WEBVTT 00:00:09.660 --> 00:00:13.320 Hello, and welcome to the Kalamazoo church of Christ podcast. 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:14.839 Thank you so much for listening. 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:16.199 We're startup church. 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:23.460 We just planted in September, 2020 and at the Kalamazoo church, we believe that Christianity is done best when it is done together. 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:26.559 And so if you live in the Kalamazoo area, we would love to connect. 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:32.299 Be it coming to a Sunday service, one of our small groups, or even just grabbing coffee with a member to learn more. 00:00:32.539 --> 00:00:36.439 You can visit kalamazoo.church in order to do that. 00:00:37.100 --> 00:00:40.380 We pray that you are inspired by what you hear today. 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:43.179 Super fired up to be a part of it. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:47.320 Um, this is the first thread Sunday I've actually been able to preach on. 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:49.399 So I'm like really, Josh has gotten two of them. 00:00:49.700 --> 00:00:50.659 This is my first one. 00:00:50.780 --> 00:00:55.579 So I'm a little, I'm not going to say I'm jealous, but it's exciting to be a part of it. 00:00:55.579 --> 00:01:10.700 You know, and as we've been going through this thread, if you don't know what we're doing, we're basically starting at Genesis one and we're working through the whole Bible and it's like a three year plan to go through the whole Bible basically. 00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:21.799 And, and what's really neat about it is the very specific focus on story and spirituality, and that's kind of what we're doing. 00:01:21.900 --> 00:01:34.359 I like it because I think it's very often, it's very common for us, at least in our body of the churches, we'll go through, we'll look at this book of the Bible, or we'll might look at a theme that might weave itself through the Bible over the course of a month or so. 00:01:34.859 --> 00:01:41.180 But what we're doing now is we're actually looking at the story of the Bible, the narrative and how it plays out. 00:01:41.239 --> 00:01:48.640 And today we're looking at Genesis three, which is commonly known as the first sin or the fall or something like that. 00:01:49.260 --> 00:01:55.719 And so often we look at this story through the context of the whole Bible, looking back at it. 00:01:55.760 --> 00:01:58.760 And I think there's a lot of great reasons to do that, right? 00:01:58.819 --> 00:02:01.260 That's one of the reasons why God gives us the whole Bible. 00:02:01.640 --> 00:02:22.020 What I want to do today is I would like to look at Genesis three within the context of Genesis one and two though, and kind of watch how the narrative of the Bible from Genesis one and two, what we can learn from just those three chapters, looking back at it as if we're pretending that we're reading it for the first time, right? 00:02:22.599 --> 00:02:24.400 So that's what we're planning on doing today. 00:02:25.180 --> 00:02:26.659 You can turn over to Genesis two. 00:02:26.780 --> 00:02:39.259 We're going to be there in a couple of minutes before we jump right into the scripture though, there's a brief, I guess, story or memory or something I'd like to share that I think gives a little bit of context to where I'm coming from with this scripture. 00:02:41.020 --> 00:02:50.180 So from the time I was about 19 or 20 years old until I moved to Michigan, which is when I was 24, I worked at this place. 00:02:50.180 --> 00:02:52.659 It doesn't matter what it was called, but I worked there for a couple of years. 00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:57.159 And over the course of time, I developed a friendship with one guy specifically. 00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:02.939 He, we shared a desk and it was an interesting relationship because he was, you know, quite a few years older than me. 00:03:03.039 --> 00:03:08.479 He was way more educated than I was when it came to like a post high school education and stuff like that. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:13.180 And, uh, and I grew up going to a Christian school. 00:03:13.180 --> 00:03:21.259 And even though I wasn't following what the Bible was saying for most of my life, um, I would at least identify myself, myself as a Christian. 00:03:21.259 --> 00:03:26.139 And he very specifically identified himself as an atheist, actually. 00:03:27.060 --> 00:03:29.939 Now I got baptized when I was 21 years old. 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:40.960 So over the course of time that we knew each other, he saw me not living as a Christian, then go through my conversion and then live as a Christian afterwards. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:41.400 Right. 00:03:41.439 --> 00:03:44.159 So he got to really see that transformation of my life. 00:03:46.719 --> 00:04:00.280 And one of the things that I think was really helpful for me, and this is somewhat of an aside, but if you don't have an atheist friend who can challenge your faith, I would say get one, because there's not very many things that'll like challenge your faith more than that. 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:03.259 And it actually helps you think like, why do, why do I believe this? 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:04.740 And what do I think about this? 00:04:04.759 --> 00:04:07.219 And what, what, what does the Bible really mean about this stuff? 00:04:07.240 --> 00:04:16.019 And I think it really helped me in my walk with God because we would get in these discussions often about, about the Bible and theology and spirituality and stuff like that. 00:04:16.920 --> 00:04:22.519 And obviously it had a profound effect on me because it's however many years later, and I'm still talking about it on a Sunday morning. 00:04:22.939 --> 00:04:29.579 And then there was one day specifically where we were kind of going back and forth talking about whatever theology or religion or something like that. 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:38.579 And he asked me this question and he said, Alec, there are thousands of different religions that have been around since the beginning of human history. 00:04:38.579 --> 00:04:42.980 How can you sit there and tell me that your religion is the right one? 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:48.839 And I was about 21, 22 years old, and I rebutted in this way, and I thought it was really clever at the time. 00:04:49.139 --> 00:04:51.939 I said, well, let me ask you a question. 00:04:52.600 --> 00:04:58.339 Over the course of all of human history, there's been thousands of different people that have believed in all these different deities. 00:04:58.759 --> 00:05:02.279 How can you sit there and say that there's no stock in any of it? 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:04.100 How is all of it not true? 00:05:04.779 --> 00:05:06.199 Where does religion come from then? 00:05:06.579 --> 00:05:11.399 And what he said to me, it hit me really hard actually when I was that age. 00:05:11.459 --> 00:05:13.360 And he said, well, Alec, let me explain this to you. 00:05:15.769 --> 00:05:17.689 People are very afraid of things. 00:05:18.110 --> 00:05:21.610 And there's these small tribes of people and they're isolated. 00:05:21.730 --> 00:05:25.069 They look out at the world and they see death and they see destruction. 00:05:25.250 --> 00:05:32.889 And what they do is they come up with these theologies to help them cope with death, especially when they're so much more exposed to it than we are now. 00:05:35.209 --> 00:05:39.209 And I remember hearing that and I was like kind of taken aback at the time. 00:05:39.209 --> 00:05:42.230 I'm like, wow, I don't really know what to say to that. 00:05:42.310 --> 00:05:47.110 That's not a very satisfying answer to me, but I couldn't really figure out why. 00:05:47.250 --> 00:05:49.189 Why is this not a satisfying answer? 00:05:49.810 --> 00:05:57.449 And I thought about it for a long time and I still think about this often now, years later, why do people, why are there so many religions? 00:05:57.629 --> 00:05:59.730 Why do I believe in Christianity and stuff like that? 00:06:00.110 --> 00:06:08.250 And over the course of the past couple of years, I've actually spent a lot of time mulling over that conversation in my head and thinking about it. 00:06:08.250 --> 00:06:10.230 And like, where does this come from? 00:06:10.329 --> 00:06:17.810 And I can pretty safely say now, like where I'm at now, that I can identify why that statement is wrong and where it went wrong. 00:06:19.790 --> 00:06:27.470 When I look at the Bible, I don't believe that most of what the Bible is talking about is life after death. 00:06:27.889 --> 00:06:31.129 Now, I'm not saying that it's not there, right? 00:06:32.050 --> 00:06:35.750 Obviously, there's conversation about heaven and resurrection and stuff like that. 00:06:35.769 --> 00:06:39.509 But I will say it doesn't seem to me to be the primary focus of the Bible. 00:06:39.689 --> 00:06:46.610 When I go and I read the Bible, I feel like there's two, maybe three questions that the Bible really is trying to address. 00:06:47.189 --> 00:06:48.550 And it's these two questions right here. 00:06:49.029 --> 00:06:52.750 Who is God and who am I? 00:06:56.060 --> 00:07:05.300 You know, when anybody comes to the Bible or starts studying, studying out the Bible or tries to become a Christian, those are the two questions that they generally are asking themselves. 00:07:05.420 --> 00:07:06.120 Who is God? 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:06.800 Right. 00:07:06.819 --> 00:07:10.139 And we're looking at the Bible from Genesis one to Genesis three. 00:07:10.139 --> 00:07:14.379 So I think that we actually learn a lot about God in these opening chapters of the Bible. 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:14.959 Who is he? 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:17.899 Well, God orders chaos, right? 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:18.620 We looked at that. 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:19.860 He created the world. 00:07:19.959 --> 00:07:20.699 He's the creator. 00:07:21.220 --> 00:07:26.779 And he took this chaotic nothingness and he turned it into something beautiful and he did it out of love. 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:27.740 We know that. 00:07:27.779 --> 00:07:29.660 We know that from Genesis one and two. 00:07:30.740 --> 00:07:33.079 And OK, well, then who am I? 00:07:33.639 --> 00:07:35.699 Well, we're the created, right? 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:38.439 That's what we know about ourselves so far. 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:41.220 We were created by God and we were created in love. 00:07:41.899 --> 00:07:44.500 You know, Josh put it so well last week. 00:07:44.600 --> 00:07:45.420 What is my purpose? 00:07:46.339 --> 00:07:52.639 You know, and we look out at the world and we see we see stars just above us, right? 00:07:52.819 --> 00:07:54.980 Stars and clouds and the vastness of the universe. 00:07:54.980 --> 00:08:04.480 And we look out at the world around us and we see mountains and we see oceans and we look and we see cities full of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people. 00:08:04.540 --> 00:08:06.519 It's like eight billion people or something on the planet. 00:08:06.699 --> 00:08:07.839 It's just the natural question. 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:11.500 Philosophers and psychologists have been trying to identify this. 00:08:11.620 --> 00:08:12.379 What is my purpose? 00:08:12.519 --> 00:08:13.180 Am I important? 00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:14.879 Am I not important? 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:17.800 Are we just ants here on some cosmic ant farm? 00:08:18.459 --> 00:08:25.939 And what the Bible says is that we are God's creation and we were created in his image and we were created very good. 00:08:26.100 --> 00:08:29.939 Those are the words used in the Bible, created to be God's partner here on Earth. 00:08:31.158 --> 00:08:34.500 Josh used a reference here that I thought was really helpful last week. 00:08:34.558 --> 00:08:35.918 He referenced the Lion King, right? 00:08:35.918 --> 00:08:41.000 When Simba, he looks into the water and he sees a reflection of his father, right? 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:44.480 And that's what God created us to be here on Earth. 00:08:44.539 --> 00:09:00.220 We are created to reflect our father to each other and how we act and how we love and how we live and reflect our father to the world out there, like the creation itself and how we cultivate it and take care of it and nurture it. 00:09:00.519 --> 00:09:01.960 That's what we were created for. 00:09:03.820 --> 00:09:17.840 So then, okay, so if God is good and God orders chaos and I am created in God's image, then the natural question that follows is what happened? 00:09:18.580 --> 00:09:20.600 Why are things the way they are? 00:09:20.700 --> 00:09:22.879 How come, right? 00:09:23.080 --> 00:09:24.100 I'm going to go home today. 00:09:24.179 --> 00:09:28.440 How come I, when I go home today and I flip on the news, I'm going to see war. 00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:30.120 I'm going to see death. 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:31.940 I'm going to see chaos and destruction. 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:41.720 How come during the course of this week, I'm going to be driving down 131 and some guy is going to cut me off and start honking his horn and flipping me off. 00:09:41.879 --> 00:09:43.600 Why is that going to happen this week? 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:56.360 How come I'm going to go home and sometime this week, me and my wife, we're going to have some disagreement about doing the dishes and then we're going to kind of be snippy with each other. 00:09:56.460 --> 00:10:03.080 And then there's going to be like this feeling in the house for about 20, 25 minutes until we actually sit down and address it and pray about it. 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:04.840 Why is that happening in this world? 00:10:05.659 --> 00:10:09.080 And that's what we're going to be addressing today. 00:10:09.340 --> 00:10:14.519 And so now if you've been following along, you're probably thinking, yep, I knew we were getting here. 00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:15.440 This is the sin day. 00:10:15.620 --> 00:10:16.779 We're talking about sin today. 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:17.279 Yes. 00:10:17.299 --> 00:10:17.639 All right. 00:10:17.659 --> 00:10:19.620 I've been rallying, trying to get myself there. 00:10:19.960 --> 00:10:24.740 And if this is your first time here, you might be thinking to yourself, great. 00:10:25.159 --> 00:10:27.539 I picked a great first day to come to church, right? 00:10:27.580 --> 00:10:28.899 We're doing the sin thing today. 00:10:28.899 --> 00:10:32.179 I just want to stop and pause for a second. 00:10:37.340 --> 00:10:38.019 Here's the thing. 00:10:38.460 --> 00:10:42.019 You might not know this, but the word sin is actually not used in this story. 00:10:42.899 --> 00:10:56.500 The word sin actually doesn't appear until probably next week when we talk about Cain and Abel, so whatever sin is, we need to be looking at it through the core, through the lens of whatever is happening today, whatever's happening in this story, right? 00:10:56.679 --> 00:11:00.500 Through, let's let the narrative of the Bible teach us as we go along. 00:11:00.559 --> 00:11:00.740 Amen. 00:11:01.860 --> 00:11:04.500 So the title for today's lesson is human limitations. 00:11:06.500 --> 00:11:09.860 And the first point that I have is reframing limits, right? 00:11:10.580 --> 00:11:11.879 We're in Genesis chapter two. 00:11:12.940 --> 00:11:19.000 It says, starting in verse 15, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:28.200 And God commanded the man, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat of it, you will certainly die. 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:32.940 We looked at the scripture a couple of weeks ago, right? 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:35.980 And there's a couple of things that really jump out to me that I want to talk about real quick. 00:11:36.860 --> 00:11:38.440 You know, God gives man direction, right? 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:39.700 He gives them a task. 00:11:39.799 --> 00:11:41.460 He says, take care of the earth and work it. 00:11:42.240 --> 00:11:45.419 You know, and we've talked about this, but what he does is he puts guardrails off, right? 00:11:45.419 --> 00:11:46.320 He gives them this tree. 00:11:47.100 --> 00:11:51.480 You know, he says, Hey, do this thing, but don't do it this way. 00:11:51.639 --> 00:11:55.480 And I've heard a lot of discussion through my life about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 00:11:55.519 --> 00:11:57.559 And I've heard people say, okay, hold on. 00:11:57.559 --> 00:12:02.919 If God is all knowing, then why would he put this tree there in the first place, if he knew what was going to happen? 00:12:03.559 --> 00:12:09.860 And I've even heard people who are a lot more, um, maybe frustrated with, with the Bible and the biblical story. 00:12:09.899 --> 00:12:13.500 And they think, what kind of God does something like that? 00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:17.440 How does a God who apparently loves his creation sets people up for failure? 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:25.200 And I just want to talk about actually how much of a blessing this tree is for a second, before we even jump into the, the meat of what we're talking about. 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:34.600 One is, I think it shows that God's not a tyrant, you know, and this is so fundamentally and foundationally true to our understanding of who God is. 00:12:34.980 --> 00:12:49.919 Over the course of the whole Bible, you see stories that people love to have a lot of flair and people love to latch onto about, um, God destroying cities or sending a flood or tying himself to this people group to conquer this, this, this area. 00:12:50.139 --> 00:12:50.279 Right. 00:12:50.720 --> 00:13:04.179 But what we, what we must understand about God's character when we read the Bible is that first and foremost, fundamentally to God's character, he is not a tyrant. 00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:06.639 He is not a tyrant. 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:13.120 God gives you, me, all of us the ability to not follow him. 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:16.960 We all have the ability to eat from that tree today. 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:18.600 Every one of us does. 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:20.179 God's not a tyrant. 00:13:21.019 --> 00:13:27.220 And the second thing that I think I want to, that I want to point out here is have you ever actually been given free reign over anything? 00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:29.480 Um, like maybe you're at work, right? 00:13:29.559 --> 00:13:32.059 And your boss says, Hey, I want you to do this thing. 00:13:32.600 --> 00:13:36.039 And he doesn't give you any direction, no guardrails or nothing. 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:37.759 It's actually not very helpful. 00:13:38.259 --> 00:13:42.779 You know, it's, it's, it's not like, it doesn't bring a whole lot of security to me. 00:13:42.840 --> 00:13:44.820 Like, like, okay, is this important? 00:13:45.379 --> 00:13:47.500 Is there a wrong way to do this? 00:13:47.500 --> 00:13:49.419 Is anybody going to follow up with me? 00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:51.139 Does anybody actually care about what I'm doing? 00:13:51.179 --> 00:13:55.879 But what God does here is he's, he gives them a task and then he shows, Hey, there's weight to this. 00:13:55.940 --> 00:13:58.779 It's actually really important, you know, and I want you to do it. 00:13:58.840 --> 00:14:02.779 There's a way that you're created in a way that the world is created and I want it to be done in a right way. 00:14:02.860 --> 00:14:04.320 There's, there's guardrails, right? 00:14:04.360 --> 00:14:07.860 He gives a live, uh, direction with limitation. 00:14:09.299 --> 00:14:23.100 What's really interesting to me about, about this story and about humanity as a whole, and I think it speaks a lot to humanity as a whole, is we love the idea of limitless possibilities, right? 00:14:23.240 --> 00:14:27.200 You know, a couple of goofy examples or a goofy example is the smartphone, right? 00:14:27.220 --> 00:14:33.860 You look at the smartphone and over the past 10 years, how many versions and updates has have come out, right? 00:14:33.940 --> 00:14:46.080 And we, you know, like these engineers, these scientists, and they, they take this technology and they just try to, you know, squeeze every little bit of progress out of all of these things. 00:14:46.220 --> 00:14:47.460 And we, we're consumers. 00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:48.340 We love it. 00:14:48.539 --> 00:14:52.480 Every year we're like, or every couple of years we're like, Oh, I'm going to update. 00:14:52.600 --> 00:14:55.559 I'm going to update my phone because we want to, we want the, we love the AI. 00:14:55.820 --> 00:14:57.879 We love the, we want to inject the next big thing. 00:14:57.940 --> 00:15:04.840 We want to be able to just tap our phone and pay for stuff instead of paying for paying with cash, you know, or I don't even have to swipe my card anymore. 00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:06.200 We haven't had to do that in years, right? 00:15:06.220 --> 00:15:08.500 I'm going to pull my phone out, tap it and move on. 00:15:08.759 --> 00:15:11.840 I don't even have to talk to a person when I check out at the grocery store anymore. 00:15:11.879 --> 00:15:12.679 It's insane, right? 00:15:12.919 --> 00:15:13.399 We love it. 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:14.259 We love progress. 00:15:14.259 --> 00:15:15.700 We love limitless possibilities. 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:18.440 You know, money is another thing. 00:15:18.620 --> 00:15:21.820 No one is ever like, you know, I totally have enough money. 00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:22.600 I don't want any more. 00:15:23.019 --> 00:15:25.440 We want, we want our selves to have more money. 00:15:25.539 --> 00:15:27.580 We want our families to have more money. 00:15:27.659 --> 00:15:29.259 We want our nation to have more money. 00:15:29.480 --> 00:15:32.340 If you're a business owner, you want your business to have more money. 00:15:32.620 --> 00:15:34.419 You would need to generate wealth. 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:35.799 We love to generate wealth. 00:15:35.899 --> 00:15:37.440 It's so important to us. 00:15:37.500 --> 00:15:38.980 We put so much stock in it. 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:39.820 It's how we survive. 00:15:42.820 --> 00:15:44.639 A little bit more serious is sex. 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:56.139 Over the past 100 years, 150 years, how much have we as a Western culture pushed the boundaries of what's considered appropriate sexual behavior, right? 00:15:56.179 --> 00:16:11.419 A hundred, 150 years ago, it was something that was known and well understood to be something that was holy and remained within the confines of marriage, and now it's just understood how that, but if you're like a young person, you're going to be going out and experimenting with people. 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:13.019 That's just what our culture is. 00:16:15.710 --> 00:16:16.929 We're getting touchy now. 00:16:16.929 --> 00:16:40.389 The newest thing in the Western world is gender, for all of human history has been male and female, and now modern science pushes this, now we can give people hormones, we can try to use psychology to try to like, we can kind of weigh this a little bit more. 00:16:40.450 --> 00:16:44.710 We push the limits of what's considered, of our limits. 00:16:44.750 --> 00:16:45.370 We push limits. 00:16:45.450 --> 00:16:46.169 We push boundaries. 00:16:46.169 --> 00:16:49.629 That's what we do as people, and we love it as a humanity. 00:16:54.110 --> 00:16:55.610 Turn over to Genesis chapter three. 00:16:59.769 --> 00:17:01.610 Oh, it's a little bit longer of a scripture. 00:17:02.190 --> 00:17:07.230 It says, now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. 00:17:07.568 --> 00:17:11.450 And he said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? 00:17:12.190 --> 00:17:24.690 The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat from the fruit, eat the fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it or you will die. 00:17:26.210 --> 00:17:35.349 You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 00:17:36.849 --> 00:17:44.890 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. 00:17:45.529 --> 00:17:48.710 She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. 00:17:49.289 --> 00:17:52.529 Then the eyes of both of them were open and they realized that they were naked. 00:17:53.049 --> 00:17:55.869 So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 00:17:57.509 --> 00:18:04.829 This is the overarching limit that we as humanity break is that we are not God. 00:18:06.069 --> 00:18:09.069 We are not God. 00:18:10.569 --> 00:18:13.029 There's this appeal from the serpent as we read it. 00:18:13.069 --> 00:18:15.069 He says, you will be like God. 00:18:15.450 --> 00:18:16.769 And there's layers to this. 00:18:16.769 --> 00:18:19.670 And I think there's a couple of problems with this that I want to just point out here. 00:18:20.609 --> 00:18:24.410 One, man was already created in God's image and likeness. 00:18:24.769 --> 00:18:25.529 We know that. 00:18:25.950 --> 00:18:41.190 It says in Genesis chapter one, God said, let us make mankind in our image and in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over livestock and all the wild animals and over all creatures that move along the ground. 00:18:43.410 --> 00:18:43.630 Right. 00:18:43.690 --> 00:18:46.609 We're given, we're created in the image and likeness of God. 00:18:46.609 --> 00:18:50.990 And, and then we were given authority over God's creation. 00:18:51.430 --> 00:18:57.589 And then we were given this ability to actually generate life through children. 00:18:58.490 --> 00:19:06.710 So yes, we are, we are made out of dirt, but being made out of dirt, we're actually as close to being like God as we possibly can be. 00:19:09.849 --> 00:19:14.309 Also, what do we know about God so far as God actually stopped creating. 00:19:14.309 --> 00:19:18.450 God actually limited how much he was going to create. 00:19:18.569 --> 00:19:20.349 He put a limit on himself, right? 00:19:20.390 --> 00:19:21.630 He created for six days. 00:19:21.789 --> 00:19:23.869 And then on the seventh day, he, he ceased. 00:19:24.490 --> 00:19:25.349 He rested. 00:19:26.529 --> 00:19:29.509 You know, God could have kept creating forever. 00:19:29.829 --> 00:19:33.250 He totally could have, and it was well within his rights to create forever. 00:19:33.569 --> 00:19:46.349 But instead what he does is he creates for six days, then he stops and then he gives authority to other people and lets them do the creating and the cultivating and the caring of the planet that he created. 00:19:46.470 --> 00:19:48.170 He gets, he gives it, right? 00:19:49.130 --> 00:19:59.569 So when we look at the story, it actually, to me, doesn't really seem like Adam and Eve are at all interested in being like God. 00:20:00.289 --> 00:20:14.730 It actually seems to me what that, what they really want to do is they want to replace God and there's a fundamental truth here that there are certain things that only God can do. 00:20:15.730 --> 00:20:18.509 And there are certain things that only God ought to do. 00:20:20.539 --> 00:20:42.099 You know, when we, we look out right at the, at our lives and this is something that I struggle with, you know, and when I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm fearful, I'm fearful at the world and I decide, Oh, maybe if I picked up extra hours at work, or maybe if I got another job and I could, I could spend my time doing this thing, then, then, then I, then I'll be safe. 00:20:42.440 --> 00:20:44.180 Then I'll create safety for myself. 00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:49.460 And then what I do is I neglect my family and I neglect my church and I neglect God, right? 00:20:49.619 --> 00:20:55.900 So often we look out at the world and we see someone and we're like, Oh, I should reach out. 00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:57.680 I should share the gospel with that person. 00:20:57.680 --> 00:21:00.019 But you know, that person's not interested. 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:02.380 He looks this way or she looks this way. 00:21:02.460 --> 00:21:07.619 They, he's got a tie on, he's got, he's got better things to do, or he's got a face tattoo. 00:21:07.740 --> 00:21:09.079 He's not interested in doing this. 00:21:09.099 --> 00:21:09.279 Right. 00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:12.599 And what I'm doing is I'm passing judgment on that. 00:21:12.660 --> 00:21:14.839 That's not mine to pass on someone. 00:21:15.059 --> 00:21:18.759 God gave me the, the responsibility of sharing his word. 00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:29.519 And instead I'm seizing his job and passing judgment on someone, or I'm seizing his job to take care of, of myself instead of trusting in his portion. 00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:30.640 Right. 00:21:31.240 --> 00:21:33.940 And why, you know, so why, why do we do this? 00:21:36.109 --> 00:21:39.049 Why do we seize the opportunity to take God's place? 00:21:39.529 --> 00:21:48.369 In verse six, it says that Eve saw that the fruit, the fruit was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom. 00:21:49.309 --> 00:21:59.210 You know, you get this feeling that Eve felt like she didn't have enough, you know, that she thought that maybe even God was holding out on her or maybe even God was slighting her in some way. 00:22:00.349 --> 00:22:12.029 The other day I was, uh, I was at work the other day and we got done with this job early and with this guy, the guy that we did the job for, he wanted to buy lunch for us actually. 00:22:12.190 --> 00:22:19.710 So me and the three guys that I, the two other guys that I work with, and then this guy, we went out to Jack's pizza actually for the lunch buffet. 00:22:20.150 --> 00:22:21.789 I don't know if you've been there for their lunch buffet. 00:22:21.890 --> 00:22:22.690 It's actually pretty good. 00:22:23.950 --> 00:22:33.210 And, uh, you know, we go and I get my plate and I go up to the lunch buffet, you know, and I'm all excited cause I really love Supreme pizza, you know, with like the olives and stuff like that. 00:22:33.250 --> 00:22:34.430 I don't know why I love it so much. 00:22:34.450 --> 00:22:36.750 And I, I go up, Lorraine's shaking her head at me. 00:22:36.750 --> 00:22:42.029 I go up and I'm like, Oh man, there's no Supreme pizza up here. 00:22:42.509 --> 00:22:47.210 And then I was like, really, really? 00:22:47.329 --> 00:22:48.849 There's no Supreme pizza up here. 00:22:48.910 --> 00:22:53.569 And then this like movie started playing in my head that they're like, you know, they're in the back, they're goofing off. 00:22:53.630 --> 00:22:56.190 They're not paying attention to what they're like, how dare they? 00:22:56.269 --> 00:23:01.250 I felt so slighted by Jack's pizza for not having the Supreme pizza that I wanted. 00:23:01.309 --> 00:23:04.910 And I had to settle for four meat pizza. 00:23:05.329 --> 00:23:14.809 Meanwhile, there's a whole nacho bar right in front of me, eight full pizzas in front of me, and I have the audacity to feel slighted by Jack's pizza, right? 00:23:15.009 --> 00:23:16.170 What, what's wrong with me? 00:23:16.809 --> 00:23:20.549 You kind of get the same, like the feeling that that's what's going on in Eve's mind right here. 00:23:20.690 --> 00:23:26.369 She has, they were given the whole world, every good tree that was had good fruit. 00:23:26.509 --> 00:23:26.690 Right. 00:23:26.809 --> 00:23:31.690 And then they see this one and it's like, I want, I want that one. 00:23:31.690 --> 00:23:36.109 She sees that it's good for wisdom, desirable for food, right? 00:23:36.190 --> 00:23:42.869 And if God, if God really had my best interest in mind, he would want me to have wisdom. 00:23:44.150 --> 00:23:51.029 If God really had my best interest in mind, he would want me to have that, to be able to feed myself with that. 00:23:53.170 --> 00:23:57.069 If God really had my best interest in mind, he would give me that job. 00:23:58.390 --> 00:24:02.410 If God really had my best interest in mind, he would give me a boyfriend. 00:24:02.410 --> 00:24:07.039 He would heal me from this disease that I have. 00:24:07.079 --> 00:24:09.099 If God really had my best interest in mind. 00:24:09.700 --> 00:24:10.859 And what does Eve do, right? 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:24.420 What does humanity do is they, they look, they see an opportunity to seize control and they take it for themselves because they're not satisfied with the portion that was given to them by God. 00:24:29.579 --> 00:24:31.579 You know, and why, why, why do we do this? 00:24:31.700 --> 00:24:33.319 Why is this something that we struggle with? 00:24:33.359 --> 00:24:33.680 I don't know. 00:24:33.720 --> 00:24:35.059 I think oftentimes it can be fear. 00:24:35.519 --> 00:24:38.660 It can be, uh, you know, greed, right? 00:24:38.759 --> 00:24:39.460 There's a scripture. 00:24:39.660 --> 00:24:40.220 It's in James. 00:24:41.460 --> 00:24:42.500 Oh, there's a picture. 00:24:43.200 --> 00:24:43.779 There's a scripture. 00:24:45.880 --> 00:24:51.720 There's a scripture in James chapter four. 00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:53.940 It says, what causes fights and quarrels among you? 00:24:54.500 --> 00:24:57.119 Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 00:24:57.359 --> 00:24:59.500 You desire, but you do not have. 00:24:59.559 --> 00:25:03.460 So you kill, you covet, but you cannot get what you want. 00:25:03.559 --> 00:25:04.599 So you quarrel and fight. 00:25:05.109 --> 00:25:16.539 You do not have because you do not ask God when you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures, you adulterous people. 00:25:16.779 --> 00:25:20.819 Don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? 00:25:21.779 --> 00:25:27.400 Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 00:25:31.180 --> 00:25:39.880 So how do we combat this desire to seek Godhood for ourselves? 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:44.619 And I think a lot of it boils down to our understanding of God's limits. 00:25:44.680 --> 00:25:48.359 We really need to redefine our understanding of God's limits on us. 00:25:48.380 --> 00:25:50.559 And we need to see his limits as love. 00:25:51.019 --> 00:25:54.359 And our second point here today is limits as love. 00:25:55.420 --> 00:25:57.339 It can turn to Psalm 23. 00:25:57.480 --> 00:25:59.380 I know we're turning around a lot here. 00:26:03.349 --> 00:26:04.190 I'm going to read the whole thing. 00:26:04.269 --> 00:26:52.519 It says, This is one of the most well-known Psalms in the Bible. 00:26:53.220 --> 00:26:57.460 It was written by King David, who was at this time, I believe he was king of Israel. 00:26:58.079 --> 00:27:02.500 He spent a lot of his life running for his life from Saul and then later from his son. 00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:03.940 And he was in war a lot. 00:27:04.420 --> 00:27:07.140 And he wrote this Psalm and it's really incredible to me. 00:27:07.140 --> 00:27:14.180 Like he, again, he's the king of Israel, but he sees that there's still authority greater than himself. 00:27:15.140 --> 00:27:15.400 Right. 00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:18.000 And he defines this authority as a loving shepherd. 00:27:18.319 --> 00:27:18.799 Right. 00:27:18.819 --> 00:27:20.460 And he says he lacks nothing. 00:27:20.579 --> 00:27:23.059 He doesn't see scarcity in his life. 00:27:24.380 --> 00:27:30.519 You know, he loves being led by God and sees God's leading as a path to flourishing. 00:27:31.460 --> 00:27:39.900 And even though God might lead him through the darkest valley, some translations say the valley of the shadow of death. 00:27:40.740 --> 00:27:42.200 He doesn't act out. 00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:44.160 He doesn't, he doesn't buck. 00:27:44.240 --> 00:27:45.519 He doesn't try to go a different way. 00:27:45.599 --> 00:27:50.099 Instead, he says, I'm comforted by your rod and staff. 00:27:50.359 --> 00:27:52.180 He's comforted by God. 00:27:53.720 --> 00:28:00.119 And even with these limits that God is putting before him, he sees a feast laid out for him. 00:28:00.519 --> 00:28:04.319 You know, when he stays within the confines of this house that God has built for him. 00:28:06.579 --> 00:28:09.619 I think it can be very easy for us. 00:28:09.759 --> 00:28:10.180 I don't know. 00:28:12.099 --> 00:28:18.740 I don't know if it's a Western American thing, if it's a generation thing, maybe, or I'm not a hundred percent sure. 00:28:18.740 --> 00:28:20.359 Maybe it's a guy thing, but we love lists. 00:28:20.940 --> 00:28:24.519 You know, I think we look at places like Galatians 5, right? 00:28:24.579 --> 00:28:26.680 Where it says, no, we love lists, right? 00:28:26.680 --> 00:28:30.059 Where it says the acts of the flesh are evidence, right? 00:28:30.059 --> 00:28:34.519 Sexual impurity, fits of rage, anger, dissensions, jealousy. 00:28:35.319 --> 00:28:38.740 But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience. 00:28:38.900 --> 00:28:41.779 And we think, great, I can do these things. 00:28:41.819 --> 00:28:44.400 I can not do these things and I'm golden. 00:28:45.799 --> 00:28:52.740 But it seems like there's a little bit, there's a heart that those lists are trying to get us to very often. 00:28:52.759 --> 00:28:55.880 And I think it's described very well in this psalm. 00:28:55.920 --> 00:28:58.839 And that's how God created us to be originally, right? 00:28:58.839 --> 00:29:03.480 It was this heart of following him and loving what he's doing for us. 00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:09.960 When I was in Milwaukee, there was a guy, his name was Dustin Wood. 00:29:10.019 --> 00:29:10.960 I don't think he's there anymore. 00:29:11.079 --> 00:29:12.779 I think he's in Minnesota or something now. 00:29:12.859 --> 00:29:16.119 But I remember he was giving a lesson and I think it was on Genesis 3. 00:29:17.480 --> 00:29:23.980 And he used this analogy and it's kind of goofy, but it really helped me to be able to see what's going on here. 00:29:23.980 --> 00:29:27.420 He said, we as people are free. 00:29:27.660 --> 00:29:33.220 We have the freedom to fill the gas tanks in our cars with toothpaste. 00:29:34.819 --> 00:29:41.099 But when we treat them the way that they were meant to be, we have the freedom to drive across the nation. 00:29:42.740 --> 00:29:46.839 And I think that's really what's being communicated a lot in these stories here, right? 00:29:47.140 --> 00:29:50.900 God's limits are a path to freedom that he gives us. 00:29:50.900 --> 00:30:02.839 You know, when we look at our own lives and we look at God's word and we see that there are, actually there's limits that God is giving to us, but they're really helpful for us, right? 00:30:03.440 --> 00:30:13.839 Resting versus work, you know, feasting and fasting, ambition versus contentment, shrewdness versus generosity. 00:30:13.980 --> 00:30:17.480 These are all things that the Bible lifts up at different points. 00:30:17.500 --> 00:30:18.519 They're all great things. 00:30:18.519 --> 00:30:24.680 But when we don't have wisdom and we don't have limitations, they all become folly. 00:30:26.079 --> 00:30:29.700 You know, but, you know, nevermind, not but. 00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:37.799 When you look at your own life, are there areas where you're pushing past the limits that God has put before you, spiritual or physical? 00:30:45.259 --> 00:30:49.480 Genesis 321, it says, The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 00:30:50.000 --> 00:31:00.180 Even though humanity pushed past the limits that God put before them, and before us, really, and tried to seize godhood for ourselves, he lovingly covers their shame and clothes them. 00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:05.940 We're going to kind of start wrapping up here. 00:31:06.380 --> 00:31:09.640 There's a scripture in Philippians chapter 2 that I want to share with you guys. 00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:13.759 It's starting in verse 5. 00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:24.900 It says, In your relationship with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. 00:31:25.839 --> 00:31:28.839 Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant. 00:31:29.619 --> 00:31:37.099 Being made in human likeness and being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. 00:31:37.980 --> 00:31:51.140 Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. 00:31:52.299 --> 00:32:12.099 It's ironic, I think, that Adam and Eve, they became less like God by trying to become God, and Jesus, who is God, showed us how to be like God by understanding our own human limitations. 00:32:13.619 --> 00:32:28.319 You know, despite Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, his temptation in the garden, his temptation on the cross, he took on these human limitations so that we could be saved, right? 00:32:28.460 --> 00:32:31.940 And what that does for us is, I think that gives us a lot of hope. 00:32:32.579 --> 00:32:38.779 And I like to end every lesson with this word, hope, because I think it's so important to our understanding of who God is, right? 00:32:39.119 --> 00:32:45.960 What Jesus does here is, it gives us hope, and it gives us hope for a future, a future resurrection, and that is absolutely true. 00:32:45.960 --> 00:32:54.599 But I think it also shows us that when we love and honor God's loving limits for us right now, we have freedom now. 00:32:54.839 --> 00:32:57.160 We have freedom now that God gives us. 00:32:58.299 --> 00:33:02.819 And so I have two questions to kind of take with you guys as you're going through the week. 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:05.500 One is, how is God limiting you right now? 00:33:06.720 --> 00:33:08.940 And how can you find comfort in those limits? 00:33:09.960 --> 00:33:10.180 Amen? 00:33:11.279 --> 00:33:13.619 I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna close with a prayer. 00:33:13.619 --> 00:33:16.579 And I think I really liked what Paul did when he closed with the Lord's Prayer. 00:33:16.700 --> 00:33:19.680 So I'm gonna do that real quick, and then you guys are dismissed to pick up your kids. 00:33:21.980 --> 00:33:25.619 Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. 00:33:26.140 --> 00:33:30.220 Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 00:33:30.759 --> 00:33:37.759 Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. 00:33:38.119 --> 00:33:41.720 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 00:33:41.720 --> 00:33:46.319 For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. 00:33:46.660 --> 00:33:46.940 Amen. 00:33:47.559 --> 00:33:48.440 Amen, guys. 00:33:48.839 --> 00:33:50.079 You can pick up your kids. 00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:50.799 You're dismissed. 00:33:51.259 --> 00:33:55.660 Thank you so much for listening to the Kalamazoo Church of Christ podcast. 00:33:56.039 --> 00:33:59.359 If you're in the Kalamazoo area, we'd love to get connected. 00:33:59.599 --> 00:34:06.960 Please go to kalamazoo.church and fill in your information to come to a Sunday service or any other event that we have going on. 00:34:07.159 --> 00:34:09.599 In any case, you'll be hearing from us next week.