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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:05 Of course, back on the video games. If you applied to colleges like you applied to that game, maybe I'd be happy with you.0:15 It's been about 3 months since graduation. You gotta get yourself together, son.0:23 Why are you still at home? Why aren't you in college yet? What are you, an idiot?0:28 What am I doing? Am I making enough money? How am I gonna support myself? Where am I gonna work?0:42 Good morning, Watershed. Good to see everybody here today. And it is my absolute joy to say again once more congratulations to all the graduates in the0:54 house. And can we give them a hand at all, at this location anyway? If you weren't here last week, we did that last week. We do it this week because it is a crazy season sometimes. You can't come to church every week1:05 when it's graduation season. But we're glad you're here today. And if you're glad you're here today, say amen. Amen. Amen. If you're happy and you know it, say amen. Amen. Hey, everybody watching1:17 on video. We wanna say hello to you. Hello to Woonsocket. Hello to NORD. Hello to Apollo Beach. Hello to our South Coast location coming very soon. Hopefully opening in end of July ish somewhere around1:29 there. We're so excited about that. Keep your ear open for when we have our grand opening and we want to say hello to Brandon, Michelle, the team down in Guatemala and everybody here. Can we give a big round of applause1:40 for everybody watching my video? And you guys welcome us in. We're so glad to be 1 church in many locations, many states and countries to the glory of the name of Jesus. Take1:51 out your notes at all of our locations. It looks like this Living on Purpose part 2. And Romans chapter 8, in your Bibles, make sure that you're doing everything in your power to remember at all of our2:03 locations to bring a paper Bible to church. I'm a big fan of paper Bibles. I love the fact that the Bible is easily accessible on my smartphone. I don't I don't think that's2:15 horrible or bad or evil, but nothing like having a good old fashioned Bible that you can mark up, circle, underline, highlight, and make sure that you don't forget what you heard on the weekend.2:27 Amen. Take out your phone if you're online because that's the only way to get the notes. And you've got to go to waterschurch. Guide. And oh, I lost it here. Let me see if I can find it again. I didn't2:39 I don't have it. Waterschurch. Guide. You're gonna have to trust me that it's there. Waterschurch. Guide. It's there. And you can fill in the blanks. Click on today's message. Living on Purpose Part 2. Here we go. God's2:51 commencement address. It's graduation season. That means graduation ceremonies and commencement addresses. And I like that word commencement because commence means3:03 to what? To begin. It's not the conclusion address. It's the commencement address. Meaning that when you get that diploma, young people, that degree, that master's, that doctorate, you're3:14 not finishing. You're starting. That's why I make a joke out of it. I said it last week. I hope you won't offend it. But I did say congratulations graduates. You've accomplished nothing. I say that3:26 tongue in cheek because what that means is what are you gonna do with what you've got? That's what matters. And everybody here is hoping that you take what you have learned and what you have3:38 grown in and what you've developed over the last year or 4 years or however many years you've been doing it and you use it to God's glory. Can I get a good amen in all locations? I was thinking about commencement3:49 addresses because I like commencement addresses. I am weird like that. I went to my son's graduation a couple weeks ago, and I was really looking forward to the commencement address. I want to hear4:01 I like speeches because I'm a public speaker. So that's kind of in my wheelhouse, and I like to learn from the public speakers. And so I spent an inordinate amount of time yesterday for you scouring YouTube4:13 for commencement addresses. And now the algorithm is all jacked up and all I get is suggestions of new commencement addresses in my YouTube page. But anyway, I looked up a few and I thought there's4:25 a bunch of interesting commencement addresses. Like for instance, did you know that Conan O'Brien went to Dartmouth in 20 11? Conan O'Brien who is from Massachusetts. Did you know that?4:37 And now very successful comedian, late night TV show host, podcaster now. And I love what he said because there was that big thing about him and The Tonight Show. How many remember back in the dark ages when they were4:48 going through that battle between him and Jay Leno? And Jay Leno promised him to The Tonight Show, and then he took it back because the ratings were low. And then he kinda got squashed out of the whole deal. And the4:57 contract, you know, they bought him out. Anyway, he talks about that, he says, It is the failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. And I like that because he's like, he always5:08 wanted to be David Letterman. And the moment that he didn't become David Letterman, he realized who he was. I like that. I like it. Commencement addresses can be filled with good advice. Not gospel truth, but good5:18 advice. And I wanted to share some funny ones because I didn't know this. Amy Poehler was asked to do the commencement address at Harvard in 20 11 and she said the following. We'll put this on the screen. Hold someone's5:28 hands because it's much more fun to try and fail with other people. Then you can blame them when things go wrong. I like that 1. Ed Helms from The Office actually went to Cornell5:40 and did the commencement speech. If you're an Office fan, know that his character went to Cornell. He said this, As long as your desire to explore is stronger than your desire to not screw up, you're on the right track.5:50 I like that line too. And then in 19 75 Muhammad Ali went to Harvard University and he said the following words. If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread they can make something out of you.6:03 Terni and Ameren say, You got a chance. Yeah, yeah, you got a chance. Commencement addresses. I don't know. It's just a weird little thing of mine, obsession about it. I just like them. And I like6:15 to learn how to speak through them. And I think that they're very powerful motivational speeches. And they're all filled with the same nonsense, aren't they? You're wonderful. You're amazing. There's no 1 like you. You6:25 could be whatever you want to be. Dream big. Love everybody. Climb the mountain and achieve your dreams. Blah, blah, blah. And everybody who's been out of6:37 college for at least 4 years said blah. Because we know it's not true. We know. 1 of the greatest commencement speeches of all time was not by6:49 a celebrity. It was actually by the son of a celebrity. A son of a noted historian and novelist. His name was David McCullough Jr.7:00 David McCullough Jr. Is an English teacher in Wellesley, Massachusetts. And in 20 12 he got up to the podium to deliver the commencement address7:13 to upper stratosphere kids in Wellesley. I mean talk about privileged of the privileged people. And this is 20 12, right? At7:25 the boon of millennials graduating from high school. Kids who had been told from birth that they were awesome.7:37 And this guy gets up and he annihilates everybody. It was fantastic and it's 1 of the best speeches I've ever heard. You gotta go watch. It's on YouTube. Can7:49 go watch it. But I wanna give you the opening line. I love what he said. This is not on the screen. I'm gonna read this. He says, contrary to what your u 9 soccer trophy suggests, your glowing seventh grade report card7:59 says, despite every assurance of a certain copulent purple dinosaur, that nice mister Rogers and your batty aunt Silva, no matter how often your maternal crate caped crusader has swooped in to8:11 save you, you're nothing special. Man, the chutzpah to say that8:22 to Wellesley High School graduates, millennials of all people. And he went on and on. And the video has garnered on YouTube8:34 3000000 views to date. He got prime time interviews from this speech. Good Morning America had him on. The Today show had him on.8:46 He was asked to speak at TED conferences. TED, where ideas are shared with the world. What was his idea? How to tell millennials to stick it.9:00 That earns you that earns you TED level conference speaking privileges. I mean, that's just an amazing boldness. And and then he went on to write a book9:11 called You're Not Special. And it was a really powerful speech because it was contrary to the messages every child in that audience had heard their9:23 whole life. And sometimes, man, you need to hear something that you don't want to hear. Sometimes you need to hear the opposite of what this culture is constantly9:35 telling you. That's why I love doing what I do. I love doing this job because I get to get up here every week and annihilate the messages of this world. So that I can elevate the9:46 messages of our Lord. And you can live different and proudly in Jesus name. And if you get offended, don't you realize that that just gets me more9:58 excited to do it again? I get this weird, sick, twisted pleasure out of that stuff, man. Some more some more lines from David McCullough. He said this. He said, selflessness10:10 is the best thing you can do for yourself. I like that. Not quite right, but it's nice. You know? Selflessness is actually 1 of the best things you can do for others. But nonetheless, it's a good point. And then he said10:21 this. Astrophysicists assures that the universe has no center, therefore, you cannot be it. Neither can Donald Trump, which someone should tell him. And again, that was in10:33 20 12. Talk about being ahead of your time. And then he said this, we have, as of late, we Americans, to our detriment, have come to love accolades more than genuine10:44 achievement. That's good too. That's that's good for the Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram generation. Then then this line, climb the mountain not so that you can plant your flag,10:56 but embrace the challenge. Enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so that you can see the world, not so the world can see you. I like that.11:09 And I was thinking about this as I was watching all of these commencement addresses this week. Where would we find in the Bible God's commencement11:20 address? Now, a commencement address has to be inspiring. It has to be emboldening. It has to give you a sense of courage,11:33 and it has to give you the confidence to take risks and try new things. That's really what a commencement speech has to do. Because again, commencement, begin. Begin. Do it. Go for it. And you know where it is? It's in11:44 Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. I think, this is just my opinion, is the greatest chapter in the Bible. The greatest. I mean, I11:56 have been going through the book of Romans on my YouTube channel, youtube dot com slash timhatch live. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. And I've been going through the book of Romans to teach you the12:08 gospel. I hope you're taking advantage of the materials that we're putting out there for you. There is a dearth of Bible knowledge in our culture. That's because we've got CNN, Fox News, and all these other sources12:20 pumping stuff into our brain. We need to let God pump his truth into our brain. Take advantage. Before you turn on Tucker Carlson, turn on the truth of God's12:32 Word. Amen. So anyway, Romans 8, we got to it, and I called it during the Bible study, the greatest, the greatest chapter in the Bible. It begins with,12:43 there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That means that if you are a faith follower of Jesus Christ, if you have confessed your sins and turned to him for your forgiveness of and your new12:54 life in God, then good news, I great news actually, your sins will never ever, no matter what, be counted against you by Almighty God. You13:06 God sees you as justified. God sees you just the same way as He sees His Son Jesus Christ. And nothing could be more encouraging than to know that my failures13:17 don't define me with my father in heaven. Amen? Talk about giving courage to people to try new things. Well, then he talks about the fact that the spirit is in us. Right? The spirit of Jesus Christ has13:29 set us free from the law of sin and death. What do we see in the world? Laws, rules, ordinances, people trying to control other people. Laws, laws, laws, religious laws, irreligious laws, secular laws,13:41 Christian laws, all these kind of things. But Christ didn't come to establish new laws. He came to give us the Holy Spirit wherein we fulfill the true heart of the law from within, not from external13:53 pressure without. Amen. And and so he talks about that the spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Powerful, powerful stuff. And then he turns the page to where we're14:05 gonna read today in Romans chapter 8 on and what I and what I wanna give you today from these passages is I believe the 5 secrets that Christians need to know in order to live their purpose. Would you stand with me for14:16 the reading of God's word? Romans chapter 8. We're gonna begin at verse 18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that14:28 is to be revealed to us. For creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God, for the creation was subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation14:39 itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in pains of childbirth until now. Not only14:49 the creation, but we ourselves. We ourselves do what? We, who are the first fruits of the spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons and daughters, the15:01 redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Now, these15:13 next these next 3 verses, you're gonna know these verses. It says, likewise, the spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings15:24 too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know, and I love that and because we15:36 so often take this verse away from all the other verses before, and we shouldn't. But listen to what it says. And we know that for those who love God, all things work15:48 together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose, there's the word, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son16:00 in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he called. And those whom he called, he justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.16:12 This is God's word. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I ask that the Spirit has his way in our meetings, and we see Jesus. In his name we pray. And16:24 everybody said Amen. Amen. God bless you. Have a seat. Paul is really known for some great verses in the Bible. We talked about it from Philippians last week.16:35 Well, Romans chapter 8. It's amazing how much we quote from that 1 chapter. And this 1 verse, Romans 8 28. How many of you have comforted yourself or16:47 someone else because of Rome through Romans 8 28? We know that in all things, God works. Or we know all things work together for those that love God. Right? And and this is 1 of those verses too that gets taken out16:59 of context so often. It actually gets what I call dumbed down versified. Dumbed down versified, which means we just take certain words out of the verse, eliminate the contextual17:10 constraints of the verse, and then just slap it up against any problem. So people will say, Well, don't you know that all things work together? Well, that's not true. That's not what the verse says. And then some people17:22 say, Well, God works in all things. Well, that's kind of true, but not totally true. Not in context of the verse. And and we tend to dumb down this verse and take a few words out of context to apply17:34 to any problem. But there are some qualifiers to this verse, and there are some contextual insights that have led up to this verse. That's why we backed all the way up to verse 18 to tell you what is Paul talking17:46 about when it comes to our purpose. And what I think is 5 secrets are brought to life. 5 secrets that only Christians know. Only Christians. And so if you're not a Christian today, you can know17:58 these by the time we're done today. And so here here we go. Number 1, write this down. I got 5 points. Pray for me that I can get done in time. Number 1, we know that there is suffering now but glory later.18:10 We know there is suffering now but glory later. The Christian is not caught off guard by struggle. Or at least the biblically18:22 literate Christian is not caught off guard by struggle, by pain, by worries and stresses, by hate, by18:33 rejection, by people not liking us. And really what it comes down to is we have to understand what suffering is. What is suffering? At the end of the day, let's boil suffering down. Some people think suffering is18:44 bleeding or dying or being tortured. What is really, at the end of the day, suffering? Suffering is very simply this. Something or someone is taken away from you.18:57 That's what suffering is. Suffering can be the loss of a loved 1, the loss of a spouse. Heaven forbid, the loss of a child, the loss of a parent, whatever. Suffering is someone taken away or someone backstabs19:09 you, walks out on you, dumps you, divorces you. That's suffering. Someone's being taken away from you. Either their own volition or something else is making it happen. And then Or suffering can be19:21 you lose. You lose income. You go bankrupt. You lose the house. You lose the whatever. And you just lose something. Suffering can also be the loss of health, whether through intentional acts of other people19:33 or how creation can do that through tornadoes, hurricanes, torrential rains. All kinds of things can bring great suffering upon your life because it can take lots of things away from you. But really,19:45 end the day, suffering is just losing things. And here's a big 1. Suffering is losing health sometimes. And here's the reality about that 1. There's no stopping that 1 from happening. You can't stop19:57 losing health. That's just going to happen. And I'm really digging in here because I'm mid-40s now and I'm losing health. And I eat kind of20:09 right. Like, I eat 1 good meal a day and 2 bad ones. I think I'm doing pretty good. Amen. And I work out. I go to the gym. I try my best. Well, I used to love running. I used to love20:20 running. You know, running, you get outside, you run around the neighborhood, you get put the earbuds in, you just rock out to Jesus music while your run is great. And around 35, I started to develop all20:32 kinds of problems from the waist down from running. I developed water on the knee and this knee. I developed plantar fasciitis in this foot. Now I've got this enormous, like, growth down here on my ankle. I look like an20:44 alien. It's coming out of my ankle. I don't know what's going to happen at any moment. Going to be like Out of my ankle. It's going to come up and eat my face. I don't know what's going to happen. And the scare won't go20:54 down. I've been to the doctor. They're like, Well, there's nothing you can do except stretch. I'm like, Seriously? That's it? That's all you have? Stretch? I've anointed oil on it. I've prayed for it. I've had Nothing's21:04 fixing it. There's no stopping the fact that I have lost And what I've realized is that when I what I love is being taken away from me, and that is a reality of life. And so it is with21:16 you. And why it's important to your understanding of the purpose is to know this, that you can't stop suffering from happening. And if you don't have this perspective, you will throw up your hands21:28 at the least sign of trouble and give up God's ultimate plan for you. You can't do that. You can't let the suffering21:39 now blind you to glories that are to come later. And this is what Jesus modeled for us as well. The Christ, he said, was to suffer21:51 and then enter into his glory. And 1 Peter chapter 2 tells us that Christ in his suffering set for us an example that we should walk in his steps. And so22:03 Christians, listen to me very carefully. Suffering does not mean that your calling is gone. It's just a reality of life. And 1 of the things that I forget that I well, not forget, but I remember from when I used to run22:15 is that I used to love running in the dark better than in the light. Anybody know what I'm talking about here that runs? No 1 runs. Anyway,22:27 this is the health problem with America right here. There you go. Right there. Everybody's like, what? What's running? I've never heard of that. Anyway, I used to love running at night, but at end the day And the reason22:39 why is because when I run at night, I can only see the light of the street lamp. And I would do this little exercise with myself where I would run into the street lamp and I would make the next 3 goals another you know,22:49 the next next 3 lights my goal. Then I get those 3 goals done. But what I loved about it is that when I when I ran at night, I only saw the coned illumination of the lamp. I didn't see the whole23:01 path. When you run-in the day, you see everything. And when you run-in the day, everything's a distraction. And when you run-in the day, somebody might see you on the road and honk. Honk, honk. Hey. Yeah.23:13 Hey. Hey. And before you know it, you're off or you're stumbling or you're tripping or you're spraining your ankle. And what I loved about the fact that at night I only got a slice of the23:24 story. You know why God doesn't give you everything up front? You know why he doesn't front load your mind with what you're gonna do in life? Listen to this young people, especially recent graduates. Because if you got23:36 the whole picture of what you're going to have to go through to get to where you're going, you wouldn't run at all. You'd be like forget that. I'm playing PlayStation. That's it. All right. I'm going to go downstairs.23:48 You've you've you've gotta realize that God unfolds his purpose step by step. I remember when I got out of college and I thought I wanna plant churches. That's what I wanted to do. But nobody was gonna23:59 hire a 21 year old church planter. Nobody. And the only job that I had opportunity to have was up in our Norwood location. Pastor Geiser gave me a job to be a youth pastor. And I didn't even like24:11 teenagers. I right. That was the only job that I had. But I I took it because that was all that was there. That was the light pole for that season of my life. And you run. And here's what you've got to24:23 do. You've got to run through the season you're in or you will never get to the season you're headed to. Because this is life. Life will never go according to your24:35 plan. Life will never work out the way you imagined. You cannot do whatever you dream of. You've got to do what has been put in front of you.24:47 And some of that is suffering. And so I suffered for 6 years as a youth pastor. Suffered with teenagers from other it wasn't teenagers. It was their parents.24:59 They were the problem. Couldn't take it anymore. And then 1 day, pastor Eisner sits me down. He says, we're planting a location. We're planting a church in North Attleboro. Do you want to stay with the25:11 youth or do you want to go and pastor that church? I want to pastor the church. Lamp pole. Then we start the church. But I didn't realize that when I was going to be a pastor, I never realized that preaching25:23 the word of God to God's people and studying all week and preaching good sermons and doing what I do up here, I never realized for a second that some people wouldn't like it.25:36 The audacity of these people. And they called themselves Christians. And 1 of the first people that came right up to me after a service, just right up to my face with bad breath. All the25:48 complainers have bad breath. All the complain have bad breath. You know why? Because they never floss. That's why. Okay? That's from a couple of weeks ago, if you remember. Anyway,26:00 Friday the week, why don't you why don't you use the King James? Don't you realize that the King James is the only inspired text? Don't you realize that the Bible talks about the King James, the book of son? I wanna sit26:10 down with you and talk to you about the values of the king. And it's just breath. I'm just like, I can't hear anything he's saying because I just I smell hell coming right out of his breath. Yeah. He's just get me out of26:18 here. And he stayed with our church for about 3 years. Then he left. I never pictured people leaving a church26:30 that I pastored. I thought, how could you leave this? But that's life, friend. Life is people leaving you.26:42 Suffering is people leaving you, walking out on you, backstabbing you, getting on Facebook and vilifying and demonizing you. And I I I say this in my book, and I want you to make sure26:54 you never do this. Don't ever retaliate with writing. Never write it down. Never write back. Never respond to the haters. Never get into the Twitter back and forth. Don't do it. It's a waste of27:05 time. You run the race God's marked out for you. It's suffering now. It's glory later. Just skip a little bit here. I want you to write this down. Suffering does27:17 not negate your calling. It usually substantiates your calling. It substantiates your calling. You know what you're called to do? You know what you're called to do? You're called to do whatever you're willing to suffer27:29 through. That's what you're called to do. You're called to do whatever you're willing to suffer through. So if you're not willing to suffer for it, it ain't your calling.27:41 You know what I'm talking about. You've got to be willing to put the fight in. You've got to be willing to not give up. You've got to because Jesus never said it's gonna be27:53 easy. He said in John 16 33, In this world, you will have tribulation, but take heart. Somebody say, Take heart.28:02 Take heart.28:03 I have overcome the world, he says. I I am in charge. And I love that. I got this, he says. We know the end is certain. The war28:15 has been won. We're just in the middle of a battle. We're in the middle of a skirmish. And that's to be expected. And so young people who've just recently graduated or you're a couple years out of college28:27 and you don't have your dream job. Or you look at the older generation and you get so worked up over what they got compared to what you got. If you're not careful, you'll start to blame everybody and point fingers.28:39 You can't do that. It's a waste of time. You've got to start owning your suffering, owning your struggle. Because even if you don't get any forward movement in what28:51 you want, hey, at least you're developing some muscles in stamina. I think this is a huge problem with our world. Put 5 minutes in, it doesn't go the way we want, so we give29:03 up. That's called having no stamina. And God is in the business of developing stamina. His best men and women went through years of struggle. Moses was29:14 40 years old in Egypt and wanted to deliver the Israelites then at 40. And I understand because at that age, he could still run. Amen? And so he wanted to develop. So he went out and he killed an Egyptian. And he29:26 thought, now they're gonna realize that I'm here to save them. And and they reported that to Pharaoh, and he ran because he was 40. He ran for his life. And he ended up being a caretaker of his29:38 father-in-law, sheep, for 40 years. And it was like God was weaning him away from all the things that he thought made him powerful and what made him great. And at 80, God comes and says, now29:49 you're ready. Now you're ready. Something you need to learn that. Something you need to learn that. You're not ready when school says you're ready. You're not ready when college says you're ready. You're ready when God29:58 says you're ready. And some of you are not ready. That's why you're struggling right now. And some of you keep taking the same life course over and over and over again because you keep flunking it.30:10 You're not learning. You take you're taking how to treat your spouse 101. And you don't treat them right. You wonder why your marriage stinks. So God just keeps putting you back in the class.30:22 He's the registrar of life. He just puts you right back in the class. Amen? And that's how you've you've got to learn how to learn through the struggle and grow because it's struggle now, suffering now, glory later.30:31 Number 2 secret. We know the real reason life is so challenging. Christians are not oblivious to the to the problems of this world because we expect it, because our Bible teaches us to look30:43 at the grand arc narrative of god's created purposes. Here's what it says in Romans chapter 8 verse 20. He says, for the creation was subjected to futility. The creation. Circle30:54 creation and circle subjected. The creation was subjected to futility not willingly but because of him. Underlining him. Who is him? Who subjected creation to31:05 futility? He or him is Adam. Adam, our great ancestor, our great father of our biological selves. It31:17 says this, that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to curse and attain the freedom of the sons and of the glory of the children of God. So we know, Christians, we know why31:29 life is hard. That's what this book reveals. It teaches us there's a grand narrative here. How did the book start? Genesis chapter 1, God creates everything. God creates everything perfect. Then31:41 he says, let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them have what's the next word? Let them have what? Dominion. You know what dominion means? Authority, rule, power. Power over the31:52 fish, over the birds, over the livestock, over all the earth. Somebody say, All the earth. All the earth. Were created Man mankind was created to have power and dominion over all the earth.32:04 And and and then in verse 28, it says, God blessed Adam and the woman. Her her name wasn't Eve until Genesis 3. So God blessed Adam and the woman Genesis 4. And God blessed them and said, Be fruitful, multiply, rule fill32:16 the earth, and subdue it. In other words, take authority. Take authority. Have dominion. This is what God intended for you to have. But what happened was Genesis 332:27 comes along. The talking snake, Eve, has a conversation, and before you know it, there's sin. And what happened was the first man and woman listened to the devil and subjected all of us32:40 to frustration. So God shows up, and he doesn't go first to Eve. He goes to Adam because there is a federal headship in the home. Males must cover their wives and take responsibility for their homes.32:52 Amen. So God doesn't come to Eve and say, What did do wrong? He comes to Adam and says, What did you let happen? You didn't rule. You didn't subdue. You didn't take authority that I gave you. You subjected33:03 authority to the devil who came after you. And friends, this is why I say to you again and again, this is why I'm passionate about leading men to lead their families. You've got to take authority in Christ over33:15 your home, over your children, over your household, over your life because this is a serious battle we're in. It's a fight to the death, and you cannot play it safe with the devil. You can't make peace with the devil and33:27 war with God. God gave you the Holy Spirit so that you can make war with the devil because you have peace with God. Amen. Amen. Anyway, he says this is the curse because you've listened to the voice of your wife.33:40 You you laid down your authority and you listened to your wife. And you've eaten the fruit tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground. The ground is cursed. This world is under a curse.33:51 And it says this pain, you will eat of all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, it says. And you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till34:01 you return to the ground. For from dust you came, and to dust you will return. This is what we are living with right now. The creation is groaning, Paul says. It's groaning for redemption.34:13 And then a little interesting line there. It says, the redemption of the sons I'm sorry. Obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. So what happens for the Christian? And this is so important that you get34:24 this. This is good theology. We are born cursed. We are born again blessed. Understand that or34:36 you will always be frustrated with life. Outside of Christ, curse. What curse? Adam's curse. You're just going to struggle. You're going to have thorns, thistles.34:48 The world's barely gonna work out for you. You're gonna put hours in and get an hour back. I mean, that's life because this world is under the the lordship or not the lordship, but the the the the rule of Satan because35:00 Adam surrendered his authority to Satan. And how every child and this is so important that you get this right now. Every child is born wrong. Every birth is35:12 instilled with a sinful nature. The Bible calls it iniquity. It's something that's woven into the fabric of every portion of our being. That's why we don't eat right. We don't do what's good for us.35:24 We do what's evil for us. That's why the pleasurable things are always harmful, and the helpful things are always horrible. Right? No 1 takes their kids out for broccoli. Anybody know what I'm talking about? No. Let's go35:36 out and have broccoli, kids. Yay, broccoli. No, it's let's go out and have an overabundance of sugar and milk and freeze it. That's what we're gonna do. And we're gonna give our bodies immune deficiency by35:48 having all this sugar and dairy pumped into our bloodstream. Let's go kids. Let's go kill ourselves and have a good time doing it. And beyond ice cream, there's a whole host of other things. Let's go have a bunch of35:59 drinks. Let's let's inebriate ourselves and make some poor decisions until 3 am and meet up at the Waffle House afterwards. How many know what I'm talking about? This is the natural course of being because we are born36:10 cursed. And no matter what we try to do to fix it, we always struggle through and we never arrive at a chance at an answer. Because the Bible story is not,36:22 not about how you pick yourself up by your bootstraps, dust yourself off, and keep going on. No. The Bible story is you are lost and36:34 cursed in sin and transgressions that God is against you. This world is again Anybody ever feel Is the world against me? Yes. It's against you. The spiritual realm is against everybody's again36:46 the world's against you because the world is cursed. But if you know the bible story, you know that God sent us a hero. And his name was Jesus Christ.36:58 And the scripture calls him in the book of Romans, our second Adam. The first Adam brought cursing. The second Adam brought blessing. There's only 2 people in the Bible referred to as the son of God, Adam and Christ. And37:09 so what Adam did wrongfully, Christ did rightfully, and he brought us out of our bondage and into redemptive purposes through the Holy Spirit. As Romans chapter 5 17 says,37:21 if because of 1 man's trespass, death reigns Somebody say, Death reigned. Death reigns. That's the world against you. Through that 1 man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of37:32 righteousness reign in life. Somebody say, Reign in life. Reign in life through the 1 man, Jesus Christ. You're not called to flounder through life. You're called to37:44 reign in life if you're a Christian. So you understand, however, that we are in the present not yet reality of redemption. The present37:56 not yet reality of redemption. What does that mean? That means that while our hearts are right with God and our spirits are right with God, the world is still cursed. So what does this matter about purpose? It38:08 matters this way. You're not caught off guard by the challenges around you and the frustrations around you and the and the enemy who's against you. You know the story.38:20 You know the end from the beginning. And and and so we we look at what he says here in Romans 8 22. He says, for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. TheShow more
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