SPEAKER_03: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_03: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_04: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_04: Lord, when we come to you, uh when we sing glory to your name, we are just fulfilling part of our creative purpose because we eat and sleep and drink and live to bring you glory.
SPEAKER_04: That's why the Bible says, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, to offer the glory of God.
SPEAKER_04: Lord, deliver us from doing what we do for a paycheck.
SPEAKER_04: That feels good some days, but it'll never be enough to affect our ethic, our morality, our being as people, the way we occupy our space.
SPEAKER_04: And so, Holy Spirit, we're gonna open up the Bible.
SPEAKER_04: We're gonna come to God.
SPEAKER_04: This is not a talk about relationships.
SPEAKER_04: This is a talk about God who created to be free people who trust you for everything and with everything.
SPEAKER_04: Because when we come to God, we're coming to a fountain that is both rich and sweet.
SPEAKER_04: And so our poverty gets immersed in your riches today, God.
SPEAKER_04: And the bitter taste that this world leaves in us gets just abolished by the sweetness of who God is.
SPEAKER_04: So let us taste and see that the Lord is good and let that leave a sweet, smelling aroma in our mouth and on our lives.
SPEAKER_04: So when we get to work tomorrow, the people around us sense something different about us.
SPEAKER_04: And it's not us, it's you.
SPEAKER_04: This is our prayer, God.
SPEAKER_04: Make it our experience, we pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_04: And everyone's uh, Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_04: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it to open up to Genesis chapter two.
SPEAKER_04: And let me introduce myself.
SPEAKER_04: If you're our guest today, my name is Neil.
SPEAKER_04: I'm the lead pastor here at Grand Park Way.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, and uh I'm glad you've chosen to visit a church.
SPEAKER_04: And if you're looking for a new church or love for this, make part of your church home.
SPEAKER_04: If you're watching online, you're part of our online audience, our congregation.
SPEAKER_04: Uh let me say, welcome, take your Bibles, open them up.
SPEAKER_04: We're in a series called Return to Design.
SPEAKER_04: Typically, we're preaching through a book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_04: It's called Expository Preaching, which is not lecturing people about God and boring them to sleep, but no, it's just, hey, this is what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_04: This is the truth.
SPEAKER_04: Uh occasionally we break it up with what's called the topical series, but even then, that comes from the Bible.
SPEAKER_04: And such is what we're in now.
SPEAKER_04: It's called Return to Design.
SPEAKER_04: It's easy to look around.
SPEAKER_04: We're in the first, we're we're walking through the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, because we want to see the way God designed the world to be, okay?
SPEAKER_04: It's easy to look around and kind of go, the world is just jacked up.
SPEAKER_04: If there is a God and He's really good, why is the world so bad?
SPEAKER_04: And what we want you to see from the Bible, not from me, is that the world's the way it is, not because God's the way he is, but because humanity is the way we are.
SPEAKER_04: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_04: Say amen.
SPEAKER_04: And it's not about getting mad, it's about getting intentional, okay?
SPEAKER_04: And so in just a minute, I'll start reading Genesis chapter 2, verse 15.
SPEAKER_04: I want to talk to you this morning about God's design for relationship.
SPEAKER_04: Now, this is not a sermon about relationships, this is a sermon about God.
SPEAKER_04: And so be careful that you don't just listen and think, okay, uh, more notes about a relationship and you get all stirred up about relationships.
SPEAKER_04: I want you to get stirred up about God.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, here's the difference.
SPEAKER_04: Let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, I say to men, when men say to me, Hey, we're pregnant, it's our first child, I say two things.
SPEAKER_04: Number one, congratulations.
SPEAKER_04: And number two, be sure and put the crib together in the nursery.
SPEAKER_04: And they always look at me like, What's the big deal about that?
SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, okay, I don't unpack it, I don't go into detail.
SPEAKER_04: I just throw out a little tidb of experiential knowledge.
SPEAKER_04: And one in particular, I saw him probably nine, ten months later when the baby was born.
SPEAKER_04: And I was like, he was like, hey man, that thing about the crib, why didn't you tell me?
SPEAKER_04: I said, I what do you mean why?
SPEAKER_04: I told you to put it together in the nursery.
SPEAKER_04: He said, Why didn't you tell me why?
SPEAKER_04: Because what he did was watching college football, putting his crib together, you know, thinking, baby, look at me, I got it all together.
SPEAKER_04: He said, I had it together by halftime.
SPEAKER_04: I went sliding that thing down the hall, got to the doorway to the nursery, bonk.
SPEAKER_04: And I said, That's why you put it together in the nursery, because once you get it together, it doesn't fit through the door.
SPEAKER_04: And they don't tell you that in the directions.
SPEAKER_04: He said, Man, I was so mad.
SPEAKER_04: I said, What'd you do?
SPEAKER_04: He goes, I loosened all the corners and tried to bend it like a trapezoid and jam it in there.
SPEAKER_04: And then my wife's like, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_04: You're scratching the crab in the wall.
SPEAKER_04: He said, We got one of the worst fights of our marriage.
SPEAKER_04: And I just thought, we don't even have this kid yet.
SPEAKER_04: We're about to kill each other.
SPEAKER_04: And I was like, Yeah, you put it together.
SPEAKER_04: And I said, You had to take it all apart, didn't you?
SPEAKER_04: He goes, Yeah.
SPEAKER_04: I took one end off and tried to kind of get it around there, stand up on it.
SPEAKER_04: I said, Yeah, you can't stand up and get it around the corner.
SPEAKER_04: You put it together in the nursery.
SPEAKER_04: Now you may be thinking, why am I telling you that?
SPEAKER_04: Because if you're not careful when it comes to relationships, this is what we do.
SPEAKER_04: We hear any we hear the word relationship, and we start making, if you're 15, you start making a list of what you want in a husband or a wife, depending if you're a man or a woman, and it's like, okay, I'm getting ready.
SPEAKER_04: And what you meant, you get to the relationship and you begin to proceed, and then bonk, you hit this impasse, and you can't quite get past this thing because you are all wired up for relationship, but you don't understand God.
SPEAKER_04: Big difference in those two.
SPEAKER_04: So today, I really want to talk to you about God and this God's design for relationship.
SPEAKER_04: Now, I have two and a half points, not three, not six.
SPEAKER_04: The guy last week, but he had like nine.
SPEAKER_04: I like I lost count.
SPEAKER_04: It's just a joke.
SPEAKER_04: Okay, it was good.
SPEAKER_04: Go listen to it.
SPEAKER_04: But I just have two and a half points.
SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna start reading Genesis chapter two, verse 15.
SPEAKER_04: The Bible says this.
SPEAKER_04: Now the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
SPEAKER_04: Now, this is what's happened so far, okay?
SPEAKER_04: Earlier in chapter two, God created the garden of Eden and He says, I'm gonna make all the plants grow.
SPEAKER_04: He puts the man in the garden, in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it.
SPEAKER_04: And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.
SPEAKER_04: And then the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone.
SPEAKER_04: I will make him a helper fit for him.
SPEAKER_04: Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.
SPEAKER_04: Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
SPEAKER_04: The man gave names to all livestock, to the birds of the heaven, to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
SPEAKER_04: So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed up his place with flesh.
SPEAKER_04: And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman, and brought her to the man, and the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, and she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.
SPEAKER_04: Therefore, because of this, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
SPEAKER_04: And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
SPEAKER_04: Three things that the text says to us this morning, okay?
SPEAKER_04: And the first one is simply this God designed us for meaningful labor.
SPEAKER_04: God designed us for meaningful labor.
SPEAKER_04: Now, this is my half point because I think Blake did a great job talking about this last week.
SPEAKER_04: I don't want to go back and re-preach it, but just look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_04: It says, the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it.
SPEAKER_04: Work it, work is not because of the fall, because of the uh uh uh of sin.
SPEAKER_04: Work is a part of we work because we are part of uh of God saying, Hey, rule over creation and subdue it.
SPEAKER_04: And when I say God designed us for meaningful labor, here's what I mean.
SPEAKER_04: Unless we exert ourselves in labor, we bring unmanageable energy to all of our relationships.
SPEAKER_04: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_04: Unless you exert yourself in labor, you bring unmanageable energy to all of your relationships.
SPEAKER_04: Here's how you know you're not exerting yourself properly.
SPEAKER_04: I mean by physical exertion.
SPEAKER_04: I mean, like, I think I told you this a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_04: Uh when I get ready to mow the yard, I don't say to my wife, I'm gonna mow.
SPEAKER_04: I say, I'm gonna rule over creation and subdue it.
SPEAKER_04: And she just rolls her eyes and she's like, just go mow, okay?
SPEAKER_04: Just go mow.
SPEAKER_04: It sounds better if I say I'm gonna rule over creation and subdue it, because here's the thing uh yes or no, have you ever just done something that was so physically taxing and exhausting?
SPEAKER_04: And yet when you're done, you stood back and looked at it.
SPEAKER_04: You had two things.
SPEAKER_04: Number one, this deep sense of accomplishment.
SPEAKER_04: And secondly, though you were drained, you felt full.
SPEAKER_04: Yes or no?
SPEAKER_04: Yes, this is exertion.
SPEAKER_04: This is what God created you to experience.
SPEAKER_04: And unless you experience, you know, unless you have a rhythm where you exert yourself on a consistent basis, what is gonna happen is that you're gonna retain this energy that should be dispelled by exertion, by physical labor, by working the garden and keeping it.
SPEAKER_04: Unless you exert that in work, you're gonna bring that home and it's gonna manifest in your relationships.
SPEAKER_04: Here's how you know you're not exerting yourself.
SPEAKER_04: You get chippy.
SPEAKER_04: Anybody know what chippy is?
SPEAKER_04: Some of you are nodding and your spouse is like, I got nothing.
SPEAKER_04: Uh yeah, it's when you come home and everybody's on your nerve for no real reason, but they're just on your nerve, okay?
SPEAKER_04: The cat makes you mad, the dog reminds you that it costs money and does not generate income, your kids are not grateful, your wife is late with dinner, everything's just wrong.
SPEAKER_04: The news puts you in a bad mood, you wanted beef and your wife made chicken.
SPEAKER_04: You should ask yourself, instead of why is everybody so screwed up, you should ask yourself, hey, how am I exerting myself?
SPEAKER_04: Because I got a lot of energy that I'm bringing to things, and this doesn't belong to these people.
SPEAKER_04: Okay?
SPEAKER_04: And so I'm just saying, God designed us for meaningful labor.
SPEAKER_04: Okay, here's the second thing the Bible tells us today that God designed us for responsible freedom.
SPEAKER_04: God designed us for responsible freedom.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 16 and 17, look at them.
SPEAKER_04: And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat.
SPEAKER_04: For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.
SPEAKER_04: There are not two more important uh verses in the Bible, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_04: Now, when I say uh that God designed us for responsible freedom, this is not the ultimate freedom that our world talks about, our culture talks about, because for them, ultimate freedom is the freedom to do whatever I want.
SPEAKER_04: Um, but but the freedom that's demonstrated here is basically I can live my life in such a way that I demonstrate that there's someone to whom I am ultimately responsible.
SPEAKER_04: Okay?
SPEAKER_04: Now, responsible freedom infers that there's someone uh to whom we are responsible.
SPEAKER_04: Now, because of that, part of our thinking process around this needs to acknowledge that God has the moral authority to say to you two things.
SPEAKER_04: You may and you may not.
SPEAKER_04: I don't mean just in the big things, I mean in the warp and woof in and out of daily living.
SPEAKER_04: God has the moral authority to say to you, you may and you may not.
SPEAKER_04: Somebody asked me this past week.
SPEAKER_04: I said, Hey, are you preaching on Sunday?
SPEAKER_04: You haven't preached, where have you been?
SPEAKER_04: And I went, I still work here.
SPEAKER_04: I got a kid in college.
SPEAKER_04: We were there last week.
SPEAKER_04: A couple weeks ago, I was speaking at a men's event.
SPEAKER_04: Yes, I'm preaching.
SPEAKER_04: What are you preaching about?
SPEAKER_04: And I told him, and the guy goes, Well, I have a question.
SPEAKER_04: Are you gonna answer this question?
SPEAKER_04: I said, Please send me all your questions.
SPEAKER_04: I'll write a sermon around them.
SPEAKER_04: Uh no, he goes, I mean, you're talking about the Garden of Eden, right?
SPEAKER_04: The good, the tree of uh, yeah, I said the two trees in the garden.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_04: God said, You're free to eat of any tree in the garden of this one tree.
SPEAKER_04: I said, There wasn't just two trees.
SPEAKER_04: It's not like, oh, you got one tree and you got this other tree.
SPEAKER_04: I hope this one has the fruit you like.
SPEAKER_04: No.
SPEAKER_04: God says to Adam, you're free to eat of any tree in the garden.
SPEAKER_04: It's like a fat boy at a buffet.
SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's just it's just all you ever wanted.
SPEAKER_04: But God says, of this one tree, don't eat.
SPEAKER_04: He goes, Well, why did God put the that that tree in the garden to begin with?
SPEAKER_04: And I said, That's your question.
SPEAKER_04: He goes, Yeah, I've gone to church most of my life and no one's ever answered the question.
SPEAKER_04: I said, It's real simple.
SPEAKER_04: He goes, Well, then answer, I said, I'll answer it on Sunday.
SPEAKER_04: You're just trying to make me come to church.
SPEAKER_04: Or you can sit home and say, COVID, and I'm watching it here in my pajamas.
SPEAKER_04: Just kidding, online people.
SPEAKER_04: I know you have good reasons.
SPEAKER_04: Um, my friend Roger, who's recovering from knee surgery, Roger gets a hall pass.
SPEAKER_04: The rest of you, step your game up, play.
SPEAKER_04: Anyway, and so I said, here's the thing, I'll answer it for you right here.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, the reason God puts the other tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden is real simple.
SPEAKER_04: Look at me.
SPEAKER_04: It's because God is demonstrating to Adam and Eve you're not God.
SPEAKER_04: And by extension, he's demonstrating to you and I you're not God either.
SPEAKER_04: We'll get into this next Sunday when we get to chapter three, because all everything breaks loose.
SPEAKER_04: And the serpent comes along and says, Hey, surely did God say?
SPEAKER_04: And he said, Well, you know, God said we could eat, but yeah, oh, you're not gonna die.
SPEAKER_04: You're not gonna die.
SPEAKER_04: In other words, God's afraid you're gonna be like him.
SPEAKER_04: That's what he goes on to say.
SPEAKER_04: And so look at me, and we'll unpack this more next week.
SPEAKER_04: But if you can be like God, knowing good and evil, right and wrong, why do you need God?
SPEAKER_04: And so it's the foundational lie that humanity continues to believe, but I'm getting into next week.
SPEAKER_04: Let me get back into this week.
SPEAKER_04: God designed us for responsible freedom.
SPEAKER_04: That means God has the moral authority.
SPEAKER_04: He puts the tree in the garden and has the moral authority to say, you may and you may not.
SPEAKER_04: You gotta ask yourself, in your daily living, does God have the moral authority?
SPEAKER_04: Does he have dominion over you to say yes and no?
SPEAKER_04: Like, for example, last night I went to a friend's birthday party.
SPEAKER_04: This wasn't just a birthday party, it was my friend's 60th birthday party, and it was like an adult party.
SPEAKER_04: And so they had adult food.
SPEAKER_04: They had this incredible beef tenderloin, a huge pan of it with some whipped potatoes and some just some fancy green beans, uh, and they had some rolls there.
SPEAKER_04: I called them biscuits, and somebody goes, They're rolls.
SPEAKER_04: I went, okay, whatever.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, and and so it was incredible.
SPEAKER_04: And so I was like one of the first 10 people in line uh because I just wanted to let people know it was okay to eat.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, and so we went and got seated, and we're all sitting in these round tables, and I finished quickly because I didn't have that much, and I just thought, you know what'd be good?
SPEAKER_04: Because the tenderloin was about that thick.
SPEAKER_04: It was cooked perfectly, and it had this pepper encrusted, and right next to it was this bowl.
SPEAKER_04: They called it aju or something, but it was like brown gravy.
SPEAKER_04: It was thicker than like prime rib juice, as I call it.
SPEAKER_04: My wife's like, it's aju.
SPEAKER_04: I'm like, it's juice.
SPEAKER_04: Be quiet.
SPEAKER_04: Uh and so I'm sitting there fantasizing about while everyone's in here eating, I'm gonna go back there and get them tongs and pick up on the slabs of red meat.
SPEAKER_04: And while no one's looking, I'm gonna dip it in that bowl of gravy.
SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna slap that bad boy in between that biscuit.
SPEAKER_04: That's that he goes, they're dinner rolls.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, shut all the way up, okay, Karen.
SPEAKER_04: Anyway, uh check one, two, one.
SPEAKER_04: Y'all are like, where's the guy from last week?
SPEAKER_04: He was so much kinder.
SPEAKER_04: And I'm sitting there and I'm getting excited.
SPEAKER_04: I'm looking around because everyone's talking and they're ding ding ding ding ding ding ding with their knife on a glass because you want to make a toast.
SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, ding away, people.
SPEAKER_04: I'm fantasizing about red meat, bread, and gravy.
SPEAKER_04: And then I put my this and that, remember, this is all does God have the moral authority to say to you, you may and you may not.
SPEAKER_04: So I put my hands on the table to press and get up, and very clearly the Holy Spirit said, You may not.
SPEAKER_04: And I went, and the lady beside me said, Are you okay?
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I was just too, I was just stretching my legs.
SPEAKER_04: And I was like, Well, what's up with that?
SPEAKER_04: I mean, I had just a little bit.
SPEAKER_04: No, we're gonna read later, and I don't want you to be like bloated and full of food, so just let's just say no and get ready to read.
SPEAKER_04: Okay, I wasn't bitter, I wasn't like, man, like God, you're holding out on me.
SPEAKER_04: See, because if you think God's holding out on you, and that's the lie that Adam and Eve believed, look at me.
SPEAKER_04: Not just back at the Bible, but somebody in this room think God's holding out on you.
SPEAKER_04: And when you believe that, here's the next thing you do: you take matters into your own hands.
SPEAKER_04: That's just human nature.
SPEAKER_04: And so to keep you and I from doing that, I just want to point out four words or phrases that'll kind of help us realize that God designed us for responsible freedom, okay?
SPEAKER_04: Here's the first one, the first phrase, the Lord God, the Lord God.
SPEAKER_04: I told you last week, when you're reading the Bible, look and listen for things that are repeated.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, one of the the cadence of Genesis chapter two is the Lord God, the Lord God, the Lord God, the Lord God, the Lord God.
SPEAKER_04: It's repeated over and over and over.
SPEAKER_04: Now you may be thinking, what's the big deal, Bible nerd?
SPEAKER_04: Who cares?
SPEAKER_04: Well, in Genesis chapter one, the first chapter, it was just God, remember?
SPEAKER_04: God created the heavens and the earth, and God said, Let there be, and it was, and it was good.
SPEAKER_04: Remember, that's the rhythm of creation.
SPEAKER_04: God said, It was so and it was good.
SPEAKER_04: But all of a sudden, in chapter two, he refers to himself, he's referred to as the Lord God.
SPEAKER_04: What did he change his name?
SPEAKER_04: No, look at me.
SPEAKER_04: God didn't change his name, he pulls back the curtain on his character and says, Let me reveal to you more of who I am.
SPEAKER_04: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_04: Well, God is Elohim in Hebrew, it just means God, but the phrase the Lord is the is the Hebrew word, just Jehovah, Jehovah.
SPEAKER_04: And they didn't have uh vowels in their in in their language back then.
SPEAKER_04: And so they would come to that word, it was so sacred, so set apart.
SPEAKER_04: They would just think in their mind, the existing one.
SPEAKER_04: That they didn't want to slander God's nature by mispronouncing his name.
SPEAKER_04: So they would just think and say, He is the God who exists.
SPEAKER_04: And so in Genesis 1, God created and God said, and God, Genesis chapter 2, the Lord God.
SPEAKER_04: And so what God is saying, he's kind of winking at us, and he's saying, by the way, I am the existing one, I am the God who's always existed.
SPEAKER_04: That since I am all that existed when nothing else existed, I'm gonna have authority over everything that comes to exist into existence.
SPEAKER_04: And so God makes a big statement just by saying, Hey, the Lord God, I'm the existing God, I've never not existed.
SPEAKER_04: And because I was pre-existent, I was here before you got here.
SPEAKER_04: In my mind, I think I've got the moral authority to tell you you may and you may not.
SPEAKER_04: And the degree to which you agree with those two things is the degree to which you enjoy and experience the freedom God created you to enjoy.
SPEAKER_04: Here's the next thing I want you to see.
SPEAKER_04: Just the word commanded, right there in verse 16.
SPEAKER_04: And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden.
SPEAKER_04: Do you realize if you ask most people what's the first thing?
SPEAKER_04: And I ask people in counseling this question a lot, what's the first thing in your mind?
SPEAKER_04: Do you understand?
SPEAKER_04: What's the first thing that God said to humanity?
SPEAKER_04: You know what everybody says, don't eat of the tree.
SPEAKER_04: No, that's the second part of the phrase.
SPEAKER_04: The first part is God commanded him.
SPEAKER_04: He didn't ask him, he didn't suggest.
SPEAKER_04: He said, Hey, if you're just willing, if you're all out of ideas, I've got a suggestion.
SPEAKER_04: No, God, the existing God, commands Adam and He says, Hey, this this, I'm not asking you, I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_04: I am telling you.
SPEAKER_04: He commanded the man, saying, and look at what he tells him, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden.
SPEAKER_04: Why is this?
SPEAKER_04: Because God designed us for responsible freedom.
SPEAKER_04: You say, I don't I don't know what what you mean.
SPEAKER_04: Why is this a big deal?
SPEAKER_04: Uh, God's first words to humanity are about freedom.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, why is that?
SPEAKER_04: Because when we sin, we forfeit freedom and we choose bondage.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, and this is why, if you if you're here and you're like, I don't really understand the Bible.
SPEAKER_04: My friend invited me, there's free coffee, so I'm here, okay?
SPEAKER_04: Uh, I can explain the Bible to you in less than 30 seconds.
SPEAKER_04: It's simply this God created you and I to be free people.
SPEAKER_04: He commanded him and said, You are free to eat of any tree in the garden.
SPEAKER_04: They just Adam and Eve disobeyed God and trusted someone else, and because of that, they forfeited their freedom, and everyone since born has been born into bondage to sin.
SPEAKER_04: We are by nature sinners and by and by choice we sin.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus comes to give us back the freedom we were created to to live with in the first place.
SPEAKER_04: This is why in John's gospel, New Testament, he says, if the Son has set you free, you're free indeed.
SPEAKER_04: That's why in Galatians about chapter four, he says, it is for freedom that Christ has set you free.
SPEAKER_04: Now, why does the Bible have to say, in case you're wondering, it's for freedom.
SPEAKER_04: The reason Christ sets you free is for freedom.
SPEAKER_04: Why does he have to say that?
SPEAKER_04: Because when we get set free, we look around and we choose the most comfortable form of bondage we know.
SPEAKER_04: Like, for example, my daughter is a freshman at college.
SPEAKER_04: She goes to a private Christian school.
SPEAKER_04: Uh and I said to her, I'm such a bad dad.
SPEAKER_04: Listen to what I'm fixing to say.
SPEAKER_04: Okay?
SPEAKER_04: She said, Well, dad, you know, there's Bible studies, you know, on I got church on Sunday, then there's a Tuesday night Bible study, then there's a Thursday night, then I got a small group, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_04: And I said, Hey, babe, limit the number of Bible studies you get into.
SPEAKER_04: And she looked at me like, you're going to preach your hell.
SPEAKER_04: And I said, Hey, you don't need to be in four or five Bible studies.
SPEAKER_04: You don't need to be in three Bible studies a week.
SPEAKER_04: How much of that stuff can you actually traffic?
SPEAKER_04: Go to church and maybe go to one Bible study.
SPEAKER_04: What else do I do the rest of my time?
SPEAKER_04: Homework.
SPEAKER_04: To the glory of God.
SPEAKER_04: I have a friend that told me, I think my son's in six or seven Bible studies.
SPEAKER_04: Look at me.
SPEAKER_04: See, bondage takes many forms.
SPEAKER_04: That's just religious bondage.
SPEAKER_04: That's all it is.
SPEAKER_04: That's why I'm gonna put your head.
SPEAKER_04: I'm not here to put you in religious bondage.
SPEAKER_04: You need to go in the Bible coding.
SPEAKER_04: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_04: Look at me.
SPEAKER_04: You're free.
SPEAKER_04: See, the baby agrees.
SPEAKER_04: The baby said, hey! Oh my gosh! Yes.
SPEAKER_04: You're free.
SPEAKER_04: Here's a third thing.
SPEAKER_04: And by the way, let me just ask you this.
SPEAKER_04: If this is really true, is that freedom uh was by design.
SPEAKER_04: God designed you to be free.
SPEAKER_04: If you believe this, how would it change the way you think about God?
SPEAKER_04: Would you think about God?
SPEAKER_04: Would you stop thinking about God in terms of, oh, he doesn't want me to blank?
SPEAKER_04: Verses, no, he he created me to be free.
SPEAKER_04: Here's the third word I want you to see or phrase.
SPEAKER_04: He says to him, He commanded the man.
SPEAKER_04: Right there in the Bible, verse 16, and the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden.
SPEAKER_04: That phrase may surely eat.
SPEAKER_04: The Hebrew word there is devour.
SPEAKER_04: Is devour.
SPEAKER_04: So I want you to see, not just that God intends you to be free, create you to be free.
SPEAKER_04: Look at me.
SPEAKER_04: He says, I want you to enjoy this freedom.
SPEAKER_04: I want you to devour.
SPEAKER_04: It's not like, oh, you and Yule Gibbons go over there and have a pine cone and look like you're happy.
SPEAKER_04: Just gnaw on that.
SPEAKER_04: No, God says, I want you to devour any tree in the garden, but of this one tree.
SPEAKER_04: Well, why'd God put the tree there in the first place?
SPEAKER_04: To demonstrate to them you're not God.
SPEAKER_04: You do not get to decide right and wrong.
SPEAKER_04: Here's the last word I want you to see is just the word die.
SPEAKER_04: He says, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.
SPEAKER_04: Why?
SPEAKER_04: For in that day you eat of it, you shall surely die.
SPEAKER_04: Now, why is that a big deal?
SPEAKER_04: Because we were created to live forever in a perfect world.
SPEAKER_04: And so dying is a very severe form of punishment.
SPEAKER_04: Now, we no longer believe that because we think, oh, I live 70, 80 years, that's a good life.
SPEAKER_04: Okay?
SPEAKER_04: So the reason as a Christian, you get to live forever and not just in heaven on a cloud, playing harps, eating angel food cake, you will come back and live on the earth in its pre-fallen state, okay?
SPEAKER_04: Before, because the Bible says in Romans chapter 8 that creation is groaning as a woman in the pangs of childbirth, okay?
SPEAKER_04: Uh and because it's longing for the sons of God to be revealed, because God's not just redeeming people.
SPEAKER_04: Look at me, God's redeeming creation, He's redeeming everything.
SPEAKER_04: And so, Christians, when it all goes down, you come back and you live on the earth in its perfect state, the way God created it to be, and you live forever.
SPEAKER_04: Why is that?
SPEAKER_04: Because God's a God of restoration and redemption and rest, and he restores to us the created purpose, which was simply this you're supposed to live forever.
SPEAKER_04: You the fact that people die is the most tangible evidence that sin is real.
SPEAKER_04: Now, let me unpack this just a little bit.
SPEAKER_04: Are you still with me?
SPEAKER_04: Because some of you are kind of like, well, that got heady there for a minute.
SPEAKER_04: Some of you are like, hey, I don't know that much about the Bible.
SPEAKER_04: Look at me.
SPEAKER_04: That doesn't mean you're dumb.
SPEAKER_04: Because one of the lies that the devil does is you come to church and the preacher says something you don't understand, the devil whispers in your ear, you don't understand that because you used to go to clubs in your 20s instead of staying home reading your Bible, you sinner.
SPEAKER_04: Stop listening.
SPEAKER_04: You don't need this.
SPEAKER_04: That's not the voice of God.
SPEAKER_04: Okay?
SPEAKER_04: And so if you hear something you've never heard before, just think about it or come up and say, hey, why can't I read about that in the Bible?
SPEAKER_04: I don't want to be like the Bereans.
SPEAKER_04: I want to hear you, but go, is this in the Bible?
SPEAKER_04: Absolutely be that way.
SPEAKER_04: You see, again, death is the most tangible demonstration that sin is real.
SPEAKER_04: That's why the Bible says the wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_04: But you've got to understand because some people come along, and maybe not many of you in this room, but some of my friends, the people I'm friendly with, they think it's novel that they have a preacher that a friend that's a preacher.
SPEAKER_04: And one of them said to me, Hey man, I've sinned a lot.
SPEAKER_04: I ain't died yet, so that I don't think it's true.
SPEAKER_04: And I said, Oh, I see how you're thinking.
SPEAKER_04: Insufficiently, but funny nonetheless.
SPEAKER_04: Uh now, hey, sin, I mean, excuse me, when the Bible says the wages of sin is death, here, it's not just termination, it's separation.
SPEAKER_04: In other words, you will eventually die because you were not created to die.
SPEAKER_04: And then my friends are like, shut up.
SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04: Because if God lives forever, why would he create everything he created to live forever?
SPEAKER_04: It's being contaminated by sin.
SPEAKER_04: That's why you die.
SPEAKER_04: The wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_04: It's not just termination.
SPEAKER_04: Look at me, but it's separation.
SPEAKER_04: The more you sin, the farther you feel from God.
SPEAKER_04: I said to my friend, I said, You ever wonder why every time I invite you to church, you say the same thing?
SPEAKER_04: Guess what he says?
SPEAKER_04: If I came to your church, the building would fall down.
SPEAKER_04: You feel that far from God.
SPEAKER_04: It's not true.
SPEAKER_04: But see, sin is about separation and termination.
SPEAKER_04: Is the last thing I want us to see.
SPEAKER_04: Third point is that God designed us for a satisfying relationship.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_04: Now I'm going to read verse 18 all the way to the end, okay?
SPEAKER_04: Uh he says this.
SPEAKER_04: He says, Then the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone.
SPEAKER_04: I will make him a helper fit for him.
SPEAKER_04: Now, out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field, every bird of the heavens, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.
SPEAKER_04: Whatever the man called, every living creature, that was its name.
SPEAKER_04: The man gave names to all livestock, to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field.
SPEAKER_04: But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
SPEAKER_04: So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
SPEAKER_04: And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
SPEAKER_04: And the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
SPEAKER_04: Men, hear those first four words of that phrase.
SPEAKER_04: This at last is.
SPEAKER_04: Why does Adam say, Oh my gosh, finally, this at last is?
SPEAKER_04: Here's why.
SPEAKER_04: Because God said to him, Hey, it's not good for you to be alone.
SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna make a helper fit for you, suitable for you, created and designed especially for you.
SPEAKER_04: And then God brings all the animals to Adam and has him name the animals.
SPEAKER_04: And he's like, Please, God, this is like a cruel joke.
SPEAKER_04: Okay, donkey, platypus, monkey, dinosaur, okay, donkey.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I've already said donkey, okay, horse, okay, whatever.
SPEAKER_04: And so he's just like, please, God, this is not fit for me.
SPEAKER_04: And so look at me.
SPEAKER_04: This satisfaction is a part of paradise.
SPEAKER_04: I think I lost some of you right there.
SPEAKER_04: Some of you are like, I think you said that for a fact, but I didn't get it.
SPEAKER_04: Look at me.
SPEAKER_04: You can be in paradise and not be content.
SPEAKER_04: And some of you are like, well, that explains my marriage right there, preacher.
SPEAKER_04: No, you can be 34 and divorce.
SPEAKER_04: And be like, God, this isn't what I wrote when my teacher said, get out your big chief tablet, write a paragraph of what you want to do when you grow up.
SPEAKER_04: I didn't write this.
SPEAKER_04: And God's like, hey, I got I got this.
SPEAKER_04: I can still be at work in the midst of all of this.
SPEAKER_04: And so when I what I want you to see, men, is simply this, okay?
SPEAKER_04: There's two points I want to make here.
SPEAKER_04: When I say God designed us for a satisfying relationship, there's two characteristics to this relationship, and they're connected.
SPEAKER_04: And here they are.
SPEAKER_04: Number one, our spouse is to have prominence and priority.
SPEAKER_04: This is why God brings all the animals to Adam and He names all of them.
SPEAKER_04: He's like, please, dear God, tell me this is a cruel joke.
SPEAKER_04: You don't want me to spend the rest of my life, all of eternity, created to live forever with this.
SPEAKER_04: And he says after he names all of them.
SPEAKER_04: Why does he do that?
SPEAKER_04: Look at me, men.
SPEAKER_04: Because God, look at me, women.
SPEAKER_04: God says, I don't want you to think or feel about anything the way you feel about your wife, man.
SPEAKER_04: Not the dear least or the deer.
SPEAKER_04: Now, don't send me emails.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, preacher said don't go to the deer least.
SPEAKER_04: Stop being a liar.
SPEAKER_04: Ask your wife today before you go home, before tonight before you go to bed, do you feel like you have a place of prominence and priority in my life?
SPEAKER_04: And you will miss the kickoff.
SPEAKER_04: Do you feel like you have a place of prominence and priority?
SPEAKER_04: You say, Well, how do you know?
SPEAKER_04: Because some guy walked by, well, I mean, I promise probably wouldn't be words.
SPEAKER_04: I said, Here's how you know, and I said, I didn't say this in the sermon, but here's how you know your wife has the place in your life where she can say, you may, and she can say, you may not.
SPEAKER_04: And he didn't like that.
SPEAKER_04: But I said, when you treat your wife the way she's supposed to be treated, prominence and priority, your wife is like, hey, you haven't played golf in a while.
SPEAKER_04: Why don't you go to some of your buddies and go play golf?
SPEAKER_04: He just looked at me like, or your wife may say, Hey, if you want to go to the deer camp for a week and have some time alone, why don't you go?
SPEAKER_04: Now that we're empty nesters, my wife's always encouraged me to go somewhere and be alone.
SPEAKER_04: It just dawned on me this weekend.
SPEAKER_04: I'm like, oh, you ran the okey dough.
SPEAKER_04: You want to be alone.
SPEAKER_04: So you can paint our house another disagreeable shade of gray.
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
SPEAKER_04: It's spouse us to have a prominence of priority.
SPEAKER_04: And secondly, this is the second characteristic of the relationship, okay?
SPEAKER_04: It's simply this an absence of shame.
SPEAKER_04: It's right there.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 24.
SPEAKER_04: Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife.
SPEAKER_04: By the way, this is the prominence of priority, man.
SPEAKER_04: When you marry a woman, she takes a priority over your mom and your dad.
SPEAKER_04: Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_04: You feel that?
SPEAKER_04: So we pulled a hamstring right there, coach.
SPEAKER_04: We came up a little bit lame.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, whoa.
SPEAKER_04: Now look, she doesn't replace them.
SPEAKER_04: I'm 57 years old.
SPEAKER_04: My mom calls me four times a week.
SPEAKER_04: My wife's like, it's your mom.
SPEAKER_04: I'm like, yeah.
SPEAKER_04: She just needs to know I'm okay.
SPEAKER_04: She doesn't worry about me.
SPEAKER_04: My mom or your nah, I don't worry about you and Marcy.
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
SPEAKER_04: Maybe you should.
SPEAKER_04: But anyway.
SPEAKER_04: Not replacing.
SPEAKER_04: This is what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_04: You can't run home to mama every time it gets hard in marriage.
SPEAKER_04: And then you can't run to your dad and okay, well, you won't believe what she's like.
SPEAKER_04: That's a sin.
SPEAKER_04: That's disrespecting your partner.
SPEAKER_04: So, prominence, priority.
SPEAKER_04: Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
SPEAKER_04: Here's the shame part.
SPEAKER_04: And the man and his wife are both naked, not ashamed.
SPEAKER_04: And by the way, of all the words God can use, the man and wife were both naked, and they were not awkward, no.
SPEAKER_04: They were not giggling, no?
SPEAKER_04: They were not ashamed.
SPEAKER_04: Why?
SPEAKER_04: Look at me.
SPEAKER_04: Because shame is always trying to manifest in your relationship.
SPEAKER_04: And they were not ashamed.
SPEAKER_04: I told you this is a sermon and not about relationships.
SPEAKER_04: It's about God.
SPEAKER_04: It's not about shame either.
SPEAKER_04: But let me just say these two things about shame.
SPEAKER_04: Shame has the power to affect two things in our life.
SPEAKER_04: What we believe, and then secondly, our behavior.
SPEAKER_04: What we believe and how we behave.
SPEAKER_04: I don't mean whether we be are we behave like you say your kids, you need to behave.
SPEAKER_04: Do good, stop doing it.
SPEAKER_04: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_04: I mean just how you live.
SPEAKER_04: Shame has the capacity to affect what you believe about yourself and how this is why when we feel shame, we hide.
SPEAKER_04: You'll see next week Adam and Eve realize the Bible says their eyes were open and they realize they were naked.
SPEAKER_04: Stop, just hear that again.
SPEAKER_04: When they sinned, their eyes were open and they realize they were naked.
SPEAKER_04: Have you ever been anywhere naked and didn't know you were naked?
SPEAKER_04: Did you walk in the parking lot this morning?
SPEAKER_04: Did you park in the far south lot and you're walking in, look at your wife, and go, hey baby, look at Billy Bob over there.
SPEAKER_04: Ain't got no pants on.
SPEAKER_04: Hey, Billy Bob, bro, you're naked.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, sorry, I'll be right back.
SPEAKER_04: No.
SPEAKER_04: You know why?
SPEAKER_04: Because what happens right here?
SPEAKER_04: Sin causes you to see yourself in a light you were never created to see yourself.
SPEAKER_04: That's why in premarital counseling I say to men, hey, you will be allowed to enjoy her body about as much as she does.
SPEAKER_04: And the men are always like, What's up, bro?
SPEAKER_04: And the women are like, it's because of shame.
SPEAKER_04: You feel what just happened in this room?
SPEAKER_04: I'm not going any further.
SPEAKER_04: I'm just saying, that's not a part of God's design.
SPEAKER_04: And the man and the woman were both naked, and they were not ashamed.
SPEAKER_04: Now, let me just say all this, okay?
SPEAKER_04: Just keep in mind so we can I don't want to plunge down on shame and go, oh, this is about God.
SPEAKER_04: Well, how's it okay?
SPEAKER_04: What do you mean it's about God?
SPEAKER_04: God created you for this.
SPEAKER_04: God is the one that designed you for a satisfying relationship.
SPEAKER_04: Now, I started reading in verse 15.
SPEAKER_04: The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_04: All right?
SPEAKER_04: So this all starts in a garden.
SPEAKER_04: Look at me.
SPEAKER_04: 2,000 years later, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is going to find himself in another garden.
SPEAKER_04: It's called the Garden of Gethsemane.
SPEAKER_04: And he's going to be so agonized by what's fixing to happen that he says to his father, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me, but nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.
SPEAKER_04: What is this cup?
SPEAKER_04: Well, the cup is not a literal cup like this right here.
SPEAKER_04: The cup is the fact that Jesus is going to have to taste, he is going to have to experience sin, not just a little sin, but the sin of everybody in this room, yea, in this world on the cross.
SPEAKER_04: He's going to go die.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus doesn't just die.
SPEAKER_04: That's not just a side item there.
SPEAKER_04: He dies in your place and for your sin.
SPEAKER_04: And look at me.
SPEAKER_04: The reason he does that is so that your sin can never have power over you and make you feel ashamed.
SPEAKER_04: So somebody can walk up to you today and bring up the most humiliating thing in your life.
SPEAKER_04: And you could not be defensive.
SPEAKER_04: Like this happened probably three weeks ago.
SPEAKER_04: We were going to have some friends' house to have dinner, my wife and I.
SPEAKER_04: And I we we round the corner and their house rocked on the corner.
SPEAKER_04: And I just thought, oh well, his old truck he gave his son's there, his new F-250, quad cab Ford, big bad diesel trucks right there, and his wife's other vehicles here.
SPEAKER_04: But I just thought, whatever, I'm just gonna back up and back into their driveway.
SPEAKER_04: I was looking at my rearview mirror, not my side mirror.
SPEAKER_04: My sensors didn't pick up his truck because it was at this angle here.
SPEAKER_04: And so I'm backing up like this, and his truck's right here, and I just scraped the corner of his bumper and just smashed in the quarter panel of my truck.
SPEAKER_04: And my wife's on the phone to her dad, and she goes, Neil, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_04: That's so unlike you.
SPEAKER_04: That's tough not being perfect.
SPEAKER_04: And my wife is like, I mean, it startled her, understandably, but she's kind of like looking at me like, you should feel bad for this.
SPEAKER_04: She didn't say that, but it was like, whoa, whoa! And I just I rang the doorbell and said, Hey man, I backed into your truck, come look at it.
SPEAKER_04: He went out there and said, Man, you got the borsend of that deal.
SPEAKER_04: It's just a scratch.
SPEAKER_04: I said, Well, it's a scratch, but hey, if you get an estimate, he goes, Don't bring this up again.
SPEAKER_04: It's just a scratch.
SPEAKER_04: Let's eat.
SPEAKER_04: We're driving home.
SPEAKER_04: My wife's like, You feel bad?
SPEAKER_04: Not a bit.
SPEAKER_04: Here's why.
SPEAKER_04: Look at me.
SPEAKER_04: Today didn't surprise me.
SPEAKER_04: I mean, that night at 6.02 when it happened.
SPEAKER_04: I've never been perfect.
SPEAKER_04: You can't shame me.
SPEAKER_04: I'm not gonna go, oh man.
SPEAKER_04: I can't I came to dinner, have the preacher over, you know, ram into your new truck.
SPEAKER_04: That thing still, you open the door, it still smells new, it's so new.
SPEAKER_04: We ate, walked out, I looked at it again, and my body said, You feel bad?
SPEAKER_04: What's feeling bad gonna do?
SPEAKER_04: Here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_04: If you really believe in the atonement, that Jesus Christ died on the cross in your place and for your sin, your sin no longer has the power to shame you.
SPEAKER_04: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_04: That's the good news of Christianity.
SPEAKER_04: So we're not stuck in this garden.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus Christ goes to another garden later on.
SPEAKER_04: And what he does there atones for your sin.
SPEAKER_04: So you don't have to live in fear of being found out.
SPEAKER_04: God already knows and he's already died for that.
SPEAKER_04: And so the question for you is have you accepted by faith what Jesus has done for your sin?
SPEAKER_04: Are you still trying to work out your own forgiveness by being good enough to get forgiveness for your badness?
SPEAKER_04: This is the gospel.
SPEAKER_04: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_04: If you're a guest, we just relax.
SPEAKER_04: We like to teach the Bible and then give you some space just to think about it.
SPEAKER_04: And someone a voice of prayer, Lindsay's gonna come and she may sing something over us.
SPEAKER_04: Some questions come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_04: You don't have to try to write them down, you just get your phone out discreetly and just take a picture.
SPEAKER_04: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_04: God, thanks for the gospel.
SPEAKER_04: You've not left us on our own to try to do more good than bad.
SPEAKER_04: That's just religion.
SPEAKER_04: That's math, not music.
SPEAKER_04: The gospel is sweet music about we were created by God to be wild and free.
SPEAKER_04: And so we refuse every form of bondage, religious and otherwise, because we're created to be free.
SPEAKER_04: The Holy Spirit just brood over us while we think about that.
SPEAKER_04: Yes, God, that's what's holy.
SPEAKER_04: Being holy is not about hating yourself and trying harder.
SPEAKER_04: Holiness is about being wild and free, about returning to our created purpose.
SPEAKER_04: What you create is for freedom, not bondage.
SPEAKER_04: God, we we repent of choosing bondage just because it's familiar.
SPEAKER_04: Freedom is unknown and it can feel threatening, but that's our native environment.
SPEAKER_04: We don't want to be like a bunch of lions that were born and raised at the zoo.
SPEAKER_04: And you come along and try to convince us about a place called Africa and the Serengeti and say it's our native environment.
SPEAKER_04: We were created for wonder and wideness.
SPEAKER_04: And we're grateful for that, God.
SPEAKER_04: So I pray that it's shame would just be sent away in Jesus' name, that we'd learn to be vulnerable people because that's what kills shame is vulnerability.
SPEAKER_04: So, Holy Spirit, press in on us everything necessary, and let the rest just fall to the ground.
SPEAKER_04: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_04: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: If you're a guest, let me say thanks for being here.
SPEAKER_04: Look at me.
SPEAKER_04: You're always welcome.
SPEAKER_04: You don't have to have it all figured out.
SPEAKER_04: You can have questions swirling in your head right now.
SPEAKER_04: You and all of your questions are always welcome, okay?
SPEAKER_04: Uh all we ask of you, if you're our guest, is do you take the opportunity, if you haven't already, to pull a guest card in that seat back pocket in your row, just fill it out and drop in the wooden box by the door on your way out.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, we'd love to know you are here.
SPEAKER_04: We're not going to invade your life.
SPEAKER_04: We just want to care about you in a meaningful way.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, for the rest of us, if today's the day you worship God through obedience and generosity when it comes to giving, that's where you take care of that as well.
SPEAKER_04: All right.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, we have one thing we want to highlight this week.
SPEAKER_04: So give your attention to our video screen for announcement.
SPEAKER_02: My name's uh Ajwad al-Jabi.
SPEAKER_02: I'm from Syria.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm born from Syria.
SPEAKER_02: I like it.
SPEAKER_02: I miss that.
SPEAKER_02: Before the war, it's it's a great country.
SPEAKER_10: It was 2012 when the army came to our village.
SPEAKER_10: Uh they killed 21 people.
SPEAKER_09: It's tough.
SPEAKER_02: Why not need future for my my son for my kids in school, in work.
SPEAKER_02: Just need a life safe with my family.
SPEAKER_10: It took us a few years to get the screening, the background checks.
SPEAKER_10: Thankfully we finally ended up coming here.
SPEAKER_10: We had difficulties, language, culture.
SPEAKER_08: Like when I came here earlier, didn't speak any English.
SPEAKER_10: I mean, if you go to a country where you don't know anything, you need someone to guide you.
SPEAKER_10: Not when people from Usamakam Reverend was a huge help for us.
SPEAKER_07: My family, along with other families within our church, we were able to welcome um Amashware's family back in 2016.
SPEAKER_06: I got involved with Houston Welcome's refugees about a year ago with a team that had started by the co-worker of my money.
SPEAKER_07: Before they even arrived, we were able to provide welcome kids to help provide necessities for everyone with their home.
SPEAKER_07: And then Houston Walkers refugees was able to mobilize a movement to help prepare their apartment with those necessities.
SPEAKER_07: Stepped in, and we were able to connect them during that transition period to um various resources.
SPEAKER_06: It's been a really eye-opening for me.
SPEAKER_06: Um starting from scratch.
SPEAKER_01: With nothing but what's in a bag, um, after they've been in refugee camps for decades.
SPEAKER_01: I know um that was going to be life-changing for me.
SPEAKER_07: I think we can help in many ways, and we do we can interrupt in many ways, but I think the key piece is friendship.
SPEAKER_00: So if you watch that video and you were like, I I want to do something about refugees, I want to show them Christ's love.
SPEAKER_00: Next Sunday, October 10th at 11 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: in the fellowship hall, Houston Welcome to Refugees is coming to our church and they're gonna run an orientation, and that is the initial orientation you need to do to get involved.
SPEAKER_00: So please come join us October 10th, 11 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: in the fellowship hall.
SPEAKER_04: Houston welcomes refugees as one of our missionary partners.
SPEAKER_04: So when you give money to this church, some of it goes to help people get settled in.
SPEAKER_04: We get phone calls every once in a while.
SPEAKER_04: We have an Afghan family that don't have beds.
SPEAKER_04: And we're like, we got it.
SPEAKER_04: And we're not gonna get some cheap hard mattress, we're gonna get a nice uh pillow top mattress because you have one of those in your house.
SPEAKER_04: So when you put money in that box over there, that's what we do with it.
SPEAKER_04: That's one of the many things we do with it.
SPEAKER_04: And so I just want you to know it's not our money, it all stay here just because we're building a new building.
SPEAKER_04: We don't like, oh, we're gonna get stingy.
SPEAKER_04: No, no, we love to bless people.
SPEAKER_04: And so if you're looking for a way to get involved in the life of your church, you may be like, I can't stand up and talk and pray or whatever.
SPEAKER_04: If you can be hospitable and say to somebody, hi, my name's Debbie.
SPEAKER_04: Welcome to welcome to Texas.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, this is a great opportunity.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, the fellowship hall is right behind us, it's right back here.
SPEAKER_04: Next Sunday during the third service, this next service at 11 o'clock.
SPEAKER_04: There's gonna be an orientation.
SPEAKER_04: You can just kind of come and gather information.
SPEAKER_04: We're not gonna obligate you to anything, but it's a great way to get involved and make a difference in people's lives, okay?
SPEAKER_04: We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing, so stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_04: Rent will be available down front if you have any questions.
SPEAKER_04: He's one of our teaching pastors.
SPEAKER_04: We've hired a gaggle of them.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_04: God created you to be free.
SPEAKER_04: Everything short of freedom is bondage.
SPEAKER_04: And you, God is not a God of bondage.
SPEAKER_04: He set his people free from Egypt, and he came to set you free from everything that oppresses you.
SPEAKER_04: So depart now and live in the freedom you were created for.
SPEAKER_04: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Bless you.