1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:01,720 Hey, what's up? Good morning. 2 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:05,160 It's nice to see you. If you've got a Bible, just go 3 00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:06,440 ahead and get that out right away. 4 00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:11,720 We got a lot of ground to cover. We are in Genesis chapter 2. 5 00:00:11,720 --> 00:00:16,680 We're going to be looking at 2 paragraphs verses 10 through 17 6 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:20,040 as you're turning there. Let me just say, ladies, I'm 7 00:00:20,080 --> 00:00:25,480 really excited for your retreat. Tracy Self is such a phenomenal 8 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:29,080 teacher communicator. I might just try to try to sneak 9 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:32,759 in and see if I can do if you, if you get a, if you get a sign 10 00:00:32,759 --> 00:00:37,240 up, that's Colette. It's not me, but I'm excited to 11 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:38,280 hear that go. This is going to be good. 12 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:41,320 So if you're, if you're already there in Genesis, chapter 2, 13 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:44,080 verses 10 through 17, welcome, welcome, welcome. 14 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:47,560 Welcome to the fun part of Genesis. 15 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:51,480 It's the fun part of Genesis. Because in this next section of 16 00:00:51,480 --> 00:00:54,480 preaching, which we're going to take characteristically slowly, 17 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:59,480 we're going to see the emergence of gender. 18 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:05,600 Hey, oh, so we've got a couple weeks of diving deeply into 19 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:07,040 this. We're going to do a couple 20 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:10,480 sermons about biblical manhood. We're going to get a couple 21 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:12,320 sermons about biblical womanhood. 22 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:16,640 We're going to say, hey, equal and worth, value and dignity, 23 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:20,400 and yet distinct in the way that they function within God's 24 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:23,480 design. And so anytime I think like the 25 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:27,440 thing that you just got to say is in the current intellectual 26 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:31,280 climate that we live in on podcasts and YouTube and 27 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:33,760 everything like that, and the current intellectual climate we 28 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:39,000 live in, the conversation and dialogue around gender is it's 29 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:45,800 so filled with caricatures and assumptions that sometimes it's 30 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:48,360 hard to actually hear what somebody is saying. 31 00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:53,120 We tend to hear the things that we want to hear and not hear the 32 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:54,560 things that are actually being said. 33 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:57,640 I saw it like just on a podcast this week, I saw two people 34 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:01,120 talking about gender. Person A said, I think men 35 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:05,040 should be dangerous. And by dangerous, I don't mean 36 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:09,880 violent or hostile. I mean competent, skillful, and 37 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:11,720 they should make an impact on the world. 38 00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:15,720 And person B said, oh, so men should be dangerous. 39 00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:17,440 So you think that they should be violent. 40 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:22,920 It's just like, oh, my goodness, we just cannot hear what we're 41 00:02:22,920 --> 00:02:24,600 saying. And so I think that there's two 42 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:28,160 temptations you're going to experience hearing a sermon on 43 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:31,480 manhood this morning. The first assumption is what I 44 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:34,680 just unpacked for you, which is you're going to be tempted to 45 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:38,560 hear what I'm not saying and not hear what I am saying. 46 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:42,120 And so, for instance, if this morning I unpack to you, hey, 47 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:46,160 it's the man's primary responsibility to work and keep 48 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:50,400 and guard the garden, you will be tempted to say, oh, so you 49 00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:54,240 don't think women are valuable? That's not what I'm saying. 50 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:57,680 That's not true. Equal in worth, equal in value, 51 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:00,560 equal in dignity. Hear the words I'm saying to the 52 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:03,040 best of your capacity and don't hear the words that I'm not 53 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:04,880 saying. The second thing is tightly 54 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:08,000 related to that, which is people tend to think that the gender 55 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:12,040 conversation out in the world is like AA0 sum game. 56 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:15,280 So like, if you elevate one gender, that means you think 57 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:18,240 lowly of the other gender. And so if I say like, I'm going 58 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:22,440 to next week, hey, womanhood is awesome, guys are going to be 59 00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:25,640 tempted to think, oh, so you're saying that men are just pigs? 60 00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:29,280 No, I'm not saying that. Or this morning, if I say, hey, 61 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:33,280 manhood is awesome and it was God's idea, I'm not saying that 62 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:36,400 womanhood isn't awesome. We're all going to get our time 63 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:39,480 in the ring. And I think it's actually 64 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:42,560 possible to elevate. I think the church can actually 65 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:46,320 be a place where we can elevate both genders and see the dignity 66 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:48,880 and beauty in both genders. Amen. 67 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:54,280 Amen. The brilliant anthropologist, Oh 68 00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:59,040 my goodness, she, the brilliant anthropologist, Margaret Mead 69 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:04,360 famously said a long time ago. She said quote one of the 70 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:12,960 central problems of every society is to define appropriate 71 00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:16,720 roles for men. Is she right? 72 00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:20,640 Is she wrong? Her argument is when a society 73 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:24,160 defines appropriate roles for men, society flourishes. 74 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:27,320 When it fails to do that and leaves it in the land of 75 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:30,080 ambiguity, society tends to collapse. 76 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:33,600 And look, we You might want to huff and puff and wish that your 77 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:35,760 pastor didn't touch the subject of gender. 78 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:39,440 And maybe you just want your pastor to allow men and women to 79 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:43,440 merge into an amorphous BLOB of on gendered evangelic fish 80 00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:46,720 goopity goop. And if that's you it, I might 81 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:49,200 actually suggest to you that the reason you feel that way is 82 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:53,280 because perhaps perhaps you are too privileged to know what it's 83 00:04:53,280 --> 00:04:57,840 like to have people knock on your front door at odd hours of 84 00:04:57,840 --> 00:05:02,240 the night. I've pastored now for nearly a 85 00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:05,320 decade. That means that I sit somewhere 86 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:08,920 between rookie and pro. I am no longer either of those 87 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:11,400 things. But pastoring for almost a 88 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:14,840 decade means that I've seen a pattern, and I've seen enough 89 00:05:14,840 --> 00:05:17,080 experiences to validate that pattern. 90 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:21,160 A person knocks on my door at 7:00 PM, ten PM, 8:00 PM. 91 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:24,320 There are tears in their eyes because of their spouses 92 00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:27,480 verbally, emotionally, spiritually or physically 93 00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:29,760 abusive. What we do, what we've done, is 94 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:32,600 we make a bed for that person. We make tea for that person. 95 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:35,240 We pray for that person. We care for that person. 96 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:38,560 We feed that person. We create a safe space for that 97 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:39,840 person. We listen to them. 98 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:44,400 And in my decade of ministry so far, again, it's happened enough 99 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:48,200 that I have noticed what a person might call a pattern. 100 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:52,040 The person knocking on my door, at least in my first ten years 101 00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:55,920 of ministry, has always been a woman. 102 00:05:56,440 --> 00:06:00,880 And when you see that enough times, what happens as a leader 103 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:04,440 is you develop something in your heart. 104 00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:07,440 You. You develop a toughness in your 105 00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:11,600 heart that recognizes that the church cannot be silent on the 106 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:14,640 issue of gender. So just know that this morning 107 00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:17,680 as I preach and on pack, I'm going to do my best to keep it 108 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:21,480 within the Bible, be biblical. And also I'm I'm speaking for 109 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:25,960 the women who knock, the women who knock and wish that the 110 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:30,520 church would call their husbands to sacrificial masculinity. 111 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:34,120 And so if Margaret Mead is right, and if one of the central 112 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:37,920 problems that every society faces is defining appropriate 113 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:41,680 roles for men, the question as Christians that we should be 114 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:47,200 asking is does God have a solution to this problem? 115 00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:51,040 Does God have anything to say about this? 116 00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:53,600 And we'll discover that answer together. 117 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:55,800 So if you're able, you can go ahead and stand for the reading 118 00:06:55,800 --> 00:07:03,840 of God's Word. I will catch you back up if this 119 00:07:03,840 --> 00:07:06,400 is your first Sunday or you've missed the last couple weeks. 120 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:09,920 But we see the Garden of Eden right here, right there in verse 121 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:11,040 10. Get your eyeballs on it. 122 00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:16,400 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it 123 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:19,920 divided and became four rivers. It's reaching the four corners 124 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:21,960 of the world. The name of that first is 125 00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:24,320 Pishan. It's the one that flowed around 126 00:07:24,320 --> 00:07:26,920 the whole land of Havilah, where there's gold. 127 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:30,000 What type of gold is it? The gold of that land is good. 128 00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:34,080 Delium and Onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is 129 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:37,600 the Gehong, it is the one that flowed around the whole land of 130 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:39,640 Kush. And the name of the third river 131 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:43,320 is the Tigris which flows east of Assyria. 132 00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:45,520 And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 133 00:07:45,520 --> 00:07:50,760 All these are real rivers. And then the Lord God Yahweh 134 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:55,760 took the man Adam, put him in the garden. 135 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:00,400 The Hebrew word for put right there is a it's a very specific 136 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:03,280 word that means intentionally placed. 137 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:07,800 The Lord of God took the man and intentionally placed him in the 138 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:14,480 Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 139 00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:19,920 And then we see the emergence of something new in the story and 140 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:23,440 the Lord command the Lord God commanded the man, saying, you 141 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:26,640 may surely eat of every tree in the garden. 142 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:29,400 There's an entire world of yeses. 143 00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:32,679 Yep, eat that. Yep, go get that one. 144 00:08:32,679 --> 00:08:35,559 Go get them, have a blast, have fun. 145 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:43,159 But one, no, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 146 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:49,040 you shall not eat, or in the day that you eat of it, you shall 147 00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:53,120 surely die. We do not know what type of 148 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:56,440 death God is talking about yet, but there's the promise of death 149 00:08:56,800 --> 00:09:00,560 if man pursues the one No what's going on here? 150 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:04,840 Heavenly Father, I pray that you would bless the preaching of 151 00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:10,320 your word this morning. I personally was just wrestling 152 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:18,680 with the effectiveness of preaching wrestling it 153 00:09:18,840 --> 00:09:23,120 struggling with does all the work put into this just is it 154 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:30,160 just a bunch of hot steam? And as I was wrestling with that 155 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:35,040 question, Lord, I feel like I heard you whisper, what if 156 00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:37,440 everybody in the building ignores you? 157 00:09:38,760 --> 00:09:44,600 But I'm still glorified. And I thought I'd make that 158 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:49,320 deal. And so I might be ignored this 159 00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:53,000 morning. I might be misunderstood this 160 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:55,200 morning. I might be the object of 161 00:09:55,200 --> 00:10:00,800 people's wrath, but I guess that wouldn't bother me so much if 162 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:03,240 you still glorified yourself through the preaching God. 163 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:08,000 So it's in God's precious name that all God's people prayed. 164 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:10,360 Amen. You guys can have a seat. 165 00:10:13,920 --> 00:10:18,000 Welcome to Eden. What we see in these verses is a 166 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:20,800 description of Eden and it's a description of the world. 167 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:24,240 That is the world is good, but it's not perfect. 168 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:27,560 The the biblical word that God uses to describe the garden in 169 00:10:27,560 --> 00:10:29,320 the world in Genesis is not perfect. 170 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:31,960 It's it's good. And what that means is that the 171 00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:36,520 the earth, though it's good, if it were perfect, there would be 172 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:38,800 no work to do. And so the earth is good, but 173 00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:41,520 immature. And as an immature earth, it's 174 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:45,520 going to require cultivation and guarding in order for it to grow 175 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:49,240 into its potential. God designed the earth this way 176 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:52,360 because God desires human partnership. 177 00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:55,560 For whatever reason, he loves to work with humans to bring about 178 00:10:55,560 --> 00:10:58,200 his task of bringing heaven to earth. 179 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:01,400 And so as we describe and look at Eden here, there's three big 180 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:03,480 categories that form a picture of Eden. 181 00:11:03,560 --> 00:11:05,280 Eden, what are there, What's going on? 182 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:08,000 What's Eden look like? There's three things we see we 183 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:10,480 see beauty. It's right there in verse 11. 184 00:11:10,800 --> 00:11:17,040 There's gold verse 12 describes the land that has delium and 185 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:20,680 Onyx stone. Eden is glittering with beauty. 186 00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:23,680 Beauty is God's idea and God likes beauty. 187 00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:27,720 But we also see water. There's a river running through 188 00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:32,080 and out of the Garden of Eden splits into four rivers. 189 00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:37,520 That's a metaphor for and in reality, that this nourishing 190 00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:41,880 life, source of water that God's given us is big enough, grand 191 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:44,160 enough, to reach the whole world. 192 00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:46,560 God can water the whole world and make it beautiful. 193 00:11:46,560 --> 00:11:49,920 We see beauty, we see water, and then we see trees. 194 00:11:49,920 --> 00:12:00,520 We see lots of trees, Beauty, water trees, gold, Onyx stone, 195 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:05,560 rivers, trees. Here's where all these things 196 00:12:05,560 --> 00:12:08,080 come together in the Old Testament. 197 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:11,560 We'll find out later that temples were made of gold. 198 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:14,800 And what kind of stone do you think they were made out of? 199 00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:20,080 Onyx stone. Interesting. 200 00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:24,520 The prophets have a vision of the temple. 201 00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:26,480 Do you know what they see running out of the temple? 202 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:33,560 River temples are filled with makeshift trees, and so the 203 00:12:33,560 --> 00:12:35,600 point that Genesis is telegraphing would have been 204 00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:36,960 obvious to the original audience. 205 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:40,240 Not as obvious to us though. What God has done is this 206 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:43,240 created Eden like a cosmic temple. 207 00:12:43,680 --> 00:12:46,920 It's like the OG temple. It's the original temple where 208 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:50,040 the God of heaven dwells with mankind on earth. 209 00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:53,480 And so Speaking of all these things, let's zoom in on trees. 210 00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:57,360 Lots of trees, big trees, small trees, great trees, lots of 211 00:12:57,360 --> 00:13:01,440 trees. But there's two trees have 212 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:04,280 become main characters at this point in the book. 213 00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:09,160 The plot of Genesis becomes a tale of two trees, a tale of two 214 00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:11,360 trees. It'll be the best of times and 215 00:13:11,360 --> 00:13:14,720 it'll be the worst of times. A tale of two trees. 216 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:17,840 In the previous paragraph, we saw the tree of life. 217 00:13:17,840 --> 00:13:21,960 What's that about? That's a tree of healing, where 218 00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:27,480 the very gift of God's life is freely given to human beings. 219 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:32,080 Relationship is shared. That's a tree of dependence upon 220 00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:35,120 God where relationship is freely shared. 221 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:38,000 But there's this second other tree. 222 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:41,880 And as the camera zooms in on that tree, maybe you even see a 223 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:45,600 dark cloud over top of it. And here's some bom bom bom 224 00:13:46,080 --> 00:13:49,120 music, verse 16. What's the second tree? 225 00:13:49,480 --> 00:13:52,280 The Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of 226 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:57,320 every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of 227 00:13:57,320 --> 00:14:02,320 good and evil, don't eat it. Why? 228 00:14:03,040 --> 00:14:05,680 Because on the day that you eat it, you shall surely die. 229 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:09,280 So this is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 230 00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:17,200 Like I said, tale of two trees. We see the life tree which is 231 00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:20,840 symbolic of dependence upon God, relationship with God. 232 00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:25,720 We see the knowledge tree also, which at this point in the story 233 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:30,080 represents independence. And so this, this knowledge 234 00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:33,280 tree, it's going to require a little bit more theology and a 235 00:14:33,280 --> 00:14:37,480 little bit more attention from us to understand what's, what's 236 00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:39,760 going on. Why would God create a tree 237 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:41,760 that's that's bad? What have you ever wondered 238 00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:43,080 that? What's going on here? 239 00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:47,440 And I would answer that question first and foremost by telling 240 00:14:47,440 --> 00:14:52,240 you about a news story that I saw online this week that made 241 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:54,240 me laugh my butt off. And it was a story. 242 00:14:54,240 --> 00:14:55,520 You can go look it up if you want. 243 00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:59,160 It was the story of a man who got arrested because he showed 244 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:02,520 up to his gym butt naked. And that's not the funny part. 245 00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:04,520 I'm not. I'm going to take a bold stance 246 00:15:04,520 --> 00:15:06,520 here. I'm anti nudity and gyms. 247 00:15:07,720 --> 00:15:09,600 Thank you for your applause. Bold stance. 248 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:11,520 OK, that's not what made me laugh. 249 00:15:11,680 --> 00:15:14,720 What made me laugh is that it happened at Planet Fitness. 250 00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:18,360 So. So apparently when the cops came 251 00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:21,680 in to arrest the guy, they put him in handcuffs. 252 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:27,600 And before they could he he pointed at the giant sign on the 253 00:15:27,600 --> 00:15:30,440 wall that said judgement free zone. 254 00:15:32,760 --> 00:15:35,720 So homies getting handcuffs and he's like, what's the deal? 255 00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:38,400 I thought it was a judgment free zone. 256 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:44,680 And this is the example of a man who has prematurely eaten from 257 00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:47,960 the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 258 00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:50,600 That's what's going on there. He's saying, hey, since there's 259 00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:53,200 no judgment, says it on the wall. 260 00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:56,600 I can define what's right and what's wrong. 261 00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:00,080 I can define what's good and what's evil. 262 00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:03,640 You might say that it's evil to show off the Planet Fitness 263 00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:07,000 naked. I say that it's good, right? 264 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:11,000 It's a man who's taken morality into his own hands. 265 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:15,000 It's a man who's taken defining good and bad into his own hands. 266 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:17,440 He's seizing a throne. That's not appropriate. 267 00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:21,440 He's trying to be the king. And that's exactly what would be 268 00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:23,320 going on with the knowledge of the good and evil. 269 00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:25,160 There's nothing, this is important to say. 270 00:16:25,280 --> 00:16:28,280 There's nothing intrinsically wrong with the knowledge tree. 271 00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,960 God's not the author of sin. He did not create sin. 272 00:16:32,080 --> 00:16:35,600 He didn't create a sinful thing. So there's nothing intrinsically 273 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:38,560 wrong with the knowledge tree. This is not evidence either that 274 00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:43,480 God is anti knowledge. No, don't listen to people who 275 00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:46,600 try to put that on you. The whole Bible is knowledge of 276 00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:49,200 good and evil. It's what it is. 277 00:16:49,520 --> 00:16:52,920 Christians created schools. Christians created universities. 278 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:54,920 Christians created printing presses. 279 00:16:55,120 --> 00:17:00,120 Christianity is absurdly, totally, enthusiastically pro 280 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:05,440 knowledge. So why is the knowledge tree 281 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:10,319 forbidden? And what's helpful here is the 282 00:17:10,319 --> 00:17:15,280 way that historical context brings us into focus. 283 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:19,400 The phrase knowledge of good and evil in the ancient world had a 284 00:17:19,400 --> 00:17:22,440 very, very, very specific meaning. 285 00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:25,400 It was a phrase that described, Listen to me here. 286 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:28,319 It described the responsibilities, the 287 00:17:28,319 --> 00:17:30,920 responsibilities of kings and kings alone. 288 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:34,960 It was kings in their civilizations that were 289 00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:39,320 responsible for defining what's good and what's evil. 290 00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:45,560 It was only a job for kings who were mature enough and wise 291 00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:52,400 enough to say, no, that's evil. Yes, that's good. 292 00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:57,280 So do you see how this puts the knowledge tree in a different 293 00:17:57,280 --> 00:17:59,280 light? What God is doing is he's 294 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:02,440 forbidding humans to eat from the knowledge tree because at 295 00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:07,200 this point in their maturity, they are not responsible enough 296 00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:11,040 to operate like kings and they are not responsible enough to 297 00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:17,680 define reality for themselves, to define morality by 298 00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:21,560 themselves, their children who are not mature enough for that 299 00:18:21,560 --> 00:18:27,480 responsibility. I mean, do I need to connect 300 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:30,880 that to what's going on in our culture or that's pretty obvious 301 00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:35,280 that human beings, we cannot handle the job responsibility of 302 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:38,920 defining morality and saying this is good and this is bad. 303 00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:44,840 It's bad for us, clearly. And so the tail of these two 304 00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:50,400 trees sets the plot for the rest of the Bible. 305 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:54,600 It poses a question. And that question is, you're a 306 00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:56,920 careful reader, right? So what you're thinking with 307 00:18:56,920 --> 00:19:02,600 these two trees is, OK, will humanity eat from the life tree 308 00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:08,560 and be radically dependent upon God and live out of friendship 309 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:13,800 and relationship with God? Or will humanity prematurely eat 310 00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:17,160 from the knowledge tree and declare their independence from 311 00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:21,680 God and say, we don't need you, We can define what's good and 312 00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:24,160 what's bad. We're going to seize the throne 313 00:19:24,160 --> 00:19:25,840 ourselves. What will they do? 314 00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:29,480 Suddenly the world's become a moral laboratory. 315 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:32,680 All of the sudden, in this perfect world, there are good 316 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:36,200 things that are good to do, and there's also the opportunity, 317 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:41,240 for the first time, for a human to do a bad thing. 318 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:49,080 As they say, the plot thickens. This is the way that Henry David 319 00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:56,200 Thoreau says it. He says our whole life is 320 00:19:56,200 --> 00:20:02,360 startlingly moral. There's never an instance truth 321 00:20:02,360 --> 00:20:07,520 between virtue and vice, never an instance truth. 322 00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:12,120 We are either doing things that are virtuous or we're doing 323 00:20:12,120 --> 00:20:15,840 things that are vices. And this is exactly where I. 324 00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:23,080 In the climate of the postmodern world, step out onto thin ice. 325 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:26,520 Did you guys hear that? Did you hear that underneath 326 00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:29,480 your feet? That was the sound of the ice 327 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:33,400 cracking because the ice is particularly thin. 328 00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:37,840 When we see the emergence of more conflict in verse 15. 329 00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:41,840 In verse 15 we see something that should stop us in the 330 00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:44,760 tracks. Verse 15 says the Lord God took 331 00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:48,840 the man and put them in the Garden of Eden to work it. 332 00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:52,640 Everybody say work it and keep it. 333 00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:55,960 Everybody say keep it. Sounds like a song doesn't work 334 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:58,240 it, keep it, work it. Here's the thin ice. 335 00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:04,920 Those descriptions working and keeping, Those are the essence 336 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:10,640 of biblical manhood, and two descriptions work and keep. 337 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:13,320 I want you to get you to see this. 338 00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:15,320 We've got to do some theological work. 339 00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:17,240 OK, so here's my theological work for you. 340 00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:20,320 This is not a simple rephrasing of the cultural mandate in 341 00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:22,880 Genesis one. We read about that in Genesis 1, 342 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:28,000 where God gives Adam and Eve a cultural mandate to fulfill in 343 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,240 the world. This is not a simple 344 00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:34,080 recapitulation of that. The cultural mandate in Genesis 345 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:37,280 1 is given both to Eve and Adam, both woman and man. 346 00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:41,400 The call to work and keep the garden is given to Adam 347 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:45,320 distinctly before Eve is created. 348 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:48,200 This is where we see the emergence of what theologians 349 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:51,920 called the created order. This is exactly why Paul in the 350 00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:56,120 New Testament appeals to the creation order when he unpacks 351 00:21:56,120 --> 00:21:58,440 the distinction between men and women. 352 00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:01,560 And First Timothy chapter 2, verse 13, Paul makes a massive 353 00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:05,560 statement on a distinction between women and men, and he 354 00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:13,080 grounds it in a big statement. He says, for Adam was formed 355 00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:18,400 first, then Eve. That's a reference of the 356 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:22,520 created order, and the idea behind the created order is not 357 00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:25,800 that men were created first, so they're privileged or they're 358 00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:30,720 superior. No, no room for that in our 359 00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:34,320 church. Created order does not imply 360 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:38,120 superiority at all. Scripture is clear. 361 00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:42,840 No wiggle room right there. OK, The men and women equal in 362 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,200 worth, equal in value, equal in dignity, both in the image of 363 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:48,480 God. So the created order is not 364 00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:50,800 about superiority. It's not even about privilege or 365 00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:53,160 opportunity. The idea behind the created 366 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:59,160 order is sacrificial in nature. That's what the created order 367 00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:03,040 implied to the ancient audience. The fact that Adam was formed 368 00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:06,760 1st and then Eve, like Paul says in First Timothy 2. 369 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:10,000 It means that Adam is. This is critical. 370 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:13,360 It means that Adam's responsibility is to be the 371 00:23:13,360 --> 00:23:20,520 first to die. The first to die was If I want 372 00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:22,600 to be a biblical man, what's it mean? 373 00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:24,200 It means that I'm the first to die. 374 00:23:25,120 --> 00:23:29,120 That's exactly the idea of Jesus being called the first born. 375 00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:36,240 Does Jesus have a beginning? No, he's eternal Alpha and 376 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:38,160 Omega. So why would it be called the 377 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:42,920 first born? Well, the point there, the 378 00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:45,880 reference of Jesus being the first born, is the created 379 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:47,920 order. It implies that Jesus bears the 380 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:53,400 responsibility of sacrifice for the rest of his family like a 381 00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:57,840 first born son. So what we see with Adam here is 382 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:02,080 that Adam uniquely bears the responsibility of being the 383 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:08,000 sacrificer for Eve. That's what the creation order 384 00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:11,000 implies. So let's just let's unpack these 385 00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:14,200 words a little bit more. Let's talk work and keep. 386 00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:16,840 These are massively important words, so let me break them down 387 00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:19,400 in a couple different ways. The word work, when God says 388 00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:24,600 work it, the word work is great. It's a perfect translation and 389 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:27,840 other translations are also good in saying that it could also be 390 00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:31,160 translated as cultivate. You see that in other 391 00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:33,920 translations, both of them, the Hebrew language, the Hebrew 392 00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:36,640 language is just more colorful than the English language. 393 00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:40,320 And so sometimes seeing 2 words side by side actually gives it 394 00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,680 depth and breadth that's originally there in the Hebrew 395 00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:44,040 language. And so the word cultivate is 396 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:46,040 also a good one. Cultivation. 397 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:49,080 What what cultivation is, is its tenderness. 398 00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:57,880 It's tender thoughtfulness. Adam is not not to do with the 399 00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:00,320 garden whatever he darn well pleases. 400 00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:05,440 He's to tend it, work it, according to the contours of his 401 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:11,920 own nature that he learns, so that he draws out its built in 402 00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:15,160 potential and then the garden flourishes. 403 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:18,920 That's what it means for man to work it or cultivate the garden. 404 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:22,000 But then what do we see? We see that second description, 405 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:23,440 don't we? Keep it. 406 00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:26,240 I like keep it. That's perfect. 407 00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:30,560 Other translations say guard it also. 408 00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:32,680 Great. What's guarding? 409 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:38,600 Guarding is toughness. You see those two 410 00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:41,680 characteristics coming together in a singular sentence. 411 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,840 These two descriptions, cultivate and guard or work and 412 00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:49,680 keep, are a comprehensive guide on biblical manhood. 413 00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:54,960 Men who love Jesus should be known as tough and tender. 414 00:25:56,040 --> 00:26:00,480 Tough on truth, tough on discipline, tough towards the 415 00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:03,200 abusive world that threatens their garden, tough in their 416 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:08,280 work ethic and tender. Tender towards those in their 417 00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:10,440 care, tender towards those that they love. 418 00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:14,760 Tender towards the downcast, the oppressed, the needy, tender 419 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:17,800 even towards God and their affections. 420 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:22,680 Men should be tough and tender. They should cultivate and guard. 421 00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:26,240 I just want, let me hear it coming from your voice. 422 00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:29,480 Everybody say guard. Guard what? 423 00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:36,080 What? What do you mean guard? 424 00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:40,800 From what? Humans haven't even sinned. 425 00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:44,480 Humans haven't even fallen yet, right? 426 00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:50,560 Humans haven't. But this word guard seems to 427 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:54,400 suggest that perhaps there is something out there that has 428 00:26:54,400 --> 00:27:02,120 fallen, Something, I don't know, in the shadows, perhaps 429 00:27:02,120 --> 00:27:06,880 Slytherin around, that's a threat to his garden. 430 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:13,960 God says guard, guard, guard, keep. 431 00:27:14,360 --> 00:27:17,280 Now, yes, I'm going to be holistic here. 432 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:20,560 There is when it comes to the word guarding. 433 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:24,440 There is such a thing as being overprotective and controlling. 434 00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:28,240 And Christian men should not be characterized by those words. 435 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:31,520 Again, the second word is in relationship with the first 436 00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:33,600 word. The first word is work or 437 00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:38,920 cultivate, so there's no room wiggle room in the scriptures 438 00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:43,080 for men to just choke out the garden by being over sheltering 439 00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:47,600 and controlling. I don't mean that that makes 440 00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:55,240 sense, but the word guard still stands. 441 00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:59,680 Men were made to guard. And the driving idea behind that 442 00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:03,720 word, again, the sacrifice. What is guarding? 443 00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:08,040 Guarding is sacrificially putting your body on the line so 444 00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,080 that their garden will flourish. That's what guarding means. 445 00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:14,800 And so the role of cultivating and guarding is not about 446 00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:17,960 machismo. It's not about cultural warrior 447 00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:20,960 caricatures. It does not mean control your 448 00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:22,240 wife. No. 449 00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:25,520 It doesn't mean always be suspicious of the world. 450 00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:29,680 No, doesn't mean posture yourself as an alpha protector 451 00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:33,560 and start a new YouTube channel to monetize how tough you are. 452 00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:36,800 No. Does it mean dictatorship? 453 00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:38,680 None of that. What does it mean? 454 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:51,200 It means when, not if, when there's a bullet fired at your 455 00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:56,480 garden, you step out in front of it and take it. 456 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:03,000 It means men should be the first to die so that the garden 457 00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:07,160 flourishes, the first to bleed that the garden flourishes it. 458 00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:10,640 So let's start to let me spread this out among groups. 459 00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:12,240 I'll start to make it a little bit more theological and 460 00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:15,720 practical here. Next week, I'll speak bluntly to 461 00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:19,840 married women, unmarried women, and even unmarried men, so I'm 462 00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:22,640 not forgetting about you guys. You guys got yours coming. 463 00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:26,280 Sound good? Right now I want to talk to 464 00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:30,000 married men because I think there's a tendency maybe to hear 465 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:33,240 me. And thank surely, Cole, you're 466 00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:38,560 not talking about old fashioned ethics of if an intruder breaks 467 00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:41,800 into the house, then the man needs to be the first one to go 468 00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:44,600 confront him. I'm very much advocating for 469 00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:50,000 that. That's precisely theologically, 470 00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:54,480 practically what's embedded in this description in Genesis. 471 00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:55,840 Think about it through the lens of Genesis. 472 00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:58,520 That's the literary context of these verses. 473 00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:00,960 Suppose there is a threat to the garden. 474 00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:05,040 I don't know, say just pull something out of my mind, say a 475 00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:10,000 serpent. It would be Adam's job to crush 476 00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:15,200 it, to put his own body in harm's way so that the serpent 477 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:17,880 doesn't spread his venom throughout the garden. 478 00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:21,320 And you might think, that doesn't sound fair. 479 00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:23,720 What? What if he gets bitten? 480 00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:26,560 To which I would say, what do you mean? 481 00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:34,880 What if that's what serpents do? He's going to get bitten. 482 00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:37,440 And this is a great warning to young men. 483 00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:41,720 If you want a garden, you will have to deal with serpents. 484 00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:46,120 A lot of men want gardens, but no Dragons. 485 00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:51,000 They come together. You want the garden, you get the 486 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:51,960 dragon. Yeah. 487 00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:54,360 Fight the dragon, man. If you want the garden. 488 00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:57,440 There's venom coming from you. And well, Well, it's not fair. 489 00:30:57,440 --> 00:30:59,600 What if he gets bitten? Yeah, I know that. 490 00:30:59,920 --> 00:31:05,040 But hasn't God also given Adam access to the tree of life? 491 00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:12,880 Why should he fear the venom? If he has access to the tree of 492 00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:18,440 life, he has a place healing he can run to when he gets bitten 493 00:31:19,120 --> 00:31:22,400 life he can run to when he gets bitten, bitten. 494 00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:25,760 If Adam trusts God, he will not fear the serpent. 495 00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:31,800 He won't fear the venom to speak, you know, hypothetically, 496 00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:35,400 and this works itself out in practical ways as well. 497 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:37,800 I think it would be helpful, and this is a bit of a theological 498 00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:40,480 claim here, that I think it would just be helpful for me to 499 00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:44,480 say that as a modern Christian man it this theological point is 500 00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:47,040 important. Serpents are mythologically and 501 00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:50,800 biblically shape shifters. Again, we haven't met the 502 00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:54,160 serpent yet, but maybe there's one in the future of Genesis. 503 00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:57,600 Spoiler alert. Serpents are mythologically and 504 00:31:57,600 --> 00:31:59,840 theologic biblically shape shifters. 505 00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:03,120 They sometimes appear as serpents, but they also 506 00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:05,200 sometimes appear as angels in light. 507 00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:09,040 Other times they show up as shining ones. 508 00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:12,880 And so if the serpent is a shapeshifter, what does that 509 00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,920 mean? That means that serpents come in 510 00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:21,760 many forms. And that means that guarding 511 00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:25,040 isn't just waiting at your door with a club in your hands. 512 00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:29,880 It also makes demands on you spiritually and emotionally. 513 00:32:29,880 --> 00:32:31,760 Why? Because serpents come in many 514 00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:38,120 forms. False doctrine, lies, intrusive 515 00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:42,480 negative thoughts, temptation, sometimes legitimate predators, 516 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:46,040 sometimes ideologies. Serpents come in many forms. 517 00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:53,280 Did you know? Did you know that they have a 518 00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:56,480 recorded conversation, an interview with the most 519 00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:58,520 notorious sex predator of the century? 520 00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:01,320 It's chilling. If you go and listen to it, it's 521 00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:03,440 it's chilling. The guy agreed, like, yeah, I'm 522 00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:05,840 going to give up my strategies. I think maybe they gave him a 523 00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:08,480 little bit of time off. I don't know how it worked, but 524 00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:10,520 you can go and listen to it. And in the conversation, the 525 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:14,680 interviewer asked him, what do you look for strategically as a 526 00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:17,560 predator? Chilling. 527 00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:23,640 You know what he said, said The first thing I look for for a 528 00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:32,600 victim is I look for an absent father, a distant father. 529 00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:38,160 Warning. This does not mean or imply that 530 00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:41,280 every instance of abuse means that the father was an absent 531 00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:42,600 father. Not at all. 532 00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:44,920 Please don't hear me say that you shouldn't feel guilt or 533 00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:47,240 shame if that's happened underneath your leadership if 534 00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:48,240 you were present. Please. 535 00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:52,480 I'm just saying that according to this guy, it's a pattern or 536 00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:59,240 strategy of the enemy. He strategically looks for 537 00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:02,920 absent fathers who are not cultivating and guarding. 538 00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:08,040 And I wonder if that is what the serpent is like. 539 00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:11,600 I wonder if the serpent if there is one. 540 00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:16,440 We'll wait for a moment where Adam is physically, spiritually, 541 00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:20,040 or emotionally absent to spread his venom. 542 00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:21,920 Who knows? We got a whole book in front of 543 00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:26,239 us. But This is why I've said I just 544 00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:27,239 don't have any problems saying it. 545 00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:30,159 I said it last year. I'm going to say it again. 546 00:34:30,159 --> 00:34:33,679 This is why I've said, and I believe that testosterone is 547 00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:38,800 good and it was God's idea and it was God's design. 548 00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:42,159 Unfortunately, it's a banned substance in many modern 549 00:34:42,159 --> 00:34:44,320 churches. It's banned. 550 00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:47,320 And here's why this is worth talking about. 551 00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:50,199 God puts on average, biologically on average, 552 00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:51,560 obviously there's differences here. 553 00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:55,719 He puts on average 7 to 10 times more testosterone in healthy men 554 00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:58,200 than healthy women. And I will say the opposite or 555 00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:00,480 the other thing next week, which is estrogen is good. 556 00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:04,040 And estrogen was God's idea, and women need to be glorified in 557 00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:06,440 that way. And so the reason why I bring up 558 00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:10,000 testosterone is because the quantity of testosterone in men 559 00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:14,240 is one of the biggest biological differences between women and 560 00:35:14,240 --> 00:35:16,200 men. And I said it's a band substance 561 00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:17,640 in most modern churches. Why? 562 00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:22,600 Well, just think with me. Biologists make the same 563 00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:25,800 observations. They say high testosterone 564 00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:32,840 traits are assertiveness, competitiveness, risk tolerance 565 00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:38,480 and the desire for achievement. You know what all those 566 00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:43,680 qualities share? All of those qualities make 567 00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:49,520 modern churches blush, right? In most modern churches, 568 00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:52,680 politeness is way more important than courage. 569 00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:54,120 And they're most, they're both important. 570 00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:57,280 It's just the value system's out of whack, right? 571 00:35:57,280 --> 00:35:59,040 Politeness is way more important than courage. 572 00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:01,640 Niceness is way more important than strength. 573 00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:04,680 Harmony is way more important than conviction. 574 00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:09,080 And So what a lot of men intuit is this is this is not the place 575 00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:10,880 where I bring my best gets to the table. 576 00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:21,000 I'll show up, sit down, I'll mumble along to the hymns if it 577 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:23,840 makes her happy. Sometimes that's the way it 578 00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:26,880 works itself out. So here's here's the big problem 579 00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:29,840 as I say it, and This is why I keep pressing on this. 580 00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:31,680 The big problem as I see it, is this OK? 581 00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:39,200 It's if the Church has no use for testosterone, the devil 582 00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:45,000 does. I need to prove that to you with 583 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:46,640 everything that's going on in the last couple months. 584 00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:50,760 I don't think I do, right? The devil's like, hey, if the 585 00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:54,160 church doesn't want men, I'll take them. 586 00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:57,600 I'll take them right? There's, I think there's 587 00:36:57,600 --> 00:37:01,000 specific specifically 3 strategies that Satan uses for 588 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:03,640 targeting men. And these are, these are not 589 00:37:03,640 --> 00:37:05,800 original to me. These come from Michael Foster. 590 00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:10,920 The first is 1 of Satan's strategies for diminishing 591 00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:13,560 manhood and spirituality is to harness them. 592 00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:18,280 Harness them, the devil says, if you don't want men, I'll take 593 00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:21,160 them and I'll put them to use. And so by harnessing, I mean 594 00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:25,600 this is when the enemy redirects masculine traits towards evil 595 00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:28,360 rather than good. These are men whose manhood has 596 00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:32,600 been harnessed by Satan and they are abusive in their marriages. 597 00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:36,040 They participate in sex scandals even when they're in leadership 598 00:37:36,040 --> 00:37:38,800 positions. They're domineering as leaders. 599 00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:41,880 They're power hungry pastors and they use their aggression 600 00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:45,000 against their kids. Those are men whose testosterone 601 00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:48,800 has been Co opted by Satan and used for demonic purposes. 602 00:37:49,040 --> 00:37:53,200 If he can't harness men, the second thing he'll do is he'll 603 00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:55,920 pacify them. Pacify them how? 604 00:37:57,080 --> 00:38:00,200 Pacify them. These are men who are sedated. 605 00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:04,360 They're sedated by any such thing. 606 00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:07,800 Maybe sedated by porn, maybe sedated by drug addictions or 607 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:10,720 virtual addictions. Or maybe they're just men who 608 00:38:10,720 --> 00:38:15,640 have become so passive that they can't even like they they can't 609 00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:23,360 even allow themselves to even feel conviction inside of them, 610 00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:27,800 or wholeheartedness. These are men that the enemy has 611 00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:31,360 convinced to trade their strengthen for approval and call 612 00:38:31,360 --> 00:38:36,720 it virtue. God demands men be kind and 613 00:38:36,720 --> 00:38:39,520 tender hearted. But these are men who are 614 00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:42,520 performatively nice. Performatively. 615 00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:46,720 Meaning they aren't kind or genuine out of honest love and 616 00:38:46,720 --> 00:38:50,280 affection, but they perform kindness because they fear 617 00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:53,480 rejection. Big difference. 618 00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:57,760 A performatively nice guy underneath that fragile shell. 619 00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:02,560 We'll deal with deep anxiety, resentment, and cynicism, even 620 00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:04,600 though he presents himself as a nice guy. 621 00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:07,520 Pacified. If Satan can't do one or two, 622 00:39:07,720 --> 00:39:13,640 what will he do? I'll just destroy him. read 623 00:39:13,640 --> 00:39:17,040 Exodus. Pharaoh's literal game plan is 624 00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:19,480 to murder all the Hebrew baby boys. 625 00:39:19,480 --> 00:39:22,280 Just destroy them. So what? 626 00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:29,760 So if we don't want the devil to harness or pacify or destroy 627 00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:33,360 men, then what does the church do with masculinity? 628 00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:35,880 And my answer to that question is pretty simple. 629 00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:38,880 What we want is we want in the church. 630 00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:44,400 We want sanctified testosterone, or what smarter people than me 631 00:39:44,400 --> 00:39:49,360 would call integrated masculinity, masculinity that is 632 00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:54,520 integrated into Christ like Christ likeness under the 633 00:39:54,520 --> 00:39:57,560 lordship of Jesus. And so the church shouldn't 634 00:39:57,560 --> 00:40:01,040 punish assertiveness. We should integrate it into 635 00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:04,000 men's desire for truth. We shouldn't punish 636 00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:06,880 competitiveness. We should integrate that and 637 00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:10,280 tell them he was made to wrestle with God, to push himself 638 00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:13,360 spiritually, to challenge himself spiritually, to sing 639 00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:15,840 loud, to pray loud, and to lead well. 640 00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:18,760 We shouldn't punish risk tolerance and the desire for 641 00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:21,200 achievement. We should integrate that into 642 00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:25,600 God's grand purpose for mission and tell men, hey, there's a 643 00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:30,120 world to win out there, Amen. A whole world who doesn't know 644 00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:33,440 Jesus. Take your competitive drive, go 645 00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:37,360 get him. Go tell him about Jesus. 7 to 10 646 00:40:37,360 --> 00:40:40,560 times more testosterone in average men than average women. 647 00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:43,040 It would be a good question to ask. 648 00:40:43,040 --> 00:40:47,560 Why was it? Why would he do that? 649 00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:50,400 Why would he load guns like that? 650 00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:54,040 What is God doing? Why would he do that? 651 00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:57,440 I think Genesis 2 provides us a better answer than any biologist 652 00:40:57,440 --> 00:41:04,240 can. Because his job requires it is 653 00:41:04,240 --> 00:41:05,840 not to make peace with the serpent. 654 00:41:07,240 --> 00:41:08,760 Integrate them into the family system. 655 00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:10,560 Hey, what a cute snake. Yeah. 656 00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:11,720 No. Come on in, man. 657 00:41:11,720 --> 00:41:13,040 No, it's good. Why? 658 00:41:13,040 --> 00:41:17,520 What's he supposed to do? Crush. 659 00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:21,160 Right. Fight made the fight. 660 00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:29,080 I nothing has taught me more about this then being married to 661 00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:30,760 Chloe. I remember when we were dating, 662 00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:33,400 one of the first times I ever played Rocky, it hit me. 663 00:41:33,400 --> 00:41:37,200 We were watching Rocky and if you could look at Chloe and I's 664 00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:40,440 faces during the fighting scenes, totally different, 665 00:41:41,800 --> 00:41:45,560 right? My face is like Chloe's face is 666 00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:49,880 like, what is that? It hit me for the first time in 667 00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:55,000 that moment it hit me. I was like, oh, I identify with 668 00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:56,840 the character who's doing the punching. 669 00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:01,800 Chloe identifies with the character who's getting punched. 670 00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:06,400 Why? What's underneath that? 671 00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:11,120 Our biological makeup men were designed to fight. 672 00:42:11,280 --> 00:42:16,520 Not against flesh and blood, not even against Drago and Rocky 4. 673 00:42:16,520 --> 00:42:18,000 So maybe that wasn't a good analogy. 674 00:42:18,720 --> 00:42:23,360 Not against flesh and blood, but against lies, temptation, fear, 675 00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:28,080 spiritual apathy, injustice, Dragons and serpents. 676 00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:32,280 And this is not a personality. This is where I feel like maybe 677 00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:36,960 I have a little advantage preaching on biblical manhood as 678 00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:41,400 a guy who's like 5, seven, 135 lbs and it's is a literature 679 00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:43,920 geek. It's like I don't it's not a 680 00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:48,160 personality, right? You can be a total giga Chad and 681 00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:53,080 fail at your job to guard and keep, be a total jock and fail 682 00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:57,080 at your job to guard and keep. It's not a personality trait, 683 00:42:57,920 --> 00:43:01,000 it's a responsibility. You can be introverted, 684 00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:04,400 extroverted, a serious person, a playful person. 685 00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:07,240 You can be a sports guy, you can be a literature nerd. 686 00:43:07,240 --> 00:43:12,200 You can be a Fine Arts guy. You can be an enneagram 12345678 687 00:43:12,240 --> 00:43:18,400 or 9. You can still do this job. 688 00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:22,320 You've got to fight. And so all of this I think boils 689 00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:24,720 down into something really practical. 690 00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:27,280 You need to ask yourself, men in the church, you need to ask 691 00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:35,200 yourself, am IA good man. And the way you answer that, you 692 00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:38,320 don't, you do not. If you want to be biblical, you 693 00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:43,520 do not answer that question based on how much you make, how 694 00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:48,320 much you bench press, or how high up the corporate ladder you 695 00:43:48,320 --> 00:43:49,480 can climb. How do you measure it? 696 00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:52,960 How do you measure it biblically according to Genesis is really 697 00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:56,800 with a simple question. Is your garden flourishing? 698 00:43:58,640 --> 00:44:01,840 That's the test. And by garden I mean in this 699 00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:05,520 order, family, if you have one, you're responsible for church 700 00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:08,840 and work, family, church and work. 701 00:44:09,080 --> 00:44:14,920 Do those gardens flourish when you're there or do they wilt? 702 00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:22,440 That's your answer. Got to fight, got to fight, 703 00:44:22,720 --> 00:44:30,520 guard and keep and that that brings me to my final story from 704 00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:32,520 my annual allowance on wrestling stories. 705 00:44:32,920 --> 00:44:36,080 I give myself 2A year. I'm using up my allowance this 706 00:44:36,080 --> 00:44:39,600 morning. State wrestling was last week, 707 00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:42,800 which means that now my season is over and I'm both sad and 708 00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:45,440 relieved at the same time. I always struggle to answer the 709 00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:47,480 question like, hey, how did state wrestling go? 710 00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:49,360 I appreciate you guys asking me that question. 711 00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:52,200 I never know how to answer it because it's like, I don't know. 712 00:44:52,200 --> 00:44:54,480 It's kind of like getting kicked in the nuts at your own birthday 713 00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:58,560 party. Like it's like there are awesome 714 00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:01,360 things happening. And also there is so much pain 715 00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:03,880 inside of me. We had a guy win state. 716 00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:08,880 That's awesome. Yes, we had a guy not make 717 00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:13,160 weight. Never had that happen before. 718 00:45:14,520 --> 00:45:18,200 And it didn't help that he was one of my favorite wrestlers. 719 00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:19,560 I'm not supposed to have favorites. 720 00:45:19,560 --> 00:45:23,360 I do because I'm human. And so this I've just never had 721 00:45:23,360 --> 00:45:26,760 a wrestler not make weight at stage and not get to compete or 722 00:45:26,760 --> 00:45:31,320 or wrestle all all morning the morning of wans, I spent all 723 00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:34,360 morning in sweats wrestling with this kid to get him sweating, to 724 00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:37,160 break a sweat to get that weight off so that he could he could 725 00:45:37,160 --> 00:45:42,160 wrestle. And he gets up on the scale he's 726 00:45:42,160 --> 00:45:44,240 got. He's got to weigh one O 8.0. 727 00:45:44,240 --> 00:45:47,960 He gets up on the scale right before he gets on the scale. 728 00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:49,960 I'm trying to get him to spit into a bottle. 729 00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:54,960 Nothing, no saliva, just dry like a razor. 730 00:45:55,600 --> 00:46:03,520 So he steps on the scale. He weighs 108.1, 7 scales. 731 00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:09,280 They gave them all the scales. A couple of them flickered from 732 00:46:09,280 --> 00:46:14,560 one O 8.1 to one O 8.0. But it's got to sit on it and 733 00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:17,880 when sit on it. So when the 7th scale was one O 734 00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:30,510 8.1, I just cannot, I cannot describe to you what it's like 735 00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:35,080 investing in a kid with hollowed out cheeks and to have him look 736 00:46:35,080 --> 00:46:41,480 at the scale for that scale to read 108.1 and then his first 737 00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:49,360 instinct to look at you like the look in his eyes. 738 00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:58,540 Man, I want to jump into a rah rah rah speech. 739 00:47:00,200 --> 00:47:02,520 God works together all things for your good and there's going 740 00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:05,440 to be a time where you recognize this is for your good in the 741 00:47:05,440 --> 00:47:08,800 future. In the 1st 30 minutes, all that 742 00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:13,440 does is cheapen their pain. So you just have to, this is the 743 00:47:13,440 --> 00:47:17,640 hardest thing as a coach. You just have to let them hurt 744 00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:25,480 and be with them. It's like, and that night around 745 00:47:25,480 --> 00:47:30,280 midnight, I get a text from this wrestler, lengthy as one could 746 00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:32,720 imagine. And essentially in the text 747 00:47:32,720 --> 00:47:38,080 message he says, in many words, I'm sorry for disappointing you 748 00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:42,360 and I'm sorry for wasting your time. 749 00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:46,280 And that hurt more than missing weight. 750 00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:53,440 So I go into my basement and I get my phone out and I tell them 751 00:47:53,440 --> 00:48:01,240 in many more words than this, I don't coach wrestling so that 752 00:48:01,240 --> 00:48:03,120 you can achieve things on the map. 753 00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:05,760 That's not what I'm doing. I wouldn't give that time and 754 00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:09,520 energy to just teaching you a half Nelson, right? 755 00:48:09,520 --> 00:48:14,800 And so if you want to repay me as a coach, the greatest gift 756 00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:22,160 you can give me as an athlete is not to win on the map or a 757 00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:25,680 medal. It's like, dude, the greatest 758 00:48:25,680 --> 00:48:29,960 gift you can give to me as an athlete is the gift of knowing 759 00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:35,000 you, seeing you become a better man, the best version of 760 00:48:35,000 --> 00:48:37,000 yourself. The greatest gift you can give 761 00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:44,040 me is relationship. I've received that gift and it 762 00:48:44,040 --> 00:48:47,000 was like an electrical current ran through my body. 763 00:48:47,920 --> 00:48:51,840 And in that moment I just felt the Lord whisper, Hey, dummy, 764 00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:56,520 are you listening to yourself? Because that's my, my temptation 765 00:48:56,520 --> 00:48:59,440 is if I fail at something, I'm like, I'm like, I'm sorry, I'm 766 00:48:59,440 --> 00:49:01,720 unlovable. I'm, I'm no, I'm the worst. 767 00:49:01,720 --> 00:49:03,320 And I'm sorry I wasted your time. 768 00:49:03,640 --> 00:49:06,640 And so when I said that it's about relationship, I felt the 769 00:49:06,640 --> 00:49:08,480 Lord just say, are you listening to yourself? 770 00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:11,680 Because that's the way that I love you. 771 00:49:12,520 --> 00:49:15,680 And the reason why I need to hear that is because as a man, I 772 00:49:15,680 --> 00:49:20,440 fail at this job. And as a man, you will fail to, 773 00:49:21,560 --> 00:49:24,680 you will abdicate when you should be pursuing. 774 00:49:25,960 --> 00:49:29,760 You'll be spiritually absent when you should be emotionally 775 00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:32,480 present with your kids. You'll twiddle your fingers and 776 00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:35,880 pick your nose for some seasons when you should be cultivating 777 00:49:36,240 --> 00:49:39,560 and guarding. All of those are failures. 778 00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:42,600 They are failures to make weight. 779 00:49:42,680 --> 00:49:46,880 They are failures to fight. They're failures to execute on 780 00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:48,760 the mission that God has given to you. 781 00:49:49,720 --> 00:49:52,680 And despite those failures, and this is the gospel of Jesus, 782 00:49:53,160 --> 00:49:58,160 despite those failures, what God wants most from you is 783 00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:01,320 relationship. Relationship. 784 00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:06,680 That's why the tree of life gets planted before Adam gets the 785 00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:11,720 Commission. And that's why God replants the 786 00:50:11,720 --> 00:50:16,560 tree of life on the earth outside of Eden. 787 00:50:19,240 --> 00:50:21,880 It's available to you now. Have you ever noticed that in 788 00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:28,200 the New Testament, A tale of two trees grow as into a tale of 789 00:50:28,200 --> 00:50:31,920 three trees? Old Testament is a tale of two 790 00:50:31,920 --> 00:50:34,840 trees. New Testament is a tale of three 791 00:50:34,840 --> 00:50:37,040 trees. Jesus Christ is nailed to a 792 00:50:37,040 --> 00:50:40,640 tree. It's crucified on a cross. 793 00:50:41,840 --> 00:50:44,000 Some of the biblical writers say it was nailed to a tree. 794 00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:47,640 Why? Because he's also our Onyx 795 00:50:47,640 --> 00:50:50,400 stone. The Bible calls him our 796 00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:54,360 cornerstone. Jesus to us is more precious 797 00:50:54,360 --> 00:50:57,880 than gold. But those three elements sound 798 00:50:57,880 --> 00:51:03,440 familiar to you. Trees, gold, stone. 799 00:51:05,560 --> 00:51:08,160 Maybe I'm reaching. And perhaps I would be reaching 800 00:51:08,480 --> 00:51:12,000 if the soldier didn't Pierce Jesus aside on the cross. 801 00:51:12,800 --> 00:51:17,280 When Jesus aside is pierced on the cross, what flows out of his 802 00:51:17,280 --> 00:51:19,880 side? Water. 803 00:51:21,160 --> 00:51:25,560 The river of life. Do you see what the gospel is 804 00:51:25,560 --> 00:51:28,960 telegraphing to you? It's so clear. 805 00:51:29,840 --> 00:51:36,520 Jesus is our tree of life. When we go to Him, we get 806 00:51:36,680 --> 00:51:42,600 relationship with God, we get eternal life, we get the 807 00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:47,280 forgiveness of sins, we get imputed righteousness. 808 00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:50,840 We get to know God truly and deeply. 809 00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:56,280 We get access to the divine. And so, guys, when you screw up, 810 00:51:56,320 --> 00:52:01,720 men, when you screw up, go to the cross and eat and drink 811 00:52:01,720 --> 00:52:04,280 freely. All of us. 812 00:52:04,600 --> 00:52:09,040 When you screw up, go to the cross and eat and drink freely 813 00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:10,920 from the tree of life. Amen. 814 00:52:12,360 --> 00:52:19,560 Heavenly Father, thank you for this gift. 815 00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:26,400 Also thank you for our roots volunteers who got a little bit 816 00:52:26,400 --> 00:52:29,680 longer of a morning. So I pray for their forgiveness 817 00:52:29,680 --> 00:52:36,880 and I pray that you would that you would work deeply in the 818 00:52:36,880 --> 00:52:40,240 life of both our men and women so that men and women are both 819 00:52:40,240 --> 00:52:43,560 valued and exalted rightly in this church. 820 00:52:43,560 --> 00:52:45,200 It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. 821 00:52:46,560 --> 00:52:46,680 Yeah.