The Dominion Mandate?

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis Chapter 1.
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And we're going to go to verses 26 to 31.
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Now if you have been here with us, you know that we have been in Genesis 1 for a while.
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And Lord willing, today will be the last day in Genesis 1.
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I think it's been 6 or 8 months.
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I can't remember how long it's been.
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But we've been here for a while.
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But hopefully when we get to Chapter 2, we'll be able to ramp it up a little.
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Move forward a little bit more quickly.
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But today we begin with some of an important question.
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And that is the question of this.
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What is the mandate of the church? What is the mandate of the church? Throughout the centuries and even back to the very beginning of church history, this has actually been a topic that is not unilaterally and universally agreed upon.
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Some believe that we're called to abandon the world.
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To run away to the monasteries and to the cloisters.
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And to segregate ourselves completely from the world.
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And hide away so that we would not have to engage with the center of the world.
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And if we're hidden away to where we don't have to engage with the center of the world, then we'll be more holy.
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Others have taken almost the other extreme approach.
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And say, no, we have to infiltrate the world.
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And we have to occupy every area of social structure.
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And we have to integrate Christianity into every part of culture.
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And as I said, history certainly recounts the trials and errors of both sides.
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So the question today is, what does the Bible say? And how does Genesis, Romans on the brain, how does Genesis chapter 1 relate to the mandate that we have as a church? Last week we gave an exegesis of verses 24 to 31.
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And today really is the application of last week's exposition.
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So let's stand and we're going to read it again.
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Remember this is what happened on day 6.
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And we stand for the reading of God's word as we begin to study it.
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To give it its due honor and reverence.
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And we're going to read beginning at verse 26.
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This is the creation of man.
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We see God determining His will here.
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And expressing it in His word.
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Verse 26 says this.
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Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness.
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And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea.
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And over the birds of the heavens.
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And over the livestock.
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And over all the earth.
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And over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
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So God created man in His own image.
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In the image of God He created him.
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Male and female He created them.
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God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.
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And have dominion over the fish of the sea.
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And over the birds of the heavens.
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And over every living thing that moves on the earth.
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And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth.
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And every tree with seed and its fruit.
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You shall have them for food.
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And to every beast of the earth.
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And to every bird of the heavens.
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And to everything that creeps on the earth.
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Everything that has breath of life.
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I have given every green plant for food.
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And it was so.
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And God saw everything that He had made.
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And behold, it was very good.
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And there was evening.
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And there was morning.
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The sixth day.
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Father God, as I move now into the time of preaching, I pray that You would keep me from error.
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I pray that You would open up hearts to the truth as Brother Mike has already prayed.
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Bring regeneration.
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Bring sanctification.
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Through the power of Your Holy Spirit, Lord, and keep me from error, I pray.
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In Christ's name, Amen.
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In verse 26 of Genesis chapter 1, God demonstrates that what He is going to do with man is different than what He has done with all of the rest that He has created since Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1 when it says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
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Man was created differently in several different ways that we see in the text.
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First, this is the time and the only time and place in Genesis 1 where we see God take a step back and actually speak about what He's going to do in having consultation with Himself.
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I talked about this last week.
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Let us make man in our image.
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He's speaking an inter-Trinitarian dialogue that we get to hear.
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We know God is not speaking to the angels as if the angels bear the image of God because the angels do not bear the image of God.
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And we know God is not speaking to the animals that He has created because those animals don't have the ability to interact with Him as we do.
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We know certainly it's not as if God has made the planet as some believe the planet has a spirit of its own.
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They call the planet a living organism and as if God is having a conversation with earth.
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That doesn't make sense either.
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No, God is having a conversation with Himself and He says let us make man in our image according to our likeness and He will have dominion over all of the rest that I have created because He will bear my image.
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Several weeks ago we talked about what it meant to bear the image of God.
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We said there are so many things in man that show us the image of God.
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His personality, the fact that he has an ability to interact with others and relate and feel and emote and have a relationship not only with other people but with God in a way that is much different than the way animals are able to relate with one another.
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Man has personality, he has morality, he can understand right from wrong and he understands the sense of oughtness that he ought to do right and he ought not to do wrong.
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Even though we suppress the truth and unrighteousness, even though we don't do the things that are right, we know what they are and we know what we ought not do.
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And man is spiritual.
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Man has a spirit different than all the other animals.
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We have that part of us that is going to survive the grave, that's going to be with the Lord.
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Paul says that it is better to be apart from the body and to be with the Lord and he's talking about in his spirit.
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And so those are the things that demonstrate the image of God in man but one of the things that I mentioned last week, I don't know how many of you picked up on it, but when God talks about being the image of him in the world, personality, morality, spirituality and I talked about other things in the past, creativity, relatability, all of those things are part of the image of God but the real focus of the image of God in Genesis chapter one is that man is to reflect God as the authority in the world because God has given man his dominion.
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So image in that sense becomes a verb.
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We are to image God, we are to in that sense reflect God.
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Adam had the job and yes, it was a job, be my image bearer, reflect me in the world, exercise the dominion that I have given to you and subdue the earth in my name, exercising authority and love and power as my image bearer.
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That was Adam's job and it wasn't Adam's alone, it was Adam and Eve's because it says to them he gave dominion, not just to the man but to the man and woman, vice regents of God, they stood with authority over God's good creation.
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Now we know what happened, God gave them an authority and it wasn't enough because their authority while powerful was limited.
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They were limited, God said you can't do this one thing, you can have authority over everything and when we get to chapter two, we're gonna see this played out in a much different way because it takes us to the very moment of Adam's creation, takes us to the very way Adam was created and the way God sets him in the garden and he puts him over the animals, even lets him name the animals which identifies Adam as an intelligent being from the moment he was created.
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He's able to identify the animals and give them names, he's able to relate to them but not be in a relationship with them because that's why he needed a woman because he can't be in a relationship with the animals, he's gotta have one like him to be in a relationship with so God creates this man and he says I'm gonna put you in this position and I'm gonna give you authority and what did Adam do with the authority? He lost that authority, not completely but he did give it over to the devil because the devil comes in and what does the devil do? He questions God, what happens then? Everything goes bad.
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So today we're gonna talk about the dominion that was given to Adam, we're going to talk about something called the dominion mandate.
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Now you'll notice in the title of the sermon that there's a question mark and the reason why there's a question mark is because this particular subject is not one that everyone agrees on and there is debate about how we are supposed to understand this thing called the dominion mandate.
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I always hate to ask for hand raising because I don't want too many people to get too excited, we are reformed here, a little bit of a joke.
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How many of you have ever heard anyone talk about the dominion mandate? Few of you, okay, very few of you, it's not a common thing to hear about and when I was preparing for this message I said you know what I need to talk about this because I think that there are two extremes that are easy to get confused about and I have seen people fall off of one side and the other on this issue and so what I'd like to do today is try to break down what is called the dominion mandate, try to help you understand how we are to apply it and then help you to understand what I believe the Bible actually teaches is the mandate of the church.
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But before we do that we have to understand what is the dominion mandate, what are we even talking about? Well Adam was given a command, what was the command? Subdue the earth, that's the verb, subdue and have dominion, authority, that's what dominion is and dominion is not a good word or a bad word, you can use it in a negative way if you talk about someone dominating someone or domineering someone else, that's a negative sense in which the word dominate can be used or domination but the Bible says God has all dominion in heaven and earth and so there is a sense in which there is a good way that it can have a connotation of goodness, God having dominion.
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So what does it mean when we talk about the dominion mandate? Well Adam is commanded here in Genesis chapter 1 to subdue the earth, take dominion over it and so he has authority over everything and the question of the dominion mandate is does that authority that Adam had translate to all of his posterity? Does the dominion mandate given to Adam translate to you and to you and to me? Do we have the same command from God to subdue the earth, take dominion over it, rule and bear the image of God over the earth? Well there are two extremes and I'm going to pull my board out because you know how much I love my board, this is my good friend, oh who's going to lock the wheels on my board really? Somebody didn't want me to pull out my board, I'm a teacher at heart and you all know that, I love to teach so the first is and we're going to make two categories here, the first category are those who say that the dominion that was given to Adam was only given to Adam and when he sinned he lost it completely so we would call this dominion lost, dominion lost.
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Now what do they base this on, those who believe in this position? Well this position says that the world around us is completely out of control and you know what, there is a sense in which that's true, Dale do you have the possibility to control the coronavirus? No, I bet you things would be different if you had that control, a little bit different, right? Every one of us who lives in Florida has to deal with hurricanes every year and we learn just how much we don't have dominion over the sea.
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There are some charismatic folks who go out every year when there's a hurricane coming and they stand on the shore and they proclaim that the hurricane is going to stop and as of yet their name it and claim it has not affected any which way that I can see a hurricane coming on shore.
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So there are those who would say we have no real dominion, we can't control the weather, we can't control a flood, we can shore up our houses but that doesn't really stop a torrential flood.
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We can't stop an earthquake, we can't even, we can't even know when it's coming.
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You know out in California, I've never been to California, praise God, but out in California any moment the earth can begin to move and no one can say stop that.
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That was dumb, my foot's hurting.
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I injured my foot earlier this week and I just stomped, that was not a good idea.
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But no one can look at the earth and say stop and the earth would listen.
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So there are those who would say well we don't have dominion anymore.
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You ever been out in the woods? What's the scariest thing about being out in the woods? The animals don't obey.
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The snakes if they see you and they get frightened by you will bite you and their poison can kill you.
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Those of you who are hunters you know you get up in a tree when you go hunting or you take dogs but you don't just walk out there and go after an animal because if that animal knows you're after it, it might get after you.
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Especially if you're hog hunting it might tear you to pieces.
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And so what? Do we have dominion? There were those who would say we do not and this is the passage they would use.
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They would use Ephesians chapter 2.
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What does Ephesians 2.1 say? You were dead in your trespasses and sins and you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now in the sons of disobedience.
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So what they say is this, they say we were in dominion, Adam had dominion but he lost it and it was given over to Satan.
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So they would say we lost it and it's been given to Satan.
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So Satan now has dominion.
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Now I'm not writing that as a truth.
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Please don't take a picture of this and post it online and say see what Pastor Keith taught today.
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That's not what Pastor Keith's teaching.
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This is what that side would argue and that's what they would believe and they would base that on Ephesians 2 where it says that the prince of the power of the air who they would identify as the devil and I think that's correct.
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The prince of the power of the air is the one who truly has dominion now.
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And could we agree at least for a second that it does seem like the devil does influence a lot? Doesn't it seem like he does have a lot of influence such as in the media? Just this past week I saw a video of a little girl, birthday party for a girl.
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She had been nine years old, had a drag queen dancing in a provocative outfit while she sat in a chair and her mother in the background clapping and laughing while her daughter is essentially being writhed upon by a man dressed as a woman.
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It would certainly give way to the idea that Satan has influenced the world greatly.
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So this is the position.
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Dominion lost.
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It has been forfeited to Satan.
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That's the position.
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It has been forfeited to Satan.
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All dominion has been lost.
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And they would look at John 8, 34 which says that we who sin are slaves to sin and if you are a slave to sin, how can you boast any authority at all? I'm trying to be fair to their position.
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I don't necessarily agree with it but I do want to explain why they hold it.
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Okay, that's what I try to do, I try to be fair.
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The other side of the position, the other position is what is sometimes called Dominion Theology.
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Now Dominion Theology is also known as Christian Reconstructionism.
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Christian Reconstructionism is the idea that biblical Christianity's goal is to rule all areas of society, personality, and corporate.
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That we are to rule every area of life.
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And ultimately the goal of the church is not just winning souls but it's winning culture.
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It's not just winning people but it's winning society and changing the world.
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I don't know how many of you are familiar with the different millennial views.
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There are different end times views and some of you may have heard of this, maybe you've heard the premillennial view or postmillennial view or amillennial view.
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And what that's talking about is in the book of Revelation towards the end in chapter 20 it talks about a thousand year reign of Christ.
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Now you're getting the idea, you know what the millennium is? Well the millennium comes at the end of time.
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According to the premillennialists we haven't gotten there yet.
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We are waiting for Christ to return and when Christ returns he's going to set up his throne in Israel and he is going to rule and reign from Israel for a thousand years and all of his people will be gathered together with him in the millennial kingdom where they will rule and reign with him for a thousand years and that will usher in the final state.
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The eternal state.
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If you've ever read Left Behind, that's premillennial theology.
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That theology typically comes with this little caveat.
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The world's going to get worse and worse and worse and worse until Jesus comes and sets up his kingdom.
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That's pretty much the way premillennial theology, it's pretty much it's going to get worse and worse and worse until Jesus comes.
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So a lot of times when you hear premillennialists preach they're always talking about how bad things are.
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Man, things are getting worse all the time.
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More and more abortions, more and more homosexuality, more and more destruction of the family, more and more, less and less people going to church.
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So the premillennialist almost is always talking about how bad it's getting and it's always this downturn of society and the premillennial view is probably the most popular view especially among Baptists today.
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The premillennial view.
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You all know what I'm talking about.
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Now there's another view that a lot of you may have never heard of and that's called the postmillennial view.
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Now you know what pre and post mean.
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Pre means before, post means after.
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The postmillennial view is this.
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The church is going to usher in a kingdom age where Christ's church is going to rule all areas of culture.
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That we are going to infiltrate and change everything from the top down.
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We are going to reconstruct the idea of Christian reconstructionism.
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We're going to reconstruct the entire society so that when Christ returns, he's going to return not to a world that has fallen off the edge and gone to hell, but he returns to a world that has come to the point where the whole world is excited for his return because his gospel has infiltrated every area.
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It's called Christian reconstructionism.
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The idea that we are to, that we are to build not only Christian churches, but a Christian society.
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You might not realize this, a lot of our founding fathers were postmillennialists and they saw America not just as the land of the free and the home of the brave, but they saw America as the new Christian nation that was going to usher in the return of the king.
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This one nation under God would change the world because it would be a nation that followed Jesus Christ.
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Noble dream.
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Kind of went sideways a little at the beginning of the last century, but the reality is that looks, that's what it looks like.
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So this dominion theology says no, dominion wasn't forfeited, it says dominion is the goal.
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The goal that was given to Adam, subdue the earth, take dominion is the goal that the church still has.
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Subdue the earth and take dominion of the earth.
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Now I have some, I have some people I respect on both sides of this.
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Dr.
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Greg Bonson, one of the most tremendous theologians that I have ever listened to, that I've ever read, tremendously gifted man.
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He was on this side, but I didn't agree with everything that he said, of course.
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And I have friends that are on this side, that dominion has been lost.
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So the question becomes, what's the answer? Because I can tell you both of these can take you into some really bad, remember what we talk about extremes.
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Both of these can take you into extremes which can lead to cliffs off of which you can fall.
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For instance, under dominion theology, there's something called the seven mountain mandate.
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Now how many of you ever heard the seven mountain mandate? Few of you, okay.
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Seven mountain, that relates to a perversion of dominion theology which is very popular in word of faith groups.
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And the seven mountain is this, there's seven mountains of culture, education, religion, family, business, government, arts, and media.
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And the goal of the church is to infiltrate education, religion, family, business, government, arts, and media.
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And our goal as a church is to have people that are Christians in every area of education and religion and family and business and government, military, entertainment, arts, and media.
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I added military in because it's government slash military, but the point is this.
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You say, well what's wrong with that? Don't we want people that are Christians in education? Don't we want Christians in religion? Don't we want Christians in family? Don't we want Christians in every, all of these things? Yes, but what we're not seeing and what we're not understanding is that the goal of transforming and invading the culture, the goal of transforming in this way is actually falling on the heels of a new charismatic movement which is taking a false theology into these places.
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If you don't believe that, the number one pastor who has the ear of the president of the United States right now is a heretical woman pastor who does not know Christ.
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Now you can love Donald Trump and I don't care what your feelings are about the president, but the woman who has his ear, who is the pastor to our president is a heretic.
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That's the danger of this seven mountain mandate is it's being headed up by heretical charismatics who do not have the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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They're bringing a word, faith, false gospel into these things and that is why we see TBN, the largest television broadcasting network of the Christian church in the world is not hosting men like R.C.
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Sproul and John MacArthur and good solid men, but it's hosting people like Benny Hinn and Paul Crouch and the rest who will go on and will give a false Jesus and a false gospel to a world that wants to eat up a health and wealth message.
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Somebody says, what's your problem with seven mountain theology, the people leading it? What's your problem with this seven mountain mandate? Because it's being led by the new apostolic reformation, NAR, and if you don't know what it is, look it up.
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The new apostolic reformation is one of the most dangerous movements in the church today and they're the ones leading the charge.
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Bethel Church in California are leading the charge.
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Their pastor is a heretic.
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Just a few weeks ago, they had a little girl die in the church.
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They spent a whole week trying to raise her from the dead because they believed they had the power to do so and guess what? Didn't work.
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So what did they do? They quit trying, but only after the cameras were turned off.
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Beloved, what is the goal of the church? That's what I asked this morning.
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Before we even get there, let me say this about both of these.
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Number one, I don't believe dominion has been completely eradicated, but number two, I don't think that dominion theology is really the answer and let me explain the first one so that I can go to the second one.
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Why don't I think dominion has been completely eradicated? Because even though Adam did sin and even though his relationship with the world was affected and we know that.
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We know Adam's relationship with the world was affected because the world began to fight against Adam.
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We see this in the very curse that Adam was given.
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What was it? The earth will now bear thorns and thistles and you're gonna have to sweat when you work whereas before you could work with joy, now you're gonna work in toil.
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These things are going to change.
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The world is gonna change.
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So yes, there was a change, but was Adam's dominion completely destroyed? I do not believe that it was and I'll base this on scripture, just not on opinion, but on scripture.
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Turn in your Bible with me to Psalm 8.
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Now Psalm 8 is comparing man to God and it's expressing the greatness of God, but that God did not create man without glory, but he created man with glory and we'll see that as we go.
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It says in Psalm 8 verse 1, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
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You have set your glory above the heavens and out of the mouth of babies and infants you've established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger.
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When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
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You've given him dominion over the works of your hands.
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You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the path of the sea.
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O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
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Okay.
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So we have in Genesis 1, God saying he's going to give man dominion.
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We have in Genesis 3, man's fall and his subsequent judgment.
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But then we have written hundreds of years later, Psalm 8 and Psalm 8 is speaking of mankind, not just Adam, but it's speaking of mankind.
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And it says of mankind, you have given him dominion over the works of your hands.
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Now, before you even challenge me on this, I know that the writer to Hebrews is going to apply this to Christ.
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And I will explain in a minute how I believe this is completely fulfilled in Christ.
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Because Christ is the only one who had complete dominion over all the earth.
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Christ is the one who walked on the sea.
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Christ is the one who healed the sick with the word of his mouth.
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He raised the dead by calling them out of the tombs.
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Christ is the one who said to the tree, wither and it withered.
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So I know he is the one who had the dominion that Adam should have had, but through sin was affected.
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But in Psalm 8, in the context of Psalm 8, this is a relation to mankind and God.
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And the point of the Psalm, notwithstanding what is going to come later in the divine interpretation of Hebrews, but the point of the Psalm is God is great and he has given man a position and the position is the position of dominion.
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So if David can write this in the Psalm hundreds of years later, then that would tell me that this dominion mandate, this dominion has not been completely eradicated.
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And you say, well pastor, how can we exercise dominion when the seas don't obey us? How can we exercise dominion when the hurricanes are coming? How can we exercise dominion when the animals are afraid of us? Beloved, I think you know that you can look in the world and you can see where because of man's intellect that God has created in him, you can see him exercising dominion in all of these areas.
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What do we now, what can we now do when we know the hurricane? Why do we know the hurricane is coming? Because we've created machines that tell us how the weather operates.
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How can we get from here to California in a day? Because we have created machines that bypass the gravitational pull of the earth and break free of the hold of gravity and send us to the earth 500 miles an hour under the command of a guy named Bob.
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I don't know why the guy always has to tell you his name, hi, I'm Captain Bob and I'm, yeah.
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But we can do these amazing things because we're made in the image of God and because we do have a certain dominion that God has given man over the earth, we can break animals.
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We can use animals to our benefit and we should by the way.
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The environmentalists who tell us no, we should treat all animals as equals and no one should ever eat an animal and no one should ever put an animal into service for mankind's sake, that is bunk.
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The Bible tells us that God created this world for us to subdue and have dominion over.
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Now we shouldn't mistreat it and the Bible does tell us we shouldn't mistreat our animals.
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It certainly tells us we shouldn't mistreat the environment because it's God's good order that he created but at the same time if we were to simply set it aside and say don't use it, I think we would be misinterpreting what God has given us as a command because he said subdue it, have dominion over it and that dominion I do not believe is lost.
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But how is the greatest way the church to exercise the application of this passage? What is the way the church is supposed to exercise the command to take dominion? Well I believe that answer is found in Matthew chapter 28.
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So I want to invite you to go there with me because while I do not believe that mankind has lost the dominion, I do believe that the goal of the church has changed what form of dominion we are supposed to be seeking.
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Let me ask you this, before we even read Matthew 28, let me ask you this.
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In the first century, what was the goal of the church? Was it to build theaters and establish political parties? Now I'm serious, think about that, think about what I just asked.
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What was the goal of the church in the first century? Was it to build theaters and have entertainment? Was the goal of the church to build political parties and to create a new Rome? In fact, what was the most damaging part of church history was when the church began to exercise that form of authority in the realm of the sphere of the Roman Catholic Church as the Pope reigned like a king in a sphere that I don't believe was his purpose or prerogative to do so.
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The goal of the church has never been to build theaters and establish political parties.
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The goal of the church has been to build churches and make disciples.
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Read Matthew 28.
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This is the mandate to the church.
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This is how we take dominion.
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Go therefore, verse 19, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you.
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And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
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I asked a question at the beginning of the sermon.
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I said, what's the mandate of the church? That's it.
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Make disciples.
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When you make disciples, you make churches.
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Because out of a group of disciples comes the church.
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Churches are planted when disciples are made.
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And then those disciples send out others and they make disciples and then new churches are made.
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And that's the model we see in Acts.
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That's the model we see in the epistles, is the apostles going into towns and preaching the gospel and seeing people submit to the gospel and not going down to the local civil authority and saying, okay, we're here to take over and start a new Christian Republican Party or a new Christian Democrat Party.
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No, we're going to start a church.
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You want to see the world change? It has to change from here.
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The problem with America is not that we have corrupt politicians.
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The problem with America is not that we have heathenistic entertainers.
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The problem with America is that we have pastors who do not preach the gospel and are not making disciples.
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That's the problem.
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That is where we have given over dominion to Satan because we have allowed all satanic influence to come into the church.
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And Satan is, in many ways, influencing the church.
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How do we know this? By its doctrines that have become lukewarm or have become shallow.
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By its love that has become lukewarm.
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By its ministry that has become cut off.
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From all things godly and given over to all things sensual.
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Did you ever think that the church would find itself in a place where everything was about the entertainment of the senses rather than the engagement of the soul? Go and make disciples.
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That is the call.
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That is what we are to do.
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That is the command.
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That is the mandate of the church.
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And that means we cannot separate from the world.
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Those who ran to monasteries in the first four centuries of the church and built those places outside of the communities and built their own places away, they were not influencing society.
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They were running from it.
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We are called to engage it.
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We are called to make disciples within it.
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And while we are not in the business of redeeming the culture, we are in the business of redeeming people.
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You say we can't redeem people.
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God redeems people.
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I know.
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Stick with me.
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Keep with the metaphors.
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Because what I'm saying is I know we don't do the work, but we go and we preach redemption.
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And the Bible says we are ministers of reconciliation.
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God makes his appeal through us.
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And so we go and we proclaim the gospel.
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And we trust that God will save as he wills.
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Parents, this begins in the home.
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Your first and most precious mission field is right in the bedroom next to you.
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Are your children hearing the gospel from you? We raise our children to love God and obey his commandments because we believe that he has the power to convert them, not us.
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I can't convert my child.
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I can't take a heart of stone from my child and give them a heart of flesh.
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I can't do that.
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But I can raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord with the hopes that one day God will change their heart and know that that was the first and biggest and most important priority I had as a father is to preach the gospel to my children.
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People are always worried about changing the culture, don't want to change their home.
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It begins in the home.
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And this works its way into your work, how you work and where you work.
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You function as a believer where you work.
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And you are an ambassador for Christ there.
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If you're a plumber, you're a Christian plumber.
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If you're a lawyer, you're a...
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You probably need to repent.
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If you're a...
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No, I'm just kidding.
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You're a Christian lawyer.
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If you're a painter, you're a Christian painter.
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And by the way, if you're retired, you have now more time than ever to serve the Lord because you're no longer bound to put food on your table and minister to your family by working a 40 hours a week job.
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This isn't the time to give up your work.
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This is the time to get to work.
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You say, I'm old, I'm tired.
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Okay.
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I'm not going to have you go up and down a ladder.
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But listen, this is not the time to give up.
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We are called to keep our hand to the plow, not look back.
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We are called to move forward for the kingdom of God.
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We're called to take dominion.
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But it's not our dominion.
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It's the dominion of He who is the last Adam.
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Jesus Christ is called the last Adam.
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Why? Because what Adam failed to do, Christ did.
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Adam failed to live that perfect life.
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Christ lived that perfect life.
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Adam failed to obey the command of God.
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Christ lived under the commands of God and He kept the law of God perfectly.
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But also Adam, who had dominion, chose to listen to the serpent, listen to his wife who had been deceived and he chose to disobey God.
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And Christ never wants to disobey God.
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And He has perfect dominion over all things.
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And He tells us to go and proclaim it to the world.
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You know what you're supposed to proclaim in evangelism? God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
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Never.
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Never.
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That is not the gospel.
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The gospel is not that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
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You know what the gospel is? The King of kings and the Lord of lords has called all men everywhere to repent.
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And it is a command from the King.
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It's not an option.
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It's not something that you can turn away from and say, I don't care.
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Because the King has given a command.
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You will either obey and be brought into the kingdom or you will disobey and you will suffer His wrath.
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Because He's the King.
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Whether we acknowledge it or not, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
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Either in this life or the life to come.
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Are you ready to meet your King? Are you being an ambassador of His dominion? Making disciples on His behalf.
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That's the dominion mandate that the church is called to.
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That's our goal.
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That's our command.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for the opportunity to again look at Your Word and especially when we think about the reality of Christ having dominion in this world.
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It's easy, Lord, for us to forget that.
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It's easy for us to think that somehow everything's out of control.
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It certainly seems like it is.
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But Lord, we know He who has control over everything is the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And so we submit to Him today.
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And Lord, if there are those here who do not know Him, who have not submitted to Him, who are not ready to face Him in judgment, if they were so called to today, Lord, I pray that You would open their hearts to believe, that You would change their hearts, that You would draw them to Yourself.
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And Lord God, for the believer in this room, the believers who know what the mandate is, Lord, but are not keeping it, they are not seeking to make disciples, whether it be in their work or in their home or in their hobbies, Lord, I pray, Lord, that You would, by Your mercy, encourage them, out of apathy, give them a fire in their belly for the Kingdom of God.
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Lord, I pray all this in Jesus' name and for His sake.
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Amen.
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We're going to prepare now to have communion together.
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I want to invite you to stand as we sing.