[0:00] All right. Greetings from my pastor and the elders at Grace Community Church and the people of Grace Church. There are many of you here that have connections back to Grace Community Church, and BK is certainly one of them.
[0:14] I know that Pastor John has a fond place in his heart for BK and for the ministry that is happening here in Squamish.
[0:26] BK says I've seen Squamish. I'm not sure. It's a lot of clouds. Have I seen Squamish? Yeah, we're going to hopefully get out there and see a little more of it.
[0:37] It is beautiful country, and here's what I want to do in the time that we have this weekend. We're going to do six sessions that I know of. I am available for questions afterwards, and BK mentioned maybe doing a Q&A session.
[0:54] Whenever that happens, I'm happy to do that, but I want to focus, as you know, on the family. As I look at all of you, there are moms in the room, dads. There are grandparents, I think, probably in the room.
[1:09] There are children in the room, meaning you have parents and you're living in their house. There are husbands and wives in the room. And what we're going to do in this session and through Sunday evening is address all of you in the context of family from the Word of God.
[1:31] We're going to talk in this first session about the battle for the mind and the heart. And we're going to talk about what you think, what your thinking is, what your thought process is, what your worldview is, because that's foundational to understanding how God designed the family to function, and he did create the family.
[1:55] How you and I think is foundational to how you and I act, and how we think is foundational ultimately to how we parent.
[2:08] And this first session is obviously then foundational to the rest of the weekend. Tomorrow, we're going to focus really specifically on parenting. The morning session, we're going to talk about parenting boys and parenting girls.
[2:22] There are some differences. And we're going to talk about that. In the second session, we're going to talk about biblical discipline. And in the third session tomorrow, we're going to talk about the transitions, the transition of having dependent young children to having children actually leave your home and how to prepare for that, transition to children becoming parents.
[2:47] Of grandchildren. We're going to talk about all of that from the Word of God. And then on Sunday, we're going to focus on relationships in the context of family. The first session on Sunday, we'll talk about friendships, relationships.
[3:00] And the application of that has to do with marriage, has to do with dating, and it has to do with the influences that you allow into your home that will affect your family.
[3:13] And then we'll finish off in the sixth session talking about difficult relationships, because that has nothing to do with family, right? Family is the most precious relationships, but it can also be the source of some of the most difficult relationships.
[3:28] And we'll finish off talking about that with the great hope that comes from Scripture as it relates to difficult relationships. Okay? So with that, let me open with a word of prayer.
[3:41] Lord, I am dependent completely on you tonight. Lord, I pray that you would take the words that are said here, the Scripture that's shared, and apply it to all of our hearts.
[3:52] Take what's said and multiply it. Lord, it is our desire to honor you in how we think and in the affections of our heart. Lord, we pray that they would be consistent with what you would want them to be.
[4:05] We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Okay. If you want, turn in your Bibles to Romans 1. It's the first passage I want you to look at.
[4:20] But let me set the stage for that here a little bit and talk about why we must capture the minds of our children and even our own minds and how we think.
[4:33] You are in a place, if you're a parent, or you're going to be a parent someday, to be the most influential person in establishing what your children think and how they think, how they process life, how they process decisions, the world, their opinions, and emotions.
[4:56] And a starting place for all of that is understanding that emotions are deceitful. Jeremiah 17.9 says, The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick who can understand it.
[5:09] That's a problem. It's a problem for all of us. We have to understand that. And our culture right now is driven by emotions. If I feel a certain way, then I can behave in accordance with how I feel.
[5:24] Maybe that's just in the United States. How I feel drives what I think. And there's really no better explanation of the gender debate that is raging in the United States right now.
[5:37] I feel like I'm different than how I was created. Therefore, I'm going to adopt a fictitious premise against all scientific proof that I can go ahead and change my gender.
[5:49] That is a classic example of emotional thinking. That is action that is not rooted in sound thought. It's ultimately rebellion against the creator God.
[6:01] There's a direct connection in scripture between the mind, your thinking, and action. What you think and how you think drives how you act.
[6:13] Your behavior and your words betray what you think. Let me say that again. Particularly as a parent, this is good to remember that the behavior that you see is the loudest explanation of what that person thinks.
[6:30] They can say differently, but it's difficult to justify that. In fact, faulty and damaged thinking is a form of the judgment of God because of the behavior that it produces.
[6:45] And that's in Romans 1, verse 28. You're probably familiar with this verse. Let me read this to you. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a what?
[6:58] A depraved mind. Depraved thinking is the judgment of God. And the connection between what you think and how you act is right there in that verse.
[7:12] If you keep reading, it says, to do these things which are not proper. A depraved mind results in depraved behavior. And you can see the list there.
[7:24] Unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossiping, slandering, hating God, insolence, arrogance, boastfulness, inventing of evil, disobedience to parents, untrustworthy, lacking understanding, unloving, unmerciful.
[7:45] You see the connection between the mind and the actions. A depraved mind to do those things which are not proper. The consequences of unchecked bad thinking are severe.
[7:59] And love compels us to address the issue and to bring to bear the word of God, not just on our children, but on our own thinking. There is grace and relief in clarity.
[8:13] We live in a world that wants to emphasize and promote ambiguity, confusion. That is completely inconsistent with the word of God.
[8:25] Romans 12, a couple chapters later than where we were. Again, a familiar passage. Verse 2 says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your what?
[8:38] Your mind. So that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Back at my home church, we're in the midst of a massive influx of people.
[8:54] And it's pretty exciting. These are people that are new believers. These are people that have no idea how to do church. So crazy things are happening at Grace Community Church these days.
[9:07] And one of the things that's happening is people are being saved. I think of one young man in particular, saved in prison during COVID, comes out of prison, saved.
[9:18] A completely new creature. And yet he still thinks, like he did before he was saved. Does that mean he's not saved?
[9:29] No, that means he needs to go through the process of being transformed by the renewing of his mind so that he may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
[9:42] And how does the renewing of a mind, something you can't see, prove what the will of God is? Well, verse one answers that question.
[9:53] Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
[10:05] That's the evidence. That is the evidence. A living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God. And just to re-read verse two, and don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
[10:26] We are all in the process of renewing our mind. If you're a parent, you're in the process of walking your children through the process of renewing their mind, of establishing a worldview.
[10:40] And how do we do that? Well, I think it's probably obvious to you that the best tool, the best method to do that is with the word of God.
[10:55] It's not having them watch the news or read Twitter or whatever else is out there. That's probably, I'm probably aging myself. It's TikTok now, isn't it?
[11:06] All of that pales in comparison, obviously, to the ultimate source of truth. The source of renewing somebody's mind is to wash them with the water of the word.
[11:20] Hebrews 4.12 says that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the what?
[11:39] The thoughts and intentions of the heart. The thoughts and the intentions of the heart go together. These thoughts and intentions are the catalyst for behavior, both good and evil.
[11:57] I don't think BK told you what I do for a living. I'm a forensic accountant. I'm not a pastor. I have not had seminary training. I'm an accountant, which you could probably figure out already.
[12:09] This guy sounds like an accountant. I do what's called forensic accounting, which means I'm involved in testifying in complex criminal and civil litigation.
[12:21] So when there is litigation and they need to know where did the money go or they need to understand what happened with the money, they call somebody like me and I do an investigation.
[12:33] And my job ultimately is to sit in that witness box in front of a jury and explain it to them and then withstand the vigorous, let's call it, cross-examination.
[12:45] So when I get called on a case, usually it involves some kind of white-collar criminal. And sometimes it involves fraud, theft, malfeasance.
[12:59] And there's one thing I know when I'm called on a case. We know when the fraud stopped. Right? When was that? It's probably when I showed up.
[13:10] Okay? So the first assumption in my work is that it stopped. And now what I'm there to do is figure out how did it happen and how much did the bad guy get? And if you think about it, one of the elements that I need to figure out in order to know that I figured all of that out is to know when the fraud started.
[13:34] So in my career, I've been exposed to a lot of cases where there has been the opportunity to understand when did this pattern start?
[13:46] When did this behavior start? I can promise you nobody sat at their college graduation yearning for the day when their name and their picture was going to be on the front page of the newspaper to tell the world that this person stole money or this person embezzled money or whatever the case may be.
[14:09] No one sets out for that to be the end of their career. So how did they get there? Well, I've had a fair amount of opportunity to understand that, to explore that.
[14:22] When I think of a case, I'll call the man Jack, longtime employee of a company, completely trusted, increasingly trusted, so trusted that ultimately he was running the finances of the company.
[14:36] This was a company that operated on five continents, transferred millions, tens of millions of dollars of cash every week between entities and bank accounts, and nobody checked up on this guy because he was so trusted.
[14:54] He was a respected employee. His word was gold. He went to church every Sunday, by the way. If he said it, management and the stockholders, the ownership did it.
[15:08] He had a reputation for honesty and integrity, not just in the business, but in the industry, in the community, and in his family. And he made the front page of the newspaper because he was arrested for one of the largest frauds of a private company in the Los Angeles area.
[15:28] And the sad thing was, he ended up killing himself. The consequences of this man's decisions were enormous.
[15:40] When did it start? So as we began to look, we began to understand what is true in every case, that a white-collar criminal didn't set out even to get rich, usually didn't set out to get famous, but it started with a small decision, a thought.
[16:03] And in this particular man's case, he had a whole second life, illicit relationships, a gambling habit, all kinds of things that came out in the investigation, and the progression went like this.
[16:17] He had a thought at some point, and it became an idea. I know how to get money. An idea becomes an intention or a plan. A plan becomes an action.
[16:31] That first decision. That first bad decision. That action becomes a habit, and that habit became his identity. It became who he was. And the consequences were overwhelming.
[16:46] We see this over and over and over. And my job as a forensic accountant is to get to the root of that exact process. What was the idea?
[16:58] The thought? The intention? The plan? The action? The action? And then the habits? And of course that cycle is true because that is exactly what the Bible says.
[17:10] In James 1, verse 14, it says, each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. That's the longing or the desire.
[17:23] Then when lust or the idea, the thought, what God has conceived, it gives birth to what? Sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
[17:36] What you think matters. from Bernie Madoff to Jack, who you've never heard of before. It all starts with bad thinking.
[17:51] Most parenting is focused these days on stopping actions or if allowed to continue to stop bad habits. And that's certainly important.
[18:03] But all of this is easier if first you deal with the thoughts and the intentions. Do you want an obedient child? Do you want a wise child?
[18:15] Capture their mind. Capture their heart. It's in the Bible, Psalm 111. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? That's an easy one.
[18:27] The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding or wisdom have all those who do his commandments. That's obedience. There is a connection throughout Scripture between the fear of God, the wisdom of God, and obedience.
[18:42] Therefore, if you want an obedient child, you teach them first the fear of God. You want your sons and your daughters to leave your home wise?
[18:56] Don't teach them cute things to say. Teach them the fear of God. And that's what we want to talk about the rest of the way. If you could, turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 10.
[19:09] And I want to give you a couple verses here. Verses 3 through 5. Very short passage. Very profound passage. This is the key to capturing the mind.
[19:24] Six actions to reach the mind. Yours and your child's. Verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
[19:38] For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.
[19:52] And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. There's six things there I want to highlight for you.
[20:02] And I'm going to do this really quickly. But this is a passage I think you can take home with you and think about. Not, yes. 2 Corinthians 10.
[20:16] Six things that I think, six steps that jump out of this passage. A process of how you capture your mind and the minds of your children.
[20:28] Their thinking. Their worldview. First of all, we need to be serious. Do you see the word war in there? It's in there a couple times.
[20:39] Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare. This battle is a war.
[20:53] Second, we are to use the weapons we've been given. You have been given weapons. Verse 4. The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful.
[21:10] That's speaking of the weapons. We're to use them. They are divinely powerful and armed by the knowledge of God. The fear of God. Number 3.
[21:22] Break things. Did you know that that's what happens in war? Things are broken. And he says that. We are to destroy the destruction, it says, of fortresses.
[21:35] So it's serious. We're to use the weapons we've been given. We're to break things. And number 4, we need to pick our targets.
[21:48] Pick our targets. And what are our targets? It talks about there in this passage the destruction of fortresses. Do you see that?
[22:00] And we're destroying speculations. And every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. Those three things are our targets.
[22:12] Those are the three things you need in your parenting to be addressing in your parenting as you capture your children's minds.
[22:24] Speculations. That's imaginations. Lofty things. That's higher knowledge. The higher knowledge raised up against the knowledge of God.
[22:37] Fortresses. That's thinking that is contrary to the word of God. Those are the targets. Pick those targets. Number 5. Clear the battlefield. It says to take every thought captive.
[22:50] Parents, we are, as much as God reveals it to us, to hear the thinking of our children and to work through that thinking with those children.
[23:04] Sometimes our children will say wild things to us, won't they? That is not something to be shocked at. Something to suppress. That is something to say, thank you, Lord, for exposing my child's thinking, my child's heart.
[23:22] And address it. And then number 6. We win. We're supposed to win. This is a winnable war.
[23:34] It says the destruction of fortresses. Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. That is the result of right thinking.
[23:44] Do you want children who obey Christ? Go after their thinking. Understand that it's serious. It's a war. Use the weapons that you've been given.
[23:55] And destroy what the Bible says to destroy. Which are the fortresses, the speculations, and the lofty things raised up against or opposed to the knowledge of God.
[24:11] We're to clear the battlefield. Taking every thought captive. And teaching our children to take every thought captive. Take every thought. Every opinion.
[24:22] Every world view. And line that up with the word of God. Does that line up? And the result of that is obedience.
[24:33] There's nothing in this passage about arguing or debating. There's a lot there about how we are to process what passes in front of us.
[24:43] And how to address it. So to be successful in that training process, you need to know about God. And you need them to know about God. 2 Timothy 3.16 says, All scripture is inspired by God.
[24:58] I know you know this. And profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. So that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work.
[25:12] Right thinking leads to right living. The word of God. So I want to illustrate that to you. In the time we have left, if you can, turn in your Bibles.
[25:25] It's all the way at the beginning. Genesis 1. BK mentioned this. That from the beginning, I think he said, God has established his will.
[25:36] And I want to review that with you tonight. I want to start in Genesis 1 on purpose. Because the book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. It is utterly and completely, totally profound in establishing a worldview.
[25:54] And so often we look right past Genesis. Just look at Genesis 1.1. It's probably the one verse everybody knows. It's the one verse that is the gateway to the rest of the Bible.
[26:08] In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. This is an illustration of the power of God's word on right thinking right from the beginning.
[26:20] This is the foundation. The initial and foundational test of whether you believe that the word of God, that the Bible is the word of the living God.
[26:33] You see, at the beginning of God's word, he says that he created the heavens and the earth. Do you believe that or don't you?
[26:46] Evolution and creation is not a scientific debate in Genesis 1. It is a statement of faith, of trust, of belief, of reliance on the word of God or not.
[27:02] Do you believe it? You can consider science, but that's not the initial test here. A starting point in your home should be a spiritual discussion.
[27:13] It is a test of whether you actually accept the veracity and the authority of God's word. The statement is the basis for everything else.
[27:24] Genesis 2.4, a parallel, says this. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven.
[27:41] It's simple. It's basic. It's profound. God made the world. The implications of this truth, utterly profound. We should teach this.
[27:54] Talk about this. Make this the frame and filter of everything of how your children view the world. A big God puts man in proper perspective.
[28:10] It's hard to believe the secular religion of today that man is in control if you believe that Genesis 1.1 is true. You see, whoever created us makes the rules.
[28:26] Genesis 1.9-25 goes through the creation process. Describes the creation of the heavens and the earth from space to land to under the seas and everything living in the seas and on the earth.
[28:43] And then starting in verse 26 is the creation of man and how man fits into the creation that's described in verses 9-25.
[28:55] And I want to walk through verses 26 through the end of the chapter, verse 31, six short verses that are utterly profound for you and I to understand and for our children to understand from the creator what our place is on this earth.
[29:18] I think you'll see that there's enough here to inform your parenting for a long time. Verse 26. Then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
[29:43] God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. God blessed them and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
[30:07] Then God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth and every tree which has fruit yielding seed, it shall be food for you.
[30:18] And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food.
[30:28] And it was so. God saw all that he made and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. Utterly profound passage.
[30:43] Let's walk through a few questions that are addressed here. If you're taking notes, I'm going to give you the following questions. What is a human? Where do animals fit in?
[30:59] What is our perspective on animals from the God who created those animals? What about gender, number three? Is there a difference between men and women?
[31:10] The fourth one is going to talk, we're going to talk about marriage and family. Marriage and family is established in this passage.
[31:22] What about work? A work ethic established in Genesis 1. Food and scarcity. And finally, does God make mistakes?
[31:34] These are basic, foundational questions. And let's jump into the first one. You say, why are we going to address the question of what is a human?
[31:45] Well, I want you to know that that is a question that maybe many of you as parents never had thrown at you when you were in school. But I promise you, your children are going to be confronted with that question.
[31:58] It is a prolific area of writing right now because right now, the prevailing wisdom, the fortresses, those things which are thrown up against the knowledge of God, one of them today is that humans, pre-born and born, are just blobs of tissue.
[32:16] There's nothing special about a human. There's no meaning any greater than any other form of life. The alternative is that life is precious.
[32:27] It has meaning. It's predescent. It's created. It's purposeful. And I want you to see in Genesis 1.26 what you need to pass on to the next generation. And that is that verse 26 establishes that a human being is life created in the image of God.
[32:45] That definition of a human being completely refutes so much of the wisdom of the world today.
[32:59] Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. That is the definition of a human being. What are the implications of that? First of all, it says we're created.
[33:10] There's a humility of knowing that we answer to a creator. Every created being answers to its creator. The image of God.
[33:21] Let's talk about that briefly. The imago Deo, if you've heard of that. That is the uniqueness of the creation of human beings. That's you and me.
[33:32] We were given a spirit. Language. The ability to communicate with nuanced language. Initiative. Intellect.
[33:43] Personality. You and I are capable of forgiveness. Mercy and redemption. We're also capable of sin.
[33:55] We are able to make moral choices. We are moral beings. Why do we say that? Because we are made in the image of God. We are also the object of God's love.
[34:08] We're the object of his attention and his will. So much so that 1 Timothy 1.15 says that Christ Jesus came into the world to save what?
[34:22] You and me. Sinners. What a remarkable story. You see, God sent Christ to save human beings.
[34:34] No other part of his creation will be redeemed. It will all burn. Revelation makes that clear. A human life has that requisite value.
[34:48] Your children need. They must know that. That must inform their thinking. Genesis 9.6. Just to show the value of human life in God's economy, it says, Whoever sheds human blood, by man his blood shall be shed.
[35:07] For in the image of God, he made mankind. There is no lower evil than taking the life of someone created in the image of God.
[35:22] That applies to human life that has been born and human life that is unborn. Genesis 2.7 says, The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.
[35:43] I already read that to you. It's simple. It's basic. It's profound. God made your son. God made your daughter. Specifically.
[35:55] Purposefully. And his purposes supersede your purposes and my purposes, and he made them in the image of God.
[36:06] We're here because God put us here. It's not random. It's not a mistake. As we'll see in a minute, it's not a mistake that your son is your son and your daughter is your daughter.
[36:17] It is by God's perfect, premeditated, predestined plan that your child, that you, that I, were created in the image of God.
[36:33] What about animals? You say, why are we talking about animals? Well, because the Bible does. Right after talking about the creation of man in God's image, it goes on to talk about the animals.
[36:50] Verse 26, let them, man, men and women, rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
[37:02] Can we call that animals? I think we can. You see, your children, maybe just in the United States. I think it's everywhere. Children are taught and are increasingly taught that humans are no better or different than animals.
[37:18] In fact, there's a whole generation. My kids grew up watching Lion King and Tarzan, you know, these movies with talking animals that make moral choices and communicate.
[37:29] I think there's a whole generation that didn't realize that those weren't documentaries. That was pretend. The animal rights movement in this world is a direct affront to the truth of Genesis 1, verse 26.
[37:47] It's the result of emotional thinking, not right thinking. And this is even hard for some people to hear. There is a hierarchy of creation. Animals were not created in the image and likeness of God.
[38:02] Christ wasn't sent to the earth to die for animals. And I know I'm stating obvious truth. But I think we have to think about the implications of this.
[38:17] Animals don't have a spirit. They don't have language. They don't take the same moral initiative. They don't have an intellect. I know your dog is smarter than any other dog.
[38:28] But your dog is not a moral creature. There are no God-given animal rights. Did you know that? This is entirely a creation of sinful, rebellious human beings that will find, under the direction of the spirit of this age, any way to rebel against the creative genius and design of God.
[38:52] Here's a hard one. Animals are food. That's why God put them on the earth.
[39:02] That's what he said. They're beasts of burden, transportation and industry. They're clothing. In fact, in Genesis chapter 3, it says that the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and Eve, his wife, and clothed them.
[39:19] That's after sin enters the world. He pronounces the curse, and he immediately clothed Adam and Eve with what? Animal skins.
[39:32] An animal died that day. That's why God put them on the earth. The animal rights movement is easy to laugh at, but the goals and the philosophy of that movement are a direct affront, even on that level, to God's stated design.
[39:51] And it is something that will be pushed into your child's intellect, into their thinking. It is your job and my job, our job, to frame their thinking with the truth of God's word.
[40:06] Obviously, by the way, we don't want to intentionally mistreat or needlessly injure animals. Proverbs 12.10 says that a righteous man has regard for the life of his animal.
[40:18] There is virtue in that. Because all of God's creation is to be appreciated and respected as we subdue it and rule over it.
[40:31] Gender. I don't know that this could be any more clear. Verse 27. There are two genders. They are assigned by who? By God.
[40:42] They're not assigned by the doctor and they're not assigned by me because I decide I don't want to be what God created me to be. That is immovable, unchangeable truth.
[40:57] Why do we say that? Genesis 127. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them.
[41:07] There is great equality between a man and a woman. They are both created in the image of God. There is a great difference in that equality because it says that he made them male and female.
[41:27] That choice is God's. Every time a new daughter was born to Anna and I, I had lots of questions in that delivery room. A lot of questions.
[41:40] Lord, what in the world do I do now? Was one of them. One of the questions that was never in my mind is, is that a boy or a girl?
[41:53] Okay? It's just God makes that choice. I didn't. Ann didn't. My daughters didn't.
[42:04] And what a glorious, glorious thing that God gave us three daughters. And I hope they left my home understanding that. The ultimate rebellion is to deny that prerogative of God and assume the ability to change his perfect plan.
[42:22] It's utter foolishness and it's the ultimate expression of a defiant human pride that I know you as parents want to root out of your child's heart.
[42:35] Rebellion against God is not a good way to live. You know, in Genesis chapter 2, God establishes pretty clearly, by the way, that there is a difference between boys and girls.
[42:47] We're going to spend the session tomorrow morning talking about raising boys and girls. And that whole presentation is out of Genesis because it is made clear that God created man for one purpose and woman for a different purpose.
[43:02] Both in the image of God. Both in the image of God. Both in his perfect creation to fulfill his purposes. Genesis 2, 7, I read it to you that he breathed life and man became a living being.
[43:19] Later in Genesis 2, verse 15, it says, God took the man, Adam, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. That's work, by the way.
[43:33] He put him in the garden to work. And then in verse 18, it's really interesting. Out of all of the creation account where God has said, it is good, it is good, it is good, it is good, it is good.
[43:46] Genesis 2, 18, it says, and the Lord God said, it is not good for man to what? Be alone. And all God's men said? Oh, man.
[43:58] We'll work on that. That will get better by Sunday, I promise you, ladies. He says, I will make him a helper suitable for him. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
[44:14] And in that statement and in that sequence, God establishes that there is a difference between a man and a woman. And the world hates that verse.
[44:27] That I will make him a helper. And what's amazing about that is as much as the world hates that, and your children and your daughters, and I know this from experience, will be told to hate that concept.
[44:42] That hatred is driven by a failure to understand that word helper. Do you know that that is the same word to describe God? Job 29, 12.
[44:56] I delivered the poor who cried for help and the orphan who had no helper. Psalm 54, 4. God is my what? Helper. Same word.
[45:08] The Lord is the sustainer of my soul. John 14, 16. When Jesus promises the Holy Spirit, he says, I will ask the Father and he will give you another what?
[45:21] Same word. Helper. Helper. Helper. Helper. Helper. Helper. Helper. Helper. Helper. Guys, are you ever tempted to say to your, ask your wife who made you the Holy Spirit? Now you know.
[45:34] She's not the Holy Spirit, but she is your helper. Hebrews 2, 18. For since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid or the help of those who are tempted.
[45:50] Hebrews 13, 6. Quoting Psalm 18 says, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? Same word. Do you get it? That verse that the world hates, where God says it is not good for a man to be alone.
[46:08] I will make him a helper. And then the story continues of him creating Eve and bringing them together in marriage. It is a picture of God's creation of man by design being incomplete to be completed by God's gift of a helper.
[46:31] What a picture. Our all-powerful God helps us in the same way that a woman helps a man by God's perfect design.
[46:42] You see, helper speaks to the inadequacy of man, not the woman. He's incomplete without her, and she's dependent on his leadership, his provision, and his protection.
[46:58] There's more we're going to say about that tomorrow. But the design and purpose established by our creator makes our parenting goals a lot clearer now, doesn't it?
[47:09] Marriage and family. Genesis 1 establishes marriage and family. Verse 28, God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
[47:24] The accounting translation of that is have babies. And that happens in the context of marriage. God blessed them.
[47:38] That means happy. He bestows happiness, contentment, fulfillment, and peace. You know that verse I read to you about murder? Genesis 9-6 is followed immediately.
[47:49] The next verse it says, as for you, as for you and me, who follow God's design, be fruitful and multiply. Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.
[48:05] You guys heard all those reports about how we need to have less babies because there's overpopulation? That is a lie from the pit of hell.
[48:16] That is a direct affront by Satan against the creator God. Keep reading Genesis 1-28.
[48:28] It is truth. It is truth. It is directly contrary to what the world says. Genesis 2-24 says, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
[48:44] Let's talk about work. There's more we can say. I don't want to go too long.
[48:56] BK said I could go till 10, but I don't think I will. Why work? We live in a culture, at least in my country, where everyone's being told now they don't need to work.
[49:07] The government will pay them. I can tell you I sit on the board of some companies. One is a manufacturing company, and they can't find anybody to come to work anymore.
[49:21] I think that's probably consistent here a little bit. But verse 28, Genesis 1-28 establishes in the garden at creation God's view of work.
[49:35] He says, subdue it. Rule over the fish. Genesis 2-5 when he says that no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to enjoy God's creation.
[49:57] Is that what it says? There was no man to cultivate the ground. There was no man to work. So God creates Adam, and Genesis 2-15 says, And the Lord God took the man, put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
[50:15] And I think it's really interesting that after sin happens, you see, work is not the curse. Work is God's design for men and women.
[50:30] That's what we were put on the earth to do. And I love this picture, just to show you how we still rebel against it, and it started in the Garden of Eden.
[50:42] In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sinned. God pronounces the curse against Satan, and then against Eve, and then against Adam. And then in verse 23 of Genesis 3, it says, Therefore the Lord God sent Adam out from the Garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.
[50:58] And that's verse 23. Chapter 3, verse 24 goes a step further and says, So he drove the man out.
[51:10] You get that? All the way back in the Garden, after the initial sin, Adam already rebels against the concept of work.
[51:22] It says God sent him out in verse 23. Adam obviously didn't go. So it says in verse 24, God had to drive him out. We are called to work.
[51:33] We will be told, your children will be told, that work is not necessary, that the laziness which is natural within them is okay.
[51:44] It is a lie from the pit of hell. Let's talk about food very quickly. Verse 29, Genesis 1, 29. And then God said, behold, I've given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth.
[52:00] You're raising children. You may want to go home and ask them, where does food come from? What they might say is the store. Some of them might say, duh, if they're teenagers.
[52:13] I had a few of those. You might want to remind them of Genesis 1, 29. Food comes from where? The Lord. I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the earth of all the earth.
[52:28] And every tree which has fruit yielding seed, it shall be food for you. Food is a gift from God. That is a perspective that can change somebody's thinking.
[52:40] Verse 30, and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so.
[52:52] By the way, it talks about seeds several times. Food is a replenishing, replenishing gift.
[53:04] We're not running out of food. The call for the cut in population growth because of overpopulation and we won't be able to feed everybody.
[53:16] Do you understand that God in Genesis 1, the creator of the universe, said, have babies. Have them in abundance. Multiply and cover the earth.
[53:31] And then he promises to a sinful world that he will feed us. That is profound truth. That is truth from the word of God, from the creator that will run directly contrary to what your children will be confronted with all the time.
[53:52] The lofty things raised up against the knowledge of God, the fortresses. God provides the food. It's a renewing resource.
[54:04] The destruction of farming has been underway where I live in California for decades. And it's going on around the world. And that probably means that there's a famine coming.
[54:16] But when that comes and if that comes, and we know that there are famines in certain parts of the world, you understand that that's not God's perfect design. That's the result of natural disaster and human foolishness.
[54:34] Finally, does God make mistakes? Verse 31. God saw all he had made. And behold, it was very good.
[54:46] No mistakes. Everything we've talked about. What is a human? A human being is someone created in the image of our creator God.
[54:58] What about the animals? They were not created in the image of our creator God. And God created men and women and he gave them different purposes on this earth and different roles.
[55:13] He designed marriage and family. He designed us to work. He provides our food. And he doesn't make mistakes. There's not a more profound six verses in establishing right thinking, I think, in terms of condensed truth than Genesis chapter 1.
[55:32] I think it's a passage that bears going through with your children. It's a tool. It's an idea. To sit down with your children. Not tonight, by the way.
[55:43] I'm going to say a lot of things this weekend. I would appreciate it if you'd wait until I get on the airplane on Monday before you say, we're changing everything. Sons and daughters, they'll come looking for me.
[55:58] So much of what we're going to talk about this weekend and even what we've talked about tonight, I would urge you, if you're parents, to think about this. To think about it together. Mom and dad. Husband and wife.
[56:10] To consider these things and to carefully consider how do we implement this in our home. How do we talk about this? How does this change what goes on in our home?
[56:23] And I pray that what you do with it is honoring to the Lord and it changes the thinking of you and I and our families. Let me close in prayer.
[56:34] Lord, thank you for the clarity of your word. I pray that I might not tonight or in the coming sessions confuse that. Lord, I pray that your word would not return void.
[56:46] That your word would do its work in our hearts. That you would strengthen all of our families for having reviewed together what a great God you are. In your creation.
[56:57] With the clarity you provided at the very beginning. On who we are and how we fit into the rest of creation. Lord, I pray for the rest of the sessions we have this weekend.
[57:09] Lord, I pray that they would be helpful. That they would be based on the truth of the word of God. And that we would be different for having been here. And I pray this in Christ's name.
[57:19] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.