outside of the first creation account shows this is a flexible term. It's being used this is not 24 hours, this is in the day. These are the generations in the day when it is being used. So there's flexibility from the text that we can see in this word.
And it's been understood for centuries. We just mentioned how Augustine earlier had noted that. The most influential theologian of the past 20th century was Carl F.H. Henry. He influenced everyone from Billy Graham to John Piper and everyone that we look up to. And he says this, he says, Faith in an inerrant Bible does not rest on the recency or antiquity of the earth.
The Bible does not require a belief in six literal 24 hour creation days on the basis of Genesis 1 and 2. It is gratuitous to insist that the 24 hour days are involved or intended. So what day age theorists are going to say is that this is flexible. This is six periods of time. So that's the argument.
Here are some of the critiques for that. Science, this view allows for some flexibility. It allows for some time. But people in evolutionary biology are going to point out, wait a second, that even if this is millions of years, the order in which it comes about is not what we see in our current scientific findings. that it doesn't match up. And you actually can just look in the text and you can ask the question, how were, if there are thousands of years between these days, how on day three when plants were created, how did they survive without insects on day five? That's how they pollinate.
Like how did they make it? The same argument is made of birds. Birds were created on day four. How did they survive without insects on day five? So if this is the view that you're going to hold, you've got to have some answers to that.
You've got to figure out how that pieces together. But then you have to answer the question when six day literal creations are going to say the text says it was evening and it was morning. And say, how are you going to answer that? It seems back to back to back. And that is what the next view answers pretty directly. The next view is called literary framework view.
This is a view that doesn't attempt to really deal with the science at all. It looks at the text from a completely different perspective. Here's what it says. That because Genesis 1 is poetic prose, it is poetry. The way the Hebrew is read is it's poetic and it's prose. It's common language telling a story.
That because it's poetic prose, there is creative license in how this story was told. And because ancient Near Easterners told stories differently than the way that modern Westerners tell stories, that we shouldn't read it as chronological. We should see it as a framework of days of forming, days one through three, and days of filling, which I'll get to in a moment. And they're going to say that because this is a framework and a creative story that's being told, that this is how you can interpret it. So let me show you the chart.
Literary framework is going to say this, that there are three, the first three days are days of forming. Light and darkness, sea and sky, land and plants. And the literary framework shows that on days four through six, the sun and moon feel it was formed on day one. The fish and the birds feel it was formed on day two and that land, animals and humans feel it was formed on day three. So the whole point of this is a poetic retelling.
It's not meant to convey chronology at all. It's just a poetic retelling of the story and that seems foreign to us. It does. I mean, we're Westerners in the post-modern age. That seems really foreign to us in the same way that if I had a foreigner over who knew English fairly well but didn't know all of the English language and I was telling him a story about, you know, my wife and I, we played cards last night and I killed her. And I'm smiling and he sees that and he's like, whoa, this guy killed his wife and he's really happy about it.
He's going to try to get away. He doesn't know all the euphemisms of our storytelling. It's a euphemism for, I beat her, which is another euphemism for, I won the card match, which does not happen very often when I play cards with my wife. It's a foreign way of storytelling but here's what, it shows up all over the place. It even shows up in the Gospels. Take the Gospels and try to put them in sequential order of events and you're going to have a tough time because even the Gospel writers aren't telling the Gospel stories chronologically.
They're telling them thematically and theologically. It is a different way of storytelling. So because of that, chronology is not important and therefore you don't have to reconcile science with this view. Now here are some of the critiques of this view. One of the basic ones is, well, well, well, that seems really convenient. You found a cute little framework, I like your chart, forming and filling.
That seems, it seems like you're just not trying to deal with the science at all. And that's kind of the gist of a lot of it is it just seems a little too convenient, it seems a little too pieced together well. The other one, and it just comes, and this is going to be where it's just, the two sides are going to agree to disagree. The sixth day is going to say, it says morning and evening, morning and evening, it applies sequence and the literary framework is going to say, that's not how ancient Near Easter is told stories. And that's kind of how this view is and some of the critiques of this view.
I got two more. The next one is historic creationism. This looks at the word beginning in verses 1 and 2. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and that word for beginning is the Hebrew word, Rashid. And they're going to say that that word has a flexible meaning which can mean an unspecific, undefined beginning. So what this view is going to argue is that verse 1 and 2 could be a long period of time that we don't know that God forms the universe.
And what the focus of the six days is the preparation of earth, the preparation of the land. So they're going to say that there's a long, undefined period of time on the front end, and then the earth is made in six days after that. There's another theory called gap theory which I can't get into that looks at that very similarly. It looks at verses 1 and 2 and it says, this is when probably the fall of Satan happened and the whole earth had to be recreated because of that and he used what was old to make what we now have. So it is looking at verses 1 and 2, looking at a big period of time and then what follows afterwards is six literal days.
So here's the critique on this theory. This theory is going to argue for a sequential pattern of days, of days 1 through 6, but they're going to separate it from the first two verses. And people who look at the text are going to go, if you're arguing for a sequential order, chronological order, why do you just separate it from 1 and 2? That seems a little too convenient. Others who are Hebrew scholars are going to look at how beginning is used in this view and they're going to say, well, that's actually debatable and there's going to be a debate over how you can translate that word. And then scientifically, you're still going to have to answer some of the challenges that come up in the fossil record, which brings us to our final one.
Our final view is theistic evolution. I don't want to spend a lot of time explaining this. This is what theistic evolution is. Evolutionary findings are true. The Bible is true. Yep.
They're placed on top of one another. The Bible is telling it poetically and what we know in science is true. And therefore, they're both compatible. Let's move on. So I want to point out two questions that this view is going to have to wrestle with.
And it's honestly two questions that each view is going to have to wrestle with. And the first one is, when did death occur? And the second one is, were Adam and Eve real? Were they real people? So that first question matters.
When did death occur? We know from Genesis 3 that God warns them not to eat of the tree of the fruit and knowledge of good and evil lest you die. They eat of it. We'll get to this in a couple weeks. They spiritually die and then one day they physically return to dust. They die.
So we can tell from the text humans were not supposed to die before the fall. But what about plants? What about animals? And this is going to matter for the fossil record. What do you do with that? Well, plants, obviously, something had to die.
Something had to get eaten. So fruits and vegetables, plants died. But then what about animals which make up a ton of the fossil record that we have? What about them? Did they die before the fall? I mean, there are a lot of people that are going to have current stances on food based on did animals die before the fall?
Like I went to a Brazilian steakhouse yesterday, saved up all day some stomach room and all I ate was meat and cheese and it was glorious. But there's some people that say, no, you don't do that. You have to go back to the picture before the fall that animals didn't kill one another. And some are going to argue, wait a second, what about lions? They have large teeth and claws. You mean to tell me that God designed them to eat grass?
That doesn't make any sense. And the other side is going to fire back. No, look at Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65 is a picture, it's a prophecy of the new heavens and the new earth at the end of time and it says this, the wolf and the lamb shall graze together. The lion shall eat straw like the ox. They're going to say, if this is a picture of the new heavens and the new earth, the new heavens and the new earth is a retelling of what happened in Eden.
It looks like they didn't eat each other. The other side is going to say, no, no, no, it's just metaphorical language for peace and they're going to go back and forth. Here's why that matters. You've got to have that wrapped around your brain. You've got to have that figured out because that's how you're going to have to explain some of the fossil record, some of the things that is being found. So when to death occur is a big one, but here's the biggest question that comes out of this entire debate.
Were Adam and Eve real people? I don't have time to get into that question fully. Chet's going to cover that in the next creation story more directly. But your, hear this, your view of this is going to be very telling of your understanding of the truthfulness of the Bible. I'll just give you a spoiler. The New Testament assumes that Adam and Eve were real people.
So your view on this is going to matter and it's also going to matter because there are scientific findings that are going to come out and they're going to say there's no way the age of man is 10 to 20,000 years old. They're going to say absolutely it's got to be over 100,000 years old. And there's also over the last decade has been a debate on was there an actually original Adam and Eve? Was there an original genetic pair? And there's been paper published, paper published going back and forth on that. So your view of this is going to be very telling.
But for all of these you've got to sort these out in your brain a little bit. And the reason why you should and the reason why you should read up on this and you should invest in this and we're going to talk about this in community groups this week is because there are people that have used this as a reason for unbelief. And you were called as a Christian to have an answer for that. You were called to be able to defend your faith in some form or fashion to be able to explain this a little bit. Now, pause. Some of you were like, yes.
Give me more. I want more fears. Some of you, very few of you probably, are like, I want to spend all day in this. And then others of you are like, I just died inside because we just spent 20 minutes. I just want the answers. Like, I want the cliff notes.
That was the cliff notes. They could go much longer. Can you just tell me what it is? What does the Bible teach? This should be clear. And I cannot ease that tension for you.
The answer is, I don't know. After all that, we don't know. I don't know. I cannot solve this for you. I honestly don't know. What's the position of our church?
We don't have one. We're open-handed on this. I mean, you talk to different pastors and we're going to say different things on this. I think that literary framework has some textual basis, but I'm not completely sure. I think mature earth theory has some textual basis. I'm not completely sure.
Genesis is really complicated. And you have to have that posture as you walk through it. Now, let's get to the cake. Let's try out the cookbook. Let's try out health class.
Let's get to the honeymoon. Let's get to the cake. And let's actually look at this text and see why Genesis 1 is beautiful and glorious. It starts out, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Francis Schaeffer says, this is one of the most pregnant with meaning literary statements in all of literature. There is so much packed into, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
What we see out the gate here is that God is the main subject of Genesis 1. He's the main subject of the Bible. It's no accident that He's the subject of the first sentence and that His name shows up 35 times in the first chapter. And here's what that means. The story's not about you. And it's not about me.
I don't care what self-help book you picked up in Books A Million that says you are the hero of your story. It's not true. God is the hero of this story. He is the point of creation. And we get to be made in His image as a specific part of creation. We'll get to that next week.
But we're not the point. And I feel like what happens when we have these debates over how the earth came to be, how the universe came to be. I know my posture in the past has been, God, could you have given us like a different, like an extra chapter of Genesis? Could you have explained this in a better way? Because there's a ton of people that are looking at this and saying, see, we shouldn't believe this. I've got to have an answer for them.
And I feel like God in that moment, it's just my feeling, is saying, are you serious? You have trouble installing ceiling fans. And you want me to explain how I made everything out of nothing. No. Read your Bible, look at an epic sunset, and be thankful. This should turn you to worship, not focusing on how.
Because God is the main subject. He's the point of creation. The next thing we see is in the beginning. And in that statement in this story, God pre-exists creation. Which means He eternally has been, always will be. People will say, well, what happened before God?
There was no before. God has eternally existed. He is the eternally uncaused cause. He caused everything into being. And it also means that He created time. And if time is like a linear object, God created time, and this is time, this is the beginning, this is the end, and that God eternally exists before time.
He eternally exists also within time. He also eternally exists outside of time at the end. Which is mind-blowing. And it hurts our brain. But that's how big our God is, and that's even a poor way of explaining the glory of what's actually happening.
God pre-exists time. He's infinite, and He's without need. Which also means He doesn't need us. He didn't need, He didn't make creation the universe. He didn't make humanity because He was lonely. He eternally existed in perfect harmony with Himself.
Which begs the question, why did He create us in the first place? And the Bible gives us two answers. One, because He desires us. He doesn't need you, but He desires you. He desires all of humanity generally, and He desires His church specifically. He desires us.
And the second reason is He did it for His glory. For the glory of God is why He made everything that was made. And we see that packed in the first statement. As you walk through the rest of Genesis, you see something else. You see that the Trinity is creating together here. That Genesis 1 gives us our first picture of God the Trinity forming things together.
In Genesis 1, 26, it says, Let us make man in our own image. And that is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit in communion with Himself saying, Let us make man in our own image, in our own likeness. You see God the Father forming, shaping, creating. In verse 2, it says, And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. You see the Holy Spirit involved in making the universe. And then in verse 3, it says, And God said, Let there be light.
And there was light. And John in his gospel picks up on this. In the very first verse of John 1, it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And that is talking about Jesus. Jesus, the Word, the creative Word who brought everything into existence. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit together creating.
That's the first picture of the training that we get in the Bible. It shows up in Genesis 1. What we also see in Genesis 1 is that God speaks the world into existence. Think about this. He literally speaks things exist. He forms everything that was made by the power of His creative Word.
That when He says in verse 3, and God said, let there be light. In verse 6, and God said, let there be an expanse amidst the waters. Every time He creates, He speaks by the power of His creative Word. And the power of His creative Word, the power that that Word gives life, that theme is strung throughout the whole Bible. And it first shows up right here. That throughout the Old Testament, prophets speak, and it gives life that when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, the Word came to life, and then He dies, the death on the cross, He conquers death at the resurrection, and then He leaves us with what?
He leaves us with a message. And we get to share that message with those who are spiritually dead to watch the Holy Spirit work through it and make those alive in Christ. God speaks into existence, and that theme is carried and it starts here in Genesis. What we also see is that God creates everything out of nothing. He creates everything, the Latin is ex nihilo, out of nothing, out of thin air, air. Not out of, air is a substance and thinness is a quality.
It's literally out of nothing that He creates everything. He didn't need substance to make anything, which also means is He didn't need inspiration. God is the one who inspires. And let me play that out for you on a practical level why that's good.
Celebrate
Transcript
Good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in the last week of our Hammer and Hammock series where we have been talking about work and rest. And as we start today, I just want to remind us that we believe a gospel of rest. We believe a message of rest, that Christianity is a proclamation of rest.
Over and against and compared to all other religions, Christianity is fundamentally different. So that if we had another faith, if we believed in another God, if we worshipped in another religion, but primarily what they teach and what is taught and what is said and what we would understand is, come do these things, don't do those things, and then you'll be one of the good guys. Come do these things, don't do those things, and then God will love you. Come live this way, be this type of person, have this type of life, celebrate in this manner, and then you'll be welcomed. Then you'll reach nirvana.
Then you'll have inner peace. Then you'll have, and Christianity isn't that message. The fundamental message behind Christianity is not, hey, come here and do these things. The fundamental message of Christianity starts off like this. You're terrible. It gets better.
That's how it starts off. You're a sinner. You are broken. You cannot do the things it takes to be okay with God. You cannot do what is necessary. You cannot work hard enough, be moral enough, be holy enough to stand before God and have him accept you.
But Jesus is good. And he has lived perfectly on our behalf and died in our place for our sin, and that his death is a sacrifice that covers us. And so the gospel of Christianity, the message of Christianity is come to Jesus. He saves sinners. It's a gospel of rest. It's a message of rest.
It's not come labor, come work, come have something to present to God. It's a message of when Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's the message, to come to Jesus and have him save you, have his good work on your behalf. And then it's out of that that we do everything else. And so in this series we've been talking about we're designed by God in creation. He set the pattern of six days of work, one day of rest.
Six days of work, one day of rest. Six days of work, one day of rest. So that's the rhythm he put into creation. And so we spent some time talking about that we're meant to have purpose, we're meant to have dominion and work, good work that we do that takes time and effort, and that we're meant to shut everything down and rest for a day. We've tried to spend some time talking about what that looks like, and that it's worth taking the time and energy to figure out how you rest well. So some of you work with your minds and you need to rest with your hands.
You need to take up a hobby. You need to learn how to paint or play the piano or build birdhouses. And some of you work with your hands all the time and you need to start reading some fiction. And maybe it is restful to watch a show or two or a movie on Netflix, but it is not restful to have all of your rest just be Netflix. And trying to figure out what it looks like for you to rest, it actually may be more difficult for you to rest well and actually feel rejuvenated because you have to get in your car and you have to drive somewhere and you have to walk around and be near trees and get bitten by a bug.
But that actually makes you want to go back to work rather than just wearing sweatpants all day. And so what we've tried to talk about is we've got to figure out a way to do that. And so in this last Sunday, we're going to talk about one specific thing. As we were talking about this, we just started looking at it, and we were looking at kind of the calendar that God put into the world. And so he says, work six days, rest one, work six days, rest one. But he also intentionally calendared other interruptions.
And so we want to talk about celebrating. That Christians are designed and humans are designed to celebrate, to have rhythms of vacation, rhythms of holidays, rhythms of days and weeks and times that are feasts and celebrations. And so here's kind of our point today. That we were designed, humanity was designed for celebratory rest, and Christians should be better at this than anyone. We were designed for celebratory rest, and Christians should be better at this than anyone. And we already kind of know that.
That's the way we understand culture. You can remember being in high school or being in college and being at a party, and it just not being that good of a party. And you thought to yourself, this party needs more Christians. And then it would be great. This isn't something we're known for, but it is something that we ought to be known for. You have never thought that.
Some of you were Christians in high school, and you still didn't think that. You showed up to parties as a Christian in high school, saw other Christians and thought, oh man, and you need to repent. But here's the thing. We're supposed to. We're designed for it, and we're supposed to be good at it. So grab your Bibles, go to John chapter 2.
We'll spend most of our time there. I'm going to read a little bit from Deuteronomy 16 to kind of set the stage, but we'll spend most of our time in John chapter 2. I'll let you flip there, and then we're going to pray. It should be on page 517 if you have one of the blue Bibles in the row. If you don't own a Bible, take that one. It's our gift to you.
We bought boxes and boxes of them. So you may have them. And go home and use a magnifying glass so that you can read it. All right, let's pray. God, we thank you for this time we get to spend in your word this morning, and we thank you for this time that we get to spend with your church this morning. And we pray that you would bless it, that we might grow closer to each other and closer to you, and be equipped and rested to fulfill all that you've given us and all the weight and purpose that you've laid on us as your people.
In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so before we get to John chapter 2, I'm going to read a few places in Deuteronomy 16. So this is where God rescues the people of Israel out of Egypt, and he gives them the law, and he begins to teach them this is what it's going to look like to follow me. This is what you'll be. So we've spent some time in the Ten Commandments because he sets up the Sabbath there, that one of the Ten Commandments is take a day off, and then he starts giving them feasts and festivals that they're going to participate in.
And so I want to read a few of these, and we'll have them above on the screen. So in Deuteronomy 16, he lists out three feasts where he wants everybody to stop and gather in Jerusalem. And he's kind of telling them before they get into the Promised Land, this is how it's going to work. And he says, Then you shall keep the feast of weeks to the Lord your God. This is verse 10 in Deuteronomy. With the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you.
So everybody is supposed to bring something to this feast. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male servant, your female servant, your Levite who's within your town. So here's the command. You shall rejoice. You're going to take time to rejoice. You're going to bring something and you're going to celebrate.
Rejoice means to display or feel great joy or delight. So one of the commands in the law, and people will quote commands from the Old Testament law on a regular basis. They're trying to say, Well, the Bible says this. The Bible says that. Nobody's ever proof text this one on you. Well, the Bible says you shall rejoice.
It's like, but it's in there. One of the commands was, and they got in trouble if they didn't do this. These were aggressive commands. They weren't like, Hey, this is kind of a suggestion. I was thinking maybe I should have a feast. He says, Everyone's going to be there.
And if you're not there, you're going to be cut off. If you're not there, you're not welcome anymore. If you don't come to this party, we're done. You're not my friend anymore. This isn't how it works. It's aggressive in the commands here.
And it's a command to rejoice, to take time to celebrate. He keeps going. The Feast of Tabernacles. He says this. You shall rejoice in your feast. You and your son and your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, the widow who are within your towns.
So he says, Everybody. This isn't just for the elite. This isn't just for a certain group. This isn't just for men. This isn't just for children. Everybody's showing up and everybody's having a good time.
For seven days, you shall keep the feast to the Lord, your God, at the place that the Lord will choose because the Lord, your God will bless you and all your produce and in all the work of your hands so that you will be altogether joyful. So God sets up the rhythm of you're going to work six days. You're going to rest one. And then in that, he interrupts it with extra holidays and feasts. And he says, you're going to gather all of you together and you're going to have a good time. You're going to rejoice because I'm going to bless you.
You're going to be joyful and grateful in my presence in front of me together. That's the command. And so he writes this into the rhythm of humanity that we're designed to have holidays. We're designed to have vacations. We're designed to have joyful, delightful rest. He wants us to.
It honors him. It is not honoring to God for you to always be sad and mourning and bitter and everything's dark and everything's depressed. That's not that. No. Sometimes, yeah, sometimes there are things to mourn and sometimes there are things to be sad for. And absolutely.
But sometimes you're supposed to eat a steak and say, thank you, Jesus. Sometimes you're supposed to wrap that steak in bacon and be thankful for grace and God's good work on earth that he invented flavor. And some of you, you're like, I don't get down with steak. Well, sometimes you're supposed to eat some crispy kale right out of the oven and do the best you can to praise the Lord. So here's the thing.
We don't carry these feasts over into the Christian calendar. So when Christianity starts in among a Jewish people, starts with Jesus who's Jewish and his disciples who are Jewish and it explodes among Jewish people and they thought, here's the Messiah. He's going to save the Jews. And then all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit does something weird and he saves people who aren't Jewish. And they had to have a meeting. And this is a thing that Christians do forever is the Holy Spirit does something and then we have a meeting about it to see if we're okay with it.
So they have to have a meeting to be like, are we cool with this? Can the Holy Spirit save people who aren't Jewish? And they decide in Acts 15 to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit and they say, yes, he can save non-Jews. And they have a discussion about, are we going to export Judaism or were they saved just by Christ? Do they need all the practices of the law? And here's the meeting they have in Acts 15.
They look at each other and they say, guys, we're not even good at the practices of the law. Why would we give those to these people who've been saved by grace in Jesus without it? I'm reading between the lines but they kind of said that would be mean and unhelpful. So they say, no, they just get Jesus. And so the Jewish people continue to practice some of the feasts and the festivals and some of the practices of the law. They continue to practice them but they practice them in grace and in understanding that this is part of their heritage and who Christ is and that they're Jewish but they hand off to all the Gentiles just Jesus and all the stuff we have in the New Testament.
So we don't carry, we don't import all of the things from the Old Testament to the New Testament but what we do understand is that God did design this rhythm and so that it makes sense for us as Christians to celebrate Easter when Christ rose from the grave and to celebrate well and to be grateful. It is okay for us as Christians to celebrate other holidays and other times and other vacations for us to have time set aside where we're going to be grateful, we're going to celebrate, we're going to honor God, we're going to gather together, we're going to make a big deal out of how big and good He is but not necessarily all the feasts and everything that we see in the Old Testament. Okay, so John chapter 2. Now this is just a story about Jesus.
It's His first public miracle, His first public sign that He displays His glory in and I love this story. So we're just going to kind of spend some time in the story and then we're going to talk out of it. I want to point out a few things. The main point of this story is that God, that Jesus shows His divinity, shows that He is God and this is His first public miracle. That's kind of the main point John's hanging on this. But there's so much beauty in that whenever we see Jesus working and acting on the earth, we get a picture of who God is.
He's the perfect image of the invisible God. So sometimes people think, well how would God act towards me? How would God treat me? We get to look at Jesus and answer a lot of those questions. And so we see God's heart carried over in celebration in this story. And then, I also think we see a beautiful picture of, a small picture in this moment of what Jesus is ultimately going to do.
And so we know that we were created for celebratory rest, for vacation, for holiday. There was times and seasons we're meant to do that. And in this, I want to spend a little time talking about this story and then I want to help try to prove the idea that Christians should be better at this than anyone else. Alright, but let's spend a little time in this story. John chapter 2, verse 1. On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. He's just getting started. He has about five disciples at this point. He's going to keep recruiting. Okay, pause for a second. Wedding in Cana.
We've got to understand this. This was a small town near probably where Jesus grew up in Galilee. Jesus' mom's there so it's likely that they were related to some of these people. Weddings then work a little differently. So they would, parents would work out who you were going to marry.
They would go pay the bride price. The groom would go pay a bride price. It's kind of a negotiation thing. So like, you know how like now when you have to go like meet their parents or whatever? In this day, you've got to take your parents with you. Made it nicer.
So anyway, they work it out and then the groom leaves and he goes and prepares a place. So they work out. We're going to get married. It's going to be at least a year. He goes and prepares a place near his father's house. His father kind of keeps looking.
To see if he's prepared it well enough. This is where Jesus says things like, I'm going to go prepare a place for you. That's husband-wife talk. That's bridegroom talk. When Jesus says, I don't know the day or the hour but the father does, that's bridegroom talk because the father keeps getting to look at the place the son's preparing and then he signs off on, okay, this is good enough. You can go get your wife now.
So then, when the father says that, like he walks in, I'm sure he walked in sometimes and he's like, yeah, you going to bring your wife in here? See any crown mold? Y'all going, this is, uh-huh, you got some work to do, boy. And you leave, you know, and finally he says, okay, this is good enough, go get her. They go marching in. This is the story where Jesus tells later where he says that the groom shows up and everybody had to be ready.
They just kind of knew at some point he's going to show up but they didn't know exactly where he comes marching in. He gets the bride. They march back out. They have a wedding ceremony that was kind of small and then after consummating the marriage, they have a week-long, five to seven-day long celebration. It was all part of it and everybody gets pretty much invited to that. So that's kind of the zone we're in.
We're at this wedding. We're at this party, this week-long wedding celebration that Jesus and his disciples were invited to. When the wine ran out, it just got intense. Now the story's taking a turn on us. This is bad news. All right, so Jesus was invited to the wedding with his disciples, verse three.
When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. I love this moment in human history where the God of the universe has to interact with his mother on earth. Here's what happens.
She apparently knows they don't have any wine. We don't know how related to, close to the situation, but she's heard they don't have any wine. This is a problem. Wine was the predominant drink you would be drinking. They wouldn't have had water and other drinks. They would have wine mostly.
It is alcoholic, but it's not as alcoholic as the wine we have now, most likely. It was regular drinking wine for the whole extent of this party. We don't know how far in we are, but we know that it was the groom's family's responsibility to provide wine, to provide this feast. And all of a sudden, now there's going to be this kind of shadow, this dark cloud hanging over this family that they didn't do this well. They didn't. It kind of starts the whole marriage off in a little bit of, it's a problem.
And so Jesus' mom is involved somehow. She goes to Jesus and she just says, Jesus, they've run out of wine. Now, she apparently knows something about Jesus. She thinks he can handle this. Now, there are stories that aren't in the Bible that people have kind of made up about Jesus doing miracles his whole childhood. We don't buy into all of those.
We don't know that. We aren't given much understanding of Jesus' childhood or his youth or whatever, but she feels like Jesus can handle this wine problem. So there's got to be something. She's seen enough. You know, she saw the angel show up telling him he was God. So she thinks maybe he can handle this.
I don't know. She comes to him. She says, they're out of wine. And Jesus says, woman, what does this have to do with me? Now, most of y'all would get in trouble if you called your mom woman. Jesus was not being disrespectful.
It is a sin to be disrespectful. Jesus was not being disrespectful. As best we can tell, this is a kind of a term of endearment, but also a little bit of a, you know, maybe some mix between ma'am and mama, but it was a little bit of like, like I might always say mama with a long pause. What does this have to do with me? Not the caterer. Like that's kind of what he's saying.
He says, he says, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. So what he's saying is I'm not here to, this isn't, this is my plan. I'm not doing, this isn't really what I'm, they're out of wine. That's, I'm sorry. And you know what his mama does?
She listens to him. And then she looks at the servants, says, y'all do whatever he tells you. And she walks. She doesn't respond to him. She just, and isn't that like a mama come tell you what to do in front of your disciples and everything. So she just says, do whatever he tells you.
And I just, I can't, I can just kind of see Jesus just, he doesn't say this. I can just see him watching her walk away like, now he's got to do something. So it says, now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Okay. Stone water jars, Jewish rites of purification. The Jewish rites of purification were stuff that the rabbis had added over time to be a little bit extra holy.
It wasn't in the law, but it was like, this is good. It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing to wash our hands before we eat, to wash our cups and our dishes in this special ceremonial way. But it was added. It wasn't stuff God had handed down. It was stuff that was added.
So God did give specific laws about how to celebrate and how to have ceremonies and how to have sacrifices. And this was just added. For example, maybe your grandmother told you when you go to church on Sunday, you better dress as nice as possible. I can't, like I don't know about my, my grandmother would go, like if I was wearing, if I was wearing this, like I think it's bothered her when she comes on Sundays. It's nice to dress up. We got some folks here who do it, who do it well.
It's not in the Bible though. Sunday best was, came up somewhere else. They didn't hear. Now it's nice to be respectful. It's nice to dress well. So it's a good thing that sometime at some point became codified.
Do this or you're wrong. That's what happened with these ceremonial jars. So Jesus sees these giant jars and I, again, doesn't say this. I think he cracks a smile. He says, fill those up. Fill the jars with water.
They filled them up to the brim. He said to them, now draw some out, take it to the master of the feast. So they took it, the head caterer. When the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine and did not know where it came from. Though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom. So here's what he did.
He took these ceremonial jars for this practice that you were going to have to do to make yourself a little bit more holy, make yourself a little more pleasing to God, to be one of the good guys. He says, fill those up and he turns it into wine. Do you know what you can't do with the ceremonial jars anymore? Wash your hands. They're filled with wine. So Jesus just took these ceremonial jars and he continued the party.
He served this family. He says, fill them with wine. Okay. The master of the feast called the bridegroom. So, here's what we know. Master of the feast is over top of this.
So he just says, take it to the master of the feast. Somebody's heading up this. You know the master of the feast has to think, hey, we've run out of wine. At some point he just said, hey, this wine's gone. He may not know fully that there's no other wine anywhere else. This isn't like, he just says, hey, we're out of wine.
They go back and look and they're like, oh no, we're out of wine, out of wine. This is going to be embarrassing. This is going to be problematic for the family. I don't know the bride and groom, how well they know each other. I don't know how that was going. I don't know if she was like, we're getting low on wine.
He's like, oh no. She's like, if you hadn't had to invite your whole village and all your friends that drink so much and if your cousins hadn't showed up four days early. Like, I don't know how that's going. I don't know if they're arguing. I don't know if she just does the look thing. If she's just like, I don't know.
It's stressful for the groom. He's got to know, like he's over top of, the master of the feast is over top of this stuff. Other people are finding out Jesus' mom's in on it and then the master of the feast comes and he does like this to the groom. And you know, at that moment, I just can imagine his stomach just tied in a knot. He knows what's coming. Master of the feast holding a wine glass.
He's going to walk over there and he's going to say, last cup. You want to announce it? You want me to announce it? You want me to end the party early? You want me to end the party early? Calls him over there.
Yes, sir. He said to him, verse 10, everyone serves the good wine first. Groom thinks, yep, they drank that. And when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. He's like, yep, drank that. But when you have kept the good wine until now.
And the train of thought in the groom's head just crashed all into it. He's like, what? This is the first of his signs Jesus did at the Canaan in Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. So the master of the feast says, hey, you did this in reverse. This is the best wine you've had and you're just now bringing it out. Cool party trick.
Either that or he was just like, hey, next time you have a wedding, do it the other way, moron. I don't know if he's corrected him. Jesus not only made the wine to serve his mom and to serve this family, but he made good wine. Then it says, this is the first of his signs. This is kind of the point of the story as John tells it. Jesus did at Canaan in Galilee and manifested his glory, put on display who he was and his disciples believed in him.
After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples and they stayed there for a few days. So after this wedding, he goes and spends more time, just spending time with family. Now, I love this story because it shows us the heart of God and how he serves and how he loves and how he approaches celebration. He wasn't there looking down on it. He was there enjoying it. And it's a beautiful picture of what he's done for us in the gospel.
You see, we're like the groom having to do so much to just make this good, having to do so much for this just to be okay, having to do so much for this to just work out and we're failing. We don't have enough. We can't do it. Our tank's empty. We don't have anything that we can do. And Jesus comes along and he takes all the ceremony and he brings joy.
He covers us. He takes all the ceremony, all the extra work, all the effort we would put in and he brings new wine. And you see, Jesus is ultimately able to do this because this is what he does on the cross. He took all of the law and all the weight of the commandments that we had to fulfill and all of the weight of having to stand before God and be made okay and he dies for us. It's actually he tells his disciples the night before when he shares a cup of wine with them and he says, this is the covenant in my blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins. That he's going to be the better wine.
That he's going to cover us and bring joy where there was anxiety, to bring hope where there was despair, and to absolutely bring us into a celebration. We're told in Revelation that when he comes to get his bride, he brings him to a wedding feast. That Jesus in his first miracle was at a wedding feast and he was picturing what he was ultimately going to do. And this is why I believe that not only is humanity designed for celebratory rest, holiday, vacation, but that Christians should be better at it than anybody else because we have the gospel. We've already been invited into the party. We've already been set free from our work.
We've already been given the ability to set our tools down, to rest well, to enjoy each other and enjoy God's good work on our behalf. And we don't need the party. We don't need the celebration here. We can just enjoy it. We don't have to have it to have a good life. We don't have to find a way to celebrate and to enjoy.
It's not frantic. It's just enjoyable. That we get to celebrate. We get to rest. We get to take a vacation and we get to do all that knowing that we've already ultimately had Jesus die for us, save us, redeem us, and provide for us in the cross. The story of Christmas Carol is about Scrooge McDuck and he, I have a three-year-old, so that's the version I watch.
He loves money. That's all he cares about. And then his friend Goofy, who had passed away, shows up at his house the night before Christmas and scares the living daylights out of him. And then he goes on these three. He gets to go back in time. He gets to go to the present and kind of see what's going on.
He gets to go to the future. And the story is that he sees this picture of what his life has been like, what his life is like now, and what it's going to be. That he's invited to look kind of behind the curtain and see who he is and what he's like and where he's headed. And he's kind of told at the end, it's too late. And then he wakes up and it's not too late. And the last line of the Charles Dickens novel, short story, is that it was always said of him that he kept Christmas well.
That from that day on, it was always said that like, there's a person who knows how to celebrate. And it was because he had gotten a picture of where he was headed and he had gotten set free from it. And that's kind of how we get to be as Christians. We get to be the people that said they celebrate well. They know how to do it. They know how to rest.
They know how to celebrate because we've gotten to see where we were headed and what our sin was going to do and how our work was going to fail. And we've been set free. We've gotten to see Christ die for us to rescue us and to redeem us and all of the weight and the pressure is off. That we're redeemed by Christ and so we can celebrate and enjoy and rest well. So here's how we're going to finish our time.
I'm going to give us some specific pictures of this. We're going to take a little bit of time to talk through this so that we get to, as Christians, kind of celebrate up. We get to roll our enjoyment up. It's not just terminating on the thing here. When you eat a good steak, it's not just the steak that gets praise, but it's Jesus who gets praise. When you enjoy a good vacation here, it's not just the vacation.
It's not just the place you went. It's not just how the days went. It's not just that you were off work, but that we get to roll it up in praise and glory and honor to Jesus who provides all of that for us. Okay. So how do we capture this?
How do we enjoy this? First one is that we begin to value celebration. Some of us just don't. You just don't value celebration. You don't make time for it. Valuing celebration really practically means you budget for it.
You start looking and saying, hey, we're going to have to set aside for this. That's one of the things that in the feasts in the Old Testament, he would say, I'm going to bless you. I want you to set aside a portion of this to come celebrate. That's why he says, nobody shows up empty handed, but everybody would have showed up with a kind of what fit their celebration, what fit their life, what fit their budget, but there to celebrate. So we budget for it.
We also have to schedule for it. If you're going to take a vacation, you have to be intentional about setting aside time. If you're going to enjoy a holiday, you have to be intentional about setting aside time, asking off of work, planning it. I know some people don't take vacations because of the type of work they're in. So they feel like, well, if I go on vacation, I miss out on sales.
If I go on vacation, somebody else will be able to do that listing. Somebody else will be able to show those homes. If I go on vacation, somebody else is going to, and they just have this kind of a frantic approach to there's no way I can be gone. Now, certainly, some of you maybe have seasonal work and you work around that. My family's run a pool store pretty much my whole life. We had to work around how we vacationed because during the summer is not the best time to do stuff because people want to buy swimming pools.
So we had to plan on it and work around it. We skipped school the first week of school a lot to go on vacation because my parents wanted to sell swimming pools. And I'm going to tell you I was a child I was cool with that. But Exodus 34, 24, God actually tells the people of Israel, I want all the males to gather. You have to be there. And during that time, you won't get attacked.
During that time, I'll defend your borders. And so there's something about us taking rest and taking vacation where we get to say, hey God, I'm resting and celebrating and vacating and doing this holiday because I trust that you're good, that you've provided. I want to celebrate that. And I'm going to trust that you'll take care of everything while I'm here. It's a faith thing. Some people will say, well, I can't take a vacation.
I can't do this because it costs too much money. Yes, it can be expensive, but there's ways to do this cheaply. You can stay home and just take off time from work and figure out ways to rest there. You can go camping. That's cheap. Some people like when you celebrate, you can go to, my family used to rent a room at a hotel in town just so we could use the pool.
My dad used to take us for a big day out to the dump to shoot at rats with a.22. You can find things to do. Y'all just learned a thing about me. Yes, that was what my family was like when I was growing up. This means, students, when there's time off, when there's vacation, when your family's going on a vacation, when there's a holiday that you're getting carried off somewhere to your family's house, some of y'all do that really well. Some of y'all pout your way through it.
And we're supposed to value it, to enjoy it. It also means that because your schedule's different from everybody else because you have school and then you have the summer off, it means that there's times where you actually, you're not exempt from this. You need to hold something special and you need to make some time to enjoy the time off. Also, to continue to be busy for six days and rest one. Some people say, well, it's really hard for me to rest. It's really hard for me to vacation during this time because I'm just, I'm in pain physically or I'm in pain emotionally.
And yes, there are seasons of that. And so there are times where this one's going to be really hard for you. But that can't continue forever because we also are called to rejoice, commanded to rejoice and to find ways to appreciate all the good that God has given to us and done for us. I had a pastor friend say, when we were first getting started with planning the church, he said, you've got to, he said, pastoring, and some of y'all's jobs are like this, but he said, pastoring is like being on a treadmill. It just, it never ends. You never run out of people to talk with.
Sin never stops. You don't ever reach a season where you're like, hey, we did it. We all have our act together. That's true. That's not even true for me. Like, we don't.
I have continual sin I have to confess to my group. Like, we don't ever really get off of it. And he said, you've got to find ways to get off the treadmill and pop the champagne. And that's part of what we're called to do is to value and to find a way to say, hey, I know work never stops. I know this will never cease. I know the kids are not, but I'm just going to get off and celebrate.
I'm going to find something to enjoy, something to celebrate. Okay. Celebrate with purpose. So some of you are, you do go on vacations. You do celebrate holidays, but you lose the purpose. Thanksgiving is about food rather than thankfulness.
And so we've got to find a way to be purposeful in our celebration, to actually have it be rejoicing before the Lord, not just rejoicing. That as Christians, our rejoicing does not terminate here, but that it rolls up in praise. So it is rejoicing in the thing we're rejoicing in, but it's rolling up to him. So that means we infuse things with meaning. I have to be really careful with this because I am a pastor. And so people real quick, like I want to be like, hey, let's talk about Jesus.
And my family's like, hey, let's just eat the food. And I have to be real careful with that because it's real quick. Like they don't, you know, they're waiting for me to be like, hey, let's say a thing we're thankful for. And they're like, okay, grandma. Like it just is, it's hard. So I have to try to find ways to sneak around this.
I know a pastor who's in Tacoma, Washington. He said that, you know, they were doing a party and he was helping put it on and they kind of just said, hey, you're a pastor. Will you pray right before we do this? And it was a 4th of July thing. And he said, that was just a token. We know you're a pastor.
We don't believe this stuff, but this is probably a thing you do. And so he said, in order to not just pastor it up, he just said, hey, take a second. It's 4th of July. Think about a thing that you appreciate about being free. And then in a second, I'm just going to quickly thank the Lord that we get to be a part of that. And he said, it was real quick, but it was just something to infuse it with meaning.
I try to, at Christmas, try to make things not just about gifts for my son. I know that's what he's going to get super focused in on, that at Christmas he gets things. So the night before, I put him in a room and cut the lights off. I told him everything was scary and dark and terrible. He was 2. Totally age appropriate.
And that God had sent hope into the world. And so we lit a candle, also age appropriate because he loved anything that was like fire was like a big deal to him. So it was like, boom, lit a candle. And then we just talked about how ultimately Christ came. He was the hope. He was the redemption.
We cut the lights on. Then we went outside and we followed the star, which was cloudy, so it was just the moon. I was like, there's the star. Let's go. We ran around our house. We get to the back.
He goes, Daddy, that's the moon. And I was like, well, aren't you clever? So anyway, but I tried to find something. You got to find something to make it special, to pour some meaning into it. This means making some things holy. There's some people who are entering a new stage of life in our church family that are older couples.
Maybe your kids, you're now kind of empty nesters. People have moved out and they come to you and that's kind of new. So a lot of times when you're growing up, you go to other people, but now your family comes back to you. And this means making some things holy, something set apart that's special for, we're going to eat this dish. We're going to have these plates. We're going to have this kind of a moment when we have this celebration.
But you set something aside so that this indicates that we're celebrating. This indicates that we're, they used to have in the Old Testament, they'd have a fattened calf. Maybe some of y'all need to put a calf in your backyard and when your family comes, I'm just kidding. But like some kind of, we eat turkey, we eat this. I take the time to prepare this dish that takes a week long. For my grandmother, that's cinnamon rolls and ham biscuits.
She makes in preparation for her family to come and when I taste the cinnamon roll and I smell ham biscuits, I know it's Christmas. Something that you set apart. For newly married people, this is you making your own new traditions. Carrying over some things from your parents, but learning how to have your own traditions. For single people, sometimes I know that single people will be like, well, what's the point? What's the point in celebrating well?
What's the point in partaking in this holiday? And you've acted as if the point of a holiday is just a spouse, just another person that you would enjoy it with and you're completely negating the fact that the point of holidays is Jesus and ability to worship Him and to enjoy Him. So take the time to figure out how to do that well and also go hang out with your church family. Go be around them to remind you of all the good joy and good that God's put in your life. We celebrate milestones. So this is moments.
This is birthdays, graduations, weddings. I know some of y'all find out about a graduation, you find out about a wedding, you find out about a birthday and you just feel like, I don't want to go. I have no desire to participate in that. And I understand that because I'm kind of like that and my wife's kind of like that and you need to go and you need to celebrate and you need to learn how to enjoy and celebrate well because we're supposed to be good at this. That we celebrate milestones. For birthdays, sometimes people are like, well, it's hard to celebrate birthdays.
It's so expensive now. When I was growing up, we did, on your birthday, you got the ride in the front of the vehicle. You were in charge of the TV for the whole day and my mom, you got to pick what everybody had for dinner. Not like separate things. I couldn't be like, he's going to eat sticks. It was like, you got to pick the main dish.
But that was a way to make it special. When we had no, my dad would take the little coat hanger things with the sticky part at the bottom and he would break that and he would take telephone line and put it and make us nunchucks so that we could be Ninja Turtles and that cost him very little money. And he gave me those every year for my birthday because you would hit your brother with them and they'd break. So you had to ask for them again the next year. But finding ways to make something special even when it's difficult or your budget doesn't allow it, this is something we're supposed to do.
I think this is something you're supposed to do in other things. Make a milestone. So my son, when he turned two, we were getting rid of his pacifiers. So we had a big ceremony. Again, let him light a candle because the kid was digging some fire at that point. So we lit a candle.
We talked about how he was turning into a big boy. I put all his pacifiers and he had them in his mouth all the time. Put them all in his hand and we held them over the trash can and then we celebrated and we sang and danced and we made a big deal out of it for two reasons. One is a big deal that he was growing up and two, I wanted him to remember it when he asked me for a pacifier later. I was like, no bro, you've got to light a candle. Pacifiers are done.
Don't you remember us dancing? We can't go back to that. You can't unlight the candle, kid. Come on. But infusing things with meaning.
Celebrating milestones. Celebrate with your group, with your community group. This is something we're designed to do as Christians is to celebrate well with each other. Some of us, when you get the email or the Facebook message or the group meeting and it says, hey, we're just going to be hanging out this week, you think, not me. Y'all going to be hanging out with your own selves? If it's just dinner, if it's just board games, I'm going to be at the house.
And you've missed the point of enjoying each other and of getting to be family, of getting to have ridiculous moments that you get to do difficult things with each other. You get to mourn with each other. You get to hurt with each other. You get to serve each other. You get to be on mission together to try to see people meet Jesus and you get to play that little heads up game and accomplish nothing other than being friends with each other. And we're designed for that to make time for that.
The last one, we get to celebrate as missionaries. You see, Jesus went to that party and he displayed who he was and we get to go to parties and display who he is. We get to celebrate as missionaries. There are rhythms of celebration in our city. There are rhythms of celebration in your neighborhood that you get to take part in. Maybe you don't care about Halloween at all, but your neighbors do.
So go buy some candy and go meet your neighbors. It's the one time a year they're going to come knock on your door and actually appreciate getting to see and talk to you. Only time. It's also the only time you get to go knock on their doors and they'll be okay with seeing and talking to you. Try that in the middle of June. Go knock on your neighbor's doors with your child and be like, hey, we just wanted to meet y'all.
They will act like you were psychotic. But Halloween, put a mask on that kid, you get to meet all your neighbors. You get to celebrate as a missionary. You get to take part in what the city's already doing to welcome people and get to know people. This is us doing some things with Thanksgiving at Gentle Pines where we take a holiday that means something and we take extra time out to go to a neighborhood around here and serve meals and get to know the residents there. Maybe this is Fourth of July or New Year's, but you get to find out what, you get to do what Jesus did was find out what the party's lacking and show up and serve.
Maybe that's somebody who needs to stay after and clean. Maybe that's somebody who needs to give some rides. Maybe that's somebody who needs to bring some extra food. But we do what Jesus did and we bring the better wine. And we always get to celebrate without debauchery. The point of the celebration for us is enjoying all the good gifts God gave us.
So we do eat, we do drink, but we're not gluttons and we're not drunkards. We're not overdoing it. The point isn't the party, the point is Jesus and so we enjoy the good things he gave us and in praise and honor and glory to him. A lack of ability to celebrate is a failure to believe this aspect of the gospel. That if you can't party, if you can't rest, if you can't vacation, you've missed out on some of the good joy and rejoicing that Jesus has brought into the world. And so we ought to believe the gospel fully and learn how to party well.
Because Jesus, when he rose from the grave, started the celebration for all those who would believe in him. Band's going to come back up. We're going to sing a couple of songs in celebration and then in our community groups this week, we're going to enjoy each other, celebrate, and accomplish a whole lot of nothing with each other and you need to be there. And if you're not there, we're going to ask all the group leaders and we're going to list your names next Sunday. Let's pray.
God, we thank you that you're good and that in the cross we have hope and joy and life and celebration. And we pray that we would honor you well by celebrating well. We would honor you well by celebrating with joy and hope and honor you and all the things that we partake in that are good. We thank you for flavor. We thank you for that when we are excited something about us wants to dance or to shout or to sing. We thank you for all those holy moments that you've written into the world and in our lives that we get to honor you and praise you and glorify you and we pray that we would.
We pray that we'd do all of that without sinning and displaying your glory just the way you did in your first miracle. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Y'all stand. Let's sing.
Practicing Sabbath
Transcript
Good morning. All right. My name is Spencer Carey. Like I said before, I'm pastor and training here with Mill City Church. We have taken the last four weeks and the next two weeks to walk through a series called The Hammer and the Hammock. And the hope of this series has been to grow in our theology of work and rest.
Because as a church and culturally, we are terrible at that balance and how we honor God. We spent the first three weeks mostly talking about work. The last three are mostly on rest. Last week, Chet got to address some of the heart level issues and how we justify ourselves and our overwork that we never deal with what he called the inner murmur, this endless, restless drive to work and to please and to work and to strive. And we make that as a justification for how we don't rest. And he kind of gave us a vision for what rest is supposed to be, for what Sabbath is supposed to be.
And then he kind of left us hanging. Like he didn't give us practicals for a reason because this week we get to practically walk this out and see how we can practically Sabbath. But on the front end, I want to be clear about what the Sabbath is. It is one day a week where we cease from work and we confess with our rest that we are not God. God. It is one day a week where we cease from our work and we confess with our rest that we are not God.
I heard a pastor mention a word, a Japanese word called karoshi as it pertains to rest. The history of that word is that in the after World War II, after we decimated Japan with all the bombings that we did, it completely destroyed their country and destroyed their economy. And one of the ways that their new prime minister said that they're going to build the economy back is through really, really hard work ethic. So they did. I mean, they're the third largest economy in the world and they built it. But one of the consequences for the work ethic that they put into their people is that people started to work themselves literally to death.
They had to invent a term in the 70s called karoshi, which means death by overwork. And it still affects their culture today. There are stories of people who will put 80 hours of overtime work in a week and they will literally work themselves into insanity and commit suicide. There are stories of people in their young 30s who put in so much work, they die of heart failure, that they get strokes, that their government has had to step in and put policies in to keep this from happening. Now, I would say that we are not quite like that culturally, that we don't work us work ourselves into instant death, but I would argue we karoshi ourselves slowly, that it's a slow death for us.
I mean, you can read study after study after study of what we do to ourselves. We put work and all kinds of stress on ourselves, that it slowly takes years off of our lives, that we slowly work ourselves to death. Now, that begs the question, why? Why can we not work and work and work and thrive? Why is it that we suffer because of our overwork? Well, we see from the scriptures that it is because we are limited by design.
We are limited beings made in the image of an unlimited God and He has chosen to make us limited so that we might rely on Him. And that means that our body needs rest, it needs refreshing, and that's what Shet was getting at last week. Today, we get to tackle that practically. So, if you are a note taker, today was made for you. Some of you take notes, like this is your time to shine. You can take notes.
Sometimes, as we are teaching, I'd rather you get caught up in the narrative of it all, but today you actually get to take notes. And if you are not a note taker, I would encourage you this week to take some notes. There's pens pretty much everywhere. I made sure of that, so you can take notes. If you are morally opposed to taking notes because it reminds you of how the system used to oppress you when you were in school for 12 plus years, then do your best to engage and to walk out of here with some mental nuggets of how we can grow in our patterns of rest. We're going to start out in Exodus 20, the fourth commandment of the Ten Commandments on the Sabbath.
And we're going to walk through this. After we walk through this, we're going to see what the Sabbath is and what it isn't. And then we're going to put some handles on how we can practically Sabbath. I'll pray and then we will dive in. Father, I thank you for the good news of the gospel. I thank you that you give us rest.
God, I pray that as we work through this today, you would give us a vision and some handles on how we can learn to rest well in you. Amen. Exodus 20, starting in verse 8, it says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
On it you shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. So to read this, you've got to look at the back end.
When it says in verse 11, For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. That is rooted in the story of Genesis and the story of creation. That means that the Sabbath is a rhythm of creation. That it is eternal and it is meant for everybody. That God put this as a rhythm that we might obey all of God's people and everyone who's made in the image of God.
And what's really interesting that we don't have a lot of time to get into today is that an infinite God who we know from the Psalms never sleeps, never slumbers. An infinite God shows to rest on the seventh day that he might model rest for us who are limited. And that is a rhythm that carries through. And then as the law is being handed down in Exodus, we see it's a commandment here. And then we see kind of ups the ante a little bit. In Exodus 31, 14, it says, Everyone who profanes it, who doesn't obey it, shall be put to death.
That there's a seriousness that's brought to the Sabbath. There's actually a death penalty attached to it. So why did God want his people to take this command so seriously? I can think of two immediate reasons. Firstly, the Israelites had just left being slaves for 400 plus years. That in Egypt, they belonged to Pharaoh and their worth was in their work and what they could produce as slaves.
And God redeems the people of Israel and he says, You are no longer Pharaoh's, you are mine and your worth is not in your work and what you can produce. And one way I'm going to remind you of that is that one day a week you will cease. As the Sabbath is translated rest or cease to be. That you will rest. And I think secondly, like all of the law, there's a seriousness to it. But there's also the idea that we won't perfectly fulfill the Sabbath.
We won't perfectly walk the law out. That it's pointing forward to the one who will in Christ. So there's a seriousness brought to the law. And like much of the law, the nation of Israel, they responded poorly. At times, they just forgot the Sabbath completely. But what we see is on the other end of the spectrum is that there was a tradition that took the Sabbath ultra, ultra seriously and started adding things to it.
They made it more of a sacrifice. There is a group of laws called the Shabbat laws. Shabbat is just Hebrew for Sabbath. And there's 39 categories of work. And in it, there's like hundreds of laws that you could and could not do. And those still, they still exist and they're in the context of the day.
When I was in Israel about seven, eight years ago, I was in Jerusalem. And I remember that I was in a hotel. And as I was in a hotel on their Sabbath, I went to use the elevator. And the button was already lit up. And the elevator door opened. And I stepped in.
And I looked and I saw all of the buttons were lit up. Because on the Sabbath in Israel today, you cannot push buttons. Because if you were to push a button, that's considered work. And you'd be breaking Sabbath laws. So it was really annoying, especially if you were like me and you were on one of the top floors.
Because literally every single floor, it opens, it closes. It opens and it closes. And if you needed to get anywhere in a hurry, you'd be in trouble. And there's all kinds of laws like that that still exist today. They're really absurd. And there were also laws like that at the time that Jesus comes on the scene.
And he jumps in and starts critiquing how they have approached the Sabbath. In Matthew 12, Jesus and his disciples, they are plucking the heads of grains in a field. And the religious leaders, they see him do this. And they say, you're breaking the Sabbath. And then Jesus, he jumps in. And he quotes Hosea 6-6 from the Old Testament.
He says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. They had lost it. What the purpose of the Sabbath was. It was supposed to be a mercy. It was supposed to be a grace. And they made it a sacrifice.
They made it a burden. Then he says, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. He drops the mic. And that's kind of it. I mean, through the rest of the Gospels, that's kind of the gist of how Jesus, he approaches the Sabbath. And there's not much in the rest of the New Testament on the Sabbath.
It kind of leaves us a little bit hanging. And as we try to see that, yes, this is a creation rhythm that is meant to be eternal, but it's not meant to be a burden. We try to walk this out in the New Testament as a New Testament church and getting more practical. And that's what the hope is today. That we would see it for what it is. That it is one day a week.
We cease from work. And we confess with our rest that we are not God. But before we put practical handles on it, I want to quickly go through what it is and what it isn't. So firstly, the Sabbath is a day of rest. It is a day of rest once a week. For the Jews, that was Friday night to Saturday night.
That was their Sabbath. They measured days from evening to evening. So that was their Sabbath. And the New Testament church, we see a tradition that falls out of that. They made Sunday the day that the church would Sabbath. Because Sunday was the day that the Lord resurrected.
And that is why the tradition that comes out of that is that the church gathers together for worship. But they also gather together to rest on Sundays. Now there's a movement that happened out of this. They call themselves Sabbatarians. It's just a fancy way of saying that you have to obey the Sabbath. And it has to be on Sunday.
And if the church isn't Sabbathing on Sunday, if God's people aren't resting on Sunday, then you are living in sin. And that movement actually was carried over to America. It actually shaped much of American culture, which is one of the reasons we have Sunday off. And Saturday off comes from the Jewish calendar. And it shaped much of our culture. And it still exists a little bit today.
But if you look at the New Testament, there's not a case that can be made for that. The Sunday has to be the day that the Sabbath happens. You just don't see that. You see it form out of tradition, but you don't see that everyone has to have their Sabbath on the Sunday. But I'd argue that it is probably the best time for you to Sabbath.
That if many of you that don't work on Sunday, because you grew up in this country where you have a tradition of having Sunday off, if you don't work on Sunday, I'll argue that Sunday is probably the best day for you to take your Sabbath. And the reason why is because the Sabbath by nature is meant to be communal. It's meant to be a time where the church communes together and Sabbaths together. That's why the nation of Israel, they would Sabbath together as a nation the same way. It's meant to be something that we do together. So if you're not like me, I have work on Sundays, whether it's doing real estate, whether it's ministry, if you're not like me and you have the freedom to have Sunday off, Sunday should be the time that you choose to rest with the rest of the church.
So the Sabbath is a day of rest. It is not work. Sabbath is not work. Now we're going to get into the practicals of learning how to Sabbath, but this needs to be clearly stated on the front end. It is not work. It is designed for us to help us reboot, to help reorient our hearts towards grace, towards God.
And your work takes away from that. Now we're going to get practical and walk through some activities. And as I do that, some of you are going to immediately go to, oh, I can do this and I can do that. And I can get that accomplished. I've got some freedom here. And if that is you, if you're like me and you're looking for loopholes, you need to pull back.
This is meant to be rest. It is not work. The Sabbath is worshipful. It is designed to be worshipful. That is why the church has gathered for thousands of years on the Sabbath to worship like we're doing now, to sing songs, to read scripture, to hear the word preached. It is meant to be worshipful together as we have our hearts formed and shaped and knowing more of who Jesus is.
So part of that is gathering together for worship. Another part of that is incorporating God's word into your Sabbath. That on your day of rest, on your Sabbath, you might open up God's word. You might read in it. You might sit in it. You might meditate on it.
Because God's word is what forms us and shapes us and reminds us of who God is. That your Sabbath needs to be filled with prayer. And one of my favorite ways of resting and incorporating prayer, when it's not like 100 degrees and melting outside, is to go outside and to walk and to see the sky and God's creation and His handiwork and to be reminded of who He is and what He has done for us and just talk to Him and just pray. It needs to be filled with God's word. It needs to be filled with prayer. It needs to be filled with fellowship.
That's why we gather here. One of the reasons we gather here on Sunday is that we might fellowship. If you are extroverted and you are fueled by people, it could be a good idea for you to connect with people. If you are introverted, we're glad you're here. And we want you to be here regularly. And be wise.
Meet with some people, but also take some time for yourself. The Sabbath is meant to be worshipful. It is not escape. The Sabbath is not escape. We have confused restfulness with escape. It is so easy for us to think, oh, I'm going to chill out.
I'm going to escape. Like how many of us have watched like five hour-long episodes on Netflix. And after those five hours, I thought, man, I'm really refreshed. I feel so much better now. No. You don't feel better after you've watched five hours of a show.
It's even worse because Netflix puts up a little reminder and says, are you still watching? You get judged by a company that makes money off of you watching. It's not restful. That's escape. Escape. And we so often like to feel moments of silence with escape, whether it's Netflix, whether it's our phones.
Man, how often I will try to sit and just be in silence and pray or meditate, and I quickly grab my phone, and it just magically appears in my hand. And five minutes later, I'm like, oh, what are they doing today? It's like, what just happened? Or if I'm good, I'll put it away, and I put it away, and I feel this phantom vibration in my leg. That's addiction. That's a problem.
We are so prone to want to fill moments of silence, void moments with entertainment, with escape. And we need to fight that because we need to let that silence be, let God fill up that silence that we might be filled and fueled. The Sabbath is not meant for escape. So that's kind of what it is and what it isn't. It is a day of rest that we cease from work. We confess with our rest that we are not God.
So how? Like, how do we practically walk that out as a church family? I have about six handles we can walk through of how we can do this. The first one is decide to Sabbath. Now, I say that. Some of you just rolled your eyes.
Like, seriously? Like, that should be self-explanatory. You're deciding to Sabbath. Thanks a lot. That's a great start. No.
No. Decide the Sabbath. Because here's the deal. If you don't consciously make the decision that you are going to reshape your life to have a pattern of rest that happens once a week, you won't do it. You don't just stumble into patterns. Like, you don't just stumble into one to eat healthy and work out.
You don't just rock out at McDonald's and eat salads like it's nothing. You don't just end up three days a week in a gym. That's not how that works. You have to gear yourself up. You have to consciously decide, this is going to be a lifestyle for me and I'm going to do this. You have to decide to Sabbath and commit to it.
So step one, decide to Sabbath. Second, plan to Sabbath. You need to plan it. I had to stop in my sermon prep and repent. I had to, I realized, I mean, sometimes I can preach and I know I'm weak in areas and I can be a little bit self-deprecating, but man, I felt very hypocritical if I was going to think through one more thing that I was going to say. I had to stop because I don't, my tendency is that somewhere between Friday and Saturday I'm going to have a Sabbath and it just kind of shows up on a Friday.
I'm like, oh, I guess it's time to shut it down and then I get a phone call and then I respond to this and then Saturday I'm kind of like, oh yeah, and it just ends up not being restful at all. So I had to stop. I want to show you a little bit of what I was working on. I had to create a plan for Sabbathing. The top one is a week that I'm not preaching or a week that I don't have a ton of real estate. I'll sleep in until 7 and spend some time in the Word and get my kids up, make breakfast, maybe listen to a sermon, whatever.
From 8.45 to about 11.30, I can do sermon stuff, I can do real estate, but I'm shutting it down at 11.30. That's when it's going to begin. I can play with my kids during lunchtime as they go down to nap. We've started this new rhythm where I let my wife go. I was like, just vacate, go to, she loves Dunkin' Donuts, go to Dunkin', go wherever, spend some time, and then we usually have our date night on Friday. Saturday morning, I wake up, spend some time in the Word, do some restful activities that I'll get to in a minute, and then have lunch.
And that's, and the second one is if I have all Friday off, that's the plan I made. I had to get really practical because if I don't plan this, I'm not going to do this. You have to plan well to rest well. Because if you don't, you won't rest well. The nation of Israel, they understood this. They called this the day of preparation.
That there was a time that they would, before the Sabbath, they would get all of their work done so that when the Sabbath began on that Friday night, it'd all be done and they could check, they could begin to Sabbath rest. And the reality is is that it's actually, it's actually genius. The most productive week of work I've had this year was the week before I went on vacation. Because I was checking out and I had to get all of my work done. And the reality is is that if you, if you plan to rest, you're going to get a lot of work done as you prepare so that you can rest well. So for some of you, that means you're going to have to answer the emails, you're going to have to answer the phone calls, you're going to have to set up an auto reminder on your email, you're going to have to get real practical.
For some of you, there are activities that you would normally do that are really draining. Like for some of you, you like cooking. For some of you, it drains you. So maybe for your day of rest, you don't cook. Whether that means you prepared food the day before, whether that means you go out to eat, whether that means you order in food. Whatever it is, whatever kind of work that does not fuel you, that drains you, you get it done and you plan so that you don't have to work on the Sabbath.
You have to plan well to rest well. Third, value your Sabbath. Value your Sabbath. I was watching this TED Talk and this reporter was talking about this. She went to interview this high power CEO. This woman had four kids.
She owned her company. She was a CEO. And she went to interview her and she was talking to her assistant. She was like, how does Wednesday morning look? And the assistant said, well, actually, Wednesday morning through the afternoon, she's booked up. She's actually gone hiking in the mountains by herself, but we can pick another day.
And it baffled her. She's like, how in the world does a woman who's a CEO, has four kids, owns her own company, how does she, in the middle of a work week, to get to just check out and go hiking? So she asked her in the interview. And what she said was so telling. She said, you know, some people say, I don't have time for this. What they really mean is, I won't make time for this.
Because you will make time for what you value. She's like, I value time to get away. I value time to go and be in the mountains and to hike and to, like, that's what I value. So I make time for it. You make time for what you value. Man, that is so true.
I have a standing offer from one of my buddies. He works for KFC Corporate. And he gets to go to the Super Bowl every year because KFC's a sponsor in the NFL. And I asked him, I said, bro, if the Colts make it to the Super Bowl, will you take me? Well, he took down a heartbeat because he's like, y'all ain't making the Super Bowl. Not by the time I get another Job.
And I was like, deal. But let me tell you something. If somehow magically Andrew Luck comes back and he starts throwing just money and we start winning games and we somehow make it through the AFC Championship, you best believe on that Super Bowl Sunday, I'm going. I'm going to make time for it. Because that's a bucket list thing for me. I want to go just one time.
That's a big skill thing that we make value statements on. We do it all the time in the smaller things. How many of us this fall are going to clear all of Saturday for football? We'll make time for that because we value it. Fill in the blank. Maybe it's a TV show that comes on every week.
You are going to be there to see it. Maybe it's a TV show that gets released once a year. You're going to block off that weekend for it. You will make time for what you value. Fill in the blank. You will make time for it.
And my fear is is that many of us will hear this sermon. We'll walk through this series. We'll talk about rest in our community groups. And we might do it for a few weeks. We might do it for a couple of months. But then we're slowly going to drift back into the same stuff we've always been doing.
And that is going to be because we don't value the Sabbath enough. We don't value rest enough. Honestly, we've talked about this as pastors. That's one of the reasons why our gatherings, the average of our church family, the average member shows up twice a month to gatherings. That's why the seats are not... If everyone was here every week, we'd be filled up.
We'd have space issues. But we've realized that. And that's an indictment on us because we don't value Sabbath resting, worshiping together as a church. What you value, you will make time and space for. And we need to respond to that as we try to Sabbath. Fourth, Sabbath for the season you're in.
My wife and I, man, back when I was in seminary, we could drop what we were doing and we could go on a date night. We'd just drop, head on out, and we could do the whole thing for 20 bucks. Because in seminary, we didn't have money. I was paying for seminary as we went. I was like, we can do the whole thing for 20 months. Stop what we're doing and go for it.
That has changed. We have kids now. You don't stop and drop and go do anything. Like, you've got a plan. We've got to make sure we have sitters. That's going to be more than 20 bucks on top of what we're going to do.
So we've had to adjust for the season that we're in. And what has happened for many of you and for us is that we have not adjusted for the season we're in when it comes to Sabbath rest. Because some of you could just, on your day of rest, could just go to a coffee shop and spend hours there and read books, listen to podcasts and sermons and journal. Some of you could go kayaking all day. You could just check out, not tell anybody, go hiking all day. If some of you tried to do that now, there would be a missing person report following you.
And we remember, man, that's how it used to be. I got to rest that way. And we haven't adjusted for the season that we're in. Times change. Seasons change. Your schedule changes.
Some of you start getting married. Some of you start having kids. And the season changes and you've got to change with it. This is especially important for moms. I want to talk to you moms for a second. Sabbath rest for you looks different now and it has been hard to adjust for this season.
In this season, I want to say something very clearly. It is okay for you to put your kids in front of a TV, especially if you have little ones, to put them in front of a TV for a little bit and go and have a quiet time. It's okay for you to buy some time. I don't care what the internet says. You have to take care of yourself. You've got to, you strive to take care of your kids to make sure they're eating well, to make sure they're growing well, to make sure they're learning well.
You've got to take time for yourself. That means, husbands, we've got to step up and give some space for our wives to go and rest. That means that you need to reach out to some friends, some church families, some people in your community group and say, you just come watch the kids for a few hours so that I can go and reorient my heart towards grace so that I can rest well. And if you have older kids, that means you get to tell them from this time to this time on this day, guys, don't come to me. I'm checking out. I love you, serve you, take care of you, cart you everywhere for six days a week.
From this block, you ain't going to see me. I'm going to be in this room. You guys entertain yourself. And if you, I know y'all crush it as moms, you love and serve them, they'll get it. And what they'll see is, is that you are valuing this time and that it's important. And that rest is important.
And that's going to stick in their head as they become adults. Which brings me to my next point. In the season you're in, you need to take time for yourself individually, but we rest together as a family. We need to Sabbath well as families. And that means being creative about your family and what your family does. You know your family better than anyone else.
How could you create rhythms in your family so that y'all can rest individually, but also you can rest together? I heard a pastor once say this. He said, On the Sabbath, for my kids and my wife, which is Sunday for them, we make sure that we go out to a nice restaurant. Nicer than normal. So not Moe's.
Step your game up. Just go a little bit higher. And then you also, he said they order a dessert so that his kids can really look forward to the Sabbath. So they can really look forward to this time. So for some of us, we can incorporate exciting things into our Sabbath as we rest together as families.
It means doing restful activities together. So if that's playing games for you, it's like, guys, we're going to take a few hours together and play games as a family. If that's restful for you, if your goal in a game is not to destroy your family member, destroy your kids and make sure that somebody's crying. If you're not super competitive, you've got to know your family. You've got to know what y'all do. Maybe that's later bedtimes.
It's making this day special because this is the day we also get to rest together as a family. So we need to respond to the season we're in. We need to make some adjustments and rest well for the season that we're in. The fifth one is study for your Sabbath, which kind of seems like an oxymoron. Study for your Sabbath. Stay with me for a second.
Some of us don't know how to rest. Some of us have forgotten how to rest. This is my wife. My wife, we had kids and she's forgotten. In the past year, we have been having conversations. We've been trying to figure this out.
We've been trying, I've been trying to help her. See, let's try this. Maybe this is it because she's changed. And some of you are changing and stuff that you thought was restful five years ago, you're still trying to do and it's not restful anymore. I heard a commentary say once that if you work with your mind, rest with your hands. If you work with your hands, rest with your mind.
And there's some wisdom in that. You have to study yourself. You have to figure out how you rest. I was able to do this as well in thinking through how I rest. It will come up on the screen. There it is.
I started to brainstorm what are some restful activities for me that's super blurry graphic that I couldn't make clear. So I started to think what is restful? I'm a people person. People fuel me. So I started, I like to connect with friends, like to go to coffee shops.
That's something I like to do. I like to do yard work, which I know when you see that, you go, wait a second, you said it wasn't work. Yard work for me is restful. It just is. I don't work with my hands and I get to do yard work and it's cut and dry. Like I go to my stepdad at my mom's house sometimes and I used to mow their acre and a half front lot on a one mile per hour lawnmower.
It took me four hours. As soon as I graduated and went to college, my stepdad got the nicest, fastest, zero turn. Sometimes I go to their house and I'm like, can I mow your lawn? Because it's 45 minutes and I get to turn and cut. It's awesome. I love it.
One day a week when it's not winter time, I get to at my yard, I get to mow the grass, it's overgrown, I get to cut it, it's clean, I get to edge, I get to weed eat. For me, it's enjoyable, it's restful. I can listen to sermons, I can pray, I can do all of that and it's two hours, it's cut and dry. What's not restful for me is house projects. Man, house projects, sometimes they work well. You've heard about my YouTube tragedies, sometimes they don't.
Then I'll watch a YouTube video and I'll go and I'll figure out how to do the project and then I'll go to true value, I pick up a part and then I come back home and then I realize I missed something else, I get back to true value, pick up another part, then I realize I don't have a tool. It's not restful for me. So I just made a decision the past two weeks, like honey, I won't find times for me to do some of these household projects elsewhere but on my Sabbath, I just can't. I can't, it's not restful for me. I've had to go through and think through. Shopping, going to the grocery store, it's not restful for me.
Driving, I drive all the time for my work. It's not restful for me and obviously real estate and ministry and phone usage, it's not good for my soul. We're going to give some space in community groups for you to do this, for you to do this this week. Some of you need to learn and relearn how to rest. You need to figure it out, try some things. Sometimes it won't work.
You might stumble upon some things that actually do work but some of us need to learn how to rest. We need to ask ourselves what is restful, what is fueling, what is good for our soul and what is draining. So we need to study for the Sabbath. Lastly, we need to Sabbath regularly. Sabbath is one day a week. There are also regular rhythms of rest that we need to incorporate throughout our days.
We used to call that a lunch break. That's what used to happen. Some of you still do but a lot of us, it's not a lunch break anymore. You'll go and you'll pick something up and you'll eat really quickly. You'll get back to work. The irony is that a couple weeks ago as we were preparing for sermons on the Sabbath, we had to do a working lunch.
I was like, this screams of irony. Because we work and we work and sometimes we need to take breaks. Sometimes we need to, like I'm a binge worker, I'll go four hours straight and then I'll feel my body start tensing up and I was like, no, I've got to take moments just to breathe. You've got to figure out you and start to incorporate regular rhythms of rest. These are practicals. These are meant to help us as we strive for rest and if we start to make some adjustments, if you start to work some of this out, if you start to figure out how to rest, how to incorporate these rhythms and if you start to see that it is one day a week where we cease from work and we confess with our rest that we are not God, it'll change you.
If we don't do that, if we don't take this seriously, we are heading for burnout. You were not made for limitless work. You will eventually burn out. One of my favorite shows is Better Call Saul. It's about attorneys and it's a spinoff of Breaking Bad and this last season, one of the attorneys, her name is Kim, she went out on her own as an attorney. She picked up a bunch of clients or she picked up one client with a bunch of work and then she's not sleeping well, she's working extra hours, she's staying overnight at the office and then she picks up a second client and she doesn't sleep.
She works and she works and she strives and then she has this really big presentation that she's got to go to. She packs up her car, puts all the boxes of papers of presentations in the back seat and she starts driving and as she's driving, she's rehearsing what she's going to do. She's rehearsing her words, she's going through this presentation, it's the biggest moment of her career and it's shot from her perspective and immediately she crashes. She wakes up, she fell asleep at the wheel and I want to put this picture up, it's a picture of the scene. She steps out of the car and the thing that kept her from going off the cliff is a rock.
She realizes she almost died, her arm is broken, her face is bloodied and all of her work is scattered across the road. And man, that is such a picture of us. If we work and we strive and we struggle and we don't rest, that's a picture of where we're heading. That we are heading for burnout. That we are heading off a cliff and that we're going to end up broken, we're going to end up bruised, we're going to allow in a season of crisis and a season of a nervous breakdown and a season of turmoil for sin to creep in and to take us down. And that picture is so picturesque, all of your work will be scattered.
The irony of this is if you overwork, eventually you will break down and you will have to step away from work like it is scattered across the highway as it is a mess. That's a picture of who we are if we don't learn to rest. And we need to take that seriously. But hear this. When you choose to rest, when you choose to honor the Sabbath, you will experience God in a whole new way. You will start to incorporate these rhythms of rest that will reorient your heart towards grace that will fill you up.
You will have moments of silence that are turned to worship and to joy and you will be refreshed in a way that you never were before. And out of this, once we are regularly refreshed every week, we'll get to serve our family better, our wives better, we'll get to love our kids better, we'll get to serve our co-workers better. as we learn to balance, work, and rest in a God-honoring way as we honor the Sabbath.
How the Gospel Gives Us Rest
Transcript
Good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in the fourth week of our Hammer and Hammock series where we're talking about work and rest. Two things that take up the majority of our time that we're going to either be working or we're going to be not working. And we've got to figure out how to do that well.
We've got to figure out how to have a healthy balance. And so what we did was we started off the first week talking about that God has designed us to have a rhythm of six days of work and one day of rest. So this is actually how God created the world, that he worked, that he began the world by laboring, and then he rested. And if you think about that, for a cosmic being who is beyond time, beyond energy, like he's who can create everything in an instant, to take six days to create everything and then to take a day where he does nothing, is a crazy concept. But God designed it that way and worked that way so that we might follow his pattern.
And he instituted this into the world. And it says that he blessed the seventh day and he made it holy, meaning the seventh day, the Sabbath, is set apart from the rest of the week. And that it's blessed so that those who befriend the Sabbath will be blessed. Those who take part in it will be blessed, will receive the goodness of that day. And so what we're talking about is how do we work for six days and rest for one. And I love the little video we have because we're on different sides of this.
There are some of you who love work. You love being busy. You love the energy. And there's some of you who love rest. And so what we've talked about is that some of you who want to rest four days a week and kind of work three need to change your lifestyle. You need to work six and rest one.
And some of you who are like resting one day a week sounds ridiculous. You're watching the first half of that video and you're like, yes, chopping things, hammering things. Yes. Being a mom, doing yes. And then it goes boop, doop, doop, doop, boop. And then you start seeing people in a hammock and you're like, oh, that sounds so stupid.
I hate the second half of that. And some of you are like, the first half seemed awful. But when that dog started like trotting through the field, that was amazing. And your little spirit wakes up. And so what we're trying to do is figure out how to have a healthy pattern here. There's a first century Stoic philosopher.
His name was Seneca. And he was looking at the Jewish people who practiced the Sabbath, who one day a week did nothing. They had a day of preparation for it where they would get ready to do nothing the next day. And he says that it was absurd. He looked at the Jewish people and said they spend almost a seventh of their life in inactivity. And so as we start today, what we're going to be talking to is the person who kind of agrees with Seneca.
We're talking to the person who is just consistently busy. And I think that there's two types of this person. There's one person who says, look, I get it. The Bible tells us we're supposed to rest. It's in the Ten Commandments. I'm aware that those ten are pretty important.
But you tell me how on earth I'm going to do that. I have like 17 children. I don't think it's actually 17, but it feels like it. I have three jobs. I have you're looking and going. There's no way like I would love to take one day off a week.
That would be amazing. But I'm not going to ride a unicorn to work. And this also isn't going to happen. Like unless that magical thing happens, this magical thing isn't happening. Some of you are just looking and going like, look, sounds great, but there's no way to do that. And on the other side of that, there's someone else who just goes, that doesn't even sound great.
But taking a day, one day a week to do nothing sounds excruciating. And if I'm honest, stupid. And I don't want to. And there's some of you who feel that way. It's just like, no. I mean, I get that it's good and people should rest or whatever.
But like I got a vacation coming up later. Plus, I got some leagues and stuff I'm in. And I just said, I'm not really going to do it. And so we're talking to you today. We spent the past couple of weeks talking to the person who wants to sleep most of their life. And we tried to say, here's why work is important.
Here's why work is valuable. But today we're talking to the person who doesn't ever want to stop or feels like they can't. And we're actually going to spend the next two weeks. So today we're going to talk kind of more big picture, heart level stuff. And next week we're going to talk about all the practical things. So hopefully today you'll leave with a lot of practical questions of like, okay, I'm on board.
But I still need to know how on earth to do that and what to do in a Sabbath. That's next week. So if you get a little annoyed and feel like a lot of your questions aren't answered today, then I did my job because they're not supposed to be. So here's the thing. I read a book called Switch. And what Switch talks about is how to make a change in your life.
And the big kind of example they give is that they say everybody, functions like a person riding on an elephant. That there's an elephant and there's a rider. And the rider is intelligent. The rider understands facts and figures. The rider likes PowerPoints. And the elephant doesn't.
Doesn't care. The elephant is your emotions. It's your heart level desires. And so what the point of the book was is that if you just talk to the rider, but you don't get a hold of the elephant, nothing will change. And we know this to be true. Some of you are like, I'm going to quit smoking.
I know that it's bad. I've seen the little pictures they put on the cartons. I get it. I know that there's a general who became a surgeon. And he has some warnings for me. I get it.
And you're like, I'm going to stop. And the elephant's like, that's cute. Because you're not like the elephant heading in on board with the facts and figures. Some of you are like, this is it. I'm going to start working out. I'm going to start eating right.
I'm going to start tomorrow. And the elephant's laughing at you and then takes you to McDonald's like you. Some of you are like, I'm really, this is the semester when I'm really going to study. I'm going to get ahead on my stuff. I won't show up to class and be like, wait, we have a paper due today. I'm going to already know about it.
I'll have already written it. And your elephant is playing Xbox. It already left the room. It wasn't even paying attention to your PowerPoint. You showed it. And that's what's happening here is that some of us are going, okay, I'm on board with the idea of a Sabbath.
I'm on board with the idea of rest. But we've got to actually untie the soul level, heart level knot. Otherwise, we won't ever actually be able to rest. So I want to talk to all the elephants in the room a little bit today. Grab your Bibles. Go to Hebrews chapter 3.
Here's what I want us to understand as we go to Hebrews chapter 3. It's on page 581 if you have one of the blue Bibles. If you don't own a Bible, take our blue Bible. That's our gift to you. You were not made to endlessly strive. You were not designed by God to endlessly strive.
You were designed by God to do good work, to carry weight, but not ceaselessly. God commands that we rest. And if we don't, all you will have is joyless toil without rest. And eventually, you will burn out. If we don't rest, all you will have is joyless toil. All of life will lose color.
All of life will lose joy and hope and happiness. And all you'll have is just ceaseless toil. And then eventually, you'll die. Or you'll throw off everything in life that holds you down, that weighs on you. And you'll try to escape. You'll derail everything.
So we have to figure out how to do this. And we have to overcome what's stopping us. Let's pray and then we'll look at the text. God, we thank you for this time we get to spend together. And we pray that in these moments for the person who does not know how to rest. Who does not know how to stop.
Who does not know how to sit still. Who does not know how to enjoy moments of quiet and peacefulness. We pray that you would help us to see you in all your glory today. And that the cross might set us free and invite us into rest. In Jesus' name, amen. So in the book of Hebrews, the author, we don't really know who the author is.
Some people think it may be somebody writing some stuff that Paul taught. Some people think that it might be Luke. But we really don't know. In the book of Hebrews, the author is going through and systematically saying, See this? Jesus is better. See angels?
Jesus is better. See Moses? Jesus is better. And he's just consistently saying, Here, let me show you how Jesus is better than this. How Jesus is the fulfillment of this. Let me show you the temple.
Let me show you how Jesus is better than that. And he just consistently does that. And so we're going to pick up in Hebrews 3, verse 14, where he's begun to talk about Moses and the law. And what he said earlier was, Jesus is better than Moses. And that if we're not careful, we'll join with the people who are following Moses and we'll run away from Jesus. So let's pick up in 14.
For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our confidence firm to the end. So he's saying we belong to Christ, we share in Christ, if we keep it, if we keep our confidence, if we keep walking with Christ. As it is written, and he's going to quote from the Old Testament, he says, Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. So now he's going to talk about what that rebellion is. He says, For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?
And with whom was he provoked for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. All right, so here's what he's saying there.
He's saying that Moses led a group of people out of Egypt. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt, and then God sent Moses to go lead them out of Egypt, to go declare, Let my people go. And the Pharaoh was like, No, I will not let them go. And he's like, Let them go. And they were like, I will not let them go. Let them go.
Like that. And that's what happened. And then God sends plagues. And then the Pharaoh decides to finally let them go. And then when they come to the Red Sea, God parts the Red Sea. And there's all this miraculous stuff that takes place to get the Israelites out of Egypt, the slaves to be set free.
And then God gives them his Ten Commandments. And God declares, I'm going to bring you into a rest. I'm going to bring you into the promised land. I'm going to bless you. And you'll get to be my people. And he institutes the Sabbath at this point.
He says that your value doesn't come from your work. You're no longer slaves. You don't have to endlessly, ceaselessly toil. You're going to work six days. You're going to rest one. So this is what God does.
But then the people rebelled, which is terrifying, by the way, that they could see so clearly who God was and what he had done and that he could rescue them from slavery and they could still reject him. That's what the author of Hebrews is saying. Don't do that. Don't be invited into something so beautiful. Don't see so clearly who God is and then reject that. He says if they did it, we're in danger of doing it.
Because you would look and say, if God sent plagues and if he parted the Red Sea, if these people walked on dry land with two sides of water on the side of them, like I think I would get to the other side and go, you know what? I think God's real and I think he's good. And then they walk around in the wilderness for a little while and they're like, I want something else. And he says, that's terrifying. Don't do that. And so his point is, they, because they did not believe, did not get to enter into the rest that God was offering.
He was inviting them into the promised land. He was inviting them into the rest, but they had unbelief that kept them from the rest he had welcomed them into. Let's keep going. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed entered that rest, as he has said.
As I swore my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. So what he's saying is, those who believe enter into the rest of God, enter into the salvation of God, enter into the promised land of God, and those who disbelieve, who have unbelief, are not welcomed in. That's the major point he's making here. And he's talking about metaphysical rest. Beyond just our physical life, beyond just what we can touch, it's this eternal rest. He's not talking about the Sabbath yet.
What he's saying is that those who believe are welcome into a rest that is offered by God through salvation. And those who have unbelief do not get the rest. Do not get the eternal rest offered by God. Then he says, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way. And God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again, in this passage, he said, they shall not enter my rest.
Here's what we need to understand. He says, those who believe get to enter the rest, just like God worked and rested. And those who have unbelief do not get to enter the rest. And this is mirrored. It is pictured in our lives so that if you have an inability to rest, I want to argue with you today that that means you have a practical, functional unbelief in the gospel at work in your life. That if you're a Christian, but you can't sit still, if you're a Christian, but you can't stop, if you're a Christian, but you can't rest, I want to argue with you that you have a functional unbelief.
That you might say, no, I really believe in Christ. I really know who he is. I really, but the problem is those who know Christ are marked their entire life. Even their work is marked by a rest because we're not having to strive to prove ourselves. That we're welcomed into a rest that only comes through salvation. That we're actually, if we're unable to rest, we're looking to something else to satisfy us, to assure us that we're okay. to give us our value, to give us our worth, that we have unbelief.
That God has invited us to rest from our works, to rest from our labor. And we are, like them in the rebellion, hardening our hearts and saying, I want something else. I need something else to validate me. I need something else to give me my worth. I need something else. So I can't stop.
I can't rest. I can't do nothing. I can't have inactivity because I need it to tell me I'm okay. And that is a practical unbelief. I want to read a quote by Judith Shulovich. She was writing for a New York Times.
She, she's a New York Times author. She is, grew up Jewish and then she kind of, as she got older, she just rejected her practicing Jewish faith. And then she realized that she started really, really struggling and about every weekend around Friday night, she said she just got depressed. And the point of the article is she realized that she needed the Sabbath. That she had practiced it religiously growing up and that it was very aggressively enforced and that she just kind of rejected all of that. But then she was striving endlessly and exhausted.
And so every Friday night she would get depressed and she realized I need to rest. And that's the point of her article. Now she's writing from the standpoint of a Jewish person, but I think that she gives some very clear pictures of what it feels like and what it's like for us to not be able to rest. She refers to our neurotic drive to achieve. That there's something wrong with us, but we have to constantly have something that we're marking off, that we're checking off, that we're achieving, that we're adding to our list of who we are. She says, I love this quote, she says, oddly, one of the few times a parent can truly, not that quote, I'm reading a different one.
I'm going to get to that one in a second. Oddly, one of the few times a parent can truly relax is when lingering on the sidelines of a child's baseball or soccer game. There's nothing like being forced to be somewhere and do very little for an hour and a half to declench the muscles of the mind. I love that phrase, declench the muscles of the mind. So what she's saying is that there has to be this time that we rest and she keeps going and I like this quote as well that uses bigger words so it's going to be up here.
So when she's talking about the Sabbath, she's talking about this time where we specifically stop to take a long period of rest. Not just a little bit of time, not just time that's forced on us, but it's actually we force it into our schedule. She says this, not only did drudgery give way to festivity and family gatherings and occasionally worship, but the machinery of self-censorship shut down too, stilling the eternal inner murmur of self-reproach. She says, this is the purpose of the Sabbath. I think her argument is helpful, the words that she uses here, that there's this self-censorship, there's this eternal inner murmur that by forcing ourselves to stop, we're forced to face and this is why some of us loathe having nothing to do.
Because what happens is when everything ceases, when our activity ceases, when we no longer have something that we're being productive, it's as if a maestro walks to the stand in our mind and just starts making all of this stuff, starts singing and crying, yelling at us. Like some of you, you go to rest, you go to sit down, you're like, finally, I'm going to take a nap and you lay down and it's this immediate, you really should be doing something else. You're being kind of lazy right now. There are other things that you could do that are more important with your time that you actually could, maybe you should actually get some of this work done you've been saying you were going to do so that you can spend some time with your children later.
Maybe like immediately like lists and tasks and so I don't know how long you can stand it, five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes and then you're up. You got stuff to do. Maybe some of you lay down and finally you're exhausted and you're like, I'm going to go to sleep and you lay down in bed at night and your brain's like, hey, you want to replay everything that happened today and judge yourself? And you're like, no. And your brain's like, it's going to be fun. And you reevaluate your entire day and you start trying to figure out how you're going to do better the next day.
That you have this inability to stop. You have something to prove, something to earn. You've got an inner murmur, this self-censorship, this self-correction that is constant. Maybe some of you, your brain's consistently telling you, rest is for weak people and you're not weak. Rest is for the unimportant, but you're important. That there's something about you getting called in on your day off, there's something about you having to do work on your day off that confirms for you in your soul that I matter and I'm valuable and I have worth.
Other people can take time off, I can't, and that means that I'm worth something. That I'm accomplishing something. That I'm doing something. You work through lunch and it's a badge of honor because of how important you are and how much you matter. For some of you, you've brought this into your relationship with Jesus. So the stuff that the Bible talks about, about walking with Jesus where Jesus says things like, come to me all you who are weary and I'll give you rest, doesn't feel like your relationship to Jesus.
You don't feel like a weary person who got to go rest with Jesus. You don't feel like someone who's drinking deeply from a cool well or an unending river. You actually feel like someone who's accomplishing a lot of tasks and presenting Jesus with your checklist of all the good things you've done. So that your Bible reading has become, I'm going to read this much, I'm going to memorize this much, I'm going to do this much and it's become this, I'm going to labor for you Jesus and then I'll present to you what I have accomplished. And so even in walking with Jesus, you've brought in this idea of I have to be active and I have to be purposeful and I have to display to you what I've done.
And it's not restful and it's not joyous. Some of you feel like anytime you rest you've just pushed off the important things. If I rest now, I'm just going to have more to do later. If I stop now, I'll just complicate all next week. There's no way I could take an entire day off because it's just going to ruin everything and so that you consistently just never take time off. You never really stop.
You kind of rest and you kind of, I know some of you are like, well it's kind of rest but I also like it'll be more restful if I just get all the laundry done and then I'll really feel good if I can just get the grass cut and that'll be restful. And one of the ways that I'm going to rest this week is I'm going to invite five people over to my house and that'll be restful even though you hate people and you're just going to bring them over because you're kind of supposed to and then you'll feel better about yourself if you can and you've added in all this activity when you were designed for some inactivity so that you might actually have to face the maestro. You might actually have to take the time it takes to steal the inner murmur. That we were designed to stop so that we might come face to face with some things that God actually wants us to face.
This is why I think one of the helpful things that Adam Gibson who from Midtown came and spoke to us the other day, two weeks ago, said that there's a difference between rest and entertainment. There's a difference between rest and just kind of numbing our minds with watching television and that sort of thing. that some of that is us turning up the television so that we can drown out the course of the inner murmur but rather than actually facing it, unclenching it, walking in it and figuring out how to have true rest in Christ. I was talking with Nadine Pabone. She's one of our group leaders and she serves a lot in our church in a couple different areas and we were talking about this and just how busy she is and she said one of the reasons she doesn't like resting, she doesn't like taking time off is that she became a mom when she was 17 and that she actually doesn't know who she is apart from being a mom, being a wife and doing ministry and that when she rests she comes face to face with the fact that she has placed her identity in her activity so that if you looked at her and said, hey, take the day off, go do something you enjoy, her response is, I actually don't really know what I enjoy.
I watch a lot of children's programs. I fold a lot of laundry. I've got four children but I don't really know what I like. I don't really know what refreshes me and what she realizes when she comes to those moments of your whole day is cleared and you can rest, she comes to the face to face with the fact that I don't really know who I am outside of the things that I do and for some of you, you've placed all of your identity in work, you've placed all of your identity in your activities, you've placed all of your identity in who you are and what you do so that when you have a day off, you come face to face with the fact that you actually don't know who you are and it's excruciating.
So your inability to stop tells on you. Your inability to pause your life declares to you, it snitches. Your inability to stop tells on you that you actually have an internal issue with knowing who you are and being able to rest in the salvation that's offered in Christ. That you have an inability to stop because you have an inability to rest in the fact that Jesus has done all the work on your behalf and you still have something to prove and you still have something to achieve and you still have something you need to assure you that you have value. So how do we fight this?
That's offered in Christ. That you have an inability to stop because you have an inability to rest in the fact that Jesus has done all the work on your behalf and you still have something to prove and you still have something to achieve and you still have something you need to assure you that you have value. So how do we fight this? How do we silence the inner murmur? How do we learn
How to rest? How do we learn how to quiet ourselves so that we might be able to enjoy what Christ has offered? verse 8 I love this verse for if Joshua had given them rest God would not have spoken of another day later on so then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his now again
This is beyond our weekly rest this is beyond the regular Sabbath but he talks about this Sabbath rest and what he says is if Joshua had given them rest then God wouldn't have kept talking about this idea now we got to understand who Joshua is for this to be really encouraging because if you don't know who Joshua is you're just like neat Joshua he failed I don't know him but he dropped the ball here's who Joshua
Is Joshua is the person who took over after Moses died and Joshua actually led the people into the promised land so he delivers them into God's promised land and he begins to set up them following the Lord and practicing the laws and so here's what it just said the promised land and obedience to the law will not provide for you rest and some of you have convinced yourself it will some of you have said if I can just achieve enough if I can just work hard enough if I can finally
I'll just finally feel okay I'll finally reach this moment where I'll tell myself I've done enough you've convinced yourself that if you're good enough if you behave well enough then finally your soul will be at rest and it won't and some of you have said if I can just get to the promised land and I don't know what your promised land is certain amount of money certain Job title kids out of your house I don't know what you think the promised land is but you keep telling yourself if I can just get there if I can just get there
If I can just get there I'll get rest and let me tell you something Joshua fails every time but there is a Sabbath rest for the people of God and it is found in Christ that we actually get to cease our striving our endless desire to prove our value our worth to assure ourselves that we're okay because of Christ I want to read from Galatians chapter 2 verse 16 and verse 21 he says yet we know that a person is not justified that means made right
That means that you won't ever actually be able to stand and say I'm perfect I've done it I've achieved it I can rest he says you're not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ so we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law because by works of the law no one will be justified to use the language of Hebrews by works of the law no one will find rest 21
I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law then Christ Jesus died for no purpose so here's what he's saying in Galatians he's saying that if we consistently have to work to prove that our value comes from our work that we're going to present to God something amazing that he'll finally accept us that what we're doing is we're looking at the cross and saying no thank you we're hardening our hearts towards it we're nullifying the grace of God
And we're rejecting the offer of free salvation to actually lay down our work so here's what I want to say if you're in Christ and your faith is in Christ you've been given rest that is beyond any rest the world can ever offer and therefore you actually can rest here you've been given an eternal rest and therefore are free to rest here because you have nothing to prove
And you have nothing to earn it's all been carried out in Christ and if we're unable to rest here I believe it tells on us that we actually don't believe that we've been assured what we've been assured and given what we've been given in Christ you see our actions show what we believe that through as Christians we show what we believe
When we face adversity we show the hope that we have when we face loss we show what we believe by the way we spend our money we show what we believe by how we rest every week that you ought to be able to shut everything down and be fine and here's the thing that you need to know if you're in Christ you have value you have worth you have been given everything you need verse 11
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience so what he's saying is let us work really hard to believe this truth to find Christ and so here's what I want you to understand in order for you to Sabbath in order for you to rest in order for you to enjoy this you actually have
To put in effort some of you say I don't know how on earth I'm going to take an entire day off and the truth is the way your schedule is set up right now you're not that's why there was a day of preparation for the Jewish people you actually have a lot of work to do the day before you
Rest but then you actually get to shut everything down to declench your mind to silence the inner murmur and rest so let me let me tell you this it's the gospel that allows you to actually rest and it's actually resting that helps you believe the gospel that you're actually going to have to fit this into your
Schedule so that you can come face to face with the maestro and Jesus can stand up risen from the grave and tell them all to shut it and sit down that Jesus is able to do that but we actually have to come face to face with all of the inner murmur and we have to take the time it takes to sit and listen and face it
And hear it so that we might actually begin to silence it we have to work to rest and you can't rest as long as your activity saves you as long as your movement and work and effort validates your existence so it's rest that helps us believe this it's actually practicing this rest that proves to us
That this is true and gives us the time to rest in Christ and the salvation that he offers there's a movie called Chariots of Fire it came out in late when did it come out in the 70s it's about two guys in England that both run track one's name's Eric one's name's Harold one of them is Jewish and one of them is a Christian they're both very fast
They're going to get to go to the Olympics it's based off of a true story some of you haven't seen this movie but you've heard the song boom boom boom boom ka ka ka ka ka ka ka ka bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum and I don't care what it's put to the back of you get excited it's like ba da da da da da da da da da and you're like I can accomplish anything I ever wanted to
That's that song okay I think some of y'all should put that as your ringtone that wakes you up in the morning or whatever you just hear boom boom boom ka ka ka ka you just pop out of bed so anyway it's about these guys that are in the Olympics and they find out on the way to the Olympics that one of the events is going to be on a Sunday and so Eric who is a world class runner and this is his event
Says I don't do things on Sundays that's my Sabbath that's the Sabbath and I'm taking it off and so the whole movie is about this guy who could go win a gold medal and like the kings and the people over at Britain are coming to him and saying you should do this and he actually looks at him at one point and says I know y'all are in charge of this country but I have a bigger king who's in charge of everything and he raises kingdoms and he lowers kingdoms
And I'm going to do what he says and even if you don't believe you're just like that was amazing I'd love to say that to a king and he doesn't run now Harold has run his entire life facing anti-Semitism that people just dislike Jewish people and he's run running has actually allowed him to enter into society running has actually allowed him to have people value him running has been his thing that he's used to show that he has value that he has worth
There's this line in the movie where he actually says when that gun goes off I have 10 seconds to prove my existence I've got 10 seconds to prove my existence I've got 10 seconds to show that I have value now Eric doesn't run not because he's trapped not because he's hemmed in by God's rules he doesn't run because he's free he doesn't have to prove that he has worth he's been given worth in Christ he's free to run
Or not run one of the lines that he has in the movie is he says that God's made me fast and when I run I feel his pleasure see running for him was just a way to worship God to honor God to enjoy God and if it came down to it he could rest or not rest run or not run because he he was free and for some of us our work is us saying I've got 40 hours I've got 50 hours
I've got 60 hours to prove my worth I've got this project to earn my right to exist I've got these children that'll prove that I should have been here and you're free because Christ has given you his worth he's given you his value it's sealed in the cross and the empty tomb and you are free it is unassailable it will not be taken from you that when he says come to me
You who are weary and I'll give you rest it's a promise for eternity and it's practiced now that we get to cease our labors we get to rest and we get to practice practically reminding ourselves that I have my value in Christ and I can spend a seventh of my life in inactivity and unproductiveness and walk in front of the king and be saved by his work that's why God
Takes slaves out of Egypt and says you will practice the Sabbath this is how your week works now because slaves only have value as far as they're able to work they only have value in their productivity and he's looked at us and declared in Christ you are not slaves your value does not come from you or what you have done it comes from Christ and you are free to feel his pleasure in your work and to stop
And accomplish nothing and know that he ceased from his labors that he rose from the grave that he left the cross that your fate is sealed and you have freedom and value and hope in him so the Sabbath the taking a day off every week helps us untie that knot it helps us actively practice and remind ourselves of that truth and it's that truth that allows us
To consistently take that time to rest Matt's going to come back up we're going to sing so we're going to practice the Sabbath to rebel against the notion that our value comes from our labor that our identity comes from our activity that we're going to rebel against that idea that we're going to practice rest because we know that in Christ our value has been carried out our identity has been sealed and we're going to do this so that we might remember who Jesus is and what he's done
Because our work and our activity is cluttering our view of him and it's lying to us in our inability to rest our work has lied to us and told us that we need it in order to be okay and all we need is Christ the way we're going to end today is we're going to sing a song here in a minute but we're going to take communion before we do that communion is a practice that has been given to the church it was instituted the night before Jesus went to the cross where he took bread and he broke it and he said this is my body broken for you
And he took a cup and he shared it with his disciples and he says this is the new covenant of my blood poured out for you and as we go from here learning how to practice the Sabbath and learning how to rest so that we might have Jesus silence the inner murmur of self-censorship and self-reproach before we do that we're going to practice communion which is a reminder of why we get to rest that Jesus Christ went to a cross that he did the work for us that our value is carried out in him and that he has accomplished for us all that we need for salvation
And for rest that there's a better rest that Joshua couldn't give us that hard work couldn't give us that the promised land wouldn't give us but that Christ did so in a moment I encourage you to take some time to pray to reflect to repent where you need to and if you're a Christian we invite you to take communion if you're not a Christian this is something given to the church so you're welcome to to stay seated and then in a moment stand and sing with us let's pray God I pray that everyone here would know true rest
That's found only in surrender to you that's found only in faith in Christ and then I pray that that would practically be carried out as we become some hard working well resting people I pray that we would be able to cease from our labors and have inactivity so that we might come face to face with you and watch you silence the chorus of accusation of doubt the burden of proving our value we love you
And we praise you in Jesus name Amen
All Good Work is God's Work
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer Carey. I'm a pastor in training here with Mill City Church. We're going to be in Genesis 1 today, which is in page 1 of your Bible, so you can go ahead and flip there. We're going to work through that. We'll get to that in a moment.
Recently, my wife and I, we got to go on vacation. A couple weeks ago, we had to go to the beach. Going to the beach and getting on the beach used to be this relaxing experience. You'd take a book. You'd see the ocean. You'd just take it all in.
It was not that, and it will not be that for a very long time for us. We have a daughter who turns three tomorrow. We have a son that turns one in a few weeks. Getting out on the beach first was getting an umbrella in the ground. That took a total of about two hours because at one point, wind carried it. It almost impaled a lady.
We had to get that in the ground. I'm kind of putting a foot on that, trying to put dirt, sand on that. Then my wife brought this blow-up pool that theoretically our children would have played in once it got blown up. We did not bring a pump, so I had to do it all by the power of my lungs, which don't have maximum capacity at all. It took about 45 minutes to watch them plan it for three. So a different experience at the beach, not as much relaxing, but I did get to do one fun activity that I've been wanting to do with my daughter.
Growing up, my brother and I used to go to the beach, and we used to play. As the tide was coming in, we used to build these sand forts. The whole goal was you'd build this massive sand fort. You'd build a moat. You'd get it going. So when the waves came in, it was just kind of a challenge.
How long can we go up against the ocean until the ocean winds? It was just fun. I was like, all right, I'm going to get to do this with Ellie, my daughter. So I get her out there, and we start building this fort and start digging it out. She's kind of getting into it, and we start kind of building the fort and kind of got the moat going and getting everything ready. Then I was like, well, you want to decorate it, which we didn't do when we were growing up because we were two boys.
But she started to get more into it. She started picking out shells and kind of placing them in on there. If I had like a big bucket of pink paint and just throw it on there, she would have been overjoyed. And we kept going, and as this is happening, I'm like, Ellie, look, the waves are coming. So we've got to get this strong because when the waves get here, it's going to be a challenge.
And finally the first wave came in, and it came up, and it kind of took some of the sand away. And she saw it, and I was like, see? And then she really started to get into the ocean. Like she was adamant about facing off against the ocean. And she kind of forgot about the fort and started going. She would run up to the waves and go, no.
And she'd be screaming at him. And she says gibberish sometimes. And she's just like, no, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then she started like kicking the water. And I was like, okay, you're getting really into this. I didn't really see this coming.
And she had gotten so lost in going up against the ocean that she at one point goes to the fort. She grabs a hunk of the fort in sand and starts pelting the ocean. And I was like, whoa, kid, like that. We won't be here five more minutes if you keep this up. She got so lost in the activity, so lost in what was happening. She lost sight of the purpose of what we were actually there to do.
And I feel like work, that happens in how we approach work. And that's why we spent this period of time, six weeks going through the hammer and the hammock, going through work and rest that we might have a better theology, a better understanding of what work and rest are supposed to be. And today we're going to focus on what the purpose of work is. Because I feel like when we're getting pummeled by waves, when we're getting owned by the different problems at work, challenges at work, different things that we face, that oftentimes I feel like we lose the purpose of what work is supposed to be. So what work very clearly is in the Bible is this.
It is a good gift that God has given us that we might glorify Him. That is what the Scriptures teach. That is a good gift that God has given us that we might glorify and worship Him. And oftentimes I feel like if we're honest, we don't really functionally believe that. I don't think we actually functionally believe that. I think that there are three main views of work that we fall into that are fallen, that are corrupted by sin.
I think the first view of work that many of us have in our culture is that many of us view work as a mere necessity. It's just necessary. It's a necessary means. You might hear common phrasing with this that says, I don't live to work. I work to live. And the mindset is that work is just an exchange.
I exchange my time. It's a commodity. I exchange my time, my effort, and you give me a paycheck. And that's how I pay to live. So that's one common aspect we'll get to in a little bit that has fallen, that does not capture what work is supposed to be.
The second is that work is an enemy. And this is a little bit what Adam from Midtown, when he came and preached last week, which if you were not here, I encourage you, please go back and listen to it. It was a very helpful, a ton of wisdom as he preached through Proverbs on laziness, on the sluggard. And many people fall into this view that work is an enemy. It is an enemy of my recreation, of my fun, of my joy. It impedes on my life, and I will do whatever it takes not to work.
And the third kind of fallen way I see in culture is that work becomes an idol. It becomes something that we worship, whether it's the success it brings, the productivity it brings, whatever. We place that in the place of God, and we give it our affection, our devotion, all of our thoughts, till we elevate it to the point of worship. So we'll get to those three fallen perspectives in a little bit. But we have to reclaim what work actually is, that it is a good gift that God has given us that we might glorify him.
And in order to do that, we're going to be in Genesis 1, verses 27 through 31. And as we work through this, we're going to see a few things. We're going to see that we are made in the image of a worker God. We're going to see the calling to work, which is a call to subdue and bring dominion. And then as we work through that, as we establish what the purpose of work is supposed to be, then we will be able to tackle those three fallen worldviews. So I'm going to read from Genesis 1, verses 27.
So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And hear this, subdue it and have dominion.
Over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, Behold, I've given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth. And every tree with seed and its fruit, you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth and everything that has the breath of life, I've given you every green plant for food. And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made.
And behold, it was very good. I'll pray and then we'll dive in. God, thank you so much that you have given us a picture of what work is supposed to be. I pray that you would help us be present this morning. That you would help us listen to your word. That you would speak powerfully to us.
And you would reshape our understanding that we might have a better perspective on what work is supposed to be. Amen. Alright, so it's important to note this very last part of this verse. That he said it was very good. That's important because of where we are in the story. This is before the fall.
This is before in chapter 3 when Adam and Eve sin against God bringing sin in the world. This is a picture of what work was in its original design uncorrupted by sin. So in order to understand work, that's why we're in Genesis 1. We're getting back to the original design of what it's supposed to be. In the same way, I feel like we need to reclaim the original design of what macaroni and cheese is supposed to be. I feel like we've lost it.
I would say that we originated what mac and cheese in its purest form was supposed to be. We made it. And then the rest of culture saw it and said, oh, let's give our spin on it. And people started putting vegetables in it. Y'all, I put one time my fork into what I thought might be mac and cheese. And it came out and I found out it was cauliflower and cheese.
And I was like, that's an abomination. That's not what mac and cheese is supposed to be. We need to, as a culture, reclaim that. Get back to the original design for our own good. And that's what we're doing with work. We're getting back to the original design.
It starts off in verse 27 when it says that, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. Now, I don't have a ton of space to get into. This is one of the biggest doctrines we have in the Bible, being made in the image of God. We are going to spend a good long while in the book of Genesis coming up starting in August.
So we'll spend a whole week working on the image of God. But the overview is this, that we are made in the image of God, which means we bear his likeness, his creativity, we have value, that we are made different from any other aspect of creation. We look like him. And in this context, it means that we are made in the image of a worker God. A God who created everything out of nothing. Who made all of the raw material that we have.
Who made metals. Who made water. Who made coffee beans and agriculture. He made everything. And we are made in the image of that God. A God who made everything out of nothing and who brings order to chaos.
So we're made in the image of him. And then it continues. It says in verse 28, and God blessed them. And he said, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish of the sea. And then he keeps going with a long description.
The birds of the heavens. Every living creature. Every plant that yields seed. Every fruit. All the beasts of the field. All of it.
That we've been given dominion and called to subdue that. Now before that he says, be fruitful and multiply. Which we don't have time to get that this week either. But that is make babies. That is form families. That is making societies.
And we'll get to that when we tackle Genesis. And then he gets to these two unique commands that we have attached to work. To subdue it and have dominion over it. Now he's talking about all of creation. And he could have just said everything. That's what I think is unique here.
He could have just said, subdue it and have dominion over everything. And that's it. But he doesn't. He says, he gives this long description of everything that humanity has been given. And I think that's helpful for us. I think it's helpful for that to be longer.
So that we might understand the responsibility of what we've been given. That Adam and Eve in the garden were given all of this. And I'll have to wonder how they would have reacted to that. And looking at everything that God had given them. That they're looking at things like a tree that has these beautiful fruits on it. That's not quite orange.
It's not quite yellow. It's peach. And then we get to cultivate peaches. That are so good that we get a harvest of right now in this season. They would have peaches. And they would have dominion.
They would be able to subdue bears. That we have dominion over the wildest creatures. That we have responsibility over waterfalls. And rivers. And dogs. And even cats.
Which I know in theory are good because of what the Bible says. But that's debatable. If you're a cat person, I'm sorry. Kind of. We get dominion over all of that. And the picture is that God gave the keys to the kingdom.
He gave the keys to the business empire to his kids. And he said, run with it. This is your responsibility now. Subdue it. And have dominion over it. Now, subdue is an interesting word choice here.
It's actually a little bit of a violent word. In the Hebrew and the Aramaic. Which are similar words that is being used here. The idea is conveyed as beating down a wild growth into a path. Or in other ways, it's being used as subduing. Bringing into submission someone or something that is wild or chaotic.
He could have just said, take care of everything. But he intentionally uses the word subdue for a reason. Because the earth, in its original form, its essence is wild. It is need. It is chaotic. It's a need to be subdued.
And that's... My common perspective of this before walking through this was that the world was... When God brought order to chaos, he did almost all of the work. But the picture is, is he did most of the work. The rest he has given to us. And I've applied that.
I've started to think through, okay, that makes sense. I have two dogs. I have one that is bigger. She's a puppy. She's going to be a great dog. And I have another dog that's been with us for a long time.
I know I've talked about him before. He's just not a great dog. He has bitten me countless times. He's bitten my wife. He has attempted to bite our children. He's just not a good dog.
And for the longest time, I've thought, it's because of the fall. It's because this dog is uniquely affected by sin. And he's jacked up. Which is true. But it's also, he has a wild streak in him that goes all the way back to creation.
And I have done, at times, a poor Job of subduing him. So I get to share in the blame a little bit when it comes to him. We're called to subdue what is wild. And we're called to bring dominion to what is chaos. The word dominion is another interesting word that is used here. It is commonly used in the context of kings or in ruling.
And that kings would come in. They'd bring in their dominion, their rule, their order. And we hear that commonly now when it comes to presidential cycles. That every, well, it used to be every four years. Now it just never ends.
It's always campaigning. One side saying, we're going to come in and do it better. You see how they're messing it up? We're going to come in and bring our order to the chaos. And the other side, when they're not in power, says, no, we're going to bring our order. They're doing it wrong.
Dominion, the word that is being used here, is a word of power. And God has given us power that we might bring order to what is chaotic, to what is wild. And with all of creation, we get to share because each of us, hear this, each of us are made in the image of God. And each of us has a share of dominion. Each of us has a calling to bring order to society, order to this world. Which means that every single person in this room and in this world shares in this.
That your job, your work, it matters. Your job matters. I can make a case for 99.9% of jobs and how each of them are good and each of them matter. Let me go through a couple that will catch a wide range of our church family. If you work on air conditioning units, if you work on HVAC units, you matter. Like I've felt that so clearly this week.
This week, our HVAC unit went out and we didn't have air conditioning for a day. So my parents were generous enough to take us in for a night. And I slept in a room with our son who knew we were in the room and decided that he wanted to basically keep us up all night because of that. So I got very little sleep and had a 14-hour work day the next day. And I was exhausted. And my wife also felt the burden of that.
Having the kids and having to keep them out of the house and having to keep them entertained away from it all. And then finally, a man came. A knight in shining armor came into our house and went to the magical machine that takes 100-degree oppressive Columbia heat and magically changes it into 70-degree bliss. And we were so thankful because our whole work week, our whole everything could function now. We could be home. That job and so many other blue-collar jobs matter because it brings order to what is chaotic and to what is broken.
If you work in the service industry, whether you serve coffee or you bartend or you are a chef, like you bring creativity, you take raw materials and order them in a way. I can go to a coffee shop where someone has obsessed so much over coffee. I'm so thankful for hipsters because of all the investment they've done in that industry. And we get to be the benefits of it. I can go to a pub and I can order a drink that someone has intentionally thought about. I can go to a restaurant where someone has spent so much training and time and energy and has made this great dish that we can eat and enjoy because that is helpful for us.
That gives us joy in the things that God has created. You bring order. You bring value. If you are an accountant and you work with Numbers, your job matters. Man, this week I was in a meeting with a couple of other pastors, Matt Chet and Razz and were talking and they pulled out this graph with statistics and probability and Numbers. And they started explaining and I think they finally saw me at one point and they saw the confused look at my face.
And they finally started to explain it. And I was like, I think I understood half of what they were saying. But in the inside I was dying because I hate Numbers. I'm so bad at them. I made a D in college trigonometry. And I was a pretty decent student.
I was okay. And I said, you know what, D's equal degrees. I'm out because I never want to see math again. But if you're gifted in that and God has given you that, you work with Numbers and you make it, you order the world and our finances. You bring value to what is chaotic. I could keep going on and on.
If you work at a call center and do customer service, you deal with difficult people, you help us solve problems, you matter. If you are a mom or just a parent in general, if you're a parent that works a job away and then comes home and clocks in, you and your work matters because children are forces of chaos and destruction. They just are. Every night my wife and I, we clean up the downstairs. And I didn't used to care about having a clean living area. But now I do because she's installed that in me.
And we go to bed and we come back and we bring our children down. And they start to eat breakfast and they smear all kinds of food everywhere. Then they go in and they don't pull out one toy. They pull out all the toys and they spread them around. And my daughter, she does crafts and makes messes and all over the place. And we get to, as parents, help order that.
We get to, as parents, help bring discipline. Have you ever met an adult who was never told no as a kid? Who did not receive any form of discipline? They're the worst. They're adult babies. You get to help bring value to society because you are a parent and you do the hard work at bringing order to what is chaos in families.
I could go through a ton of different jobs. Unless you're selling your body as a prostitute or you're writing blogs to help other parents feel bad about the way that they parent. Unless you're not doing something that's inherently evil and wrong. Like you bring value and order. Because the world is an uncultivated garden and you get to own your share in cultivating it. You get to share in bringing order to it.
Because here's the deal. If you don't do that. If you don't carry the weight that you're supposed to. Somebody else will. Somebody else has to help pay your bills. Somebody else has to help pick up a shovel.
And I know there's I'm not talking about extenuating circumstances when you're temporarily unemployed when you're going through disability. I'm not I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the general call to pick up a shovel and to use what God has gifted you with to help carry weight. It affects other people when you don't do that. And it affects you. Because you were designed to carry weight.
And I get it man. Work is difficult sometimes. And I really I used to think it was difficult because of the fall. Like I love productivity and getting stuff done. I love efficiency. I love writing a sermon that lands.
I love I do real estate. So I love doing deals that actually get done. I love having a finished day work. I think all of us value that. And I think oftentimes when that happens at least from my perspective it has been well thorns and thistles. Because work has been corrupted.
And that's partly true. That comes from Genesis 3. When the curse is handed down we see how it affects work. In Genesis 3 it says cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.
And you shall eat of the plants of the field. Meaning that you sometimes you will cultivate a garden. You will work hard and it will be fruitless. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. So yes work has been cursed.
And it is sometimes fruitless. But it's also difficult. And it's difficult because that's how it was originally designed to be. That sometimes as a real estate agent I will spend months and months and months on a deal to watch it just vanish into thin air. It's just gone. That sometimes I can put 30 plus hours into writing a sermon and preparing it to make sure because we care about the word of God and it being taught accurately and helpfully in our church.
That I can rock up here. I can let it rip. I can walk off the stage. And I can be like man I thought that I think that felt pretty good. And I go and talk to my wife and she goes well it was okay. And I'm like really?
And it's like man my often perspective has been well because thorns and thistles. And that's not actually the full picture. That as I've worked more through this I've actually started to see this goes all the way back to the garden. That work was meant to be difficult. It's a part of the fabric of creation. Because the earth is chaotic and because we're called to subdue it sometimes that's going to take longer.
Sometimes that's going to be difficult. It's almost as if we have an infinite God who could have in Genesis 1 could have been he created the world. Boom everything existed. That's what it could have been. But God chose over a six day work week to slowly form everything out of nothing.
It's almost as if God is trying to teach us something. That if the infinite God of power of all of the universe took a six day period to actually make everything out of nothing. That maybe work is sometimes meant to be slow. That maybe sometimes work is meant to be difficult. Because in the slowness and the difficulty you get to grow into Christ likeness. You get to grow into the character of God.
That the work of subduing is sometimes slow and difficult and long term. But ultimately it points us to what the end of work is supposed to be. That the end of work, the purpose of work is not productivity. It's not results. It's God. That is the end result of our work.
That it's growing in the character of God. That as we work slowly and through the difficulty and through the challenges of work. God would grow us in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. All of his fruit. All of his character would be forming us and shaping us through the slow and sometimes difficult, sometimes repetitive work. That's why I love Adam when he came last week and preached.
He said, We become the people we are by what we choose to do again. I love that. That through the repetitive, through the monotonous, through the slow work. We are being formed and shaped. That there's a vertical change that happens. That we are growing into Christ likeness.
That we are being shaped by him. But there's also a horizontal effect where we affect other people. Not just with what we make and what we bring order to. But by the character that we show in our work. That we might model the gospel to those we work with. That they would see the very character of God in how we work.
And when we start to understand that. We start to understand that good work is actually a gift that God has given us that we might glorify him. Once we've owned that. Then we can start to fully understand how we can repent of the fallenness that we fall into. And those three perspectives I mentioned earlier. So my first question is are you prone to seeing work simply as necessary?
Is that you? Do you just see it as a necessary exchange? That you put in the work. That you put in the time. And you put that in to get a paycheck. And that's all it is.
It is a transferal of goods. Now sometimes that is an explicitly fallen mindset. That all of your decisions. That all of your decisions in work. And how you're going to move. And how you're going to advance.
Is always based on money. I want to maximize the amount of money I can get. Because I want to maximize the stuff I can buy. That some of us have fallen for the American dream. And we want to have it all. And that's all that work becomes.
It becomes a necessary means to that end. And we've talked about as a church family. That that is a fallen mindset. That we don't need to fall for that kind of materialism. But sometimes this is a little more subtle.
And sometimes this actually looks a little more holy on its face. Now I've heard some people that say. You know I work. And I work this job. And I want to earn more. So that I can give more to the church.
So that I can give more to the mission. Because I want to see God advance the kingdom. And I hear that attached sometimes to. Man you know what. You're doing the real work in ministry. I just do.
I do this nine to five. It's not. We don't talk about that. You actually. Your job actually matters. I want to help invest in that.
And there's so much. So much good in that. I love hearing people that have been. That have been transformed by generosity. That understand. The generosity that God calls it to.
And I want to uphold that as good. But what's underneath all of that. Is that what I do doesn't matter. It's just necessary. I put my time in. I get my paycheck.
And I can be generous. And when you have that mindset. You are missing out on what work can be. That is a good transformative gift. That can grow you. And shape you.
That you can have a profound effect. On the people that you work alongside of. On your employees. On the people that you get to model the gospel to. So we need to grab hold of that.
That work is not just necessary. It is a good gift that God has given us. The second mindset we need to repent of. Is if you have the mindset that says that work is simply an enemy. Is that you? Is work an enemy of joy?
Is it an enemy of your recreation? Is it an enemy of what you could be doing? Like do you put the minimal amount of effort in. In your job? Like I can do just enough. I am going to count down the clock.
Until I can clock out. And then I will be on. And be able to do what I actually want to do. Here is the deal. Hard work is valuable. And it is powerful.
Because it can actually grow character in you. But man. A lack of hard work will reveal a lack of character in you. That needs to be formed. That needs to be shaped. So is that your perspective?
Do you avoid as many jobs when you get called to do the extra stuff at work? Do you avoid that? Because I don't want to deal with that. Do you avoid work at home? Like if you have a family that you go home to. Do you avoid the different work that you could be carrying weight in.
Because you have better things to do. That applies to the church too. Do you have the mindset? Nah. I know I am being asked to serve in Kid City. I know I am being asked to serve in Host Team.
But there is about a thousand other things I would rather be doing. So I need to come up with some very honorable looking excuses that I can get out of. Because I don't want to carry weight. Colossians 3.23 says, Work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. That is the calling in work. To work hard as to the Lord.
Because ultimately He is the end of our work. And when you do this. If you'll grab hold of this. What's going to happen is God is going to tap into some potential. He's going to grow you and shape you. You're going to see more of the character of God growing in you.
And that is going to have a profound effect on everyone who gets to be around you. So some of you, if you're honest with yourself. And you heard last week's sermon. And you start to feel the conviction of that. And it's time to grab hold of the good gift that God has given us and repent of that mindset. Lastly, are you prone to seeing work as an idol?
As something that takes your affection, your devotion, your mental energy. Whether that's success that is attached to work. Whether that's productivity that is attached to work. Is that you? Because if I'm honest, that's me. That this is where I fall in.
And I love my jobs. I love being a real estate agent. There's two real estate agents. Mary Beth and I in our church. And I love what I do. But it is always on the clock.
At any moment, I get texts sometimes at 12 o'clock at night about houses. And I'm consistently thinking about listings. I'm thinking about showings. I'm thinking about inspections. I'm thinking about appraisals. I'm thinking about marketing.
I'm thinking about exposure. I'm thinking about all of that. And I love it. And I'm starting to think through how I can get more results. How I can move and shake. How I can make all these things happen.
And as a pastor, I'm consistently thinking about sermons. And how the sermons are shaping me. And how we're crafting them. And I'm thinking about our community groups. I'm thinking about our community group leaders. And every week, I love that we as pastors get to sit down and pray for our groups.
That we pray for you. That we pray for the people in our groups. And I'm thinking about counseling. I'm thinking about all the different things. And what happens in the midst of all of this is that I start to think about results. That my end goal is I want to see deals done.
I want to see people changed by Christ. And I get so caught up in success. I get so caught up in the results of getting stuff done that I miss the thread. I miss the purpose. Like a child taking a handful of sand and chucking out the waves. I've completely lost the purpose of what work is supposed to be.
That it is a good, transformative gift that God has given me. That I might grow in worshiping Him. And not the things that it brings. Not the success that it brings. Not the results that it brings. So that's my question for you.
Is that you idolize work? Like is your joy attached to success in work? So that when you're doing well at work. Whether it's sales. Whether it's admin. Whatever.
When you're doing well in work. You're happy. Things are great. But when work nosedives. And it's hard. How many of you are plagued by anxiety?
How many of you can't sleep? How many of you are quick to be prone to depression? And it's a roller coaster. Of productivity. That when you are doing great in work. You are great.
And when you are not. You are low. If that's the case. You are probably. You probably have made work an idol. You have worshipped something.
You have worshipped creation. Rather than the creator. Do you idolize work? Do you have trouble shutting off? Can you be as a. Can you.
If you have a nine to five Job. Can you actually be present? When you come home. Are you consistently thinking about things at work? And if you're a stay at home mom. Can you actually go on a date.
And not think about your kids. And not talk about your kids. Can you get coffee with a friend. And not think. And talk. And obsess.
And I know that's a little bit different. Because it's our children involved. I get that. But maybe. Just maybe. Underneath all of that.
Is idolatry. Not just of work. But of children. That sometimes. You need to. Clock out.
And not be consumed. With your job. Because you have idolized. And made an idol. Out of work. And the reason why.
We've got to take that seriously. I think this is probably. One of the more dangerous ones. Because what happens is. Is you go. And you grind.
And you work. And you hustle. And then. Eventually. A season comes. Where burnout happens.
In the midst of burnout. In the midst of midlife crises. Man. People make. Really bad decisions. People walk away from the church.
Because they've gone. And they've gone. And they've gone. And they make a bunch of terrible decisions. And they're out. And if you think you're above that.
Take heed. Because you might fall. We need to take that. Seriously. And I say it bluntly. We need to burn that idol.
To the ground. And we need to repent of that mindset. And grab hold. Of the good gift. That God has given us. In work.
That we might put it. In its proper perspective. In worshiping him.
Sluggard
Transcript
All right, well, good morning. As Chet said a little bit ago, my name is Adam Gibson. I am one of the pastors at Midtown Fellowship. We're in downtown Columbia. We started, I guess, about 12 years ago almost now, getting close to there. We started meeting weekly in January 2007.
We were, at the time, we planted almost all college students, and so it was a nightmare, as you can imagine. We had no wisdom, no money, and lots of energy, and no clue what to do with it. And one of my favorite memories is one Sunday we were passing around the offering basket, and somebody, and this is not a joke, someone put a pack of Skittles in the offering plate, and that was their contribution. And it's like, thank you. I do like Skittles, so I appreciate that. So we have grown since then, and we've got some families and some kids, and we've planted a few churches, and we're now a family of churches in the Columbia area.
And then in, I guess it was 2012, I met Chet. We went to lunch at Monterey's in downtown. He said he wanted to plant a church. We said, that's great, you should do that. And so we just sort of sent him out. Our church planting process has gotten a little more beefy since then, that was what it was back in the day.
And Raz was a part of Midtown, and we happily sent him, and they got to meet Matt. I really like Matt and Raz, still deciding about Chet. I'm grateful for the invitation this morning. I think I'm not qualified to be a pastor here. I can't grow facial hair. And it seems like maybe that's one of those unspoken pastor qualifications at Mill City.
So I'll have to remain at Midtown with our underdeveloped facial hair. But I'm glad to be here today. So pretend like I have a nice man beard, and maybe you'll be more willing to listen to what I have to say. It'll sound more authoritative. So last summer, we did a study in the book of Proverbs.
Our church did. And I came across sloth or the sluggard. I don't know if you're familiar with the book of Proverbs. It comes up a lot, and it wasn't something that I had studied before. Up until that point, I thought sloth or slothfulness or someone who was a sluggard. I just thought it was laziness.
That was all that I had heard of it. I'd heard of sloth as one of the seven deadly sins. I don't know if you're familiar with that or the movie Seven. Not that I would recommend it, but it is a great movie. But they talk about sloth in that movie.
And the Latin word that sometimes gets used as part of the seven deadly sins is acedia. That's the Latin term for sloth or sluggard. And as part of what you guys are studying over the summer, the hammer in the hammock, which is a brilliant series name. I don't know who came up with that, but that's gold right there. This fits really, really well. And so Chet invited me to come and share some of this.
And honestly, what I'm doing is just I had to do some research on it and heard some people teaching on it. And I basically am just taking what they taught and would love to share it with you guys today. And I think you'll find that it is helpful and fits right in with your summer series. And so if you want, you grab a Bible because we'll look at the book of Proverbs together. We'll start in chapter 24. So if you want to grab a Bible, it looks like there's some on seats around you.
If you didn't bring a Bible, you can use one of those and flip. Proverbs chapter 24 is where we'll start. Proverbs is almost dead in the middle of your Bible. And so if you just want to almost try to cut it by 50 percent, you're probably pretty close to Proverbs. And then you can navigate from there. So if you're familiar with the book of Proverbs, you know that it's not written linearly.
It's a collection of wisdom and sayings, most of them from a father to a son. And so it's a little bit scattershot. And so we won't necessarily work straight through a passage this morning because that's not how Proverbs is written necessarily to be done. What we'll do is read a few different places in the book of Proverbs that talk about the issue. And then we'll draw some points out of that. So let's look at Proverbs chapter 24 first.
And then we'll flip to chapter 26. And we'll read both of these. And that will sort of launch us in. So Proverbs 24. We'll read 30 through 34. Here's what it says.
I passed by the field of a sluggard. So that's the way that Proverbs describes a person who is slothful, called a sluggard. By the vineyard of a man lacking sense. And behold, it was all overgrown with thorns. The ground was covered with nettles. Its stone wall was broken down.
Then I saw and considered it. I looked and received instruction. A little sleep. A little slumber. A little folding of the hands to rest. And poverty will come upon you like a robber.
And want like an armed man. Alright, flip over to chapter 26. Proverbs chapter 26. And look at verses 13 through 16 with me. The sluggard says, There is a lion in the road. There's a lion in the streets.
As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. It wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly. Proverbs actually says some really funny things about sloth, slothfulness. Someone who is a sluggard says that this person makes up these silly excuses.
There's a lion. I can't do my job today. I can't be responsible. I can't get up. There's a lion that might get me. It's quite obviously not what's going on.
It's a silly excuse for not doing what he should be doing. It says that he turns in his bed as though he's hinged to it. Like a door is hinged to its frame. He just rotates back and forward. A very funny picture about someone unmotivated to get up and get to work. He buries his hand in the dish.
It's like I've got this nacho in my hand. But it just sounds exhausting to lift up my hand. I have to bring it all the way to my mouth. Then I'm going to have to chew it if I do all that work. There's just still more work to be done. Just a silly, ridiculous excuse, ridiculous picture that's being painted.
This is an image of someone who starts things and doesn't finish them because it's too much of a burden. Proverbs presents the sluggard as a person who makes excuses, who can't finish tasks, who leaves work undone. But it's not just laziness. So I was reading from a book by an Eastern University professor named R.J. Snell. He wrote a book called Ascedia and its Discontents, Metaphysical Boredom in an Empire of Desire.
As you can tell from the title, it's a real page turner. But here's what he said. It's really helpful. Let me just read a little excerpt here. This is from R.J. Snell.
He says, It is a mistake to think that sloth is laziness. More than indolence or apathy, sloth rejects the burden of order, choosing instead the breezy lightness of freedom, loving self more than relation or relationships, and autonomy more than the good. In sloth, one rejects the weight and density of living in an ordered creation. In sloth, we abhor what is there. We abhor what is. We abhor limits and place and order and being.
Our misguided addiction to freedom without truth is a revolt of the self against any charged world, which might demand attention, care, obligation, or respect, and certainly against any mandate of working to fill God's beautiful kingdom. They are seen as insufferable demands, as illegitimate restrictions on our unbridled freedom. And so we find ourselves hating the place God has provided, the work God has given to us, and the proper ways of laboring. He says that underneath all of what might appear to be laziness, that slothfulness or someone who is a sluggard, this is a refusal and a rejection of purpose.
That's what's actually happening in the heart of a sluggard. That really what's going on is that they've rejected God's purposes for their life. It's the rejection of being created and designed for a purpose or a particular end. The thought that I would have expectations or demands on me is too burdensome. This is a rejection of responsibility because it encroaches on my freedom. Responsibility and having a particular purpose introduces into my life restraints, and I don't want those.
I don't want to be designed for it. This is what philosophers would call a telos, a designed purpose, an end, an intended end, an aim for our lives. And slothfulness is a rejection of being designed for a purpose with a particular end in mind. So in other words, this idea is not the absence of activity. You could be filled with activity and yet still be eaten up with slothfulness in your life. God has designed us for some particular reasons with particular intentions.
So for example, God has made us in such a way that we are to relate to him. I'll give you three. God's designed purposes for our lives. He's given us this higher purpose, this higher calling, and slothfulness is a rejection of, number one, the fact that we're made to relate to God. But God has made us to know him, to glorify him, to enjoy him forever, to worship him, to submit our lives to him, to love him with all of our heart and our mind and our strength, all of our energy to be given in pursuit of God.
And slothful people reject this purpose. They don't see their life as meant to relate to God. They don't pursue God with zeal and energy and effort. They don't exert energy in glorifying God with their lives. That's too burdensome. That's too, I'm tired.
That's too constricting. Too much restraint is brought into my life to love God with all my heart and soul and mind and strength. I'd rather just lay here. It's a rejection of purpose. Speaking of the slugger turning on his bed like he's hinged, commentator Matthew Henry says, this is an elegant hyperpoly, showing how his sin is his punishment. Those that are slothful in the business of religion will not be at the pains to feed their own souls with the word of God, the bread of life, nor to fetch in promised blessings by prayer, though they might have them for the fetching.
That in being slothful, we're rejecting our purpose that we were made to relate to God. We're also, number two, made to relate to each other. This is part of God's created order for all people. If you think about back to the garden, that Adam and Eve are made to love one another just as God has loved them. That they're designed to pour out their lives for one another. But slothfulness rejects this as a purpose because relationships are hard.
People are so exhausting and they never stop sinning, especially in the annoying ways that they sin. Those are the ones they just can't ever stop. People require things of me. They want me to talk. They want me to help. Right?
Slothful person says, Oh my gosh, I don't want to be obligated. I don't want to have responsibilities. I don't want you to need my help. No, I can't have you with my phone number because you might text me or heaven forbid call me. I don't want to have to answer the phone and talk. It's hard work relationships are.
Self-donating love infringes on our autonomy and a sluggard resists relationships, particularly difficult ones. Number three, created purpose. We're made to have dominion. Dominion. We're to harness the earth's resources to create culture. For the good of humanity.
We're supposed to take the raw materials of creation and rework them in such a way that people are blessed. In a way that makes others' lives better. We're to fill the earth with beauty and goodness. To be a help to other people. So educators work to fill the earth with people who have knowledge.
It's part of our calling. Artists take raw materials and they draw out beauty from those raw materials. Accountants take the chaos of Numbers and they bring about order. And we could just go on and on and on with whatever your field or profession is. You're designed to have dominion. But a sluggard rejects this because that takes a lot of work.
Proverbs says, The land of the sluggard was filled with thorns and thistles. The walls are in disarray. The earth itself is languishing under the failed dominion of the sluggard. That he or she is contributing nothing to creation. Nothing to humanity. No one is helped.
No one is nourished. This is failed dominion. He's turned inward on himself. Instead of being turned outward towards God and to the people that were called to love and bless, the sluggard is turned inward on himself. He's folded his hands. He sleeps.
He slumbers. His personal comfort and freedom and rest and pleasure are his only pursuits. He prefers to be left alone with no responsibilities, no demands. It's actually a picture of anti-love. This idea of slothfulness. It is anti-love.
No restraints. No expectations. No demands. No obligations. Just leave me alone. Stop bothering me.
Stop needing things from me. It's an abhorrence, sloth is, of place and calling. It's a rejection of the idea that God has put me in this place, in this marriage, in this family, in this job, in this church, in this town, in this school. And I don't like those restrictions and I don't like the obligations that come with them. I actually think this is part of why Americans, statistically speaking, are more and more delaying marriage and delaying having kids. And there could be some reasons for that.
It's not necessarily wrong to do that. But if you actually look at the trends, we are pushing marriage and children further and further and further off into our lives and getting older and older and older. And I think part of the reason why that's happening is because of sloth. We understand that to be married is to be obligated to someone else. And we don't want that kind of restriction. That to have kids is to be obligated to these little humans who will constantly need you at all times, in all ways.
And we don't want anything to do with that. And so we just push it off. I think this is what happens when someone has what we call a midlife crisis. I think this is what happens when someone just all of a sudden it's like they just explode and they're gone. They're running away. They're off, you know, in the convertible with the secretary or whatever.
It's actually a slothfulness explosion. And I realize that term doesn't just roll off the tongue. So I'm not trying to like change the phrasing of midlife crisis. I think what's happening though is it's this sort of I have all these restrictions and I've built my life a certain way and now I realize I can't change it. My life is the one that I have. And I've done it long enough now where I realize I can't get out of this and I've got all these restrictions and all these obligations and people just snap because they don't want it anymore.
I'll tell you that this idea shows up in some smaller ways as well for me in particular. I've got a five-year-old, a three-year-old, and a three-month-old right now. Made a huge mistake. We had way too many kids. And if I'm not careful, that was a joke. I realize you don't know me so you don't know when I'm joking and when I'm not.
I've got to be more careful with folks who I don't know. If I'm not careful, the mentality that will sneak in is I am just counting down the clock until I finally get to put them in bed. And at the end of the day, when their day is over is when my life begins. And that is a broken, busted way to lead your family and to be a dad. And it's sloth. It's, this is tiring, this is exhausting.
When you're awake, there's things I have to do. But when you're asleep, I get to do what I want to do. So whether it's these big extreme ways or these maybe smaller and more subtle ways, I would argue that all of us have some level, some degree of slothfulness going on and we need some help. So I'll continue to investigate a little bit here and give you some consequences of slothfulness. I'll just give you three consequences of slothfulness. Here's the first one.
Metaphysical boredom. I'm trying to use big words to impress you. Metaphysical boredom. Let me think about for a second how much time we spend trying to cure our boredom. Like how much entertainment and social media we just flock to. Those things are fine.
There's nothing wrong with those things. But we just flock to them. Americans check their social media accounts on average 17 times per day. One seven times per day. We spend an hour and 40 minutes per day on social media. Adults actually spend more time on social media than teenagers do in case you were about to blame the teens for skewing the data.
7.5 Hours per day teenagers spend engaging media. Just all types of media. YouTube, Netflix, whatever is cool. We're just inundated with media to cure our boredom. And I'm not... When I say boredom this is why I said metaphysical boredom I'm not saying the problem is I don't know what to do right now.
That's not what I'm... I don't have anything to do right now. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about bigger than that. I'm saying we are now plagued with I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't know why I'm here.
I don't know the purpose for which I exist. That's a different kind of boredom. That's a metaphysical boredom. Not just I don't have anything to do it's I don't know what I'm meant to do. So I have nothing to give myself to.
This boredom is a result of being unhinged from our purpose and design. So this is something people don't realize. Purpose is meaning you have to do this. To have purpose in your life you have to say this is what I exist for. This is why I'm here. I'm not here for all these other things.
Purpose. So if you want to have purpose in your life you are going to have to cut off some options. You're going to have to say this is not for me. These are not why I'm here. These are not why I exist. And if you demand that you keep all of your options open and that you are never obligated and you're never committed you can do that but you cannot also have purpose.
You will have to pick one or the other. You can either have obligation and commitment and purpose or you can have none of them. But you don't get to have it both ways. Purpose requires limiting yourself restraining yourself restricting yourself. And you know this in all kinds of smaller ways. If you want to be a world class musician you're going to have to spend a lot of time practicing.
Right? You have to cut yourself off from other options and say this is what I'm going to do because this is my purpose. If you want to be a world class athlete you have to spend a lot of time refining your skills and working out and all sorts of things you could be doing that you now cannot spend your time doing. You're going to be limited. To have a purpose means other things are not for you. And right now in America we don't know why we exist we just instinctively reject any answer that actually places limits on us.
So as soon as somebody starts talking about this is our purpose and this is what we should do and these are the things we should not do people start freaking out because we don't want to have any sense of commitment or obligation or restriction but it's coming at the cost of our purpose. If you're not gripped with something bigger than yourself to give your life to you're going to struggle. We aren't gripped with purpose we've not let anything great capture our imagination and therefore nothing is bigger in our lives than our own convenience and comfort and pleasure and desires. And I'll just tell you when you're not pouring yourself out you're going to try to find something to fill yourself up with and so we just consume social media celebrity gossip inner workings of sports teams TV show after TV show shopping whatever it is for you I've got a friend who says you can tell how he's doing spiritually just by looking at his smartphone data usage for the month.
How he's doing spiritually just by looking at his smartphone data usage for the month. That if he's doing really well spiritually that he's way less addicted to his phone and his data usage goes down he said a couple of months ago he had the worst month he can remember having and he over tripled his data for the month. He's just constantly something to fill up something to distract
Something to numb it's consumption without contentment so there's no deep peace there's no lasting joy because we're not fulfilling our purpose for which we are created we're meant to love God to love people and to do good work for the good of humanity here's how Proverbs 13 4 says it the sluggard craves and gets nothing but the soul of the diligent is content the sluggard craves
It's this constant consuming but there is no contentment because the sluggard does not embrace his purpose of giving himself in love and contributing something consuming is easier but it's also emptier it's the first consequence of slothfulness number two second consequence of slothfulness is that we lie about God that to be slothful is to speak
Lies about God we were made to be thrilled with God to be enamored with him to be caught up in how incredible he is and how beautiful he is and how smart he is and how wise he is that how somehow he's always working all things for the good of those who love him these are the kind of things that are supposed to fill us
With energy and joy and be thrilled by him but the bored sluggard says God is boring to me there's nothing about God that would make me want to put this remote down there's nothing about God that would make me want to close this app and think about him for a minute there's nothing
About God that would make me want to pursue him with everything that I have he's not worthy of my awe and attention and service his words are irrelevant to me see our misuse of time says something about our view of God and living in a persistent state of sloth and boredom is actually a denial of God's worthiness
What if just like every now and then when you were bored you prayed instead of picking up your phone not like all the time just every now and then what if you picked up a Bible instead of picking up the Netflix marathon where you left it when you had some
Time on your hands not every now and then let's still let's still do some Netflix I'm not being ridiculous here Netflix is great it's just not as good as God is right we're saying with our time and energy God TV and media and
Clothes and whatever is better than you so we get bored we start looking at pictures of other people's vacations and we look up and it's been three hours and that got the head nods because y'all do it too huh okay number three
Third consequence of softfulness is brokenness brokenness like things just fall apart things just fall apart around you and that's the language of the Proverbs is that surrounding this sluggard is just sort of disarray it's just overgrown it's broken things aren't what they're supposed to be because God gave this person this person who's being spoken to in Proverbs he gave him things to do
And without him doing those things they left they're left undone so there's just brokenness where sloth reigns you will find brokenness where people shrug off the work of of cultivating relationships then you'll find people around them who are hurting and lonely and struggling where people shrug off the work that's been given to them you're just gonna find life breaking down
My wife and I have a good friend who just decided she wanted to leave her husband he's great he's a sinner but he's great I mean he's done nothing that would necessarily you would think cause this sort of reaction they've got two kids and she just said I don't want to be obligated anymore I feel tied down I feel restricted I don't want to do it anymore and so she's out with no concern for how this is
Gonna affect her former husband or these children and so now because of her slothfulness there's this breakdown in their family and there's all this brokenness and now each of the three of them are in counseling to try to work through some of this stuff if you've been through these situations you know that these kids are now blaming themselves and thinking what should I have done so
That mommy would stay this is what happens where slothfulness reigns in rules where people reject the good purposes that God's given to them is that there's gonna be brokenness there's always collateral damage and the slothful person leaves a wake of hurting frustrated people in her wake in his wake so we gotta ask how do we break free like what do we do to reject slothfulness and
Embrace our good design I'll give you three three answers how do we break free number one carry your load carry your load that's language from Galatians chapter six verse five in that passage it says that that God has given each of us a load to carry particular things that we're supposed to carry work to do that's contrasted in Galatians chapter six with burdens burdens are unusually heavy things that we all need help with
That we need the community of faith to come around us to help us with that's a burden the language here though is is load these are the normal regular things of life that God gives each of us it's work to do and we're supposed to carry those things your your load is the work that God has given to you it's a demand and expectation and that we're called to reject false freedom and embrace our design to carry the load of the work and the people that God has given to us to embrace the call
To give ourselves to God to others our spouses our kids our roommates our neighbors RJ Snell whom I quoted earlier speaks about carrying our load and here's how he talks about it he says we do this in concrete ways finishing the report paying our bills wiping away childish tears washing the car caring for our tools doing the dishes staying in mundane ordinary work while perhaps unromantic allows for virtue since natural virtue requires repetition
There is no virtue without repetition and so we stay put we sink our roots deep parents can confirm this exhausting yes but a new character forms with every nap meal diaper wet bed and smile we become the people we are by what we choose to do again isn't that a good last line we become the people we are by what we choose to do again so carry your load carry your load in your work
And we all have work if you're a student if you're in school if you're in middle or high school part of your work is to honor your father and mother in school you get the report done like on time you read the assignment right you carry your load at your job you be on time you get your work done on time you be reliable you follow up with the client you put the finishing
Touches on the painting you keep setting the alarm and you keep getting to work on time you don't be late you take care of your tools you see the project through if you primarily stay at home with children then your work your load is to build into them to draw out their potential to nurture and come alongside of them we carry the load in our jobs we carry the load
In our relationships you allow yourself to be inconvenienced by others you do the the hard work of pursuing difficult people including your difficult weird roommate have you guys picked up on the fact that you always have one weird roommate you know this is how life works there will always be one weird roommate if you don't have a weird roommate I have horrible news you are the weird
Roommate I'm sorry to be the one to tell you that when I was in college there was a group of us that stayed at a house that we rented and one of our roommates he was downstairs and there were some mice that were sneaking in and so he went and bought a mouse trap caught a mouse
Took the mouse out of the trap cut its head off put the head on a stick put the stick in the ground he said as a warning to all the other mice of what would happen if they came around so we all saw that and we were like just I'm going to slowly back away with no
Comment you always have a weird roommate and part of carrying the load is to continue to serve and love and be a blessing even to difficult people even to weird roommates you carry the load in your marriage in a room this size
I would bet some amounts of money that someone is thinking about leaving their spouse stay do the hard work of staying of pursuing you carry the load and God will bless it he will use it in your life your persistence your commitment
You stay you serve your spouse you carry the load with your kids especially if you have younger kids they're exhausting but you do the baths you do the bedtime routines you explain the same thing
For the 100,000th time without losing your patience you carry the load with your kids carry the load in your community group I know some of you are in a group and you have difficult
People that are killing you and it would be so easy to just begin to distance yourself from that person some of you have been distancing yourself from your group because they want more for you than you
Want for yourself right now if we're honest but you haven't said anything like you haven't said hey guys I'm just going to drop out of the group I think because you knew they would actually confront you and come after you and pursue
You so you've just gotten more and more creative with your excuses don't reject your purpose don't reject your design stay stick it out God will use it we become
The people we are by the things that we do again we carry the load in our relationship with God some Christians lack any sort
Of discipline and energy in their pursuit of God that's a shirking of responsibility to pursue God with all your heart and I've heard people who I swear they sound like the
Dude in the book of Proverbs with their excuses as to why they're not getting any quality time with Jesus why they're getting no time in prayer it's like oh gosh I was going to but there's a lion outside you were made to relate to
God to pursue him with all your heart and mind and strength and when you carry the load that God has given to you over time you develop virtue your character develops over time but the more that you give yourself in love to others
You're formed and to say it more strongly you cannot become the person God is shaping you to be if you refuse to carry the load that he has given to you when you serve your roommate again you are taking yet another step in the direction
Of becoming a servant hearted person that's how it works but to get there you got to stay you got to carry what's been given to you and a lot of life is doing the same things over and over like I can't clean a room in
My house without one of my kids running behind me just knocking everything back onto the floor right after I just picked it up my kids don't want to play with a toy they want to play with the toys they just throw them all on the
Floor and do snow angels in the toys it doesn't this the type of toy is irrelevant it just needs to be a pile so I'm just constantly doing the same stuff over and over and over your character is shaped with every single load
Of laundry because we become the people we are by what we choose to do again the big moments in life are not going to be what ends up shaping you the most we have some false beliefs as Christians sometimes that these mountaintop experiences
Are the life defining life altering moments and I'm not taking away from those they can be really powerful but what I'm telling you is the things that are going to make you the person you become are the things you do a thousand
Times not the things you do once very rarely is it one single thing going to dictate the direction of your life but the things that you do over and over and over again will absolutely dictate the direction of your life you're formed by the things you do
Again here's how Proverbs 21 talks about all this he says the desires of the sluggard kills him for his hands refuse to labor all day long he craves and craves but the righteous man gives and does not hold back
The righteous man has he has become the kind of person who gives who invests who labors who stays and does I can't read this stuff and not think about my dad he's such a good example for me he's
Been a real estate agent for 30 years and he is just so faithful he does a good Job he's honest he has integrity his clients love him one of the pleasures of my adult life has been growing up and meeting
People that my dad has worked with through the years and hearing how they brag about my dad it brings tears to my eyes how proud I am that this is my dad who is faithful with the work that God gave him growing up when I would ask my dad
To play I have this is a true story I have no memory of him saying no I won't play with you now he had to have said that right like there's no way he just always did but I'm just telling you I have no memory of that because more often
Than not the answer was either yes I would love to or give me ten minutes let me finish what I'm doing and then I'm outside let's play basketball so all I remember is my dad being faithful with what God entrusted to him it's him serving and blessing and
My entire family and everyone that my dad has worked with all through the years would say they've been blessed by being around him and being associated with him simply because he carried the load that God had given him you're becoming a certain kind of person by
Staying under the weight and continuing to carry the load that God gives you and the demands on your life will form you into the person God has called you to be that's number one number two way that we break free we gotta distinguish between rest and escape
We gotta distinguish between rest and escape I think this is important and I'm glad you guys are studying it over the summer this idea of rest or the hammock rest is not escape those are different rest is when I'm recharging in a God in a Godward way so that afterwards I am ready to get back to work that's rest
I'm recharging in a Godward way so that now I'm ready to get back to killing things I gotta go to work I gotta get to hunting that's rest escape is a false substitute that we often turn to when we're tired just to turn our brains off so I don't know if you've
Ever been to the end of the day and you think I literally I'm so tired I can't do anything but watch TV my counsel to you would be no if that's all you can do then just don't do anything go to bed you need to rest if all you can do is watch TV
That's that's your body saying it's time to go to sleep right rest is not escape and you can watch TV but that's not rest because if you're anything like me you know that watching a show does not make you want to next get up and go out
To work it makes me want to watch more shows right escape begets more escape rest leads to work and we gotta learn what's restful for us and distinguish where are we inclined to just go towards escape I just don't want
To have to think about this anymore I just want to shut down I want to turn my brain off that's escape now what's restful for you might not be what's restful for me and that's fine so there's going to need to be
Some self awareness here and you got to know how you're wired so my Job as a pastor is lots of reading lots of talking and I'm never done people just keep sinning myself included so I'm never ever finished so what's restful
For me is something that is mindless I don't want to have to read I don't want to have to talk to people because that's what I do all the time and I want it to be something that when I'm done it's over and I never have to think about it
Again so sometimes yard work is actually restful for me because it's the opposite of my day Job sometimes cooking is restful for me it's just working with my hands I don't have to think about it too much it's done we ate the meal glad you
Liked it I'll never think about this ever again but now if you're a chef or if you're on a landscape company then probably those things aren't going to be restful for you so you got to know where you're coming from
And what actually is restful for you and some self-awareness is needed but if you don't know you need to learn otherwise you're just going to escape and find that you're never recharged to get back to work
So we got to distinguish between rest and escape lest we be tired and exhausted all the time and then number three and as I'm saying this I'll invite the band to come back up because we'll
Prepare to sing and respond a little bit number three look to Jesus we got to look to Jesus we break free from slothfulness by looking to Jesus Jesus carried the load that was given to him he was obedient to his parents Jesus spent
Most of his life as a carpenter think about this now the God of the universe incarnated and spent most of his time here doing work with his hands think about how honoring that is to labor and to work and Jesus did good work as a carpenter
He did not make bad tables Jesus made good tables like if you bought a table from Jesus it wouldn't wobble and you wouldn't have to fold up a napkin and put under one of the legs to get it to
Be balanced right he did a good Job he carried the load he said my food is to do the will of him who sent me and ultimately Jesus carried the load of the cross he stayed on the cross embracing the demands
And the responsibilities he could have saved himself or he could save us and he chose to save us we ultimately break free from slothfulness when we look to Jesus for our example when we realize that Jesus was our substitute that he carried
The load that he bore the price of our sin so that we might be free and through him we can renounce slothfulness and through the spirit's power we can embrace our purpose and embrace our design and find that God actually shapes
And blesses us through it let me pray for us Jesus thank you that you have embraced your load that you with joy set before you move to the cross scorning the shame Lord that you could have chosen to save yourself or to save us and that you saved us
As we want to look to your example we want to receive your righteousness and Jesus we want to reject sloth we want to repent where sloth has taken root in our lives and my assumption is for all of us we have some responding
And some confessing and some repenting to do so Lord would you send your spirit to help us see ourselves clearly to be aware to realize the places in our lives where we're pushing off the obligations and responsibilities
That you have lovingly given to us both for our good for the people around us good and for your glory and so would you help us as believers to embrace the load the restriction the responsibilities that you have given us that we would
Pursue you with all our heart soul mind and strength that we would serve and bless and pour out for others and we would do the good work that you've called us to do and the places
That you've put us now that our whole city our whole area would be blessed that's ultimately what we're after so we ask all this for your glory and for our good amen amen
Rhythms of Life
Transcript
Good morning. Happy Father's Day. Good to see you all this morning. We are going to be beginning a series today called The Hammer in the Hammock. It's going to last six weeks where we're going to spend some time talking about work and rest, the rhythm of life that God's placed in the world. So there was an economist.
His name was John Maynard Keynes. In 1930, he had a quote where he said, Our grandchildren will only work about three hours a day and probably only by choice. So I wanted to ask, how is your three-hour workdays going, your voluntary three-hour workdays? Have they been nice? His prediction didn't quite come true, did it? What he was doing was he was seeing how life and work was being able to – we were able to get more done because of the increases in technology and machinery.
And so what he was saying was all that was going to do to life was we were going to be more productive in a shorter amount of time, and then we'd have more time for rest. But that is not what happened. We did become more productive in a shorter amount of time, but all it has done is increase the pace at which life moves. Being able to travel long distances faster just means that you have more to do more quickly, that being able to get projects done quicker means that we just have more to do, more production, more, more, more. And the pace of life has increased. And if we're honest, most of us are very, very busy.
That's kind of the American mantra is just that I'm busy. I have so much going on. For many of us, we have – technology has made it to where we can work anywhere. But what ends up happening is we end up working everywhere, that most of us have work in our pockets, that we use our phones, we're receiving phone calls, we're sending messages, we're getting emails that need to be answered within 24 hours, and it's better if you do it sooner. And that for many of us, work never stops, and our busyness never stops, and we're constantly going. And in America, we are busy.
Life feels too full. We are overstressed, overworked, overanxious. And the increasing – the rates of depression are consistently increasing. I read an article in the magazine called The Economist. It's stationed in London. It says that ever since a clock was first used to synchronize labor in the 18th century, time has been understood in relation to money.
Our hours are financially quantified. So what I'm saying was that prior to this, there was – time was understood as separate from finances. But you might think about a day's worth of labor. But for many of us, when we began working, we started thinking of hourly wages. And so it's all of life now feels monetized, that you worry about wasting time or spending time wisely or saving time, that we've kind of connected these ideas together, and so that our time and our money are tied together. And so what it says was is when economies grow and incomes rise, everyone's time becomes more valuable.
And the more valuable something becomes, the scarcer it seems. So it says the U.S. has grown in wealth. Everybody feels busier. They go on to talk specifically about America. Like I said, this was written in London. But they say American workers toil some of the longest hours in the industrial world.
Employers are not required to offer their employees proper holidays. That's just how they say vacation. But even when they do, their workers rarely use them all. The average employee takes only half of what is allotted, and 15% don't take any holiday at all. Nowhere is the value of work higher and the value of leisure lower. This is the country that invented takeaway coffee after all.
So what it's saying is that in the United States, we overvalue work. We undervalue leisure. And then it takes a shot. It says, you know, coffee used to be something you sat and enjoyed at a cafe. You had conversations. But that's not what we do.
We roll up to a drive-thru window. And we're like, please inject caffeine directly into my neck. I've got things to do. That in general, we are busy. We are moving at a fast pace. And we are exhausted.
It goes on to talk about women in the workforce. It says, So what it's saying is that as more women went into the workforce, they also began to fell a greater pressure to be better moms. And that as many moms, as they watched other women in the workforce, began to say, no, being a mom matters so immensely. And they began to up the ante on what it meant to be a mom. And so overall, this rise in the pressures of motherhood. This article went on to say that parents today are spending more time with their children than any other generation.
That they're spending more time specifically devoted to their children than previous generations in these countries. But they feel worse about it. Feel more like they are failing. That fathers and mothers are more at home doing work. And so it is Father's Day. I didn't want to say that that was one of the statistics was that fathers have begun to do more at home.
So good Job, y'all. But it did say that dads do more of the fun jobs, like they play with the children. Or they said they do more of the kind of task-oriented. This job gets finished. So like some fixing things around the house, some repairs, or some yard work.
But it said that moms tend to do the unending jobs. Feeding children, cooking for the family, cleaning, doing laundry. They have unending tasks that it never stops. I know for many of you that you come in here this morning and we're supposed to be here. We're supposed to be worshiping. We're supposed to be praying.
We're supposed to be studying the Word together. We're supposed to be taking a deep breath and kind of relaxing for just a moment. And you can't. As soon as you sit down, as soon as you get a pen, as soon as you get a paper, you start taking, when you're going to take notes, you start writing down a to-do list and grocery list. You thought, you thought I didn't know. The reason I know this, you just thought I thought you were paying attention.
But the reason I know this is I looked over before while I'm preaching and seen my wife and thought, man, this must be a good sermon. She's taking some diligent notes. And then I come down and she's like, hey, can we get this stuff at the grocery store later? But that's the way my wife is. When a pen touches a paper for her, she begins to write out lists because she feels like she lives in a world of unending things to do. Jeffrey Godby says, working mothers with young children.
He's a time-use expert at Penn State. That's helpful to know. Jeffrey Godby, a time-use expert at Penn State. It says that working mothers with young children are the most time-scarce segment of society. That for all of us, we are busy. Now, one of the ways we've reacted to this is we've just said, this is what life's like.
We've just kind of owned it. Some of you are like, yeah, I'm busy. Yeah, I'm exhausted. But this is just a season. This is just for now. For some reason, we all kind of think that future us is going to rest.
Like, I don't know about y'all, but future me gets to sleep in. Future me gets to take days off. Future me is well rested. He's not as irritable as present me. And for many of us, we're doing that. We're like, I'll get through this.
I just got to get through this. As soon as the holidays are over, as soon as this is over, as soon as this, you know, the summer's kind of busy. As soon as I can, then I'll be able to stop. But that's not how it works. Many of us are like, well, I'm in a season. It's like, well, it's a 12-year season for you, and you need to figure out a new pace of life.
And so what has been – what has happened as a kind of a response to this over-business in our culture is that we have begun to place a lot of pressure on the time off that we do have so that we anxiously approach it. We have a vacation planned later in the year, and that's going to be our big vacation. We're going to have all of our family memories, and everything's going to be special and magic, and we've got to get everything done in that one week, and we come back more exhausted than when we left. And then there's a whole other segment of our culture, of our society right now that's just kind of rejected this.
They're extending adolescence. They're trying to avoid this type of work, this type of – They feel like it imposes on their life to take on this weight, to take on this responsibility, is going to rob them of everything that is good. And so they spend their time – I mean, they're working really hard right now to find a part-time job that pays full-time pay so they can keep up with playing Frisbee golf. And for some of us in this room, you are busy, and you're the busy type of person who can't sit still. And for others of us, we're kind of pushing back on that and being like, really, if I could do nothing and survive, I would.
If I could do nothing and get away with it, I would. And so there's some of you that have full-time jobs, but when you go to work, you're not really trying to be productive. You're not really trying to pour into what you're doing. You're really just there to get a paycheck so that you can look forward to the time off that you do have. And we've begun to push back on this idea of being too busy and life moving too fast. Now, I know that for many of our older generations, they're going to look at the younger generations and say, you don't know how to work.
Look at how lazy they are. And there's some truth to that. There's some truth to some of these younger generations right now kind of pushing back on this. But I've seen documentaries on the 60s. I know that a whole generation of people just quit their jobs, moved away from their homes, went out into the woods and rolled around in the mud wearing nothing but a guitar. I don't think this is new to this generation.
I think there's a consistent inner turmoil when it comes to work and to rest, when it comes to laziness and busyness. And we've got to figure out a better pace of life. Many of us oscillate between the two. We're busy, busy, busy, and then we're just exhausted and we crash and we're lazy. And some of us just – you'll see somebody go, this is it. It's just too much, too much.
I can't be a part of a community group anymore. I can't be a part of this church anymore. I volunteer for too much. I got too much going on with the kids. We've just got to – I'm going to quit my job. We're just going to move to a new city.
And they almost just – they freak out and they need to just reset life. But the problem is we don't have a healthy pattern. So as soon as they move, as soon as they get another church, as soon as they do all of that, they just begin to rebuild the same problems they had before. And we've got to have a better way to work and to rest and a better rhythm for it. So grab your Bible and go to Exodus chapter 20.
Exodus chapter 20. This is where God gives the Israelites the Ten Commandments. And the Ten Commandments are the primary framework of the law given in the Old Testament. So what had happened was God had taken the Israelites. They had been his covenant people, and they had been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. And so God shows up, and through Moses and through the plagues and through the parting of the Red Sea, he pulls the Israelites out.
And then on Mount Sinai, he gives them the Ten Commandments and says, This is how you will worship me. This is how you will know me. This is the beginnings of me showing you what I'm like. And so as we read the Ten Commandments, they're the framework, kind of the foundation of the law, that many of them say a major idea or concept, and then much of the law is then going to be explaining how to do that. So he's saying, have no other gods but me.
And then there's going to be whole sections of the law on how to worship. He'll say, do not commit murder. Do not commit adultery. But then there's whole sections on the law on how to relate to others and how to walk through life together. But in the Ten Commandments, we're going to pick up in verse 8.
We're going to read 8 through 11. And then we're going to spend some time talking through it. So God says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates.
For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. So this is in one of the Ten Commandments. And what we see is that God says, Remember the Sabbath. Remember means practice it. Hold it in front of you.
Keep it going. The word Sabbath just means rest. So he's saying remember the rest. Remember this. He says to keep it holy. Holy means to be set apart.
Many of you, maybe your mothers or grandmothers have china or they have like special Christmas dishes, and they're set apart. They're used for special occasions. You don't go to your grandma's house and get out her fine china or get out her Christmas dishes and just start eating your lucky charms in them. That's not acceptable. She'd look at you like bugs are crawling out of your ears. She might strike you.
I don't know what your grandmother's like. But you don't do that. It's set apart. It has a special purpose. And so that's what he's saying is that there is one day in your week. Your week will be six days long and all six of the other days will look very similar.
And then there's one day that's set apart. There's one day that's holy. It's different. Just a bit of history. The Israelites practiced this. They had the Sabbath, which was the seventh day in the week.
So that was Saturday. Later, as Jesus comes and Jesus goes to the cross and he dies and he rises from the grave on Sunday. It's the first day of the week. The Christians began to worship on Sunday. They called it the Lord's Day. We see that referenced in Acts and in the book of Revelation.
And then as the Emperor Constantine becomes a Christian later, I mean, there's some speculation over whether or not he's actually a Christian, but as the Roman Empire moved in that direction, he declares that Sunday will be a Sabbath. The Romans prior to this had not practiced the day of rest, but he declares that Sunday will be a Sabbath. And then push on down into the future. When the U.S. gets started, we had a kind of a debate over whether or not we would have Saturday as a Sabbath. We would do the Jewish one or we would do the Sunday one. So we just took both.
And that's why many of us have a five-day work week or five-day school work week, a two-day weekend. Now, with retail and service industries, a lot of us do work seven days a week, but this is where that began. So here's what it says. This is in the Ten Commandments. And so what we gotta understand is that as we approach the Ten Commandments, we hold these up as these are helpful, these are binding, these are the weight of these is still present. When the Bible says to not commit adultery, to not commit murder, but I want us to play a little game.
Which one of these is not like the others? So the Bible says in the Ten Commandments, it says you should not have any other gods but me. You should not create a graven image. You wanna have no other handmade idols. You will not commit adultery. You will not commit murder.
Hey, one day a week, take a day off. Rest. It just strikes us as different, but we wouldn't. So what we kind of treat this as, a lot of times, is nine commandments and one suggestion that we act as if, of course you can't murder, of course that's evil, of course that's heinous, and then someone's like, what about the Sabbath? And we're like, well, you know, I mean, not if you're busy or have something else to do. You see, when we come to the law, we have to understand how we as Christians ought to understand this, how we ought to approach it.
We believe that Jesus Christ fulfilled the law on our behalf, that the weight of the law, see, the law given in the Old Testament was designed to really do two things. It was designed to show us our inability to live to God's standards, our inability to live up to what we were meant to be. And secondly, it was to teach us, to train us what God was like. It was to prepare us, to build into us a pursuit of his holiness. And so Jesus comes and Jesus does not abolish the law. He does not throw this out.
He fulfills it. That Jesus Christ accomplishes the law on our behalf. What he does is he lives a perfect sinless life. He perfectly fulfills the law. The heart behind the law and the regulations are fulfilled in Christ and then Christ is cursed for us. That he takes the curse of the law on himself and he dies on a cross.
That's what Galatians tells us. That Jesus takes the curse for us so that we might have his, he takes our failing report card and gives us his perfect score. That he graduates and gives us his diploma. That he swaps places with us and takes our curse so that we might be free. And so that when we come to texts like this, the weight of the law does not bear down on us. This does not crush us.
It shows us our inability and it drives us towards Christ and we ought to take it as the good gift that it is. That it does help us that the Ten Commandments are life-giving because of Christ. And so as we read this, we should not easily set aside the Sabbath. So let's pick back up in verse eight and let's try to understand this a little better. I mean verse nine. So he says, six days you shall labor and do all your work.
Now this specific commandment is for training these Israelites who had been slaves to rest. They were slaves. Their value came from their productivity. That they were useful only in as far as they were producing. And when they ceased to produce, when they ceased to be healthy, when they ceased to be strong, when they ceased to be able to do work, they were useless. And so he takes these slaves and he says, that's not how your value works anymore.
One day I want you to rest. I want you to sit like I sat. See, God wove this pattern into the world that he created for six days. The Bible and the world began with God working. With him creating and cultivating. And so he creates, he cultivates, he works, and then it says that after six days he rested.
So that on the seventh day, God doesn't create anything. He doesn't make anything. He doesn't, he just rests. He enjoys his good work. And so what this says is, six days you shall labor and do all your work. Now many of us in this room lean towards busyness, but some of us lean towards laziness.
You've been waking up at the crack of noon. And you are too valuable to be lazy. Too valuable to throw off, to reject the weight of existence that God has given you. That God has poured intelligence and strength, ability into you. And that we were designed for good work. That we were meant to do what God did in creation, which was to work and to look at our work and see that it was good.
It's one of the things that Ecclesiastes says. It's one of the few joys given to us is that we would work and enjoy the work of our hands. It's Father's Day. I want to speak specifically to men for just a second. We are seeing right now in our culture a prolonged adolescence specifically for men. We're seeing men push responsibility further down, further back, further along the timeline.
They're living with their parents longer. They're pushing off getting married. They're using Tinder rather than truly trying to pursue somebody. They're pushing this all further down the line. And we even have kind of a consistent cultural push towards this idea that some forms of masculinity, traditional forms of masculinity, are simply evil. Now, not all forms of masculinity as we've been taught are biblical and beautiful, but there is a lot of weight and beauty given to masculinity and good godly masculinity is to be celebrated.
But there are currently some, it seems, that as if they would lay the idea of toxic masculinity directly on top of just any form of masculinity and they are anti the idea. And so what they have done is what you have done when you've removed the good weight placed on men for self-discipline and self-sacrifice, what you end up getting is only toxic masculinity because you have guys filled with testosterone and no real way to use it. So they end up depressed and angry and violent. Men, you were meant to carry weight. I see articles a lot that are saying, why aren't there any more female CEOs? Why aren't there more females this?
And honestly, I celebrate the idea of females doing things. God poured value and worth into you as well, but I'm not mad at male CEOs. Men are supposed to be carrying weight. even currently with watching kind of the movies that are out with my son, there's a lot of areas right now, women, where it feels like our society is just behind you just clapping, just celebrating what you're doing and we ought to. That's a good shift from some of the ways that things have been done in the past because God, ladies, has poured a lot of weight, poured a lot of his value, his energy, his design into you that you were made in the image of God.
But watching stuff with my son, every time I watch a movie with a leading lady, she's smart and capable and strong and every time there's one with a little boy in it, he's like awkward and confusing and weird. I have to work really hard to find movies that I can show him where it's like, yeah, be like that guy. Men, you were meant to carry weight, you were meant to work. Same for women. But it seems as if in our culture right now, there are many women who are flourishing and many men who are floundering and we were designed to be tethered, designed to have discipline, designed for sacrifice, designed for good labor.
You are too valuable. God has put too much into you for you to be lazy, to reject the good design God has. So six days you are to labor. forever. But then it continues, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work. On it, you shall not do any work.
You have six days to get all your work done and on the seventh day and on the seventh day, you're not to do any work. You see, you're too valuable to be lazy, but you are not indispensable. The world continues to run even when you are taking a day off. See, God looks at the Israelites and says, your value no longer comes from your work. You can sleep in. You can rest.
You can simply worship. You can sit and remember that you used to be slaves and know now that you are set free because there's going to be a day every week where every bit of productivity stops and you remember. You remember me and you remember what I've done. You see, it's a day of rest that we're meant to stop, slow down. So many of us don't know how to rest.
Our current kind of cultural cycle is that we wake up in the morning and we're tired so we grab a cup of coffee. Some of you are like, well, I don't drink coffee. Okay, Mountain Dew. Monster. We pour some caffeine into our face. Some of us go to a coffee shop and we're like, please, I'd like a cup with caffeine in it and then I'd like a smaller, more concentrated bit of caffeine poured down in that and I'd like some whipped cream and I'd like some chocolate.
I need some simple carbohydrates. Then we go to work. We get to work. We start to slow down at some point. Maybe we start just taking in simple carbohydrates. We start eating just some candy.
Maybe some of you have M&Ms on your desk. We begin to just kind of fuel ourselves with garbage and then we go to lunch. We eat. Come back from lunch. We get back to work. At some point, you start to slow down.
You begin to, three or four in the afternoon, your body's like, well, I'm done. You're like, oh, no, you're not. If you're like me, you drink more coffee. Some of you, it's another Mountain Dew. Some of you all go get a Diet Coke from a gas station that's the size of my newborn infant. We go home.
We're wired. We're kind of exhausted from the day, but we can't calm down. We can't slow our minds. We can't stop thinking about things. Our phone's still going off. Work's still hanging over our heads.
We've got all these issues that are going in our minds, and so the best thing we can come up with is we'll turn the TV up loud enough to drown out the noise. We think maybe watching TV will calm us down, but it doesn't because it's just a bunch of stressful stuff shining in our face, so then maybe we decide we're going to lay in bed. We'll go to sleep, but some of us can't sleep, so we're using our phone to flip through Twitter or Facebook, and have you ever noticed if you do this long enough, you don't even read. You just start kind of looking at the pictures, and your brain, you start going faster and faster, and you're only reading half of a sentence, and then you're just moving on, and we wonder why we all have ADHD, and we're twitchy.
We're sticking iPads in the hands of two-year-olds and being like, here, pay attention to this, and every single one of us is losing our minds, so you've been laying in bed with a phone in your hand, which is the equivalent of shining a flashlight in your eyes. Like, that's going to help you sleep, and then eventually we take an Ambien, drink some Zequil, fall asleep, so we can get up and start again. We are over-busy, over-anxious. We don't know how to rest. I talk with a lot of pastors, and I know that even for really committed Christians, many of them, not all of them, but many of them, only gathering at the church one to two times a month, even though they would say they're devout, they love Jesus, and some of that has to do with the fact that we've lost the Sabbath.
We've lost this day of rest, and it's not just a day of rest, but he says that this is a, the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God, that it's a rest towards God. That we're supposed to stop and aim ourselves towards God. You see, without work, you'll only be able to achieve unfulfilling frivolity, unfulfilling fun, unfulfilling leisure. It'll be like eating a bag of potato chips for dinner. It's salty, it's sweet, but then it doesn't feel right. It's not weighty enough.
And so that for those of us who have rejected the idea of work, existence is too light, and it's unfulfilling. But without rest, all you'll have is unending toil. Joy and color will drain from life. You see, we were designed for life-giving labor and soul-satisfying rest. Both a rejection of work into laziness and slothfulness, which we'll talk about next week, or a rejection of rest is a form of self-sufficiency and self-glorification. We are, in our pattern of work and rest, sinning and in need of repentance.
And some of us have so self-glorified and so grown into self-sufficiency that we claim to be Christians, but we practice as if we are not because we are unable to rest in the finished work of Christ and in the fact that He rules sovereignly over the universe so that you can go lay down, you can take a nap, you can put your feet up, you can close your computer, and the world will continue to move. And some of us have begun to live as if the whole point of existence is our own comfort, our own enjoyment, that everything is meant to terminate on us, that our satisfaction, our fun, is the point of everything so that we have rejected the weight that God has placed on us to serve those around us and help keep the world moving and to reign and have dominion over the world as He taught us in Genesis so that we've rejected this idea and we have glorified ourselves well beyond our position. And when it comes to our approach to work and to rest, we're sinners who need to repent. But we need to repent and enjoy Christ.
You see, this is a Sabbath. It's a rest to the Lord. We have labor unto the Lord and we have rest unto the Lord. You see, Jesus used to get into it with the Pharisees all the time. They would argue with Him all the time. If you read the New Testament, you'll see a lot of places where it goes on a Sabbath day and it tells a story and then it says on another Sabbath and it tells a story and it says on another Sabbath.
And the reason it jumps from Sabbath to Sabbath to Sabbath is that these were some of the times that Jesus was butting heads with the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a strict sect of those who practiced Judaism and they were very strict when it came to Sabbath regulations. They were very strict as to what it meant to practice the Sabbath. What was work? What wasn't work? How far could you walk?
How much could you do? And Jesus is constantly getting into it with them because they're trying to over practice the legality of the law and they're missing the point of it. So in this conversation with them, and this will be up on the screen, it's found in Mark 2, verse 27 and 28. Jesus says this. He's in an argument with them over the Sabbath and he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. This idea of a weekly rest, this idea of you taking time to stop is a gift. It does not rule over you to hem you in, to cause you harm. It is a gift. It was made for you. We were not designed to be able to move at the pace we're moving.
If we were to right now, if everybody just had to stand up and we all just had to run, just run as far as you can go. I know some of us, we'd make it to the parking lot and you'd be like, okay, I'm done. You might light up a cigarette and just have a seat. Other of us would go a little bit further. Some of you that are like, oh, I think right now I could probably run a marathon. We're so proud of you.
We saw your sticker. But all of us eventually would shut down. Our bodies would force us to stop. And for many of us, we are higher capacity. You feel like you can handle the weight of this. You feel like you can go without rest and you feel like you can just muscle through.
And the truth is, at some point, your body will shut you down. And the Sabbath was made for you. And the Sabbath was made for me. That it's a gift from God to us that we might rest because he is good and he is sovereign. He has set the slaves free. Jesus doesn't just say the Sabbath was made for man.
He says, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. He calls himself the Son of Man. He says, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. So what it means is that as we find the Sabbath, we find the Lord of the Sabbath, Christ. That in the Sabbath, we not only receive this good gift, but we received Christ. That we run to Jesus.
That we get more of Jesus in resting because he's the Lord of it. He doesn't say he's gotten rid of it. He says he's all about it. He's the king over it. You see, we believe that Jesus Christ came and that he did the work. That we are saved by good works, but it's Christ's works, not ours.
That when he was on the cross and he said, it is finished, that meant that forever the slaves have been set free and that we can rest. That we've been set free from our eternal slavery to our sin and our guilt and the weight of the law that bears down on us. So that in Christ, we can be free. That's why he says, all you who are weary and heavy laden, come to me and I will give you rest. You see, Jesus is the Lord of rest and our hope is that in this series, as we begin to learn about work, we learn how to work unto him that we might enjoy him, but then we begin to have a good balance of work followed by healthy rest that we would work hard and rest well, that we would have life-giving work and soul-satisfying rest.
You see, many of us have downtime, but it's not rest. The best we muster is laziness, distraction, escape, when we lost the ability to rest in the Lord and unto the Lord that we might be soul-satisfied. That we might be filled back up. So our hope in this series is that we would learn how to work and we would learn how to rest and that we would all have a healthy pattern of joy-filled life in Christ. We believe that Christians ought to be some of the hardest working and some of the best resting. That we ought to know more than anybody how to rest, how to enjoy life, and that we might get a lot of life and joy out of our work knowing that all of our labor is to the Lord.
As for today, the question is, where do I need to work then? Have I rejected God's good design for me that I might labor, that I might work, that I might be productive? Have I thrown that off? Have I glorified myself in my comfort that you might run to Christ asking for forgiveness and asking for His help? Have you so over-elevated your self-sufficiency so as to lose Christ? So overvalued your productivity, your work, so as to push Him away, so as to reject God that you've lost the ability to rest?
We ask that you would repent. I run to Jesus, the Lord of rest, that He might give you rest in the gospel.
Salutations
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer Carey. I'm a pastor in training here with Mill City Church. We are in our final week in Ephesians. We made it. Nine months later, we are closing out Ephesians.
We're going to be in Ephesians 6, verses 18 through 24, which is on page 570. If you have a blue Bible around you, if you don't have a Bible, please take that home. That is our gift to you. Next week, we will start our Hammer and Hammock series, which is a six-week series on work and rest. But for today, we're going to close out Ephesians.
It's going to be in 6, verses 18 through 24. Something I've realized recently in parenting, I have almost three and almost one-year-old, is they're not very coordinated. They struggle with doing two things at once. Let me give you a few examples. My son, Bridgers, he just learned how to crawl a couple months ago, and he struggled. He struggled out of the gate.
We put him in the middle of the room, and we'd walk away, and we'd come back, and he would be all the way backing up into the couch. He knew he could back circles around anybody, but getting the coordination of arms and legs to go forward was a little bit difficult for him. He would finally get to the point where he'd do this standing push-up. His butt would be in the air, and then he would just sit there. He didn't know what to do. And eventually he would just faceplant into the ground, which was funny when he didn't bruise his face.
My daughter also isn't super coordinated. I think long-term she's not going to be super coordinated. She's going to be great at a lot of things. I just don't think she's going to be super coordinated. And recently, I've got this, like I rode bikes growing up. It was a big deal to me.
So I want her to learn how to ride a bike. So this weekend, I was at my parents' house, and we got a tricycle out that she typically can be pushed on. But her legs are now long enough to reach the pedals. I wanted to show her this is how it works. So I put her feet in the pedals, and I took one leg and pushed it down and showed her how that kind of moved it forward.
And I took the other leg and tried to do the motion for her. And she was just fine with that. I was like, no, no, no, you can do this. If you just push equal weight on both sides, distribute it, you're going to be going forward. And she's like, no, I'll just let you push me. Like she was completely content with that.
And I was like, we'll get there. Because eventually, I want her to get on a bike. And when she gets on a bike without training wheels, she's going to have to figure that out. Because if you want to take a bike forward, you need equal distribution weight on both sides, pushing both pedals down. Because if you do too far to the right, you're going to fall off to the end. If you're going to do too far to the left, you're going to fall off to the left.
In order to move the bike forward, she's going to have to figure out coordinating both those things together. And Paul is teaching a little bit of this as we close out Ephesians. In fact, most of his letters show two main aspects of ministry that need equal weight on both sides. He talks a lot about the mission of God, seeing the loss be reached. And he also emphasizes care for the church. That both of those, mission and care for the church, need equal weight on both sides.
Because if you're high mission, like if you have a community group and you guys are really good at reaching people, and you're inviting people in, you're getting to know neighbors, but you don't do a good job of caring for one another. You don't do a good job of addressing sin. If you don't do a good job of that, what happens is, is that you're going, going, going, and you will burn out and sin will creep up and take you down one by one. On the other end of the spectrum, if you are really good at care, if you're really good at building each other up, like maybe you have really good theological deep discussions, maybe you wade through really tough sins, which is good, you should push for that, but you're low mission.
You're never reaching people, you're never inviting people. What you turn into is a holy huddle. You don't advance the kingdom. Both need equal weight. And that's what we're going to look at this morning as we close out Ephesians 6, and we see the two main aspects for the ministry of the church. So he picks up in the middle of verse 18 where Chet left off last week.
To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I'm an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak, so that you may also know how I am doing, how I am and what I am doing. Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will tell you everything. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts. Peace be to the brothers in love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. I'll pray and we'll dive into this. Father, I thank you so much for this season of Ephesians. God, I pray that you would help us see your heart for mission and your heart for care for the church and that we might be encouraged by this and walk this out as a church. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, so he starts out where Chet left off last week. He says, To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication. That's prayers. Offering up prayers for all the saints and also for me, that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. So we pick up where we left off last week, that we are in a spiritual war.
If you didn't listen to last week's sermon, I encourage you to go back and listen to it. Because if you are called in Christ, you enter into a war against not flesh and blood, but the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic powers of this present darkness like we read last week. We are in a war. And in the midst of that war, we are called to advance the gospel. So Paul, in the midst of this, is asking for prayer because he understands the power as a weapon against the enemy.
And in high school, I played a lot of video games growing up. But when I went to college, I realized something. That if I would have taken my video game console to college, I would have not done well. I would have not made the grades. My whole life is taking an ounce of talent and maximizing it through hard work. So I knew if I went to college, this wasn't going to end well if I took my video game console.
So I left it behind. But what I realized was, is when I got to college, that if you wanted to actually hang out with other guys at some point, you're going to play video games. That's just what it was. So we, in college, tried to reach, we were part of a ministry to try to reach people. And I wanted to spend time getting to know guys in our dorm. And the one game that everybody played that came out when I was in college was Call of Duty.
Man, people loved Call of Duty. They played it. And I wasn't out when I was in high school, so I didn't really play it. And I would get roped into playing some of these games. And they would immediately regret their decision. Because I was terrible.
Like, I just, I wasn't very good. And we'd be playing. I'd be trying to figure out kind of how to move around, how to shoot. And I played some shooter games growing up, so I kind of figured out the basics. But I was terrible.
I was a drag on the team. And eventually, I would sit on weapons that I didn't know how to use. And eventually, someone pointed out, Hey, man, you know what an airstrike is? I was like, no, what's that? It's like, you know all those, every now and then we have bombs that are just being dropped and people are dying? I'm like, yeah, that sounds great.
What is that? You have one. And if you just press this button, it's like the cheat code. You're just going to do work. I was like, oh, that's a really good idea. Maybe next game that will work out.
I was like, no, not my team. And it's like, I was sitting on this powerful weapon that I had. I didn't know how to use it. I didn't even try. In the same way in the church, we sit on a powerful weapon that stands against the enemy in prayer. We've been given this air support from God that we can tap into and we choose not to use it.
Rather than cultivate a consistent pattern of prayer to push the enemy back, we remain silent. Billy Graham once said that a prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian. And what he was getting at was that we have this unreal power from our God to go to work through us and reaching other people to grow us into Christlikeness. And we remain silent. We were missing out on that power. Another pastor named John Piper, he said, One of the greatest uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the last day that prayerlessness was not from a lack of time.
You can insert Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, whatever app you have on your phone. That on the last day when we are standing before our Savior, we look back at all those who could have been reached, all those who could have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, if we would have spent time praying for their boldness within us to reach them, it won't be for a lack of time. That we are called to pray. And Paul, he wanted the prayers of this church. Because he understood its power. And he understood what was at stake.
That eternity was on the line. And he understood that the pattern of prayers that God has ordained, he has chosen beforehand that prayer is the means by which he advances his kingdom and his purposes. That we get to tap into that kind of power. Let me show you what that looks like. A year ago, I'm a bivocational, I do real estate. And I was in a real estate office, a different one than I am now.
And there was a woman in my real estate office, another agent, who came up to me and said, Hey, did you know that my daughter works for one of the attorneys that we do closings at? I said, No, I didn't. She said, Yeah, her name is Kaylin. And it would be, you know, she just jumped in the workforce. She didn't go to school yet. So a lot of her friends went off to college.
And it would be great if you would connect with her and just invite her into what you're doing at your church. I said, Girl, you're a team player. Absolutely. So I went. And at the next closing, I saw her. I said, Hey, I heard that you were looking to hang out with some people.
There's some people close to your age. We have this community group from our church that meets. And it would be great if you came. And what was brilliant was what she heard. That's what I said. What she heard was, Oh, a young networking group for professionals.
Great. I'm going to come to that. And she did. And it was not a networking group. She quickly picked up on that. But she came back.
And she kept coming back. And here's something we picked up on pretty quickly. We picked up on the fact that she had been around church, but she never actually clearly heard the gospel of grace. That she heard some kind of works-based righteousness, but she actually hadn't heard about Jesus and the grace that he offers. So we started praying for her.
And we started journeying with her. And then one day she came up to us and she said, Hey, this is the last time I'm coming to group. And I was like, What's up? She's like, I'm starting night classes on Tuesdays, and I can no longer come. And I was like, This is not how this ends. So I went to a different group.
I went to the Flagstone group, which is led by Jesse and Tony Ando. And I said, Hey, we have this awesome girl in our community group. I would love to get her plugged in with you guys. And, of course, they took her in. And we kept praying as we sent her off. And I know for a fact that they kept praying too.
And over time, it finally clicked. It made sense. And this spring, she stood in this room and gave one of the most powerful testimonies I've ever heard of baptism. Because people prayed and God went to work in redeeming her. We tapped into that power. And Paul, he understood this.
That's why he asked for prayer, that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. That he might have the boldness to go out and proclaim this beautiful mystery that he's been tapping into for six chapters. And Ephesians. This mystery that flipped entire cities over for the gospel. Because it ignited a flame within believers and it ignited a flame in other people. Growing up, my stepdad taught me how to build fires.
We had this fireplace in my parents' house. And he finally taught me how to build one. He set up the logs. And I looked to the right and I saw this beautiful, rugged, cast iron tool set. And I was like, I'm going to use those. I like that.
I'm going to grab this poker. I'm going to jab this thing into submission. It's going to be great. And to the right of that rugged set was this fire bellow. This antique fire bellow. Fire bellow is just this little pump.
You simply just push and it pushes out air. I was like, that's cute. I don't need that. Well, he lit the fire and he got the fire bellow out. And he started just to push down just effortlessly. And it brought out air.
And fire needs air, which I didn't really realize. And it engulfed the whole logs and fire. And I was like, oh, that's actually a pretty useful tool. And I still was stubborn. Because I was like, man, I think I can do this on my own. I would build a fire.
I'd get face to face with the flames. I'd be huffing and puffing and going for it. And there's a tool right there I just could have used effortlessly. Pumping up the air. Getting the fire going. And that's what prayer gets to be.
It stirs a fire up within us. A boldness within us. It stirs a fire up in other people. And you can strong our mission. You can get face to face with the fire. You can huff.
You can puff. You can go for it. Or you can take what God has given us in prayer. And use it. And prayerfully pray for those who need Jesus. Pray for a boldness within you to stir up.
That you might actually go and proclaim the gospel. And in order for Paul to continue in this boldness. He desired the prayers of this church. To fan those flames of boldness. And as a church we need that same prayerfulness. And how we approach mission together.
Because if we're going to be a gospel centered community on mission. We need this. Because here's the deal. We are actually really good as a church. At building relationships. At throwing parties.
At inviting people in. We crush that. And that's good. I don't want to diminish that at all. That's in our culture. That is how you reach people.
Is relationally. You can do a ton of good in doing that. So I want to uphold that. But hear this clearly. You can't friend people into the kingdom. You can't.
You can friend them into listening. But you can't friend them into the kingdom. At some point. You're going to actually have to say words. You're going to have to speak words. Because the gospel is a message.
And those words are going to take boldness. It's going to take boldness for you to declare the grace of our Lord. That we were once dead in sin. That through faith in Jesus we're alive in Christ. And that you can have that same relationship with him. Because you've been separated by sin.
It's going to take boldness. And it's going to take words to say that. And when you do that. At times. It's going to get weird. At times.
It's going to be awkward. You're going to say things. And people are going to look at you like. Nah. Like you're going to have friends that you actually share Jesus with. And they're going to say.
I don't want that. And if that's what you believe. I don't want you either. And that's going to be painful. You're going to be socially cast out in some situations. You might share with your neighbor.
And then you go out and take the trash out at the same time. And you'll look at each other. And it'll be awkward. It's going to happen. Because there is a cost to sharing words. There's a cost to being an ambassador.
Which is what Paul picks up on in verse 20. He says. For which I am an ambassador in chains. That I might declare it boldly as I ought to speak. An ambassador is simply a representative. We have those today.
And in their day it would have been a royal ambassador. Who spoke on behalf of the king. And declaring his good news. So we get to be that in Christ. That we get to be ambassadors of our kingdom. Proclaiming the good news.
But he puts a caveat on it. In chains. Noting that there will be suffering that comes with it. That you will suffer for declaring the gospel. Paul was put in prison. We'll be in social situations where we are cast out.
Where we are set aside. But here's the deal. In 10,000 years from now. Is that going to matter? Is it going to matter that you may have cost some friendships. Because you valued their eternity.
Over your friendship or your comfort with them. No. In 10,000 years you'll be thinking of the people that you risked it with. That are standing beside you. In the presence of Jesus. That's what's going to matter.
So with all of that in mind. I have a few questions for us as a church family. As we try to walk this out as a church family. Who are you currently trying to reach? We did this a little bit at our family meeting this week. Who are you trying to reach?
Have you been praying for them? I don't mean like have you prayed. I mean are you regularly praying for them? Have you invited other people in our church family. Other people in your community group. To pray for them.
Do they even know who you are trying to reach? Do you know who the other people in your community group are trying to reach? Have you been praying for those people? And at the front end of this. You're like I can't think of anybody that I'm trying to reach. Who doesn't know Jesus.
Have you prayed that God would break you. Of the apathy. Or the fear. Or the busyness. Or whatever you insert there. That keeps you from actually going out.
And seeing others be changed by the gospel. Church family. We got to grow in our missional hustle. And we do that by praying. And putting weight on that pedal. That we might drive the church forward.
And in the midst of doing that. In the midst of putting weight on that pedal. We got to evenly distribute to the other side. And caring for one another. As a church family. So Paul picks up on that.
He says in verse 21. So that you also may know how I am. And what I am doing. Tychicus. The beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord. Will tell you everything.
I have sent him to you for this very purpose. That you may know how we are. And that he may encourage your hearts. So the other pedal that needs weight. Is caring for one another. And I feel like when I read this sometimes from Paul.
It's hard for me to actually visualize this. Because when I think of Paul. Sometimes I think of this weighty theologian. He's got thick glasses. He's got a loud voice. He got called up into the seventh heaven at some point.
He has all kinds of big things he has to say. He talks about mission. And it's hard for me to picture. That he intimately and deeply cared. For the churches that he was reaching. And for us to capture a picture of this.
In Ephesians. We have to go back to week one. Of our sermon series. As we talked about his time. In Ephesus. In the book of Acts.
In the book of Acts. He spent time with. He came. He was one of the people that helped planted. The church at Ephesus. For three years.
They labored there. They saw that city. Start to be changed by Jesus. And then he left. To go and plant other churches. And he kept ministering to them.
And then we pick up in Acts 20. This is where we really see his relationship. With the church at Ephesus. And how he cared. And at this point in Acts 20. He is traveling through.
He wants to meet with the Ephesian elders. One more time. Because at this point he realizes. He is going to Rome. And he is going to die. This is the last time he is going to see them.
And they pick up on. This is the last time they are going to see him. So in Acts 20. He gives this speech. And in this speech. He kind of gives the highlights.
Of the sufferings that they went through together. Of the people that were reached. And all the time that he spent there. And then he says this verse. He says remembering that for three years. I did not cease night or day.
To admonish. Which means correct. Everyone with tears. That for three years. He invested in these people. He corrected them.
With tears. Pouring over them. That they might grow into Christ likeness. And then he continues in this speech. To encourage them. And the final scene we see here.
Is they start hugging him. And everyone is in tears. And what we catch a glimpse of. Is how much they love him. And how much he loved them. It is like a father.
Who is being dropped off. To go off to battle. And it is a war. That he is probably not going to come back from. It is a powerful scene. And it is because they loved each other deeply.
And they cared for one another. And he was going off to die. This kind of care. This aspect of ministry. That we see in his ministry. Is because he wanted them to mature.
In Christ. He wanted them to grow. In knowing the gospel. And in the midst of that. In this letter. Back to Ephesians.
He knows. He cares for this church. And he wants them to be encouraged. So in wanting them to be encouraged. He knows it is going to be hard to capture. In this letter.
His emotional state. I mean it is hard to capture a letter nowadays. You write an email or a text message. It is hard to capture. How you were doing. I know they gave us emojis.
But I don't think they are all that helpful at times. So it is good to actually have someone who can communicate that. And he does. He sends Tychicus. Which side note. We don't really know.
There is no consensus on how to say this guy's name. I have called him Tychicus for a year. I listened to some audio bibles this week. They called him Tychicus. And I was like come on. And then I went back to the Greek.
And it literally reads as Tychicus. And I knew if I started this off by calling him Tychicus. You would not have recovered. You would not have been able to pay attention. So we will call him Tychicus.
They send Tychicus so that he might encourage them. And we do not know a whole lot about Tychicus. But here is what we can tell from this passage. He has been with Paul. He has been ministering to Paul while he is in prison. And Paul he needed that.
You see in his other letters that he cares. He wants people to come and minister to him. So he ministered to him. And he calls him a brother. He sees him as family. That this would have been a really hard thing to send him out.
Because he would be losing family for a season. And he sends him out knowing how valuable he is. Knowing that he is going to be an encouragement to this church. Because encouragement is what they needed as a church. The word for encouragement when it is read literally is call near. That is the idea.
That you be in the presence of someone and you be encouraged. And it is often translated as encouraged. Or comfort. Or built up. And the picture of what is happening here. Is like a fighter.
Who at the end of a round. Goes back to his corner. Whether you. This is boxing. I know some of you all like UFC. The picture is that he would be going back to his corner.
And what you do not see in boxing or in UFC. Is when they go back to their corner. They sit down by themselves. And they. You know. They guide themselves.
They drink some water. They take it to Owl. They wipe off some sweat. You do not see that. In boxing. What you see.
Is when you go back to your corner. That is where we get the phrase. I have people in my corner. Is you have a whole team that is waiting on you. And that team. As soon as you sit down on the stool.
Is going to start going to work. They are going to start mending wounds. They are going to take sticks. And stick them up your nose. And plug and cuts. They are going to start putting ointment on your face.
They are going to be putting ice on you. They are going to start mending wounds. And then what you see in boxing. Is you have the coach come in. And he starts coaching them up. He starts saying bro.
You got to watch out for his right hooks. He has been tearing you up. All round. With those kind of punches. You got to put up a defense. You got to change your strategy here.
So once they mend them. And they start coaching them up. Then they start building them up. You see that. Man. You are going to get this.
We are going to go in for another round. You are going to get it. You are going to get your licks in. You are going to come back. We are going to do this again. And we are going to finish this fight.
And the bell rings. And they send them back out. And that is what we get to be as the church. That as we fight sin. As we battle against this world. And the cosmic powers of this present darkness.
Over Satan. As we battle and go to work. We get to come back to our corner. You get sometimes to stagger back into your corner. And you have people in your community group. Who are there to mend wounds with the gospel.
Who are there to coach you up. Who are there to tell you. You got to watch out for right hooks. You got to watch out for what you click on the internet. You got to be mindful of the bitterness that is stirring up within you. And they coach you up.
And they start building you up in Christ. To send you back out. That is encouragement. That is the encouragement that Tychicus would have done. That is why we as a church say. That we give good news before good advice.
Because when you come in staggering into group. And often times this is me. I come staggering into group. I want someone to build me up and remind me who I am. That I am a son of the king. When you come stumbling in after a rough week.
I will remind you that you are a daughter. That you have been adopted in this family. And that when Jesus sees you. He does not see your sin. Or your suffering. Or your pain.
He sees the finished work of Christ. I want to remind you that you are part of a church family. I want to remind you that you did not save you. Some of you are struggling every week. Because you still think I have got to earn God's favor. I got to clean myself up.
And you are going to come in. I am going to say no. It wasn't you that saved you. It was Christ that saved you. You might come in weak. And just struggling.
And I am going to look at you and say no. Do you realize you have the God of the universe. The God who formed everything out of nothing. Is living inside of you. The Holy Spirit is working through you. And he is not going to let you go.
I am going to remind you how this thing ends. That at the end of it all. It is you and the presence of God forever. Because of what he has done for you. He is going to carry you home. And we are going to build you up.
We are going to encourage you in the gospel. And we are going to send you out for another round. And it might be every week. If you are going out to fight sin. And coming back and it is building you up. That is what it is going to look like every week.
Because that is what encouragement looks like in church family. And in our church family. There are people that are struggling physically with ailments. Struggling with sin. Struggling emotionally. And they are hurting.
And I get it. As a church family we walk together. And sometimes that gets tiring. Sometimes that gets hard bearing burdens. But I just want to clearly say something.
We see no place in the New Testament that says. That because it is hard we stop. That because it is hard we stop encouraging one another. There is wisdom and teaming up. And not getting burnt out. I hear that.
But we lean into. We are called to encourage. No matter if it is a season. Or if it is a lifetime. As a church family. We strive to encourage one another in the gospel.
There are others who are in here. That are struggling. And you haven't said anything. You have remained quiet. You haven't told people what you are going through. Because you feel like you need to bear this all alone.
I want you to hear this clearly. You are not meant to take the hits alone. That is not how this is supposed to be. You are not meant to take the hits alone. You have a corner of people in this church family. Who are ready to receive you.
Who are ready to build you up. You might be thinking. I don't have a corner. And that is why every week. We make a push.