Speaker 1: Well, good morning, welcome to church.
Speaker 1: What a great day that it has been already.
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful that you're here today.
Speaker 1: Kids, why don't y'all stand to your feet and head out to kids?
Speaker 1: Man, let's give our kids a big round of applause as they roll out this morning, so that the video we just watched ask the question why?
Speaker 1: Why is the world the way that it is?
Speaker 1: Why do we so often seem to engage in self-destructive, self-centered, short-sighted behaviors?
Speaker 1: Why are things the way that they are?
Speaker 1: And that's the question that we're going to ask and hopefully come to some clarity on today.
Speaker 1: This is part two of a series called Vapor and Rust, and it's about making the most of the moment that we have.
Speaker 1: Life is a mist, it's a vapor here today, gone tomorrow.
Speaker 1: How do we maximize our time on this planet?
Speaker 1: You know, the reality is, I think, for all of us in the room we want the keys to the kingdom, we want to be in charge, we want to be in the driver's seat, we want to be the captain of our own ship, the captain of our own soul.
Speaker 1: Right, we want the keys.
Speaker 1: Do you remember when you started driving?
Speaker 1: Some of you got to go a little further back in the archives.
Speaker 1: You know some of our youth in the room they're there now Some of the parents in the room.
Speaker 1: You're going through that with your youth and that's a whole other ball game.
Speaker 1: But I was thinking about that idea this week when I started driving.
Speaker 1: I remember my dad.
Speaker 1: His favorite phrase for the entirety of the time that I was learning to drive was use the brakes, use the brakes.
Speaker 1: And I didn't like the brakes.
Speaker 1: I liked the gas, as the kids would say all gas, no brakes.
Speaker 1: I didn't like the brake.
Speaker 1: And dad would say on repeat use the brake, use the brake, use the brake.
Speaker 1: Like dad, I'm going 15 and a 45.
Speaker 1: It didn't matter, use the brake.
Speaker 1: When my sister started driving, she did not like to use the gas, she liked only the brake.
Speaker 1: And so she'd pull up to her road, you know, and it's before lane, she's trying to pull into traffic and it would be like Emily, you got to go.
Speaker 1: She's like I can see a car, it's a glimmer on the horizon, I can see a car coming and she's waiting on the car.
Speaker 1: And then when Emily would finally start to go, you know she'd inch out and be like are we even moving?
Speaker 1: And this car is getting closer.
Speaker 1: That used to be a glimmer on the horizon.
Speaker 1: Now it's right there.
Speaker 1: Emily, hit the gas, right, that was her phrase.
Speaker 1: Hit the gas, go, go, go.
Speaker 1: When Sam started driving, sam's thing was he was going to turn around and have a conversation with somebody in the backseat and you know he's driving down the road trying to make eye contact with somebody on the third row of the minivan and my mom and dad.
Speaker 1: We got to the point where it was like just keep your eyes on the road.
Speaker 1: And then my mom, I think, finally said like I'm not riding with him anymore.
Speaker 1: I remember being like 22, 23 years old and having to ride in the car with Sam and try to help keep Sam's eyes on the road.
Speaker 1: It was quite an experience and we made it.
Speaker 1: We're here today, but that sense of like learning to drive, trying to figure it out, and then and then you passed the driving test and you go from the permit to the restricted or the actual license.
Speaker 1: Y'all remember that feeling Like you actually can have the keys now and drive the car by yourself.
Speaker 1: I remember passing my restricted test and getting the keys and going home and be like mom, dad.
Speaker 1: I got to go to grandpa and grandma's.
Speaker 1: Like, why?
Speaker 1: Like, because I can drive.
Speaker 1: Now I just need to go to grandpa and grandma's, you know, get in the car.
Speaker 1: I put, like Kenny Chesney on the radio, rolled the windows down.
Speaker 1: It was living right.
Speaker 1: When you get the keys and you're in charge, it is life, right, it's life.
Speaker 1: And then then what happens?
Speaker 1: You start to drive and then you realize, oh, my goodness, my gas tank is on empty.
Speaker 1: And now I'm the only one in this thing, cause I got the keys, now I got to pay for gas.
Speaker 1: And then there's car insurance, right, which, as a teenage driver male, that ain't cheap, right.
Speaker 1: And then you got car insurance and gas and then inevitably something breaks and that's always expensive.
Speaker 1: And then in my case, you know people don't like it when you roll through stop signs.
Speaker 1: Apparently, police officers are trained to pull you over for that, and that happened a couple of times and it's like, wait a minute, I thought I wanted the keys and now I'm paying for gas and there's insurance involved and I keep getting pulled over only twice for rolling through stop signs.
Speaker 1: Don't judge me, you know like there's a whole lot more involved in this thing than I thought there was, and that's a great metaphor for what happened in Genesis, chapter three, when Adam and Eve rebelled against God.
Speaker 1: They sinned, they give into temptation, they give into their flesh and they fall, and in the worst possible way, what they got was a whole lot more than what they bargained for.
Speaker 1: And that's really where we're going to go today.
Speaker 1: What is the impact of sin on us and on our world?
Speaker 1: Why is the world the way that it is?
Speaker 1: It's because of what happened in Genesis, chapter three, and today, in about 30 minutes, y'all, I need you all to like, get ready and hang on tight, because we're going to cover eight chapters of scripture in 30 minutes, okay, and the first service looked at me like you're all looking at me right now, and we almost made it out on time.
Speaker 1: It wasn't quite on time, it was close to on time, so y'all hang with me, we'll make it out on time this morning, I promise.
Speaker 1: Uh, or the kids teachers will come and get me, um, because they'll be like hey, come get your babies.
Speaker 1: You know, but we're going to get through eight chapters of scripture and we're going to see today the impact that sin has on the world, what comes with our rebellion against God and we're going to land on good news.
Speaker 1: So don't worry, it's going to get difficult and dark for a few moments, but it's going to land today on good news.
Speaker 1: So here's the story, from Genesis, chapter four, through Genesis, chapter 11.
Speaker 1: I'm going to summarize it first and then we'll go back and break it out.
Speaker 1: So Adam and Eve.
Speaker 1: Adam and Eve have a son.
Speaker 1: His name is Cain.
Speaker 1: He's the firstborn.
Speaker 1: They have a second son, his name is able, and there comes a point when Cain and able are growing up, they decide to make an offering to God.
Speaker 1: And Cain, he's a farmer.
Speaker 1: So he goes and gets some of the crop of the ground.
Speaker 1: Able is a shepherd.
Speaker 1: He goes and gets the firstborn of the flock and they bring their offerings to God and God accepts able's offering of the firstborn of the flock.
Speaker 1: He rejects Cain's offering of the harvest of the ground.
Speaker 1: Now here's what's important to note.
Speaker 1: It's not the type of offering that was given.
Speaker 1: It's not that God was looking for a sheep and Cain brought a cantaloupe.
Speaker 1: That's not the point.
Speaker 1: The issue is the heart behind the offering.
Speaker 1: Able brought the first and the best to God.
Speaker 1: Cain just brought what was laying around.
Speaker 1: Cain was ungrateful and had a lack of generosity in his spirit.
Speaker 1: Able was grateful to God and gave willingly from a generous spirit.
Speaker 1: And so Cain is ticked that God has accepted able's offering, rejected his offering.
Speaker 1: He lures able into the field.
Speaker 1: I don't know what he said hey, let's go to the field and throw the baseball around.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 1: He gets able in the field and he kills it.
Speaker 1: God shows up and says hey, cain, what happened to your brother able?
Speaker 1: Cain says I don't know.
Speaker 1: Am I my brother's keeper?
Speaker 1: And the answer there is absolutely.
Speaker 1: You are.
Speaker 1: We're responsible to each other and for one another.
Speaker 1: And Cain ends up being cursed and sent out to wonder the earth.
Speaker 1: And so, in one act of sin, one act of the flesh, adam and Eve have lost both their sons.
Speaker 1: But God is good and he gives Adam and Eve another son.
Speaker 1: His name is Seth.
Speaker 1: And so there begins another branch on the family tree.
Speaker 1: Cain's branch trends in one direction, toward chaos and brokenness.
Speaker 1: God shows up through Seth's lineage and begins to work again in Adam and Eve's family.
Speaker 1: Genesis, chapter five.
Speaker 1: You get a little bit of a genealogy In Genesis chapter six.
Speaker 1: Things have gone from bad to worse.
Speaker 1: Things have gone from bad to worse and the whole earth is full of violence.
Speaker 1: The hearts of men and women are corrupt.
Speaker 1: Every intention of the thought of every heart is evil, Except there's one man in his family.
Speaker 1: The man's name is Noah.
Speaker 1: Noah finds favor in the eyes of God.
Speaker 1: Favor can also mean grace.
Speaker 1: God is gracious to Noah because Noah, in the middle of a broken and twisted generation, noah believes God.
Speaker 1: And isn't that good news for us today, that even in the middle of a world that seems to be trending toward disorder, in a world where chaos and violence reign supreme, we can stand strong, even if we stand alone.
Speaker 1: And God will be gracious to his people.
Speaker 1: And so God comes to Noah and says Noah, I need you to do something for me.
Speaker 1: I need you to build a boat.
Speaker 1: Noah's like what's a boat?
Speaker 1: God's like it's what you're gonna need when the rain comes, and Noah's like what's rain?
Speaker 1: But yeah, he believes God.
Speaker 1: And at about 480 years of age, noah begins to build a boat.
Speaker 1: He works on it for 120 years.
Speaker 1: How many of you are getting some new life plans right now, even as we're talking about that?
Speaker 1: And at the age of 600, the rain begins to fall on the earth and Noah and his family and a bunch of animals load up the boat and God closes the door and judgment falls on the earth and God begins again and through the flood, he preserves Noah and his family.
Speaker 1: Finally, the day comes, the ark comes to rest on the top of a mountain.
Speaker 1: God opens the door, noah and his family exit the ark the only people left on the planet.
Speaker 1: Noah gets off and immediately, as a response to the graciousness of God, noah builds an altar.
Speaker 1: Builds an altar and begins to worship God.
Speaker 1: God comes and makes a covenant with Noah, says Noah, never again will I destroy the earth like this.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna preserve you, I'm gonna preserve your line, your family.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna one day bring deliverance through your family.
Speaker 1: Then Genesis, chapter nine, ends with a bit of an R rated scene.
Speaker 1: Cause Noah, even though he was faithful to God, found favor in the eyes of God and made a covenant with God.
Speaker 1: Noah was not a perfect man.
Speaker 1: And Genesis nine ends with Noah's grandson being cursed because of this weird scene that ultimately has massive ramifications for the Israelite people all throughout the New Testament or the Old Testament Genesis 10, you get another genealogy.
Speaker 1: Genesis 11,.
Speaker 1: People are migrating to the East.
Speaker 1: They're doing what God told them to do, they're being fruitful, they're multiplying, they're going to fill the earth.
Speaker 1: But then, all of a sudden, they get to this plane and they gather in this plane and, rather than carrying out the mandate of God into the earth, they're like, hey, this is a great place to settle down, build a tower with its top in the heavens, and we're going to make a name for ourselves right here on this plane.
Speaker 1: So, rather than carrying the glory of God into the earth, rather than allowing God to dictate to them how they're going to live their lives, they say no, we're going to do it our way.
Speaker 1: We're going to build a tower, we're going to reach God on our terms, we're going to make our name great.
Speaker 1: But God's committed to his plan.
Speaker 1: So he comes down, he visits the people on the planes of Shinar and he scatters them all throughout the earth and we call it the tower of Babel.
Speaker 1: And that's Genesis four through 11.
Speaker 1: That's where we're going today, and the reason that we're putting all of this in two weeks Genesis one through 11 is because this is a pattern that helps us understand why the world is the way that it is.
Speaker 1: So today, let's talk for a few moments about five impacts that sin has on me and on you and on our world.
Speaker 1: Number one sin.
Speaker 1: Sin corrupts or introduces dysfunction or it breaks connection to Almighty God and it inhibits our worship.
Speaker 1: We see that in Genesis, chapter four.
Speaker 1: For some reason, cain and Abel decide to make an offering to God.
Speaker 1: Abel's offering is from a generous spirit, a grateful heart.
Speaker 1: Cain's is not.
Speaker 1: And isn't that the impact that sin has on our lives?
Speaker 1: It stops us from worshiping God the way God intends to be worshiped.
Speaker 1: God is all powerful, he is glorious.
Speaker 1: He is sovereign over all his creation.
Speaker 1: What that means for me and you is he is worthy of our worship.
Speaker 1: And yet sometimes we don't feel like worshiping, do we?
Speaker 1: Sometimes we'd rather do our thing.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we'd rather take care of us before we honor God.
Speaker 1: Cain's issue in Genesis, chapter four, is that, because of the impact of sin, cain's focus has turned inward Rather than Cain's focus being upward towards God and outward towards others.
Speaker 1: Sin has made Cain self-centered.
Speaker 1: Rather than a generosity of spirit, cain is concerned with holding on to what is his, and God invites us into his story and he invites us to give back to him generously.
Speaker 1: Paul says in the New Testament the Lord loves a cheerful giver.
Speaker 1: A cheerful giver, jesus said to his followers God's looking for those who will worship him in spirit and in truth, from a pure heart.
Speaker 1: A place of worship, a place of willingness.
Speaker 1: It's a get to, not a have to, not a have to.
Speaker 1: Abel gives freely and generously, grateful to God.
Speaker 1: Cain gives reluctantly from the leftovers because he feels like he's supposed to out of obligation.
Speaker 1: Can I challenge you to evaluate your world a little bit?
Speaker 1: Are you giving freely, generously, from the overflow of a grateful spirit?
Speaker 1: You know God has given us so much, has he not?
Speaker 1: John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that we who could believe in him would not perish but have eternal life.
Speaker 1: When we understand that God is generous, god is a giver, it creates a generous spirit within us, and I'm not just talking about money, I'm talking about time and effort and love and compassion to those who don't even know Jesus yet.
Speaker 1: Generosity isn't just about what you do with your finances, it's about what you do with your life.
Speaker 1: Generosity at the core is an act of worship, a response to a generous God who's been good and gracious to us.
Speaker 1: Can I just say this morning I'm so thankful to be part of a really generous church.
Speaker 1: Not only does this church give generously financially, this church gives generously of time, this church gives generously of service.
Speaker 1: This church is a place where anybody can come and feel welcomed and loved and a place that you can belong, and the reason is because it's full of people who generously give of what God has given to you.
Speaker 1: Thanks for being generous.
Speaker 1: Thank you for who you are, for allowing the overflow of grace in your life to flow the people around you.
Speaker 1: May we always be a generous people who worship God and spirit and truth from a pure heart.
Speaker 1: Sin fractures our connection.
Speaker 1: It inhibits our worship.
Speaker 1: The second thing that sin does sin brings dysfunction into our relationships with others.
Speaker 1: Anybody wanna say amen to that this morning?
Speaker 1: Relationships are hard, I always tell our youth.
Speaker 1: I used to say all the time relationships are hard because people are weird and you're people and I'm people right.
Speaker 1: And the reason we're weird is because we sin.
Speaker 1: We fall.
Speaker 1: We want what we want at the expense of what somebody else needs.
Speaker 1: We're selfish at the core.
Speaker 1: Sin fractures our relationships not only with God.
Speaker 1: It brings dysfunction into our relationships with one another.
Speaker 1: Genesis four begins with broken worship that overflows into murder.
Speaker 1: Adam's and Eve's first son kills their second son because of the exponential impact of sin in their lives.
Speaker 1: Cain's angry, his face falls.
Speaker 1: God says, cain, if you do well, will you not be accepted?
Speaker 1: Now your face will be lifted up.
Speaker 1: But sin is crouching at your door, cain.
Speaker 1: Its desire is for you.
Speaker 1: Sin wants to consume you from the inside out.
Speaker 1: And God says, cain, you must rule over the sin in you.
Speaker 1: But Cain's like me and he's like you.
Speaker 1: He has no power in and of his own strength to rule over the sin within Sin, rather rules over him.
Speaker 1: He calls his brother out into the field and in Genesis, chapter four, he murders his brother.
Speaker 1: But the dysfunction in Adam and Eve's family doesn't end there, because later on in Genesis, chapter four, cain's got a great, great grandson.
Speaker 1: His name's Lamik.
Speaker 1: And Lamik says to his wives, in Genesis four, 23, adam and Zilla, his wives, hear my voice.
Speaker 1: You, wives of Lamik, listen to what I say.
Speaker 1: I've killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.
Speaker 1: If Cain's revenge is seven fold, then Lamik's is 77 fold.
Speaker 1: Lamik's, like you, thought grandpa was bad.
Speaker 1: Look at me, look at me.
Speaker 1: Adam and Eve's family, because of sin, falls into disorder and chaos, and I say that to give, maybe, you a little bit of hope today, if you're looking at your family, there's some dysfunction in my family too.
Speaker 1: There's some disorder in some of my relationships too, because I want you to see what happens next.
Speaker 1: Genesis four, 25,.
Speaker 1: Adam knew his wife again.
Speaker 1: She bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, god has appointed for me another offspring.
Speaker 1: Instead of able, for Cain killed him.
Speaker 1: To Seth also, a son was born and he called his name Enosh, and at that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Speaker 1: So on one side of the family tree you've got Cain, who murdered his brother, and great, great grandson Lamik, who says if Cain's bad, I'm 77 times worse.
Speaker 1: But on the other side of the family tree you've got a son named Seth, who has a son, and in that generation people begin to call on the name of God again.
Speaker 1: So if your family today is in dysfunction, you're looking at things when I don't know if things are ever gonna get better.
Speaker 1: Stay faithful, keep praying, keep believing, keep loving and serving your family in the name of Jesus, because God is the God who's able to bring beauty from the ashes, and there's coming a day I believe this with all my heart where your family will one day again call on the name of Almighty God.
Speaker 1: And maybe you see it or maybe you don't, but here's the thing you can be the example for the generations to follow.
Speaker 1: Maybe you didn't have that growing up, maybe you didn't have grandpa or mom or dad to look at and say that's what it looks like to follow Jesus, but you can be that example for the generations to come after you.
Speaker 1: You can be that example for your friends.
Speaker 1: You can be that example in the office.
Speaker 1: You can be what you needed when you were young and you can believe that one day, god who allowed Adam and Eve's family to experience incredible pain, the same God, will be at work in your family To redeem and restore.
Speaker 1: To redeem and restore.
Speaker 1: Genesis, chapter five it's the genealogy, and every line in the genealogy goes something like here's a name, here's how long this person lived and he died.
Speaker 1: Name, time of life, and they died.
Speaker 1: And if you put Genesis five up against Genesis one, you notice the difference in repetition.
Speaker 1: Genesis five and he died and he died and he died.
Speaker 1: Genesis one before the fall it was good.
Speaker 1: It was good it was good In the middle.
Speaker 1: Genesis three sin enters the world.
Speaker 1: Sin leads to death and we see that in the genealogy in Genesis chapter five.
Speaker 1: Now there is one exception.
Speaker 1: His name is Enoch.
Speaker 1: Enoch walked with God and God took him.
Speaker 1: He was no more.
Speaker 1: And that's all you get about Enoch.
Speaker 1: I'm like can we not get a little bit more about Enoch, like in the middle of all this, like that's actually some good news, let's talk more about that guy, you know.
Speaker 1: But that's all we get about Enoch in Genesis chapter five.
Speaker 1: But we see how quickly the world has been broken and corrupted, which is number four.
Speaker 1: Sin corrupts both the human heart and the entire earth.
Speaker 1: So after the genealogy in Genesis chapter five, it lands on a man named Noah.
Speaker 1: And what we see in Genesis chapter six there's this strange little interlude at the beginning of chapter six where the sons of God and the daughters of man get together and that's not a good scenario and we can talk about that another day.
Speaker 1: But then, genesis six, verse five the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, continually.
Speaker 1: So this is what sin has done to the human heart, every intention of the thoughts of the heart.
Speaker 1: What a phrase, right.
Speaker 1: It's not just like people were bad occasionally.
Speaker 1: No, it's like the deepest part of who we are is broken beyond repair.
Speaker 1: Every intention of the thoughts of the heart, the stuff nobody sees and nobody knows about, the inner motivations that make us who we are.
Speaker 1: That's where we're broken.
Speaker 1: This is what sin has done to us.
Speaker 1: It has corrupted us at the core, the very core of our being.
Speaker 1: Paul, in Ephesians, chapter two.
Speaker 1: He expounds on the impact that sin has had on our lives and he says this you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
Speaker 1: So for some of us, this used to be who we were.
Speaker 1: This is past tense, but that same spirit is still at work in the world today, in people who do not know God.
Speaker 1: Paul says we all once lived there in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Speaker 1: This is what sin has done to the human heart.
Speaker 1: This is what sin has done to us.
Speaker 1: But not only has sin corrupted us.
Speaker 1: Genesis six goes on.
Speaker 1: We get the introduction of Noah.
Speaker 1: Noah finds favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Speaker 1: He's a righteous man, blameless in his generation.
Speaker 1: He walked with God.
Speaker 1: And then Genesis six 11 says the earth was corrupt in God's sight.
Speaker 1: So not only is the human heart corrupt, the earth is corrupt.
Speaker 1: The earth was full of violence.
Speaker 1: God saw the earth and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
Speaker 1: So watch this because of Adam and Eve's sin, not only are they broken, but the creation is broken, the world is broken.
Speaker 1: Why does our world, our universe, trend toward disorder and chaos?
Speaker 1: Because sin broke not just us but the world around us.
Speaker 1: Paul says it like this in Romans, chapter one he's talking about the tendency that we all have to do things our own way and how God and his judgment has handed us over to what we want because of our sin nature.
Speaker 1: And Paul writes this in Romans, chapter one, verse 20, his invisible nature, god's invisible nature, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made.
Speaker 1: So they amen or without excuse, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.
Speaker 1: But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Speaker 1: So this is what it's done to us.
Speaker 1: Now fast forward to Romans, chapter eight, and I want you to see what this is done to the world.
Speaker 1: For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
Speaker 1: For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Speaker 1: For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
Speaker 1: So, because we chose our way over God's way, creation itself now exists under the curse, the condemnation of sin.
Speaker 1: And Paul says in Romans eight creation itself is groaning.
Speaker 1: Because creation has been subjected to futility.
Speaker 1: It's not functioning as God intended.
Speaker 1: It's in bondage, just as we are in bondage to our sin.
Speaker 1: Sin corrupts both the human heart and the entire earth.
Speaker 1: And then number five sin places us under the just judgment of God.
Speaker 1: Sin places us condemned before God.
Speaker 1: The wages of sin, scripture says, is death.
Speaker 1: The payment demanded of sin is blood.
Speaker 1: Because sin enters the world.
Speaker 1: We die because we've sinned.
Speaker 1: The wrath of God rest on.
Speaker 1: So we see that in Genesis seven and eight, as God wipes out everything he's made, except Noah and his family.
Speaker 1: Everything on the dry land and whose nostrils was the breath of life died.
Speaker 1: He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground man and animals, creeping things, birds of the heavens that were blotted out from the earth.
Speaker 1: Only Noah was left.
Speaker 1: See, this is why we have to take sin seriously.
Speaker 1: We can't wink at sin.
Speaker 1: We can't pat sin on the head and act like it's just like a pet that we just keep around because we're not really fond of it, but it's just here, right Like we can't treat sin Carefully.
Speaker 1: We can't treat sin lightly or casually.
Speaker 1: We've got to kill sin in our lives.
Speaker 1: Gotta, put it to death.
Speaker 1: That's the language Paul uses in Romans.
Speaker 1: He says put to death the flesh that is within you by the power of the spirit of God within you.
Speaker 1: We can't treat sin casually, because sin corrupts everything, and that's what we see in Genesis 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
Speaker 1: Fortunately, genesis 9 comes, God makes a covenant with Noah.
Speaker 1: And don't you love that?
Speaker 1: Even in the midst of the brokenness, we serve a God who's faithful.
Speaker 1: We sang earlier I've seen you move.
Speaker 1: You move the mountains, and I believe I'll see you do it again, y'all.
Speaker 1: The mountain of sin is massive.
Speaker 1: The impact of sin on the earth is exponential, and if there's anything we learn in Genesis 4 through 11, it's that we are powerless in the face of sin.
Speaker 1: Because what happens?
Speaker 1: God comes in Genesis 9, makes a covenant with Noah and by the end of Genesis 9, noah's grandson is cursed because of sin.
Speaker 1: Genesis 10 happens and then Genesis 11 comes and the Tower of Babel happens.
Speaker 1: And people are doing what people still do everywhere.
Speaker 1: They're trying to reach God on their own terms.
Speaker 1: They're trying to seize the keys to the kingdom back from God.
Speaker 1: They're trying to do it their way and make their own name great.
Speaker 1: And don't you and I do the same thing?
Speaker 1: So God says in Genesis 11, behold, they're one people.
Speaker 1: They have all one language.
Speaker 1: This is only the beginning of what they will do.
Speaker 1: Nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
Speaker 1: So God comes down and confuses their language, disperses them from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city.
Speaker 1: Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth.
Speaker 1: Now here's what's interesting the Hebrew word for Babel is the same Hebrew word that's later translated Babylon.
Speaker 1: And so what you see in Genesis 11 is this pride that exists within every single one of us that says I can be my own God, I can do it my way.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna build a tower and it's gonna be so impressive.
Speaker 1: God's gonna come down and see it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna reach God on my own terms.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make my own name great.
Speaker 1: That is the spirit of Babylon that exists within every single human heart.
Speaker 1: Later, babylon becomes an empire Set up in opposition to the plan and the purpose of God and the earth.
Speaker 1: The New Testament writers pick that theme up, and the great enemy defeated at the end of the age, alongside the dragon, by the rider on the white horse, is called Babylon.
Speaker 1: It's the spirit of prideful rebellion against the rule of Almighty God.
Speaker 1: Why is the world the way that it is?
Speaker 1: Because Genesis one through 11 is the pattern of all humanity.
Speaker 1: God creates a good, perfect world and invites his people into relationship with him.
Speaker 1: People, lured away by their own desire, rebel against the rule of God.
Speaker 1: They break the boundaries that God has put in place, not for our restriction but for our protection.
Speaker 1: And because of sin, the world descends into chaos.
Speaker 1: And time and time again, we build our own babble, we attempt to be our own God.
Speaker 1: We seize the keys of the kingdom.
Speaker 1: One pastor said one time that Genesis one through 11 isn't just the story of what happened, it's the story of what always happens, it's the pattern for all humanity.
Speaker 1: So, thanks for coming to church today.
Speaker 1: What do we do with this?
Speaker 1: If this is why the world is the way it is because we have a tendency to rebel against God's rules, to break the boundaries that he's put in place for our own good.
Speaker 1: What do we do about this today?
Speaker 1: Well, jesus, in Revelation, chapter one, he shows up to a guy named John who's in exile, and he gives John a vision of what is to come, the world that will be.
Speaker 1: And John, when he sees Jesus, he's overwhelmed.
Speaker 1: He's overcome, because this time he doesn't see the baby in a manger, he sees one who's like a son of man.
Speaker 1: He's clothed with a long robe, he's got a golden sash around his chest.
Speaker 1: The hairs on his head were white like white wool, like snow.
Speaker 1: His eyes are like a flame of fire.
Speaker 1: His feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace.
Speaker 1: His voice was like the roar of many waters.
Speaker 1: In his right hand he held seven stars and from his mouth comes a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
Speaker 1: That's what John sees.
Speaker 1: He sees the risen, resurrected King Jesus in all of his glory and power.
Speaker 1: And when I saw him, john says, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand, the hand of blessing, on me, saying fear not, I'm the first and I'm the last, I'm the living one.
Speaker 1: I died and behold, I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and hate.
Speaker 1: Ease, see, guys.
Speaker 1: What happens is when we seize the keys from Almighty God and we say I'll run my life, I'll order my life, I'll drive this ship myself, where we end up as a place called death, and death, promising freedom, promising life, captures us and we are powerless to get out of the prison that we have locked ourselves in.
Speaker 1: So what do we do?
Speaker 1: We surrender the keys to King Jesus, the first and the last, the one who died and the one who is alive forevermore, because he has the keys to everything that keeps us bound, what we're powerless to defeat.
Speaker 1: Jesus has defeated, is defeating and will forever defeat.
Speaker 1: He's the King, today, yesterday and forever.
Speaker 1: He's the rider on the white horse who will conquer the dragon, who will defeat the spirit of Babylon, who will redeem his people once and for all.
Speaker 1: He is the one who is worthy of the keys, and so Paul says in Romans 12, he's like.
Speaker 1: What's our response to the glory of Christ?
Speaker 1: It's to lay down our lives, to surrender.
Speaker 1: It's our reasonable response to who God is.
Speaker 1: We're not going to be conformed to the pattern of this world.
Speaker 1: We're going to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, surrender the keys and break the pattern.
Speaker 1: I don't have the power to break the Genesis 1 to 11 pattern, but Jesus, the risen one, the one who is alive forever, who's conquered death and hell in the grave, he can break the pattern of sin and shame and guilt that I find myself stuck in so many times.
Speaker 1: He can break the pattern of dysfunction.
Speaker 1: He can break the pattern of death and destruction.
Speaker 1: Jesus can conquer and lead you into victory in whatever it is that you're walking through, and maybe it won't look like you want it to look right now.
Speaker 1: Maybe the victory comes one day in glory when we see Jesus face to face.
Speaker 1: But Paul says in Corinthians we know that in Christ, god always leads his people in triumphant procession.
Speaker 1: So give Jesus the keys to your life, to your family, to your marriage, to your finances, to your business, your career, the dysfunction that you try to hide and you don't want anybody to know about.
Speaker 1: Give him the keys to that too, because he's the first, the last, the living one who is alive forevermore.
Speaker 1: Surrender the keys and break the pattern.
Speaker 1: Father, we are thankful today.
Speaker 1: Surrender the keys and break the pattern.
Speaker 1: Father, we are thankful today that, in a world where so many times we can't get it right and the people around us don't get it right and it seems like the world never gets it right, god, jesus got it right.
Speaker 1: He got it right and because Jesus did everything right, we can be right with you today, father.
Speaker 1: Even in our failure, we can know your faithfulness.
Speaker 1: Even in our rebellion, god, we can know your grace, we can receive your mercy, we can receive your forgiveness.
Speaker 1: So, father, help us to surrender the keys, to not lean on our own understanding, but to acknowledge you in all our ways and to trust our paths to you In Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: Before we stand and sing, I just want to ask one question have you surrendered the keys of your life to Jesus for the first time and received the gift of grace, through faith in Christ, that produces salvation in your life?
Speaker 1: If you haven't, if you say I don't know Jesus, I'm still dead in my sin.
Speaker 1: I am the Ephesians 2, following my own flesh, doing what I want, and I need the forgiveness of God.
Speaker 1: In just a moment we're going to stand and sing and I want to invite you to take a step out from where you are and meet me at the back of the room.
Speaker 1: I would love to have that conversation with you this morning about what it means for you to surrender your life and receive the gift of grace in Christ.
Speaker 1: If you need to join the church or you just need somebody to pray with you, we'll have people at the back of the room.
Speaker 1: This is the moment for us to respond as the Spirit leads, but let's stand together and we're going to declare with everything that we are that Jesus, the living one, is our living hope, today and forever.