Sermon Transcript
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Mon, Apr 14, 2024 10AM • 58:57SUMMARY KEYWORDSpeople, god, lord, Jesus, fruitful, earth, pastor, genesis, faith, multiply, bible, context, misquoting, divorce, read, told, woman, word, married, blessing
Good morning. Welcome. If you are new here among us, my name is Gene and I serve here at C3 church as your pastor. And I heard a story. I was told a story about an elderly woman who lived in a densely wooded forest, kind of far away from the neighboring towns, but there were neighboring towns. And every once in a while some of the kids from these towns would decide to play in the woods, go exploring, but they'd get lost. So the woman found out about it and decided she would start leaving them like little Supply Drops if they got lost, so they'd have something to eat. And eventually, this ministry kind of grew into something where the drops would lead to her home. As always being told this story. The emphasis was on what a nice lady, this was, right? She cared so much for the children, we should all be that compassionate for children. So I asked, What's the name of this story? They said, Hansel and Gretel. Come on, are we not allowed to tell Grimms fairy tales to kids anymore? Like. So this is what happens when you come to a conclusion. Before finishing the rest of the story, right? We've learned a lot about that. And it happens a lot with the Bible, too, right? So why is this such a big deal? Well, I'll make this short. Because I've said this in the past. Right? So when we're misquoting stories, that people lose their minds. If someone does a movie or something like that, or representation of somebody's favorite book. People lose it. Right? If it isn't close to the book, they're like, I am banned. I'm boycotting them to cancel the movie or something like that. Because it's just it's not accurate. Not good. What happens when we misquote or misrepresent people? So think of like, I think like a White House press secretary, politics aside, you know, if you start misquoting the president, eventually, it's going to lead to some problems, or you might lose your job. So maybe you've had similar jobs where you know, you have to be careful about everything you say, and represent the person really well. So here's the thing. How much more does it matter when we're representing or quoting God? A lot more. Right. Okay, please. So what's happening is a lot of people are out there misrepresenting God. They're misrepresenting the story. Most people haven't even read it themselves, but they develop these very, you know, big conclusions. Well, this is what I mean, well, have you read the whole thing? No. So we end up in that situation now. And to be very serious to anyone who's a Christian, but more so because God Himself tells us not to misquote him, or his word, Deuteronomy, four, two, do not add or subtract from these commands I'm giving you just obey the commands of the Lord your God that I'm giving you. Proverbs 35, every word of God proves to be true, he has a shield to all who come to him for protection, do not add to his words, or he may rebuke you and expose you as a liar. revelations are from beginning in Revelation 2218. And I solemnly declared everyone who hears the words of this prophecy written in this book, if anyone has anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. And if anyone removes any other words, from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person share and the Tree of Life in the holy city that are described in this book. So misquoting God, is a pretty serious sin, wouldn't you say? Yeah, right. We've consequences. So no matter what you're doing, whether it be someone preaching, that's the obvious thing, and probably the fear for a lot of people in preaching, you know, one of the things that should motivate any teacher to just be in the word a lot, right? Because I don't want the curses kind of want the Tree of Life, right? So I'm very careful. And it's sort of like I don't want to preach. No, you don't. But people will make movies and shows about the Bible and add things to and take things away. Not good. Not that seems innocent, but it's not. Because they're misrepresenting the Lord. So we've been through the entire Bible. And what we're going to do here, we're going to look at some of and we're not going to vote, don't worry, this one won't take three years, right? So we're going to try to do this, and maybe a couple months, something like that. So I get excited. I'm like, Oh, there's another one. There's another one. There's another one. And then it'll be three years and no promises. So anyway, we're going to take some of the most popular, right twisted scriptures misquoted or twisted parts of the Bible. And I'm going to give you the context I'm going to give you like, what's really going on here. And then also like how to look at it with the full counsel of God's Word in mind, right, not just picking up on one little part of the story and running with it with our own imaginations, right. So Just from the Word of God. So what we're going to do first we'll start a creation. And I will. I'm going to overview this because we've been through this at a great length. So I'm just going to kind of overview some of these parts here for you. So Janice will grab our key verse, I'll show you a couple places where it happens early on in the Bible, and then we'll go from there. So basically, looking at Genesis, you just get the creation, right, we've talked about this in the past, so I'm not going to get into it too deep, is not a science book, right? We're not supposed to be like Adam and Eve and try to be like God, and then make the heavens and earth out. It's not an instruction manual, right? What it is, is to show that God is all powerful, right? omnipresent, omnipotent, he's created everything. That's the point, right? So we get the creation of the Earth, we get the creation, the sky, the stars, the lights, everything. And then finally the vegetation, animals and then humans are last. Genesis 126, then God said, Let us make human beings literally man in our image, to be like us, they will reign over the fish in the sea of the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and small animals scurry along the ground. So God created human beings in His own image, in the image of God, He created them, male and female, He created them, then God bless them and said, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and government reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground. So here we get to our key verse, Be fruitful, and multiply. And it's a lot of us have heard that, right. So if you if you've never read the Bible, you can get someone who's never had the Bible. And he's here to be fruitful. And that's why he was oh, yeah, that's what God told like the first humans. Exactly. All right, so let's build the context around it. So here we go. If we jump forward a little bit, we get some ground rules. So Genesis 215, the Lord placed a man in the Garden of Eden, to attend and watch over it. But the Lord warned the Lord God warned him, you may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden, except the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If you eat its fruit, you will surely die. Okay. So if we continue along, right, so then Adam names all the animals, then man is lonely like animals. So we got to make a helper for him, right? So out of his mix, the woman puts them in a deep sleep first nice of him. No anesthesiologist, necessary, right? So anyway, have a think about that. So anyway, maybe just me. So it's paradise. And they don't even know that they're naked. Right? So Sorry, ladies. No shopping required. So is it really paradise? I don't know. But anyway, so maybe she asked her does Genesis three one, the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals, the Lord God made. One day he asked the woman, you can really say, You must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden. Of course, we may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden, the woman replied, it's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden, that we're not allowed to eat. God said He was not even touch it. If you do, you'll die. High, the serpent replied to the woman, God knows that your eyes will be open as soon as you eat it. And you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Alright, so just a couple things here. Many twisted scripture. It's not an apple. Stop saying that, right? So anyway, reading your conspiracy theories, but anyway, I'm not going to get into it, but you might want to use a Samsung. Anyway, the devil is the first to twist scripture. Did you notice that right? Jesus calls him the father of lies, and he is he twists descriptive twist God's word. And Eve is the first to fall for the false teachings, Genesis three, six, the woman was convinced, she saw that the tree was beautiful, and its fruit looked delicious. And she wanted the wisdom it would give her so she took some of the fruit native. Then she gave them to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it too. At that moment, their eyes were open, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. And now they realize it. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. So the first fashion designers we did we know all right. So why did she fall for it? She wants to be like, God, that's why right? So they're trying to be like God, because of her own desire. So let's when we go through this, just remember that keep that in mind. It was her own desires, right? And then Adams own desires. Both of them are guilty. So they get caught Genesis three, eight, when the cool evening breezes were blowing the man, Adam and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden so they hid from the LORD God among the trees. Then the Lord God called them in, where are you? You're fine. I heard you walking in the garden. So I hid. And I was afraid because I was naked. Who tells you were naked? The Lord God asks, Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I can manage not to eat? The man replied. It was the woman you gave me. You gave me the fruit and I ate it. All right.
It's funny in every translations. So just a couple of things before we get to the jokes, right? So what's kind of cool here? Just a little site where I'm trying to stay on the topic, but I got to, I got to show you a little easter egg. But this is bigger than that. So walking in the garden. So what you have here is like a Christoph Ania Theophany. But better like a crystal ball. This is plain and simple terms. Just a pretty figure of Jesus. So you get like a picture of the Trinity if we go from the beginning, right, so the Holy Spirit's in the second verse, I didn't read that aloud. He says, us it's a plurality. So Father, Son, Holy Spirit, this picture that you get your picture of the Trinity. Alright, so. But what's really funny, right, they now they noticed they're naked, right? So it's not perfect anymore. They've ruined it. Right? So it was perfect as paradise. They ruined it. So notice, right? There's a woman you gave me. So immediately the blame game ensues, right. But it doesn't stop there. Genesis 313. Then the Lord God asked the woman, what are you done? The serpent deceived me. That's why. Right? So humans, the first humans have one thing in common attitude problems, right? So they're immediately doing the blame game, right out the gate. So little side note, we've learned, right? So false teachers are bad, really bad, but it's also on you. Right? So you need we need to think about that. And we have all this right here. It's in writing, right? So it's on YouTube. So that's very important. So now they're banished. They're cursed, right? So pain in the childbirth, you got a 10 to the IRLO stuff, they're kicked out of the garden. And that's it. So you can't come here anymore. So let's just fast forward just a little bit to see what happens when they get fruitful and multiply. So they have Cain and Abel and just real, it's really kind of a brief thing anyway, don't really need to make it too much shorter. So they have Cain than they have Abel. And Cain, basically, he's working the ground farm or something like that, In plain terms, and then Abel, he tends to the sheep. And so what happens we're told to Abel gives like the firstborn of his flock, so but Cain, it's implied there that he gets his leftovers because God doesn't accept it. Right. So Cain is dejected. It says he's really sad. He said that God rejects him, like while you said, but he says, Look, if you do what is right, you will be accepted. So there you go. But he says some interesting stuff in there, right? sin is crouching at the door as waiting to control you right, so you must master it. But just as far as one day cane suggested to his brother, let's go out into the fields. And while they were in the field cane, attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Afterward, the Lord asked Cain, where's your brother? For example? I don't know. Cain responded. And my brother's guardian, or Brother's Keeper. So I find it funny like God is asking all these rhetorical questions he's asking everybody questions he already knows the answers to but again this attitude problem continues right? Oh, no, Am I my brother's keeper? Like okay, so just like with Adam and Eve right this it was the sin was right there crouching at the door, you didn't master it. So now if we keep reading just five we get to a bunch of genealogies we're not going to go over every name right now. We get to the reason for the flood, like not even the angels or sons of God are happy with Heaven itself, right? So they come and they corrupt the Earth with the daughters of mankind, so the procreating like that see giants are created and all this stuff. So basically, it tells us that the earth is corrupt. So God's like okay, flooded, we get the Noah account, right? So the people on the boat, no, Shem, Ham, J. Fifth, there was on the boat with all these animals and the flood accounts. I'm just kind of fast forwarding to get to our key verse again here. The flood recedes, they worship God. That's what happens. Then there's a covenant, Genesis nine one then God bless Noah and his sons and told them, Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth, and all the animals of the earth, all the birds of this guy, all the animals have scurry along the ground and all the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and terror. I've placed them in your power, I have given them to you for food, just as I've given you the grain and vegetables so that we can eat meat. But you must never eat any meat that still has the life blood in it kosher, and I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person's life if a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die. If anyone takes a human life that person's life will also be taken by human hands for God made human beings in His own image. Now be fruitful and multiply and repopulate the earth. So here's the key verse here we're going to look at today that gets twisted, Be fruitful and multiply and repopulate the earth right or fill the earth literally. Right? So here's what people leave out. Now. You need to keep reading right. So these verses are about who like Adam and Eve first right then Noah and family right? So not necessarily us is not being spoken to us. Now, I'm going to put like two or three disclaimers throughout this message. I want you to hear me. Because apparently being fruitful and multiply is very popular among Christians. That's fine, right? So that's okay. If you have a large family, there's not nothing wrong with that. That's not what I'm saying through this whole message here, that part. So I'm going to leave that you stuck on one of my jokes, and you're going to come up to me after service. Are we allowed to have kids? You weren't listening? Right? So I don't want that question. That's me. So, right, it's okay. To have kids. Okay, so if you hear that, okay, good. So someone complains about me just say he said it's okay to have kids or just because every message something, so it's okay to have children. But here's the thing we do not need you to do. repopulate the earth, right. So you and I know a lot of Christians think that they're the only people in the whole world, this happens to be a very common trait among a lot of Christians, right? You're the only people in the whole world right now. But that's not true, either. We just don't need you to do that. It's okay. Just have some kids. But the whole earth it seems like that to me sometimes. I don't know. So. So context. So in this, in this, in this situations, we have a context, right, there's a clear need here. So basically, the Earth has just been created, really, human beings get busy. I said that, right? So same thing, no and sons, right? Therefore, there's no turkey. Well, there's no here that he really
busy. It's alright. So. So without a context, right, this becomes a pretext for whatever we want it to mean, this is what happens here. And we'll talk about like the fruitful part too. So let's just want to look at a few more verses, because there are other places in the Bible in the Old Testament, especially where you're going to see like the fruitful and multiply language. But the context is not the same. It's mostly like a blessing. And so I want you to do is, see the difference between like a command from the Lord and a blessing. There's a little bit of a difference here, right? So being fruitful multiply, I'm just going to whip through these really quick, not even on the screen, Genesis 17. So you get this thing with Ishmael. I've heard the so Behold, I blessed him, and I'll make him fruitful and multiply, and I'm exceeding so you see, it says right in the text, it's a blessing to Ishmael. Right? Genesis 28. So after the deceit of Isaac you have, or you have Isaac blessing, Jacob, may God Almighty bless you and give you many children, and may your descendants multiply clearly a blessing. That's the context of that. Genesis 35, to Jacob, I am God, I'm El Shaddai, God Almighty be fruitful and multiply the first like, Wait, is this the same command, but Jacob recounts it, and when he's doing it, and God said unto me, Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you and will make you a multitude of people, Leviticus 26, both the ending you get to 27. But both the ending of Leviticus and Deuteronomy are kind of, there's blessings and curses for disobedience. Among those blessings. If you obey, you get this far I'll have respect unto you, make you fruitful and multiply you so there's like an if, right, and establish my covenant with you, it's a blessing if you don't, horrible things happen, we've seen that Jeremiah appears there, there's like the cursing of the evil shepherds. And so but I'll gather a remnant of my flock from the country so there's a lot of destruction that happens to them, if you haven't, then bring them back to their own sheep fold and they will be fruitful and increase in number and also we see that righteous descend from David's line Jesus, so clearly all blessings. So some may quote these, but they're out of context and trying to very quickly give you the context and it's not really what's being said here. What we're going to do is focus on the context that we see in Genesis there there's a big difference here so again, let's just look at them again and then move forward so we're going to get Genesis 120 Then God bless them and said be fruitful and multiply fill the earth and government ran over the fish in the sea the birds in the sky and all the animals that scurry along the ground then we jump over to Genesis nine seven that'd be fruitful, multiply repopulate or again fill the earth repopulate because that's the context that's what they're talking about. So it's very, very clear in these situations, the who, what, when where why, right so when we use the reading comprehension skills that we learned in the second grade right, it's pretty clear like why these people need to repopulate fill the earth up so what we're going to do now is we want to look to the best commentary on the Old Testament that exists. The New Testament right see what it says the full council of God's words, okay? There's a then and now so we talked about the then there's a need to repopulate the earth. Now, why are people on the earth right? So that need is not really pressing. Plus now this is tricky, but you really got to read and pay attention. You get to the end of Genesis seven, right? And so basically I won't do this again, you have the flood, I won't do this again, paraphrasing, right, as long as the Earth and doors are given a hint there as long as the Earth indoors, which implies that someday it won't. It's kind of clear there, right? So in the meantime, what you have here, for example, like I think of Isaiah 34, and 65, where he's saying, like, the Earth is going to pass away, that is said very, very clearly, right? So even in the Old Testament, we're told, you know, what, we're going to get a new heaven and a new earth. And this is really, really big. In the New Testament, Jesus lets us know, so little drop of it in the Sermon on the Mountain, Matthew five, you get what's called the all of that discourse, if you're in Matthew, Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, none of all just talking to His disciples and talking about like the end times, but it's dropped in there, right. So the heavens, the earth will pass away. This is all this will not be here. We're looking forward to what a new heaven and a new earth this is all over. All over the New Testament, clarifying this first Johnson computer we saw revelation, of course, all over it. So it's all about us understanding this, this earth will pass away, all gone, what our hope in is in Jesus's return, and the new heavens and new earth. That's what you have to keep in mind in order to start getting this right, right. So that's your context for the New Testament. That's what we're looking at. So what I want to do with that in mind, Jesus return in mind, I'll hop back, I'm going to go through the intestinal, we'll get to Jesus in a second. But with this in mind, I want you to see what's going on here, because now we have like contexts in our mind. And so you get to First Corinthians, right? So we go to First Corinthians and we see, most people say, Ah, it's a messed up church. But when we looked at it, I challenge everyone. Yeah, we're just as messed up. Why? Because he starts with Pastor worship. That's the first problem with the Corinthian church, and they're creating divisions. Some are following Peter, some are following, right like Apollo, some are following Paul. And Paul flips out on him for four chapters. Right? So it's really not good. They're creating factions, aka denominations, right. So Paul's worst nightmare. You're arguing over all these little things, not keeping the gospel to center and worshipping pastors, how many people would do that today? He's so good. Like I go to this church, because he's a good speaker. That's so same problem, right? chapters five through seven and other problems, sector issues of sex in the church, or different things going on, and he gets to divorce and remarriage. Why is this important in this context? Well, you need a helper, right? So to start multiplying, you need a helper and that's why you would go here to see okay, how does the early church, like think about this helper? How do we get one, you know, like, what do we do if they divorces or they leave? So Paul is covering a lot of ground in First Corinthians seven an awful lot. But here's the context, and the attitude would be fruitful and multiply. So begins with a marriage. And Paul says, there's nothing wrong with marriage. Right? So again, did you hear me? There's nothing wrong with marriage. There's nothing wrong with having kids. I'm just going to repeat that again. Alright. First Corinthians seven, seven, but I wish everyone were single, just as I am. Each person has a special gift from God of one kind or another. All right. So what Paul does here is he explains what if you're going to burn with desire? In other words, if you're going to have intercourse outside of marriage, that is a sin. Now, let's so if that's going to happen, you can't like you know, since crouching at the door, if you can't master that, right? And you have, as he said, special abilities, which mean you can abstain. That's better. So this is interesting. Think about it for one second. Right. So Paul, who all over the place like that he's supposed to be an example to us. So we read that before. He's an example to us. Well, this example is not necessarily getting fruitful and multiplying Izzie? No, and he talks about money, right? You need Timothy First Timothy six, if we have clothes and food, we're good. But he's an example. Okay, just bought. So it surprises many to learn that getting married. According to the New Testament, according to the Bible, read it in full context. It's actually kind of a concession. It's interesting. Alright, so first Corinthians 727. If you have a wife, do not seek then the marriage. If you do not have a wife, do not seek to get married. Or it is but if you do get married, it is not Sin, good. And if young woman gets married virgin, literally, it is not a sin. However, those who get married at this time will have troubles. Trying to spare you these problems. Keep going if you know it's good for your pastor, but let me say this dear brothers and sisters, the time that remains is very short from so from now on, those would watch should not focus only on their marriage, those who weep or rejoice or buy things should not be absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions. Those who use the things this world should not become attached to them, for this world, as we know it will soon pass away. There it is, again, I want you to be free from the concerns this life and unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord's work and thinking how to please Him. But a married man has to think about his earthly responsibilities and how to please his wife, his interests are divided. In the same way a woman who is no longer married or has never been married can be devoted to the Lord and holy in body and spirit. But a married woman has to think about earthly responsibilities and how to please your husband. I'm saying this, for your benefit not to place restrictions on you again, what did you just say getting married is not a sin, it's fine. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible. Okay.
It's about serving the Lord first. with as few distractions as possible. All right, not being attached to this world. Why? He told you what God told you because this world will soon pass away. So we don't want to be getting attached to him. Because that much harder to just go. Right. So there we go. And then it will also keep us from problems. Keep going. So now it's clear here, right? So it's what's being said here, marriage can divide our interests, right between the marriage and God. So if you're not going to sin, right, better just be single, right? That's what is being said here, all in its context. Now, here's the thing, a lot of people would be like, well, you know, just says it there. And I just hate that's because it says it right. So I'm going to give you more if you don't believe that, right? So let's look at more. So we get clarification. Now what Paul is doing here because he actually says it in the text. And this will be a paraphrase, like you know about this, I don't necessarily have a direct command from the Lord. But I think I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. So this is the deal, right? Because Jesus, you know, he gives some general teachings, but he's not like super, super specific. And a lot of times it's in response to someone. So he's given multiple response. They don't want to get in here you have a situation in Matthew 19, Mark 10, where Jesus is approached by those who are hardened of hearts, right. So the Pharisees the religious leadership of that time, and basically, they're trying to I think it's Deuteronomy 24. They're trying to kind of take a command there that are just laws about divorce and run with it just be really mean. We might not really understand the context, but back then. So anyway, the Old Testament has a provision for divorce if you want to get divorced, and even remarried and stuff like that. So the Pharisees they're posing this question to Jesus, because back then, like if a woman burnt the toast, like literally burned the bread, if Jewish commentaries like this, you could divorce her to just divorce this poor woman for anything. Now back then you don't have like, career woman like Barbie wasn't invented, right? So we can't, I'm trying to stay as relevant as possible. But stop. Okay, so you've got no, you didn't have like the concept of working women really back then? You know, one of the things that women would do would be like a prostitute. That's the one way they can make money. So you'd be divorcing a woman you'd be kicking her out. So like a really bad fate, right? So she might be destitute. She's young enough, she might have to resort to prostitution, it would be really bad. Right? So that's the context for this and why they're asking Jesus, Matthew 19 Eight, Jesus replied, Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your heart hearts. But it was not what God had originally intended. I tell you this, Whoever divorces his wife, and marry, someone else commits adultery unless his wife has been unfaithful. Jesus's disciples then said to him, If this is the case, it is better not to marry. Now notice what Jesus says. Not everyone can accept this statement. Jesus said, only those whom God helps. Remember that special gift Paul was talking about? Okay. Jesus doesn't say no, no, no, that's not what I was saying at all. No, he doesn't correct. He adds to it. Not everyone. except the statement is only those who God helps some are born Unix some have been made Unix by others and some choose not to marry made your or Unix for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. So what it's doing is it's telling you that's what it means which is actually pretty good translation let anyone except this who can so let's just for a second not make this what it's really not about so people will run here and make like some kind of well this is why I got a divorce see Jesus said the person on faithful so I'm going to use this text right so we'll probably being just as bad as the Pharisee nothing wrong if a divorce is necessary. But please don't use this as a proof text for like, you know, every situation and divorce that you're going to get into Paul covers that later. All right. The other thing is, this is not about Unix, or any issues of today that we're all up in arms about. Stop it. Alright, so don't infuse and infect to the Word of God with our politics, please. Right? Not what it's about. What is it about? I'll tell you. It is about being devoted to the Lord. That's what this is about. Right? hardened hearts. Yes. But maybe you'd be devoted to the Lord instead of lawyering, the Bible if you aren't lowering the Bible, right, like some do today, right? So just as Paul said, It's better that we are devoted to the Lord. This isn't about unique, or any just using them as examples. Some choose not to marry, he says specifically here, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Some choose not to marry for the sake, I couldn't have any again, God helps those who can manage this. There you go. Now the problem is, there's a different gospel out there despite the warnings we have in Galatians, right. And anyone who preaches a different gospel is a cursed anathema, which literally means damned, what that means in Greek. So despite Jesus's teachings, the Holy Spirit's teachings, what the Word of God says, very plainly, there are those who teach a different gospel, when this different gospel takes the focus off of the kingdom of heaven. Here what Jesus is pointing to every time, right, devote yourself to the kingdom home, well, what about this kingdom here? Right, let's focus on this one. And it just puts this focus on our worldly attachments. Now, before I even continue, it's okay to get married and have kids. Because you're that good, okay? So it's okay. And it's even okay to have nice things as long as we don't get too attached to them. So that's a big deal here. We should be investing in the Kingdom of Heaven more than our kingdom or this kingdom, right? So what happens here? Well, the false teachers, they take this whole Fruitful and Multiply thing, and they take the fruitful part, and they attach it to their false gospel. Right. That's what goes on here. So that's where this is used. This is how you see it, you right? So be fruitful and multiply, right? So that's what God said, You got to get to it and you're supposed to be fruitful, fruitful, extends itself to wealth. And then you need to multiply, you need to have tons and tons of kids. Right. Okay. Well, here's the thing. Just very briefly, I call it the short sighted gospel, or the half gospel because there's some truth to I showed you. There are a bunch of people were just blessed in the Bible. And that's cool. We can be blessed. That's okay. Again, I said it's okay. To have get right to multiply to have nice things, all good. Right, fine. But that's half the story, or less really, for thinking in eternal, like ways, right? The Kingdom of Heavens, the other part, that they're not preaching to try to make it a place that is here, wrong. What is what does it say over and over and over again, all of this will melt away. And we're waiting for Jesus to come back, new Heaven, New Earth, that's the right way to think about this. Right? So I call it the faithless gospel. It's kind of ironic, because they always say you need face to get all this stuff. Really? Did you read Hebrews 11? Because it defines faith for us if you read it, right. So faith is the assurance of things hoped for? The evidence of seeing your correct things not seen, right. So the evidence of things not seeing faith, right, the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So faith is not about anything we can see here. Faith is about that. Waiting for the kingdom of heaven, right? No matter what happens, we're waiting for Jesus to come back. So it's kind of ironic, right? Kind of weird thing that relying on people not reading the Bible. So here's why it's popular. And it's obvious, right, like people, but when you think about it, it's short sighted. It's a short sighted thing where We want control. So many lack faith and they try to create security in larger families and finances. They lack faith. So they try to create security and larger families and finances. It's due to a lack of it. They're not saying Lord's got it right. And this is a wide variety of people of different ages. And so I hear sometimes, you know, like, who's going to take care of me? Like, I don't have kids, but who's going to take care of me when I'm older? The Lord, we're just there's that, you know, I mean, just throwing that out there. Right? You know, just, we're Christians, right? You know, like, but just but just him, he could get it, maybe, but it would probably be better just get it ourselves, right? Because he might not. And then you die. Which is great, because then you can rise from the dead. You know, are we like, this is ridiculous, right? But some say if I have a larger family, right? And then you don't like, look, I don't know, because maybe there are people are, but it's like back then you had to have a ton of kids so they could work the farm. Right? So it's not really the case right now. That's not why you'd have kids so that, you know, I have like 10 chances or whatever, of these kids taking care of me in case I'm old.
Really, that's what they are. You're more than that, right? But it's a lack of trust in the Lord. He's got it. That's it. Paul wasn't worried about it. They were most faithful person, people in the whole person's people in the whole Bible. So didn't have any of it. That's it. He wasn't worried about any of this stuff. So this is not faith. It's about control. It's about let's go back to the beginning, making yourself god. What's the first sin? So it's just a repetition of that first sin over and over again. So here's what the Bible says, if we keep reading, what it tells us about the things of this world, and what we should put our hopes and this is just a little sampling, but I want you to see if you think that's getting the right mindset, James, for you adulterous is, don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God. I say it again, if you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. First, John 215. Do not love this world, nor the things that offers you. For when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, or craving for everything we see the opposite of faith, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. There it is, again, are we getting it right? But what does he end with here? To live forever? What it was he took his cotton pointing to that that's what's really important here, right? But again, the things we it offers all neither things we can see. What is John? No, it's the opposite of faith. So this Be fruitful and multiply out of context, teaching remains popular despite the fact that the Bible tells us we are to be patient. We are not to be focused on the things of this world, or deceived remember, there's an important thing to remember because a lot of people will assume that I have a lot of nice stuff. So I must be blessed when the Lord like Satan bless you to why you tempt Jesus with one bad things. Blessings. Okay, so same thing with you, right? Go for it. It's good. We're supposed to be waiting for Jesus to return the new heavens and new earth Philippians 318. For I've told you often before, and say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows that they're really enemies of the cross of Christ member enemies of God. Here it is, again, enemies of the cross of Christ. They're headed for destruction. Their god is their belly, and they brag about shameful things and they think only about this life on earth. What the enemies of the cross of Christ do think only about things of this earth. But we are citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and we're eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our week mortal bodies and change them in a glorious bodies like his own using the same power with which you'll bring everything under his control. divided loyalty To read that in January, the first chapter of the book of James Wright give it that's how he describes people like that they have divided loyalty. Not great. So here's the thing. So from, from a practical perspective, what is this? What's the big deal? Pastor? I will let people just say whatever they want, it's on them. Well, we saw the big deal. What do false teachings do? Like they lead people astray? Not great, even though yes, it's on them. But what about the beginners? What about the people who are just totally new to the faith? I see tons of them. I mean, as a pastor, it's hilarious. Not really. But I mean, kind of, because they'll come in and I've been a Christian for 40 years. But they joined like a denomination like this, right? Who relied on them never really reading the whole Bible and understanding it. They just read the snippets that they're spoon fed. So they say babies like that in the Scriptures. And they come in and I say something like this. And even though it's on the screen, maybe they're tracking along in their Bible, they read it, they're still like, revolted, you know, they're like, doesn't say that. Brainwash, right, so you're taking new people and just brainwashing them, it's so hard to undo bad teachings, it really is, once a person has that seed in them. It takes an unbelievable amount of humility to reverse course here.
So the big thing is it makes people actually believe that they're in control. That's the problem. It makes them believe that. But then what happens when something bad happens?
You know, what, what's wrong with that might not bless. And people will fall away from the faith over this stuff. And again, it's leading people to sin, because it's just a defiant replication of that original sin over and over again, people don't realize that teaching is sinful, it's sinful, what's wrong with it? A whole bunch of people being led into sin. Not good. Here's another thing. And you know, it's funny, a lot of people and I don't blame people for not thinking of these things. Because until you get in the passenger seat, you don't necessarily think of it unless I'm just like, a really bad, bad person that had to hold me down in the water longer than everybody else. Maybe you thought about this, right? Pastor school, that taught me that. But here's the thing. If you're told, right, so, you're it's the whole health and wealth thing, whatever, that you know, it's, it's a matter of faith that you're blessed, right? So, you know, if you have faith, then you'll get blessed. Right? But if you don't, you won't. And what do you tell? Well, if you're not being blessed, you got to work on that faith or something like that, you know, and then someone gets sick. And they're like, oh, I don't have enough faith or something happens, right? But what happens to the woman who can't have kids? Just can't? What happens to that woman? You don't have faith, but they just can't. They try and try and try it. I guess I don't have enough faith. Why am I cursed? Is this a curse? And then they start talking about all these stupid things that Jesus already cured like generational curses, we talking about? Jesus lifted the curse, right? There's no cutting, there's anything wrong with but they Oh, man. So they go through this stage, and maybe they start getting angry at God. Maybe they come to the conclusion that there is no God that this was just a lie. This is crazy. Because I'm doing everything I can they had faith, but I'm not being blessed. What's wrong with me? And here's what I want to say to you. If that's you. Nothing's wrong with you. Nothing's wrong with you. from a biblical perspective, from what Jesus said, Not pastor Jean, right. What Paul said, what the Holy Spirit said was, you've got a gift. Maybe you don't have as many distractions. Some were made this way to serve the kingdom. That sounds like a good thing to me. Until you infect it with the way our society thinks. Maybe it's a good thing. Let's just go serve the Lord. This is great. All right, you're bright of Christ's. What's the problem? Here's another one. And I really, you know, I didn't put a lot of thought into this, even though it did hit home. So when I first became a pastor, a lot of people, you know, if you're thinking about pastoral work, and it's a joke, right, like, you know, pastors, they work for one hour every Sunday, right? But for some reason, the pastor's wife and I have my husband back. You get Saturday between the hours of 11 and seven. That's not a joke. But indications You guys are awesome. You helped me. But funny enough, even though you're trained as a pastor, like you worry about that too. You think like, oh, man, it's the sermons. You know, this is I got to come up with the sermons and all Listen, like eventually, if you're not, well, if you're smart, eventually you just start reading your Bible a lot. And you're like, Oh, it's just all there. This is the sermon. You don't need because you're just thinking the way the world thinks like, I have to put on some kind of shoulder this much Scripture is not going to show. Maybe it's hard, I don't know. But just use this. So you figure that out, right? And then you're not really nervous about that sees pastors are like nervous, like, you know, after like a year or two of preaching, and they're nervous. I'm like, maybe you shouldn't be doing what you're doing. Right? And it's usually the case that they shouldn't be doing that, right? Because it's their I don't read them the Bible pastor, like, aren't you reading anyway? So that's really not the hard part of the job, like, well, once you get into it, my I got all the material. And I took three years, I have three years worth of material. That's not the problem, right? So you love your people, you pretend that's not the problem. The problem is funerals. Funerals are never fun memorial service, depending on your context, right. So it doesn't save them. So funerals, memorial services, they're not fun, and no one can prepare you for it. Right? So in your training, like I've done like a lot of different counseling, stuff like that, and some tough stuff. But that actually is one of the things that made me want to quit. You know, because you're not just dealing with like getting up and doing the service, all that stuff. You're dealing with all these different dynamics, you know, somebody lost somebody, and then you're counseling that person and it gets very, very complicated. And you can't help but especially when I started, I was much younger, do a little bit of transference, right? You can't help but put yourself where that person is, and start freaking out yourself. Right? And then you go on that night, you're like, oh, gosh, so it's bad. The worst part is when a baby dies. So my first funeral was for an infant that had miscarried. Nothing can prepare you for that. Nothing. Nine months, we were very close to them nine months pregnant, and she miscarried. So no one could prepare me for how the hospital dealt with it. I'm not even sure if it's normative, but I couldn't unsee it. There she is. I'm just thinking I have to deal with this woman. And the husband's already outside the room on the way and crying, you know, him and her and I'm trying to like us all about not saying the wrong thing. You know, and I go in the room, and there's the dead child next to the mom can see that. But you got to deal with it, right? Can't start freaking out, you know? You get through that. You can't unsee a little baby coffin going into the ground. can see that? I didn't realize how hard it would hit me because we also had a similar experience. So if you know me, even for a few years, you know I have a daughter, right? Sophie, the big tall one. And yes, she's dating someone. His name is Chewbacca. And so you don't have to worry about me because he will rip your arms off. Okay, I'm done with the I got to break that moment up because I was about to cry. So any works for me? I don't know. It's ideal. That's my coping mechanism, humor. But what you might not know is we had a son. We had a son. The Lord took him. We had our own experience with that miscarriage. It was tough. And so I brought all that back. And my wife said something somewhere along the line that I hear from a lot of women, and I encouraged her this, I'll encourage you with this, if you've been through this. She said somewhere I lost the baby, or have that sentiment or that feeling like I lost the baby. And I hear this so much. If this is you need to hear this. You did not lose the baby. You need to understand that you did nothing wrong. You did not lose the baby. So somebody needs to hear that. You didn't. Right so there are maybe doctors out there until you lost a baby. Maybe there are false teachers out there telling you didn't have enough faith you lost the baby or maybe that was implied which is just as twisted and cruel. You didn't lose the baby. You did not in don't believe me? Let's listen to what the Word of God has to say about what happened. Isaiah 57 One good people pass away. The godly often died before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why no one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. Those who followed godly paths will rest in peace when they die. You didn't lose the baby God took him or her to protect them from the evil that is to come That's the godly way to look at this. Because the world is evil Galatians one four, for example, Jesus gave his life for our sins just as God our Father plan in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. All Glory to God forever and ever. Amen. And hence the real problem with attaching ourselves to this world. It's evil. And so what have we attached ourselves to? Yeah, that's the problem. Jesus is rescuing us from this evil world. And if you have lost a little one, Jesus has rescued that little one, from this evil world ahead of us. That's okay. And so just some more scriptural encouragement. It's very short. We know about David and Bathsheba the sin he committed while that first child dies, but before the child does, it's sick, he's sick. And so David is mourning and fasting and doing all these things, you know, praying for the child. But then when he gets word, he hears that the child dies, like, pops up, everything's fine, like he's eating, and he's just going about the normal stuff. And they're confused by this. And paraphrasing, David gives us the appropriate sentiment here. Right? So
the child are basically the thinking, if he's with the Lord, he can't come to me, but someday I'll go and be with him.
So what else does the teaching people in general, again, if you're just told, like, you know, if you have enough faith, you'll just always be healthy. You'll always be wealthy, right? You'll have tons of kids, you know, you'll be fruitful, you will always and you'll multiply when it doesn't happen. Because what does the New Testament tell us? Doesn't always happen? It's very clear. We're not promised all these things like when it happens, then again, you go through this whole loop of like, Who do I not have faith, like what's wrong with me, and I've seen it more often times than not result in someone falling away from that little faith they had. But even one person was I've seen pastors get kind of indoctrinated into this. They become pastors, they're preaching because maybe they haven't experienced like the one I had, maybe their son is sick. I know, one in particular son got really, really sick. And the pastor wrestled with this, and he was big on this teaching, the Dominion mandate, if you've heard of that. So taking this one teaching, running with it, ignoring everything the rest of the Bible teaches, and he believed it. So much so that he fell away from the faith. He's no longer a believer, a pastor. That's what's wrong with this. Right? So here's the thing. It has been said that words are like toothpaste, right? Once you get them out of the tube, you can't really get them back. So how much more should we apply that to the Word of God? Right, and how we handle it, how we interpret it, careful, because it has a great effect on other people. Now, as it applies to the mishandling of this particular scripture today, it just, it misses the whole point. Everything that scripture really teaches. Whether it be Philippians, our citizenship isn't here. It's in heaven. Colossians. Three, think of heavenly things, not the things of this earth. We learn it ever, Peter causes temporary residence, or aliens. We don't belong here. We're just passing through. So we get to our real home with Jesus. That's the right way to think. And for those suffering was right, the greatest cure for that grief is to put our hope there. As David said, He's not coming back to me. My son is not coming back to me. But someday, I will get to see him there. It's the greatest cure for that grief. Right adds to that blessing, the eternal blessing that we're going to have. Now, look, we're while we're here, right? We can have our fun. We're supposed to love especially our children, our family, but what we teach them is very, very important. We have to teach them right. We have to teach them where to put their hope. Not in me. I'm not God. I can't provide everything for you. Trust the Lord, not me. II, we need to be examples. But ultimately your faith is not in me, it's in the Lord, we need to lead by that example, not trying to control so much stuff. That's important, because we're always trying to control things, what are they going to do? Try to control everything. Alright, so you got to be very careful the amount of control we try to exhibit over our children especially. We are not building our kingdom here. Our hope is in Christ and Christ alone. So just some encouragement for you just putting some things together. You know, we go through so many things. I get it. Everybody here is going through something. Because it isn't perfect. It's an evil world. Right? So we are suffering with something. We're all going through something. But what the Bible teaches us is that these are temporary light afflictions Second Corinthians four compared to right, this eternal glory that will outweigh everything. First Thessalonians four, right. So look, we grieve, but we don't grieve like those with no hope. Because what Jesus is coming back for us. And that's where we put our hope. And we studied revelation closely, and what was the point, even those who die in the Lord, if we remain faithful, even in the face of death? If we put our hope there, Jesus will come back for us and we get to be in a new heavens and new earth, where there isn't any more crying. Death itself is dead, the grave is dead. We don't have to worry about that anymore. No crying, no pain, no one accusing us of anything, no division, none of the troubles that we have here will exist when Jesus comes back for us. That's our hope. We pray. Lord, I thank you for the search this time. I just pray for everyone that your Word brings them hope that these words of God that we looked at today, the Truth brings them hope. And with that hope I just hope you just fill them with your Holy Spirit, fill them with hope. Fill them with the peace, the joy, the love, the mercy that comes with all of that and make everyone vehicles this week to share your love your peace, your joy. As representatives of the kingdom of heaven. I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
Good morning. Welcome. If you are new here among us, my name is Gene and I serve here at C3 church as your pastor. And I heard a story. I was told a story about an elderly woman who lived in a densely wooded forest, kind of far away from the neighboring towns, but there were neighboring towns. And every once in a while some of the kids from these towns would decide to play in the woods, go exploring, but they'd get lost. So the woman found out about it and decided she would start leaving them like little Supply Drops if they got lost, so they'd have something to eat. And eventually, this ministry kind of grew into something where the drops would lead to her home. As always being told this story. The emphasis was on what a nice lady, this was, right? She cared so much for the children, we should all be that compassionate for children. So I asked, What's the name of this story? They said, Hansel and Gretel. Come on, are we not allowed to tell Grimms fairy tales to kids anymore? Like. So this is what happens when you come to a conclusion. Before finishing the rest of the story, right? We've learned a lot about that. And it happens a lot with the Bible, too, right? So why is this such a big deal? Well, I'll make this short. Because I've said this in the past. Right? So when we're misquoting stories, that people lose their minds. If someone does a movie or something like that, or representation of somebody's favorite book. People lose it. Right? If it isn't close to the book, they're like, I am banned. I'm boycotting them to cancel the movie or something like that. Because it's just it's not accurate. Not good. What happens when we misquote or misrepresent people? So think of like, I think like a White House press secretary, politics aside, you know, if you start misquoting the president, eventually, it's going to lead to some problems, or you might lose your job. So maybe you've had similar jobs where you know, you have to be careful about everything you say, and represent the person really well. So here's the thing. How much more does it matter when we're representing or quoting God? A lot more. Right. Okay, please. So what's happening is a lot of people are out there misrepresenting God. They're misrepresenting the story. Most people haven't even read it themselves, but they develop these very, you know, big conclusions. Well, this is what I mean, well, have you read the whole thing? No. So we end up in that situation now. And to be very serious to anyone who's a Christian, but more so because God Himself tells us not to misquote him, or his word, Deuteronomy, four, two, do not add or subtract from these commands I'm giving you just obey the commands of the Lord your God that I'm giving you. Proverbs 35, every word of God proves to be true, he has a shield to all who come to him for protection, do not add to his words, or he may rebuke you and expose you as a liar. revelations are from beginning in Revelation 2218. And I solemnly declared everyone who hears the words of this prophecy written in this book, if anyone has anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. And if anyone removes any other words, from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person share and the Tree of Life in the holy city that are described in this book. So misquoting God, is a pretty serious sin, wouldn't you say? Yeah, right. We've consequences. So no matter what you're doing, whether it be someone preaching, that's the obvious thing, and probably the fear for a lot of people in preaching, you know, one of the things that should motivate any teacher to just be in the word a lot, right? Because I don't want the curses kind of want the Tree of Life, right? So I'm very careful. And it's sort of like I don't want to preach. No, you don't. But people will make movies and shows about the Bible and add things to and take things away. Not good. Not that seems innocent, but it's not. Because they're misrepresenting the Lord. So we've been through the entire Bible. And what we're going to do here, we're going to look at some of and we're not going to vote, don't worry, this one won't take three years, right? So we're going to try to do this, and maybe a couple months, something like that. So I get excited. I'm like, Oh, there's another one. There's another one. There's another one. And then it'll be three years and no promises. So anyway, we're going to take some of the most popular, right twisted scriptures misquoted or twisted parts of the Bible. And I'm going to give you the context I'm going to give you like, what's really going on here. And then also like how to look at it with the full counsel of God's Word in mind, right, not just picking up on one little part of the story and running with it with our own imaginations, right. So Just from the Word of God. So what we're going to do first we'll start a creation. And I will. I'm going to overview this because we've been through this at a great length. So I'm just going to kind of overview some of these parts here for you. So Janice will grab our key verse, I'll show you a couple places where it happens early on in the Bible, and then we'll go from there. So basically, looking at Genesis, you just get the creation, right, we've talked about this in the past, so I'm not going to get into it too deep, is not a science book, right? We're not supposed to be like Adam and Eve and try to be like God, and then make the heavens and earth out. It's not an instruction manual, right? What it is, is to show that God is all powerful, right? omnipresent, omnipotent, he's created everything. That's the point, right? So we get the creation of the Earth, we get the creation, the sky, the stars, the lights, everything. And then finally the vegetation, animals and then humans are last. Genesis 126, then God said, Let us make human beings literally man in our image, to be like us, they will reign over the fish in the sea of the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and small animals scurry along the ground. So God created human beings in His own image, in the image of God, He created them, male and female, He created them, then God bless them and said, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and government reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground. So here we get to our key verse, Be fruitful, and multiply. And it's a lot of us have heard that, right. So if you if you've never read the Bible, you can get someone who's never had the Bible. And he's here to be fruitful. And that's why he was oh, yeah, that's what God told like the first humans. Exactly. All right, so let's build the context around it. So here we go. If we jump forward a little bit, we get some ground rules. So Genesis 215, the Lord placed a man in the Garden of Eden, to attend and watch over it. But the Lord warned the Lord God warned him, you may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden, except the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If you eat its fruit, you will surely die. Okay. So if we continue along, right, so then Adam names all the animals, then man is lonely like animals. So we got to make a helper for him, right? So out of his mix, the woman puts them in a deep sleep first nice of him. No anesthesiologist, necessary, right? So anyway, have a think about that. So anyway, maybe just me. So it's paradise. And they don't even know that they're naked. Right? So Sorry, ladies. No shopping required. So is it really paradise? I don't know. But anyway, so maybe she asked her does Genesis three one, the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals, the Lord God made. One day he asked the woman, you can really say, You must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden. Of course, we may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden, the woman replied, it's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden, that we're not allowed to eat. God said He was not even touch it. If you do, you'll die. High, the serpent replied to the woman, God knows that your eyes will be open as soon as you eat it. And you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Alright, so just a couple things here. Many twisted scripture. It's not an apple. Stop saying that, right? So anyway, reading your conspiracy theories, but anyway, I'm not going to get into it, but you might want to use a Samsung. Anyway, the devil is the first to twist scripture. Did you notice that right? Jesus calls him the father of lies, and he is he twists descriptive twist God's word. And Eve is the first to fall for the false teachings, Genesis three, six, the woman was convinced, she saw that the tree was beautiful, and its fruit looked delicious. And she wanted the wisdom it would give her so she took some of the fruit native. Then she gave them to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it too. At that moment, their eyes were open, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. And now they realize it. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. So the first fashion designers we did we know all right. So why did she fall for it? She wants to be like, God, that's why right? So they're trying to be like God, because of her own desire. So let's when we go through this, just remember that keep that in mind. It was her own desires, right? And then Adams own desires. Both of them are guilty. So they get caught Genesis three, eight, when the cool evening breezes were blowing the man, Adam and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden so they hid from the LORD God among the trees. Then the Lord God called them in, where are you? You're fine. I heard you walking in the garden. So I hid. And I was afraid because I was naked. Who tells you were naked? The Lord God asks, Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I can manage not to eat? The man replied. It was the woman you gave me. You gave me the fruit and I ate it. All right.
It's funny in every translations. So just a couple of things before we get to the jokes, right? So what's kind of cool here? Just a little site where I'm trying to stay on the topic, but I got to, I got to show you a little easter egg. But this is bigger than that. So walking in the garden. So what you have here is like a Christoph Ania Theophany. But better like a crystal ball. This is plain and simple terms. Just a pretty figure of Jesus. So you get like a picture of the Trinity if we go from the beginning, right, so the Holy Spirit's in the second verse, I didn't read that aloud. He says, us it's a plurality. So Father, Son, Holy Spirit, this picture that you get your picture of the Trinity. Alright, so. But what's really funny, right, they now they noticed they're naked, right? So it's not perfect anymore. They've ruined it. Right? So it was perfect as paradise. They ruined it. So notice, right? There's a woman you gave me. So immediately the blame game ensues, right. But it doesn't stop there. Genesis 313. Then the Lord God asked the woman, what are you done? The serpent deceived me. That's why. Right? So humans, the first humans have one thing in common attitude problems, right? So they're immediately doing the blame game, right out the gate. So little side note, we've learned, right? So false teachers are bad, really bad, but it's also on you. Right? So you need we need to think about that. And we have all this right here. It's in writing, right? So it's on YouTube. So that's very important. So now they're banished. They're cursed, right? So pain in the childbirth, you got a 10 to the IRLO stuff, they're kicked out of the garden. And that's it. So you can't come here anymore. So let's just fast forward just a little bit to see what happens when they get fruitful and multiply. So they have Cain and Abel and just real, it's really kind of a brief thing anyway, don't really need to make it too much shorter. So they have Cain than they have Abel. And Cain, basically, he's working the ground farm or something like that, In plain terms, and then Abel, he tends to the sheep. And so what happens we're told to Abel gives like the firstborn of his flock, so but Cain, it's implied there that he gets his leftovers because God doesn't accept it. Right. So Cain is dejected. It says he's really sad. He said that God rejects him, like while you said, but he says, Look, if you do what is right, you will be accepted. So there you go. But he says some interesting stuff in there, right? sin is crouching at the door as waiting to control you right, so you must master it. But just as far as one day cane suggested to his brother, let's go out into the fields. And while they were in the field cane, attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Afterward, the Lord asked Cain, where's your brother? For example? I don't know. Cain responded. And my brother's guardian, or Brother's Keeper. So I find it funny like God is asking all these rhetorical questions he's asking everybody questions he already knows the answers to but again this attitude problem continues right? Oh, no, Am I my brother's keeper? Like okay, so just like with Adam and Eve right this it was the sin was right there crouching at the door, you didn't master it. So now if we keep reading just five we get to a bunch of genealogies we're not going to go over every name right now. We get to the reason for the flood, like not even the angels or sons of God are happy with Heaven itself, right? So they come and they corrupt the Earth with the daughters of mankind, so the procreating like that see giants are created and all this stuff. So basically, it tells us that the earth is corrupt. So God's like okay, flooded, we get the Noah account, right? So the people on the boat, no, Shem, Ham, J. Fifth, there was on the boat with all these animals and the flood accounts. I'm just kind of fast forwarding to get to our key verse again here. The flood recedes, they worship God. That's what happens. Then there's a covenant, Genesis nine one then God bless Noah and his sons and told them, Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth, and all the animals of the earth, all the birds of this guy, all the animals have scurry along the ground and all the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and terror. I've placed them in your power, I have given them to you for food, just as I've given you the grain and vegetables so that we can eat meat. But you must never eat any meat that still has the life blood in it kosher, and I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person's life if a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die. If anyone takes a human life that person's life will also be taken by human hands for God made human beings in His own image. Now be fruitful and multiply and repopulate the earth. So here's the key verse here we're going to look at today that gets twisted, Be fruitful and multiply and repopulate the earth right or fill the earth literally. Right? So here's what people leave out. Now. You need to keep reading right. So these verses are about who like Adam and Eve first right then Noah and family right? So not necessarily us is not being spoken to us. Now, I'm going to put like two or three disclaimers throughout this message. I want you to hear me. Because apparently being fruitful and multiply is very popular among Christians. That's fine, right? So that's okay. If you have a large family, there's not nothing wrong with that. That's not what I'm saying through this whole message here, that part. So I'm going to leave that you stuck on one of my jokes, and you're going to come up to me after service. Are we allowed to have kids? You weren't listening? Right? So I don't want that question. That's me. So, right, it's okay. To have kids. Okay, so if you hear that, okay, good. So someone complains about me just say he said it's okay to have kids or just because every message something, so it's okay to have children. But here's the thing we do not need you to do. repopulate the earth, right. So you and I know a lot of Christians think that they're the only people in the whole world, this happens to be a very common trait among a lot of Christians, right? You're the only people in the whole world right now. But that's not true, either. We just don't need you to do that. It's okay. Just have some kids. But the whole earth it seems like that to me sometimes. I don't know. So. So context. So in this, in this, in this situations, we have a context, right, there's a clear need here. So basically, the Earth has just been created, really, human beings get busy. I said that, right? So same thing, no and sons, right? Therefore, there's no turkey. Well, there's no here that he really
busy. It's alright. So. So without a context, right, this becomes a pretext for whatever we want it to mean, this is what happens here. And we'll talk about like the fruitful part too. So let's just want to look at a few more verses, because there are other places in the Bible in the Old Testament, especially where you're going to see like the fruitful and multiply language. But the context is not the same. It's mostly like a blessing. And so I want you to do is, see the difference between like a command from the Lord and a blessing. There's a little bit of a difference here, right? So being fruitful multiply, I'm just going to whip through these really quick, not even on the screen, Genesis 17. So you get this thing with Ishmael. I've heard the so Behold, I blessed him, and I'll make him fruitful and multiply, and I'm exceeding so you see, it says right in the text, it's a blessing to Ishmael. Right? Genesis 28. So after the deceit of Isaac you have, or you have Isaac blessing, Jacob, may God Almighty bless you and give you many children, and may your descendants multiply clearly a blessing. That's the context of that. Genesis 35, to Jacob, I am God, I'm El Shaddai, God Almighty be fruitful and multiply the first like, Wait, is this the same command, but Jacob recounts it, and when he's doing it, and God said unto me, Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you and will make you a multitude of people, Leviticus 26, both the ending you get to 27. But both the ending of Leviticus and Deuteronomy are kind of, there's blessings and curses for disobedience. Among those blessings. If you obey, you get this far I'll have respect unto you, make you fruitful and multiply you so there's like an if, right, and establish my covenant with you, it's a blessing if you don't, horrible things happen, we've seen that Jeremiah appears there, there's like the cursing of the evil shepherds. And so but I'll gather a remnant of my flock from the country so there's a lot of destruction that happens to them, if you haven't, then bring them back to their own sheep fold and they will be fruitful and increase in number and also we see that righteous descend from David's line Jesus, so clearly all blessings. So some may quote these, but they're out of context and trying to very quickly give you the context and it's not really what's being said here. What we're going to do is focus on the context that we see in Genesis there there's a big difference here so again, let's just look at them again and then move forward so we're going to get Genesis 120 Then God bless them and said be fruitful and multiply fill the earth and government ran over the fish in the sea the birds in the sky and all the animals that scurry along the ground then we jump over to Genesis nine seven that'd be fruitful, multiply repopulate or again fill the earth repopulate because that's the context that's what they're talking about. So it's very, very clear in these situations, the who, what, when where why, right so when we use the reading comprehension skills that we learned in the second grade right, it's pretty clear like why these people need to repopulate fill the earth up so what we're going to do now is we want to look to the best commentary on the Old Testament that exists. The New Testament right see what it says the full council of God's words, okay? There's a then and now so we talked about the then there's a need to repopulate the earth. Now, why are people on the earth right? So that need is not really pressing. Plus now this is tricky, but you really got to read and pay attention. You get to the end of Genesis seven, right? And so basically I won't do this again, you have the flood, I won't do this again, paraphrasing, right, as long as the Earth and doors are given a hint there as long as the Earth indoors, which implies that someday it won't. It's kind of clear there, right? So in the meantime, what you have here, for example, like I think of Isaiah 34, and 65, where he's saying, like, the Earth is going to pass away, that is said very, very clearly, right? So even in the Old Testament, we're told, you know, what, we're going to get a new heaven and a new earth. And this is really, really big. In the New Testament, Jesus lets us know, so little drop of it in the Sermon on the Mountain, Matthew five, you get what's called the all of that discourse, if you're in Matthew, Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, none of all just talking to His disciples and talking about like the end times, but it's dropped in there, right. So the heavens, the earth will pass away. This is all this will not be here. We're looking forward to what a new heaven and a new earth this is all over. All over the New Testament, clarifying this first Johnson computer we saw revelation, of course, all over it. So it's all about us understanding this, this earth will pass away, all gone, what our hope in is in Jesus's return, and the new heavens and new earth. That's what you have to keep in mind in order to start getting this right, right. So that's your context for the New Testament. That's what we're looking at. So what I want to do with that in mind, Jesus return in mind, I'll hop back, I'm going to go through the intestinal, we'll get to Jesus in a second. But with this in mind, I want you to see what's going on here, because now we have like contexts in our mind. And so you get to First Corinthians, right? So we go to First Corinthians and we see, most people say, Ah, it's a messed up church. But when we looked at it, I challenge everyone. Yeah, we're just as messed up. Why? Because he starts with Pastor worship. That's the first problem with the Corinthian church, and they're creating divisions. Some are following Peter, some are following, right like Apollo, some are following Paul. And Paul flips out on him for four chapters. Right? So it's really not good. They're creating factions, aka denominations, right. So Paul's worst nightmare. You're arguing over all these little things, not keeping the gospel to center and worshipping pastors, how many people would do that today? He's so good. Like I go to this church, because he's a good speaker. That's so same problem, right? chapters five through seven and other problems, sector issues of sex in the church, or different things going on, and he gets to divorce and remarriage. Why is this important in this context? Well, you need a helper, right? So to start multiplying, you need a helper and that's why you would go here to see okay, how does the early church, like think about this helper? How do we get one, you know, like, what do we do if they divorces or they leave? So Paul is covering a lot of ground in First Corinthians seven an awful lot. But here's the context, and the attitude would be fruitful and multiply. So begins with a marriage. And Paul says, there's nothing wrong with marriage. Right? So again, did you hear me? There's nothing wrong with marriage. There's nothing wrong with having kids. I'm just going to repeat that again. Alright. First Corinthians seven, seven, but I wish everyone were single, just as I am. Each person has a special gift from God of one kind or another. All right. So what Paul does here is he explains what if you're going to burn with desire? In other words, if you're going to have intercourse outside of marriage, that is a sin. Now, let's so if that's going to happen, you can't like you know, since crouching at the door, if you can't master that, right? And you have, as he said, special abilities, which mean you can abstain. That's better. So this is interesting. Think about it for one second. Right. So Paul, who all over the place like that he's supposed to be an example to us. So we read that before. He's an example to us. Well, this example is not necessarily getting fruitful and multiplying Izzie? No, and he talks about money, right? You need Timothy First Timothy six, if we have clothes and food, we're good. But he's an example. Okay, just bought. So it surprises many to learn that getting married. According to the New Testament, according to the Bible, read it in full context. It's actually kind of a concession. It's interesting. Alright, so first Corinthians 727. If you have a wife, do not seek then the marriage. If you do not have a wife, do not seek to get married. Or it is but if you do get married, it is not Sin, good. And if young woman gets married virgin, literally, it is not a sin. However, those who get married at this time will have troubles. Trying to spare you these problems. Keep going if you know it's good for your pastor, but let me say this dear brothers and sisters, the time that remains is very short from so from now on, those would watch should not focus only on their marriage, those who weep or rejoice or buy things should not be absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions. Those who use the things this world should not become attached to them, for this world, as we know it will soon pass away. There it is, again, I want you to be free from the concerns this life and unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord's work and thinking how to please Him. But a married man has to think about his earthly responsibilities and how to please his wife, his interests are divided. In the same way a woman who is no longer married or has never been married can be devoted to the Lord and holy in body and spirit. But a married woman has to think about earthly responsibilities and how to please your husband. I'm saying this, for your benefit not to place restrictions on you again, what did you just say getting married is not a sin, it's fine. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible. Okay.
It's about serving the Lord first. with as few distractions as possible. All right, not being attached to this world. Why? He told you what God told you because this world will soon pass away. So we don't want to be getting attached to him. Because that much harder to just go. Right. So there we go. And then it will also keep us from problems. Keep going. So now it's clear here, right? So it's what's being said here, marriage can divide our interests, right between the marriage and God. So if you're not going to sin, right, better just be single, right? That's what is being said here, all in its context. Now, here's the thing, a lot of people would be like, well, you know, just says it there. And I just hate that's because it says it right. So I'm going to give you more if you don't believe that, right? So let's look at more. So we get clarification. Now what Paul is doing here because he actually says it in the text. And this will be a paraphrase, like you know about this, I don't necessarily have a direct command from the Lord. But I think I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. So this is the deal, right? Because Jesus, you know, he gives some general teachings, but he's not like super, super specific. And a lot of times it's in response to someone. So he's given multiple response. They don't want to get in here you have a situation in Matthew 19, Mark 10, where Jesus is approached by those who are hardened of hearts, right. So the Pharisees the religious leadership of that time, and basically, they're trying to I think it's Deuteronomy 24. They're trying to kind of take a command there that are just laws about divorce and run with it just be really mean. We might not really understand the context, but back then. So anyway, the Old Testament has a provision for divorce if you want to get divorced, and even remarried and stuff like that. So the Pharisees they're posing this question to Jesus, because back then, like if a woman burnt the toast, like literally burned the bread, if Jewish commentaries like this, you could divorce her to just divorce this poor woman for anything. Now back then you don't have like, career woman like Barbie wasn't invented, right? So we can't, I'm trying to stay as relevant as possible. But stop. Okay, so you've got no, you didn't have like the concept of working women really back then? You know, one of the things that women would do would be like a prostitute. That's the one way they can make money. So you'd be divorcing a woman you'd be kicking her out. So like a really bad fate, right? So she might be destitute. She's young enough, she might have to resort to prostitution, it would be really bad. Right? So that's the context for this and why they're asking Jesus, Matthew 19 Eight, Jesus replied, Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your heart hearts. But it was not what God had originally intended. I tell you this, Whoever divorces his wife, and marry, someone else commits adultery unless his wife has been unfaithful. Jesus's disciples then said to him, If this is the case, it is better not to marry. Now notice what Jesus says. Not everyone can accept this statement. Jesus said, only those whom God helps. Remember that special gift Paul was talking about? Okay. Jesus doesn't say no, no, no, that's not what I was saying at all. No, he doesn't correct. He adds to it. Not everyone. except the statement is only those who God helps some are born Unix some have been made Unix by others and some choose not to marry made your or Unix for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. So what it's doing is it's telling you that's what it means which is actually pretty good translation let anyone except this who can so let's just for a second not make this what it's really not about so people will run here and make like some kind of well this is why I got a divorce see Jesus said the person on faithful so I'm going to use this text right so we'll probably being just as bad as the Pharisee nothing wrong if a divorce is necessary. But please don't use this as a proof text for like, you know, every situation and divorce that you're going to get into Paul covers that later. All right. The other thing is, this is not about Unix, or any issues of today that we're all up in arms about. Stop it. Alright, so don't infuse and infect to the Word of God with our politics, please. Right? Not what it's about. What is it about? I'll tell you. It is about being devoted to the Lord. That's what this is about. Right? hardened hearts. Yes. But maybe you'd be devoted to the Lord instead of lawyering, the Bible if you aren't lowering the Bible, right, like some do today, right? So just as Paul said, It's better that we are devoted to the Lord. This isn't about unique, or any just using them as examples. Some choose not to marry, he says specifically here, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Some choose not to marry for the sake, I couldn't have any again, God helps those who can manage this. There you go. Now the problem is, there's a different gospel out there despite the warnings we have in Galatians, right. And anyone who preaches a different gospel is a cursed anathema, which literally means damned, what that means in Greek. So despite Jesus's teachings, the Holy Spirit's teachings, what the Word of God says, very plainly, there are those who teach a different gospel, when this different gospel takes the focus off of the kingdom of heaven. Here what Jesus is pointing to every time, right, devote yourself to the kingdom home, well, what about this kingdom here? Right, let's focus on this one. And it just puts this focus on our worldly attachments. Now, before I even continue, it's okay to get married and have kids. Because you're that good, okay? So it's okay. And it's even okay to have nice things as long as we don't get too attached to them. So that's a big deal here. We should be investing in the Kingdom of Heaven more than our kingdom or this kingdom, right? So what happens here? Well, the false teachers, they take this whole Fruitful and Multiply thing, and they take the fruitful part, and they attach it to their false gospel. Right. That's what goes on here. So that's where this is used. This is how you see it, you right? So be fruitful and multiply, right? So that's what God said, You got to get to it and you're supposed to be fruitful, fruitful, extends itself to wealth. And then you need to multiply, you need to have tons and tons of kids. Right. Okay. Well, here's the thing. Just very briefly, I call it the short sighted gospel, or the half gospel because there's some truth to I showed you. There are a bunch of people were just blessed in the Bible. And that's cool. We can be blessed. That's okay. Again, I said it's okay. To have get right to multiply to have nice things, all good. Right, fine. But that's half the story, or less really, for thinking in eternal, like ways, right? The Kingdom of Heavens, the other part, that they're not preaching to try to make it a place that is here, wrong. What is what does it say over and over and over again, all of this will melt away. And we're waiting for Jesus to come back, new Heaven, New Earth, that's the right way to think about this. Right? So I call it the faithless gospel. It's kind of ironic, because they always say you need face to get all this stuff. Really? Did you read Hebrews 11? Because it defines faith for us if you read it, right. So faith is the assurance of things hoped for? The evidence of seeing your correct things not seen, right. So the evidence of things not seeing faith, right, the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So faith is not about anything we can see here. Faith is about that. Waiting for the kingdom of heaven, right? No matter what happens, we're waiting for Jesus to come back. So it's kind of ironic, right? Kind of weird thing that relying on people not reading the Bible. So here's why it's popular. And it's obvious, right, like people, but when you think about it, it's short sighted. It's a short sighted thing where We want control. So many lack faith and they try to create security in larger families and finances. They lack faith. So they try to create security and larger families and finances. It's due to a lack of it. They're not saying Lord's got it right. And this is a wide variety of people of different ages. And so I hear sometimes, you know, like, who's going to take care of me? Like, I don't have kids, but who's going to take care of me when I'm older? The Lord, we're just there's that, you know, I mean, just throwing that out there. Right? You know, just, we're Christians, right? You know, like, but just but just him, he could get it, maybe, but it would probably be better just get it ourselves, right? Because he might not. And then you die. Which is great, because then you can rise from the dead. You know, are we like, this is ridiculous, right? But some say if I have a larger family, right? And then you don't like, look, I don't know, because maybe there are people are, but it's like back then you had to have a ton of kids so they could work the farm. Right? So it's not really the case right now. That's not why you'd have kids so that, you know, I have like 10 chances or whatever, of these kids taking care of me in case I'm old.
Really, that's what they are. You're more than that, right? But it's a lack of trust in the Lord. He's got it. That's it. Paul wasn't worried about it. They were most faithful person, people in the whole person's people in the whole Bible. So didn't have any of it. That's it. He wasn't worried about any of this stuff. So this is not faith. It's about control. It's about let's go back to the beginning, making yourself god. What's the first sin? So it's just a repetition of that first sin over and over again. So here's what the Bible says, if we keep reading, what it tells us about the things of this world, and what we should put our hopes and this is just a little sampling, but I want you to see if you think that's getting the right mindset, James, for you adulterous is, don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God. I say it again, if you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. First, John 215. Do not love this world, nor the things that offers you. For when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, or craving for everything we see the opposite of faith, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. There it is, again, are we getting it right? But what does he end with here? To live forever? What it was he took his cotton pointing to that that's what's really important here, right? But again, the things we it offers all neither things we can see. What is John? No, it's the opposite of faith. So this Be fruitful and multiply out of context, teaching remains popular despite the fact that the Bible tells us we are to be patient. We are not to be focused on the things of this world, or deceived remember, there's an important thing to remember because a lot of people will assume that I have a lot of nice stuff. So I must be blessed when the Lord like Satan bless you to why you tempt Jesus with one bad things. Blessings. Okay, so same thing with you, right? Go for it. It's good. We're supposed to be waiting for Jesus to return the new heavens and new earth Philippians 318. For I've told you often before, and say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows that they're really enemies of the cross of Christ member enemies of God. Here it is, again, enemies of the cross of Christ. They're headed for destruction. Their god is their belly, and they brag about shameful things and they think only about this life on earth. What the enemies of the cross of Christ do think only about things of this earth. But we are citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and we're eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our week mortal bodies and change them in a glorious bodies like his own using the same power with which you'll bring everything under his control. divided loyalty To read that in January, the first chapter of the book of James Wright give it that's how he describes people like that they have divided loyalty. Not great. So here's the thing. So from, from a practical perspective, what is this? What's the big deal? Pastor? I will let people just say whatever they want, it's on them. Well, we saw the big deal. What do false teachings do? Like they lead people astray? Not great, even though yes, it's on them. But what about the beginners? What about the people who are just totally new to the faith? I see tons of them. I mean, as a pastor, it's hilarious. Not really. But I mean, kind of, because they'll come in and I've been a Christian for 40 years. But they joined like a denomination like this, right? Who relied on them never really reading the whole Bible and understanding it. They just read the snippets that they're spoon fed. So they say babies like that in the Scriptures. And they come in and I say something like this. And even though it's on the screen, maybe they're tracking along in their Bible, they read it, they're still like, revolted, you know, they're like, doesn't say that. Brainwash, right, so you're taking new people and just brainwashing them, it's so hard to undo bad teachings, it really is, once a person has that seed in them. It takes an unbelievable amount of humility to reverse course here.
So the big thing is it makes people actually believe that they're in control. That's the problem. It makes them believe that. But then what happens when something bad happens?
You know, what, what's wrong with that might not bless. And people will fall away from the faith over this stuff. And again, it's leading people to sin, because it's just a defiant replication of that original sin over and over again, people don't realize that teaching is sinful, it's sinful, what's wrong with it? A whole bunch of people being led into sin. Not good. Here's another thing. And you know, it's funny, a lot of people and I don't blame people for not thinking of these things. Because until you get in the passenger seat, you don't necessarily think of it unless I'm just like, a really bad, bad person that had to hold me down in the water longer than everybody else. Maybe you thought about this, right? Pastor school, that taught me that. But here's the thing. If you're told, right, so, you're it's the whole health and wealth thing, whatever, that you know, it's, it's a matter of faith that you're blessed, right? So, you know, if you have faith, then you'll get blessed. Right? But if you don't, you won't. And what do you tell? Well, if you're not being blessed, you got to work on that faith or something like that, you know, and then someone gets sick. And they're like, oh, I don't have enough faith or something happens, right? But what happens to the woman who can't have kids? Just can't? What happens to that woman? You don't have faith, but they just can't. They try and try and try it. I guess I don't have enough faith. Why am I cursed? Is this a curse? And then they start talking about all these stupid things that Jesus already cured like generational curses, we talking about? Jesus lifted the curse, right? There's no cutting, there's anything wrong with but they Oh, man. So they go through this stage, and maybe they start getting angry at God. Maybe they come to the conclusion that there is no God that this was just a lie. This is crazy. Because I'm doing everything I can they had faith, but I'm not being blessed. What's wrong with me? And here's what I want to say to you. If that's you. Nothing's wrong with you. Nothing's wrong with you. from a biblical perspective, from what Jesus said, Not pastor Jean, right. What Paul said, what the Holy Spirit said was, you've got a gift. Maybe you don't have as many distractions. Some were made this way to serve the kingdom. That sounds like a good thing to me. Until you infect it with the way our society thinks. Maybe it's a good thing. Let's just go serve the Lord. This is great. All right, you're bright of Christ's. What's the problem? Here's another one. And I really, you know, I didn't put a lot of thought into this, even though it did hit home. So when I first became a pastor, a lot of people, you know, if you're thinking about pastoral work, and it's a joke, right, like, you know, pastors, they work for one hour every Sunday, right? But for some reason, the pastor's wife and I have my husband back. You get Saturday between the hours of 11 and seven. That's not a joke. But indications You guys are awesome. You helped me. But funny enough, even though you're trained as a pastor, like you worry about that too. You think like, oh, man, it's the sermons. You know, this is I got to come up with the sermons and all Listen, like eventually, if you're not, well, if you're smart, eventually you just start reading your Bible a lot. And you're like, Oh, it's just all there. This is the sermon. You don't need because you're just thinking the way the world thinks like, I have to put on some kind of shoulder this much Scripture is not going to show. Maybe it's hard, I don't know. But just use this. So you figure that out, right? And then you're not really nervous about that sees pastors are like nervous, like, you know, after like a year or two of preaching, and they're nervous. I'm like, maybe you shouldn't be doing what you're doing. Right? And it's usually the case that they shouldn't be doing that, right? Because it's their I don't read them the Bible pastor, like, aren't you reading anyway? So that's really not the hard part of the job, like, well, once you get into it, my I got all the material. And I took three years, I have three years worth of material. That's not the problem, right? So you love your people, you pretend that's not the problem. The problem is funerals. Funerals are never fun memorial service, depending on your context, right. So it doesn't save them. So funerals, memorial services, they're not fun, and no one can prepare you for it. Right? So in your training, like I've done like a lot of different counseling, stuff like that, and some tough stuff. But that actually is one of the things that made me want to quit. You know, because you're not just dealing with like getting up and doing the service, all that stuff. You're dealing with all these different dynamics, you know, somebody lost somebody, and then you're counseling that person and it gets very, very complicated. And you can't help but especially when I started, I was much younger, do a little bit of transference, right? You can't help but put yourself where that person is, and start freaking out yourself. Right? And then you go on that night, you're like, oh, gosh, so it's bad. The worst part is when a baby dies. So my first funeral was for an infant that had miscarried. Nothing can prepare you for that. Nothing. Nine months, we were very close to them nine months pregnant, and she miscarried. So no one could prepare me for how the hospital dealt with it. I'm not even sure if it's normative, but I couldn't unsee it. There she is. I'm just thinking I have to deal with this woman. And the husband's already outside the room on the way and crying, you know, him and her and I'm trying to like us all about not saying the wrong thing. You know, and I go in the room, and there's the dead child next to the mom can see that. But you got to deal with it, right? Can't start freaking out, you know? You get through that. You can't unsee a little baby coffin going into the ground. can see that? I didn't realize how hard it would hit me because we also had a similar experience. So if you know me, even for a few years, you know I have a daughter, right? Sophie, the big tall one. And yes, she's dating someone. His name is Chewbacca. And so you don't have to worry about me because he will rip your arms off. Okay, I'm done with the I got to break that moment up because I was about to cry. So any works for me? I don't know. It's ideal. That's my coping mechanism, humor. But what you might not know is we had a son. We had a son. The Lord took him. We had our own experience with that miscarriage. It was tough. And so I brought all that back. And my wife said something somewhere along the line that I hear from a lot of women, and I encouraged her this, I'll encourage you with this, if you've been through this. She said somewhere I lost the baby, or have that sentiment or that feeling like I lost the baby. And I hear this so much. If this is you need to hear this. You did not lose the baby. You need to understand that you did nothing wrong. You did not lose the baby. So somebody needs to hear that. You didn't. Right so there are maybe doctors out there until you lost a baby. Maybe there are false teachers out there telling you didn't have enough faith you lost the baby or maybe that was implied which is just as twisted and cruel. You didn't lose the baby. You did not in don't believe me? Let's listen to what the Word of God has to say about what happened. Isaiah 57 One good people pass away. The godly often died before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why no one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. Those who followed godly paths will rest in peace when they die. You didn't lose the baby God took him or her to protect them from the evil that is to come That's the godly way to look at this. Because the world is evil Galatians one four, for example, Jesus gave his life for our sins just as God our Father plan in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. All Glory to God forever and ever. Amen. And hence the real problem with attaching ourselves to this world. It's evil. And so what have we attached ourselves to? Yeah, that's the problem. Jesus is rescuing us from this evil world. And if you have lost a little one, Jesus has rescued that little one, from this evil world ahead of us. That's okay. And so just some more scriptural encouragement. It's very short. We know about David and Bathsheba the sin he committed while that first child dies, but before the child does, it's sick, he's sick. And so David is mourning and fasting and doing all these things, you know, praying for the child. But then when he gets word, he hears that the child dies, like, pops up, everything's fine, like he's eating, and he's just going about the normal stuff. And they're confused by this. And paraphrasing, David gives us the appropriate sentiment here. Right? So
the child are basically the thinking, if he's with the Lord, he can't come to me, but someday I'll go and be with him.
So what else does the teaching people in general, again, if you're just told, like, you know, if you have enough faith, you'll just always be healthy. You'll always be wealthy, right? You'll have tons of kids, you know, you'll be fruitful, you will always and you'll multiply when it doesn't happen. Because what does the New Testament tell us? Doesn't always happen? It's very clear. We're not promised all these things like when it happens, then again, you go through this whole loop of like, Who do I not have faith, like what's wrong with me, and I've seen it more often times than not result in someone falling away from that little faith they had. But even one person was I've seen pastors get kind of indoctrinated into this. They become pastors, they're preaching because maybe they haven't experienced like the one I had, maybe their son is sick. I know, one in particular son got really, really sick. And the pastor wrestled with this, and he was big on this teaching, the Dominion mandate, if you've heard of that. So taking this one teaching, running with it, ignoring everything the rest of the Bible teaches, and he believed it. So much so that he fell away from the faith. He's no longer a believer, a pastor. That's what's wrong with this. Right? So here's the thing. It has been said that words are like toothpaste, right? Once you get them out of the tube, you can't really get them back. So how much more should we apply that to the Word of God? Right, and how we handle it, how we interpret it, careful, because it has a great effect on other people. Now, as it applies to the mishandling of this particular scripture today, it just, it misses the whole point. Everything that scripture really teaches. Whether it be Philippians, our citizenship isn't here. It's in heaven. Colossians. Three, think of heavenly things, not the things of this earth. We learn it ever, Peter causes temporary residence, or aliens. We don't belong here. We're just passing through. So we get to our real home with Jesus. That's the right way to think. And for those suffering was right, the greatest cure for that grief is to put our hope there. As David said, He's not coming back to me. My son is not coming back to me. But someday, I will get to see him there. It's the greatest cure for that grief. Right adds to that blessing, the eternal blessing that we're going to have. Now, look, we're while we're here, right? We can have our fun. We're supposed to love especially our children, our family, but what we teach them is very, very important. We have to teach them right. We have to teach them where to put their hope. Not in me. I'm not God. I can't provide everything for you. Trust the Lord, not me. II, we need to be examples. But ultimately your faith is not in me, it's in the Lord, we need to lead by that example, not trying to control so much stuff. That's important, because we're always trying to control things, what are they going to do? Try to control everything. Alright, so you got to be very careful the amount of control we try to exhibit over our children especially. We are not building our kingdom here. Our hope is in Christ and Christ alone. So just some encouragement for you just putting some things together. You know, we go through so many things. I get it. Everybody here is going through something. Because it isn't perfect. It's an evil world. Right? So we are suffering with something. We're all going through something. But what the Bible teaches us is that these are temporary light afflictions Second Corinthians four compared to right, this eternal glory that will outweigh everything. First Thessalonians four, right. So look, we grieve, but we don't grieve like those with no hope. Because what Jesus is coming back for us. And that's where we put our hope. And we studied revelation closely, and what was the point, even those who die in the Lord, if we remain faithful, even in the face of death? If we put our hope there, Jesus will come back for us and we get to be in a new heavens and new earth, where there isn't any more crying. Death itself is dead, the grave is dead. We don't have to worry about that anymore. No crying, no pain, no one accusing us of anything, no division, none of the troubles that we have here will exist when Jesus comes back for us. That's our hope. We pray. Lord, I thank you for the search this time. I just pray for everyone that your Word brings them hope that these words of God that we looked at today, the Truth brings them hope. And with that hope I just hope you just fill them with your Holy Spirit, fill them with hope. Fill them with the peace, the joy, the love, the mercy that comes with all of that and make everyone vehicles this week to share your love your peace, your joy. As representatives of the kingdom of heaven. I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.