SPEAKER_00: I would like to invite you to turn in your Old Testaments to our scripture reading for today, which is found in Isaiah chapter 42.
SPEAKER_00: It's right about in the middle of your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 42.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll be looking at verses 1 through 4.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm also going to have a kind of preamble scripture reading.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of set a little more stage for that particular one, but I won't have you turn there.
SPEAKER_00: But as I read our scripture for this morning, I'm going to begin and read a few passages out of Genesis, chapters 2 and 3, and then I'm going to go over to Isaiah 42.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.
SPEAKER_00: And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord called to the man and said to him, Where are you?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked and I hid myself.
SPEAKER_00: And God said, Who told you you were naked?
SPEAKER_00: Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?
SPEAKER_00: The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is it you have done?
SPEAKER_00: The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate.
SPEAKER_00: And now in Isaiah forty two, one through four, Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.
SPEAKER_00: I have put my spirit upon him, and he will bring forth justice to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the streets.
SPEAKER_00: A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench.
SPEAKER_00: He will faithfully bring forth justice.
SPEAKER_00: He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands wait for his law.
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Superheroes.
SPEAKER_00: We can't get enough of them in our day.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's Thor or Wonder Woman or Batman or Captain America or different conglomerations of these in some kind of Justice League, there is a fixation on these themes in our culture and around the world.
SPEAKER_00: And it appears that these movies resonate deeply with something in our human heart.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorites, called The Matrix, which hit the screens and computer games.
SPEAKER_00: And the storyline just kind of sets the stage for where a lot of these things go.
SPEAKER_00: So listen to a brief overview of this storyline.
SPEAKER_00: Humanity, it was about humanity, and human life had been taken over by an evil machine.
SPEAKER_00: And this machine captured people and imprisoned them and used them, exploited human lives as a mere energy source to keep it alive and keep it going.
SPEAKER_00: The funny thing is that people weren't aware of it.
SPEAKER_00: They were asleep.
SPEAKER_00: And the machines were like a computer.
SPEAKER_00: They were able to create a virtual reality for people who were enslaved so that they could kind of be tricked into not knowing what was really going on with them.
SPEAKER_00: But there was a Messiah figure who alone could rescue humanity.
SPEAKER_00: That's a brief overview of a series that brought about three billion dollars to a company.
SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe our connection to these stories has something to do with deep questions and fears about how far evil is really going to spread on our planet.
SPEAKER_00: About what the future of our race really is going to be.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe even about is there anyone big enough and good enough to rescue spoiled beauty and put it all right once again?
SPEAKER_00: Well, in our passage today, God is going to weigh in.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to weigh in with his own genre and true.