1 00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:07,200 You guys look good this morning. My name is Kyle. 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:09,520 I serve as lead pastor here. I want to welcome you to New 3 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:12,200 Life Community Church, especially if you're visiting 4 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:15,360 with us today. Special thanks to you college 5 00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:17,520 students. You showed up in force today. 6 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:21,920 Welcome back, or welcome to for the first time, New Life 7 00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:24,520 Community Church. We're glad that you're here, and 8 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:27,680 we look forward to being able to serve you this semester if 9 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:29,880 you'll allow us. All right, so get plugged in 10 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:32,560 with Logan and Adeline, and we'll have a lot of fun this 11 00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:36,160 year anyway, if you need anything. 12 00:00:36,160 --> 00:00:38,120 Also, while you're in town, come see us. 13 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:39,800 We're we're happy to try to help you out. 14 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:43,040 All right, So if you have your Bible, could you turn to 15 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:46,400 Genesis, Chapter 2? Genesis, Chapter 2. 16 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:52,120 Genesis is a book of beginnings. It is the beginning of our holy 17 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:54,920 scriptures. And so it's right there at the 18 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:58,320 front of your Bible. It's easy to find and we'll be 19 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:02,850 in Chapter 2 this morning. We kicked off a series last week 20 00:01:02,850 --> 00:01:06,730 that's called Happy the Home, which was taken from a hymn that 21 00:01:06,730 --> 00:01:09,250 reads Happy the home when God is There. 22 00:01:09,930 --> 00:01:15,170 And the idea is to recover in this series, a biblical view of 23 00:01:15,170 --> 00:01:18,410 the household, a biblical view of the home, if you will. 24 00:01:18,850 --> 00:01:23,890 What is it that God has done in the ordering his creation, but 25 00:01:23,890 --> 00:01:26,850 ordering families, especially in the way that he has designed 26 00:01:26,850 --> 00:01:29,410 them. And so last week we looked at 27 00:01:29,410 --> 00:01:33,360 how God created us and he created us, male and female, in 28 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:36,920 his own image and likeness. We looked at what that meant. 29 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:41,800 We saw that we are to be worshippers of God, that we are 30 00:01:42,320 --> 00:01:44,920 to take our marching orders from the Lord. 31 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:48,760 We are to submit ourselves to Him as we think about maleness 32 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:51,760 and femaleness. Yes, there are only two genders. 33 00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:53,560 Amen. Amen. 34 00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:58,880 And so we today are going to look at manhood from creation. 35 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:02,760 The next week we're going to get into womanhood from Creation. 36 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:08,000 And so this week's going to be focused more on what it means to 37 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:10,080 be a man. I don't think that that means 38 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:13,000 that women should check out. I think that there's much to 39 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,240 learn here about how it is it got his wired. 40 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:19,280 A man designed, a man created a man to operate and to live and 41 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:22,960 to work and to to do the things that he does for the glory of 42 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:25,080 the Lord. And so it's important for women 43 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:28,480 to learn here. Boys in the room, right? 44 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:32,640 You young men in training. This is an important sermon for 45 00:02:32,640 --> 00:02:35,000 you. So making paper airplanes right 46 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:39,440 now, I need you taking notes, son. 47 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:46,280 All right. We want to be learning how to be 48 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:48,800 men. That Wells knows I'm messing 49 00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:49,960 with him. I hope so. 50 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:53,240 So my sermon today is manhood from creation. 51 00:02:53,240 --> 00:02:56,200 Now, you're probably aware, but in our world today, there are 52 00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:59,280 many differing opinions. I mean, they're they're unending 53 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:04,960 opinions on what manhood or masculinity consists of what? 54 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:06,360 What's its makeup? What? 55 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:09,360 What makes a man a man? Is it that he can smoke a cigar 56 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:12,280 and drink a six pack and sit in a recliner and watch a football 57 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:15,120 game and not do the things that God has called him to do? 58 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:18,680 No, right. That's not what it means to be a 59 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:23,920 man that that's that's godless abdication of his duties. 60 00:03:25,140 --> 00:03:27,500 Amen. But then there's a there's 61 00:03:27,500 --> 00:03:31,900 another kind of man who seeks to to dominate things and to rule 62 00:03:31,900 --> 00:03:35,260 through domination. And this is a godless. 63 00:03:37,980 --> 00:03:39,860 It's a godless pursuit of dominion. 64 00:03:40,540 --> 00:03:45,420 It's a godless domineering, I'll say that, of what it means to be 65 00:03:45,420 --> 00:03:47,780 a man. And so the world, because of 66 00:03:47,780 --> 00:03:52,340 those two, I think at least ditches as it pertains to 67 00:03:52,340 --> 00:03:54,020 manhood. Because of those two, the world 68 00:03:54,020 --> 00:04:00,180 has formed 1000 opinions on what masculinity is, isn't what it 69 00:04:00,180 --> 00:04:04,260 should be, should not be. And it leaves largely men, 70 00:04:04,260 --> 00:04:08,180 especially young men, men and even more so down the spectrum, 71 00:04:08,660 --> 00:04:11,060 men without fathers, good fathers. 72 00:04:11,620 --> 00:04:15,060 It leaves them questioning what is my purpose? 73 00:04:16,540 --> 00:04:19,180 Why do I have the strong feelings I have? 74 00:04:19,180 --> 00:04:23,900 Why has God created me with a a a body that has broad shoulders 75 00:04:23,900 --> 00:04:27,500 and a voice that's deep and the desire to want to work and to 76 00:04:27,500 --> 00:04:33,180 create and to seek adventure and enjoyment in life, like and then 77 00:04:33,180 --> 00:04:35,820 the world kind of comes at you and says that these things are 78 00:04:35,820 --> 00:04:39,220 sinful and they're not. You're wired that way by God for 79 00:04:39,220 --> 00:04:42,140 purpose. And so that doesn't mean they're 80 00:04:42,140 --> 00:04:43,820 not doing sinful things in those. 81 00:04:43,820 --> 00:04:51,010 But coming back around to the notes, we most of the opinions 82 00:04:51,010 --> 00:04:55,130 about manhood out there in the world are negative or negative. 83 00:04:56,130 --> 00:04:59,450 And so our first concern is not what the world says about 84 00:04:59,450 --> 00:05:03,170 masculinity and manhood. We don't look to the world first 85 00:05:03,170 --> 00:05:06,290 to try to figure out, okay, how can we create a manhood or 86 00:05:06,290 --> 00:05:09,930 masculinity that's palpable for the world, that the world could 87 00:05:09,930 --> 00:05:14,140 choke down, right, and swallow, That they could agree with. 88 00:05:15,300 --> 00:05:18,340 The Western Church has gotten itself in a myriad of dangers 89 00:05:18,340 --> 00:05:21,300 and troubles by looking at the world and letting the world 90 00:05:21,300 --> 00:05:24,860 dictate what the church does. We must not be these kind of 91 00:05:24,860 --> 00:05:29,500 people. We we can't coddle the world in 92 00:05:29,500 --> 00:05:30,820 the way that we're called to live. 93 00:05:30,820 --> 00:05:33,660 In fact, it's not good for the world, and our church has become 94 00:05:33,660 --> 00:05:35,620 more worldly than godly when we do that. 95 00:05:36,180 --> 00:05:38,540 And so we don't want men who are becoming more worldly than 96 00:05:38,540 --> 00:05:39,660 godly. So we're not going to look at 97 00:05:39,660 --> 00:05:42,300 the world first and say, all right, what is manhood? 98 00:05:42,780 --> 00:05:46,460 No, we look at the scriptures. We always go to the scriptures 99 00:05:46,540 --> 00:05:53,900 every time when it when it comes time, you know, to pick the 100 00:05:53,900 --> 00:05:57,820 fruit of what the Western church has produced, we have found that 101 00:05:57,820 --> 00:06:01,780 the fruit is rotten. And so we don't want rotten men, 102 00:06:02,460 --> 00:06:04,940 we don't want rotten women, we don't want rotten boys and 103 00:06:04,940 --> 00:06:07,140 girls. We don't want rotten churches. 104 00:06:07,140 --> 00:06:10,180 We want churches that are alive by the Spirit of God, bearing 105 00:06:10,180 --> 00:06:12,970 the fruits of God in the world. Amen. 106 00:06:13,650 --> 00:06:16,530 This is the kind of thing that God wants for us. 107 00:06:16,530 --> 00:06:19,410 If we'll go to His scriptures and see how do we do this, and 108 00:06:19,410 --> 00:06:23,450 we'll submit ourselves to His work, we will see fruitfulness. 109 00:06:23,450 --> 00:06:27,130 I promise you. God loves to answer the 110 00:06:27,130 --> 00:06:29,690 petitions of His people which are in accordance to His will. 111 00:06:29,690 --> 00:06:33,530 And when you pray, Lord, help me be the kind of man who honors 112 00:06:33,530 --> 00:06:34,970 you. He answers those prayers. 113 00:06:35,650 --> 00:06:37,450 Let me be the kind of woman who honors you. 114 00:06:37,450 --> 00:06:41,120 He answers those prayers. And so our first concern always 115 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:43,640 is what does God's word say about this? 116 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:47,200 What does God's word say about masculinity and manhood? 117 00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:49,520 That's the heart of the sermon, right? 118 00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:53,560 What does manhood look like from creation? 119 00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:59,320 When God made the first man and gave him orders, what was he 120 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:02,560 doing? What was God doing in that? 121 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:04,800 And so we want to see it clearly. 122 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:07,600 And that's part of my job today. So if you see clearly the 123 00:07:07,600 --> 00:07:11,690 scriptures, we want to confess that these things are true after 124 00:07:11,690 --> 00:07:14,850 we have seen them, and then we want to rejoice in God's good 125 00:07:14,850 --> 00:07:22,130 design of men Today. God has blessed us in creating 126 00:07:22,130 --> 00:07:26,090 men. It is good to be a man, and God 127 00:07:26,090 --> 00:07:27,890 has blessed us in creating women. 128 00:07:27,890 --> 00:07:31,610 It is good to be a woman. It's not good to be a woman if 129 00:07:31,610 --> 00:07:34,450 you're a man, and it's not good to be a man if you're a woman. 130 00:07:34,570 --> 00:07:37,650 Amen. These things are not okay. 131 00:07:38,260 --> 00:07:40,660 So for my time, I want to explore what is masculinity 132 00:07:40,660 --> 00:07:44,900 according to God, and then I want to charge us to walk in 133 00:07:44,900 --> 00:07:46,860 these things. And I hope to provide for you a 134 00:07:46,860 --> 00:07:51,820 command, a foundation, and a hope for your pursuit of godly 135 00:07:51,820 --> 00:07:53,900 masculinity. And so I want to start with the 136 00:07:53,900 --> 00:07:57,340 definition, and then we'll read our scriptures, biblical 137 00:07:57,340 --> 00:07:58,900 manhood. And you can write this down if 138 00:07:58,900 --> 00:08:00,860 you're taking those. Biblical manhood is bearing the 139 00:08:00,860 --> 00:08:04,860 image of God by working and keeping all that God grants a 140 00:08:04,860 --> 00:08:10,130 man in Christ's strength. Biblical manhood is work. 141 00:08:10,290 --> 00:08:12,170 Sorry. Bearing the image of God by 142 00:08:12,170 --> 00:08:17,130 working and keeping all that God grants amend in Christ's 143 00:08:17,130 --> 00:08:22,370 strength. I'll give you just a second 144 00:08:22,490 --> 00:08:24,330 before I have you stand and read God's Word. 145 00:08:24,330 --> 00:08:33,840 All right. For you slow riders, that will 146 00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:36,400 be up there again. All right, but let's stand and 147 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:39,840 read God's word. Sorry, Alan. 148 00:08:43,980 --> 00:08:48,620 We're going to read Genesis 2 versus 4 through 17, and we're 149 00:08:48,620 --> 00:08:53,460 going to notice here creation, particularly the creation of the 150 00:08:53,460 --> 00:08:58,740 man and the creation of a place. These are the generations of the 151 00:08:58,740 --> 00:09:03,020 heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the 152 00:09:03,020 --> 00:09:06,300 Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no Bush of the 153 00:09:06,300 --> 00:09:09,060 field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had 154 00:09:09,060 --> 00:09:12,170 yet sprung up. So the Lord God had not caused 155 00:09:12,170 --> 00:09:16,010 it to to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the 156 00:09:16,010 --> 00:09:21,250 ground, and a mist was going up from the land, and was watering 157 00:09:21,250 --> 00:09:24,810 the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man 158 00:09:24,810 --> 00:09:27,610 of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the 159 00:09:27,610 --> 00:09:30,650 breath of life. And the man became a living 160 00:09:30,650 --> 00:09:33,090 creature. And the Lord God planted a 161 00:09:33,090 --> 00:09:36,210 garden in Eden in the east. And there he put the man whom he 162 00:09:36,210 --> 00:09:38,630 had formed. And out of the ground the Lord 163 00:09:38,630 --> 00:09:42,150 God made-up, made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to 164 00:09:42,150 --> 00:09:45,590 the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the 165 00:09:45,590 --> 00:09:48,230 midst of the garden. And the tree of the of of the 166 00:09:48,230 --> 00:09:51,870 knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to 167 00:09:51,870 --> 00:09:54,550 water the garden, and they're divided and became four rivers. 168 00:09:54,910 --> 00:09:57,310 The name of the first is the Pachon. 169 00:09:57,390 --> 00:10:00,630 It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where 170 00:10:00,630 --> 00:10:03,270 there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. 171 00:10:03,750 --> 00:10:06,110 But Alium and Onyx stone are there. 172 00:10:06,650 --> 00:10:10,050 The name of the second river is the I should have looked these 173 00:10:10,050 --> 00:10:12,810 up, Gahan. It is the one that float around 174 00:10:12,810 --> 00:10:15,850 the whole land of Kush. And the name of the third river 175 00:10:15,850 --> 00:10:18,690 is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria, and the fourth 176 00:10:18,690 --> 00:10:21,610 rivers, the Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man 177 00:10:21,610 --> 00:10:24,730 and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 178 00:10:25,130 --> 00:10:27,770 And Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of 179 00:10:27,770 --> 00:10:30,330 every tree of the garden. But if the tree of the knowledge 180 00:10:30,330 --> 00:10:33,410 of good and evil you shall not eat from the day that you eat of 181 00:10:33,410 --> 00:10:37,540 it, you shall surely die. This is the word of the Lord. 182 00:10:38,060 --> 00:10:39,620 Thanks be to God. Let's pray. 183 00:10:39,620 --> 00:10:41,500 Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. 184 00:10:42,020 --> 00:10:45,220 Lord, let us see now your wisdom in creation. 185 00:10:45,220 --> 00:10:48,660 Let us see your purpose in the creation of men. 186 00:10:49,860 --> 00:10:53,500 And Lord, may we submit ourselves to your word and to 187 00:10:53,500 --> 00:10:57,020 your will for our lives. Lord, I pray that you would move 188 00:10:57,020 --> 00:11:01,900 up on our hearts by your spirits as we go through this passage 189 00:11:01,900 --> 00:11:04,180 today, as we study it, as we hear it preached. 190 00:11:04,900 --> 00:11:08,120 Would you by your spirit give us faith? 191 00:11:09,280 --> 00:11:12,560 Give us a desire to please you and our lives gives us give us 192 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:16,720 knowledge of our sinfulness and our need of repentance. 193 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:21,960 And the Lord by your spirit, would you reassure us by the 194 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:27,240 Savior, Christ Jesus, that we have reconcile us to the Father, 195 00:11:27,240 --> 00:11:29,400 Lord, it's in Christ's name, I pray. 196 00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:30,960 Amen. Amen. 197 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:35,850 You may be seated. And so, as we have seen already 198 00:11:36,730 --> 00:11:39,130 last week, God created man in his own image. 199 00:11:39,130 --> 00:11:42,770 And the image of God he created a male and female, He created 200 00:11:42,770 --> 00:11:44,050 them. There's an old confession of 201 00:11:44,050 --> 00:11:47,130 faith called the London Baptist Confession of Faith, and it sums 202 00:11:47,130 --> 00:11:49,130 up with the first man and woman were like. 203 00:11:49,130 --> 00:11:51,570 And these are some of the things we talked through last week, but 204 00:11:51,570 --> 00:11:53,370 it's worthy of of mentioning today. 205 00:11:54,090 --> 00:11:56,450 They were made in the image of God being endowed with 206 00:11:56,450 --> 00:11:59,050 knowledge, righteousness and true holiness. 207 00:11:59,450 --> 00:12:02,410 They had the law of God written in their hearts and the power to 208 00:12:02,410 --> 00:12:04,950 fulfill it. Even so, they could still 209 00:12:04,950 --> 00:12:07,950 transgress the law because they were left to liberty of their 210 00:12:07,950 --> 00:12:10,470 own will, which was subject to change. 211 00:12:11,350 --> 00:12:14,510 And So what we see in the garden is that when the man and the 212 00:12:14,510 --> 00:12:16,590 woman were created, they were in the image of God. 213 00:12:17,230 --> 00:12:22,150 And that the man is like the president's impress on a coin. 214 00:12:22,150 --> 00:12:26,750 We said last week, he is not God, He is not the president, 215 00:12:26,750 --> 00:12:29,390 but he resembles him. He resembles God. 216 00:12:30,700 --> 00:12:32,860 And then we see what they were supposed to do by way of a 217 00:12:32,860 --> 00:12:36,100 blessed command from God. And and God bless them. 218 00:12:36,100 --> 00:12:38,820 And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill 219 00:12:38,820 --> 00:12:41,980 the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of 220 00:12:41,980 --> 00:12:44,380 the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every 221 00:12:44,660 --> 00:12:47,500 living thing that moves on the earth. 222 00:12:47,500 --> 00:12:54,740 And so man burying the image of God is to exercise dominion. 223 00:12:54,940 --> 00:12:57,020 He's blessed by God. The man and the woman were 224 00:12:57,220 --> 00:13:01,080 blessed to fill the earth as image bears with other image 225 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:03,160 bearers. This was the purpose of 226 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:05,800 marriage, which we'll look at in a couple of weeks. 227 00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:10,920 It's for the purpose of subduing and exercising dominion in such 228 00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:14,480 a way that the garden paradise would extend to the ends of the 229 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:16,800 earth. God meant for them to spend 230 00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:20,720 their lives and worship to him as they lived out the roles that 231 00:13:20,720 --> 00:13:23,320 He had given them, as they'd lived out the way that he had 232 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:26,120 created them, to live and operated in the ways that were 233 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:30,120 obedient to his commands, all for his own glory. 234 00:13:30,810 --> 00:13:34,170 And so the first thing we must understand about true manhood, 235 00:13:34,370 --> 00:13:38,170 true masculinity, is that it bears the image of God. 236 00:13:38,890 --> 00:13:41,570 It has to. True manhood. 237 00:13:41,570 --> 00:13:44,610 Manhood that's been reconciled to God the Father bears the 238 00:13:44,610 --> 00:13:47,970 image of God. It's working these things out. 239 00:13:48,530 --> 00:13:51,010 But what should it look like? What do we mean when we say it's 240 00:13:51,010 --> 00:13:52,130 burying the image of God? Right? 241 00:13:52,130 --> 00:13:55,250 We have to define them. We have to answer that question. 242 00:13:56,560 --> 00:13:58,040 Adams created in the image of God. 243 00:13:58,040 --> 00:14:00,520 He's told to do these things, but how does that flesh itself 244 00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:03,320 out and in what ways is he burying the image of God? 245 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:05,160 Well, that's what I want to get into. 246 00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:08,640 I'm glad you asked. It's working. 247 00:14:08,640 --> 00:14:10,600 And keeping all that God grants a man. 248 00:14:11,680 --> 00:14:14,160 This is how we bear the image of God in the earth, is that we 249 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:16,240 work and keep all that God grants a man. 250 00:14:16,680 --> 00:14:20,640 So Genesis One is like a 30,000 foot view, if you will, of the 251 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:23,760 creation account. Genesis 2 recalls in vivid 252 00:14:23,760 --> 00:14:27,580 detail the creation of the man and the woman and their purpose. 253 00:14:28,780 --> 00:14:31,780 And so we read here in Genesis 2 that he created the man from the 254 00:14:31,780 --> 00:14:36,180 dust of the ground that he breathes lives into him, meaning 255 00:14:36,180 --> 00:14:38,860 he literally breathed into his soul. 256 00:14:38,860 --> 00:14:44,220 The breath of life gave him his soul, and then he planted a 257 00:14:44,220 --> 00:14:49,660 garden and placed the man in it. Genesis 2738 literally says 258 00:14:49,660 --> 00:14:51,660 these things right. The Lord God formed the man of 259 00:14:51,660 --> 00:14:53,460 the dust of the ground. He breathed into his nostrils 260 00:14:53,460 --> 00:14:56,030 the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 261 00:14:56,030 --> 00:14:58,310 And then the Mercedes says the Lord God planted the garden and 262 00:14:58,310 --> 00:15:02,110 Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 263 00:15:03,110 --> 00:15:06,950 So these are sentences that I have read over and over again in 264 00:15:06,950 --> 00:15:09,590 my life. There's some of my favorite 265 00:15:09,590 --> 00:15:13,110 passages and scripture I love to go back to, especially these 266 00:15:13,110 --> 00:15:17,150 creation passages of Genesis One and Two, and even into the fall 267 00:15:17,150 --> 00:15:21,150 and and chapter 3. Because so much of what we do as 268 00:15:21,150 --> 00:15:25,250 a people, as a church, as a as fathers and husbands, as mothers 269 00:15:25,250 --> 00:15:28,250 and wives, as sons and daughters, so much of what we 270 00:15:28,250 --> 00:15:32,890 do, we find its inception, its beginnings. 271 00:15:32,890 --> 00:15:37,170 In Genesis One and two, we receive our marching quarters, 272 00:15:37,170 --> 00:15:40,530 so, so to speak. It informs who we are and what 273 00:15:40,530 --> 00:15:43,810 we're to be doing. And so there's some of my 274 00:15:43,810 --> 00:15:46,130 favorite passages. We vividly see the creator at 275 00:15:46,130 --> 00:15:48,810 work. But it wasn't until just a few 276 00:15:48,810 --> 00:15:52,890 years ago I noticed the order and what I think is the 277 00:15:52,890 --> 00:15:56,770 significance of God putting the man in the garden, which I 278 00:15:56,770 --> 00:15:59,610 didn't see until I was looking at Matthew Henry's commentary a 279 00:15:59,610 --> 00:16:02,690 few years ago. You see, the man was made 280 00:16:02,690 --> 00:16:07,410 outside of paradise. He was not made in the garden. 281 00:16:07,410 --> 00:16:09,090 The whole earth was not the garden. 282 00:16:09,090 --> 00:16:11,730 God created the man from the dust of the ground and then put 283 00:16:11,730 --> 00:16:15,570 him into Eden. He was made outside of paradise. 284 00:16:16,250 --> 00:16:19,680 It's after God forms him that he takes the man and he puts him 285 00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:22,880 into the garden. And so he places the man in the 286 00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:25,240 garden. And Matthew Henry words it this 287 00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:28,920 way, says the man was made of common clay, not of paradise 288 00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:32,080 dust. He was made of common clay. 289 00:16:32,080 --> 00:16:33,800 You and I are made of common clay. 290 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:38,400 This is one reason to worship the Lord is that we are. 291 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:39,920 We talked about this last week, right? 292 00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:41,360 He's the Potter. We're the clay. 293 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:48,370 We we hold this valuable thing especially as believers and 294 00:16:48,370 --> 00:16:53,610 vessels of clay. The man lived outside of Eden 295 00:16:53,610 --> 00:16:55,770 before he lived in it. Why? 296 00:16:56,930 --> 00:17:00,850 Well, so that he may see that all the comforts, all the 297 00:17:00,850 --> 00:17:05,290 comforts of his new life, of his new paradise home, were the 298 00:17:05,290 --> 00:17:09,730 result of God's free grace, and not the result of anything that 299 00:17:09,730 --> 00:17:11,970 he had yet done. He had not yet cultivated the 300 00:17:11,970 --> 00:17:13,930 ground. He had not yet worked, or kept 301 00:17:14,089 --> 00:17:16,329 or done any of the things that God is going to command him to 302 00:17:16,329 --> 00:17:17,800 do. He's created. 303 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:20,480 And then God places him in the Garden of Eden. 304 00:17:21,359 --> 00:17:24,000 And so he sees the world outside, and then he gets to see 305 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:27,400 the world inside. Adam could not plead a 306 00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:30,200 residential right to the garden. When it came time to kick him 307 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:33,680 out, he could not say, no, God, this is my garden. 308 00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:36,720 Because he had been placed into it, he couldn't claim the land 309 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:38,320 as his. He was not born within its 310 00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:40,560 borders. He only had what God had 311 00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:44,640 graciously given to him. Therefore his boasting had to be 312 00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:48,070 and got alone. It was in, it was in God alone, 313 00:17:48,070 --> 00:17:52,830 right Matthew Henry again. He says the same God that was 314 00:17:52,830 --> 00:17:56,190 the author of his being was the author of his bliss. 315 00:17:57,030 --> 00:18:00,110 He that made us is alone able to make us happy. 316 00:18:01,150 --> 00:18:04,830 But he that made us is alone able to make us happy. 317 00:18:04,830 --> 00:18:10,590 And we don't want to miss the point here in Genesis 2 that 318 00:18:10,590 --> 00:18:14,110 only the Creator wields the power to form bodies. 319 00:18:15,050 --> 00:18:17,930 Only the Creator wields the power to father our spirits. 320 00:18:18,210 --> 00:18:21,250 Only the Creator wields the power to provide blessed 321 00:18:21,530 --> 00:18:24,690 happiness for both your body and your soul. 322 00:18:25,850 --> 00:18:27,210 It's only the Creator that can do that. 323 00:18:27,890 --> 00:18:30,410 And so, brothers, you must see today that any circumstance in 324 00:18:30,410 --> 00:18:36,050 your life can be comforted. When you understand that God has 325 00:18:36,050 --> 00:18:39,850 gone before you. When you see that God has gone 326 00:18:39,850 --> 00:18:42,210 before you and he's placed you into it. 327 00:18:42,210 --> 00:18:44,810 If you will trust the Lord, if you will follow His will, you 328 00:18:44,810 --> 00:18:49,370 will find a paradise where you could not have expected a 329 00:18:49,370 --> 00:18:53,850 paradise to exist. Got alone makes gardens out of 330 00:18:53,850 --> 00:18:57,530 graves. Got alone redeems the what 331 00:18:57,530 --> 00:19:01,050 others mark unredeemable. Got alone comforts, the sufferer 332 00:19:01,050 --> 00:19:04,250 got alone shades. The sojourner got alone restores 333 00:19:04,250 --> 00:19:06,850 the broken. He alone gives strength to the 334 00:19:06,850 --> 00:19:09,120 weak. You could go on and on. 335 00:19:09,120 --> 00:19:11,120 And so we do. As we read scriptures, we find 336 00:19:11,120 --> 00:19:14,280 time and time again that God alone meets the needs of his 337 00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:16,520 people, however vast they may be. 338 00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:20,960 You can't do it yourself. And so the bottom line is, is 339 00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:27,600 what is impossible with man is absolutely, unmistakably so 340 00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:32,720 possible with God. Whatever we think is impossible. 341 00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:35,840 We look at God and say, but we know that God this is possible 342 00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:39,260 for you. So what do you mean you ask? 343 00:19:39,540 --> 00:19:41,340 Well, again, I'm glad you asked. You're asked a lot of really 344 00:19:41,340 --> 00:19:42,620 great questions today. Thank you. 345 00:19:44,220 --> 00:19:46,060 This gets us to our second observation. 346 00:19:46,060 --> 00:19:49,380 In the passage, we we see what God commands the man to do. 347 00:19:49,940 --> 00:19:52,500 Look at verse 15 again. The Lord God took the man and 348 00:19:52,500 --> 00:19:57,580 put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it in a 349 00:19:57,580 --> 00:19:59,820 sentence. God gives the man employment. 350 00:20:01,380 --> 00:20:02,660 He gives the man something to do. 351 00:20:02,660 --> 00:20:05,860 It gives him a job. He gives him a purpose more than 352 00:20:05,860 --> 00:20:07,960 a job, right? Sometimes our jobs don't feel 353 00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:10,920 like our purpose. There might be an end, a means 354 00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:13,960 to the purpose, to to completing something. 355 00:20:14,920 --> 00:20:17,120 But here we see that God gives the man employment. 356 00:20:18,360 --> 00:20:19,840 God puts him in the garden to work. 357 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:22,360 It's the idea of working. Here is the idea of cultivating. 358 00:20:22,360 --> 00:20:26,320 It's it's it's digging something up and planting something in and 359 00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:28,880 helping it grow. Like it's the work of 360 00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:33,960 cultivation. It's not just to work. 361 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:35,640 He's not just to cultivate things right. 362 00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:39,470 He's not just out there building things and, you know, 363 00:20:39,510 --> 00:20:41,510 discovering tools. I mean, you think about it like 364 00:20:41,950 --> 00:20:44,390 there was fruit hanging in a tree at some point that he had 365 00:20:44,390 --> 00:20:46,950 to figure out how do I get that fruit out of that tree? 366 00:20:47,310 --> 00:20:49,790 And so he picks up a stick that he can whack the limb with. 367 00:20:49,790 --> 00:20:54,190 Right now he's got now he's got a fruit picker, right? 368 00:20:55,870 --> 00:20:57,870 That's not all that he was called to do. 369 00:20:59,110 --> 00:21:02,710 He's called the keep. Also, God says it's not just 370 00:21:02,710 --> 00:21:05,270 that the man works the ground or works. 371 00:21:05,740 --> 00:21:09,900 He doesn't just cultivate, he keeps, which means he protects 372 00:21:12,140 --> 00:21:13,860 you. See man, you were wired by God 373 00:21:14,020 --> 00:21:18,820 from before the fall to be a worker and the keeper, to be one 374 00:21:18,820 --> 00:21:22,380 who cultivates things and protects things. 375 00:21:23,700 --> 00:21:28,580 This is why you feel called, drawn to those two tasks so 376 00:21:28,580 --> 00:21:32,150 heavily. All right, now, I'm not saying 377 00:21:32,150 --> 00:21:34,470 we don't get it out of shape. We'll get into those things. 378 00:21:34,470 --> 00:21:37,230 But right now, I just want you to see that that drive you have 379 00:21:37,230 --> 00:21:42,990 in you to work and to keep is from the Lord, It's from God. 380 00:21:44,190 --> 00:21:47,310 These are good things for men to know about themselves, right? 381 00:21:48,510 --> 00:21:51,430 It's not a fatal flaw of manhood, like these are good 382 00:21:51,430 --> 00:21:53,110 things. So the man was tasked by God 383 00:21:53,110 --> 00:21:56,310 with stewarding creation. He was given a place to dwell 384 00:21:56,310 --> 00:21:58,150 and work to do. Be fruitful. 385 00:21:58,350 --> 00:22:02,670 Adam multiply, fill the earth, subdued creation, exercise 386 00:22:02,670 --> 00:22:06,550 dominion over it, work and keep Adam. 387 00:22:09,670 --> 00:22:13,270 See, Adam was God's under shepherd in the field. 388 00:22:14,750 --> 00:22:16,710 He was tending to God's creation. 389 00:22:16,710 --> 00:22:19,950 God holds all things together by the power of His word. 390 00:22:20,870 --> 00:22:27,880 God holds all things together. By his His might, His power got 391 00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:32,320 a sovereign over all events. There's nothing outside of God's 392 00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:34,640 control or his providential hand. 393 00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:37,240 He orders his will to be done and guess what? 394 00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:45,080 It gets done and God executes. So what I don't want you to miss 395 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:47,240 about this. God executes his providential 396 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:51,840 plans, his providential work through the hands of his people. 397 00:22:52,830 --> 00:22:56,670 Many times, God's Providence has come through the hands of 398 00:22:56,990 --> 00:22:58,390 people, right? People. 399 00:22:58,390 --> 00:23:02,350 He's ordained to do things for His purposes. 400 00:23:04,190 --> 00:23:07,190 And so you were not put on this earth, brothers, to be idle. 401 00:23:07,190 --> 00:23:10,830 You're not put on this earth to be idle. 402 00:23:10,830 --> 00:23:15,270 You're not put on this earth to to stand still, right? 403 00:23:18,230 --> 00:23:22,630 You're not Leviathan. You know who Leviathan is and 404 00:23:22,630 --> 00:23:24,030 the Old Testament. And Job. 405 00:23:24,030 --> 00:23:27,430 Leviathan is a he's a dragon, let's be honest, right? 406 00:23:29,430 --> 00:23:32,870 He's a he's a dragon beast who plays in the water. 407 00:23:33,990 --> 00:23:37,270 And we read about God that he created this dragon beast who 408 00:23:37,270 --> 00:23:42,750 plays in the water because he's a good creator for his own 409 00:23:42,750 --> 00:23:46,030 enjoyment, essentially. But you're not Leviathan. 410 00:23:46,030 --> 00:23:50,080 You're not meant to be a dragon beast who plays in the water, 411 00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:52,680 although the summer some might have described you that way, 412 00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:58,160 right? You are men, and God created you 413 00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:00,720 and gives you the command to work and keep your fields. 414 00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:03,200 You're not put on the earth to be idle. 415 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:06,360 God has given us souls and bodies, and in other words, he's 416 00:24:06,360 --> 00:24:10,400 given us the tools to work with, to be workers and keepers, and 417 00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:13,040 he has given us habitation on this earth. 418 00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:16,040 He's given us a place, right? He's given us something to work 419 00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:18,970 on. So you work and keep, but what 420 00:24:18,970 --> 00:24:20,770 are you working keep. You're working and keeping all 421 00:24:20,770 --> 00:24:23,290 the things that He's given you. How are you working and keeping? 422 00:24:23,290 --> 00:24:25,490 You're working and keeping by the things that He's given you. 423 00:24:25,490 --> 00:24:29,530 Your body, your soul, right. Your mind, your intellect. 424 00:24:30,170 --> 00:24:32,330 God has wired you to be workers and keepers. 425 00:24:34,650 --> 00:24:37,290 Matthew Henry again says he that gave us being has given U.S. 426 00:24:37,290 --> 00:24:41,450 business to serve him and our generation and to work out our 427 00:24:41,610 --> 00:24:44,850 salvation. If we do not mind our business, 428 00:24:44,850 --> 00:24:48,370 we are unworthy of our being and maintenance. 429 00:24:50,810 --> 00:24:54,410 We do not mind our business if we do not get to the things that 430 00:24:54,410 --> 00:24:57,930 God has called us to do, that we are unworthy of our being and 431 00:24:57,930 --> 00:25:01,930 the maintenance it requires to keep us afloat, keep us 432 00:25:01,930 --> 00:25:05,370 breathing. So think of your life, brothers, 433 00:25:07,290 --> 00:25:10,490 young men, men, boys. In here, think of your life. 434 00:25:10,490 --> 00:25:14,090 What has God-given you? What fields, so to speak? 435 00:25:14,090 --> 00:25:17,040 We use this terminology of fields in biblical manhood. 436 00:25:17,120 --> 00:25:19,920 What? What fields has God-given you to 437 00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:24,360 work and to keep? Do you have a breath in your 438 00:25:24,360 --> 00:25:28,320 lungs today? If not, somebody call 911, 439 00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:29,920 right? Yes. 440 00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:35,160 Do you have a body? I don't see any. 441 00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:37,360 Just spirits floating around here today. 442 00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:39,640 Right. You have a body. 443 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:45,890 Are you employed? Maybe some of the boys in here 444 00:25:45,890 --> 00:25:47,890 like how, But man, I want to be right. 445 00:25:49,370 --> 00:25:52,810 You are employed, sons. You're employed in the business 446 00:25:52,810 --> 00:25:55,210 of school. You're employed in the business 447 00:25:55,210 --> 00:25:58,330 of obeying mommy and daddy in your home, of learning to be the 448 00:25:58,330 --> 00:26:01,650 kind of man who works and keeps his territory, his room, his 449 00:26:01,650 --> 00:26:06,330 things, his stuff, right? Hard at work in those ways. 450 00:26:09,690 --> 00:26:13,210 Are you a friend and you have friendships to cultivate and to 451 00:26:13,210 --> 00:26:15,140 protect? Are you a father? 452 00:26:15,260 --> 00:26:17,700 Well. Do you have children to work and 453 00:26:17,700 --> 00:26:19,620 to keep? To cultivate their hearts, their 454 00:26:19,620 --> 00:26:23,980 minds, their souls to love? The Lord our God, who we know is 455 00:26:23,980 --> 00:26:30,620 1 Above all else, according to Deuteronomy 6, you have your 456 00:26:30,620 --> 00:26:35,820 marching orders for fatherhood. Are you married? 457 00:26:36,860 --> 00:26:38,660 We'll get into that in a couple of weeks. 458 00:26:39,980 --> 00:26:43,110 But you have your marching orders, Especially in a passage 459 00:26:43,110 --> 00:26:48,950 like Ephesians 522. You see that this is how a man 460 00:26:48,950 --> 00:26:51,230 is to live along his wife. This is how a woman is to live 461 00:26:51,230 --> 00:26:53,630 alone, her husband. It's how they're to treat one 462 00:26:53,630 --> 00:26:55,910 another, to dwell with one another in unity. 463 00:26:59,270 --> 00:27:02,990 And so you have fields that this if you're single, right? 464 00:27:02,990 --> 00:27:04,150 You say, well, I'm not married yet. 465 00:27:04,150 --> 00:27:06,670 I don't have that. Well, you're you're cultivating 466 00:27:06,670 --> 00:27:08,510 your own heart and your own mind, right? 467 00:27:08,510 --> 00:27:11,470 We're all doing this anyway, but as a single man or single woman 468 00:27:11,470 --> 00:27:14,720 in here, especially a single man, you need to become the kind 469 00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:20,280 of man that would attract the kind of woman you think you're 470 00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:25,360 worthy of, right? Whether you're a teenager or a 471 00:27:25,360 --> 00:27:29,840 college student or young adults, an old adult doesn't matter. 472 00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:31,360 You're single. This is what you're after, 473 00:27:31,360 --> 00:27:32,240 right? You say, well, I want to be 474 00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:36,640 married at some point and you need to look into the you need 475 00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:40,480 to look into the scriptures and see what kind of a woman should 476 00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:43,980 I be looking for. And once you find that out, you 477 00:27:43,980 --> 00:27:46,220 need to say what kind of a man does that woman seek? 478 00:27:47,500 --> 00:27:51,100 And you need to align yourself with the word of God, right? 479 00:27:51,420 --> 00:27:53,980 So we all have, if you're a churchman, right, like you have 480 00:27:53,980 --> 00:27:57,300 duties as a churchman. If responsibilities as a member 481 00:27:57,300 --> 00:28:00,380 of the church. And you men do an incredible job 482 00:28:00,380 --> 00:28:04,380 around here, like, I'm I have no problem praising the men in this 483 00:28:04,380 --> 00:28:06,540 church. You're worthy of it. 484 00:28:06,900 --> 00:28:11,650 You work hard, you, you seek to preach the gospel to others. 485 00:28:11,650 --> 00:28:14,890 You want to create areas around here where people can come to 486 00:28:14,890 --> 00:28:17,170 know Christ as Lord and and to serve him. 487 00:28:17,170 --> 00:28:21,010 And I praise you for that. Right. 488 00:28:21,010 --> 00:28:23,770 So you got desires, you have hobbies, like you understand, 489 00:28:23,770 --> 00:28:27,450 like your fields, everybody's got fields and you can start 490 00:28:27,450 --> 00:28:30,730 like here in your heart and you start here in your mind and you 491 00:28:30,730 --> 00:28:33,810 can say, all right, let me begin here. 492 00:28:36,810 --> 00:28:43,290 And for that, just read Proverbs chapter One and on into, you 493 00:28:43,290 --> 00:28:47,490 know, 31. But you can begin to work and 494 00:28:47,490 --> 00:28:51,370 keep your heart, your mind by learning wisdom, the wisdom of 495 00:28:51,370 --> 00:28:54,570 God. And then you got to go out from 496 00:28:54,570 --> 00:28:56,170 there, though. Like if you have a marriage and 497 00:28:56,170 --> 00:29:00,250 you have children, you have employment, you have a city, you 498 00:29:00,250 --> 00:29:02,650 have a church, right? Like, these are things we're 499 00:29:02,650 --> 00:29:11,990 responsible for, men. Tim Chally's wrote a chapter in 500 00:29:11,990 --> 00:29:15,870 a book about employment and these kinds of things, and in it 501 00:29:15,870 --> 00:29:18,070 he said this. He said your life is each of 502 00:29:18,070 --> 00:29:22,590 these and and the sum of these, individually and altogether, 503 00:29:22,590 --> 00:29:25,190 they are a platform from God that allow you to extend to 504 00:29:25,190 --> 00:29:28,910 others the goodness and kindness of God on behalf of God. 505 00:29:28,950 --> 00:29:31,830 And whenever you do that, however you do that, God 506 00:29:31,830 --> 00:29:37,940 receives the glory. Amen gets a star point last 507 00:29:37,940 --> 00:29:39,100 week. We're not glory seekers. 508 00:29:39,100 --> 00:29:41,660 We're not seeking our own glory. We want to glorify the Lord. 509 00:29:42,900 --> 00:29:47,260 So God could could have created a world in which in such a way 510 00:29:47,260 --> 00:29:49,700 that He did all of these good things himself with without 511 00:29:49,900 --> 00:29:53,460 involving us at all. However, he ordains the work of 512 00:29:53,460 --> 00:29:57,220 men instead, and he He assigns task to men. 513 00:29:57,220 --> 00:30:01,820 And he says for you to do things right, to work and to keep and 514 00:30:01,820 --> 00:30:06,300 to to subdue creation and to be fruitful and multiply. 515 00:30:07,190 --> 00:30:10,310 And so you serve as a kind of conduit for the goodness of God. 516 00:30:11,550 --> 00:30:14,990 You're you're the water pipe, so to speak, and He's the source of 517 00:30:14,990 --> 00:30:17,990 the water. And you're you're helping these 518 00:30:17,990 --> 00:30:19,870 things happen. So whatever roles God's given 519 00:30:19,870 --> 00:30:23,430 you, those are your daily opportunity to glorify God by 520 00:30:23,430 --> 00:30:26,510 serving others. Like this is the way we redeem a 521 00:30:26,510 --> 00:30:29,230 job that we hate. We understand that the job that 522 00:30:29,230 --> 00:30:32,110 we hate is grumbling against the Lord. 523 00:30:32,630 --> 00:30:36,510 The Lord has provided a job that we hate you. 524 00:30:36,510 --> 00:30:38,430 You see what I'm saying? It's not okay to hate the job 525 00:30:38,430 --> 00:30:40,350 that God has given you. It's not it's not a bad thing to 526 00:30:40,350 --> 00:30:41,910 look for other employment at some point. 527 00:30:42,190 --> 00:30:48,430 But be grateful for what you have and serve the Lord in your 528 00:30:48,430 --> 00:30:52,310 job in such a way that people can see He's grateful to God, 529 00:30:53,710 --> 00:30:56,630 He's grateful to the Lord, right? 530 00:30:57,270 --> 00:30:59,710 Whatever roles He's giving you, they're your daily opportunity 531 00:30:59,710 --> 00:31:02,350 to glorify the Lord. And this is what it looks like 532 00:31:02,350 --> 00:31:07,240 then to to be a faithful servant to the God who glorifies himself 533 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:09,320 by serving men. We want to glorify him. 534 00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:12,640 It's working unto God is worship unto God. 535 00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:15,120 He is the source of each one of the fields. 536 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:18,800 And and so there's dignity and working and keeping your field. 537 00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:27,770 And Ephesians 210 We see that as we have been born again, we have 538 00:31:27,770 --> 00:31:31,370 become the workmanship of Christ created, the workmanship of God 539 00:31:31,370 --> 00:31:34,650 created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepares 540 00:31:34,650 --> 00:31:36,250 beforehand that we might walk in them. 541 00:31:37,370 --> 00:31:40,370 So again, all the things that you have as fields are things 542 00:31:40,370 --> 00:31:44,730 prepared by the hand of God beforehand that he's granted to 543 00:31:44,730 --> 00:31:49,930 you in his grade. And so you ask yourself, who has 544 00:31:49,930 --> 00:31:52,450 God made me to be? What gifts do I have? 545 00:31:52,450 --> 00:31:55,610 What skills do I have? What passions has God-given me? 546 00:31:55,610 --> 00:31:58,410 What roles and responsibility has he assigned to me? 547 00:31:59,370 --> 00:32:01,810 Those are your fields to 10 You cultivate them. 548 00:32:01,810 --> 00:32:05,570 You work them out of love for God, out of love for the people 549 00:32:05,570 --> 00:32:09,450 that he surrounded you with. You do those things. 1st 550 00:32:09,450 --> 00:32:12,410 birthday in 717. We have a wildly freeing verse. 551 00:32:13,090 --> 00:32:16,690 If you grew up in church, you might have grown up in like the 552 00:32:16,690 --> 00:32:19,010 calling era. Everybody had a calling. 553 00:32:19,010 --> 00:32:22,370 Everybody had to be called to something grand and amazing. 554 00:32:22,370 --> 00:32:24,690 And this youth group and that youth group, they're going to be 555 00:32:24,690 --> 00:32:27,210 world changers. And here we are, decades later, 556 00:32:27,210 --> 00:32:31,850 in the world's largely the same. So we must be missing the point. 557 00:32:32,370 --> 00:32:34,690 If we're just missing. And then the point that we're 558 00:32:34,690 --> 00:32:38,730 missing is this life is mundane and ordinary, and we need to get 559 00:32:38,730 --> 00:32:41,210 used to it, because this is how God works. 560 00:32:42,370 --> 00:32:46,210 He uses the mundane and and and and the ordinary for 561 00:32:46,210 --> 00:32:48,970 extraordinary, majestic purposes. 562 00:32:49,650 --> 00:32:51,890 But it's okay to live in the mundane and ordinary. 563 00:32:51,890 --> 00:32:54,610 It's okay to just wake up and put your shoes on, right? 564 00:32:54,610 --> 00:32:58,130 And like, brush your teeth and go to work and love the people 565 00:32:58,130 --> 00:33:00,370 you work with, love your family that you come home to like. 566 00:33:00,370 --> 00:33:05,560 These are good, godly things. And so first, we're at the 567 00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:06,560 seven. Sorry. 568 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:10,400 Paul writes here, and it's just a wildly free verse. 569 00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:13,320 He says only let each person lead the life that the Lord has 570 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:16,240 assigned to him and to which God has called him. 571 00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:18,480 This is my rule in all the churches. 572 00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:21,920 Amen. Lead the life that God has 573 00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:23,920 assigned to you. That's your calling. 574 00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:26,680 Are you a husband? Well, then God called you to be 575 00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:27,480 a husband. Are you a? 576 00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:29,520 Are you a father? Well, then, God has granted you 577 00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:31,160 fatherhood, and you were called to be a father. 578 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:33,660 Are you single, then? God has called you to singleness 579 00:33:33,660 --> 00:33:34,860 in the season, right? Like that. 580 00:33:35,220 --> 00:33:39,020 You need to cultivate and keep that and protect that and walk 581 00:33:39,020 --> 00:33:42,820 in it and so many other things, right? 582 00:33:42,820 --> 00:33:44,500 All these things I'm mentioning so true. 583 00:33:44,500 --> 00:33:46,940 Manhood does not rest on the appearance of the man. 584 00:33:47,860 --> 00:33:49,820 It it rests on the actions of the man. 585 00:33:49,820 --> 00:33:52,180 It rests on what does the man do? 586 00:33:52,180 --> 00:33:57,340 Because this is where we see his character and his convictions. 587 00:33:57,700 --> 00:34:03,450 This is where we know if the man is worth something, and so geez 588 00:34:03,450 --> 00:34:06,370 illustrates this. For in a parable it's a parable 589 00:34:06,370 --> 00:34:07,970 of the talents. The master is going on a 590 00:34:07,970 --> 00:34:11,010 journey, and he entrusts his property to his servants. 591 00:34:11,010 --> 00:34:13,889 To one of the servants he gives 5 talents, to another he gives 2 592 00:34:13,889 --> 00:34:16,650 talents, and to the last servant he gives one talent. 593 00:34:17,170 --> 00:34:19,730 They gave to each according to his ability. 594 00:34:19,730 --> 00:34:22,850 And while the master was away, the man with five talents made 595 00:34:22,850 --> 00:34:25,409 five more talents. The man with two talents made 596 00:34:25,409 --> 00:34:28,210 two more talents. The man with one talent went and 597 00:34:28,210 --> 00:34:31,199 dug a hole, and buried his talent in the hole. 598 00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:33,840 Now one of these is not like the other, right? 599 00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:39,679 The master returns, and he wants to settle his accounts with his 600 00:34:39,679 --> 00:34:42,199 servants. And to the man, to the men who 601 00:34:42,199 --> 00:34:44,719 wisely stewarded what was given to them, the master said. 602 00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:47,960 To to the two who doubled what they were given. 603 00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:49,840 He said, Well done, good and faithful servant. 604 00:34:50,159 --> 00:34:52,000 You have been faithful over a little. 605 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:55,560 I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your 606 00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:58,170 master. That's a wonderful principle 607 00:34:58,170 --> 00:34:59,850 that we need to understand about management again. 608 00:35:00,130 --> 00:35:03,570 If if you're a college student male and you're driving a beat 609 00:35:03,570 --> 00:35:07,090 up old car and you're living in a 12 by 12 dorm room, right? 610 00:35:07,090 --> 00:35:09,970 That feels like a jail cell at times and you're having to share 611 00:35:09,970 --> 00:35:11,210 that with a couple of guys, right? 612 00:35:11,490 --> 00:35:13,890 Like you can start to think, dude, what's this guy talking 613 00:35:13,890 --> 00:35:15,050 about? I don't have anything to 614 00:35:15,050 --> 00:35:17,450 cultivate and to keep, to work and keep. 615 00:35:17,450 --> 00:35:21,290 But you do. And and what God has given you, 616 00:35:21,330 --> 00:35:25,540 He's saying be faithful in And as you're faithful with the 617 00:35:25,540 --> 00:35:28,660 little things that you think are nothing, God is going to give 618 00:35:28,660 --> 00:35:31,260 you more things that you might actually be working towards. 619 00:35:31,420 --> 00:35:33,860 But you have to be faithful in what God's given you today. 620 00:35:34,660 --> 00:35:37,380 Amen. This is why I tell my boys like 621 00:35:37,900 --> 00:35:40,500 you guys need to be faithful in school. 622 00:35:40,820 --> 00:35:42,980 This is your job. I don't care if you don't like 623 00:35:42,980 --> 00:35:45,220 it today, right? Because it changes from 624 00:35:45,220 --> 00:35:48,540 day-to-day. But you, you need to be faithful 625 00:35:48,780 --> 00:35:51,300 here. And the stuff that you're 626 00:35:51,300 --> 00:35:54,630 giving, you need to take care of the stuff that the Lord blesses 627 00:35:54,630 --> 00:35:57,070 you with, right? And we're just teaching this 628 00:35:57,070 --> 00:36:01,870 concept of working and keeping at an early age so that I want 629 00:36:01,870 --> 00:36:04,230 my sons to be able to work and keep a family one day. 630 00:36:04,230 --> 00:36:07,190 I want them to work and keep real jobs, right? 631 00:36:07,190 --> 00:36:12,390 I want them to to work and keep churches and other men and all 632 00:36:12,390 --> 00:36:15,950 of those things. But we have to start where we're 633 00:36:15,950 --> 00:36:18,470 at. We don't wait till later, right? 634 00:36:19,830 --> 00:36:21,910 And so the master returns. He wants to sell his account. 635 00:36:21,910 --> 00:36:26,380 Now he turns to the one who buried his talent, and he says, 636 00:36:26,380 --> 00:36:29,180 why did you bury the talent? And he says, Master, I knew you 637 00:36:29,180 --> 00:36:31,580 to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering 638 00:36:31,580 --> 00:36:34,340 where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid I went and hid 639 00:36:34,340 --> 00:36:37,540 your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. 640 00:36:38,540 --> 00:36:41,180 The man misunderstood his master's graciousness and giving 641 00:36:41,180 --> 00:36:43,780 him work. So he was lazy and he exercised 642 00:36:43,780 --> 00:36:46,740 bad stewardship. The master tells him He said you 643 00:36:46,740 --> 00:36:48,860 could have at least put it in a bank where it would have drawn 644 00:36:48,860 --> 00:36:51,830 interest. The point of the parable is to 645 00:36:51,830 --> 00:36:55,150 be a faithful steward is to work and keep all that God and trust 646 00:36:55,150 --> 00:36:58,750 to your care and proverbs 12 We read verse 11. 647 00:36:58,910 --> 00:37:02,110 Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who 648 00:37:02,110 --> 00:37:04,710 follows worthless pursuits lacks sense. 649 00:37:04,990 --> 00:37:06,510 Oh, so now there's the rub, right? 650 00:37:06,510 --> 00:37:09,350 There are lack. There are pointless pursuits, 651 00:37:10,470 --> 00:37:12,710 and if you pursue those things you will lack bread. 652 00:37:12,710 --> 00:37:14,910 But if you'll work the ground and cultivate the ground that 653 00:37:14,910 --> 00:37:19,760 the Lord is granted to you, you'll eat, you'll eat, you'll 654 00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:23,920 enjoy the fruit of your labor. In the Garden of Eden. 655 00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:26,960 This Genesis 2 account, we observe a similar event. 656 00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:30,640 Now we see that God gives the man a command concerning his 657 00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:33,920 stewardship. And Lord God commanded the man 658 00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:37,080 verse 16, saying, you may surely eat of the tree of the garden, 659 00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:39,480 but if the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not 660 00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:42,280 eat from the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. 661 00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:47,160 So in our passage now, God has shown himself to be man's 662 00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:51,020 powerful creator and his bountiful benefactor. 663 00:37:52,140 --> 00:37:56,340 He appears now as his ruler and lawgiver. 664 00:37:58,380 --> 00:38:00,260 God put the man in the garden for purpose. 665 00:38:00,740 --> 00:38:02,820 It wasn't to live, however the man thought best. 666 00:38:02,820 --> 00:38:04,660 It wasn't to. It was to live according to the 667 00:38:04,660 --> 00:38:06,980 commands of God. It was to live according to the 668 00:38:06,980 --> 00:38:11,220 rule of God on his life. Man wasn't to be idle as we 669 00:38:11,220 --> 00:38:13,100 said. He wasn't to be willful and to 670 00:38:13,100 --> 00:38:18,280 do whatever he pleased. Though man had God-given 671 00:38:18,280 --> 00:38:21,120 dominion over creatures, he was himself a creature of God's 672 00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:25,320 dominion. You know Adam was given a 673 00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:27,440 command. You may surely eat of every tree 674 00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:29,400 in the garden, but the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you 675 00:38:29,400 --> 00:38:32,520 shall not eat of it, for when you eat of it, you will surely 676 00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:34,840 die. So within the command you have 677 00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:38,200 to notice this is a massive amount of grace. 678 00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:43,530 There's a ton of grace here. There's tons of blessing here in 679 00:38:43,530 --> 00:38:46,450 the command. And this is true of all of God's 680 00:38:46,650 --> 00:38:50,130 commands. I I need you to know that today, 681 00:38:50,130 --> 00:38:54,690 that when God issues a command to you, Sir, he's giving you a 682 00:38:54,690 --> 00:38:58,170 ton of grace and a ton of blessing. 683 00:38:59,050 --> 00:39:03,290 It's not a thumb coming down on you like a hard taskmaster. 684 00:39:03,490 --> 00:39:05,930 Amen. Though the law when disobeyed, 685 00:39:05,930 --> 00:39:10,280 Paul says it's like a hard taskmaster that the law when 686 00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,280 obeyed it's blessing, it's fruitful. 687 00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:16,000 And so this is true of all God's command. 688 00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:20,200 To see them otherwise is rebellious and therefore sinful. 689 00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:24,880 And so look closer. You may eat of every tree in the 690 00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:31,240 garden, Adam blessing all of those I've given to you for life 691 00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:32,840 and sustenance. Take of their fruit. 692 00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:35,790 Eat it. But if you eat of the tree of 693 00:39:35,790 --> 00:39:39,030 which I've said not to eat, you will be miserable, As miserable 694 00:39:39,030 --> 00:39:43,110 then as you are happy right now, which is the life of the 695 00:39:43,110 --> 00:39:45,630 disobedient ones. Amen. 696 00:39:46,110 --> 00:39:48,070 When you're disobedient, you're as miserable. 697 00:39:48,470 --> 00:39:51,350 Then, after your disobedience as you might have been in the 698 00:39:51,350 --> 00:39:55,230 middle of it, or as you might have been happy before it, right 699 00:39:58,950 --> 00:40:02,470 now, recognize that we all once walked in disobedience. 700 00:40:02,750 --> 00:40:05,030 As Christians and even still today, we wrestle with 701 00:40:05,070 --> 00:40:08,470 obedience. And so as you're aware, Adam 702 00:40:08,470 --> 00:40:10,870 disobeyed God. He and his wife took of the of 703 00:40:10,950 --> 00:40:16,510 of that forbidden fruit, and they ate their sins, removed 704 00:40:16,510 --> 00:40:18,430 their purity, removed their innocence. 705 00:40:18,430 --> 00:40:20,150 We're going to get into that in a couple weeks. 706 00:40:20,150 --> 00:40:23,230 But they were kicked out of the garden because of the thought of 707 00:40:23,230 --> 00:40:27,510 eating of the tree of life was, and and gaining immortality in 708 00:40:27,510 --> 00:40:30,630 their sinful state was more than God wanted for them. 709 00:40:30,790 --> 00:40:31,870 It's not what he wanted for them. 710 00:40:33,370 --> 00:40:35,570 So God sent the man into the world to work the ground, which 711 00:40:35,570 --> 00:40:37,210 was now cursed with thorns and thistles. 712 00:40:37,210 --> 00:40:40,690 His work would be much more difficult than before, but worse 713 00:40:40,690 --> 00:40:43,530 than that, his sin brought death and separation from God into the 714 00:40:43,530 --> 00:40:46,250 world. And so, brothers, it's difficult 715 00:40:46,290 --> 00:40:52,370 at times to submit to authority. But you will never faithfully 716 00:40:52,370 --> 00:40:56,130 steward your godgiven fields if you do not submit to God's 717 00:40:56,130 --> 00:40:58,650 authority over your life. It cannot happen. 718 00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:01,920 You cannot seek your own way, right? 719 00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:04,280 You cannot. Jesus says you can't serve 2 720 00:41:04,280 --> 00:41:10,440 masters. He's the Creator, and so He has 721 00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:13,480 granted you life. He's given you fields to 10. 722 00:41:13,720 --> 00:41:17,800 He alone has the right to rule you, and you are obligated to be 723 00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:20,440 ruled by him. Obligated. 724 00:41:22,240 --> 00:41:24,600 And so you must not let your passions, your lust, your 725 00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:30,600 desires, thwart God's commands. We cannot live in contradiction 726 00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:35,040 to or in competition with the holy will of God and expect 727 00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:39,000 fruitfulness. We have to we have to follow the 728 00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:43,920 example of the perfect man, Jesus Christ, by doing only and 729 00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:46,120 all that which God has commanded us. 730 00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:49,760 And so that brings us to the final points in Christ Strait. 731 00:41:52,120 --> 00:41:54,760 From the very beginning the Creator has informed creation of 732 00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:58,370 its marching orders. His command has not changed the 733 00:41:58,370 --> 00:42:01,050 command. This command from God is known 734 00:42:01,050 --> 00:42:03,370 historically as the cultural mandate. 735 00:42:03,850 --> 00:42:08,050 Even after the fall he expresses his covenants once again with 736 00:42:08,050 --> 00:42:10,010 Noah. Once the floodwaters have 737 00:42:10,010 --> 00:42:12,490 societed, he says be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth 738 00:42:12,490 --> 00:42:16,730 and subdue it, He expresses it again, or versions of the same 739 00:42:17,170 --> 00:42:20,250 with cut with his covenants to Abraham and David as well. 740 00:42:20,330 --> 00:42:24,210 And so the presence of sin does not lift this command from God. 741 00:42:25,210 --> 00:42:28,950 The the problem we have an image bearing, The problem we have in 742 00:42:28,950 --> 00:42:31,950 fruitfulness and multiplication and subduing and exercising 743 00:42:31,950 --> 00:42:35,230 dominion is not that we're men. It's not that. 744 00:42:35,230 --> 00:42:38,270 It's manhood and masculinity are the issue. 745 00:42:38,270 --> 00:42:41,910 We need to overcome those and become less manly or less 746 00:42:41,910 --> 00:42:47,230 masculine and more like a woman. It It's not that at all, 747 00:42:47,390 --> 00:42:49,550 although the world would have you to believe differently. 748 00:42:50,830 --> 00:42:56,550 The problem is sinfulness. You, you and I are sinners in 749 00:42:56,550 --> 00:43:00,710 need of the grace of God. You and I can't work and keep 750 00:43:00,710 --> 00:43:04,910 all that God grants to us without the strength of Christ. 751 00:43:05,590 --> 00:43:08,350 Because we're sinful. We have no strength. 752 00:43:09,350 --> 00:43:11,470 We have no ability to carry these things out. 753 00:43:12,310 --> 00:43:14,950 And if we look into the scriptures, we see how far we 754 00:43:14,950 --> 00:43:17,470 have fallen. We see how the image of God upon 755 00:43:17,470 --> 00:43:21,230 us is vandalized. The image of God exists on every 756 00:43:21,230 --> 00:43:23,670 person, though the remains of it be small. 757 00:43:23,670 --> 00:43:27,740 We talked about that last week, and so we seek the renewal of 758 00:43:27,740 --> 00:43:30,980 His image upon our souls. By His redeeming grace, 759 00:43:31,940 --> 00:43:36,740 brothers, Christ is now to us, the tree of life and a 760 00:43:36,740 --> 00:43:37,900 Revelation. 2. Verse seven. 761 00:43:37,900 --> 00:43:40,780 We read He who has an ear. Let him hear what the Spirit 762 00:43:40,780 --> 00:43:43,580 says to the churches, To the one who conquers, I will grant to 763 00:43:43,580 --> 00:43:47,780 eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. 764 00:43:48,700 --> 00:43:50,380 Christ is to us the bread of life. 765 00:43:50,500 --> 00:43:54,490 Jesus says so much. John Chapter 6 I'm the bread of 766 00:43:54,490 --> 00:43:56,010 lie. I'm the living bread that came 767 00:43:56,010 --> 00:43:58,450 down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he 768 00:43:58,450 --> 00:44:00,970 will live forever. And the bread that I will give 769 00:44:00,970 --> 00:44:03,730 for the life of the world is my flesh. 770 00:44:04,130 --> 00:44:06,490 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the 771 00:44:06,490 --> 00:44:09,650 Son of Man and Drake his blood, you have no life in you. 772 00:44:09,650 --> 00:44:15,450 So He's foreshadowing his coming crucifixion and how we must be 773 00:44:15,450 --> 00:44:21,050 partakers of His crucifixion by faith in Him if we are to have 774 00:44:21,050 --> 00:44:26,230 true life. Jesus obeyed his father unto 775 00:44:26,230 --> 00:44:29,710 death. He died on a tree outside of 776 00:44:29,710 --> 00:44:32,790 Jerusalem. His body was broken, His blood 777 00:44:32,790 --> 00:44:35,070 was shed. All for the forgiveness of the 778 00:44:35,070 --> 00:44:37,390 sins of all who will call on his name to be saved? 779 00:44:37,430 --> 00:44:40,070 His people. And just as God graciously 780 00:44:40,070 --> 00:44:44,030 clothed Adam and Eve as he's kicking them, sending them out 781 00:44:44,030 --> 00:44:46,270 of the garden, He closed them in animal skins. 782 00:44:47,310 --> 00:44:50,830 He graciously closed close us now in the righteousness of 783 00:44:50,830 --> 00:44:54,380 Christ. And when you have received God's 784 00:44:54,380 --> 00:44:58,220 spirit unto new life, which comes by God's grace through 785 00:44:58,220 --> 00:45:01,180 faith in Christ, when you've received that you become a new 786 00:45:01,180 --> 00:45:05,300 creation in Christ. Your old man passes away all 787 00:45:05,300 --> 00:45:09,540 those old desires, all those old ways of living, all those wants 788 00:45:09,540 --> 00:45:12,620 that you have right, that are sinful, that have gotten you in 789 00:45:12,620 --> 00:45:15,420 a world of trouble, maybe. Have you here today thinking 790 00:45:15,420 --> 00:45:18,580 there's no way God can forgive me? 791 00:45:21,540 --> 00:45:24,260 I want to tell you, like the great theologian Oscar Meyer 792 00:45:24,260 --> 00:45:34,020 says, baloney, good dad joke. He can forgive you. 793 00:45:34,020 --> 00:45:36,860 You are forgiven in Christ if your faith is in Christ. 794 00:45:37,940 --> 00:45:41,020 Christ did what you could not do, what you would never be able 795 00:45:41,020 --> 00:45:43,420 to do. He is satisfied not only the 796 00:45:43,420 --> 00:45:45,860 wrath of God, but the commands of God. 797 00:45:47,380 --> 00:45:50,010 He lived perfectly. He was sinless. 798 00:45:51,970 --> 00:45:55,050 And so when you trust Christ as your savior, when you say I am a 799 00:45:55,050 --> 00:45:59,170 Sinner in need of a Savior, I've made a mess of my life and I'm 800 00:45:59,170 --> 00:46:02,210 repenting now, and I'm submitting myself to Christ 801 00:46:02,290 --> 00:46:05,050 Jesus as Lord. When you do that, you receive 802 00:46:05,050 --> 00:46:06,730 the righteousness of Christ as your own. 803 00:46:08,230 --> 00:46:11,230 You're justified freely by His grace, meaning the count. 804 00:46:11,230 --> 00:46:14,230 The the account of your sin is cast as far as the East is from 805 00:46:14,230 --> 00:46:16,710 the West. God remembers your sins no more. 806 00:46:16,710 --> 00:46:21,310 He does not keep a record of your wrongs, your sins, past, 807 00:46:21,510 --> 00:46:24,910 present, future, forgiven in Christ Jesus. 808 00:46:28,470 --> 00:46:31,750 You guys have to become shouters, because that's 809 00:46:31,750 --> 00:46:32,990 something worthy of shouting about. 810 00:46:33,990 --> 00:46:40,220 And one day in heaven, you'll shout, You become a new 811 00:46:40,220 --> 00:46:46,220 creation, an old man gone, New desires come, new fields to 812 00:46:46,220 --> 00:46:48,780 tend, and sometimes just a new perspective on the fields. 813 00:46:48,780 --> 00:46:51,340 You've been given already a New Hope. 814 00:46:51,940 --> 00:46:54,220 And some brothers, I charge you, under the authority of God's 815 00:46:54,220 --> 00:46:57,380 Word, to steward your lives in the way of Christ today. 816 00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:01,240 Put to death the deeds of the flesh grow in the deeds of the 817 00:47:01,240 --> 00:47:03,480 Spirit. And in this way, as you're doing 818 00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:07,600 that, you will work and keep in Christ's strength all that God 819 00:47:07,600 --> 00:47:11,480 grants to you. As we said at the beginning, 820 00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:14,120 biblical manhood is burying the image of God by working and 821 00:47:14,120 --> 00:47:17,640 keeping all that God grants a man in Christ's strength. 822 00:47:21,320 --> 00:47:23,920 In John chapter 15, Jesus is speaking just before his 823 00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:26,360 crucifixion and he's got the disciples within. 824 00:47:28,140 --> 00:47:31,420 They're probably in the garden where he's going to pray and 825 00:47:31,500 --> 00:47:36,420 sweat drops of blood, so there's probably vines around. 826 00:47:36,420 --> 00:47:38,100 He says this. He says, I'm the true vine and 827 00:47:38,100 --> 00:47:42,580 my father is the vine dresser. Every branch of me that does not 828 00:47:42,580 --> 00:47:45,820 bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear 829 00:47:45,820 --> 00:47:49,860 fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. 830 00:47:52,260 --> 00:47:54,180 And so today may be a wake up call for you. 831 00:47:54,180 --> 00:47:59,180 You may be learning that you're a fruitless professor of Christ 832 00:47:59,860 --> 00:48:02,940 for the very first time. You may be learning that you've 833 00:48:02,940 --> 00:48:08,540 never truly submitted your life to Jesus's lordship, and so the 834 00:48:08,540 --> 00:48:11,420 Spirit is calling you now to repent of your sins. 835 00:48:12,780 --> 00:48:15,700 It could be, too, that in a sermon like this, you're coming 836 00:48:15,700 --> 00:48:18,540 to see you're you're being convicted by the Spirit. 837 00:48:18,540 --> 00:48:22,460 You're being pruned by the Father, cutting away things in 838 00:48:22,460 --> 00:48:27,700 you that are godless, that are fruitless, exposing them by his 839 00:48:27,700 --> 00:48:30,740 grace so that you can become the kind of man that God's called 840 00:48:30,740 --> 00:48:35,300 you to be. Both of those things are worthy 841 00:48:35,300 --> 00:48:38,820 of praise. Both of those things are worthy 842 00:48:38,820 --> 00:48:43,500 of saying, God, how could you love a Sinner like me in such a 843 00:48:43,500 --> 00:48:46,740 way that you would expose these things so that I might come 844 00:48:46,740 --> 00:48:51,680 freely to you? Jesus goes on, He says, abide in 845 00:48:51,680 --> 00:48:54,760 me and I and you, as the branch, cannot bear fruit by itself 846 00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:57,840 unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide 847 00:48:57,840 --> 00:48:59,480 in me. I'm the vine. 848 00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:01,560 You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I and 849 00:49:01,560 --> 00:49:05,320 him, he it is that bears much fruit for part. 850 00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:09,360 For me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, 851 00:49:09,400 --> 00:49:12,320 he is thrown away like a branch and Withers, and the branches 852 00:49:12,320 --> 00:49:15,080 are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burnt. 853 00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:18,520 If you abide in Me and my words about and you ask whatever you 854 00:49:18,520 --> 00:49:20,500 wish, and it will be done for you. 855 00:49:21,060 --> 00:49:24,540 By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit, and so 856 00:49:24,540 --> 00:49:28,860 prove to be my disciples. He goes on. 857 00:49:29,140 --> 00:49:33,580 I mean it just true. As the Father has loved me, so 858 00:49:33,580 --> 00:49:36,380 have I loved you. Abide in my love. 859 00:49:37,620 --> 00:49:40,860 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I 860 00:49:40,860 --> 00:49:44,300 have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His. 861 00:49:46,870 --> 00:49:49,510 And so we abided Him. We're called by Christ to abide 862 00:49:49,510 --> 00:49:53,030 in Him as He abided in the Father, and in that place and 863 00:49:53,030 --> 00:49:58,710 that abiding you will be pruned their tough messages through 864 00:49:58,710 --> 00:50:01,390 reading God's word through trials and sufferings. 865 00:50:01,590 --> 00:50:05,790 But God is working in you, that you may flourish with the fruit 866 00:50:05,870 --> 00:50:09,430 of Christ. If you will not abide in Christ, 867 00:50:09,430 --> 00:50:12,230 you will not do anything of positive eternal value. 868 00:50:12,230 --> 00:50:13,790 That's what you said. Apart from me, you can do 869 00:50:13,790 --> 00:50:15,550 nothing. He's not saying that you'll sit 870 00:50:15,550 --> 00:50:17,430 there like a lump on the log. He's saying that everything you 871 00:50:17,430 --> 00:50:24,030 do matters not for eternity. Make no mistake, however, God 872 00:50:24,030 --> 00:50:29,350 will be glorified by His judgment over your disobedience. 873 00:50:31,870 --> 00:50:35,350 And if you will obey Christ's commands, you will be one of 874 00:50:35,350 --> 00:50:38,710 those who abides in His love, just as he obeyed the Father 875 00:50:38,710 --> 00:50:41,070 abides in His love. So you don't want to miss what 876 00:50:41,070 --> 00:50:46,510 Christ is promising to those who give themselves, those who give 877 00:50:46,510 --> 00:50:50,390 themselves to His rule. He promises that you will love, 878 00:50:51,310 --> 00:50:53,670 that you will know the love of the Father, that you'll know the 879 00:50:53,670 --> 00:50:57,190 love of the Son. He promises, just a verse later, 880 00:50:57,190 --> 00:51:00,670 that his joy will be in you and your joy will be complete. 881 00:51:01,990 --> 00:51:04,590 The Father will love you just as He loves his Son. 882 00:51:04,590 --> 00:51:08,070 So therefore the command to abide is a promise of joy. 883 00:51:08,150 --> 00:51:11,340 It's it's not just any joy. It's a promise that you will 884 00:51:11,340 --> 00:51:13,180 know the joy of Christ as your own. 885 00:51:13,180 --> 00:51:16,180 This is incredible, right? And and your joy will be full. 886 00:51:16,180 --> 00:51:17,900 Saint Augustine worded it this way. 887 00:51:17,900 --> 00:51:20,420 He said. My heart is restless until it 888 00:51:20,420 --> 00:51:23,180 finds its until it finds its rest in you. 889 00:51:24,020 --> 00:51:26,780 My heart is restless until it finds its rest in you. 890 00:51:29,100 --> 00:51:32,060 What a blessed hope we have received in Christ Jesus. 891 00:51:32,060 --> 00:51:36,690 Then I hope that is undefiled. It's kept in heaven for us and 892 00:51:36,690 --> 00:51:39,170 he who will make all things new and the new heavens and the new 893 00:51:39,170 --> 00:51:46,530 earth is making you new. Right now as we behold Christ, 894 00:51:46,770 --> 00:51:49,890 we are being changed from 1 degree of glory to the next in 895 00:51:49,890 --> 00:51:53,130 the same image of Christ. We bear the image of God in this 896 00:51:53,130 --> 00:51:57,410 world because Christ saves sinners and sets his Spirit upon 897 00:51:57,410 --> 00:52:00,490 them, that they might be able to look at Christ and bear the same 898 00:52:00,490 --> 00:52:04,160 image of him. And therefore we carry that 899 00:52:04,160 --> 00:52:07,200 image into every field that God has granted to you. 900 00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:10,040 And you work it and you keep it for the glory of God. 901 00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:14,000 We are the salt of the earth. We're the light of the world. 902 00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:17,200 Christ says we join Christ and his redemption of all things. 903 00:52:17,200 --> 00:52:20,480 He says that by your good deeds people will see that you know 904 00:52:20,480 --> 00:52:23,040 the Father, and they'll glorify him. 905 00:52:24,440 --> 00:52:26,760 And so, brothers, we want to hear the words of John as he 906 00:52:26,760 --> 00:52:29,600 pins the revelation which he received from God. 907 00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:33,770 And I think this is good to keep in front of us so that we know 908 00:52:34,250 --> 00:52:37,090 the ending. It's good to know the ending, 909 00:52:37,090 --> 00:52:40,090 isn't it? You might not know all the story 910 00:52:40,090 --> 00:52:42,210 of your own, but you know the ending. 911 00:52:42,890 --> 00:52:46,250 And John 21 versus 135, he says that I saw a new heaven and a 912 00:52:46,250 --> 00:52:50,610 new earth for the 1st heaven and the first earth had passed away 913 00:52:50,610 --> 00:52:54,370 and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New 914 00:52:54,370 --> 00:52:58,170 Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a 915 00:52:58,170 --> 00:53:02,670 bride adorned for her husband, and heard a loud voice from the 916 00:53:02,670 --> 00:53:07,630 throne, saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with 917 00:53:07,630 --> 00:53:10,110 man. He will dwell with them, and 918 00:53:10,110 --> 00:53:14,230 they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as 919 00:53:14,230 --> 00:53:16,470 their God. And he continues, He will wipe 920 00:53:16,470 --> 00:53:19,750 away every tear from their eyes, And death shall be no more. 921 00:53:19,750 --> 00:53:24,550 Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. 922 00:53:24,550 --> 00:53:26,830 For the former things have passed away. 923 00:53:30,250 --> 00:53:31,650 That's great. But that ain't even the best 924 00:53:31,650 --> 00:53:32,370 part. Listen. 925 00:53:33,730 --> 00:53:39,610 And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, you know 926 00:53:39,610 --> 00:53:41,970 what it means to behold. It means to take hold of 927 00:53:41,970 --> 00:53:44,690 something with your eyes. And he's telling John the 928 00:53:44,690 --> 00:53:47,330 Revelator. He's saying, behold this. 929 00:53:47,330 --> 00:53:48,930 This is what you're going to see. 930 00:53:48,930 --> 00:53:50,010 You're going to see it with your eyes. 931 00:53:50,170 --> 00:53:52,290 Take hold of it. Don't let go. 932 00:53:55,210 --> 00:53:59,050 Behold, I am making all things new. 933 00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:04,600 Brothers and sisters, you're involved in a work of 934 00:54:04,600 --> 00:54:08,720 redemption. Not only your stories, but the 935 00:54:08,720 --> 00:54:11,840 stories you're helping or hide as you faithfully steward all 936 00:54:11,840 --> 00:54:16,720 that God grants to you. Then Christ guarantees it with a 937 00:54:16,720 --> 00:54:19,240 promise, He says. It looks, it looks at. 938 00:54:19,240 --> 00:54:23,160 Johnny says write this down, for these words are trustworthy and 939 00:54:23,160 --> 00:54:26,680 true. If Christ says it, that finishes 940 00:54:26,680 --> 00:54:29,040 a guess. That's it. 941 00:54:29,400 --> 00:54:32,520 That's all you need. And in these words, remind us 942 00:54:32,520 --> 00:54:36,160 that God wins. Whatever your circumstances 943 00:54:36,160 --> 00:54:38,680 today, whatever mess you've gotten yourself into, whatever 944 00:54:38,680 --> 00:54:42,400 things have happened to you from outside, whatever father you had 945 00:54:42,400 --> 00:54:45,440 or didn't have, whatever, Whatever job you've done with 946 00:54:45,440 --> 00:54:48,360 manhood or haven't done with manhood, however you've steered 947 00:54:48,360 --> 00:54:56,520 it well or not steered it well. I want you to know God wins. 948 00:54:58,460 --> 00:55:01,700 What seems impossible with man is not impossible with God. 949 00:55:02,980 --> 00:55:07,380 And every effort therefore, that you exert now for the glory of 950 00:55:07,380 --> 00:55:15,420 Christ is an eternal victory. It will not come back void. 951 00:55:18,060 --> 00:55:21,180 It's worthy of our effort. It's worthy of our work. 952 00:55:21,780 --> 00:55:26,140 It's worthy of our keeping. And so yours is the task of 953 00:55:26,140 --> 00:55:30,500 bearing the image of God by working and keeping all the God 954 00:55:30,500 --> 00:55:33,020 grants to you in the strength of Christ. 955 00:55:35,580 --> 00:55:36,420 For me. Dismissed. 956 00:55:36,420 --> 00:55:44,620 Let me remind you of that parable of the talents I once 957 00:55:44,620 --> 00:55:46,860 heard. There's three possible responses 958 00:55:47,220 --> 00:55:53,660 to that parable. One is to be like the man who 959 00:55:53,660 --> 00:55:56,600 buried his talent in the ground because he feared A harsh 960 00:55:56,600 --> 00:56:00,120 master. Cultural responsibility, then, 961 00:56:00,120 --> 00:56:02,800 is just too hard. And so escapist. 962 00:56:02,800 --> 00:56:05,560 Religion is born. It's for someone else to do. 963 00:56:05,560 --> 00:56:11,800 It's not for me. The second really likes the idea 964 00:56:11,800 --> 00:56:18,520 of Dominion gets him excited, You know, to rule things, to 965 00:56:18,520 --> 00:56:22,600 subdue things that exert, to be able to use His Manliness. 966 00:56:25,520 --> 00:56:28,080 It's weird for a shrimpy guy like me to try to exert 967 00:56:28,080 --> 00:56:28,960 manliness. Sorry. 968 00:56:31,480 --> 00:56:33,080 Some of you could do a better job for sure. 969 00:56:34,840 --> 00:56:37,440 And so he begins to eat and drink, and he beats the fellow 970 00:56:37,440 --> 00:56:40,560 servants. He's a harsh man. 971 00:56:42,960 --> 00:56:44,960 Empower religion. Then is born. 972 00:56:46,760 --> 00:56:51,240 The third though the third man. The way of the two who did it 973 00:56:51,240 --> 00:56:54,360 right. The 3rd way you can respond to 974 00:56:54,360 --> 00:56:58,570 this is to humble yourself and to enter into godly dominion 975 00:56:58,570 --> 00:57:02,090 through and in Christ. That's the way. 976 00:57:03,090 --> 00:57:05,850 That's how we do it. Brothers, I encourage you, 977 00:57:05,850 --> 00:57:07,770 humble yourselves before the Lordship of Christ. 978 00:57:08,010 --> 00:57:11,650 Enter your Godgiven fields, whatever they may be, you define 979 00:57:11,650 --> 00:57:13,210 them because you know your life, right? 980 00:57:13,210 --> 00:57:15,810 I've given you so many. But if you want help with that, 981 00:57:15,810 --> 00:57:17,290 come see me. We'll talk about it. 982 00:57:17,770 --> 00:57:21,380 Happy to talk through this. So I want you to humble yourself 983 00:57:21,380 --> 00:57:23,500 to the Lordship of Christ. I want you to enter those 984 00:57:23,500 --> 00:57:27,620 God-given fields and take godly dominion through and in Christ 985 00:57:27,620 --> 00:57:30,220 Jesus. Amen. 986 00:57:30,220 --> 00:57:33,740 Let me pray for you. Heavenly Father, appraise you 987 00:57:33,740 --> 00:57:36,620 for today. I thank you for your word. 988 00:57:36,620 --> 00:57:40,820 I thank you for your kindness toward us and in giving us such 989 00:57:40,820 --> 00:57:46,460 revelation about yourself, about creation, about our design or 990 00:57:46,460 --> 00:57:50,110 makeup. In it, we see we don't have to 991 00:57:50,110 --> 00:57:52,550 wrestle with our masculinity. We don't have to wonder if 992 00:57:52,550 --> 00:57:56,390 manhood is good. We know, Lord, that you've wired 993 00:57:56,390 --> 00:57:58,110 us for purpose, to work and to keep. 994 00:57:58,110 --> 00:58:02,150 And so I Join Now with my brothers in prayer and I ask, or 995 00:58:02,150 --> 00:58:07,310 that you would grant us wisdom. We would work and keep in the 996 00:58:07,310 --> 00:58:11,470 strength of Christ. By doing so, then we would truly 997 00:58:11,470 --> 00:58:13,230 bear the image of God in this world. 998 00:58:15,670 --> 00:58:22,160 Lord, with my brothers in prayer now I I repent ways that I've 999 00:58:22,160 --> 00:58:25,480 abdicated on my responsibilities, that I've 1000 00:58:25,480 --> 00:58:35,120 stepped aside thinking, well, someone else can handle that. 1001 00:58:35,120 --> 00:58:40,880 But I repent of ways that become domineering, even seeking to 1002 00:58:40,880 --> 00:58:44,560 exert my own will, my own thoughts, my own desires, my own 1003 00:58:44,560 --> 00:58:49,940 plans. Having become harsh, Lord, I 1004 00:58:49,940 --> 00:58:55,580 repent. Father, We confess that Christ 1005 00:58:55,580 --> 00:58:59,140 is Lord. We confess that we are not. 1006 00:59:00,460 --> 00:59:04,020 We ask that you would give us hearts a surrender to His 1007 00:59:04,020 --> 00:59:08,500 Lordship, seek His will for our lives. 1008 00:59:10,220 --> 00:59:12,980 Would you restore us in Christ to yourself? 1009 00:59:14,020 --> 00:59:17,610 Put upon us the seal of the Holy Spirit, that we might know that 1010 00:59:17,610 --> 00:59:21,450 we are yours, that we might bear godly fruit in the world, that 1011 00:59:21,450 --> 00:59:25,410 we might tend these fields, that you've given us with great care 1012 00:59:25,410 --> 00:59:29,610 and responsibility, seeking to work them and keep them as you 1013 00:59:29,610 --> 00:59:34,530 command. Lord, we love you. 1014 00:59:35,130 --> 00:59:36,810 Thank you for these moments, which are holy. 1015 00:59:36,810 --> 00:59:39,530 They're meant for our sanctification. 1016 00:59:40,890 --> 00:59:44,690 They're meant for our help. Praise you that you take such 1017 00:59:44,690 --> 00:59:48,340 care of your people. Christ's name Apriya. 1018 00:59:48,540 --> 00:59:48,940 You've been.