Before the Battle of the Sexes (Genesis 2, Jeff Kliewer)

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Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org Before the Battle of the Sexes

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say good morning. I'd like to invite you to come on in. Join with us. Take a seat.
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We are about to start. You guys are going to get a good lesson in Hebrew today.
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What's that word you've got thrown out there? Ezra connecto. Anybody know what Ezra connecto means?
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You're going to find out tonight, today. I'd like to open us up in Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31.
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They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles.
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They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
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I do remember the days when I used to be able to run and not grow weary. But here's the promise.
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In the Lord, this is a reality. He knows us. He sustains us.
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And not only does he give us his strength, but he's going to show us where we're supposed to go. You see the, the world has its, has its agenda and the world is going to encourage us to go for it.
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The world is going to encourage us to be in control. The world is going to encourage us to do things that would be appealing to the flesh.
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But here's the thing. If you wait upon the Lord, he's going to not only give you the strength, but he's going to put you on the right path.
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He's going to mount you up like eagles and you're going to run and not be weary. We need to turn to God.
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He and only he will carry us and lead us in the way we should go. We have some announcements for today.
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First of all, please come back tomorrow at seven o 'clock for our congregational meeting. We're going to affirm our new elder and deacons and church officers.
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Those emails have been placed out. We've got some members to talk about. We have the budget to approve for next year.
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So if you're a member, please join us. If you're not a member, but you're interested in our church, it's a good opportunity to hear more about what's going on here.
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Gentlemen, I've been asked to be strong in my affirmation of our desire for you to join us into our retreat.
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Now, my thought was I'm going to have anybody that's already signed up to stand and we could see who doesn't stand.
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I was told not to do that, but here's the thing, you know, and if there's any way that you can join the retreat, it is a time for men to be with men.
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It is a time to be challenged. The topic this year is going to be scriptural masculinity.
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It's going to be a time for us to learn what it is to step up. I think Pastor Jeff's got some words about that today.
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If you think you would like to go, but this isn't something that you can afford at this point in time, we have scholarships available.
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So please do not let that be the reason that you don't come. If you have a desire to come, you need some financial help.
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You can talk to Jeff, myself, John Detoli. That's fine. We just want you to be there with us in fellowship.
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So please sign up Pastor Graham. Now ladies, I haven't had anybody tell me
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I need to be strong in encouraging you. That must mean that you ladies already know about this. But let me say that we really desire for you to join in on the women's retreat.
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Both are in the month of April. A couple events happening today. First of all, after the second service, there'll be the second opportunity if you want to know what's in our budget that will be presented tomorrow.
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Ray will be there after second service to be able to give you insight as to what's in the budget.
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Ask questions as you desire. Also after second service, we are going to have a meeting of the helpers for this summer's
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VBS ministry. If you've never been involved in a VBS ministry, it is a great opportunity to take part in helping reach the children of our community and to give them truth.
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So if you have any interest at all for this summer's VBS after second service, there will be a meeting for VBS volunteers.
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Please come back at six o 'clock tonight for our time of prayer. It is growing and it is powerful and it is exciting to see.
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We've outgrown the classroom. We're in the sanctuary, but it is amazing to hear the brothers and sisters praying for each other and for our needs.
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Join us tonight at six o 'clock. After the prayer meeting tonight is the young adults
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Bible study. That should probably kick off somewhere around 7 15. I don't know what the definition of young adult is.
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I only know Tim said I didn't get invited, but he said
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I could come anyway. Anyway, if you're part of the young adults Bible study tonight at 7 15.
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On the 23rd, which I guess is a week from this coming Saturday, it's another special event for the men.
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It's a regional event. It's down in Glassboro. It's called a resurrection breakfast for men.
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So it's looking towards resurrection Sunday, some great teaching, and again time of great fellowship.
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Look to Jeff's pastor Graham for sign up for that. Let's turn to prayer. Father, we do come to you this morning knowing that in you comes real strength and support.
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In you our strength is renewed. In you we mount up with wings like eagles and run and are not weary, walk and are not faint.
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Our flesh, Lord, we confess is weak. The world is on the attack and there are ways that the world would have us go.
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But Lord, the blessings because of you, because you are the sovereign Lord, are what we seek.
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Father, we pray for your presence so we learn about the truth of your creation and all and how you have created men and women and how you have set things according to your order.
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Lord, we come to hear and to grow in your truth. We need you and we surrender to you.
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We pray, Lord, in our midst for those in need. We pray, Lord, for our pastor Jeff as he prepares to bring this word to us that the power of his, your spirit will reside in him with his words and that you would be opening our hearts, that we would hear.
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We wait for you, oh Lord, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, we're going to make a joyful noise this morning.
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I'm not making any promises over it above that, but it'll be a joyful noise. Let's all stand. You make it easy to love you.
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You are good and you are kind. You bring joy into my life.
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You make it easy to trust you. You have never left my side.
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You've been faithful every time. All I want is you,
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Jesus. All I want is you.
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You are the refuge I run to. You are the fire that leads me through the night.
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I'll follow you anywhere. There's a million reasons to trust you.
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Nothing to fear for. You are by my side. I'll follow you anywhere.
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Oh, Jesus, you came to my rescue. You took my place upon the cross.
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You redeemed what I had lost. Now my whole world revolving around you.
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You're the center of my life. You're the treasure.
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You're the prize. All I want is you,
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Jesus. All I want is you.
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You are the refuge I run to. You are the fire that leads me through the night.
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I'll follow you anywhere. There's a million reasons to trust you.
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Nothing to fear for. You are by my side. I'll follow you anywhere.
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Wherever you lead me, whatever it costs me, all
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I want is you, Jesus. All I want is you.
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Wherever you lead me, whatever it costs me, all
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I want is you, Jesus. All I want is you.
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All I want is you,
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Jesus. All I want is you.
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You are the refuge I run to. You are the fire that leads me through the night.
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I'll follow you anywhere. There's a million reasons to trust you.
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Nothing to fear for. You are by my side. I'll follow you anywhere.
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I'll follow you anywhere. I'll follow you anywhere.
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Amen. Crazy Lord. In the first service,
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I just pointed out this next song we're going to sing. There's a word in this song that's a bit of an anachronism.
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Uh, people might get it confused with Ebenezer Scrooge from the Christmas story. Not the same thing.
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Um, but in first Samuel chapter seven, it speaks of God had just led the
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Israelites in a great battle against the Philistines. And it says that Samuel took a stone and set it up between and called the name
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Ebenezer. For he said, till now the Lord has helped us. And in the context of our song that we're going to sing from our hearts this morning,
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I just encourage you to think about everything that God has done in your life, your personal life, your family's life, everything that he's led you from and through.
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If not just the greatest gift of salvation itself, but, uh, just raise that stone of memorial to God in your heart for his goodness to you this morning.
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Amen. I call my fountain, every blessing, to my heart to sing my grace.
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Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
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Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above.
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Praise the mount I've fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love.
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Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help to come.
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And I hope by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.
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Jesus saw me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger interposed his precious blood.
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Oh to grace how great a debtor, daily
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I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a veteran, bind my wandering heart to thee.
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Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the
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God I love. Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.
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Oh that day when free from sinning,
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I shall see thy lovely face, full of radiant, blood -washed linen, how
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I'll sing thy wondrous grace. Come my
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Lord, no longer care, bring my promises to pass, for I know thy power will keep me till I'm home with thee at last.
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For I know thy power will keep me till I'm home with thee at last.
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Jesus, I love thee,
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I know thou art mine.
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For thee, all thou fondest, all sin
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I resign. My gracious Redeemer, my
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Savior, I am. If ever
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I love thee, my
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Jesus is now. I love thee because thou hast first loved me.
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And purchased my garland on Calvary's tree.
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I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow.
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If ever I love thee, my
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Jesus is now.
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I love thee in thine,
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I will love thee in thine.
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And praise thee as long as thou hadst me bred.
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And say when my death do lies falling on my brow,
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If ever I love thee, my
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Jesus is now. In mansions of glory and endless delight,
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I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright.
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I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow.
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If ever I love thee, my
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Jesus is now. Amen.
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Praise the Lord. Let's all be seated. It was beautiful worship.
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Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we live in a culture that is very confused.
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And our prayer, Father God, is that your word would go forth this morning to bring order in the chaos.
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We pray, Lord, that you would order our thinking, restore our minds to the created order, the way things you have, that you have made things to be.
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God, help us to think your thoughts after you. Change the way we think as we listen to your word.
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We pray also that you would send us out to bring the good news of the gospel. And with it, the good news of your created order.
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And that this would be a light in our culture, that you would use us and here this morning train us through the preaching of your word.
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In Jesus' name, amen. I was getting my oil changed a couple of days ago and struck up a conversation with a lady who was waiting on her oil to be changed as well.
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She was an elderly woman. I think she even mentioned she was 88 years old. And so she opted for the less, the oil non -synthetic version that would only last a shorter amount of time because she says,
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I don't think I'll be here for another oil change. Oh, that's very sad. Very sad.
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But she looked healthy. And as we were sharing the gospel, I was sharing the gospel with her and talking, she began to tell me about her life.
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And she said that her son married an older woman and they agreed that they would not have children.
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However, now he's approaching his mid forties and she's 57 years old.
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And he has made the decision that he really wants to have an heir. Well, there's a problem.
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And he has decided to take matters into his own hands using technology that he and his wife will hire a surrogate to carry his baby.
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This poor woman in Utah with struggling as a single mom will get paid.
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This woman tells me $100 ,000 and she will carry his child.
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And then when the contract comes due and the baby is born, she will have no recourse to keep that child as her own, but must surrender this baby to the family living in Pennsylvania.
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How confused and broken is our culture that surrogacy would be such a thing.
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The natural created order of a woman to love the child that she bears and to rear that child and the natural design of God in procreation now thwarted or played with through technology.
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It is very sad to see, but of course it is a progression. I think it began with the feminism of the 1960s, which has progressed in unnatural directions and gone off the rails.
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By God's grace, Roe versus Wade was overturned in the Dobbs decision.
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Praise God for that. But just the next year, the president issued a statement on January 20th, 2023, in which he said that women can control their own destinies.
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And he honored Roe versus Wade, commemorating it as a national holiday, saying that he would like to recognize the countless women whose lives have been saved by Roe versus Wade.
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Imagine the upside down worldview in which the killing of babies, half of which are women, is the saving of women's lives.
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There is a confusion in our culture. I don't think that we recognize because we have only been raised in this culture.
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We do not recognize the extreme disorder of the
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Obergefell decision of 2015. For 6 ,000 years, marriage has been between one man and one woman in all cultures, and especially in the
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Christian cultures that are shaped by the biblical worldview. But in 2015, marriage was redefined as if the mirror image of a man could be the helper suitable and corresponding to.
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When asked, what is a woman? The Supreme Court Justice Katonji Brown Jackson answered,
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I'm not a biologist. As if to say that a woman cannot be defined.
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So deep has the confusion become, and so dark that Washington State last year issued a law and passed a law that if a child desires to be transitioned to a different gender and goes runs away from home, goes to a youth shelter, that shelter does not need to notify the parents and get approval for the transitioning of this child.
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What has come of this country? The poor children are not transitioning from one gender to another, but are only harming themselves.
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It is a terrible thing when the President of the United States addresses the country and turns to the
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Supreme Court Justices on the front row and says, with all due respect, Justices, women are not without electoral or political power.
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Of course, he failed to read the teleprompter properly when saying that, but he went on to say, you are about to realize just how much.
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What the President was doing a couple of days ago was stoking the fires of the gender confusion in this culture, trying to stoke the fires of the
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Genesis 3 fall. In Genesis chapter 3, the curse that is upon women is that their desire shall be for their husbands, but he shall rule over them.
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And that desire for is the same exact language of Genesis chapter 4 when we are told, sin desires to have you, but you must master it.
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It is a desire to overturn the order whereby the man is the leader in the home, the spiritual authority, and the woman is a help meet to him, suitable for him, submitting to him in the home.
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What we are seeing is the exact opposite, and feminism does not celebrate the beauty of women, the beauty of childbirth and child rearing, the beauty of submission, and the proper order of the home.
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We need to talk about what men need to hear in a culture like this.
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There's a lot of young men that wonder, why is it that God has given me such a strong sex drive and yet tells me
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I cannot have sex until marriage? Teenagers thinking
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I might be a decade away from being married. Why this strong desire? What is
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God doing here? Seems too much to bear. Young men need to hear that that very drive is driving you to grow up to maturity, to take control of your life, to form a home wherein you can provide for a wife and protect a wife and lead a wife in godliness.
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And so God's design is to drive you towards maturity, to drive you to grow up, to become a man, and to be a man is to be willing to work, be willing to provide and protect, and to die to the desires of the flesh.
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And so that self -control must be learned, and the desires of the created order are good and necessary for men to become men.
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And women also need to hear how God has created women. That the lies of this culture, this feminism, are leading to the destruction of the family, to children who are harmed rather than protected.
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Women need to be encouraged in femininity. There was a wonderful documentary produced by Matt Walsh.
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Some of you might have seen it. It is called, What is a Woman? And Matt Walsh goes to the gender theorists of Harvard and all the great institutions of the world and asks a very simple question, what is a woman?
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And all of them get tangled in knots, unable to even answer this most basic question until finally
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Matt turns to his wife at the end and says, honey, what is a woman? And she just rolls her eyes as if why would you need to answer that question?
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She said, an adult female, human, pretty simple. And then she hands him a spaghetti jar that she was struggling to open.
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And she says, who needs your help opening this? And it was a beautiful end to the documentary because it shows that there are differences.
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God ordered differences between men and women, and these things are good. Turn with me to Genesis 2, where we see male and female before the battle of the sexes.
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If the culture desires to stir up animosity and difference between men and women in such a way to oppose men and women,
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God's word presents the beauty of God's good, beautiful, created order.
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We will pick up in chapter two, but let me first review the principles of chapter one. Remember, there is repetition throughout chapter one.
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Four things repeated, and God said. 10 times we were reminded that it is what
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God says that orders the world. Let every man be a liar.
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What God says is true. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. That's the second thing.
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So things are, and it was so, and there was light. And God said, and there was the third repeated phrase, and it was good.
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Culminating in verse 31, and it was very good. God's created order is a good order, and there is no flaw in it.
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It is perfect in every way. The fourth phrase is a repetition of the days.
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And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day, and the second day. Of course, this literary device of actually describing evening and morning means that we're not talking about ages, but rather the word yom refers to a 24 -hour period of time, meaning that the earth is actually very young.
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Now, it does have an appearance of age because when God created the world, he made it mature.
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Adam was a fully formed adult. He wasn't created as a baby. And so if a scientist looks at the world, they will see light in transit from the distant galaxies and say to themselves, well, the world must be billions of years old.
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But if the God of supernatural power created that light in transit as well as the distant star, then we're dealing with an entirely different worldview.
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It really comes down to presuppositions. If you believe Genesis 1 .1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, then you have a
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God of infinite power. If he can do that, create all that exists, time and space, matter, activity.
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And I forget the fifth one from Herbert Spencer's taxonomy. But the point being that in Genesis 1 .1,
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all that exists comes into being by the word of his power. If you presuppose this God, then all things are possible.
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The man inside of a fish is not hard for God to bring back to resurrected life as an image of Christ.
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In reality, Jonah in the belly of a fish. Or the miracles that Elisha and Elijah did are not difficult for God.
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Of course, if you come with an anti -supernatural bias as scientists do, then you come to faulty conclusions.
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And so we are reminded and God said. Now let's pick up on the final of the days in this repetition in verses 1 to 3.
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Genesis 2, 1 to 3. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them.
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And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
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So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Because on it,
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God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
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Let me ask this question. Given a supernatural God of infinite power, how long would it take him to create the world that fast?
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So why six days of creation? The point is not that he needed that long to create, but that according to verse 3, he was blessing the seventh day to make it holy.
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Six days of work and then a seventh day of rest. This was a pattern that God was modeling for the world.
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Such is the point of that repetition. The seven days that you likewise would order your week in this way.
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Now with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, the Sabbath day is in a sense overtaken by the resurrection of the
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Son of God. To mark the difference of that change of dispensation where the
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Son of God rises on the first day. Now the church will not worship on the
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Sabbath, but on the Lord's day. The Kuriah HaMera, the day of the Lord, the first day of the week that we would bring the first part of our lives to him and offer that day as holy.
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So I would instruct you this way and encourage you this way. That Sunday is not just an hour for the
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Lord. In fact, if I preach for two hours, you still have 22 left to do the same thing.
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The whole 24 -hour period, evening to morning, is holy unto the Lord. To come back and pray at six o 'clock is entirely fitting.
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But also to rest from your work, to take time away from the pressures of your day job, and to consecrate that day as holy, to be with your family.
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That the whole day is holy unto the Lord. It's different. It's set apart. This is the point here.
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And so it's a gift, a beautiful gift of God's design, that we would labor for six days and rest for one, setting it apart as holy unto the
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Lord. And it reminds us that God has good plans for his children. He wants you in that healthy rhythm of work and rest, not becoming passive and lazy, and taking too much time off, nor overworking, which is the other end of the pendulum swing.
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But to follow his pattern results in flourishing. And this is always the case.
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When we do things God's way, we order our lives by God's design, things begin to fall into place.
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We are blessed in obedience. Psalm chapter 1. And so now we go on to God's order for men, for women, and for sex.
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Three categories. We'll begin in verse 4 with the creation of man. And here what we're seeing is that it's not a separate creation account.
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Chapter 1 was the general creation in six days. Chapter 2 now zeros in specifically on the six -day creation of man and women, men and women.
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And this specific passage is to instruct us of who we are as men and women.
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So there will be a specific message to men and a specific message to women.
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Verse 4 and following. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
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In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the
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Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground.
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And a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground.
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Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
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Pause there. We are made of dust. Lest anyone begin to exalt in their humanity and humanism in our culture, the great culprit of what's destroying
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Western civilization is the humanism that exalts man to the highest place and tells man that they can control their destiny without reference to God.
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We need to be reminded that we are dust. We are formed of the dust of the earth and yet living as creatures.
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We learn from chapter 1, we bear the very image of God with intellect exceeding the animals, with the will that can choose to be obedient or disobedient to God, with a spirit that can relate to God, whereas animals do not have that soulish man, that inner man in relationship to God.
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We bear the image of God as living creatures. But specifically to men, we will now turn as we continue in the passage.
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And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
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Recognize that man at this point is alone. And out of the ground, the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
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The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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Man is made and placed in the garden to have dominion. But notice from verses 10 to 14, that flowing out of the garden, which
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God himself cultivated, he made the spring, the trees to spring up, the most beautiful trees, perfect order in the garden.
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But going out of the garden, there is not such cultivation of the ground. 10 to 14.
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So man is going to now have dominion to bring the entire earth to be like the garden of Eden.
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And he should move along the trajectory of these rivers as he moves out.
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Chapter 2, verse 10, a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.
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The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
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And the gold of that land is good. His creation is good. Bedelium and onyx stones are there.
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The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is the
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Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
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Notice the rivers flow out from Eden. And so what does that mean in the context of Genesis 2?
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That man, given this creation mandate to fill the earth and subdue it, must go out from Eden and cultivate the entire earth.
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But how can one man do that? Well, there's a problem yet to be solved and will be solved here in the next chapter.
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The key verse for understanding manhood appears next in verse 15.
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The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
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A man is meant to work as a vice regent, a steward of God's beautiful creation, to represent
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God as an image bearer. He is made to work. He's not, first of all, made to rest or to play.
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He is made to work, to take dominion, to take initiative, to work and keep the garden that God has made.
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He is an image bearer with a purpose, sent out to represent
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God in the world. Verse 16 and 17, and the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden.
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These are the good gifts of God in this beautiful world that he has made.
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A man of God should be a man of joy, delighting in the things of God, recognizing the creation, seeing the beauty of that flowing river, noticing the trees, giving praise all day long, thankful hearts, and radiating the joy of heaven.
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This is the picture of a man, a godly man, because these are good gifts that you are surely free to eat from.
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But, verse 17, the man must remember his place and remain in obedience to God.
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As soon as he exerts authority over God and begins to step out of place, he will die.
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But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. The image bearer is not
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God himself. The order of God does not exalt man over God, but he is always under God and must be obedient.
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So manhood, true manhood, is to work as an image bearer in obedience to God.
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And so be able to establish a home by initiative to be able to provide for a wife and for children and to protect them from all the dangers that will come after the fall.
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This is what it is to be a man. What is it to be a woman? There's documentaries because our culture doesn't know.
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What is it to be a woman? In a sentence, I say, a woman is also this image bearing creature made by God with not only equal value, but even of the same substance, but made from man.
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So as to be man's help meat, helper suitable, different from man in corresponding ways.
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Let me show this to you in the passage that we're dealing with. Verse 18 and following, then the
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Lord God said, it is not good for the man that the man should be alone.
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I will make him a helper fit for him.
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This term, edzer k 'negdo in the Hebrew, helper fit.
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In the King James, you're familiar with the term help meat. It is one who is different from the man in corresponding ways.
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But here we see that the helper is of the same substance as man.
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The created beings other than man were not suitable for him. The animals could not fill this role.
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One of the very essence, the very being of man must come from him in order to fulfill this role.
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So two things are in view here. One is that she must be the same as him because different animals won't do.
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But the other thing is that she must be different from him in ways that are complimentary.
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He's been given a creation mandate to fill the earth, but he's a man alone, completely incapable of doing this without her.
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He needs her to fulfill the creation mandate. And so in verse 18, she is to be the helper fit for him.
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Now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.
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Do you see his authority there? His ruling authority. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
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The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to the beasts of the field.
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But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him.
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An edzer k 'negdo. One who's different in corresponding ways.
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One that corresponds to him. Verse 21, so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man.
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And while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
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And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman.
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Man is ish. Woman is isha. Woman.
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And brought her to the man. The man said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
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She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
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Every wedding that I've ever officiated, which seems to be more and more these days.
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Great job guys, by the way. That's, that's stepping up as men. We want to see more and more weddings. Every wedding
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I've officiated, I have shared this analogy that I learned from my grandfather.
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When he officiated our wedding, Jen. He said, I want you to notice that when
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God made a woman for the man, he did not take from his skull that she would be over him.
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Or from his heel that she would be under him. But from his rib that she would be the nearest to his heart.
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That she would be under his protection, under his lead. But a help me to support to him.
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This picture of the rib is a picture of the Edzer Kenegda. The corresponding difference.
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But that she comes from him. Of the same substance. She's made of him.
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So as a being, she is equal. How does this apply to men and women in the church?
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When God poured out his Holy Spirit upon his church on the day of Pentecost, we are told that he poured out his spirit on men and women.
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Male and female servants alike. Because together we share in the same spirit.
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We are all baptized into one spirit. This aspect of sameness is so important to stress that men and women are not hierarchical in value.
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We equally bear the image of God stamped upon us. I want to take us through a tour of a few passages.
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By few might mean seven. But in the New Testament, just briefly commenting on the creation order.
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Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 11 .3. 1
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Corinthians 11 .3 is in my mind the most definitive statement of how we are to view the complementarian relationship between men and women.
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We're not going to talk about the issue of head coverings because there is a discussion of cultural versus principle differences there.
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When we go through 1 Corinthians 11, we'll look at both of those views as being equally viable.
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It's not the point today. But in 1 Corinthians 11 .3, we see what
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I think all Christians need to agree upon. And that is the principle that as the father is the head of the church, so the man is the head of his wife.
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1 Corinthians 11 .3. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is
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Christ. The head of a wife is her husband and the head of Christ is God. Is the father greater than the son?
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Ontologically speaking. In value. He is not.
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To say anything less than that Jesus is fully divine, fully God, equal with the father, is to become an
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Arian or some other kind of heretic, diminishing the person of Christ.
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And yet in the roles of the Trinity, it is always the son submitting to the will of the father.
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Have you noticed that? Jesus will say, not my will, but yours be done.
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And he says he doesn't do anything except what the father commands. So there is an authority relationship, a hierarchy in roles between father and son.
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And in the same way, husband and wives are different in corresponding ways, such that the husband is the head of the wife.
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And likewise in the church, you see this design. Over and over again, Paul will appeal to Genesis 1 and 2, the creation order to teach the church the headship of men.
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Look at verses 8 and 9. 1 Corinthians 11. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.
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Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. From, for.
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The idea appealing back to Genesis 2 is that woman comes from man.
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How so? From his rib. Adam was not made from Eve's rib.
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Eve was made from Adam's rib. The next verse, neither was man created for woman.
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Eve was not created first to be this ruling worker who takes dominion of the earth, and Adam made as an edsare connecto to come and help him, suitable, but rather it was
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Adam who was created and the woman for him.
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Do you see that? This is the created order of God. So how does it apply to the church?
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Well, 1 Corinthians 14 .34, you can turn there or just listen, teaches us that women are to be silent in the church, not meaning as a carte blanche statement, but in terms of the authoritative proclamation of the word in the general assembly.
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That this role in the pulpit is one of authoritative teaching, leadership, headship in the church.
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And so women ought not be preachers, pastors. You see that explicitly.
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We will go to this one, 1 Timothy 2, 11 to 14, where it says, let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
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1 Timothy 2 .12. I love the sound of those rustling pages. That means y 'all are studying the word.
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I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet.
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Now notice that there is not a cultural appeal as in we have no other tradition, or this is the tradition of the church.
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Rather, what does Paul appeal to in giving this command? Creation order.
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He says in verse 13, for Adam was formed first, then
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Eve. And then in verse 14, he appeals to the fall. We'll talk about this next week in Genesis 3, but Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
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When the headship arrangement got upside down and Eve was leading Adam, sin came into the world, not through Eve who was deceived, but through Adam who willfully submitted himself to the headship of his wife in order to bring sin into the world.
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Verse 15 is surprising to some, but it says, and yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self -control.
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And many people thought, wait a minute, I thought you were saved by the blood of the Lamb, not by having kids.
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How is it that she will be saved through childbearing? Well, the word sozo is a word that can be used in different contexts in different ways.
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Here, it's not speaking of salvation from sin, but in the context of headship and submission,
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Adam first and then Eve, he's talking about being restored to the rightful order of the family and in the church.
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Does it make sense? It's not a salvation from sin, but a redemption and a restoration of the creation order where the man in the home takes the lead and she's now submissive to that lead.
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And what she will discover is that through bearing children, she discovers the purpose for which she was made.
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She's restored and she enjoys those things to the degree she embraces her femininity.
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It's a restoration of creation order, the opposite of Genesis 3 when everything got turned upside down and she wanted to become the head, her desire for her husband.
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Now her desire not to master and rule over him, but is to be submissive. And if the
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Lord grants children, which after the fall is not always the case, but women can always be nurturing of children and loving towards children.
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And in these things, find fulfillment. This is what the word of God says if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with self -control.
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So there is a measure of self -control in fighting that curse that a woman must control herself in the home, even as the man must do likewise in his role.
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How many did I say? Six or seven? Let's just briefly, we'll jump to 1
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Peter 3, 1 to 7. But just be reminded that in Ephesians 5, 31 to 33, love and respect appealing to the created design.
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Likewise in Colossians 3, 18 and 19, what is fitting is for love and respect, the complementarity.
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Now in 1 Peter 3, 1 to 7. Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives.
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When they see your respectful and pure conduct, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear.
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It's not to outlaw looking pretty. You are to do that. That's good, but it's not, that shouldn't be the essence of your beauty.
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Verse 4, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.
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For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands.
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Now Phil, if we go to Princeton or Rowan and we lead with this next verse, we will likely have stones thrown at us.
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Go to a college campus and just read this verse and see what happens. As Sarah obeyed
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Abraham, calling him Lord, and you are her children if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.
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Do you see the authority and the leadership role of men and the submission of women, which is built into the creation order?
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This is God's beautiful design and it is good. Notice verse 7, likewise husbands.
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The temptation for husbands would be to become domineering and uncaring.
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And so men must be exhorted here, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life.
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And that brings us full circle back to the what's the same. Both men and women bear the image of God, but what we're being told here in verse 7, they are heirs with you of the grace of life.
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The grace of God, when the father sent his son to die for sinners, was equally for men and women.
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Justification, where sinners are declared righteous, is for women as for men.
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As with sanctification and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the same
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Spirit that lives in us, the gifts of the Spirit, the working of the Spirit among us, the fruit of the
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Spirit. All of these things are for the heirs, for the children of God, the sons and the daughters.
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We're being told she is an heir with you of the grace of life. And men, if you want your prayers to be effective, then live obediently to the
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Word of God in how you order your life, in how you obey all the commands of Scripture, and you'll find new power in your prayer, according to verse 7, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
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So lastly, I left five minutes for the last topic, verses 24 and 25, the topic of sex, so we can get out of here quick.
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We'll just keep it proportional to how much time was spent on each verse. Genesis 2, 24 and 25.
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Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
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And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
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What is the teleology, the purpose of creation with regard to sex?
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Why did God design sex as He did? Well, we know that from the context of chapter 2, culminating here in verse 24, the problem was that the man was alone.
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Aloneness is the problem. He needs a helper suitable to him, corresponding to him, physically different from him, in the organs of the body.
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Tom Evans made a joke as we were leaving, reminded me that feminists believe that the
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Y chromosome is nothing but a broken X. Men are
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XY chromosomes. Women are XX. This is different. And the human being that is created in the image of God, with differing chromosomes, are differing in corresponding ways, by God's good design.
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Now, according to chapter 2, this beauty of creation allows companionship to the man who was alone.
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So, sex then, what is the teleology of sex? It is companionship solving the aloneness problem.
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But notice also that here in Genesis 2, we are before the fall, and everything that God has made is, according to verse 31, 131, very good.
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And like the fruit of the trees in the garden, what God has given to man and women in marriage is very good.
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It is for pleasure. It is God's good gift. Now, of course, the world takes that beautiful fire out of the fireplace where it becomes a house fire, and destroys rather than brings warmth and joy.
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But God's design is good. And finally, the result is the filling of the earth with godly offspring.
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Reproduction. This is God's purpose. Malachi 2 .15 and 16 says, did he not make them one with a portion of the
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Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring.
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Malachi 2 .15. This is God's beautiful design that the
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Spirit of God would be present in the marital union. And there would be no shame.
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This is the beauty of God's created order. So, how then do we apply
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Genesis 2 to our lives? There is a message to men in a culture that has become perverted and dark.
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Do not short -circuit the good plans of God, whereby the desires that men have to take dominion and also to have sex.
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Do not short -circuit God's good design with things like pornography and extramarital relationships, fornication.
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All of these things undercut God's good plan, and they bring pain rather than blessing.
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But men, we can hear more than that from this passage. In Genesis 2, you have to remember, you were created for something great, something more.
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It is to rule and have dominion. And this culture is going to tell you men that you're doing fine.
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In fact, they will encourage you to be more passive and less assertive.
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But this passage is telling you to step up, to discipline yourself, discipline your body, discipline your mind, have self -control, take dominion, establish a house, marry a wife, have children, provide and protect against any danger that comes against your family.
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The wolves are coming against your family. Are you willing to fight? You won't be trained to fight unless you train in the
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Word. And the enemies are not always coming with swords and spears.
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They're coming ideologically after your mind and after the mind of those you love.
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It is up to the men to fight as men. Quit ye like men. Be strong, says the
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Word of God. Step up and lead. And women, embrace the beauty of your femininity.
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Submission can be frightening, but be willing to follow the lead of godly men.
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In the home, if you have a godly husband, that submission is one thing. In the workplace, there is still submission, but in ways that are appropriate to the different relationship.
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Femininity is to receive the leadership of men, affirming and following that lead.
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But there are also times when the leadership of men is not worthy, and at times you cannot follow that lead.
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Wisdom is to know the difference. In the church, men need to step up as the teachers and the elders of the church, the pastors and deacons, leading.
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And women should affirm that and come and help as this church is so beautiful at doing.
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And the last thing I want to say is that in this beautiful design of Genesis 2, we have
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God's perfect picture of how it should be and how he's made things to be. But we all here in this room, every one of us, live after Genesis 3, and every one of us has fallen short of the glory of God.
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Sexual sins, perhaps committed in the flesh or even in the mind.
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According to Jesus, those lustful, adulterous thoughts being also sinful.
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I want to say to you that that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we wish none of us had tasted that fruit.
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But if you have tasted that fruit, I want you to know there is a Savior whose name is
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Jesus. There is forgiveness for any sexual sin that you have committed. 1
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Corinthians 6, 10 and 11 says, even of homosexuals and those who had fallen into deep gross sexual sin, we are told, such were some of you.
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But you were washed, you were cleaned, you were justified in the name of the Lord. There is a
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Savior. Jesus washes us. When we come to that tree of life, sealed in Genesis 1 and 2, after Genesis 1 and 2, because of sin, the tree of life of the cross of Jesus Christ, his blood shed for the forgiveness of sin, opens the way to the end of the world,
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Revelation 22, where you see the river of life, pure and clear.
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And on the edge of that river is a tree of life, Revelation 22. And I want to tell you this, that it does not say that only those who kept their robes pure enough are welcome to eat of that tree.
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It says in Revelation 22, but those who wash their robes are welcome to come.
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And there is only one source of washing, the precious flow of the blood of Jesus Christ.
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The washing of water by regeneration of the Holy Spirit. It is through the redemption in Christ Jesus that we come to that tree of life.
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So whatever sins you've committed, resolve in your heart today to turn away, to repent of those things, turn from them and turn to Christ.
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He will forgive you. He will wash you and your robes will be clean.
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He cleans every stain of sin. And so let us ask for that now.
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Father God, as we've heard Genesis chapter 2, and we've seen this picture of your created order, we look at the culture around us, and the culture is preaching the exact opposite of what you say.
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It's easy for us to be conformed in our minds to the patterns of this world, to be led into sin.
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Some might even struggle with masculinity and femininity, not feeling that they are fulfilling what it means to be a man or a woman.
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Lord, my prayer is that for every Christian here today, they would be affirmed in who you made them to be, as your word describes male and female.
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Help men to step up as men, to lead, to take dominion, to work, and then rest one day of the week.
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Help women to step up in their role of femininity, to embrace the
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God -created order, to love children, even to be saved through child bearing in that sense of the term, to submit to their husbands and help him.
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Lord, we pray for those who are single, that if it be your will that you would bring a spouse soon.
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Lord, that this flood of marriages that we are having would just continue to run full.
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More and more marriages happening here at Cornerstone and surrounding churches. This good and beautiful design of yours.
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And Father, I pray especially for those who have fallen in sexual sin, for true repentance and the forgiveness offered through the blood of the
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Lamb. Amen. Great repentance and faith as we pray,
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Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's rise up for one last song.
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See on the hill of Calvary, my
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Savior bled for me, my Jesus set me free.
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Look at the wounds that gave me life, grace flowing from His side, no greater sacrifice.
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What He's done, what He's done, all the glory and the honor to the
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Son. My sins are forgiven, my future is heaven.
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I praise God for what He's done.
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Sing for the freedom He has won, even death is dead and done,
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His life is over. Speak, say the name above all names, over every broken place,
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He is risen from the grave. What He's done, what
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He's done, all the glory and the honor to the
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Son. My sins are forgiven, my future is heaven.
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I praise God for what He's done. Now on the throne of majesty, the
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Father's will complete, He reigns in victory.
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Sing hallelujah to the King, He is worthy to receive all the worship we can bring.
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Sing hallelujah. Sing hallelujah to the
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King, He is worthy to receive all the worship we can bring.
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What He's done, what He's done, all the glory and the honor to the
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Son. My sins are forgiven, my future is heaven.
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I praise God for what He's done. What He's done, what
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He's done, all the glory and the honor to the
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Son. My sins are forgiven, my future is heaven.
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I praise God for what He's done. I praise
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God for what He's done. Oh, what
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God has done for us in Christ Jesus. Hey, He's doing something really special. I just want to share this announcement before I give the benediction.
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God's orchestrating something that is surprising to me. I contacted someone looking for a guest worship leader just for one special Sunday, and it turns out they offered us this guy who
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I had only heard of when I preached on John, because in preaching on John, there was this guy named
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Barabbas. And someone wrote a song called I Am Barabbas, which shows that we are guilty sinners, murderers who deserve to go to the cross, but Jesus takes our cross.
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And so this guy named Josiah Queen was barely on my radar. And it turns out that he's going to be leading us in worship next week.
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Another thing that he's orchestrating with that, evidently now just at this moment, that guy's getting on K -Love and stuff like that, but we didn't know that at the time when we invited him to come.
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It was because of that song and because my kids and others, teenagers here, rated him like right under Mercy Me and Need to Breathe as like number three on the depth chart.
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So very exciting times. But listen, I also didn't plan that Genesis 3 would be the week he's here.
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So here's what I think God has done. He is giving us an opportunity to evangelize far and wide, bring someone to hear
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Josiah Queen. We're going to worship. We're not going to have a concert. We're going to have him lead us in worship.
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We're going to worship. And then from Genesis 3, I'm going to preach the fall of man and the cross of Jesus Christ.
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It will be an evangelistic sermon next week. So bring young people who might be interested in that, old people, whoever.
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I didn't know who he was. Maybe you don't either, but it's an opportunity for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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You guys all in? All right. That's next Sunday. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the