Podcasts about because adam

The Indy 500 is probably the most exciting American automobile race of the year. I mean, you can almost feel the anticipation growing during the time trials and the qualifying events that lead up to the big race. And then, on the day itself, the engines rev, and the fans and the promoters cheer, and the cars make their first drive around that legendary track in Indianapolis. But there's really no race until that first lap. They're all going the same speed, led by some guy with flags flying out of his car window. Who is that guy? He's the pace car, and everyone starts the race at the pace he sets. You know, everybody's race has a fellow like that. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When a Man is a Man." Now, our word for today from the Word of God goes right back to the beginning of time - the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3:6. "And when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it." Verse 8 says, "The man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord called to the man, 'Where are you?'" Notice here that God comes looking for the man. The woman sinned first, but He comes looking for the man and He addresses only him. Why is this? Because Adam is meant to be the pace car for Eve. See, God gave all the instructions about the tree to Adam. There is no record, though, of Adam giving them to Eve. Apparently Adam transmitted them to her, and I don't know if he got them across or not; she watered them down. God seems to say, "If Eve is having a problem, I'm going to go looking to Adam for the reason. Adam, where are you?" Now, there's a principle here that really goes throughout creation: if Adam isn't right, then Eve isn't right. Maybe there's a man listening today who is wondering why his wife is nagging so much. Maybe it's because he isn't listening and she's doing everything she can to be heard, to get your attention. Why is my wife so bossy? Maybe it's because you're not leading. Why is she so detached? Maybe you haven't had time for her. If the pace car isn't pacing, then Eve's car starts veering, and sliding, and going too fast or going too slow. If Adam isn't right, Cain and Abel aren't right either. The kids act out of either not enough love or not enough discipline, if Dad neglects his leadership in their lives. He's their pace car too. God just made it this way. If Adam isn't right, the garden isn't right either. There's stress, conflict, confusion, decisions not made if the man who is supposed to be leading isn't doing it. Think about it today if you happen to be on Adam's side of the human race. Could some of your frustrations be because you've been neglecting your God-given responsibilities to your wife, to your children, or to be the spiritual leader? See, throughout the Bible the buck always stops with the man. If the cars around you are speeding, and swerving, or crashing, take a good look at the pace car. That's you, man!

God made all the world perfect and good, with no animal or human death. It was a paradise! None of God's creatures killed another creature!God placed man as His highest creation over all the rest of the creation, giving him dominion over the creation and commanding him to subdue it. God provided only vegetables and fruit for food to His all creatures.Man's dominion was to be wise, non-violent, and benevolent. That's because man was made in God's image -- rational, spiritual, able to communicate with God, and most loved by God.But when Adam sinned, this all came crashing down. Thus, when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, instantly they were spiritually dead, and physically, corruption set in, and dying soon they would be dead.They were both alienated and ashamed to be seen by God in their naked and disobedient characters, so they hid themselves from His presence.God pronounced several curses, which are but samples of the full consequences of the punishment of death upon Adam, all his descendants, and the creatures God had placed him as head over.But things soon grew much worse. The first man born in this world murdered his own brother in cold blood!Why? Because Adam was our representative before God. His rebellion was seen as a rebellion of the whole creation against God, which Adam represented. Adam was made in God's image, given God's command, and appointed by God to represent the creation.In man's fall, the whole world fell, and became subject to pain, sorrow, destruction, vanity, hopelessness, brokenness, and death.But the Holy Ghost works in believers unto our glorification! That glory will far exceed the sorrow & pain of our sufferings here.

Resurrection isn't just about 'coming back to life,' but also about 'rising up.' Because Adam's sin in Genesis 3, the Garden Of Eden, didn't just inherently cause spiritual death for humanity – disconnection; a downgrade & restriction in our ability to fully experience God's best – just temporarily & momentarily. BUT… Jesus restores our rights to live at the level of God's possibilities; truly, freely & fully – Live It Up!To Live it Up, I must know that Jesus resurrection gives me:1. Liberty2. Intimacy3. Vibrancy4. Expectancy

Bible Studies Archive RSS The Roles of Men and Women in the Church1 Timothy 2:14Apantao- to deceive, beguile, outwit, cheat, mislead, trickEphesians 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.James 1:26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless.2 Corinthians 11:2-4 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!Knowledge of Good and Evil:Deuteronomy 1:39 (Moses) ‘Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.2 Samuel 14:17 (David) Your maidservant said, ‘The word of my lord the king will now be comforting; for as the angel of God, so is my lord the king in discerning good and evil. And may the LORD your God be with you.' ”1 Kings 3:7-9 (Solomon ) Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. 9Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”Isaiah 7:16 (Messiah) For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings.Hebrews 5:14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.Genesis 3:22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— Because Adam ate:1 Corinthians 15:21-22 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—15: For if by the one man's offense many died17: For if by the one man's [g]offense death reigned through the one,18: Therefore, as through [h]one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation,19: For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, Handout

St. Maximus the Confessor explains one of the more difficult verses in sacred Scripture: "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor 5:21). This is a reading of Question 42 from "On Difficulties in Sacred Scripture: The Responses to Thalassios". -BUY "On Difficulties in Sacred Scripture: The Responses to Thalassios" here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0813235715/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr= -BUY an excellent 8-lecture course by Fr. Maximos Constas on St. Maximus the Confessor's Life and Teachings: https://patristicnectar.org/bookstore_160419_1 -FIND an Orthodox parish and monastery near you: https://orthodoxyinamerica.org/ _______ St. Maximus taught: Because Adam's natural power of free choice was corrupted first, it corrupted nature together with itself, losing the grace of impassibility. And thus the fall of free choice from the good toward evil became the first and blameworthy sin. The second sin, which came about as a result of the first, was the blameless alteration of nature from incorruptibility to corruption. Thus two sins came about in the forefather through his transgression of the divine commandment: the first was blameworthy, but the second was blameless, having been caused by the first. And for our sakes, through the passibility of nature, He became sin, but He did not commit voluntary sin, thanks to the immutability of His free choice—to the contrary, He corrected the passibility of nature through the incorruptibility of His faculty of free choice, making the end of nature's passibility, by which I mean death, into the beginning of the transformation of our nature into incorruptibility. The Lord, then, did not know my sin, that is, the turning away of my free will: He did not assume my sin, neither did He become my sin, but [He became] sin because of me; that is, He assumed the corruption of nature which came about through the turning away of my free choice, and He became, for our sake, man passible by nature, abolishing my sin through the sin that came about because of me. The condemnation of my freely chosen sin—I mean, of human nature's passible, corruptible, and mortal elements—was assumed by the Lord, who for my sake became “sin” in terms of passibility, corruption, and mortality, voluntarily by nature assuming my condemnation—though He is without condemnation in His free choice—so that He might condemn the sin of my free choice and nature as well as my condemnation, simultaneously expelling sin, passibility, corruption, and death from nature, bringing about a new mystery concerning me, who had fallen through disobedience: the dispensation of Him, who for my sake and out of His love for mankind, voluntarily appropriated my condemnation through His death, through which He granted that I be called back and restored to immortality. ______ Orthodox Wisdom is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/orthodox-wisdom/message

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston,or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us your holy word, and we thank you for sending us your holy Son. We thank you that your son came as a savior to save us from our sins, but you also came as Lord. And Jesus, we thank you that you went to the cross and you paid the penalty for our law-breaking, our transgressions of the law. And Jesus, you bled. The holy Son of God, you bled on that cross in order to cleanse us, in order to save us, and then also to give us grace. And you came back from the dead as the conquering king and you gave us marching orders to go and make disciples of all nations and to take dominion of this world, to take it back from the usurper, back from Satan, back from the enemy. And I pray, Lord, that you empower us by the Holy Spirit. Baptize us with the Holy Spirit. Send each one of us a special anointing to proclaim your word everywhere we go. To know your word, study your word, meditate upon your word, and to testify to the greatness of our God. Lord Jesus, show us what it means that you are our king. And that when you tell us to follow you, that is a command. Those are marching orders. And wherever in our lives we are not following you, I pray, give us grace. Transform our wills, transform our minds, transform our hearts. Lord Jesus, we pray that you bless the sermon series. We pray that you anoint it and I pray that your holy church will be built up. And I pray those who are far from you will be redeemed and regenerated and transformed from being rebels to being your children. And I pray, Lord, in this season that you send us the gift of evangelism, a passion for evangelists to proclaim the gospel of the king. The king is here. We deserve His wrath, but He came to extend mercy and grace and call us to follow him. I pray that you bless our time in the holy scriptures. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're beginning a sermon series through the Gospel of Mark that we are calling Kingdom Come, the Gospel of Mark and the secret of God's kingdom. And Jesus Christ, when He came, His very first words were the kingdom of God is at hand. So He's established the kingdom, the king is here, and then the Lord Jesus Christ teaches us to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And that prayer is not just a prayer, that's our purpose. Yes, we cry out, Lord, may your kingdom come. But what we're saying is, Lord, give me the power to establish your kingdom. The title of the sermon today is Tremendous News: The King Loves You. And it's tremendous news because we don't deserve that love. It's a shock that He comes as a loving savior. Why? Because we deserve the wrath of God for our law-breaking. And just to give you perspective on this, I take an example from history from Fyodor Dostoevsky. Before he wrote Crime and Punishment, before he wrote The Idiot, before he wrote The Brothers Karamazov, he was actually sentenced to death by a firing squad by Tsar Nicholas I. For what? Listening to stories, criticizing the armed forces, owning an illegal printing press in order to create anti-government propaganda, and contributing to plot against the Tsar. So he was part of a group of rebels. There were 21 members in the circle and Dostoevski is 27 at that time. And they were brought into a public square and they were forced to kneel, kiss a cross, and then undergo a symbolic beheading where swords were broken above their heads. They were tied to pillars in the town square, blindfolded and then they started awaiting their execution. But immediately before they were shot, an envoy from the Tsar arrived with the stay of execution saying, don't shoot. And the men were pardoned by the king from execution and forced to serve in hard labor and a labor camp for four years. And you say, how would that change a man knowing he's about to be executed and all of a sudden there is a stay of execution? Dostoevsky, after the averted execution said, "Today I faced death for three quarters of an hour. I was a hair's breadth away from death, and now I am living again." He wrote his brother after the event, "I'm being reborn in another form." In the same way that the brightest dawn follows the darkest night, the best and the greatest, the most tremendous news always comes right after the deepest realization of the most terrible news. Well, what is the terrible news? That you and I, we have broken the law of God, the holy law of the holy God. This is the ultimate act of insurrection. And God created you with eternal soul. He breathed his spirit into you. We have eternal souls created by an eternal God. So what's the punishment for insurrection against the holy God of the universe? It's banishment from God's kingdom. That's what we deserve. Exile. And how long is that exile? Eternal because God is eternal and so are our souls. We deserve execution. We deserve eternal damnation for rebelling against the holy God. So when the king of kings comes, it's surprising that He doesn't come with execution and eviction notices. When the king comes, the king comes with pardon and amnesty and forgiveness and mercy, but also grace. This is what the gospel is all about, that God is offering to us today, mercy. Mercy is you don't get what you deserve, but He also gives us grace. And grace is we get what we don't deserve. God has mercy on rebels and He gives us grace in adopting us as sons and daughters because of the sacrifice of king Jesus on the cross. Jesus came as a Jewish man, but He's not just the king of the Jews or just the king of Israel. He's the king of everyone and the king of everything. And there's only two kinds of people, children of God or rebels. Soldiers of King Jesus or soldiers of king Satan. And if you turn from your sin and you submit to the king, if you believe in His gospel, something incredible happens. The miracle of the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you are regenerated from within. God gives you a brand new heart with brand new desires and your mind is renewed by the power of God. And God now can look at you as He looks at His son Jesus Christ and say, this is my child in whom I'm well pleased. And grace also is a power source. God gives us grace as energy to become kingdom builders. Jesus Christ said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and everything else shall be added onto you." St. Paul said, "I am what I am by the grace of God, but the grace of God was not in vain in me. It wasn't given to me in vain. Instead," he says, "I worked harder than the rest of them. "And he's talking about the other apostles. So God gives us grace to do what? To follow Him, build His kingdom. And it all starts with the tremendous news that He's willing to forgive us if we repent. And this news does change us, it rivets us and it changes your whole perspective on reality. Would you please look at the text with me today? We're in Mark 1:1-15, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God as it is written in Isaiah the prophet. Behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight." John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now, John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached saying, 'After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie. I've baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.' In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my beloved son with you, I'm well pleased.' The spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan and he was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him. Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, 'The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.'" This is the reading of God's holy and inert, infallible, authoritative word, may it write these truths upon our hearts. Four points to frame up our time. First, the king has come. Second, the king is anointed. Third, the king declares war. And fourth, the kingdom has come. First, the king has come. Mark 1:1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God written by Mark, who was probably an associate of Peter and Peter at that time was serving in Rome when this gospel was written. So this gospel is written to city dwellers and it's written in such a way where busy people can understand the gospel, understand who is Jesus, understand His person and His work. We see that Mark emphasizes action over teaching, it's very vivid. One of his favorite words is the word immediately. And what he's doing, he's writing to busy people. He's trying to get to the point as quickly as possible. And if you're new to the city, what you recognize is after a while here you realize you know who's from Boston because they walk fast and they talk fast. Fast walkers, fast talkers. And that's kind how I preach. I talk really fast, people tell me they can't 2X me on our podcasts or et cetera, but I want to get to the point as quickly as possible. And the point is, Jesus Christ, He's the point of everything. And here we see the freshness of discovery of who Jesus is. That's what Mark is trying to do. Over 150 times, he uses the historic present tense, putting past events in the present tense. Why? To increase the vividness. That what Jesus did, He's continuing to do today in and through the church as empowered by the Holy Spirit. It begins with the word the beginning. That's the very first word, and it's alluding to Genesis 1:1, that in the beginning God created everything and God created man and it was all beautiful. It was all wonderful, but we rebelled against God and Satan usurped dominion from Adam and Jesus Christ has come as a new Adam, as a new creation, as a new beginning for human beings. His name is Jesus in the English. In the Greek, it's Yesus, and Yesus is a transliteration of the Jewish word, Joshua. So Jesus is named after Joshua. In the Hebrew, His name, what it means is savior or literally Yahweh is salvation. So even in the name, what we see is that God is saying what Moses couldn't do, Joshua did. Moses could not take the promised land, could not bring the people of God into the promised land. Joshua did that. What Moses couldn't do, Jesus is going to do. Moses gave the law, but he couldn't transform hearts to obey God willingly. God can force His kingdom upon us and one day He will come with a flaming sword and He will judge. But the first time Jesus Christ comes, He doesn't come with a sword of power or physical sword. He comes with the sword of the spirit, wielding the word of God so people are transformed from the inside out. Moses gave the law, Jesus gives grace, which leads to heartfelt obedience, which empowers us to fulfill the law out of love for God and neighbor. Jesus Christ, a lot of people think that's His last name. That's not His last name. It wasn't Mary and Joseph Christ. This is a title, a kristos. It's from the Hebrew marcia or an anointed one. He's anointed to do what? He's anointed to be a royal figure. He's anointed to be king. So Jesus Christ actually just means is king. Sometimes they drive by churches and they're named Christ is king. I'm like, that means king is king. It's Jesus is king. That's the point, that He's come in order to establish the kingdom of God. He's the son of God. Son begotten of the Father. The Son of God is God as much as the Father is God, but the Son submits to the father's will. So we see right in the center of the faith, the faith is patriarchal with the Father up top and hierarchal, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. When Jesus took on flesh, He was male. Jesus was a man, a Jewish man who lived under the law. And Jesus is the Son of God and the son of man, that's His messianic title. And the Holy Spirit is not an it. It's not just a force. The Holy Spirit is a person, the Holy Spirit is a he. And just for clarity's purposes, God's pronouns are He/Him. And I say that because confusion has come from theological schools. I remember taking classes at BU School of Theology and I realized that's not going to go well because the very first prayer I heard was a prayer to mother God. Well, that is not true. God is father. The gospel, the word gospel means good news or literally an announcement of something good associated with a military victory. It's good news of victory from the battlefield. And the nuance of military victory is extremely important for Mark who presents Jesus' ministry as triumph over Satan, over the demonic forces and over their human agents. In Isaiah, the announcer of good news or the one that brings the good news proclaims the victory of Yahweh Israel's true king over hostile forces. And this is just the beginning. It's the beginning of what Jesus taught and what He began to do and He continues to do today. In Mark 1:2, "As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." As it is written, it says. This is typical Jewish formula for citation of scripture. And the Greek, it's a perfect tense, has been written, implies past action with permanent results and suggesting that the ancient scriptures, it's not just a dead letter, but it's a living force in the present. As it has been written through the instrumentality of Isaiah, and then God speaks in the first person, meaning God inspired Isaiah by the spirit and he speaks to us through the word of God. And Mark affirms that what happened in Jesus followed the plan of salvation laid out by God and the prophecies of scriptures in the first 39 books of the Bible. Jesus came and His Bible were the Hebrew scriptures, the first three fourths of the Bible and this is why Mark quotes it in the very beginning. It was all promised. And He says, "I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way." So John the Baptist comes and John the Baptist is this voice and he's in the wilderness. And the word for wilderness or desert is érimos, is used three times in our texts today. And at the outset, all the action is in the wilderness. You say, why is that important? Because Adam was placed on the garden. The garden of Eden and everything was in bliss and everything was perfect. They walked in the presence of God, but he traded that garden for a wilderness by disobeying God. So the second Adam enters the wilderness to turn it back into a garden. Jesus is also the faithful son of God who unlike Israel, obeyed God completely. Israel disobeyed God. They were faithless and they walked in the wilderness for 40 years. But even there in the wilderness, God met them and He gave them the law and he cared for them and He provided for them. So in a sense, Jesus here is presented as the new Joshua, as the one who's going to lead the new exodus out of the wilderness to bring us into the presence of God. And what's the voice of one crying in the wilderness? What's he proclaiming? He's saying, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Prepare. God is here, the Lord is here. Prepare the way of the Lord." So Jesus is called Lord right from the outset. Who is John? John comes as an Old Testament prophet in the spirit of Elijah. He was a cousin of Jesus so he knew Jesus, he knew his life. In many ways he was a wild man, but the Lord used that. And what was his message? His message is the king is here, the king is coming. Prepare. Prepare. And what's the assumption? Is that we're not ready, that we need to do something to become ready. The king is coming and we need to present ourselves as best we can for the king. And John's not calling for just a coat of paint. No, we've got structural issues. We need an overhaul, a full gut down to the studs. I remember I took a trip to Sochi, Russia in 2013. It was before the Olympics and I wanted to see what they're doing in preparation for the Olympics and I was doing some missions work. And then we're driving up into the mountains of Sochi and I just noticed that everything's beautiful, everything's tremendous. And then I realized I don't see any houses. There are no houses. All I see is a beautiful fence on both sides. And they realized that if we're going to bring people to the Olympics, we have to make everything presentable, but we don't have time to make the houses presentable or the villages presentable so we're just going to cover it all up with a beautiful veneer. Well, John's not calling us to do that. John is saying, "No, no, no. It's not a veneer, not a facade change, not just your behavior must change. No, no, no. We need a regeneration of the heart." And how does that happen? What does he say? He says, "Repent and be baptized." Mark 1:4. "John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." So John here, he comes baptizing, and this is the Greek word vaftízo, which means to dip, plunge, immerse, and can be used of dipping a cup in water, et cetera. So John is called the baptizing one. A lot of people think he's baptist, because John the Baptist, there were no Baptist denominations at that time. And by the way, if we're going to call him any denominations, he's definitely not Baptist. He'd get ex-communicated from most Baptist churches. No, he's probably more Pentecostal than anything, but he comes baptizing and you're like, why is he baptizing? What is baptism? Well, baptism at that time was something that the priest did. They washed themselves in ablutions before taking part in sacrifices. And then the latter practice was when Gentiles wanted to become part of the people of God, what was the practice? How did they purge themselves of uncleanness of their pagan life, so to speak? Well, they were immersed in a ritual bath and that became a requirement for their conversion. So what John here is doing is he's going to Jewish people and he's saying, "You have not lived as the children of God. You have not lived as the people of God. You have not lived a life of love and obedience to God and people in submission of God's holy law. You are not saved through genealogy." And so he's calling them to faith in their own God, faith in their own scriptures and says, if he's saying you have lived as Gentiles, you have lived as pagans now through baptism, you are becoming the children of God and it's all started with the heart first. There's a passage in Zechariah that's used extensively in the New Testament that shares several motifs from our text, water imagery and repentance and confession, forgiveness of sins and even reference to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And what this passage emphasizes is even repentance, even asking God for forgiveness, even asking God for mercy and grace, that's a gift in and of itself that it starts with the spirit of God working in our lives. So Zechariah 12:10, "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly for him as one weeps over a firstborn. On that day, the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land shall mourn each family by itself, the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Levi by himself and their wives by themselves, and the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves and all the families that are left each by itself and their wives by themselves. On that day, there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness." So John's baptism departed slightly from the baptism practice in the day. In the practice of the day, the Gentile convert would baptize themselves. They would go down to the water themselves. But here there's a second party, John is doing the baptizing, which is a symbol that we cannot save ourselves. We need someone from the outside and that's only Jesus Christ. And also John's baptism was only anticipatory of cleansing from sinfulness. It wasn't until the blood of Jesus Christ that we can truly be ransom from our sins. He comes proclaiming and the message is a message of repentance. What is the word repentance? It's literally a change of mind, a turning a direction of life, a returning. Like in the Old Testament, the prophets would come and they would say, repent. Repent. What they're saying is people of God, people of God turn back to God. Turn back to the word of God, implies a total change in spiritual orientation. And when repentance comes, we are forgiven of sins. It literally means ascending away or release, the release from guilt before God. Verse five, "And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem, were going out to him and we're being baptized by him in the river Jordan confessing their sins." And the phrase here for we're going out to him, it's a word that's applied in the Old Testament to the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt under Moses. And what Mark is doing is deliberately invoking Exodus Moses typology. Why? To show us that the new Moses has come, the new Joshua has come, the new exodus is here. In verse six, "Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey." I've always thought that he just did that because he's kind of a nut and this is the way that you attract a lot of attention to start a movement, but actually it's a picture of the primal back to earth reminiscent of the garden of Eden. Remember in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve they sinned and God promised that the day that you sin you will die. That day began their spiritual death, but God pardons them and there's a blood sacrifice. He takes two animals and there's bloodshed and he creates clothing out of skins of the animals. This picture here is as if John is standing outside of the Garden of Eden. It's as if he's standing in that presence of the angel with a flaming sword that blocked the entrance and he's saying this is the way that we get back into the Garden of Eden. This is the way we get back into the promised land, into the presence of God himself. Here the description presents John as an Elijah figure, Elijah in 1 Kings 18, if you remember this is the great battle between Yahweh and Baal. And in the same way Elijah was preaching the same message, 1 Kings 18:21, "Elijah came near to all the people and said, 'how long will you go limping between two different opinions?' If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people did not answer him a word." John's clothing is similar to that of Elijah. Elijah preached a message of repentance and so does John. Elijah was associated with the wilderness, so is John and with the Jordan. And then also Elijah, when he was taken up to heaven before going he gave a double portion of his spirit to his disciple Elisha, doubling his power. So Jesus here similarly is presented as one greater than John, greater than even this great prophet of God and one that supersedes John. In verse seven, "And he preached saying after me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie". He's mightier than I am, mightier in every sense. He's stronger than I am, and also he's more honorable. He's saying, "I'm not even worthy of taking the leather strap that holds his sandal on his foot and unstrapping it." And in rabbinic sources, the untying of the master shoe is the task of the slave, not of the disciple. One rabbi even wrote a pupil does for his teacher all the tasks that a slave does for his master except untying his shoes. So for the rabbis, this is the lowest of the low. The disciples would not do this And John the Baptist, he's saying Jesus is so much more worthy than I am, so much greater in every sense than I am I'm not even worthy of doing the slave like service. And we got to stop here for a minute and we got to meditate on the implications of the meeting behind Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. If John isn't even worthy of doing this, for that's how great Jesus is. Jesus, why would you wash the disciples' feet? You're the king of the universe, why are you stooping down? Why did you take a basin of water? Why are you doing that? And John 13:12-17, "When he had washed their feet and put on His outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, 'Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord and you are right for so I am. If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet for I have given you an example and you also should do just as I've done to you. Truly, truly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.' If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." What kind of king is this? This is the king that came to build a kingdom of hearts. This is a king that came to save us from our sins, to wash us from our uncleanness and stark in contrast to any other king. In Mark 1:8, "I've baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." So Jesus is the anointed one, anointed with the Holy Spirit. That's what makes Him of the Messiah and the spirit endowed Messiah is the spirit endowing Messiah. And in the New Testament there's a linkage of spirit and water. 1 Corinthians 12:12, "For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. Jews and Greeks, slaves and free and all were made to drink of one spirit." Titus 3:4-7, "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. By the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Ezekiel 36, "This was promised, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart. And a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." This is the promise of God that when we come to Him, when we repent of our sins and we beg Him for grace and mercy that He sends us the Holy Spirit. And I wonder, do you have the Holy Spirit? Have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit? Is the power of God, the indwelling power of God within you? And if you're not sure, look to the cross of Jesus Christ, ask for forgiveness of sins and say, Lord God, send me the spirit. Make me a person that is filled with the spirit of God to do the work that the Lord has for us. Second is the king is anointed and we see the baptism of Jesus in verse nine. "In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan and when He came up out of the water immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on Him like a dove and a voice came from heaven. 'You are my beloved son. With you, I am well pleased.'" Here we see again the word immediately, it's Mark's favorite word. The word is used 51 times in the New Testament, and Mark uses it 41 times and what he's showing is that the spirit is at work and he can't be stopped. It says that the sky, the heavens were being torn open, being ripped apart. It's harsh words and not the one for opening of heavens in a visionary context, but it's literally the heavens tore open and all of a sudden we see the presence of God descending on Christ. Isaiah 64 cries out for this day, "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil. To make your name known to your adversaries and that the nations might tremble in your presence." Mark uses this verb to tear apart twice in his gospel. Here he uses it and then he uses it that one time where Jesus is on the cross and He says it's finished, He's completed the work of redemption and then says that the veil in the temple was torn, ripped apart from top to bottom. What Mark is giving us is a glimpse into the very heart of reality, the meaning of life, the essence of the universe. According to scripture, it's the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit they are at the center of everything. And it's more as though invisible curtain right in front of us is pulled back and God reveals His person and His will. Christian life is like this, learning to differentiate between physical reality, which is not all there is and spiritual reality. And by God's grace we can walk by faith and not by sight. And we see the spirit descending upon Christ like a dove. It says why the dove? Well, the dove is an appropriate symbol for the spirit as it can cross the barrier between heaven and earth. And also, it's an echo of Genesis 1 where the spirit soars bird like fluttering over the waters. The trinity created the world. It was God and God's spirit and God's word, and here the Trinity is restoring the world. We see the Father speak, He is the voice, the son who is the word, and the spirit fluttering like a dove. And what does God say? God speaks and He says, "You are my beloved son." It's a near exact quotation of Psalm 2, which is a messianic psalm. Psalm 2:7 says, "I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you." Psalm 2 was interpreted messianically in Judaism and in the Psalm the kingship of the anointed one is congruent with that of God. He says, you are my son. And then he includes the word beloved. And where have we heard this before? This is Genesis 22 where God says to Abraham, "The son, your beloved son whom you've been waiting for, I want you to bring him as a sacrifice to me." That's when God tested Abraham and obviously God stopped the sacrifice of Abraham, but that was typology. That was an example of what God the Father would not stop from doing. God the Father would bring down the sword of God's wrath upon his own son in order to redeem us. You're the beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. This is the good pleasure of God revealed, and the first time that was revealed was His delight in creation where He said is very good. So His life giving conviction that is very good that my son is baptized in the Holy Spirit and He's prepared to do battle against the evil one. At the center of the Godhead is a father delighting in His beloved son. And fathers, we are called to be godly and we are called to delight in our children. And children we're called to be godly and to be a delight to our fathers and mothers. And the whole Christian gospel can be summed up like this, when the living God looks at us at every believing and baptized Christian, He says to us what He says to Jesus here. The gospel promises us an imputation of the righteousness of God. The very second that you repent of your sins, your sin was transferred to Christ on the cross and His righteousness is transferred to you. So in a sense, the moment you're justified, God looks at you and says, no matter how you lived, no matter how many commandments you've broken, it says, you are my dear, dear child, I'm delighted with you. And then it begins the process of sanctification where we grow to become a greater delight to our father so that one day we can hear from God the Father. "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your father." The king is here, the king is anointed, the king is God's son. And what does the king do? Immediately after His anointing, He challenges the opposing king, which is Satan, and this point three, the king declares war. Verse 12, "The spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness and He was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan and He was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to Him. The spirits that drove Him out, ekballei it's the same word that Mark uses to speak of exorcism. It's like a forceful ejection. On the one hand, the Holy Spirit is like a dove gently descending on Christ, but then the Holy Spirit sends Jesus immediately into battle against the enemy. It's the same spirit. And the king here goes on the offensive. Satan means adversary and he's the prince of the fallen angels, the supreme enemy both of God and man. When God created Adam and Eve, He told Adam, "Work and guard the garden, take dominion." And he didn't take dominion of Satan. They obeyed the lies of the evil one and Satan, usurped power, he took dominion of this world. And Jesus here immediately goes to fight the king of this world. And Matthew 4 gives us an explanation of what happened. Jesus in the fasted state for 40 days and Satan comes to Him and tempts Him, Jesus fought Satan with the word of God over and over and over. But what was the temptation? The temptation was Jesus, do not obey the will of the Father perfectly. Jesus join my team. Jesus, you can rule with me. The only thing you have to do is fall down and worship me. And Jesus Christ at that point He understood what Satan is saying. Satan is saying, do not go to the cross. Jesus, you're going to die for these people. Don't die for these. You can rule over them the way I do without dying for them. And he promised Jesus the crown without the cross. And Jesus Christ, the first time he came, He knows that his greatest battle which began here, but his greatest battle will be fought on the cross where Satan through everything he had at the Son of God, but the Son of God conquered Satan's sin and death. 40 days like Elijah, who was also sustained by an angel's provision of food. And it says here He was with the wild animals. And that's generally a sense of close friendly association that the animals were kind to Him, they were nice to Him. And this shows us that Jesus when he came, he came to restore the distortion of the original harmony in the world. And the eschaton, the enmity will be reversed between humanity and the wild animals as promised in Hosea. But Jesus here is presented as the new Adam, that He is the son of man which is a messianic title, but also in a sense Jesus was the son of Adam. Adam was not a son of man, Adam was the son of God and that's made clear in Luke chapter 3 in the genealogy. But Jesus uses this phrase as a messianic title, son of man over and over in Mark 8:31. "He began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days, rise again." Adam was tested by God's adversary, the snake, which is Satan personified and he lost. Adam lived at peace with the wild animals before the fall and he lost that shalom. Adam was raised by God to a preeminent position to be a son of God, but he lost that as well. That's why Jesus when He uses this title that He is the son of man and why that is so significant because in Daniel chapter 7, this was prophesied. "I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and He came to the ancient of days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people as nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." He's the son of man, but He has an everlasting kingdom to show us that he's not just the son of man, He's also the son of God. And this is the only way that this could happen, the only way that we could have redemption is we need to be represented by someone, someone who is like us, someone who is human, but someone who can also bridge the chasm between us and a holy God. So he would have to be a son of God and he would have to be a son of man, and all that came to culmination on the cross where the son of man takes our penalty for sin upon Himself. And the reason why He came back from the dead was because He's truly the son of God. And here at the end says the angels were ministering to Him. It's from the Greek word to serve, to serve on a concrete level as a waiter serves food and drinks. So most likely after his fast of 40 days, angels came and brought him a feast. Fourth is the kingdom has come. Verse 14, "Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." John was arrested by Herod's agents for calling out the sin of Herod to calling him to repentance. So Jesus continues the ministry and He says the time is fulfilled. What He's saying and this is the Greek word kairos, "The old evil age of Satan's dominion is over." It's now fulfilled. The new age of God's rule is about to begin and God's rule enters our lives when? The first moment that we repent of our sin and believe in the good news of Jesus Christ, that the law was fulfilled by Christ and he bore the burden for our law-breaking to extend to us the blessing of His law-abiding. This king came to rule, but first initially He came to rule in our hearts. And this is why He doesn't come here with a crown, but He does go to a cross. And on that cross He allows himself to be wounded, allows himself to be fatally wounded. Why? Because that's what it took to heal us. It took the blood of the Son of God and the son of man. He was tempted by Satan to know our temptations, to give us power to overcome our temptations. He experienced suffering to know our suffering and to give us strength to overcome our suffering. He was rejected, mocked, beaten and crucified. He fully understands our pain, and He is able to help. 1 Peter 2:21-25, "For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, He did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds, you have been healed for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd, an overseer of your souls." Back to Dostoevski, and the idea that if you truly understand the mercy and the grace that God has given you, we are not to use that grace in vain, but we are to follow King Jesus. Dostoevski later in life he wrote this, "When I turn back to look at the past, I think of how much time has been wasted. How much of it lost in misdirected efforts, mistakes and idleness and living the wrong way. And however I treasured life, how much I sinned against my heart and spirit. My heart bleeds now as I think of it. Life is a gift. Life is happiness. Each minute could be an eternity of bliss." And then in his work of fiction, The Idiot, the main character's named Myshkin, and Myshkin talks about an acquaintance who was sentenced to be executed and then pardoned. And one of his friends asked him and he said, how's he doing now? Whatever happened to that friend who told you all his horrors? His punishment was changed, which means he was granted that infinite life. Well, what did he do with so much wealth afterwards? Did he live reckoning up every moment? And Myshkin's response was, "He didn't live that way at all and lost many, many minutes." I pray that the grace of God in your life is not in vain. Let us stop trusting in our own agendas. Let us stop building our own kingdoms. Let us turn from living as if we are our own king. Let's believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ and live for God. Jesus is king, accept His pardon, enter His kingdom, do His will and worship the king. This is how we enter the kingdom, repent and believe in the gospel. It's good news because it's for everybody. Anyone who turns from sin is welcome in and it's good news because you're welcome to live under the kingship of the greatest king ever. And why did Jesus do this? Why did He do all of this? Why did He become God incarnate? Why did He live amongst us? Why did He obey the will of God perfectly in fulfilling the law? Why did He go to the cross? Why? Because He loves us. And when you understand what his love cost us, that gives us power to follow the king. Let us pray. Holy God, we thank you for your holy word, for your holy scriptures, and we thank you Holy Spirit that you're with us. I pray Holy God give us your power to follow you on a daily basis. Give us your power to be agents of kingdom change. Give us your power to seek first above everything else, the kingdom of God. Jesus, we thank you that you came and you went to a cross. And we thank you that now you're seated at the right hand of God and you are wearing a crown. And I pray, let us never forget that vision that Christ is king and let us be a people who would joyfully follow. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston,or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us your holy word, and we thank you for sending us your holy Son. We thank you that your son came as a savior to save us from our sins, but you also came as Lord. And Jesus, we thank you that you went to the cross and you paid the penalty for our law-breaking, our transgressions of the law. And Jesus, you bled. The holy Son of God, you bled on that cross in order to cleanse us, in order to save us, and then also to give us grace. And you came back from the dead as the conquering king and you gave us marching orders to go and make disciples of all nations and to take dominion of this world, to take it back from the usurper, back from Satan, back from the enemy. And I pray, Lord, that you empower us by the Holy Spirit. Baptize us with the Holy Spirit. Send each one of us a special anointing to proclaim your word everywhere we go. To know your word, study your word, meditate upon your word, and to testify to the greatness of our God. Lord Jesus, show us what it means that you are our king. And that when you tell us to follow you, that is a command. Those are marching orders. And wherever in our lives we are not following you, I pray, give us grace. Transform our wills, transform our minds, transform our hearts. Lord Jesus, we pray that you bless the sermon series. We pray that you anoint it and I pray that your holy church will be built up. And I pray those who are far from you will be redeemed and regenerated and transformed from being rebels to being your children. And I pray, Lord, in this season that you send us the gift of evangelism, a passion for evangelists to proclaim the gospel of the king. The king is here. We deserve His wrath, but He came to extend mercy and grace and call us to follow him. I pray that you bless our time in the holy scriptures. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're beginning a sermon series through the Gospel of Mark that we are calling Kingdom Come, the Gospel of Mark and the secret of God's kingdom. And Jesus Christ, when He came, His very first words were the kingdom of God is at hand. So He's established the kingdom, the king is here, and then the Lord Jesus Christ teaches us to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And that prayer is not just a prayer, that's our purpose. Yes, we cry out, Lord, may your kingdom come. But what we're saying is, Lord, give me the power to establish your kingdom. The title of the sermon today is Tremendous News: The King Loves You. And it's tremendous news because we don't deserve that love. It's a shock that He comes as a loving savior. Why? Because we deserve the wrath of God for our law-breaking. And just to give you perspective on this, I take an example from history from Fyodor Dostoevsky. Before he wrote Crime and Punishment, before he wrote The Idiot, before he wrote The Brothers Karamazov, he was actually sentenced to death by a firing squad by Tsar Nicholas I. For what? Listening to stories, criticizing the armed forces, owning an illegal printing press in order to create anti-government propaganda, and contributing to plot against the Tsar. So he was part of a group of rebels. There were 21 members in the circle and Dostoevski is 27 at that time. And they were brought into a public square and they were forced to kneel, kiss a cross, and then undergo a symbolic beheading where swords were broken above their heads. They were tied to pillars in the town square, blindfolded and then they started awaiting their execution. But immediately before they were shot, an envoy from the Tsar arrived with the stay of execution saying, don't shoot. And the men were pardoned by the king from execution and forced to serve in hard labor and a labor camp for four years. And you say, how would that change a man knowing he's about to be executed and all of a sudden there is a stay of execution? Dostoevsky, after the averted execution said, "Today I faced death for three quarters of an hour. I was a hair's breadth away from death, and now I am living again." He wrote his brother after the event, "I'm being reborn in another form." In the same way that the brightest dawn follows the darkest night, the best and the greatest, the most tremendous news always comes right after the deepest realization of the most terrible news. Well, what is the terrible news? That you and I, we have broken the law of God, the holy law of the holy God. This is the ultimate act of insurrection. And God created you with eternal soul. He breathed his spirit into you. We have eternal souls created by an eternal God. So what's the punishment for insurrection against the holy God of the universe? It's banishment from God's kingdom. That's what we deserve. Exile. And how long is that exile? Eternal because God is eternal and so are our souls. We deserve execution. We deserve eternal damnation for rebelling against the holy God. So when the king of kings comes, it's surprising that He doesn't come with execution and eviction notices. When the king comes, the king comes with pardon and amnesty and forgiveness and mercy, but also grace. This is what the gospel is all about, that God is offering to us today, mercy. Mercy is you don't get what you deserve, but He also gives us grace. And grace is we get what we don't deserve. God has mercy on rebels and He gives us grace in adopting us as sons and daughters because of the sacrifice of king Jesus on the cross. Jesus came as a Jewish man, but He's not just the king of the Jews or just the king of Israel. He's the king of everyone and the king of everything. And there's only two kinds of people, children of God or rebels. Soldiers of King Jesus or soldiers of king Satan. And if you turn from your sin and you submit to the king, if you believe in His gospel, something incredible happens. The miracle of the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you are regenerated from within. God gives you a brand new heart with brand new desires and your mind is renewed by the power of God. And God now can look at you as He looks at His son Jesus Christ and say, this is my child in whom I'm well pleased. And grace also is a power source. God gives us grace as energy to become kingdom builders. Jesus Christ said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and everything else shall be added onto you." St. Paul said, "I am what I am by the grace of God, but the grace of God was not in vain in me. It wasn't given to me in vain. Instead," he says, "I worked harder than the rest of them. "And he's talking about the other apostles. So God gives us grace to do what? To follow Him, build His kingdom. And it all starts with the tremendous news that He's willing to forgive us if we repent. And this news does change us, it rivets us and it changes your whole perspective on reality. Would you please look at the text with me today? We're in Mark 1:1-15, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God as it is written in Isaiah the prophet. Behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight." John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now, John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached saying, 'After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie. I've baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.' In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my beloved son with you, I'm well pleased.' The spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan and he was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him. Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, 'The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.'" This is the reading of God's holy and inert, infallible, authoritative word, may it write these truths upon our hearts. Four points to frame up our time. First, the king has come. Second, the king is anointed. Third, the king declares war. And fourth, the kingdom has come. First, the king has come. Mark 1:1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God written by Mark, who was probably an associate of Peter and Peter at that time was serving in Rome when this gospel was written. So this gospel is written to city dwellers and it's written in such a way where busy people can understand the gospel, understand who is Jesus, understand His person and His work. We see that Mark emphasizes action over teaching, it's very vivid. One of his favorite words is the word immediately. And what he's doing, he's writing to busy people. He's trying to get to the point as quickly as possible. And if you're new to the city, what you recognize is after a while here you realize you know who's from Boston because they walk fast and they talk fast. Fast walkers, fast talkers. And that's kind how I preach. I talk really fast, people tell me they can't 2X me on our podcasts or et cetera, but I want to get to the point as quickly as possible. And the point is, Jesus Christ, He's the point of everything. And here we see the freshness of discovery of who Jesus is. That's what Mark is trying to do. Over 150 times, he uses the historic present tense, putting past events in the present tense. Why? To increase the vividness. That what Jesus did, He's continuing to do today in and through the church as empowered by the Holy Spirit. It begins with the word the beginning. That's the very first word, and it's alluding to Genesis 1:1, that in the beginning God created everything and God created man and it was all beautiful. It was all wonderful, but we rebelled against God and Satan usurped dominion from Adam and Jesus Christ has come as a new Adam, as a new creation, as a new beginning for human beings. His name is Jesus in the English. In the Greek, it's Yesus, and Yesus is a transliteration of the Jewish word, Joshua. So Jesus is named after Joshua. In the Hebrew, His name, what it means is savior or literally Yahweh is salvation. So even in the name, what we see is that God is saying what Moses couldn't do, Joshua did. Moses could not take the promised land, could not bring the people of God into the promised land. Joshua did that. What Moses couldn't do, Jesus is going to do. Moses gave the law, but he couldn't transform hearts to obey God willingly. God can force His kingdom upon us and one day He will come with a flaming sword and He will judge. But the first time Jesus Christ comes, He doesn't come with a sword of power or physical sword. He comes with the sword of the spirit, wielding the word of God so people are transformed from the inside out. Moses gave the law, Jesus gives grace, which leads to heartfelt obedience, which empowers us to fulfill the law out of love for God and neighbor. Jesus Christ, a lot of people think that's His last name. That's not His last name. It wasn't Mary and Joseph Christ. This is a title, a kristos. It's from the Hebrew marcia or an anointed one. He's anointed to do what? He's anointed to be a royal figure. He's anointed to be king. So Jesus Christ actually just means is king. Sometimes they drive by churches and they're named Christ is king. I'm like, that means king is king. It's Jesus is king. That's the point, that He's come in order to establish the kingdom of God. He's the son of God. Son begotten of the Father. The Son of God is God as much as the Father is God, but the Son submits to the father's will. So we see right in the center of the faith, the faith is patriarchal with the Father up top and hierarchal, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. When Jesus took on flesh, He was male. Jesus was a man, a Jewish man who lived under the law. And Jesus is the Son of God and the son of man, that's His messianic title. And the Holy Spirit is not an it. It's not just a force. The Holy Spirit is a person, the Holy Spirit is a he. And just for clarity's purposes, God's pronouns are He/Him. And I say that because confusion has come from theological schools. I remember taking classes at BU School of Theology and I realized that's not going to go well because the very first prayer I heard was a prayer to mother God. Well, that is not true. God is father. The gospel, the word gospel means good news or literally an announcement of something good associated with a military victory. It's good news of victory from the battlefield. And the nuance of military victory is extremely important for Mark who presents Jesus' ministry as triumph over Satan, over the demonic forces and over their human agents. In Isaiah, the announcer of good news or the one that brings the good news proclaims the victory of Yahweh Israel's true king over hostile forces. And this is just the beginning. It's the beginning of what Jesus taught and what He began to do and He continues to do today. In Mark 1:2, "As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." As it is written, it says. This is typical Jewish formula for citation of scripture. And the Greek, it's a perfect tense, has been written, implies past action with permanent results and suggesting that the ancient scriptures, it's not just a dead letter, but it's a living force in the present. As it has been written through the instrumentality of Isaiah, and then God speaks in the first person, meaning God inspired Isaiah by the spirit and he speaks to us through the word of God. And Mark affirms that what happened in Jesus followed the plan of salvation laid out by God and the prophecies of scriptures in the first 39 books of the Bible. Jesus came and His Bible were the Hebrew scriptures, the first three fourths of the Bible and this is why Mark quotes it in the very beginning. It was all promised. And He says, "I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way." So John the Baptist comes and John the Baptist is this voice and he's in the wilderness. And the word for wilderness or desert is érimos, is used three times in our texts today. And at the outset, all the action is in the wilderness. You say, why is that important? Because Adam was placed on the garden. The garden of Eden and everything was in bliss and everything was perfect. They walked in the presence of God, but he traded that garden for a wilderness by disobeying God. So the second Adam enters the wilderness to turn it back into a garden. Jesus is also the faithful son of God who unlike Israel, obeyed God completely. Israel disobeyed God. They were faithless and they walked in the wilderness for 40 years. But even there in the wilderness, God met them and He gave them the law and he cared for them and He provided for them. So in a sense, Jesus here is presented as the new Joshua, as the one who's going to lead the new exodus out of the wilderness to bring us into the presence of God. And what's the voice of one crying in the wilderness? What's he proclaiming? He's saying, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Prepare. God is here, the Lord is here. Prepare the way of the Lord." So Jesus is called Lord right from the outset. Who is John? John comes as an Old Testament prophet in the spirit of Elijah. He was a cousin of Jesus so he knew Jesus, he knew his life. In many ways he was a wild man, but the Lord used that. And what was his message? His message is the king is here, the king is coming. Prepare. Prepare. And what's the assumption? Is that we're not ready, that we need to do something to become ready. The king is coming and we need to present ourselves as best we can for the king. And John's not calling for just a coat of paint. No, we've got structural issues. We need an overhaul, a full gut down to the studs. I remember I took a trip to Sochi, Russia in 2013. It was before the Olympics and I wanted to see what they're doing in preparation for the Olympics and I was doing some missions work. And then we're driving up into the mountains of Sochi and I just noticed that everything's beautiful, everything's tremendous. And then I realized I don't see any houses. There are no houses. All I see is a beautiful fence on both sides. And they realized that if we're going to bring people to the Olympics, we have to make everything presentable, but we don't have time to make the houses presentable or the villages presentable so we're just going to cover it all up with a beautiful veneer. Well, John's not calling us to do that. John is saying, "No, no, no. It's not a veneer, not a facade change, not just your behavior must change. No, no, no. We need a regeneration of the heart." And how does that happen? What does he say? He says, "Repent and be baptized." Mark 1:4. "John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." So John here, he comes baptizing, and this is the Greek word vaftízo, which means to dip, plunge, immerse, and can be used of dipping a cup in water, et cetera. So John is called the baptizing one. A lot of people think he's baptist, because John the Baptist, there were no Baptist denominations at that time. And by the way, if we're going to call him any denominations, he's definitely not Baptist. He'd get ex-communicated from most Baptist churches. No, he's probably more Pentecostal than anything, but he comes baptizing and you're like, why is he baptizing? What is baptism? Well, baptism at that time was something that the priest did. They washed themselves in ablutions before taking part in sacrifices. And then the latter practice was when Gentiles wanted to become part of the people of God, what was the practice? How did they purge themselves of uncleanness of their pagan life, so to speak? Well, they were immersed in a ritual bath and that became a requirement for their conversion. So what John here is doing is he's going to Jewish people and he's saying, "You have not lived as the children of God. You have not lived as the people of God. You have not lived a life of love and obedience to God and people in submission of God's holy law. You are not saved through genealogy." And so he's calling them to faith in their own God, faith in their own scriptures and says, if he's saying you have lived as Gentiles, you have lived as pagans now through baptism, you are becoming the children of God and it's all started with the heart first. There's a passage in Zechariah that's used extensively in the New Testament that shares several motifs from our text, water imagery and repentance and confession, forgiveness of sins and even reference to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And what this passage emphasizes is even repentance, even asking God for forgiveness, even asking God for mercy and grace, that's a gift in and of itself that it starts with the spirit of God working in our lives. So Zechariah 12:10, "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly for him as one weeps over a firstborn. On that day, the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land shall mourn each family by itself, the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Levi by himself and their wives by themselves, and the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves and all the families that are left each by itself and their wives by themselves. On that day, there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness." So John's baptism departed slightly from the baptism practice in the day. In the practice of the day, the Gentile convert would baptize themselves. They would go down to the water themselves. But here there's a second party, John is doing the baptizing, which is a symbol that we cannot save ourselves. We need someone from the outside and that's only Jesus Christ. And also John's baptism was only anticipatory of cleansing from sinfulness. It wasn't until the blood of Jesus Christ that we can truly be ransom from our sins. He comes proclaiming and the message is a message of repentance. What is the word repentance? It's literally a change of mind, a turning a direction of life, a returning. Like in the Old Testament, the prophets would come and they would say, repent. Repent. What they're saying is people of God, people of God turn back to God. Turn back to the word of God, implies a total change in spiritual orientation. And when repentance comes, we are forgiven of sins. It literally means ascending away or release, the release from guilt before God. Verse five, "And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem, were going out to him and we're being baptized by him in the river Jordan confessing their sins." And the phrase here for we're going out to him, it's a word that's applied in the Old Testament to the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt under Moses. And what Mark is doing is deliberately invoking Exodus Moses typology. Why? To show us that the new Moses has come, the new Joshua has come, the new exodus is here. In verse six, "Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey." I've always thought that he just did that because he's kind of a nut and this is the way that you attract a lot of attention to start a movement, but actually it's a picture of the primal back to earth reminiscent of the garden of Eden. Remember in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve they sinned and God promised that the day that you sin you will die. That day began their spiritual death, but God pardons them and there's a blood sacrifice. He takes two animals and there's bloodshed and he creates clothing out of skins of the animals. This picture here is as if John is standing outside of the Garden of Eden. It's as if he's standing in that presence of the angel with a flaming sword that blocked the entrance and he's saying this is the way that we get back into the Garden of Eden. This is the way we get back into the promised land, into the presence of God himself. Here the description presents John as an Elijah figure, Elijah in 1 Kings 18, if you remember this is the great battle between Yahweh and Baal. And in the same way Elijah was preaching the same message, 1 Kings 18:21, "Elijah came near to all the people and said, 'how long will you go limping between two different opinions?' If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people did not answer him a word." John's clothing is similar to that of Elijah. Elijah preached a message of repentance and so does John. Elijah was associated with the wilderness, so is John and with the Jordan. And then also Elijah, when he was taken up to heaven before going he gave a double portion of his spirit to his disciple Elisha, doubling his power. So Jesus here similarly is presented as one greater than John, greater than even this great prophet of God and one that supersedes John. In verse seven, "And he preached saying after me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie". He's mightier than I am, mightier in every sense. He's stronger than I am, and also he's more honorable. He's saying, "I'm not even worthy of taking the leather strap that holds his sandal on his foot and unstrapping it." And in rabbinic sources, the untying of the master shoe is the task of the slave, not of the disciple. One rabbi even wrote a pupil does for his teacher all the tasks that a slave does for his master except untying his shoes. So for the rabbis, this is the lowest of the low. The disciples would not do this And John the Baptist, he's saying Jesus is so much more worthy than I am, so much greater in every sense than I am I'm not even worthy of doing the slave like service. And we got to stop here for a minute and we got to meditate on the implications of the meeting behind Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. If John isn't even worthy of doing this, for that's how great Jesus is. Jesus, why would you wash the disciples' feet? You're the king of the universe, why are you stooping down? Why did you take a basin of water? Why are you doing that? And John 13:12-17, "When he had washed their feet and put on His outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, 'Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord and you are right for so I am. If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet for I have given you an example and you also should do just as I've done to you. Truly, truly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.' If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." What kind of king is this? This is the king that came to build a kingdom of hearts. This is a king that came to save us from our sins, to wash us from our uncleanness and stark in contrast to any other king. In Mark 1:8, "I've baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." So Jesus is the anointed one, anointed with the Holy Spirit. That's what makes Him of the Messiah and the spirit endowed Messiah is the spirit endowing Messiah. And in the New Testament there's a linkage of spirit and water. 1 Corinthians 12:12, "For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. Jews and Greeks, slaves and free and all were made to drink of one spirit." Titus 3:4-7, "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. By the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Ezekiel 36, "This was promised, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart. And a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." This is the promise of God that when we come to Him, when we repent of our sins and we beg Him for grace and mercy that He sends us the Holy Spirit. And I wonder, do you have the Holy Spirit? Have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit? Is the power of God, the indwelling power of God within you? And if you're not sure, look to the cross of Jesus Christ, ask for forgiveness of sins and say, Lord God, send me the spirit. Make me a person that is filled with the spirit of God to do the work that the Lord has for us. Second is the king is anointed and we see the baptism of Jesus in verse nine. "In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan and when He came up out of the water immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on Him like a dove and a voice came from heaven. 'You are my beloved son. With you, I am well pleased.'" Here we see again the word immediately, it's Mark's favorite word. The word is used 51 times in the New Testament, and Mark uses it 41 times and what he's showing is that the spirit is at work and he can't be stopped. It says that the sky, the heavens were being torn open, being ripped apart. It's harsh words and not the one for opening of heavens in a visionary context, but it's literally the heavens tore open and all of a sudden we see the presence of God descending on Christ. Isaiah 64 cries out for this day, "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil. To make your name known to your adversaries and that the nations might tremble in your presence." Mark uses this verb to tear apart twice in his gospel. Here he uses it and then he uses it that one time where Jesus is on the cross and He says it's finished, He's completed the work of redemption and then says that the veil in the temple was torn, ripped apart from top to bottom. What Mark is giving us is a glimpse into the very heart of reality, the meaning of life, the essence of the universe. According to scripture, it's the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit they are at the center of everything. And it's more as though invisible curtain right in front of us is pulled back and God reveals His person and His will. Christian life is like this, learning to differentiate between physical reality, which is not all there is and spiritual reality. And by God's grace we can walk by faith and not by sight. And we see the spirit descending upon Christ like a dove. It says why the dove? Well, the dove is an appropriate symbol for the spirit as it can cross the barrier between heaven and earth. And also, it's an echo of Genesis 1 where the spirit soars bird like fluttering over the waters. The trinity created the world. It was God and God's spirit and God's word, and here the Trinity is restoring the world. We see the Father speak, He is the voice, the son who is the word, and the spirit fluttering like a dove. And what does God say? God speaks and He says, "You are my beloved son." It's a near exact quotation of Psalm 2, which is a messianic psalm. Psalm 2:7 says, "I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you." Psalm 2 was interpreted messianically in Judaism and in the Psalm the kingship of the anointed one is congruent with that of God. He says, you are my son. And then he includes the word beloved. And where have we heard this before? This is Genesis 22 where God says to Abraham, "The son, your beloved son whom you've been waiting for, I want you to bring him as a sacrifice to me." That's when God tested Abraham and obviously God stopped the sacrifice of Abraham, but that was typology. That was an example of what God the Father would not stop from doing. God the Father would bring down the sword of God's wrath upon his own son in order to redeem us. You're the beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. This is the good pleasure of God revealed, and the first time that was revealed was His delight in creation where He said is very good. So His life giving conviction that is very good that my son is baptized in the Holy Spirit and He's prepared to do battle against the evil one. At the center of the Godhead is a father delighting in His beloved son. And fathers, we are called to be godly and we are called to delight in our children. And children we're called to be godly and to be a delight to our fathers and mothers. And the whole Christian gospel can be summed up like this, when the living God looks at us at every believing and baptized Christian, He says to us what He says to Jesus here. The gospel promises us an imputation of the righteousness of God. The very second that you repent of your sins, your sin was transferred to Christ on the cross and His righteousness is transferred to you. So in a sense, the moment you're justified, God looks at you and says, no matter how you lived, no matter how many commandments you've broken, it says, you are my dear, dear child, I'm delighted with you. And then it begins the process of sanctification where we grow to become a greater delight to our father so that one day we can hear from God the Father. "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your father." The king is here, the king is anointed, the king is God's son. And what does the king do? Immediately after His anointing, He challenges the opposing king, which is Satan, and this point three, the king declares war. Verse 12, "The spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness and He was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan and He was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to Him. The spirits that drove Him out, ekballei it's the same word that Mark uses to speak of exorcism. It's like a forceful ejection. On the one hand, the Holy Spirit is like a dove gently descending on Christ, but then the Holy Spirit sends Jesus immediately into battle against the enemy. It's the same spirit. And the king here goes on the offensive. Satan means adversary and he's the prince of the fallen angels, the supreme enemy both of God and man. When God created Adam and Eve, He told Adam, "Work and guard the garden, take dominion." And he didn't take dominion of Satan. They obeyed the lies of the evil one and Satan, usurped power, he took dominion of this world. And Jesus here immediately goes to fight the king of this world. And Matthew 4 gives us an explanation of what happened. Jesus in the fasted state for 40 days and Satan comes to Him and tempts Him, Jesus fought Satan with the word of God over and over and over. But what was the temptation? The temptation was Jesus, do not obey the will of the Father perfectly. Jesus join my team. Jesus, you can rule with me. The only thing you have to do is fall down and worship me. And Jesus Christ at that point He understood what Satan is saying. Satan is saying, do not go to the cross. Jesus, you're going to die for these people. Don't die for these. You can rule over them the way I do without dying for them. And he promised Jesus the crown without the cross. And Jesus Christ, the first time he came, He knows that his greatest battle which began here, but his greatest battle will be fought on the cross where Satan through everything he had at the Son of God, but the Son of God conquered Satan's sin and death. 40 days like Elijah, who was also sustained by an angel's provision of food. And it says here He was with the wild animals. And that's generally a sense of close friendly association that the animals were kind to Him, they were nice to Him. And this shows us that Jesus when he came, he came to restore the distortion of the original harmony in the world. And the eschaton, the enmity will be reversed between humanity and the wild animals as promised in Hosea. But Jesus here is presented as the new Adam, that He is the son of man which is a messianic title, but also in a sense Jesus was the son of Adam. Adam was not a son of man, Adam was the son of God and that's made clear in Luke chapter 3 in the genealogy. But Jesus uses this phrase as a messianic title, son of man over and over in Mark 8:31. "He began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days, rise again." Adam was tested by God's adversary, the snake, which is Satan personified and he lost. Adam lived at peace with the wild animals before the fall and he lost that shalom. Adam was raised by God to a preeminent position to be a son of God, but he lost that as well. That's why Jesus when He uses this title that He is the son of man and why that is so significant because in Daniel chapter 7, this was prophesied. "I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and He came to the ancient of days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people as nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." He's the son of man, but He has an everlasting kingdom to show us that he's not just the son of man, He's also the son of God. And this is the only way that this could happen, the only way that we could have redemption is we need to be represented by someone, someone who is like us, someone who is human, but someone who can also bridge the chasm between us and a holy God. So he would have to be a son of God and he would have to be a son of man, and all that came to culmination on the cross where the son of man takes our penalty for sin upon Himself. And the reason why He came back from the dead was because He's truly the son of God. And here at the end says the angels were ministering to Him. It's from the Greek word to serve, to serve on a concrete level as a waiter serves food and drinks. So most likely after his fast of 40 days, angels came and brought him a feast. Fourth is the kingdom has come. Verse 14, "Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." John was arrested by Herod's agents for calling out the sin of Herod to calling him to repentance. So Jesus continues the ministry and He says the time is fulfilled. What He's saying and this is the Greek word kairos, "The old evil age of Satan's dominion is over." It's now fulfilled. The new age of God's rule is about to begin and God's rule enters our lives when? The first moment that we repent of our sin and believe in the good news of Jesus Christ, that the law was fulfilled by Christ and he bore the burden for our law-breaking to extend to us the blessing of His law-abiding. This king came to rule, but first initially He came to rule in our hearts. And this is why He doesn't come here with a crown, but He does go to a cross. And on that cross He allows himself to be wounded, allows himself to be fatally wounded. Why? Because that's what it took to heal us. It took the blood of the Son of God and the son of man. He was tempted by Satan to know our temptations, to give us power to overcome our temptations. He experienced suffering to know our suffering and to give us strength to overcome our suffering. He was rejected, mocked, beaten and crucified. He fully understands our pain, and He is able to help. 1 Peter 2:21-25, "For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, He did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds, you have been healed for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd, an overseer of your souls." Back to Dostoevski, and the idea that if you truly understand the mercy and the grace that God has given you, we are not to use that grace in vain, but we are to follow King Jesus. Dostoevski later in life he wrote this, "When I turn back to look at the past, I think of how much time has been wasted. How much of it lost in misdirected efforts, mistakes and idleness and living the wrong way. And however I treasured life, how much I sinned against my heart and spirit. My heart bleeds now as I think of it. Life is a gift. Life is happiness. Each minute could be an eternity of bliss." And then in his work of fiction, The Idiot, the main character's named Myshkin, and Myshkin talks about an acquaintance who was sentenced to be executed and then pardoned. And one of his friends asked him and he said, how's he doing now? Whatever happened to that friend who told you all his horrors? His punishment was changed, which means he was granted that infinite life. Well, what did he do with so much wealth afterwards? Did he live reckoning up every moment? And Myshkin's response was, "He didn't live that way at all and lost many, many minutes." I pray that the grace of God in your life is not in vain. Let us stop trusting in our own agendas. Let us stop building our own kingdoms. Let us turn from living as if we are our own king. Let's believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ and live for God. Jesus is king, accept His pardon, enter His kingdom, do His will and worship the king. This is how we enter the kingdom, repent and believe in the gospel. It's good news because it's for everybody. Anyone who turns from sin is welcome in and it's good news because you're welcome to live under the kingship of the greatest king ever. And why did Jesus do this? Why did He do all of this? Why did He become God incarnate? Why did He live amongst us? Why did He obey the will of God perfectly in fulfilling the law? Why did He go to the cross? Why? Because He loves us. And when you understand what his love cost us, that gives us power to follow the king. Let us pray. Holy God, we thank you for your holy word, for your holy scriptures, and we thank you Holy Spirit that you're with us. I pray Holy God give us your power to follow you on a daily basis. Give us your power to be agents of kingdom change. Give us your power to seek first above everything else, the kingdom of God. Jesus, we thank you that you came and you went to a cross. And we thank you that now you're seated at the right hand of God and you are wearing a crown. And I pray, let us never forget that vision that Christ is king and let us be a people who would joyfully follow. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Ads and commercials for diet supplements and exercise equipment sometimes include “before” and “after” pictures of those who use the product. A famous ad from the 1920s for the training regimen developed by bodybuilder Charles Atlas boasted that it had enabled him to go from being a 97-pound weakling to “the world’s most perfectly developed person.” Paul paints an even more striking before-and-after picture of his readers in Ephesians 2:1–13. The “before” describes sinners as spiritually dead, but that does not mean they aren’t active. They follow “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (v. 2). This is Satan, who led humanity into sin. Satan is not a metaphor but an evil spiritual being with other evil spirits who serve him. Satan is a fallen angel (Luke 10:18). He was the first to tempt humanity, but he is not the only source of temptation we face. Because Adam sinned, we are both guilty of and inclined to sin. Everyone who is tempted is “dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed” (James 1:14). This sin problem affects “all of us” because we are sinners “by nature” who are “deserving of wrath” (v. 3). Yet Paul’s main point is not the sin of his readers but the radical change outlined in verses 4–6. This change was not brought about by personal willpower or a training regimen of spiritual exercises, but by God who was motivated by love and mercy. We are changed from spiritual death to life in Christ (v. 5). The fact that those who experienced this change were dead in sin makes it clear that the change did not come through their own efforts but had its origin in the grace of God. This is God’s handiwork. >> God’s gracious work produced a new community that joined Gentiles and Jewish believers in Christ. Both are united by “the blood of Christ” to form the new community we know as the church.

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE BONUS EPISODE!This month we give you a bonus episode about emo!Why? Because Adam and I don't know a lot about emo, and there are some pretty major parallels to the story of ska and the story of emo. Besides, a lot of the new wave of ska bands were influenced by emo, so it makes A LOT of sense for us all do do our homework on emo! To do that, we brought on an emo expert! Andrew Sacher, editor at Brooklyn Vegan! This is a must-listen episode!To listen to this episode in its entirety, sign up for the IDOS Patreon!Support the show

We as humans sometimes rely too heavily on others, and our expectations of them continue to rise. Because no one is perfect, they fall short of our expectations and cause us pain. Is it bad to rely on others? We are all born sinners who require assistance to survive. Do you know who you can trust? Pastor Mark tells you in today's message, how you can achieve success in your life and break free from the grip of sin by relying on Jesus. Because Adam and Eve failed to rely on God, they were forced to bear the consequences. Sin entered your life as a result of them. But you can be free of sin by relying on Jesus who loves you.

In this season of the podcast, we're talkin all about taboos. The people, places, things, and beliefs that never really quite fit into the narrow scope of evangelicalism. You know, all the things you couldn't/shouldn't/wouldn't talk about because you were a Good Christian Girl™. Things like BODIES. Thanks to our ole friend Purity Culture, talking about bodies was weird. (You could even say it was TABOO!) And, if you were unlucky enough to be born with ample breasts - aka “Heavenly Hills” - well, then you were just shit outta luck.But what about larger bodies? How did the evangelical church deal with fatness? (Spoiler alert: NOT GREAT!) To get into this triggering topic, we invited fat activist and body image coach, Amanda Martínez Beck, to chat with us about faith and fatness and everything in between.Amanda brings us back to the very beginning, with the fall of humankind in the Garden of Eden. Because Adam and Eve ate something they shouldn't. They didn't have self control, they ate, and then they were ashamed about their naked bodies. And thus kicked off lifetimes of guilt and shame about our bodies! (Fun times!)We tackle all sorts of fun topics in this episode. The famed “your body is a temple” scripture that is so often quoted at folks to guilt them into being thin. We get into fatphobia and its origins in white supremacy. The definitions of fat activist vs fat liberationist. Paul's vision of eating clean vs unclean animals. And Amanda's belief that the true purpose of our bodies is for relationship.We cannot say enough good things about Amanda or this conversation. Go follow her on the interwebs, go buy her book, and support her important work in any way you can.Follow Amanda TikTok, Twitter, and InstagramLink to buy More of You: A Fat Girl's Field Guide to the Modern WorldSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/holy-ghosting/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The first two chapters of Genesis clearly show us what God's will is for mankind.  God never intended for his children to suffer in any way whatsoever!  He just didn't create us for that!  You might say, why is there so much suffering, pain, sickness, disease, and torment?  If these things are not God's will, then why do they exist.  All of these things are a result of death. Not is not just when our bodies quit breathing. Death is the spiritual force of darkness. Suffering, pain, sickness, disease, torment and anything related to things like these all stem from and have their roots in death.  Death came upon all mankind because of one man...that is...Adam.  Because Adam disobeyed God, he literally broke everything!  But...the story doesn't end with the first Adam!  There is what the Bible calls...the LAST Adam and that is Jesus.  Adam may have broken it...but Jesus fixed it!  That is what Jesus came to do!  Through him we have been redeemed Adam's curse of sin and death!   One man broke it...but hallelujah...one man fixed it!   As God's children, he wants us to walk free from death and the good news is that we can!

Some people will tell you that SEO is dead, but Adam McChesney is proof that it's still alive and kicking. Born and raised in St Louis, MO, Adam spent 5 years in medical device sales after getting out of college. With that job he was able to travel the country, make great money, and gain a lot of sales experience. After a promotion that had him making $200k/year, Adam started looking at the people ahead of him. What he found was that they weren't making much more than him, but were working much longer hours, and were super stressed. He realized that wasn't the path for him, and he started looking into the next Ebay or Amazon drop shipping. What he found instead was an opportunity in digital real estate, but with digital marketing. He learned how to build websites, rent them out, do paid ads, and ultimately sell them off.    In 2018 he ended up starting an auto glass company. Not knowing the first thing about that industry, he was still securing a top rank on Google just by utilizing SEO. Adam got married at the end of 2019 and knew he wanted to design his life around when he wanted to work. He decided 2020 would be his year to dive into digital marketing full time. Then, the pandemic hit. No longer traveling for work, Adam had a lot of time to work on building more websites. In 6 weeks time, he went from making nothing with digital marketing to $10k in recurring revenue. So, in July 2020 he put his 2 weeks notice in and went out on his own. A couple months in, Adam realized he didn't know as much as he thought he did, so he started investing in mastermind courses and coaching.  The investment paid off with his business taking off at the end of 2020. Because Adam knew how to do everything, he tried to do it all himself. Quickly realizing that wasn't sustainable, Adam started bringing other people in.    Adam's company works with a lot of local businesses that have several locations and want to take their business to the next level. Knowing that each platform has its own algorithm for SEO, Adam utilizes two components, Google business listing, and website. There are a lot of ways to get SEO, and there are different things on the back end of a website that Google is looking at. Two main things are the number of words on each page, and quality of content being written. Each page also has a tag and description that only Google and SEO providers will see. Adam says that any image or video on your site should also have keywords added to them. Every time you add a new piece of content to your website, it will start to come up for more keywords. While SEO is great, it doesn't happen overnight, so about 25-30% of Adam's clients will still utilize paid ads in the meantime. He says that one reason they're so successful is because everything they're doing for their clients, they're also doing for their own businesses. So many people will try to sell stuff they've never even done for themselves.   Adam attributes his strong work ethic to his father who worked as a lawyer. He started out working for a large firm, but started his own firm when Adam was in 8th grade. Around this time, Adam started working at his grandparents bakery. Just before Adam went off to college, his parents ended up getting a divorce, but he says they still both remained very supportive and got along great. One thing Adam did learn from his father working so much, was that he didn't want to become that guy in corporate America that thinks the only way to make more money is by putting in more hours.    Adam has a strong plan for the next 5 years, but he admits he wasn't always good at planning for the future. With employees to think about now, Adam needs to think about how to get the agency to a place where it can provide for the entire team. Having grown from zero to 7-figures in 18 months, they're on pace to do $1.5million+ this year. Thinking of the big picture, Adam reminds himself that bigger is not better, better is better. One thing he has learned as an entrepreneur is that shiny object syndrome is real. A mentor taught him that your main thing should be fully automated to run without you for a month+ before you should go start something else.    On a personal level, Adam says he had an aha moment a month ago about becoming the person he wants to be. He's now 3 weeks sober and ready to step into the next season and level of his life. He says that season will most likely include becoming a father. Through his journey, Adam has learned the importance of two things, the importance of core values, and why you need processes and systems. He says with core values you'll make better decisions and attract the right people and clients. With processes and systems, you can remove yourself from the business so you have more than just a job.    What You'll Learn: How SEO works and why you need it.  The difference between having a job and having a business.  What being involved in sports can do for your character. How to overcome shiny object syndrome.    Favorite Quote: “Google is a beast, and you want to keep feeding the beast.” -Adam McChesney   Connect With Adam: Website   How to Get Involved: Get podcasting help here.   For more on how to grow your business, check out this episode.  If you enjoyed this episode, head over and visit us on Apple Podcasts - leave a review and let us know what you thought! Your feedback keeps us going. Thanks for helping us spread the word!

Wondering where to go when you need to go and you're out and about in the city? Well then, we're glad to see you today. Because Adam and Steve are dropping their top 5 Milwaukee bathroom locations based on privacy, cleanliness, ambiance, and more. Listen to find out who makes the list. Also, they share a bit more on what they love at each of these places. Oh, and let the guys know if they missed one or two ha ha!

In Genesis 2:18 God said, "It is not good for man to be alone, I will make him a helpmeet (helper)." Read or listen to this chapter from Your Marriage God's Way to learn why it's not good for man to be alone, and what it means for a wife to be a helpmeet. Table of contentsFIVE REASONS IT IS NOT GOOD FOR MAN TO BE ALONEFirst, it is not good for man to be alone, because he would not have the help he needs.Second, it is not good for man to be alone, because he would not be able to fulfill God's second command.Third, it is not good for man to be alone, because he would not be able to enjoy certain desires.Fourth, it is not good for man to be alone, because he would not have the benefit of a woman's positive influence.Fifth, it is not good for man to be alone, because he would not experience the sanctifying effects of marriage itself.A HELPMEET (HELPER) COMPARABLE TO HIMGod as Our EzerThe Holy Spirit as Our HelperThe Commendable Nature of HelpingHELP SUITED TO THE HUSBANDHELPING IS A TWO-WAY STREETWHAT DOES A WIFE'S HELP LOOK LIKE PRACTICALLY?Important ConsiderationsDon't Despise the Day of Small ThingsTHE VIRTUOUS WIFE OF PROVERBS 31THREE THREATS TO A WIFE AS A HELPMEETThreat One: Pursuit of WealthThreat Two: Idleness Threat Three: Misplaced Self-Worth PRAISE FOR SUCH A HELPMEET For six straight days, God created dry land, sun, moon, stars, sea creatures, birds, and animals. At the end of each day God saw what He created and saw that it was good (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). But after God created Adam, for the first time in the creation account He saw something that was not good—man being alone: “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helpmeet comparable to him” (Genesis 2:18). God's statement is even more interesting when we consider that Adam and Eve had not yet disobeyed Him. We do not typically think of anything being “not good” until after the fall. Because Adam had not sinned yet, it was not Adam himself who was not good. Neither was it anything he had or had not done that was not good. It was simply Adam being alone that was not good. FIVE REASONS IT IS NOT GOOD FOR MAN TO BE ALONE Although there are some exceptions, such as those Paul discussed in 1 Corinthians 7, let's understand why it was not—and still is not—good for man to be alone. First, it is not good for man to be alone, because he would not have the help he needs. Leading and providing for a family is a lot of work. There is a significant load on men's shoulders, and a wife can help lighten it. This is why the apostle Paul states, “Nor was man created for woman, but woman for the man” (1 Corinthians 11:9). A lot of discouragement can come a man's way, and if he does not receive encouragement from his wife, where will he get it? Yes, there are other resources such as Scripture and relying on the Lord, but if those were all God wanted men to have, He would not have said, “I will make him a helpmeet.” Second, it is not good for man to be alone, because he would not be able to fulfill God's second command. “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). Children are one of God's greatest blessings. Third, it is not good for man to be alone, because he would not be able to enjoy certain desires. God has given men and women healthy sexual desires to enjoy within marriage (Hebrews 13:4). Some of these desires go beyond physical intimacy. God creates people as relational beings with emotional, mental, and social longings that are best fulfilled in marriage. People can serve as great friends, but they do not take the place of a spouse. For those who choose to get married, God wants them to have a steadfast companion all through life, and part of the reason He created the marriage relationship is to make that possible. Fourth, it is not good for man to be alone, because he would not have the benefit of a woman's positive influence.

“But I love them!” . Is what we tell ourselves and anyone else that will listen when we are trying to move back a relationship that's expired but justttt can't quite seem to get over them. . What's the cost of having this deathgrip on the relationship? . Why do we do it anyway? . And HOW do we actually start to get over them? . Get ready . Because Adam and I answer ALL of these questions, and more, in this week's episode

Adam Pearce is the co-founder and CEO of Blend Commerce, the eCommerce Customer Experience Agency. Adam and his team have worked with over 200 Shopify retailers to help them provide memorable customer experiences that drive growth in revenue and profit. Here's what we covered on the episode: Adam's Start With Shopify   I share how Adam and I met and that he's on the show to talk about designing sign-up experiences that sell and add value to customers and brands  Adam shares what he thought life would be like after college and the different types of jobs he had  While working for an education app company, Adam's brother-in-law approached him about a new Canadian app called Shopify that he was going to start developing on Because Adam had experience marketing for app companies, his brother-in-law thought maybe they could do something together  Adam admits that he didn't think Shopify would work out but has never been happier to be wrong  5 years ago, Adam, his business partner, and his brother-in-law started an agency that started doing eCommerce  sites for small companies  The importance of customer experience has been amplified, and companies realize that it will drive profit for them  Adam talks about moving from consulting to teaching and says after a few years of teaching; he realized how difficult it was  Adam shares that running a company is easier than teaching was and what you should think about when deciding to switch careers or companies  The beginning of their agency was crazy, and they realized they needed to niche down  How Shopify was a completely different company from when they started to what it is now - as Shopify has changed, they've had to adapt   When looking at eCommerce  sites, Shopify is only 2nd to Amazon  The initial challenge of the agency Adam shares was picking a niche that was going to be enjoyable and is something that the market and industry wanted  A typical client profile for their agency would be someone who has been doing business for 2-3 years, 3 million dollars a year in revenue, and uses Shopify as their main channel for driving revenue.  A few years ago, Shopify was about getting someone to make an initial purchase – now, it's more about the customer and thinking about how we can get them to come back Tracking Customer Lifetime Value + Creating a Unique Customer Experience For Adam, the concept of just having a website to sell is going away because so many different social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook offer eCommerce  for customers to purchase on their app Business owners and companies need to know that consumers will want to interact and buy from you on multiple different channels, in multiple different ways – so only having one way for consumers to buy isn't ideal When clients come to Adam with a problem, he first looks at the data to identify if that is the true problem they are having or if it's actually something else Adam and his team focus on CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) and look at metrics like average revenue per customer, average order value, and doing calculations to determine the real CLV and the projected CLV Instead of just looking at conversion rates, you need to consider how profitable each customer for your company is based on what they're going to buy, how much it costs to provide what they're going to buy, and how much it costs to acquire them  When it comes to a good conversion rate, Adam says it depends on the industry, product, and quality – he gives an example of two clients who sell similar products but have very different conversion rates because they have different price points and target demographics Some companies offer industry data and benchmark tracking reports like Klaviyo, which gives you a better idea of what your conversion rate should be so you can change things in your business if needed Adam feels most agencies do not do a great job with customer experience because everyone involved, the designer, copywriter, developer, etc., are working for themselves and not together for the user to create an excellent customer experience I love that Adam focuses on the customer experience because I feel another thing that has been lost is the onboarding and offboarding processes When you get a client committed to a contract or get paid at a physical store, Adam explains that as business owners, that's a winning point, but for the customer, that winning point hasn't started yet – your job is to make them feel great about their purchase Blend Commerce Offerings + New Ecommerce Trends/Apps  Adam explains the 2 ways clients work with their agency 1) through their Customer Value Optimization Program and 2) on their email marketing through Klaviyo What's different about their agency Adam says, is that they understand at times, you will need to dip more into the design side or the marketing side than others Before a customer even comes across your brand until they make their last purchase – they look at all the interaction points that aren't great for your brand so far or don't exist so they can increase the customer lifetime value Adam shares that they have been partnered with Klaviyo for the last 4 ½ years – and when they work with clients in that capacity, they look at where money is being left on the table through their email marketing and help clients increase revenue The agency focuses on website design, development, and Klaviyo email marketing – Adam says when it comes to social media, paid, or SEO, they have a couple of partner agencies who they refer their clients to What has been working for eCommerce  product and service brands is using onsite quizzes – Adam gives a client example where they have a button on their site that people can click if they aren't sure where to start, and it walks them through a couple of questions and asks them about their taste to better recommend products and create a personalized experience Adam says that quizzes have good conversion rates, but even if a person doesn't convert from your onsite quiz, you have now captured a lot of information about that person – all that data can be used in Klaviyo for your email marketing to personalize responses If you search for eCommerce quizzes, you will be flooded with information because it does work as a sign-up and conversion tool In Adam's opinion, pop-ups that still work are ones for products with low average pay for the brand, but because everyone uses pop-ups in the same places, it can be overwhelming to consumers if they are jumping from brand to brand When you're offering pop-ups for large discounts, you have to ask yourself if that is attracting customers that will keep coming back – Adam suggests being smarter with pop-ups by asking one simple question instead and gives an example of how this would benefit you as a brand Adam says when they ask questions in their pop-ups, they like to build anticipation and then ask for the consumer's email at the end to share their results If Adam could go back 5 years ago, he would tell himself not to judge a book by its cover and what he means by that is, as an agency, they used to judge the way a potential client approached them and their initial site – but you can never know how good or bad a business is without talking to the business owner Adam shares some apps that are unique and work well from a customer experience point of view – one is VideoEyes which crawls YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. for videos that mention your products that you might not know about and bring them back to your Shopify store – it also allows you to grab any video you've made and create a call to action so people can buy and checkout from the video Another app Adam recommends is Penny Black which allows you to personalize your packaging based on data from a customer To learn more about Adam's agency, you can go to the Blend Commerce Website, and you can connect with Adam on LinkedIn Links mentioned: Blend Commerce Shopify Klaviyo Penny Black Connect with Adam on LinkedIn   Like what you heard? Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes. Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board Let's connect on Instagram!

--- Sermon delivered at Pilgrim Baptist Church on Thursday, June 9, 2022 at 6-15 pm. -----God didn't fail to bring in the Kingdom through Old Testament Israel.--However, in 1 Samuel 8 God did allow the people of Israel to choose their own form of government. They wanted a king to rule over them, so God gave them a King.--This sermon will take a look into the Kings of Israel and will lead to God disassociating Himself with the nation of Israel.--A glimpse into Ezekiel will reveal God removing His glory from the temple and removing the crown from the kings of Israel.--God will not put another crown on any Hebrew king until He places it on His Son, KING JESUS.--When the New Testament opens with an announcement the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is at hand it's NOT because Jesus came to set up a kingdom when he arrived. It's because Jesus is the scene and He is ONLY ONE that has the power to restore what Adam lost.--Because Adam lost dominion and all His seed is corrupted by sin. Nothing will fix this physical kingdom until Christ- the last Adam comes back His 2nd time to fix it.---- -- -- -- ----Jimmy Fortunato is the Pastor of Pilgrim Baptist Church located at 229 W. Jere Whitson Rd. Cookeville, TN 38501.--Pilgrim Baptist Church is a bible-believing, independent Baptist church that takes a strong stance on the authority of the King James Bible and the absolute necessity of public evangelism for true New Testament churches.--For more information about Pilgrim Baptist Church visit--- https---pilgrimbaptist.church---Stay Connected with Pilgrim Baptist Church on Social Media---- Facebook- https---www.facebook.com-PilgrimBaptistCookeville

In this Podcast, Tom Randall has a chat with Adam Fiala, which is going to be quite different from anything you've heard on the Lattice Podcast before. We will have both a narrated interview and an insightful chat into the journey that our client took with us to climb his first f8b+ (5.14 USA route grade).This comprehensive look into his training and performance will have us read out some of the stages of his journey directly from his blog. Plus some teasing out of ideas to see if Adam gives a bit more information of what it is like working with us at Lattice.Because Adam has written such an in-depth piece of writing about his climbing, we're going to split this interview into 2 parts.  Also, we would like to give credit to David Goggins audible book for the concept of narration with an interview, as it is an absolutely brilliant format.Lastly, we just want to let you know about the 2 variations of Adam's blog - there's the full unedited version on his own website and a condensed version in 2 parts on our website. There is always so much we can learn from understanding the experience of others, so we hope you enjoy this episode.Adam's climbing and training history Common misconceptions of working with a coach Details of Performance profilingLattice's different approach to trainingNutrition behind Adam's training, and his fears of weight gainTraining programme detailsDetails on his project attempts The hard truth about trainingLink to Adam's Blog: http://mujsuplik.blogspot.com/p/dancing-with-wolves-blog-series.htmlThe Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

Night visions. What are they, and who can have them? According to the Scriptures, night visions are what we would call dreams. Job says in the fourth chapter that when deep sleep falls upon men, they have night vision. And in those visions, God speaks to them and gives them direction. When we consider all of the dreams in the testaments that God used to guide his people to warn and reveal the coming days. With that much evidence, how come the church is so reluctant to discuss and accept that dreams and night visions are a vital part of the regulatory system that God has for this day.  If you receive it, your dream life will become active, and in it, God will speak and give direction and revelation in the days to come. Just think about it being put to sleep so that God could form evil out of his side. Why was that? Because Adam would've got in the way if you had been awake. So it is with you and me that we have more resistance against what God may want to speak to us about. So he comes in the night when we're asleep and speaks of heavenly things.  Isn't it wonderful? YOU CAN GIVE HERE=http://www.georgewatkinsministries.com/help-us.html WEBSITE= http://www.georgewatkinsministries.com/home-page.html FACEBOOK=https://www.facebook.com/FaithProducerstv/ Faith Producers address: PO Bx 1006 Mt Vernon, WA 98273 FAITH PRODUCES AN INTERNATIONAL PODCAST https://faithproducers.podbean.com/

Do you remember years ago, we used to see people walking around baseball stadiums holding a sign, which said "John 3:16"? I used to think, why are those people doing that? Now I know. John 3:16 is probably the single most important verse in the Bible. What does this verse mean? Does it apply to me? Listen in as Mike goes in to detail about this key verse.   Transcript: Well, today we're going to talk about John 316 that says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 316 is probably the most popular Bible verse where even some non believers even recognize that verse, maybe because that verse, John 316, was on signs that people walked around ballparks and arenas, which you don't see that anymore, probably because of it. It's too exclusive for today. And it's unfortunate that we are not walking around the ballparks because this verse is really one of the most important verses in the Bible. But let's break it down. As far as what does John 316 really mean? It says for God, so love the world. Love is the very nature of God. One John 416 says that God is love and love is an action. So yes, we have loving feelings, but loving feelings are a result of a loving action. And so feelings will follow our thoughts, feelings will follow our actions. But love is more than just a feeling. And in this case, God did take an action. It says in one John four, nine, and ten that this is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only Son into the world, that we might live through him. This is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. So God took an action. He sent Jesus Christ into the world. He was fully God. He was fully human, but his purpose was to take away the sins of the world. And then on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead and came back to life. And the Spirit of God is what brought Jesus back to life. And so that was the action that God had taken. Two Corinthians 514 says that Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. So this love of God, this action of God that God took on our behalf, is what really compels us when we grab a hold of what this really is. There are many different views of what God's love is. Sometimes people look at God as a vending machine and that they pray for certain things and that they expect God to come through with those prayers. But yes, God comes through with prayers in our life, but not always according to what we want. Our deepest need is to know God. It's something that is so important and to have a relationship with him not based on fear, not based on worry or anger, but based on pure love. That God is love and only love. Religion has kind of taken God's love out of context because there are so many conditions that are put onto God's love. For instance, that a Christian comes to Christ and is born again and now they're required to be obedient and follow the law. And those conditions are what make people run from God. Our obedience and our trustworthiness are just byproducts of knowing the love of God. It's nothing that we have to do to earn God's love. It's because of God's love. So it's way different than sometimes we hear in the pulpit in different religions. So God loves the world. And when you see the word world, put your name in there, that's you Mike, for instance, God so loved Mike. God so loved Frank or sue or whoever. It doesn't matter. Put your name right in that spot that God so loves you. And that was an action. Now, what did God do? It says that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. And so God gave something. He gave his only Son, Jesus, to us. And that's a gift, right? When you give something to somebody, it is a gift. And God certainly has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit when we put our faith in him. Acts four says, on one occasion while he was eating with them, referring to Jesus, he gave them this command, do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. Well, this gift was in the heart of God from the beginning of time when he created mankind. He knew that man would fall and the Spirit of God would leave Adam at the time who was the first man, and that we are all born in Adam's image, spiritually dead. And so we need to be made alive and to be born again. And that is the gift of God is to give his life to us so that he can live his life through us and give us eternal life. And so in Acts two, one to four, this finally happened. It says, when the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. These were the disciples. Suddenly, a sound like a blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. And they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. It says that all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. So this was the first time that the Spirit of God had ever come to live inside of mankind. Before that God was upon them. He was around them, but he was never living in mankind until Acts two, one, four, known as the Day of Pentecost. But that is the gift of God. And it's the gift of God today is to receive eternal life and be born again, just like they were born again back in those days. Galatians 220 says, I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me the life I now live in the body. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So there again you see the Word gave that God sent Christ into this world to give us the Spirit of Christ living in us when we put our faith in him. And so that's this meaning here that God gave his one and only Son as a gift to all of mankind. The next part of this verse, that whoever believes so for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish. So this is a word that we need to really think through believes in Him because James 2019 says that even the demons believe there is one God. And so the word belief is different than the word faith. The word belief means that I believe that something exists. Say, for instance, a chair. I believe that this chair will hold me up and I might just stand there in front of the chair and say, I believe that chair will hold me. But faith is putting your belief into action. It's putting faith in what you believe. So when you sit down in the chair, you've just put your faith in what you say you believe. Sometimes belief and faith are used anonymously But I believe that these verses in the Book of John and other places about believing in him are referring to putting our faith in what we believe. And so we really need to know why we need to put our faith in Jesus. So God so loved this world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in Him will have eternal life. Well, that sounds a lot like John 360 NIV version, but this is the contemporary English version that says that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life. Most of the versions do say believe in him, but believe and trust are really what the writer of the Book of John is trying to get to us to put our faith in what we believe. So why do we need to believe in Jesus? Why do you need eternal life? This is what is really missing in many sermons and many online teachings is why do I need to be born again? Why do I need eternal life? And that takes us back all the way to the garden. And we have to go back there to see why we need eternal life. Because Adam was created in the image of God. He was created alive physically, but he also was created alive spiritually. Genesis 127 says that so God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God, he created them male and female. So God created Adam and the image of himself. Genesis 27 says that then God gave the breath of life to Adam. Now that was the breath of life physically in his lungs so he could breathe. But also that's where the spirit of God was given to Adam. And that only means that God was living inside of Adam. The spirit of God was in dwelt in Adam. That's the good news of how mankind was created. Now, Genesis 216 to 17 says that the Lord commanded the man, Adam, you're free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, for when you eat of it, you will surely die. So this story of Anna and Eve, it's been talked about and sometimes ridiculed about over the years. But really, this is the crux. This is the place where the spirit of God left mankind because Adam and Eve were confused, they were lied to by Satan. In Genesis three, four and five, it says that Satan says, you will certainly not die. Go ahead and eat from that tree. The serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So this is where Satan tricked Adam and Eve and they ate from the tree in the middle of the garden that God told them not to. God gave them only one command. And this command was, do not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden or you will surely die. Well, they did in Genesis 322 says, oh my gosh, this is an unbelievable verse. And says, And God said, the man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take from the tree of life and live forever. So that was it. And then Genesis 323 says that the Lord banished him. That's referring to Adam. But Eve was with him from the Garden of Eden, and there was a waving sword banishing and keeping them from now from the tree of life. So, oh, my gosh, this was it. The Spirit of God had left Adam and Eve and they were spiritually dead. They were condemned for hell. And this is how it all began. Genesis five, three, it says that when Adam lived 130 years, so that's how we know he didn't die physically that day when they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Here says that Adam would live 130 years altogether. He lived 930 years. But it says at 130, he had a son. Now, catch this in his own likeness, in his own image, and he named him Seth. Adam's son, Seth was not born in the image of God. He was born in the image and likeness of Adam. Now, that's so contrary to today, because we hear from the pulpit again, from sermons from everywhere, news, TV that were born in the image of God. And that is not true. We are born in the image and likeness of Adam, spiritually dead, condemned for hell. That is the way, unfortunately, as a result of Adam's disobedience, he didn't obey God in the garden. We are all born that way. That is so crucial to understand that, that we're more than just sinners in need of forgiveness because that's what we hear. Again, if you ask most people what's their understanding of Salvation, they'll say that Jesus took away my sins and it stops there. The gospel. The good news is more than just that Jesus took away our sins is that we're dead spiritually as a result of Adam's disobedience and in need of life. Romans 512, it says, therefore just as sin entered the world through one man, that's Adam and death through sin, like we've been talking about, that spiritual death came about as Adam sin and his disobedience. And it says in this way, death came to all people because all of sinned. So the spiritual death has come to all people. All means all. That means everybody. There's nobody excluded from that. Ephesians 21 says, as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins and that's how we came into this world. Spiritually dead. Now, how many of you know that? How many of you have heard that before that this is our real problem. This is why John 316 is such a crucial verse. Romans 623 says, for the wages of sin is death, the cost of sin, of Adam's sin, of Adam's disobedience. The wages of his sin is death. But contrary to that, the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ. John 17 three says, now this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ who you have sent. So we need to know our condition. We need to know how we are born into this world more again than just a sinner. We all know that we sin. We all know we do wrong things and think wrong things. We know that. And thank God Jesus took away our sins at the cross. He took away the sins for the whole world. But if you go to a doctor because you don't feel well, before he can give you a remedy or a prescription or to help you feel better, he's got to diagnose you. He has to tell you. He has to take some tests and blood pressure and take some lab tests to find out what's wrong. What's the matter with you before he can prescribe anything? If his diagnosis is off, then his prescription and his remedy will be off. You could die or you could have a long term illness as a result of the wrong diagnosis. Well, in the same way, if we don't understand our diagnosis that we're spiritually dead in need of life, we may miss that. That is why I'm doing this podcast. That is why we started Grace Coaches, that you would know that. You would know Jesus, you would know that you need eternal life and why you need eternal life. So again, we're just not sinners in need of forgiveness. We're dead spiritually and in need of life. So the next part of the verse says that whoever believes in Him shall not perish. Well, what does perish mean? It means to die. It means to die eternally in this case, to go to hell or to stay in our condemned state of spiritual death. John 318 says, Whoever believes in him is not condemned, that him is Jesus. But whoever does not believe in Jesus catch this stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. Jesus didn't come to condemn anybody. Like so much of religion teaches, that's why people run away from religion, because of the message that we come to Christ and all of a sudden we're condemned and God is watching over us and spanking us and hitting us with the great wooden spoon in the sky. Well, people run from that. And that's not true because he's taken away all of our sins. Matthew 25 46 that says that then they will go away to eternal punishment. But the righteous to eternal life. The righteous are those who believe, who put their faith in what they believe, who've come to Christ. And the Spirit of God has come to live inside of that person and that person is born again. Well, those are the righteous. They're righteous because they have the righteous one Jesus living in them. That's what makes them righteous. It's an imputed righteousness. John 1028 says, I give them eternal life and they shall not perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. So once you are born again, you will never lose that your Salvation, you are saved eternally. John 524 is one of my favorite verses for very truly, I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed over from death to life. You put your faith in Jesus, you have crossed over from spiritual death to spiritual life, and you'll never go back to spiritual death because all of your sins are forgiven, all of the promises of God that he says, I'll never leave you. You are saved completely and eternally. You will not perish. But those who don't believe in Jesus, they will perish, they will die eternally, they will be condemned, and they will enter a place called Hell, the day of their last breath on Earth. And so that's the reason for evangelism is to tell as many people as we can that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish spiritually, but have eternal life. And eternal life is mentioned 17 times in the book of John. It's a 180 from perishing, isn't it? Eternal life is forever, it lasts forever. There is no end to eternal life. It's perpetual and it's forever. We can't lose that once we have it. Why is that? Because now we have the eternal one Jesus living inside of us. Why are we right with God? Because Jesus is righteous. Why do we have eternal life? Because Jesus is eternal life. And where does he live? He lives in us. And we read Galatians 220 earlier that Jesus lives in us and we'll be with God forever. And so this is so crucial It's so crucial to know our condition. It's so crucial to come to Christ for God's provision of eternal life. And I'll just end the podcast today on this last verse one John 511 and twelve and this is the testimony God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son. Whoever has the son has life. Whoever does not have the son does not have life. I pray that you ponder on these verses and ponder on this podcast pass it on to a friend. That is our goal as a result of this podcast today that somebody would come to Christ and be saved and have eternal life. God bless. Thank you for listening to Grace Coach. If you want to connect with us, we would love to engage with you. Email us at the Gracecoach@gmail.com visit our Facebook page or visit our website gracecoach.org.  

Did you know that the sacrifices of bulls , goats , sheep and the host of other things offered under the Law of Moses , was of a fallen system ? Because Adam , Eve and the whole earth with everything in it was put under the curse because of what Adam did in committing high treason though eating from the forbidden tree . Plus cattle , sheep and other things offered to God under the Law of Moses was tainted by Adams sin plus human beings was created on the God level, remember God said in Genesis 1:26 -28 let us make man in our image ! . Therefore it would take something or someone on the God level to redeem human beings , Bulls , Goats , Sheep are not on the God level , check out this message with me and get get even a more excellent understanding of the comparison of the Law of Moses in contrast to Grace which came though Jesus Christ . God Bless

Because Adam, our first father, sinned, we all sinned. "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned" - Romans 5:12

Is there any Christ in your Genesis? The book of Genesis is often mishandled. Peripheral things are over-emphasized and the main point is lost. Jon and Justin talk about Genesis from a redemptive-historical, covenantal, and Christ-centered perspective.Semper Reformanda Podcast: Jon and Justin take a deeper dive into covenant theology and the book of Genesis. It is our perspective that Genesis cannot be rightly understood apart from a covenantal framework. We aim to explain how and why.Resources:Our Covenant Theology teaching seriesBook study on Sam Renihan’s bookOur episode: Is Your Theological System Any Good?Ask Theocast: GENESIS: About Creation? A Science Book? NEITHER?!?! Book Giveaway: “Grace in Despair” by Dianna CarrollSUPPORT Theocast: https://theocast.org/give/ FACEBOOK: Theocast: https://www.facebook.com/Theocast.org TWITTER: Theocast: https://twitter.com/theocast_org INSTAGRAM: Theocast: https://www.instagram.com/theocast_org/  Podcast TranscriptJustin Perdue: Hi, this is Justin. Let me begin by asking you a question: is there any Jesus in your Genesis? Today on Theocast, Jon and I are going to be talking about the book of Genesis, the ways that it is often mishandled, and how we often miss the main point of that wonderful book. We’re going to look at Genesis today from a redemptive-historical perspective, from a covenantal perspective with Jesus at the center. We hope it’s encouraging for you.We’re going to take a deeper dive into covenant theology over in Semper Reformanda, and how that relates to our understanding of Genesis. We hope all of this is helpful and encouraging to you. Stay tuned.For those who listen to us all the time, you might be ready for what I’m going to say: we talk about redemptive-historical theology and the redemptive-historical framework of the Bible. We talk about covenant theology and we talk about a very Christ-centered way to understand the entirety of Scripture.Today, we’re going to put some of those tools to work, and we’re going to have a conversation about the very first book of the Bible—and that’s obviously none other than the book of Genesis. There are many takes on the book of Genesis in our day. There are a lot of things said about it that, we don’t want to bury the lead here, that Jon and I find to be a little bit less than helpful and confusing. And the main point of Genesis, we fear, is often lost because of some of these peripheral things that often become the focus. In particular, what we want to do today is be able to talk about Jesus from the book of Genesis.The episode title, if you’ve already looked at it, is There is No Jesus in Your Genesis, Sir, which is a reference to a Charles Spurgeon quote, a paraphrase of the Charles Spurgeon quote, where he said, “No Christ in your sermon, sir? Go home and never preach again until you have something worth saying.”So we’re going to talk about the book of Genesis today on a number of levels. We’re going to begin by just talking about some of the things that are often the focus of evangelicalism when it comes to the book of Genesis and hopefully have a little fun; we have a little fun in a gracious way and point out how that’s less than helpful.And then we’re going to pivot and talk about the ways that we think we should understand the book. I hope that this is mega encouraging for the listener as we think about how God the Son is all over the place in the book of Genesis.Jon Moffitt: What is the book of Genesis about? I asked this to my kids the other day just to test them out. Justin has his hands way up in the air. And the common answer is…Justin Perdue: Creation.Jon Moffitt: Creation. That’s right. What is interesting is Justin, you’re preaching through the book. I’ll throw you on the spot here. How many chapters are in Genesis?Justin Perdue: 50.Jon Moffitt: 50. And how many of those chapters are in reference to creation?Justin Perdue: Two.Jon Moffitt: That’s right.Justin Perdue: I’ve got my hand raised. Can I make some comments? Ask me what Genesis is about.Jon Moffitt: We’ll get there. We’ll get there.I grew up influenced by what’s called an evidentialist apologetic. For those of you that are new to Theocast, or maybe new to this whole idea, apologetics is to give an answer. You’re not apologizing for something because you feel sorry, but it’s to provide an answer. And there are two different categories of apologetics: you have evidentialist, meaning that with enough evidence you can provide solid truth so that someone can make a logical decision to follow Christ. So apologetic through evidence. And then Justin, what would be the opposite of an apologetic perspective?Justin Perdue: Presuppositionalist perspective? That means we understand that there are presuppositions that must be maintained and held if one is going to see these truths as legitimate and valid, and ultimately, given that we understand that God is the one who grants us true wisdom and sight by His grace, we understand that we’re not going to reason anybody into the kingdom of God and that God must do a work in someone’s life in order to cause them, help them, by His grace to see these things as true.Jon Moffitt: Right. Those are the two perspectives. The one I came from was an evidentialist perspective. We’re going to be as kind as we can be here, but this is the reality. We always try. We’re sinners and we often need to repent.Anyways, what you end up getting into is an evolution/creation debate, and we use the Bible—specifically the book of Genesis—as a science textbook, or as you like to say, a documentary on creation. We then go through and we try to prove the legitimacy of creation, which I understand and I would agree with, that we can look at science to see the glory of God and to strengthen and encourage our faith. There’s nothing wrong with that. But as we do with any text of the Bible, we need to always ask two very important questions: who is the audience and what’s the author’s intention of writing to that audience? And that will tell you the purpose of the book.Justin Perdue: And alongside that, as the divine Author of the entire Bible, what is God meaning for us to understand here too? And I know you agree.Jon Moffitt: Right. The hard part about when we’re thinking about Genesis is that we immediately focus on the scientific/historical side of it—and it is important. If you don’t have a historical Adam and Eve, you’re going to be falling off into heresy after chapter 2. So we have a problem.We understand the debate; this is not what this debate is about. We hold to a historic understanding of Adam and Eve, but when it comes down to our understanding of Genesis, because we have created such an evidentialist/this is an evolution-creation debate, we miss the whole point of why Genesis was written and the purpose of Genesis in modern day life. Our life today, as a believer—what is it supposed to be for us? There’s the Creation Museum, we’ve got the big ark over in Kentucky, and people would ask me what my thoughts are on that. I think there are some helpful things there for Christians. They can go there and be encouraged. It’s a lot of money. I don’t know if I would have spent all that money on that. So if someone wants to give me multi-millions of dollars, I probably will use it for something else. But I’m not here to judge—I don’t live far from Kentucky, so probably one day I’ll take my kids to go see it.Justin Perdue: I’ll even go so far as to say, in a slightly more joke-ish, punchy way, that if the initial thought bubbles that go up from your head when the book of Genesis is mentioned is creation versus evolution, if you immediately think Creation Museum and you immediately think Ark in Kentucky, then this podcast is for you. With all due respect, not that those things are bad. And like Jon said, there’s a time and a place for some of these debates and conversations. There are useful things, I’m sure. Going to the Creation Museum or going to the ark in Kentucky could be a great experience to have with your family. I also don’t think that Christians that don’t go are going to be missing out on something that is somehow just essential to our faith because the point of the book of Genesis is something entirely different.I’ll go ahead and say this really quickly before we get into more of the meat of the episode. When you read Genesis 1 and 2, your mind should immediately go to Revelation 21 and 22. Because in reading the account of creation, we are reading that in light of God’s promise of the consummation of redemption and restoration at the end of it. There are striking parallels between those respective chapters at the beginning and end of the Bible. I think this episode is going to maybe flesh out for us why and how that’s the case.It’s sad that we have sort of gotten lost in the weeds—and the concerns that are peripheral at best have become the main focus of our conversation about this book of the Bible. And we miss the main point and are robbed of really edifying and encouraging stuff.Jon Moffitt: Justin, if you don’t mind, I’d like to give the context to Genesis and why it was written, and then we’ll move from that to try and give us a fuller explanation, comparing to what most commentaries and what most people do with Genesis. Then, I think, we’re going to argue the way in which the Bible has used the book of Genesis and we’ll go from there.We need to think about the historical context at this point. I know that this is a little bit snarky, but Genesis was not written the day after creation. Adam didn’t have a pen out and was tracking along.Justin Perdue: It was actually written millennia after.Jon Moffitt: Yes. 2,500 plus years is the estimate of how much recorded history had passed in Genesis before it was given us. So you have to understand why then was it written so far down the line? Let’s just think about the history. To understand Genesis, I would say Genesis is the prologue to Exodus, and in many ways you would want to go read Exodus first because it explains why Genesis exists. I know that the order of the books come in Genesis, Exodus, but it is for this very reason: Moses is the author of the Pentateuch. Moses’ life and story explain the necessity of why these books were written. This is, I would say, the really fast prologue introductions to the whole explanation of Genesis. The people of Israel who had been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years, they have not only been there that long, but there is no recorded history other than the verbal history that’s been handed to them about Abraham and the promises of Abraham, and they have become flat out polytheists, and it becomes the plague of the nation for the rest of their existence. It’s just horrible. God talks about whoring after other gods and idols constantly with the prophets and even Moses. When they’re brought out, Moses is up on the mountain. He comes back and what are they doing? They’re worshiping another golden calf. So you have an issue of polytheism. When Moses leaves and he goes up on the mountain and brings back the 10 commandments, what’s the first commandment? “You should have no other gods before me”, which is the issue Israel is going to face. When Moses begins to write this, he’s not writing this with the absence of reality. In Egyptian history, the tradition was that there wasn’t one god who created everything; there were multiple gods.Justin Perdue: And that was true of all the ancient Near Eastern creation accounts.Jon Moffitt: So Moses is writing in such a way that it’s shocking to say that in the beginning, Yahweh, one God, created all things. You have to understand that there is definitely an apologetic going on. It’s polytheism, not evolution, that he’s going after. This is a monotheistic religion that Moses is introducing to a polytheistic people.Justin Perdue: Sure. A few comments here on not only Moses writing it, but what he’s doing. As we’ve already said, Genesis is historical and Moses is writing redemptive history, and it’s really important that we understand that. That’s why I say it’s not a documentary, it’s not a history textbook. It’s not written like that.Two things can be true at the same time, and I think this is worth mentioning: we can uphold the fact that even the account of creation is written in a very beautiful and literary way, and at the same time, uphold its historicity. Those things are not mutually exclusive. I know sometimes people lose their minds when we start to talk about the literary elements of the way Moses wrote the book, but he is writing redemptive history for the people of Israel. And like you said, Jon, if anything, the creation account in Genesis is written as a polemic against not only polytheism generally, but also specifically against other creation myths that would have existed. It’s very clear as you study it because there are very interesting distinctions between Genesis and these other accounts of creation, and those distinctions make all the difference. They’re too coincidental to be a coincidence. So Moses knows what he’s doing.Now, is Genesis—and the Bible in general—useful in speaking to atheism? Yeah, because in the Bible, it’s very clear that people have denied the existence of God forever. The fool says in his heart that there is no God and all that. So we’re not saying that one can’t use the Bible to argue against an atheistic worldview, but understand why Genesis was written to the people of Israel originally. I think it does matter.Jon Moffitt: I do not feel the necessity, at any moment, when I am dealing with unbelievers or even the atheist to prove to them the evidence of science or use science to prove Scripture. And the reason I have to say that is Paul is very clear that the fool has said in his heart that there is no God. That’s Proverbs. But Paul has also said that the unbeliever will look at the Word of God, specifically the gospel, and call it foolish.Justin Perdue: And the unbeliever will suppress the truth about God and unrighteousness. Romans 1. So, clearly, God has to do a work in a person’s heart and mind in order for the person to ever see God’s existence is true and good.Jon Moffitt: Now, does that mean that any efforts at apologetics, when it relates to creation and all that, is of no value? No.Justin Perdue: We want to clear up misunderstanding.Jon Moffitt: That’s right. I just think we need to be very careful that we don’t use Genesis in a way it was not intended to be used. If you think that God wrote that so that we could prove to the evolutionists they’re wrong, evolution didn’t come around until many, many, many years later.Justin Perdue: Let’s talk about Genesis and what it’s about. What is Genesis about? Short answer: Genesis is about redemption. Because that’s what the whole Bible is about. It is also more specifically about redemption accomplished through God the Son who took on flesh, and that is in view all throughout the book of Genesis.Let’s begin with the account of creation in Genesis 1:1 and following. Is Jesus in Genesis? Is God the Son in Genesis, even Genesis 1? Absolutely. He is. We should not read Genesis one without thinking of some other passages of Scripture. So when we read in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God…” our mind should immediately go to John 1. “In the beginning,” the exact same construction, “was the Word,” who is the divine Word, God the Son, “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” So in that sense, God the Son is the beginning of all things in terms of this world, and he is the agent of creation through whom the whole thing is made.Jon Moffitt: I would say that we need to, I would say as the Reformers do, but I would argue as the apostles do, they use the New Testament in order to interpret and explain the Old Testament. This is a great example of that.Justin Perdue: A couple of other texts just for our encouragement: Colossians 1:16 about Jesus. “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”Jon Moffitt: Did the readers of Genesis, when Moses wrote the Pentateuch, fully understand that?Justin Perdue: Of course not. Did Moses understand it fully?Jon Moffitt: Probably not.Justin Perdue: This is an epic thought: the writer of the Hebrews, at the beginning of his letter, he says that God has spoken to us at various times in various ways through the prophets, etc. “But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. . . through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Think about that thought, that the one through whom all things were made is the very one who takes on flesh to go and live in that world, suffer in that world, bleed in that world, and die in that world in order to save sinners. I think it’s legit that we see that from the opening tip of Scripture. Genesis 1:1—there it is. “In the beginning, God….” We have God the Son present, and we need to think about God the Son and his redemptive work that he would do, connecting it to these other passages in the Bible.Jon Moffitt: I would say there are two ways in which Genesis has been read, but they come to the same conclusions. When the children of Israel would hear the law read over them constantly and they would memorize it, they would write it upon the tables of their heart—all of the commands that we have given to us and Deuteronomy—they would hear it as the same way: it is the history of redemption. The reason is that in Exodus, they just entered into a covenant with a God they really don’t know much about. And Moses says, “Here’s the God you just entered into covenant with. He is the creator. He’s also the one who made the promise to restore that which was broken.”So Moses, through the inspiration of the Spirit, is explaining how they got from creation to Egypt, and explaining the faithfulness of God along the way. I will say that the most important part of the story of Genesis is the fall, because the question then becomes, one, we know that there is sin because everyone experiences it. Moses just explains how it got here. And then the greatest part about Genesis is that you have the Creator of the universe, and now you’re going to have the restoration by the Creator.Justin Perdue: He’s the Restorer of the universe.Jon Moffitt: In the mind of the reader, the question has to be, “Who is the seed of Eve?” Because when he shows up, then all will be made right. That’s the question the reader has.Justin Perdue: And we’re going to get to that promise in just a minute. But I think you’re right. I think it’s important for people to see that the work of redemption is effectively the work of re-creation. That’s what God is about. We’re just going to pepper some stuff in here from the early chapters of Genesis. Even in verses three through five where God creates light, I think this is significant. And I think it preaches a sermon about Christ. Because there is light in the universe now, and light only comes from God—without God, there’s darkness—but there’s light that exists without the sun being created yet. And people sometimes lose their minds and wig out. How is there light without the sun? Have you read the book of Revelation? Have you read Revelation 21 where we’re told that the Heavenly City has no need of sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the Lamb.Jesus, also according to John’s gospel, in him, in the Word was life, and that life was the light of men, the true light that enlightens everyone who is coming into the world. So Christ is described that way. He’s going to literally be the light of the new heavens and the new earth. So we ought to see that in the early chapters of Genesis: there’s light that exists apart from the sun. It’s preaching Christ to us.Last thing, if you’ll allow me from the creation account early there. The seventh day, the Sabbath day; it’s a very unique day because all the other six days have this common refrain of “there was evening,” “there was morning,” “the first, second, third, etc. day.” The seventh day doesn’t have that refrain. Many Christians through history have understood that to be a pointer to Christ because that seventh day is awaiting its fulfillment, and that seventh day of our Sabbath rest finds its yes and amen in Christ. In particular, it’s fulfilled when Jesus would lay in a tomb outside Jerusalem. 1500 years after Moses wrote these words, he’s going to lay in a tomb outside Jerusalem on the seventh day of the week because his work is done. Redemption is over. Sin is atoned for. Righteousness fulfilled. And he’s going to get up from the dead on the next day to usher us into the new creation. And then the writer to the Hebrews picks up on that and tells us that we have entered into God’s Sabbath rest when we cease from our working, like God rested from His. And we know that Christ is the fulfillment of that rest that we are promised forever, but it’s already ours in Him.Genesis 1 and the early verses of Genesis two—we should read these in light of Christ and what God is going to do through him if we’re going to read Genesis like Christians.Jon Moffitt: Genesis is a Christian book, just to be clear. The Old Testament is a Christian book. I mentioned there are two ways to read it: first of all, it’s treated as an Israelite who understands that God is the one redeeming them and they’re looking forward to the seed of Eve, and then it comes through the seed of Abraham, and so we gain clarity. You have the promise and then you have the narrative of humanity about how they just constantly prove they are in desperate need of restoration, or I would say rescuing. You get to the flood and God says no one is righteous, and so He abolishes the world. And then just like anybody would ever think, if we could start all over and just get rid of all the bad people, God proved that won’t work. Because the problem is not with the current people on the earth; the problem is that it’s in the heart or in the seed of man—it’s passed down.Justin Perdue: If we’re going to talk about Adam and Noah, Noah is a type of Adam. God wipes humanity off the face of the earth because He sees that the inclinations of man’s heart is only evil continually in Genesis 6. After the flood, God has hit the reset button but the problem with Noah is that he’s too much like Adam. Basically, sin remains. We even see one of Noah’s sons is cursed, like God cursed humanity, the snake, and the whole creation in the garden. Just hitting the reset button and wiping people off the earth is not going to fix this. There’s something more fundamentally at issue here.Jon Moffitt: The second way it’s read, as modern day Christians, is that we have the whole Canon now, and we allow the New Testament interpretation of the book of Genesis to be the filter by which we then go back and read and say with full confidence that Genesis is the introduction of Jesus to us, not only of the Father, but Jesus, the Creator and Sustainer of the world. And not only that, but the Spirit that moved upon the water. So we allow the New Testament to be read now as redemptive as well, but we read it as seeing that it’s the fulfillment of Jesus and how we get Jesus to this point. I think, as an Israelite or as a modern day Christian, we both read Genesis from a redemptive historical understanding of Scripture because it’s how we get Jesus.Justin Perdue: It’s a great observation. You have the Trinity in the first two verses of Genesis 1, because you have the Father, and then the Son is the agent of creation, and the Spirit hovering over the face of the deep. That’s a pretty cool thought, too.Going back to the garden and thinking about Adam and Eve, covenants and promises, and the like… Jon, let’s not bury the lead here. We are convinced, and we’re going to talk about this in Semper Reformanda in detail, that it is impossible to rightly understand Genesis apart from a covenantal framework—and that’s a big deal. More on that over in Semper Reformanda. We’re going to talk a little bit about some of this stuff right now. So God makes Adam and Eve in His own image, and then God makes a covenant with Adam where He gives him things that he is to do, and He gives him prohibitions—one prohibition in particular that there’s a particular tree that he’s not to eat of, and He gives a sanction: “If you break this covenant that I’ve made with you, then in the day that you break it, you’ll surely die.” Adam, in that sense, is serving as the representative of the entire human race. And when he falls into sin, he plunges all of humanity and all of the creation into sin and ruin along with him.How do we know this is true? We could go a number of places, but we can go to the book of Romans where Paul connects all of these things for us, and we see that through one man’s disobedience, all of this wreckage and ruin has come upon us. But then through the obedience of the new Adam, the second Adam—Christ—that many will be made righteous. And so we can connect Adam and Christ that way, and see that God intended that if Adam had obeyed and had been righteous, that all would have been well with humanity. But because he fell and we fell in him, there now has to be another one who can represent us before God and actually accomplish all of the terms of the covenant that God made with Adam. He is perfectly obedient, he is sinless, he is completely righteous, and then his work is counted to us and he represents us for all of those who are united to him in faith. I don’t think it’s overstating it to say that that promise that God makes to Adam and Eve in the aftermath of the fall, that there will come a seed of the woman who will step on, who will crush the serpent’s head—that is the proto-euangelion, the first promise of the gospel, as it’s often referred to—that is the promise we would say of the covenant of grace.The rest of the entire Bible—it’s a big book, and Genesis 3:15 is only a few pages in—the rest of the entire Bible is the unfolding and the accomplishment of that promise.Jon Moffitt: That’s right. Yes, creation is a big part of it. But I would say I agree with Justin: the covenant of works, and I would call it the first Adam and the last Adam, or he’s also described as the second Adam in that Christ is the fulfillment where Adam failed. And you have Paul mentioning this language and using this language that Jesus is the second Adam. In many ways, that’s what you’re waiting for. You’re waiting for the federal head, meaning the representative of humanity. Federal head is a language that I was introduced to by Reformed theology, and a lot of people struggle with the concept of a federal head, but federal means representative. Because Adam sinned, we are all sinners. We inherited his sin. He is the representative of humanity. If you reject that theology, it’s kind of dangerous because that’s the very thing that Paul says: in Adam all died because he is the original human and his disobedience is now passed on to us. But it also says in Christ, all are made alive.So, you want federal headship because if you don’t have it, then Christ can’t be your representative for righteousness. This doctrine is introduced in the very beginning, in the very first book, and it really becomes the theme. Because you see the federal head and the representative of the effects of it in Genesis 3:16 and following, and all of a sudden, you see the curses that come forward, you see the fallout, and then you also see the promise of the federal head of Christ, the second Adam, which is in the seed. And you see the story of the two seeds, which we would argue is the two covenants—covenant of grace versus covenant of works—Christ being the promise of the covenant of grace. If you want to know what we mean by that, we did a whole five-part series on the covenant of grace or covenant theology. It’ll be in the show notes. So go down there and find that it’s free. Go listen to it. There’s a whole handout. We encourage you to do so.The reason why we mentioned this is that it helps you understand and really flow the narrative, where you’re not trying to find one evidence to prove somebody wrong about history. Number two, you’re not trying to find moral application. Can you find moral application in these texts? Sure. Don’t be like Adam and Eve and disobey God. But you’re missing what’s really happening and the superstar of the story, which is God using Jesus to redeem sinners. That’s the superstory, and there are these stories under that.I will say this: in the dispensational-evidentialist world, it seems like the superstar of the story, which should be Christ, is put down as a subset and everything else becomes a priority, whether it’s the evidence of creation or moralism, the “be like” whoever…Justin Perdue: I would argue that it’s not just in the evidentialist-dispensational world. I agree completely with what you assessed about that world, but I think in other streams within evangelicalism, there are still things that are inappropriate, like there’s an off-centered emphasis. For example, even in thinking about Genesis 2 and the covenant God makes with Adam, I think people are happy in a general sense, to say that Adam represents us and that in his fall he represents us. But there’s not always that obvious connection made with how everything that was lost in Adam and then some is going to be gained for us in Christ. We miss that connection or we emphasize things that are secondary application as though they’re the main takeaway. In Genesis 3 and the account of the fall, how many times have you heard sermons where the emphasis is Adam and Eve doubting God’s word? And that’s the problem. Or Adam didn’t lead Eve like he should have, and that’s the emphasis.I’m not saying that all of that is illegitimate to say at all, but the point of that text is the fall of humanity into sin because our first covenant head and federal head fell and failed in the covenant that God had made with him. And there was a promise immediately upon sin entering the world, and immediately upon us in Adam blowing it—there’s the promise of grace, there’s the promise of Christ in the gospel. And God went, “I’ve got this. I’m going to save a people. You guys, because you have such a thing as freedom of choice, right in the garden, you have blown this. But I’m a Redeemer and I always have been, and I’m good. And there’s one who’s coming.” that needs to be what we preach from Genesis 3. And then as we make our way through the rest of the book, we’re tracing those two lines of the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.And the question that you often will ask, Jon, that I think is a really good one: as we’re reading the rest of the Bible, we’re thinking who that promised seed is. When is he coming? That’s what we’re finding out as it unfolds through farther steps in Revelation, unfolds through the rest of the Old Testament, where we are primed and ready by the time the angels announce to Mary and to Joseph that there’s one coming who’s going to be named Jesus, because he’s going to save his people from their sins. Thank God he’s coming. He’s here.I think that we do people a tremendous disservice when we do not emphasize the redemptive plan of God accomplished through Christ, that has always been the plan not just from Genesis 1, but from before the world began.Jon Moffitt: I would even say what is great when you start having a Christocentric understanding or a redemptive-historical understanding of Scripture, you begin to see the connection. There’s a flow. There’s a cohesiveness to the text. One of the things I love about the grace that’s in the New Testament is absolutely seen in the Old Testament. Here’s a great example: God comes into the garden and says, “Hey, Adam! Where are you?” As if God does not know. It’s like, “Hey, buddy. I know you’re hiding. I know what you just did.” It’s like you caught the kid with the hand in the cookie jar, but it’s far worse than that. You caught them with a bloody knife and he just murdered. What does God do when He promises the seed? What requirement did He put on Adam and Eve?Justin Perdue: Nothing.Jon Moffitt: Nothing. He did one thing: He separated himself from their presence and then said, “Oh, and by the way, not have anything to do with you, but through my providence and my promises, I will then restore your presence back to me.” That’s grace, right? To receive unmerited favor. And it was seen right in the beginning. God not only promises Jesus, but promises Jesus with no strings attached. That’s good news.Justin Perdue: I could talk about this for a long time, but we got to get over to Semper Reformanda. I’ll make a couple of brief comments about something you just raised.What we’ve done today, I hope, with Genesis is maybe begin to show people how they can and should read their entire Old Testament. Because I do think a lot of people approach the Old Testament in a number of ways that are bad. We’ve touched on several. One, for many people, the Old Testament is just like a wasteland: it’s hard, it’s full of law and threats. There is maybe an occasional oasis because there’s a prophecy about the Messiah or some promise of grace or comfort or restoration. But generally speaking, the Old Testament is just hard. We ought not see it that way if we’re looking at it through this Christocentric, redemptive-historical lens. You already talked about our tendency to moralize the Old Testament, where we follow around these Old Testament saints and figure out how to be like them. That’s not a good way to approach the Old Testament.Lastly, I think people tend to approach the Old Testament, and this is probably especially true in a dispensationalist framework with an almost completely law-centered mentality. What are you doing with that? You’re mining through every text to find the things that we need to be doing or the things that we need to not do, and that becomes the point of the message. Here’s the issue: none of that squares with how Jesus understood the Scriptures and none of that squares with how the apostles understood the Scriptures. And remember that for Jesus and the apostles, the Scriptures were the Old Testament. That was their Bible at that time. They understand that whole thing, the Old Testament, to be a testimony about Christ. And so we should certainly understand the book of Genesis that way. And I think we’ve tried to do that this morning as we’ve recorded.So we’re about to make our way over to Semper Reformanda, which is a podcast for those who have partnered with Theocast and have joined the Reformation, as we like to say, to see this message and this theology spread as far and wide as possible. Because Jesus really is enough for us to have peace with God now and forever, and we want as many people to know that rest and that peace is possible. If you don’t even know what Semper Reformanda is, you could find out more information about it and the ways that you could partner with our ministry over at our website, the URL for that is theocast.org. We encourage you to go check out everything we got over there on the site, including how to become a member of Semper Reformanda.Jon Moffitt: And a big part of the membership is online and local groups where you can get together and discuss the podcast each week. So don’t miss out on that.Justin Perdue: Not only are you partnering with us, but we’re trying to create a community where you can love on each other and encourage each other and sharpen each other. So if that sounds good to you, go check it out.We will talk with many of you over there on SR. I think that’s the lingo we’re using these days.Jon Moffitt: And what are we talking about?Justin Perdue: How a covenantal framework is essential to our understanding of Genesis, and in a lot of ways the Bible, but especially Genesis.All right. We’ll see you over there guys. 

God created weed because he felt bad that we had to die. He snuck it in there before he could catch it. He made weed so we could be like him. He double crossed Adam and Eve with satan and we haven't been the same since. No serious: God created us to live forever. I guess we were in heaven already and somehow he snuck some bomb ass stanky herb into heaven where everything was perfect and nobody died and shot. and god told them not to smoke it. They could look at it and walking and steal its sweet aroma. But not smoke it. Hey you could probably touch it and watch as the herb sprouts buds, but don't smoke it. See that herb over there Adam and Eve? What herb god? That herb, here let me walk you over to it. Of yeah we see it. It looks cool and smells great. Well don't even think about smoking it. Wait you can smoke this? Wow that sounds awesome. Yeah I know it does and it is super awesome but don't smoke it ok? Sure ok god but why is that rainbow snake looking at us smiling and smoking the herb? Oh don't pay him no mind he has no power but he looks great don't he? I shot him down from the sky like lightning because he was trying to challenge me. he can sing better yeah and has amazing hair and shiny skin but who makes the world go round? This guy here exactly! But god the snake is flying Now and singing beautiful songs! Sure but ignore him if you smoke you'll end up just like him. But then the devil started talking and of course women are to blame so Eve smoked some of that stank ass weed with satan. Imagine that smoke sesh! So Eve and Stan toked it up nasty style without Adam right. Then Eve felt bad because she left Adam out of the crazy ass smoke sesh so she offered him some and he was like Craig on Friday at first like no but then why not? So Adam smoked that stank weed and they both realized they were naked! So being naked they ran to get clothes and God got mad at them for doing what he knew they were going to do anyway. God got mad at himself for sneaking in some bomb weed into the garden so he went nuclear and gave them death. Now we die. Because Adam and Eve smoked weed. We suffer and watch others do the same because god knew we were going to smoke weed. I smoke in the morning and at night and I always wonder what a smoke sesh with Jesus would've been like. Or a smoke sesh with the big G in the sky. But i hope to find out one day. I hope heaven is one big smoke sesh where god begs for forgiveness and I laugh hard and uncontrollably at his long beard and fire eyes. God knows weed. God smokes weed that's why he's god. We created alcohol and now drive under its influence. We drink alcohol to satisfy our urge to be Gods. We believe in ghosts but not in each other. Especially the Holy Ghost man that motherfucker sneaks into your soul through your Asshole and makes you speak in different languages. Like the Babylonians or the ancients who smoked dust and threw their kids into the fire beneath the golden calf. Religion is a man made artifact. Women were consulted but their advice was ignored, ursurped. Women are so busted! They caused death because they smoked that bomb weed with satan. Women are always the bad ones in the Bible go figure. God raped the Virgin for her sweet juice but it's her fault we die. If women had invented religion there would be none. Women couldn't even write a book in the Bible! They can't even preach or be pastors! Women can't wear jeans or be alone with white men because of their sweet juice and lustful thoughts. It's ok women are God's with a womb. We bow down to their power. To their superiority. Man made religion just brings more conflict and penis size arguments. Religion sucks like rancid meat tacos. Like spoiled milkshakes. Religion is maggots swimming in your vomit as you die a slow painful death knowing god created weed and made us die. C'mon god why would you do that to me? Your best buddy! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In the days before digital pictures, photographic negatives were common. A negative is an image where the light areas are reversed to appear dark, and the dark areas now become light. It creates a mirror of the photograph but is also its opposite. Today’s reading describes the relationship between Jesus and Adam. It may be helpful to think about it as a photographic negative. When Paul calls Adam a “pattern of the one to come” (v. 14), he implies that we can better understand Jesus by looking to Adam. Because Adam was humanity’s representative, when he sinned, all sinned (v. 12). Sin and death passed on to the human race through Adam. Through the sin of one, all became sinners. Likewise, through the obedience of one (Jesus), we can all be declared righteous. But Jesus’ obedience and death did much more than merely match Adam’s original sin. Jesus’ sacrifice surpassed what was needed. In this case, the gift was not like the trespass: “For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!” (v. 15). If God intended to offer righteousness as a gift through Jesus Christ, why did He give the law? Paul tells us in verse 20: “The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase.” God used the law to shine a light on human sin and to clearly show us our need for grace. Paul depicts the law as an assistant to grace, revealing our guilt and need for a righteousness that is apart from the law (Rom. 3:21).  >> If you’re taking notes on our study of Romans, add the terms “law” and “grace” to your definition list. The law reveals our guilt and our need for righteousness (Rom. 3:21). Grace is seen in God’s gift of righteousness, freely offered to you through Jesus Christ.

Because Adam's sin has caused our lives to be so short; and because God's saving love is so satisfying, we need God's guidance and power to live each day wisely so that we can make an eternal difference in the lives of others.

Because Adam’s sin has caused our lives to be so short; and because God’s saving love is so satisfying, we need God’s guidance and power to live each day wisely so that we can make an eternal difference in the lives of others.

  Colossians 1:15, 19-22 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.   [In] him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Often when we meditate on the Good News, we reflect on something that has happened and is true – “we were reconciled to God”. Often, we meditate on a name or attribute of Jesus – “our Passover lamb”. Who is solving this problem? It is Christ (verses 15-19). Who has the problem? Verse 21 says, “you… were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.”  Today I want to do something different. It is not a “what” or a “who” question, but a “why” question that I want us to think about. In business, when we encounter a very difficult problem, where it is tough to get to the root and solve it, there's a technique called “5 Whys” – where you continue to ask why, until you get to the root. The technique was originally developed by Sakichi Toyoda and was used within the Toyota Motor Corporation during the evolution of its manufacturing methodologies.[1] It works sort of like a 5-year-old asking “why, why, why, why, why.” Let's do that today with the gospel in these verses from Colossians. Why is being alienated from God a problem? Because God is holy and blameless and cannot accept us as we are. Why is that hard to solve? Because we can't “unalienate” ourselves from God. Why? Because we are constantly doing evil deeds (not to mention our thoughts or intentions behind even the good deeds we perform). Why? Because we are slaves to sin. Why? Because Adam sinned and passed along to all mankind the nature and proclivity to sin. So, five layers down, that is the root of our problem. To solve it, someone would need to remove every sin separating us from God – not just up to today or the problem would instantly return and be just as bad as before. It must be removed for all time. That is what Jesus Christ did for us. Look at verse 22 – (what?) he has now reconciled (how?) in his body of flesh by his death, (why?) in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Nothing and no one else go  down the steps of our problem to the very root and changes us and fixes us. No other religion even dares offer a solution to us that will transform us and clean us in our entirety, inside and out, head to toe. They all require us to be an agent in fixing our problem. It may sound believable to say, “You can look inside and believe in yourself and be better.” But it is outrageous to say, “You must look inside and believe in yourself to undo every mistake you've made, wrong thought you've entertained, and every hurtful action you've ever done.” Instead, we must look outside and believe in the perfect work of Jesus; he promises to present us holy and blameless and above reproach to God.   [1] Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_whys  

Let me begin by saying that I know many women who serve in ministry. Their passion, hard work, and dedication rivals and even exceeds that of many men I have come to know the in the gospel ministry. Women are one of the greatest gifts that God has given the world. But in our passion to promote women, have we overstepped the Scriptures? It's not uncommon for the church, as a whole, to over-correct itself when abuse occurs.We must understand that the loving, nurturing role of a woman is vital to the health of the church in the same way that it is vital to the health of a child. God has designed the male-female relationship to complement one another; one gender is not better than the other, but we do have different roles. To reject these God-given differences can lead to an unbalanced view.Second, many misunderstand male leadership as God designed it; it's not a glorified position, it's the position of a servant. A servant is called to protect, lead, and guard the church. We are to serve those God has entrusted to us. If there is a loud noise at home in the dead of night, do we encourage our wives to investigate? I hope not. God has called men to the position of servant leadership and protector.Third, we see from Genesis 3:16 that God ordained a leadership role for the man. However, throughout the years, men have neglected their God-given roles of leadership in the home and church. When men cower back from that role, who has been left to step to the plate? It has been godly women! Men must rise to the call of servant leadership. This type of leadership is not domineering or abusive; it's kind, gracious, and humble. Pastors are to serve those in church, not lord over them. God's design is not focused on “better than” or “superior” even though abuse has tarnished it.The Word of God proclaims, “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent” (1 Timothy 2:11–12). In the church, God assigns different roles to men and women. This is a result of the way mankind was created and the way in which sin entered the world (1 Timothy 2:13–14). God, through the apostle Paul, restricts women from serving in roles of teaching and/or having spiritual authority over men. This precludes women from serving as pastors over men, which definitely includes preaching to them, teaching them publicly, and exercising spiritual authority over them.There are many objections to this view of women in pastoral ministry. A common one is that Paul restricts women from teaching because in the first century, women were typically uneducated. However, 1 Timothy 2:11–14 nowhere mentions educational status. If education were a qualification for ministry, then the majority of Jesus' disciples would not have been qualified. One common objection is that Paul only restricted the women of Ephesus from teaching men (1 Timothy was written to Timothy, the pastor of the church in Ephesus). Ephesus was known for its temple to Artemis, and women were the authorities in that branch of paganism—therefore, the theory goes, Paul was only reacting against the female-led customs of the Ephesian idolaters, and the church needed to be different. However, the book of 1 Timothy nowhere mentions Artemis, nor does Paul mention the standard practice of Artemis worshipers as a reason for the restrictions in 1 Timothy 2:11–12.Another objection is that Paul is only referring to the context of husbands and wives, not men and women in general. When looking at 1 Timothy 2: 8-14, this cannot be referring only to husbands and wives. Are only husbands to lift up holy hands in prayer without anger and disputing (verse 8)? Are only wives to dress modestly, have good deeds, and worship God (verses 9–10)? Of course not. Verses 8–10 clearly refer to all men and women, not just husbands and wives.Yet another objection to this interpretation of women in pastoral ministry is in relation to women who held positions of leadership in the Bible, specifically Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah in the Old Testament. It is true that these women were chosen by God for special service to Him and that they stand as models of faith, courage, and, yes, leadership. However, the authority of women in the Old Testament is not relevant to the issue of pastors in the church. Some use Chloe in the New Testament as an example of women being pastors. They say that she was a house church leader according to 1 Corinthians 1:11, but the Scripture doesn't say that; it says “from Chloe's household.” Another woman referenced is Priscilla. She and her husband, Aquila, ministered together. Another example is Lydia in Acts 16. Her entire household was baptized and her home became a meeting place for early Christians.Although these women are mentioned, the context does not support the role of elder/pastor. The terms for pastor, bishop, or overseer were not used to describe them. Deborah, in the Old Testament, is another example used to support the idea of women as pastors. She was a powerful Old Testament figure who judged the nation of Israel for a season, but we cannot use this text to support the New Testament role of pastor, or “bishop,” of a church.In the Greek, the word for bishop is episkopos and the word for pastor is poimen; both terms refer to the same office, and they both come from masculine nouns that mean to shepherd or to care for. The qualifications for male leadership are found in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9. The Bible does not outline character traits for female pastors, nor does it use the words episkopos or poimen when describing their role. For those who agree with the position of women pastors, where does the Bible list the character traits needed for this role?Men are given the positions of pastors and elders because God gave them the role of leading and dying for their family and the church. I believe that Christ coming into the world as a man was strategic for this very reason: to lead, shepherd, and die for. It has nothing to do with the culture of Paul's day because the male/female role began at creation; it's not about “better,” it's about design. How did God design us? First Timothy 2:11-13 talks about women not usurping the headship of men.For further explanation, we need a more careful exegesis of Genesis 3. After Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden, God cursed the serpent, brought cursing on Adam and brought cursing on Eve. Verse 16 tells us To the woman He said,“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth,and in pain you will bring forth children;your desire will be for your husband,and he will rule over you.”That last phrase indicates that a woman's desire will be to rule over her husband. We all can understand what that means. You would be lying to say you have never heard the expression 'we know who wears the pants in that family". Many times this is to indicate that the wife runs the house or finances or whatever else she desires. Why does she desire to do that? Because of sin. But if we take an honest look, not an emotional look, at the scripture, the God-given design is for men to lead in the home and in the ministry of the church. The structure of 1 Timothy 2:11–14 makes the reason why women cannot be pastors perfectly clear. Verse 13 begins with “for,” giving the “cause” of Paul's statement in verses 11–12. Why should women not teach or have authority over men? Because “Adam was created first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived” (verses 13–14). God created Adam first and then created Eve to be a “helper” for Adam. The order of creation has universal application in the family (Ephesians 5:22–33) and in the church. The fact that Eve was deceived is also given in 1 Timothy 2:14 as a reason for women not serving as pastors or having spiritual authority over men. This does not mean that women are gullible or that they are all more easily deceived than men. If all women are more easily deceived, why would they be allowed to teach children (who are easily deceived) and other women (who are supposedly more easily deceived)? The text simply says that women are not to teach men or have spiritual authority over men because Eve was deceived. God has chosen to give men the primary teaching authority in the church.Many women excel in gifts of hospitality, mercy, teaching, evangelism, and helping/serving. Much of the ministry of the local church depends on women. Women in the church are not restricted from public praying or prophesying (1 Corinthians 11:5), only from having spiritual teaching authority over men. The Bible nowhere restricts women from exercising the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12). Women, just as much as men, are called to minister to others, to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23), and to proclaim the gospel to the lost (Matthew 28:18–20; Acts 1:8; 1 Peter 3:15).God has ordained that only men are to serve in positions of spiritual teaching authority in the church. This is not because men are necessarily better teachers or because women are inferior or less intelligent (which is not the case). It is simply the way God designed the church to function. Men are to set the example in spiritual leadership—in their lives and through their words. Women are to take a less authoritative role. Women are encouraged to teach other women (Titus 2:3–5). The Bible also does not restrict women from teaching children. The only activity women are restricted from is teaching or having spiritual authority over men. This precludes women from serving as pastors to men. This does not make women less important, by any means, but rather gives them a ministry focus more in agreement with God's plan and His gifting of them. This view has nothing to do with option, male dominance, abuse of authority, or male chauvinism, but everything to do with principles given in Scripture that allows each role to complement the whole. Times change, but truth does not.

In this episode of Hoosier Daddy, Jenna and Adam discuss the long overdue mask mandate in Indiana and the ripple effects it has caused. These include convicted batterer by the Indiana Supreme Court and groper of four women Attorney General Curtis Hill's advisory opinion and racist Jim Lucas' response to the mandate. Because Adam needed a laugh, they also read some hilarious reactions to these news stories! If you would like to contact us check out our website, hoosierdaddypod.com, send us an email at hoosierdaddypod@gmail.com, or tweet at us @hoosdaddy.

I’m not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but I relate super hard to that Iliza Schlezinger joke ‘the best part is, the new boyfriend… has no idea… what you’re hauling. And he welcomes you. Yes, he welcomes you to the new union. Come on in. You seem pretty cool and well-adjusted. And you’re, like, “Oh, I am! Yes, this seems like a safe place for me to… unpack my shit!’ Because Adam and I often joke together that this is how it happened with us. We settled into living together and my mental health took a sudden sharp downturn. Not because I was unhappy in the relationship, no, the opposite. Looking back, I think I was finally transitioning out of the survival mode I had been living in for as long as I could remember. This episode talks about the start of my journey with mental health as I travel it now, seeking awareness and healing rather than trying to suppress and keeping moving to avoid my pain. We also hear from Adam how he felt, having had no real experience dealing with mental health in a relationship and how he learned to best support me. If you are struggling and can’t find the light at the end of the tunnel, please feel free to reach out to us, we’re always happy to lend a helping hand where we can. I have also linked some additional resources for Australia and New Zealand to help you seek professional support. Remember, depression is a chemical flaw, not a personality one. Australian Support Information: https://www.beyondblue.org.au/ https://www.lifeline.org.au/get-help/facts-and-information New Zealand Support Information: https://www.health.govt.nz/your-health/services-and-support/health-care-services/mental-health-services/mental-health-services-where-get-help https://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/get-help/in-crisis/helplines/ Shower thought of the week: Have you ever thought about the fact that water tastes better when you’re thirsty or dehydrated?

Because Adam abdicated his reign to sin and death, Jesus Christ came to end the reign of sin and death and to restore the reign of His people through grace.

today er continue our Untapped series as we study The River of God. Pastor's Notes: TEXTEzekiel 47:1-9 NKJV Then he brought me back to the door of the [a]temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east; and there was water, running out on the right side.3 And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles. 4 Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist. 5 Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed. 6 He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river.7 When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. 8 Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the [b]valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed. 9 And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever [c]the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes.INTRODUCTIONGood morning!I hope you had as much fun last week as I did. We started our Untapped series, and we looked at God’s intention was man on the Earth, in His image. Because Adam dropped the ball, Jesus came and fixed the problem, and once again made us one with God. So Jesus didn’t just die to get us to Heaven, but so Heaven could also get on the inside of us!Today, I want to take this revelation just a little bit further. Today, I want to talk about “The River of God”. ILLUSTRATION In John 4:14, Jesus ministers to a woman at a well, and He tells her that all those who drink of the water that He gives (the water of life), it will “spring up a fountain of water springing up to everlasting life.”That’s why when you are saved, you can now share that water with others, and lead another soul to Christ! Water is often a symbol in the Scripture of the work of Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.TRANSITION Since all of this is starting to come together, let’s look at what Ezekiel shows us about the River of God. BACKGROUNDIn our passage and the chapters that are previous, the prophet Ezekiel is having a vision of the New Jerusalem and the temple. He is measuring the courts, the gates, and all of the other various aspects of this holy city. Then, he is taken to this river that is flowing. It seems to be a central characteristic of the New Jerusalem. In fact, John mentions it in Revelation 22:1- 5 NKJV. Here are the key characteristics I see when I look at this passage: APPLICATION The Source Of The River (vs. 1-2) - Ezekiel tells us that this river is coming from the temple.- It is flowing. A pond is stagnant, but a river flows. The Levels Of The River (vs. 3-5) - He walked out some, and it hit his ankles. - Then his knees. - Then his waist. - Then it was over his head where the water would overtake him. The Purpose Of The River (vs. 6-9) - This river would give life. It flowed to the Dead Sea and brought resurrection to that which had been dead. - It brought healing. - Everything that touched the river would live!- Part of the proof of it’s existence was the life surrounding everything. CONCLUSION How do we seal this up? Just like we learned last week, salvation concerns Heaven, but it doesn’t ONLY concern Heaven. Well, this River of Life concerns Heaven, but it doesn’t ONLY concern Heaven!In John 7:37-39 NKJV, Jesus said concerning these thingsOn the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those [a]believing in Him would receive; for the [b]Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit!We can choose how far we walk out in the River of GodThe life that is in us is there to take it to the nations! THIS IS THE PURPOSE OF THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT! The life of God is IN us, but the life of God also wants to flow THROUGH us!When that dam of water bursts forth, the very first thing it will affect is your tongue! Your mouth won’t even be able to use English fully to express what you feel down on the inside. That life will bubble forth!Who’s ready to come and jump in the river? Or do you just want to put your toes in?

Genesis 3:1–24View the Sunday bulletin here. Sermon PreviewThis weekend is week three of our advent series: “Delighting in the Generosity of God.” Last weekend, we saw from Genesis 1–2 that God created a world where everything was “very good” and planted a garden full of bounty and beauty. And he created Adam and Eve in his image and placed them in this garden to savor his gifts and spread his generosity throughout creation. Like Adam and Eve, we were created to live in and extend this garden as we enjoyed God’s generosity.Looking around us in 2019, we can see something went terribly wrong. With even a cursory glance, we see a world around us filled with scarcity and brokenness; a world where there doesn’t seem to be enough and many people experience extreme lack. And we see others fight over and hoard what little there is. And if we look inside ourselves, we see our own disappointment with what we have and our desire for more. The story our world tells us now seems very different than the story we saw in Genesis 1–2. What went wrong? How did we go from bounty and beauty to thorns and thistles?This is the story of Genesis 3. Because Adam and Eve believed the serpent’s false story of a god who hoards the best for himself, they ate of the forbidden fruit and unleashed an avalanche of destruction into God’s very good creation. This weekend, we’ll look at the story of Genesis 3 and trace the path from distrust to disobedience to disaster. But we’ll also see the true story of the generosity of God continue to bring light to darkness as God promises a descendant of the woman who will one day crush the head of the serpent. Would you join us this Sunday at 10 am at the Skyline Plaza as we hear this story together?Sunday Music

God drove man out of the Garden of Eden. Because Adam and Eve longed to return angels were posted to guard the entrance. Fallen man still longs after paradise. Ever since, the urge for paradise has consumed the human race. Psychology's goal is to make better men and women therefore, make a better world. 

Today on the show, Jim and Abigail tackle author-submitted blurbs to rip them to shreds and build them back up, one line at a time. Here are this episode’s read-along selections: --Blurb: Author: A. D. Davies Title: The Dead and the Missing (Adam Park Thriller Book 1) A brutal international underworld. A lost girl. A PI determined to burn it all. Former private investigator Adam Park is living a quiet life of surfing and travel. But when a troubled young woman and her manipulative boyfriend disappear, Adam's former mentor cuts that retirement short. It seems the pair stole something important from the wrong ruthless criminal - evidence that puts his business and reputation under threat. Using cutting-edge technology, Adam tracks the pair through the Parisian underworld and into an international organized crime network that treats human life like a business commodity. To survive ruthless traffickers, confront corrupt law enforcement, and return the girl safely, Adam must burn down his concepts of right and wrong, and draw upon violent facets of his psyche that he has long denied exist. Because Adam is a good person. Isn’t he? The Dead and the Missing is a suspense filled, international mystery & crime thriller, a journey that launches a PI from the relative safety of the corporate world to the hard-boiled existence required to get the job done. At any cost to his soul.   --Ad: Author: Audrey Rich Title: Masquerading Our Love (A Stonehaven High Series Book 1) A decade of silence. How long can Christopher and Thalía keep their identities a secret before their parents tear them apart? Buy now to read if...   Thalía and Christopher are torn apart between fate and their parents in this Romeo and Juliet happily-ever-after story. You can buy now to read...     --Abigail's Targeted Tip: Review each nugget of information you provide about your MC. Does this create a cohesive (and accurate) picture of who they are?     Check out Jim’s Your Favorite Thriller Podcast at www.jimheskett.com/thrillerpodcast   Want to submit your own blurb for consideration? Fill out the form at www.bestpageforward.net/podcast or send an email to BestPageForwardShow@gmail.com

Yo Yo! To celebrate our new found print fame (We're in the Indianapolis Star today) we're releasing a double Indiana barrel-aged beer episode.We kick things off with Books and Brews' Shiaclops. We follow that up with Taxman Brewing's Mescal Barrel Exemption.Because Adam single-handily brought us the fame now bestowed upon us we allow him more bleeps and pauses than we ever have before! If you like, Adam you're sure to love this episode!

Because Adam didn't have his internet delivered to him by a system of carrier pigeons, our sound quality is back to its normal, lofi but entirely listenable state! This week, we talk about Anthony Bourdain, the mess that was the G7 Summit, a community facing eviction in South Tulsa, and Oklahoma's incarceration rate. Additionally, we call out the Tulsa Beacon for being a homophobic rag unable to spell. As always, we've got links to a variety of things and a list of the socialist events of the week on the reddit post: https://old.reddit.com/r/redstaroveroklahoma/comments/8q906j/44_yes_potcoin_is_real/ Rate and review us, hang up some posters, and get ready for some extra-special primary coverage!

sermon transcript A Panoramic View Some years ago, my son Nathaniel and I were hiking in the White Mountains. We climbed Mt. Washington, the tallest mountain in New Hampshire and the most prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River, which offers spectacular view if the weather permits. We hiked the Tuckerman Ravine trail and as is often the case on that mountain, the weather was inclement — foggy and drizzly. Nathaniel had never been up that trail before but I knew what he was missing. I prayed for the weather to clear so he could experience the view. As we climbed above the tree-line where the views of the entire region are incredible, the fog and clouds cleared enough to allow us to see the view for about ten minutes. From that lofty perch, we had a spectacular, breathtaking panoramic view of the entire Mt. Washington valley below us — other peaks and valleys, countless trees, glistening rivers and lakes — before the fog closed back in. This is the final sermon in the book of Revelation, the culmination of almost a year of sermons in this book — 49 in total. Today we will take in a panoramic view of this incredible final book of the Bible. From our vantage point, having preached line by line and chapter by chapter, through the entire book, I pray that we would have a sense of its hidden truths. “Revelation,” both in the Greek (apokalupsis) and in English, literally means pulling back or removal of a veil, to show us hidden spiritual realities. Faith is the eyesight of the soul by which we see these invisible spiritual realities of the past, present and future, based on the Word of God. Another image comes from the title of a sermon John MacArthur preached years ago — “Jet Tour through the Book of Revelation” — in which he preached through the entire book in about 75 minutes. In the Mall of America in Minneapolis, there is a flight simulation ride in an IMAX theater called “FlyOver America.” It takes people on an aerial tour of some key landmarks and spectacles throughout the United States — Grand Canyon, Grand Tetons, other national parks, the Mississippi River — using virtual flight technology. It is a “full immersion experience,” including various weather patterns like wind and mist, and even has aromas diffused into the theater. We do not want to provide a full immersion experience with this sermon, given the overwhelming, terrifying topics and images in the book of Revelation. The prophet Daniel was he was left half-alive, speechless, breathless, lying on the ground with some of his visions. In Daniel 8:27, after a specific prophecy of Alexander the Great, he said, “I, Daniel, was exhausted and lay ill for several days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding.” If God Himself were to pour into our souls vividly the kind of images he gave to John or Daniel, we would be similarly laid out, barely able to breathe. Purpose Statement We will walk through an overview all 22 chapters, and then I will pull out seven organizing themes. It begins in Revelation 1:1 with God’s purpose statement for this book. “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.” That is a statement of the two central topics of Revelation: Jesus Christ unveiled, and the future unveiled. The Ultimate Author and the Human Author Revelation 1:1-2 says, “He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw — that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.” The ultimate author of this book is Almighty God; the human author is the Apostle John. God the Father mediated the book to us: He gave the revelation to Jesus; Jesus gave it through the Spirit to an angel; the angel gave it to John; and John gave it to us. In verses 4-5 there is an ascription to, or a greeting, from the triune God: “Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come [Almighty God], and from the seven spirits [or seven-fold spirit, referring to the Holy Spirit] before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” There are blessings attached to reading this book, as verse 3 tells us: “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” Christ the High Priest The rest of chapter 1 is a vision of the resurrected, glorified Christ moving through seven golden lampstands, dressed like a priest, which gives us a picture of the high priestly ministry of Jesus. The seven golden lampstands represent seven local churches in the province of Asia, which is modern-day Turkey. They were literal actual churches that were planted and growing and thriving or struggling in John’s day but they also represent all local churches in all geographical locations throughout all eras of church history, the number seven representing perfection or completion. These churches are relevant to all of us. They are golden lampstands in that they are indescribably valuable to God and that they are set up to give light to everyone around. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” We are called on to be lights shining in our locality. Jesus walking in among them shows his active continual ministry to each and every local church in the world — continually aware of them, ministering to them, trimming their wicks, ruling over them, studying them, and addressing them. The Seven Churches (Revelation 2-3) Revelation 2-3 are letters to the seven churches from Jesus. Jesus speaks to the seven churches, and through the seven churches speaks to all of us both as a local church and as individual Christians. John is commanded to write down the words of Jesus Christ to each church and each church is commanded to read not only its own letter but the letters of all the other churches as well. Through that doorway, we Christians read all seven letters and are addressed by God. The letters show that Christ knows in perfect detail what is happening with each of the local churches around the world. He evaluates the churches in terms of their opportunities and their dangers...and their performance (their deeds) — the ways they please Him and the ways they displease Him. In every case, he appeals to individual Christians within the churches to overcome Satanic attacks and to live victorious lives in their circumstances by the power of the Spirit. He promises rewards to those who will overcome. In the end, all local churches are temporary, like scaffolding on the real temple or church that is being built, but the individuals within them are eternal. From the cumulative lesson of the seven churches, we are exhorted to labor diligently for the Gospel and for the lost in our communities. We are exhorted to expose false teaching and refute it. We are exhorted to be sexually pure and to not tolerate sin in our lives or in our local church. We are told to stand firm in times of persecution. We are told to perceive open doors of ministry opportunity that God has set before us so that we can walk through those doors for his glory. We are warned to perceive Satan’s specific attacks in our community, to perceive where he might have a throne set up and how he is attacking truth. Individually we are warned not to forsake our first love, not to become lukewarm but to be passionate in our walk with Christ. Christ searches hearts and minds and will reward each person according to what he has done. We are threatened as a church that if we are not faithful to the internal journey of holiness and the external journey of Gospel advance, he will remove the lamp stand and continue on without this local church, so we must be diligent and vigilant in all of these things. We are individually promised many, varied, rich eternal rewards if we will overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit. God the Creator (Revelation 4) The next vision in the Book of Revelation is the most important in the entire book. John, in exile on the island of Patmos, was given an incredible invitation to ascend from the surface of the earth to go through an open door to perceive what is in Heaven. Revelation 4:1-2 says, “After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.” That throne (and the One sitting on it) is the central reality of the universe. It is the throne of Almighty God, the King of the Universe. Because Satan rebelled against that throne, he was hurled from Heaven to earth in disgrace with his angels, the demons. Because Adam and the human race joined Satan’s rebellion against that throne, we stand in need of a Savior. Because of human rebellion against the throne of God, wrath and curse and judgments are poured out on earth. It is reconciliation to God and surrendering to that throne, kneeling before Him, that saves us. In Revelation 7, the multitude greater than anyone could count are standing in white robes before that throne; they have been reconciled to it. In Revelation 22, God’s servants surround His throne there in the city, and His servants will serve Him forever. That throne, the Kingship of Almighty God, is the central reality of the universe and should be the central reality of our lives. Around this throne are twenty-four other thrones, representing the twenty-four esteemed elders, redeemed, sinners saved by grace but put in positions of honor there. They are continually falling down, casting their crowns, specifically celebrating and worshiping God the Creator, who created all things. Christ the Redeemer (Revelation 5) In chapter 5, the dramatic heavenly scene continues, shifting to focus on Christ the Redeemer. John sees a scroll sealed with seven seals in the right hand of Him who sits on the throne. A mighty angel cries out, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll? But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.” It is a very dramatic moment. In Revelation 5:5-7, “… one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.’ Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne ... He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. This is Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Lamb that was slain for the sins of the world. He is the centerpiece of our Sovereign God’s redemptive plan in history. Not only does he have the right to take the scroll and break open its seals to unfold events in history, he also has the right to stand in the center of the throne with Almighty God and share worship as God. He is a terrifying Lion to all of his enemies. But for the rest of the book he is not depicted as a lion. Even while dreadful judgments are happening, he is called the Lamb. That is because he is a Lamb for us. He is gentle and loving and kind; our Redeemer. By the Lamb, we are not swept away in the wrath and judgment that we deserve. He is equally worthy of worship as God the Creator, so those present in Heaven fall down in cascading worship of him, praising him because he shed his blood and “with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.” The Seven Seals (Revelation 6) In Revelation 6, Jesus begins to break open the seven seals one after the other. As a result of the actions of the Sovereign God through Jesus Christ, events happen on earth. The first four seals result in the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, bringing a series of devastations on the earth that are not unique: famine, certain types of governments, wars and rumors of war. Jesus told us in Matthew 24 that these things would come in every generation. Some scholars think that these first four seals are the unfolding of judgments throughout history preliminary to the final events; others have a different interpretation. The fifth seal focuses on martyrs, brothers and sisters in Christ who have died unjustly at the hands of the devil and his henchmen on earth. They are depicted in Heaven under the altar of God, crying out for vengeance and justice. “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood? They were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.” God has a certain number of martyrs, which will greatly increase at the end of the world. The sixth seal seems to usher in the events that will bring the end of the world. Revelation 6:12-17 says, “I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who will be able to stand?’” This seal tells of the impending devastation of nature and the end of all things. The Countless Multitude Redeemed (Revelation 7) At the end of chapter 6, as the people are looking for refuge, for a place to stand but finding none — just as in Noah’s day, people found no place to stand when the waters rose — people ask “When the great day of the wrath of God comes, who will be able to stand?” Revelation 7 answers that question. There will be a group of people able to survive God’s wrath. Christians should be thanking God at this moment, because we are no different than those who deserve to be swept away by God’s wrath. We are all sinners. But in Revelation 7, salvation is clearly portrayed, first for the Jews and then for the Gentiles. Revelation 7:4-8 depicts the elect, 12,000 redeemed from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, 144,000 total. This is symbolic but also literal in the pattern of Jew first, then Gentile. Revelation 7:9-10 depicts “a multitude greater than anyone can count from every tribe and language and people and nation,” wearing white robes, holding palm branches, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” These are the saved, the redeemed from all over the world, the fruit of missions. These are the treasure that Christ shed his blood to win, the point of the history of redemption. They are standing before the throne, no longer rebels but now delighted to serve Him who sits on the throne. The Seven Trumpets (Revelation 8-9) Breaking open the seventh seal produces the seven trumpet judgments, which are God’s judgment poured out on planet earth, part one. They result in ecological disaster such as the world has never seen before. Revelation is one of the most difficult books in the Bible to interpret, but it is possible to take a simple, grammatical, historical approach, looking through the symbolic language to a literal physical prediction of the future. The seven trumpets provide one of the key hermeneutical — interpretive — texts to the entire book. They cannot merely be symbolic; nothing like these events at this scale has ever occurred in history, so they must be predictions of future events that will occur. Because of Adam’s sin, part of his judgment (and through him our judgment), the ecology of the earth was cursed. The ground would now produce thorns and thistles. The sins of Noah’s generation resulted in the entire earth being flooded. Romans 8 says that the earth is groaning and in bondage to decay, and so it will be at the end of the world. These seven trumpets unleash a series of horrific judgments designed to give sinners on earth one final chance to repent before the end comes. The first trumpet results in fires raging on the surface of the earth, burning up a third of all the trees as well as all the green grass. The second leads to a third of the sea turning into blood, a third of the sea creatures dying, and a third of the ships being destroyed. The third causes a third of all the fresh water on earth to be poisoned. The fourth sees a third of the sun, moon, and stars darkened, which could mean a reduction in their total brightness. The fifth unleashes a billowing cloud of demons pouring forth from the Abyss to assault the human race, stinging like a scorpion, tormenting people for five months. People will yearn for death but not be able to die. The sixth brings a horrific demonic/human army that sweeps over the surface of the earth, numbering 200 million, slaughtering one third of all mankind — up to three billion people dying. Despite all of this horror, Revelation 9:20 makes a tragic statement: “The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent.” The Scroll and the Two Witnesses (Revelation 10-11) The next two chapters, Revelation 10 and 11, present a unifying theme of witness of speaking to the earth about what is happening. John is commissioned, or recommissioned, by a mighty, glorious angel, who takes his stand with one foot on the sea and one on the earth, with his head in the clouds. He holds a scroll in his hand, lying open, representing the revelation of God. There are certain aspects of this scene that John hears but is not allowed to write down. They are secrets. But there is also an open scroll. John is commanded to eat the scroll, which tastes sweet in his mouth but bitter in his stomach. He is told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.” He is recommissioned to explain these events to the world. Chapter 11 reveals two witnesses — John MacArthur said he would volunteer to be one. They stand before the beast, the Antichrist in the city where Jesus was crucified (Jerusalem). They testify boldly and clearly for three and a half years about the ecological disasters. They are able to shut the sky so it will not rain. No one can overcome them, for “fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies.” The Antichrist, however, is finally able to kill them, but after three days they rise and they ascend to Heaven. Satan’s Savage Attack on the People of God (Revelation 12) Revelation 12 is one of the clearest depictions in the Bible of our invisible but real enemy, Satan. He is repeatedly portrayed as a massive dragon. He stands before a pregnant woman, radiant and glorious. He is ready to devour her male child the moment he is born. This child, who is definitely Jesus, will rule all the nations. The woman represents, not specifically Mary, the mother of Jesus, but rather Israel, the people of God. Satan tries to kill Jesus before his time, but he fails — Jesus finished his mission on earth and then was caught up to Heaven. Then the devil turns his attention to Heaven to take it over. He wars against God but again loses his battle. The archangel Michael and his angels defeated Satan and his demons and cast them down to the earth. We do not know whether this detail has already happened or is still future, or both, but the devil is “filled with fury because he knows that his time is short.” For the rest of the chapter and the rest of the book, he exerts all his effort against Jesus’ followers, “those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.” He hates them. He is a very powerful foe but one who is frustrated again and again in his violent designs against God and his people. That is a great encouragement to us. Satan’s Greatest Weapon (Revelation 13) In chapter 13, Satan wields his greatest weapon against the church, the Antichrist. That word does not appear in Revelation, but is found elsewhere. Here we see Satan standing by the sea and summoning a beast from it. This image comes directly from Daniel’s vision in Daniel 7 in which four successive beasts emerge from a turbulent sea, each representing a world empire. In Revelation 13, there is one beast, one final terrifying empire, ultimately consolidated to the power of one man. 1 John 2 calls him the “Antichrist” — “You have heard that Antichrist is coming; even now many antichrists have come.” This world ruler is given power over the entire earth. Previous wicked rulers have controlled at most only 1⁄4 of the earth (Genghis Khan) or less. This final tyrant will have it all. He will dominate it economically and militarily, but even more, he will dominate it in a religious sense. The people will worship him, because it appears that he died and came to life again. He is a parody of the Son of God. The last part of the chapter concerns a second figure, the “False Prophet” or the Beast from the Earth, who uses false miracles, signs and wonders to persuade people to worship the Beast. In spite of the miracles, believers will not be deceived. He causes everyone to receive a mark on the forehead or hand, which is required for buying and selling. He will use the economic situation to force everyone to worship the Antichrist. The Warning from God Proclaimed (Revelation 14) In Revelation 14 we have a timeless warning concerning the terrors of Hell, of the judgment against any who receive the Mark of the Beast, who follow Satan in his rebellion against God. We must be faithful to tell our generation, even if we are not the final generation, that everyone who is condemned throughout history will be cast into the Lake of Fire, or Hell, experiencing eternal conscious torment. Revelation 14:11-12 says, “And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name. This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.” We are to endure patiently and to labor for the glory of God; we will receive rewards for doing so. The Seven Bowls (Revelation 16) Revelation 16 brings the final judgments to be poured out on the earth. They parallel the seven trumpet judgments, but these are even more dreadful. Indeed, we cannot imagine the earth long enduring after them. This is the end. The first bowl brings malignant sores on the skin of people all over the world. The second bowl turns not one third but the entire ocean to blood and every living creature in the sea dies. The third bowl turns all fresh water to blood. The fourth bowl scorches people by searing heat from the sun. The fifth bowl results in an eerie, supernatural darkness. The sixth bowl opens the way for the kings of the earth to gather their armies to go a place, Armageddon, where the final battle will happen. The seventh bowl unleashes a massive earthquake and huge hailstones which kill many. The cumulative effect of all the events of Revelation is suffering but no repentance. Revelation 16:8-9 says, “…they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.” Let me insert here: if you have repented of your sins because you know that you need a Savior, if you have turned in faith to Jesus Christ, then thank God for your salvation. This is a miracle of grace in each of your lives and you should never cease being thankful that God granted you the gift of repentance and faith in Jesus, because these people do not repent; their hearts are only hardened. Babylon the Great (Revelation 17-18) Revelation 17 and 18 take us backward to reveal the concept of the world, “Babylon the Great.” In Revelation 17 she is portrayed as a whore, dressed in rich purple robes. She is enticing and alluring and is getting drunk on immoral pleasures and on the blood of the saints. She represents the allure, the enticing power of Satan’s wicked, complex world system. In addition, Revelation 18 depicts Babylon as a powerful massive port city in which ships captains deposit their wares, signifying power and material wealth and prosperity and sexual allure and food — all the sensual pleasures of this present age, the world system. The great whore Babylon is cast down by the power of God and destroyed by His judgment. In these chapters, God gives us a timeless warning from Heaven about the danger of Babylon: Revelation 18:4 says, “Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues…” Do not love the world or anything in it, the warning says. The Second Coming of Christ (Revelation 19) In Revelation 19 we have at last the Second Coming of Christ. As we saw from the beginning of the book, “Behold, he is coming soon.” He is returning after all the judgments have come. The armies of Antichrist gather in one place, Armageddon, to wipe out the remnant of God’s people on earth. They think it will be an easy battle. It will be, but not as they suppose, because at that moment, Jesus Christ comes from Heaven to rescue his Bride. He will not allow her to be erased from the face of the earth. Revelation 19:11-16 says, “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter.’ He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” The Beast and his armies fight against him, but in a vast understatement, they lose. It is not any effort for Jesus to win that battle; he simply wins. A Thousand Years and the Final Judgment (Revelation 20) The Beast and all who fight against Jesus on that battlefield are consigned to the Lake of Fire. Satan is bound for a thousand years so that he cannot deceive the nations any longer. At the end of the thousand years, he is released. He gathers an army from the ends of the earth in one final rebellion against Almighty God, but they are defeated. The devil is thrown at last into the Lake of Fire. Then follows the Great White Throne judgment. Rev. 20:11-15 “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books... If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire.” All of God’s enemies are weeded out, thrown into the Lake of Fire. The Redeemed are all that are left. New Heaven, New Earth, New Jerusalem (Revelation 21-22) and a Final Invitation (Revelation 22:17) In Revelation 21 and 22, we have at last the goal of everything, The New Heaven and the New Earth, the New Jerusalem. Revelation 21:1-4 says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’” We have studied the beauty of the New Jerusalem, the world that is coming. It is the capital city of God’s new universe, a radiant glorious place. Revelation 22:1-5 tells of its culmination: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.” They will see his face — that is what I am looking forward to — the source of all goodness and holiness and beauty and perfection there has ever been, the thing that was denied to Moses on the mountain. He was told that was something no one ever had seen or can see. At last we will be in our resurrection bodies and we will be able to see the full glory of God in the face. We will thrive and serve Him forever. The final verse in the Bible, Revelation 22:17, says, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” Seven Timeless Lessons Theme #1: God the Creator First, God the Creator rules the world. This is the first most important lesson of Christian theology: there is a king, Almighty God, who rules all things, for He made all things. Revelation 4:11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Every living thing on earth continues to exist because of the power of God the Creator, for in Him we live and move and have our being. Therefore, seek him continually in His kingly glory; submit yourself to His reign every moment of your lives. Make it your goal to please God the King with every fiber of your being. Theme #2: Christ the Redeemer and Sinners Second, Christ the Redeemer will triumph gloriously. The second greatest lesson of the Book of Revelation is really the first lesson extended to include human sinners: God reigns with and through His Son Jesus Christ who died on the cross, who shed his blood as an atoning sacrifice, for sinners all over the world. Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, has triumphed already and will ultimately triumph. Christ the Lamb of God was slain and has risen from the dead. By his blood he purchased people for God from every nation on earth. He is worthy to take the scroll and open its seals. He is worthy not only to control history — he is history. He is the Alpha and the Omega and every letter in between. The unfolding of the history of the world, even to the end, is in Christ’s hands. At the end of the world, at his Second Coming, he will slaughter his unrepentant enemies mercilessly and powerfully. In the New Heaven, New Earth, New Jerusalem, Christ will reign with God gloriously and openly. Therefore, trust in him now. You have an opportunity before these events unfold to cross over from death to life. Trust in Jesus; repent, turn away from your sins. Ask God to give you the gift of repentance and faith while there is time. Theme #3: Satan, Our Enemy Third, Satan is a relentless foe who hates God and His people, who is vastly more powerful than any of us. In his hand the whole world does wickedness and evil. “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” But praise God he is frustrated and defeated again and again and again by the sovereign power of God. Do not underestimate him: beware of his power, beware of the allure and pull of this satanic Babylon is on your soul. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. … For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” [1 John 2:15-16] That is Babylon. Flee it while you can. Theme #4: Christians Must Overcome Fourth, Christians must overcome by the Spirit. Revelation says repeatedly, “To him who overcomes…” in Revelation 2 and 3. Individual brothers and sisters in Christ have a battle, a warfare, to fight. It will not be easy to get to Heaven. We must conquer by the power of the Spirit. Consider these verses: Revelation 2:7 “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” Revelation 2:11 “He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.” Revelation 3:21 “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.” By faith in the Word of God, we overcome. Ephesians 6:10-13 says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Theme #5: A Countless Multitude Fifth, a countless multitude will be redeemed. Put simply, missions will work, and are working already! Let us sacrifice to take the Gospel to every tribe, language, people and nation. Let us care about and pray for missions and be involved in evangelism right here. People from every tribe, language, people and nation, including thus far unreached people groups, will most certainly be standing before that throne. Theme #6: Satan’s Servants Sixth, Satan’s servants, the wicked, will be condemned. Paul had “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” because of those who would be condemned to Hell. We should ask God to give us broken hearts over those who will be eternally punished. No book of the Bible so clearly depicts the ultimate end of the wicked as this book. Revelation 20:15 says, “If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire.” The recent volcanic eruption on one of the Hawaiian islands, which is now overflowed by lava, is the closest I can come to imagining swimming in a sea of lava, but that is what Hell is. In some mysterious way, God sustains the existence of those who are tortured in Hell. “The worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” It is eternal conscious torment. We must feel the burden of that for people who are lost around us more than we do. Theme #7: The Old Universe and the New Universe Seventh, the present universe, which is temporary, is under a curse. But someday a world, radiantly beautiful, will take its place. The New Heaven and the New Earth will come, and the New Jerusalem will be the capital city of that new empire. We will spend eternity looking at the glory of God in the new world that He will make. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. We will go in and out of the gates of the New Jerusalem and we will spend eternity celebrating the glory of God. Closing Prayer Father, we thank you for the book of Revelation. Thank you for its deep, powerful, rich interlocking themes. We thank you for the way it glorifies God and Christ. Thank you for the way it tells us the truth and warns us of “what must soon take place.” Nothing will stop the judgments that are coming. Help us, O Lord, to be vigilant over our own souls, that we be holy and that we not be worldly. And help us to be active in warning our generation of the coming wrath and urging people to flee and find refuge in Christ. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Do you want to learn how to love like the Bible teaches? Bible-based love, indeed any Bible-based relationships, can be attained if we understand what the Bible says about love. Loving someone rightly is difficult because selfish motives often seep into even our closest relationships. In this episode, Fr. Mike Schmitz connects the Old and New Testaments, using the story of the Fall in Genesis to show how, despite our selfish motives, we are still made for love. He shows how the Fall was not a curse from God but a remedy for humanity’s broken idea of love. Because Adam and Eve — and subsequently, each one of us — chose self-preservation over self-gift and wanted pleasure apart from sacrifice, God had to teach us that love costs something. He provided a remedy and a Redeemer so we could learn to be a gift from him to others. Fr. Mike is also a presenter in these faith formation programs from Ascension: Belonging: Baptism in the Family of God (http://bit.ly/2rdOFy7) Chosen: This is Your Catholic Faith (http://bit.ly/2r32vUK) Altaration: The Mystery of the Mass Revealed (http://bit.ly/2rIYjfE) YOU: Life, Love and the Theology of the Body (http://bit.ly/2nKLug5) Get 18 of Fr. Mike’s best Ascension Presents videos in this exclusive DVD from Ascension: Ascension Presents … Fr. Mike Schmitz (http://bit.ly/2sKUnJN) Fr. Mike spoke at the Ascension Cafe during the World Meeting of Families. Watch him and other speakers get fired up over the gospel in the Ascension Cafe DVD (http://bit.ly/2sYtQaW). MORE FROM ASCENSION: Ascension Press main website: http://ascensionpress.com Ascension Presents website: http://ascensionpresents.com The Great Adventure Blog: http://biblestudyforcatholics.com/blog SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AscensionPress/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/AscensionPress LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asce... Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/ascensionpress/

Two items of business were left for this week on BangTheBook Radio. Two of our favorite segments, in fact. Host Adam Burke went over all five of his plays for Week 11 in the Westgate SuperContest with pinch hitter Wes Reynolds, who filled in for Sports Cheetah this week. Because Adam played the Thursday Night Football game, all five picks were submitted, so he talked about the thought process for his games and gave news, notes, stats, and trends in support of his NFL betting picks. Brent from DSI Sportsbook joined us once again for another edition of The Odds Report. After a discussion on the heavy game day line moves that we are seeing this season, the guys talked about sharp money in both the college football and NFL betting markets. Sharp players have been very active again this week and hit sides and totals that had value. Brent hit on those games, talked about his wager counts and money amounts, and discussed where those lines may move as we get closer to kickoff. This view from the other side of the counter is a favorite segment for our guests and for our host as well.

By now you may have seen or heard an interview with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg discussing her recently released new book, Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy. Although she is the headliner, Sandberg had a co-author on the project -- the incredible Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist, professor and accomplished author in his own right. We were lucky enough to land Adam as this week’s Better Off guest. Adam, named Wharton’s top-rated professor for five straight years, has already authored two New York Times bestselling books. Originals explores how individuals champion new ideas and leaders fight groupthink and Give and Take examines why helping others drives our success. His latest project with Sandberg focuses on resilience and how to use it in everyday life to become better off, a core theme of our podcast. Life isn’t always a smooth ride and inevitably you’re going to have to deal with some bumps in the road. Whether it’s the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job or a bad financial decision, at some point along the way there are going to be tough times that you will face. For Sheryl this moment came after the sudden death of her husband Dave Goldberg. Stuck in a deep void, she felt that she and her children would never again experience joy. It was Adam who helped her realize that there are concrete steps she could take to recover and rebound from the life-shattering experience. Adam notes that deep down inside all of us, we all have resilience -- and combined with a support system, it’s possible for of us to grow and find even greater appreciation in our lives. I think this book with help you prepare for the next hurdle you encounter. Quick side note...it’s always our goal to get our guests with us in-studio but due to conflicting schedules, we conducted this interview on the phone. Because Adam we was so good and the topic so important, we decided the phone shouldn’t stop us from running it. We hope you agree! “Better Off” is sponsored by Betterment. We love feedback so please leave us a rating or review in iTunes. "Better Off" theme music is by Joel Goodman, www.joelgoodman.com. For a recap of every episode, visit https://www.betterment.com/resources/topics/inside-betterment/better-off-podcast/. Connect with me at these places for all my content: http://www.jillonmoney.com/ https://twitter.com/jillonmoney https://www.facebook.com/JillonMoney https://www.instagram.com/jillonmoney/ https://www.youtube.com/c/JillSchlesinger https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillonmoney/ https://soundcloud.com/jill-schlesinger http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/jill-on-money http://betteroffpodcast.com/ https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/better-off-jill-schlesinger/id431167790?mt=2

Hello, you've reached the download page for PlayStation Derailed: the dirtiest, realest, and most hate-driven rant radio show that cannot stay on one topic for more than 60 seconds. Make sure to check out the episode below, and download/subscribe whichever way you want. Do it. I'm not sure what would make this episode unlucky, but for the sake of superstition, let's just say it is. That's right, folks, we've reached our 13th episode! Oooh, scary. Why? Because Adam “diggity” Dolge is back to join Don and Mike at the paranormal PSU towers to bring you the dirty on all the games he's been playing. That includes Final Fantasy XIII-2, NeverDead, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and more. Follow us on Twitter: PSU - @PSUdotcom Don Oliveira – East Coast Editor - @DonOther Adam Dolge – Executive Editor - @AdamDiggidy Got any questions/comments you want read on the show? Email us at podcast@psu.com

Introduction “And now these three remain, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.” So says the final verse of 1 Corinthians 13. And as I meditate on that, I think about what does it mean these three remain? Could it be at the end of your life, when there's nothing else left? You're conscious that you're dying, you're at the end of your life, you're not sure what else is left, these three will still be there: Faith, hope, and love, at the end of your life. But you know what's gonna happen if you believe in Christ? Soon faith and hope itself will drop off. Faith will become sight, and you'll no longer need to hope for what you do not have, you'll have it. And you know what we'd be left with then? Love. And as Jonathan Edwards put it in an incredible sermon I read, “Heaven is a World of Love.” You will step across that divide that river of death, and you'll step into a world of love that can scarcely be described. A world rich with love, with the consummation of love, with love incarnate there on his throne, Jesus Christ, and your own heart will be transformed in an instant and all the things you labored for all your life to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love your neighbor as yourself, will be instantly given you as a gift. And you'll be transformed into a person of love, fit for a world of love. And you'll be welcomed in at that point. That's the consummation. Isn't it? That's what we're looking for. Heaven is a world of love. But this world is not a world of love. It's not characterized by love. It ought to be, but it isn't. And so, we are surrounded by 6 billion people, and very few of them really know what love is, have experienced the love of Christ. Few there are that find it, Jesus said. And sometimes in the simplest acts of kindness and generosity, there can be an oasis of love in the middle of all that, that gives us a foretaste of that future world of love. And how sweet is that? Sometimes, it can even happen while watching a movie. It doesn't always happen, but sometimes it can happen. And here I'm talking about a really sweet and pure love scene. Not that sordid type that we know about. But I was watching this movie called Driving Miss Daisy, sometime ago. Maybe you've seen it, about an elderly African American gentleman, Morgan Freeman, who is hired to drive around an even more elderly Southern lady. And the movie just traces the development of their relationship. As it goes first from kind of suspicion and not really sure where they are with each other, of an employer-employee relationship and that's all. She didn't really want him to drive. She doesn't use him. He drives along and she's walking and will not get in the car. And it's quite a scene. So there's some mistrust but as the relationship develops, a really beautiful thing to see, just friendship is what it is. Friendship. And the consummation of that is, at the end, the final scene, and by this time she's quite elderly and she is suffering from dementia, and she's in a nursing home. And she's sitting at a table, and it's Thanksgiving and Morgan Freeman goes to visit her. And she's got a piece of pie there. And it's on the table and there's a fork there, but she doesn't seem to be aware of it. And so he sits down and he's trying to talk to her. And he just decides to feed her the pie. And that's just one of the most spectacular scenes in all moviedom for me. Like, that's boring. No, it's not boring, it's awesome because as he feeds her the pie, he seems to be eating it through her. As though her joy is his joy. As though the taste of the pie in her mouth as though he is enjoying it. He doesn't have a bite of the pie. Your pleasure is my pleasure, your joy is my joy. Your pie is my pie, and I'm not taking it from you. You go ahead and eat it all, but I can enjoy it through you. Friends, that is that horizontal love that God is commanding of us here in this passage today. That we would love our neighbor like that, that we would love our neighbor as ourselves. And you know, we can't do it. Our heart is so hardened and we're so corrupt in sin that we can't do that naturally. We need a supernatural work of God to fulfill this command. And that supernatural work of God is available to us through the grace that's given us in Christ Jesus. He came, it says in Ephesians 2, talking about the hostility between Jews and Gentiles, that's the context, but I'm gonna extend it just to all human relationships. He came to destroy, to put to death all hostility between the two. And to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace. He's come to do that, friends, not just with Jew and Gentile, but with people. Person A and Person B, in Christ, becoming one together. And in this way, I think, Christ died to fulfill this second commandment. He died loving his neighbor as himself. He died in order that we might love our neighbors as ourselves. So, let's set this in context. You know, it's the final week of Jesus' life. Jesus is having strife and conflict with his enemies, who are seeking to kill him. They hate him, and they try to lay one trap after another for him. In Matthew 22, the Pharisees and Herodians bring him this question on taxation. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” He deals with that. Then the Sadducees come with that ridiculous question on resurrection and whose wife will she be of the seven. He deals with that. And then this expert in the law tests him with this question, “‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?’ And Jesus replied: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.’” A Dark History When the Vertical Goes, the Horizontal Goes With It Now, for the last two sermons, we've looked at the first and greatest commandment, it had its proper place. It comes first. It should be first. Talk more about that in a moment, but that is that vertical relationship toward God, that we should love God with all of our hearts above everything else. But we cannot love God and hate our neighbors. And again, I'm gonna talk more about that. And so, it must move out. Jesus gives beyond what the lawyer asked, a second commandment which he said is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. And so, we come to this issue of our horizontal relationship with one another, our love relationship with the other 6 billion people on the face of the earth. You are not alone. There are other people. That's a central pillar of our parenting. We're teaching our children, they're not alone, there are other people. Those other people are precious. They're created in the image of God, this kind of thing. And so we're not alone. And so we've got this horizontal, and dear friends, we come therefore into a dark history. In the Bible, there's a dark history of that horizontal relationship. Adam and Eve: Marriage Damaged I believe because our fellowship with God was broken, our fellowship with one another was broken. Because Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they were soon in hostility toward one another. And we see evidence of it right from the start, Genesis 3:7 “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; and so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” This is just evidence of a distance that's come between the man and his wife, between Adam and Eve because of sin. And then when God confronted Adam, Adam sought to blame his wife and God, too. You remember that, Genesis 3:12, “The man said, ‘This woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.’” And so therefore, I think that broken vertical relationship with God inevitably results in broken horizontal relationships. First and foremost, here in marriage, Adam and Eve covering themselves, and blaming each other for sin. That's just the beginning of marital difficulties. All manner of problems would then pollute the marriage relationship after that. Conflicts, arguments, dissensions, jealousy, adultery and divorce, even murder would sully marriage in the generations to come. Then in the very next chapter, Cain and Abel, as the sin spreads more horizontally, we see the brotherly affections dissolved, destroyed as Cain is jealous of his brother, Abel, and murders him. By the end of the chapter, we have this man Lamech who murders a man just for insulting him. And you could just see the degeneration of that horizontal relationship. By the time of Noah, the world was filled with violence, it says. That's why I believe that the death penalty was established for murder after the flood was over. If any man sheds a man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for the image of God has God made man. He re-establishes the dignity of humanity concerning murder. You can't murder a person, because they're created in the image of God. Terrible wickedness in Noah's day. And so it continued beyond that. Abraham was called and then Ishmael was born, and then Isaac afterwards and Ishmael mocks Isaac. And they're in hostility with one another. That brotherly affection destroyed, if it ever existed, in that relationship. Then Jacob and Esau come, the twins who are struggling in the womb, and come out struggling and struggled all the way through. And how Jacob swindled his father and stole Esau's blessing and then Esau wanted to murder him. He comforted himself, he consoled himself with the thought of murdering his brother. And so Jacobs has to flee. And so he runs and meets Laban. Oh, what a man Laban was. And so now we get the employer-employee relationship destroyed as Laban swindles him again and again. And then you have Rachel and Leah, and the hostility there is sister to sister, as they're in a clearly dysfunctional family. And the relationships are just very, very tough. Joseph and his four, I guess, wives give birth to the patriarchs and they hate Joseph. And they wanna murder him for his coat of many colors, they're jealous of him, instead, they sell him for money as a slave. And so the Book of Genesis, you just see the degeneration of that horizontal relationship and you know the story doesn't end there. And it's continued right to this present time. All you have to do is click into a CNN site or whatever, and you're just gonna find the evidence of hostility, person-to-person, wars and rumors of wars, of crimes and murders, of divorce and hostility and broken relationships, of even church factions and divisions. And so it's a dark history we face today. But dear friends, there is hope, isn't there? Isn't there hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ? Isn't there hope for that world of love? We have to trace out this dark history, we have to look at the darkness of our own hearts. But know this, the future is infinitely bright, and someday this hostility will be put to death, and it will be gone forever and ever, amen. The Two Commandments Intertwined So we have these two commandments. We have that vertical commandment, love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. We have that horizontal commandment, Love your neighbor as yourself. And as I already touched on but I'll say now more fully, those two commandments are completely intertwined. You can't pick and choose. That's why Jesus went beyond what the lawyer asked him, gave the second commandment. The lawyer didn't say which are the top two commandments, but Jesus knew that he could not give a summation of all the Law and the Prophets without the second command. True Love for Neighbor Depends on First Loving God And so I say this: true love for your neighbor depends on your love for God. If you don't love God, you cannot love your neighbor properly. I speak now to unbelievers who do charitable works. You're not really loving your neighbor, not as God intended. And why is that? Why do I say that? Well, because you cannot, you must not, love your neighbor more than you love God. Frankly, you must not love anything more than you love God. If you love anything more than you love God, you're an idolater. So you cannot make an idol of your neighbor. But quite frankly, most people who are not Christians who do good works, works of benevolence and charity, they're really just loving themselves in a sinful and idolatrous way. There is a pride involved in some of those good works. So I say to you, you cannot really love your neighbor if you don't first love God through Jesus Christ. True Love for God ALWAYS Results in Love for Neighbor But secondly, we know this is true as well, true love for God always results in a horizontal commitment to love others. You cannot really be loving God if you don't love your neighbor. The two of them go together. So 1 John 4:20 says, “If anyone says ‘I love God’ and yet hates his brother, he's a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen." So the two are intertwined, we must have them both. Humanity Judged Based on these Two Laws The Standard of Judgment is the Law of God Now, I've already said before, and I say again, it's very, very plain. This is the law of God, these two commandments, this is the law. This is Sinai, this is what God requires of you. This is what he's standing on you and with threatenings and with earthquake and with flashing lightning, and thunder with a loud voice. He says you must obey these two commands. You must love me with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength, and you must love your neighbor as yourself. This is the standard of judgment, this is the law of God, the Ten Commandments can be arranged in these two tables. The first table, the vertical table, the first four commandments. You shall have no other gods besides me. You shall not make any idols or bow down to any idols or worship any idols. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. These are the vertical commands in the Ten Commandments. It's that love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then the last six are all horizontal. Honor your father and mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor and you shall not covet your neighbor's belongings, anything that belongs to your neighbor. Those six commandments are summed up in this one commandment, “love your neighbor as yourself.” Romans 13, Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of that second table of the law. God Really Intends that the Human Race Obey And as I've said before, God really does intend for the human race to obey this. You must be righteous in these two senses. You must have loved God, and you must have loved your neighbor as yourself. These are not idle words. These words are our life, Deuteronomy. And if we have not obeyed, we stand guilty and condemned before the law of God. By this Law We are Condemned Romans 3:10-20, says by this law, we are condemned, not saved. As it says, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Do you not see the two commandments right there in that list that Paul gives? Their feet are swift to shed blood, that's horizontal. There's no fear of God before their eyes, that's vertical. They're not obeying the law. Paul continues. “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore, no one will be justified, no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by obeying the law; rather, through the law, we become conscious of sin.” It should not surprise you, then, if you listen to a sermon on the first and greatest commandment and you become conscious of sin. And it should not surprise you, again if you hear a sermon on the second greatest commandment, that you become conscious of sin in your life, expect it friends. Expect that you'll be convicted by the Spirit, that you'll find that you have not been loving as you should. You've not loved your neighbor as yourself. Law and Gospel: Christ Fulfills the Law And so we must have a savior. We must have a gospel, if it's only law, we are condemned, we're lost. But it's always law plus gospel. That's my pleasure. My delight is to proclaim both law and gospel to you. And so, I proclaim, not just to you, but to my own soul. There is hope in Jesus. Christ Came to Fulfill the Law But Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.” And he came to fulfill them in many different ways. He came to fulfill them just by obeying them. He just obeyed them. He just loved God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He loved his neighbors as himself. He perfectly obeyed the laws of God. This is the Only Hope And he won a perfect righteousness, which he then offers to us as a free gift. And this “righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus,” Romans 3:21-24. There is our hope. Having Been Justified We Are Called to Law Obedience Jesus was obedient, and so in Him, you can be seen to be obedient too, simply by faith. But is that the end? Is that the end of our encounter with the two great commandments? Friends, you know, it's not. As I've said before, God isn't giving you a free pass. “Now that you're justified, forget about loving me, and don't worry about loving your neighbor,” he's not saying that. He's saying, “Okay now, now that you're justified, I have given you the gift of my indwelling Holy Spirit. You're an adopted son or daughter of the living God.” Now he turns you and he faces you to the law and says, “Now do this. Do it. Walk in these ways.” Romans 8:4, “In order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” He wants you to love God, and friends, horizontally, he wants you to love your neighbor as yourself. And he wants you to do it by the power of God. What Is Love for Neighbor? So, what does it mean then to love your neighbor as yourself? Now, I'm gonna talk more next week about “as yourself,” we're gonna talk more about that phrase, I'll save that till next week. Definition But let me give you a definition similar to the one I gave you concerning that vertical love for God. Remember how I said it was cheerful sacrificial obedience to God's commands? I'm gonna do something similar horizontally, just shift the words a bit. Horizontally then, love, love for neighbor is cheerful sacrifice, resulting in beneficial action for the glory of God. That's what true love is. We'll start with the end, it's got to be done for the glory of God. If it isn't, then there's something wrong with it, it's defective. So we've got to do it for the glory of God. But with that arranged, we've already talked about that in the previous two sermons, then what is it? Okay, well it's cheerful sacrifice resulting in beneficial actions in the world, helping them in some way. I'm gonna take that and break it into two senses. This clarity I think came to me very much in prayer this morning. I see that there are two aspects in the New Testament, and we've got to understand them both. And I'm devoting this sermon to one and then next week's sermon to the second aspect. Okay. There is a heart affection aspect, and there's a physical action in the world aspect. And without both of those, you're not loving. You got to have them both. So there's a heart affection for the neighbor, a delight from the heart, going out from the inside, resulting in sacrificial acts of service to them that are gonna help them in some way. And I believe there are two great scriptures that describe those two. The heart aspect of love is 1 Corinthians 13, you can turn your Bibles there, I'm gonna trace along with that, this morning. 1 Corinthians 13 describes the heart affection aspect, that internal sense that must be there, or it isn't love. The external actions part, I could choose a lot of passages, but Luke 10 the parable of the Good Samaritan describes that. Sacrificial acts of service to benefit the person. We'll discuss that next week. Okay. The two have to be there, so love is an affection, it's a heart movement toward a person, it must come from the heart, that's included in the word cheerful, you're cheerful and you're glad to do it. And it's got to be a sacrifice that is a willingness to give something valuable: Time, energy, money, yourself, your attention, your gifts, your personality, your listening ear, something of value, something you sacrifice, without the sacrifice there's no love and it results in beneficial action in the world. Something has to actually happen in space and time. They need to know you did something for 'em. So there's actually some kind of act of service. It could just be a word spoken of encouragement, but if something happens, so that there's an internal feeling aspect and in that external sacrificial service aspect. Love is a Feeling, and Not Less than a Feeling And so love is a feeling, friends. It's not less than a feeling. It just is more than a feeling, but it's not less than a feeling. Okay? And common expressions of love fill the world. “Oh, I love this song! It's my favorite!” says a teenage girl and leans forward and turns up the radio. It's happened before. “I love this time of year,” says a woman at the spring when the warm winds begin to blow and the flowers are poking up from the soil, and the birds have returned and the days are getting warmer and longer. Do you sense I can't wait for it to come. Come spring. I've gotten soft since I moved down here. I couldn't ever live in Massachusetts again. I just don't think I could do it. I don't know how our brothers and sisters made it through. I don't want to. My relatives they’d probably call me soft. I can't handle any more blizzards, you know they're pretty until they get all salty and dirty and sandy and all that and then it's not so fun. But at any rate. “I just love the mountains with all the spectacular scenery,” says a hiker to his partner as they just look at one of those scenic overlooks. Or, “Daddy loves you so much,” says the Father who has been away for a week on a business trip to his little daughter as she runs with her arms stretched out. “I love chocolate,” says the wife as she opens up the package later this afternoon or maybe already this morning. It's already happened. “I love March Madness,” says the guy as he settles back into the easy chair and watches the first of 16 consecutive basketball games. No more comments on that, you know who you are. Now the question is how are all of these loves related? Are they related? Are they connected? A song on the radio, a season in the year, a mountain scenery, a four-year-old daughter running with her arm outstretched, chocolate, college basketball, and God. How do they all relate? They do relate. It's wrong for you to think they don't relate. There's a reason that we use the same word for all of them. They are clearly different, but they all just relate. And as I said last week, Jonathan Edwards helped me organize this and see that they all do relate: The heart has the ability to assess and analyze things, and then be attracted or repulsed from them, it's what the heart does. It's what your heart was designed by God to do. And the essence of true religion according to Edwards is affection of the heart, primarily expressed vertically toward God. But it also moves horizontally toward the neighbor. The heart is moved in attraction toward the neighbor. That's what I'm gonna try to describe to you today, there's a heart movement toward the neighbor. And without that heart movement toward the neighbor, it isn't really love, whatever you do it for. 1 Corinthians 13 I think makes this plain. Look at verse 3, “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” Okay, what Paul's saying there is he's talking about sacrifice in the highest sense of the word, the highest level of sacrifice. You give all of your possessions, and then you give your body to death. You have nothing left to give, that's Christ, that's what Jesus did. His possessions were gambled over to fulfill prophecy, and then his body was just given out fully for us. Even if you did that though, and you had not loved you would gain nothing. It would not be commendable before God. Isn't that terrifying? Think about it. It's like, I don't even do anything close to that. It's like, but even if you did, if you did that and you didn't have love, so therefore I assert to you love must be more than just sacrificial actions. There's got to be something else, something in the heart, there's gotta be a heart affection for the individual. John Piper in his classic Desiring God makes it plain that what he calls disinterested benevolence is not truly loving, saying, I don't get anything out of the things I give, I don't get anything. I hope you husbands did your duty and bought your wives something, “Oh don't mention it, hun, it was just my duty.” That's not gonna get you anything dear friends, oh actually that it gets you a lot, it won't get you what you want. She doesn't want to think it was your duty. One Christian writer was talking about this. Suppose a husband says to his wife, “Must I kiss you goodnight every night?” She says, “Yes you must, but not that kind of must.” In other words, if it doesn't come from your heart I don't want it. So there's got to be something inside you that says “I want to do this for you.” We should delight in doing good to others. We should enjoy benefiting them. And if you don't, it isn't love. So 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Each man should give what he has decided to give in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Dear friends, how much of your service to Christ and others did that just weed out right there? “Reluctantly or under compulsion,” that is so convicting, isn't it? If you're doing it reluctantly you're doing it like 'cause you have to, it isn't really love. God wants you to do it cheerfully. And why should we be cheerful givers? Well, we should just think of the joy and delight that we bring God by obeying his commands. We are loving God by doing this, that should make us happy. And then horizontally we should just be pondering the blessing and the benefit we're bringing to another person. We're alleviating their suffering, we're making them happy, in some way that should make you cheerful. And you should think thirdly about the rewards you get, your stored up treasure in heaven. And someday you're going to experience God's pleasure in what you did, when he says, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” you've got three good reasons for being cheerful and giving. So it should make you very very happy to give. So therefore genuine love is a feeling that fills the heart. It's an internal motivator and attraction towards the person. “I want to bless you. It is my pleasure to help you to bring you joy. I want to ease your pain and suffering.” And without that feeling it isn't love, it's hypocrisy. Jonathan Edwards put it this way, “In some sense, the most benevolent, generous person in the world seeks his own happiness in doing good to others because he places his happiness in their good. His mind is so enlarged to take them, as it were, into himself. Thus when they are happy he feels it. He partakes with them, and is happy in their happiness. This is so far from being inconsistent with the freeness of generosity, but on the contrary free generosity and kindness, consist in it.” In other words, if your mind can't expand to then include this other person, so that you're happy because they're happy, you haven't really loved, that's what Edwards is saying. Powerful statements. Ponder it the rest of the day because it's so life transforming. Love Results in Sacrificial Action to Benefit Someone Now of course, as we've said and we'll talk more next week, the feeling isn't enough I must balance it. Say I had so many good intentions. I really really felt lots of good feelings toward the members of this church. But did you do anything for them? I mean did anything ever happen because of it? Well, that's James' job. James comes in and does that, also I John, both of them teach about the same thing. But James 2:15-17 says, “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes or daily food. If one of you says to him ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way,” he makes the point, “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” I don't think it's a stretch to say love is the same way, love without actions isn't love, it's dead. So there's got to be something physical done for the individual. So, 1 Corinthians 13:3 says you can't just have the actions, you've got to have the feeling. Got it? James 2 says you can't just have the feeling, you've got to have the actions, you've got to put them together in order to get biblical love. Does that make sense? All the rest is just exegesis of 1 Corinthians 13, should we skip it? No we're not gonna skip it, let's go ahead. Jesus’ Example Jesus gives us a display of this again and again in his ministry, do you not see it? How many times does his heart go out to somebody, and then he does something for them? Beautiful example, you should look at it in Luke chapter 7, don't turn there but just later on, read it. Jesus comes into Nain. And there's a widow there and it's a funeral procession, she is burying her only son. I mean, you just have to understand how tough that is, she's a widow, no husband, and now she's burying her only son. She is bereft of provision and protection in the world in that society. And it says in Luke 7:13, “When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, ‘Don't cry.’” Do you see that? His heart went out and he said something, “Don't cry.” And then he raised the son from the dead. Don't you wish you could do that? Wouldn't that be beautiful? But he acts and does something for her. Again, with the leper in Mark chapter 1, “A leper came to him imploring him and kneeling to him and said, ‘If you will, you can make me clean,’” Now listen to verse, 41, Mark 1:41 this captures it, “Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand." That's it, friends. That's the combination. Do you see it? “Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and healed him, ‘I am willing be clean.’” There it is. Jesus has shown the way for us. He's done this again and again. I could multiply examples. But his heart is moved, and then he acts. It started in heaven. His heart was moved toward us and he entered the world. And that's what he's done. And so he's still in heaven, he's up there in heaven and he's still doing it. Hebrews 4:15 says, “We do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with our infirmities, the feeling of our infirmities,” KJV, it's beautiful. He is moved by what we're going through and prays for us, based on that. Two Great Clarifying Texts: 1 Corinthians 13, Luke 10 What Kind of Heart Attitude is Truly Loving?: 1 Corinthians 13 Alright, so 1 Corinthians 13, what kind of heart attitude is truly loving? Well look at verses 4-6, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.” Let's just look at those verses there, there's enough there. Love is patient, that's long-suffering, you put up with things for a long time, that's a heart state, a state of patience. Conversely, love is not impatient. We are an impatient people. So a loving neighbor cannot be impatient with his neighbor. Don't impatiently wait for your neighbor to finish their sentence so you can finally say what you want to say. That's not loving. Give them all the time they need. Even if you don't get to say what you want to say. Don't be impatient as all the checkout lines at the supermarket are full and this person seems to not know how to do you scan. Don't let the emotions of impatience rise up in your heart, give them the time they need to figure it out. Love is kind, there's a mildness in the heart that is loving, there's a gentleness toward an affection, a tenderness, love is kind. Conversely, anti-love is unkind, we are more and more characterized by unkindness, we are becoming an unkind harsh people. People who cut down people with a clever remark, or show somebody up at a meeting or grab a parking spot right out from under somebody just as they're sizing it up. Love does not envy, envy is a feeling of jealousy. Do you know how good it's gonna feel to be free of that in heaven? I mean it's gonna be beautiful, to just enjoy the exaltation of the martyrs and the great men and women of the faith higher than you and me, and not feel even the slightest motion of jealousy or envy toward them but just delight in what God did in and through them. That's gonna be awesome to be that out of yourself and free of yourself to feel no envy or jealousy at all. Love doesn't boast, there's no boasting in it. You're not saying, “I'm the greatest of all times,” Muhammad Ali said that, remember, “I'm the greatest of all times.” In doing that he's putting down all the other boxers; that's just not loving. It may be what our athletes do these days but it's not Christian. Love isn't proud it says, pride is the root sin, it's celebrating yourself too much. We could go on and on about that one. Love is not rude, dear friends, do you not see the growth of rudeness in our culture? I was reading one journalist who was talking about rudeness in America, I came across this story. See if you can relate: “The other day I went into a juice place, ordered a smoothie and watched the girl behind the counter fill to overflowing, cram the top on and slide it across the counter at me with such vehemence I wondered if she was training for some Olympic shuffleboard event. Luckily my reflexes are quick and I caught it just in time. But then came the challenge of inserting the straw, which of course resulted in the top popping off and the smoothie squishing out all over the counter. She watched me the whole time and did nothing to assist me as I went through the futile motions of trying to mop up the mess with the tiny squares of napkins they provide. Finally I asked her for another top. ‘You mean a lid? You want a lid?’ She snarled before shoving another one across the counter.” Have you had any kind of encounter like that before? Even worse, have you ever been like that before? That's the hard part. Love isn't rude, like that. There is more and more rudeness. It bothers me when I put my directional on to change lanes, I'm one of the few people that uses their directional... That was a prideful statement, wasn't it? I actually have started to notice how many turns are made without them. I saw a bumper sticker once and it's “visualize using your directional,” I love that. All right, just picture it in your mind. But you put the directional on saying I would like to change lanes and the person speeds up to prevent you from getting over. I don't, I don't understand that. And so what I do is I say those same tendencies are in my own heart, be sure I don't do it too. Be sure I don't do it too, because whenever you judge someone else you're judging yourself it's out there. Love isn't selfish, you're not looking for your own things, it's not easily angered, flaming into anger at any moment. And it keeps no record of wrongs. Could it be that sometimes your marriage relationship or church relationships are poison because you're keeping a record of wrongs? You haven't really forgiven? Love doesn't do that. Love does not delight in evil. I've mentioned before in sermons this “shadenfreude” this delight in somebody else's demise, or delight in their trouble. Watching YouTube videos of the world's worst drivers, with a secret delight knowing you're not one of them. Boy it's fun to watch that lady, take six minutes to size up a parking spot in Walmart until the guy finally does it for her, boy isn't that fun? And it's like yeah you laugh at it and all that but then you're like you're delighting in somebody's struggle trouble, they're having a hard time. Even worse, is delighting in somebody else's sin. And you see that too with, you know, with a Rick Pitino or a Tiger Woods or something like that and there just seems to be a fascination with it. And I think it's ultimately self-serving and prideful. Love doesn't delight in evil, but what does it do, where do we end up here? We end up with delight, cheerfulness, it rejoices in the truth, it rejoices in the truth, and here at last, friends, the two of them come together, what is the truth? Jesus is the truth. And so horizontally I'm gonna delight in giving you Jesus. Christian or non-Christian, I want you to have Jesus, or thy word is true, sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. I want to give you the word. And so the vertical then flows out into the horizontal, I wanna give you Jesus, I wanna give you the word, I wanna delight in the truth in your life. So we're gonna watch over one another in brotherly love, and we're gonna sanctify each other, and pray for each other and delight in the truth. I'll zero in on that word delight, love delights in truth coming up in that person's heart. Friends, assess your heart, assess your heart. Can you listen to this and not be convicted? Can you listen to this and make it through unscathed? So say 1 Corinthians 13 is my favorite chapter in the Bible. It's the wedding chapter. It's so beautiful. It is the toughest chapter in the Bible friends. It's a chapter with teeth. And it digs in and says, “Are you doing this?” These aren't just pretty words. This is the heart state of affection, you should have for other human beings, for every other human being. This is what God wants from you. Now next week we're gonna talk about okay so what, maybe we have those feelings, maybe God's worked them, what kind of life of action should we seek? How can we serve the poor and needy? How can we see that kind of love come alive in a marriage, and in a church? What kinds of acts of service and sacrifice does God expect from us? Close with me if you would in prayer.

0265-667 12-12-96 Because Adam deliberately sinned and the woman was deceived in the original sin, only the man can transmit the old sin nature.