WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:04.140 Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church Sermon Podcast. 00:04.880 --> 00:08.260 We're so glad you're here, and we hope this message inspires you, 00:08.480 --> 00:12.020 builds your faith, and moves you toward a deep relationship with God. 00:12.580 --> 00:15.160 Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible 00:15.160 --> 00:17.840 and learn how you can apply it straight to your life. 00:18.240 --> 00:20.380 So welcome and enjoy the message. 00:21.220 --> 00:24.820 If you have your Bible, please open it with me to Genesis chapter 2. 00:26.560 --> 00:32.420 Now, for the last week, as your pastors, we've been busy talking and counseling with many of you. And if I could 00:32.420 --> 00:37.820 get a little more in my monitor, that would be helpful for me. We've been counseling with many 00:37.820 --> 00:46.920 of you who are still very shaken from Charlie Kirk's assassination. Charlie was a political activist and a very outspoken Christian apologist, 00:47.260 --> 00:53.640 and we're deeply grieving his murder and the evil condition that our world finds itself in. 00:54.220 --> 00:59.880 It seems, though, for the last week or so, as we visited with many of you, 00:59.960 --> 01:07.680 that there is a stirring of God in many of your hearts to be more bold in your faith and your witness 01:07.680 --> 01:10.320 and to proclaim the gospel in your life. 01:10.420 --> 01:17.160 And so I praise God for what he's doing, taking evil and turning it into good. 01:17.300 --> 01:19.500 Many are waking up. Amen. 01:20.500 --> 01:27.560 Many are waking up to the reality of the very dark spiritual war that we're in, and that's 01:27.560 --> 01:28.880 actually a very good thing. 01:29.020 --> 01:35.320 So before we jump into Genesis this morning and hear from God, let's pray, all right? 01:35.420 --> 01:36.480 Let's go to the Lord. 01:37.340 --> 01:48.160 Our Heavenly Father, we are so weighed down and so burdened and concerned for our world. Lord, the darkness that we see, 01:49.140 --> 01:56.960 Lord, we grieve it, Lord, with you. We know it grieves your spirit. Lord, many of us saw things 01:56.960 --> 02:02.820 that we cannot unsee, and for many that was very traumatic. And so I pray, Lord, that you help them. 02:03.560 --> 02:05.260 I pray for those that are grieving, Lord, that you help them. I pray for those that are grieving, 02:05.520 --> 02:11.660 Lord, that you would comfort them. Comfort us with your spirit, we ask. And Lord, we just pray for 02:11.660 --> 02:18.360 the division in our country. We pray for what we've seen of hatred and anger and so many different 02:18.360 --> 02:27.940 emotions. And we know, Lord, that our problems are complex. But Lord, you provide a very simple answer in your 02:27.940 --> 02:33.940 son, Jesus. And so I'm asking, Lord, that you give our leadership wisdom as they navigate all of this, 02:34.460 --> 02:40.020 Lord, that you would help your church. You would help us be a bright, shining light of your love 02:40.020 --> 02:47.420 and your truth. Lord, help us be salt and light. Lord, we pray that this would be a time where 02:47.420 --> 02:54.280 we're emboldened and empowered by your spirit to speak up like we've never done before about your 02:54.280 --> 03:00.080 son, Jesus. We love you. We need your help. Now, Lord, we pray that you bless the reading of your 03:00.080 --> 03:05.100 word and the teaching of your word and that you would use it to draw people to yourself. We ask 03:05.100 --> 03:12.120 in Jesus' name. Amen. So if you have your Bible, hopefully you've got Genesis chapter 2 opened up 03:12.120 --> 03:18.060 in front of you in a message I'm calling God's Ideal. This morning, we're going to do what we've 03:18.060 --> 03:22.980 done at Valley Baptist Church virtually every Sunday for the past 40 years. We're going to draw 03:22.980 --> 03:25.980 our attention to God's Word, specifically 03:25.980 --> 03:31.140 to Genesis chapter 2. Now, we've been a little out of order for the last couple weeks, 03:31.380 --> 03:36.700 because I got sick a couple weeks ago, and so Pastor Matt jumped in. And by the way, 03:36.740 --> 03:43.340 he preached an amazing sermon from the first half of this chapter focused on the creation of man 03:43.340 --> 03:47.320 and his responsibilities. But today we get back on track 03:47.320 --> 03:53.440 and we pick things up in verse number 18. Now, when we come to chapter 2, we're given a lot more 03:53.440 --> 04:01.000 detail about the creation of mankind. It's as if God gives us this big picture perspective in 04:01.000 --> 04:06.380 chapter 1, and then He zooms in for us to see more detail in chapter 2. 04:07.100 --> 04:12.700 Pastor Matt compared it to when a movie jumps back to a previous scene and shows more of the story. 04:12.800 --> 04:20.660 I think that's a good way to think about it. What we have in Genesis chapter 2 is God's ideal. 04:21.420 --> 04:27.600 We see an ideal man, Adam, who God breathed the spirit of life into him. We see an ideal 04:27.600 --> 04:33.820 garden, the Garden of Eden. We see an ideal job. Adam was to tend to the garden while not being 04:33.820 --> 04:41.000 burdened by weeds or fatigue. We see an ideal tree of life, which provided sustenance for continued 04:41.000 --> 04:46.840 life. And included among the tree of life is this abundance of other fruit trees. 04:46.960 --> 04:51.900 I imagine apple trees and cherry trees. And of course, there's got to be a lot of avocado trees, 04:51.960 --> 04:59.840 right? I mean, surely this is paradise. So there's this, among that, there also is an ideal tree of 04:59.840 --> 05:06.240 choice, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So placed there is Adam and Eve in this 05:06.240 --> 05:13.000 perfect relationship with God. Now they have that tree of choice, the tree of knowledge of good and 05:13.000 --> 05:21.020 evil, so that it was a real relationship. So it wasn't fake, but it was desire. This was absolute 05:21.020 --> 05:27.820 paradise. We pick up the story in verse 18. It says, and the Lord God said, 05:28.500 --> 05:34.700 it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him. 05:35.280 --> 05:40.540 Now, all throughout chapter one, there's this reoccurring phrase repeated over and over again, 05:40.540 --> 05:45.940 and it was good, and it was good, and it was good. But here God says it is not good. 05:46.540 --> 05:52.620 It is not good that man should be alone. I'm going to make a helper comparable to him. Here's 05:52.620 --> 05:59.280 our principle. God's ideal was not complete until he created women. At 8 a.m., my wife said, 05:59.280 --> 06:07.120 amen. Didn't expect that. Threw me off for a moment. God creates this ideal world with an ideal garden 06:07.120 --> 06:12.380 and an ideal man, but something was missing. So as we'll see here in just a moment, God made the 06:12.380 --> 06:19.340 woman, which was his final act of creation. The woman was like the icing on the cake, the cherry 06:19.340 --> 06:25.180 on top. You know, God saved his best for last, or certainly his most complex for last. Right, guys? 06:26.780 --> 06:31.000 All seriousness, ladies, I hope you can appreciate what God is actually saying here. 06:31.040 --> 06:38.220 He's saying, something was really missing in my creation, so I'm going to fix it, and I'm going to create a woman. 06:38.840 --> 06:40.519 Verse number 19. 06:40.520 --> 07:00.140 Out of the ground, 07:00.240 --> 07:01.960 he did so with the animals as well. 07:01.960 --> 07:06.920 But notice, he did not breathe the spirit of life into the animals like he did mankind, 07:07.020 --> 07:08.660 because mankind is different. 07:08.820 --> 07:10.780 We are created in the image of God. 07:10.880 --> 07:13.020 So God brings each one of these animals. 07:13.140 --> 07:19.260 He brings them to Adam, and Adam names them, which indicates his authority over the animal 07:19.260 --> 07:20.139 kingdom. 07:20.140 --> 07:21.799 Verse number 20. 07:21.800 --> 07:26.200 So Adam gave names to all the cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every 07:26.200 --> 07:34.320 beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable to him. So God brings 07:34.320 --> 07:40.700 all the animals to Adam, and Adam is naming them. And as he's naming them, he realizes that none of 07:40.700 --> 07:46.220 these animals are quite like him. There's no one comparable to me. Now, I don't know 07:46.220 --> 07:52.520 if Adam was experiencing loneliness at this point. I'm not sure I would say that because God was his 07:52.520 --> 07:58.560 companion, but there was a sense in which Adam didn't feel like things were quite complete. He 07:58.560 --> 08:06.520 wanted a companion to share life with who was like him and could help him. Here's our principle. God created women 08:06.520 --> 08:14.240 because men need help. Now, I intended that to be funny, but the truth is it's true, 08:14.780 --> 08:22.020 specifically within the confines of a marriage. You see, Adam was given a very big job to have 08:22.020 --> 08:26.780 dominion over the earth, to rule over it. And he needed a wife, a lifelong 08:26.780 --> 08:34.980 companion to help him with his job. Now the word helper almost sounds demeaning to us. In our minds, 08:35.060 --> 08:38.980 we start thinking, well, does that mean that the men do all the real work and that women are only 08:38.980 --> 08:47.640 left to, you know, clean up after us? But that's not what this word means. The Hebrew word here is ezer. In the Old Testament, 08:47.860 --> 08:56.900 ezer was most oftenly referred to God. The Bible says, the Lord is my helper, my ezer. You see, 08:56.960 --> 09:05.660 a helper is someone who supplies strength in an area that's lacking. So ladies, those of you who are wives, do you help supply strength 09:05.660 --> 09:12.720 to your husband? Do you help make him a stronger Christian? Are you tearing him down or are you 09:12.720 --> 09:18.680 building him up? God put you in his life to help him. Now, he didn't put you in his life to lead 09:18.680 --> 09:28.320 him, but to come alongside him and help him become the man of God that God wants him to be. Verse number 21, 09:29.120 --> 09:34.880 and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs 09:34.880 --> 09:40.100 and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made 09:40.100 --> 09:48.280 into a woman, and he brought her to the man. So God gave Adam some sort of spiritual anesthesia, 09:48.280 --> 09:53.280 and he opens up Adam's side. Now, we don't know for sure what all he took out, because the Hebrew 09:53.280 --> 10:01.040 word can mean side or rib. Now, Adam later says of her, he says, this is now one bone of my bone 10:01.040 --> 10:05.460 and flesh of my flesh. So I tend to think he took out a rib. And so God takes the 10:05.460 --> 10:10.760 rib out and then finishing his divine surgery, he closes and mends up the flesh. And he takes the rib 10:10.760 --> 10:18.980 and he makes this beautiful woman out of it. Now, why did God create the woman that way? I mean, 10:18.980 --> 10:30.960 why not just make her out of the dust like he did with Adam and the animals. Well, I think it was to make clear that women are of the same essential nature as men. 10:31.640 --> 10:37.280 God said, I'm going to make a helper comparable to Adam, which indicates of the same essence. 10:37.280 --> 10:38.679 Here's our principle. 10:38.680 --> 10:42.020 God created women equal to men in essence. 10:43.000 --> 10:44.760 I think that's what God is making clear here. 10:45.120 --> 10:47.360 In chapter 1, we saw that both men and women 10:47.360 --> 10:49.600 are both created in the image of Almighty God. 10:49.880 --> 10:53.240 So women are not inferior, nor are they superior. 10:53.540 --> 10:55.219 They're just different. 10:55.220 --> 10:58.760 You see the fact that God made the woman from Adam's side, 10:58.760 --> 11:01.100 it indicates they're made of the same stuff. 11:01.960 --> 11:07.260 It's been said that God didn't take from man's head nor from his foot because the 11:07.260 --> 11:13.800 woman is neither to rule over the man nor is the man to oppress the woman. To quote our very own 11:13.800 --> 11:19.880 pastor Matthew, he said, the feminist says that the woman should be out in front. The chauvinist 11:19.880 --> 11:25.760 says the woman should be behind. God says the woman should be alongside, not out in front in domination, 11:25.760 --> 11:31.520 not following behind in denigration, but alongside. I don't think I could say it 11:31.520 --> 11:36.080 any better than that. So God creates the woman. He brings her to Adam, and we see 11:36.880 --> 11:45.700 Adam's response in verse 23. And Adam said, "'This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. 11:45.800 --> 11:49.520 She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. 11:50.120 --> 11:54.420 Now, in Hebrew, this is a beautiful poem. 11:54.560 --> 11:55.779 It's poetry. 11:55.780 --> 11:59.320 Adam sees his soon-to-be bride, and he breaks out in poetry. 11:59.320 --> 12:02.600 And now women have been expecting poetry from men ever since. 12:03.460 --> 12:06.660 But ladies, Adam was the perfect guy. 12:06.820 --> 12:10.900 So give your man a break if he's not a poet and he knows it, okay? 12:11.460 --> 12:16.560 King Matthew, as he's commentating in his commentary on the book of Genesis, 12:16.720 --> 12:18.340 he says that this could read, 12:19.020 --> 12:23.300 this at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. 12:23.300 --> 12:27.900 So I'm going to paraphrase this to say, wow, wow. 12:28.540 --> 12:29.979 Here's our principle. 12:29.980 --> 12:34.780 God created women different than men in the best ways possible. 12:35.460 --> 12:41.520 There was something different about Eve that Adam absolutely loved when he saw her. 12:41.880 --> 12:43.120 God made us all different. 12:43.120 --> 12:45.900 And those differences are actually a very good 12:45.900 --> 12:53.660 thing. They should be celebrated. We see here that gender is actually assigned to us by God, 12:54.120 --> 12:59.440 so that if we live contrary to our gender, we're fighting our created purpose, which is always 12:59.440 --> 13:06.640 going to lead to insecurity within our life. It's going to lead to a lot of problems. We saw the distinction of 13:06.640 --> 13:12.880 genders in chapter 1, verse 27. It says, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, 13:12.940 --> 13:20.220 he created him male and female. He created them. So both men and women were both created in the 13:20.220 --> 13:25.660 image of Almighty God so that if you're a woman, you are to image God as a woman. And if 13:25.660 --> 13:33.880 you're a man, you're to image God as a man. Collectively, we image God. Now, in verse 24, 13:34.740 --> 13:45.960 Adam stops talking and God starts talking. We read, God says, therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 13:46.060 --> 13:53.180 and they shall become one flesh. This is speaking of marriage. Here's the principle. God created 13:53.180 --> 14:01.300 the beautiful gift of marriage, and it's actually for our good. Marriage is a gift from God. And we 14:01.300 --> 14:05.560 see here that marriage is actually defined not by the government, 14:06.140 --> 14:12.240 it's defined by God. We see that it's when one man and one woman leave their mom and dad, 14:12.700 --> 14:19.600 and they join themselves together in such a way they become one for life. Jesus said, 14:19.760 --> 14:26.080 what God has joined together, let no man separate. So in marriage, God takes one man and one woman, 14:26.240 --> 14:28.880 and he merges them together in such a way 14:28.880 --> 14:32.360 they're now one entity joined together. 14:32.920 --> 14:33.919 It's like welding. 14:33.920 --> 14:35.420 If you take one piece of metal 14:35.420 --> 14:38.660 and you weld it to a second piece of metal, 14:39.380 --> 14:41.060 you now have one piece of metal. 14:41.180 --> 14:42.180 They've been welded together. 14:42.620 --> 14:45.120 When Kelsey and I were welded together by God, 14:45.240 --> 14:50.380 we ceased being our own separate people, and we collectively became one. Now, it's not that we 14:50.380 --> 14:55.520 lost our individual identity or personhood, but our identity and personhood was forever enhanced 14:55.520 --> 15:02.240 and completed by one another. Now, I preached an entire message back in May on Genesis 2, 15:02.300 --> 15:06.440 verse 24. So I'd encourage you, if you want to take a listen and you didn't hear that, 15:06.720 --> 15:09.200 you can go to our website or YouTube and you can take a listen. 15:09.660 --> 15:13.960 But let me summarize this verse very quickly by pointing out three verbs. 15:15.040 --> 15:18.740 Leave, be joined, and become. 15:18.740 --> 15:22.880 Old-time preachers used to say leave, cleave, and weave. 15:23.100 --> 15:27.040 When a young couple gets married, the very first thing they 15:27.040 --> 15:34.440 must do is leave their mom and dad, which means that they sever that relationship as being their 15:34.440 --> 15:40.560 primary relationship. Mom and dad now play second fiddle. You see, there must be a relational 15:40.560 --> 15:46.640 distancing that takes place because a new family is being formed. Sometimes people will 15:46.640 --> 15:52.260 say when their son is getting married, well, we're adding a new daughter to our family. And that's 15:52.260 --> 15:57.920 true in one sense, and praise God for healthy extended families, but in another sense, you're 15:57.920 --> 16:09.160 not adding a daughter, you're losing a son. He's leaving your family and joining himself to his wife to form a new family unit. Now, it also 16:09.160 --> 16:16.600 says that he is to be joined to his wife. The old King James says to cleave to her, which means and 16:16.600 --> 16:23.760 speaks of commitment, right? It's the idea of being all in. You're all in. All your cards on the table 16:23.760 --> 16:26.440 to use a gambling term, which I probably shouldn't do while I'm preaching. 16:26.600 --> 16:28.840 But, you know, you're just committed, right? 16:29.400 --> 16:32.660 That you've got a tight grip on your spouse. 16:32.760 --> 16:33.760 You're not going to let go. 16:33.860 --> 16:36.360 I think we've got to have this gorilla grip of love 16:36.360 --> 16:38.080 upon the person we're married to. 16:38.640 --> 16:40.680 My papa used to say, you know, 16:40.680 --> 16:42.520 son, if your mammy ever leaves you, 16:42.820 --> 16:44.860 or leaves me rather, I'm going with her. 16:45.380 --> 16:47.100 And that's a pretty good motto, right? 16:47.560 --> 16:52.520 See, marriage is this lifelong commitment of unconditional love. 16:52.940 --> 16:55.720 Now, the last verb is the word become. 16:56.500 --> 17:01.360 It speaks of when he says the two shall become one flesh, the marriage union. 17:01.540 --> 17:03.140 When a man and a woman, they become one. 17:03.220 --> 17:05.760 It speaks of certainly physical union, 17:06.120 --> 17:10.780 but not just physical. I believe a couple, married couple has to learn to be one physically, 17:11.100 --> 17:17.940 emotionally, spiritually, and many other ways. So marriage involves leaving, cleaving, and then 17:17.940 --> 17:25.420 weaving. Leave mom and dad behind, cleave to each other in commitment and then weave your lives together to become one. 17:26.380 --> 17:32.800 Now, for those of you women who are not only women, but you also are wives, I want to give 17:32.800 --> 17:36.200 you just a few truths to hold on to from our passage. 17:36.200 --> 17:37.159 Number one is this. 17:37.160 --> 17:41.780 As a wife, you are comparable to your husband. 17:42.200 --> 17:43.099 That's what God said. 17:43.100 --> 17:46.300 I'm going to make a helper comparable to you. You're not less than your husband. That's what God said. I'm going to make a helper comparable to you. 17:46.580 --> 17:53.020 You're not less than your husband. Together, you form a team. Now, you play different positions 17:53.020 --> 17:57.940 on the team. Scripture teaches that the husband is to be the head of the home. He's to provide 17:57.940 --> 18:03.120 spiritual leadership. Now, that's for the sake of the team, for the family, for the good of it. 18:03.620 --> 18:08.920 There can only be one quarterback on the team, one quarterback on the field at a time, one leader. 18:08.920 --> 18:16.220 But you're comparable in such a way that you both play critical positions on the team vital for success. 18:16.280 --> 18:18.920 We're both created in the image of God. 18:19.560 --> 18:29.360 Now, secondly, as a wife, you're compatible with your husband. You and your husband were made for each other, 18:29.420 --> 18:34.340 meaning you're compatible. Now, a lot of people will get divorced and they'll blame it on what 18:34.340 --> 18:39.320 is called irreconcilable differences. And what they're really saying is we're no longer compatible. 18:40.180 --> 18:46.500 But that's not true. You are compatible in the way that God made you. Now, whenever you're tempted 18:46.500 --> 18:51.200 to believe that, you just reject that lie. The devil would love for you to think that there's 18:51.200 --> 18:56.880 just nothing you could possibly do to fix your marriage problems because you're incompatible. 18:56.880 --> 19:09.060 Listen, the only thing that makes you incompatible is sin. That's the only thing, because sin causes division. In chapter 2, 19:09.200 --> 19:13.860 Adam breaks out here in poetry about his wife, but we're going to see in Genesis chapter 3, 19:14.440 --> 19:20.120 when sin enters the world, he immediately throws her under the bus. That woman that you gave me, 19:20.120 --> 19:25.520 she made me do it, right? Now, let me say very quickly, and we need to move on. Whatever 19:25.520 --> 19:33.220 problems that you may have in your marriage, I can guarantee you sin is at the root of that problem. 19:33.840 --> 19:39.500 Because that's what sin does. It divides. It drives a wedge between people so that when we're 19:39.500 --> 19:51.540 supposed to be selfless, we're selfish. When we're supposed to be focused on giving, we're focused on receiving. When we're supposed to be focused on encouraging, we sometimes are demeaning. But if you have 19:51.540 --> 19:55.280 problems within your marriage, I'm not saying you don't need counseling. You might need that. 19:55.660 --> 20:07.500 But I'm saying that at the core of your problem lies sin. So if you're listening today and you feel like you're not compatible with your spouse, 20:07.720 --> 20:13.560 here's what you do. You reject that as a lie because it's not true. Then you start looking 20:13.560 --> 20:20.860 and identifying sin. Not in your spouse, right? Don't point out their sin. You start with yourself. 20:21.040 --> 20:25.160 Where's the sin of my own heart? Where am I being selfish? Where am I focused on 20:25.160 --> 20:30.760 me rather than focused on their good and what they need? You can't control your spouse. You can only 20:30.760 --> 20:36.660 control you. You build up that relationship and then you see God work. Now, here's another thing 20:36.660 --> 20:48.500 that we learn. As a wife, you're a compliment to your husband. Now, that is not a demeaning thing. That's a beautiful, beautiful 20:48.500 --> 20:54.200 truth. The New Testament says the wife is the glory of her husband. And if you're a husband 20:54.200 --> 21:00.240 and you have a wife, you know she has this wonderful potential to be your glory. That's a 21:00.240 --> 21:05.820 beautiful, beautiful thing within God's created order. Ladies, did you know that God wants you to 21:05.820 --> 21:12.720 be a perfect complement to your husband? And most of the time, that results in you being different 21:12.720 --> 21:18.960 from your husband. And that's okay. That's a good thing. We know that opposites tend to attract, 21:19.140 --> 21:27.840 but the differences that often attract us to each other before we get married later can irritate us after we get married. 21:28.780 --> 21:32.040 My dad used to say that marriage is like God's heavenly sandpaper. 21:32.680 --> 21:35.400 You know, if you take two pieces of sandpaper and you rub them together, 21:35.540 --> 21:38.760 eventually the rough edges are smoothed out. 21:39.620 --> 21:44.400 So as a married couple, you just need to pursue the Lord together. 21:44.520 --> 21:46.320 If you remain married and you pursue 21:46.320 --> 21:51.020 him together, all those rough edges over time, God's going to use your marriage as a tool in his 21:51.020 --> 21:59.120 hands to rub off those rough edges of our life so we're smoothed out and we look more like Jesus. 22:00.080 --> 22:07.000 Now here's the last thing for you ladies. As a wife, you are a lifelong companion with your husband. 22:08.220 --> 22:12.820 Jesus said, what God's joined together, let no man separate. 22:13.560 --> 22:16.020 So our marriage is to be for a lifetime. 22:16.140 --> 22:17.140 But a lifetime of what? 22:17.720 --> 22:19.840 A lifetime of companionship. 22:21.100 --> 22:24.120 Kelsey's my best friend in all the world. 22:24.240 --> 22:27.520 And I praise God that I've got some other really good friends, 22:27.640 --> 22:32.240 but none of them take a close second to her. 22:32.420 --> 22:34.240 She is my best friend. 22:34.840 --> 22:37.080 God said it's not good for man to be alone. 22:37.160 --> 22:38.440 And guys, I found that to be true. 22:38.700 --> 22:40.980 I don't do very well when Kelsey's out of town. 22:41.640 --> 22:43.940 It's not good for man to be alone. 22:43.940 --> 22:46.140 Now, God did give some within his 22:46.140 --> 22:52.440 church the gift of celibacy. So God's plan is not for everyone to get married. But I have also found 22:52.440 --> 22:59.100 that gift seems to be limited. So for most men, it's not good to be alone. We need this companion 22:59.100 --> 23:07.700 to share our life with. And guys, did you know that your wife, she desperately needs you to be her companion 23:07.700 --> 23:13.180 as well? Now, here's what many people don't realize when they get married. The dynamics of 23:13.180 --> 23:18.820 your companionship are actually going to change a lot over time. The person that Kelsey married 23:18.820 --> 23:26.120 over 21 years ago is not the person that she's married to today and vice versa. We change, don't we? We grow. 23:26.400 --> 23:34.000 Sometimes we grow stronger in areas. Sometimes we grow weaker in areas. And so we've got to adapt, 23:34.000 --> 23:40.640 right, with our companions so that we remain one through all the transitions of life, all the ups 23:40.640 --> 23:45.640 and all of the downs. Now, there's one more point I want to make about verse 24, 23:45.800 --> 23:52.220 and it's that God gave us the gift of marriage as part of our mandate to multiply and have dominion 23:52.220 --> 23:57.240 over the earth. When God says, and the two shall become one flesh, many believe this is talking 23:57.240 --> 24:05.240 about having a baby, that God uses the husband and the wife and their sexual union to make another flesh and blood person, another eternal soul 24:05.240 --> 24:13.440 made in the image of God. Now, do you realize what the very first command in the Bible is? 24:14.580 --> 24:19.880 We skimmed over in chapter one, it's be fruitful and multiply. That's the first command, be fruitful 24:19.880 --> 24:27.700 and multiply. Did you know that kids are a wonderful blessing from the Lord? As Christians, 24:27.900 --> 24:33.320 we're pro-kids and we're pro-life because God is pro-kids and pro-life. Now, let me be clear. Here's 24:33.320 --> 24:38.000 the order because you might be a new believer and our coaster has it all out of whack. The order is 24:38.000 --> 24:45.680 get married, move in together, make love, then have kids, train them up in the way that they should go, and then you 24:45.680 --> 24:50.940 send them out of your house, out into the world to have dominion over it as well, and if they're 24:50.940 --> 24:56.180 Christians, to be witnesses to it. That's the order God gives. That's the order God blesses 24:56.180 --> 25:08.560 most. Now, the chapter ends in verse 25. It says, and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. 25:09.460 --> 25:14.420 And that's very significant because that changes in the very next chapter. 25:15.160 --> 25:20.920 After Adam and Eve sinned against God, they run and they hide and they cover themselves up with leaves. 25:20.920 --> 25:23.520 Why? Because now they were ashamed. 25:24.140 --> 25:27.080 They were guilty, and they stood 25:27.080 --> 25:35.060 insecure before the Lord. I think that shame came upon them from a deep sense of feeling inadequate 25:35.060 --> 25:40.020 before God, feeling unworthy to be in God's presence, but that is not how God created them. 25:40.540 --> 25:45.060 God created them to be perfectly secure before them and each other, 25:45.160 --> 25:49.260 naked and exposed, but at peace with God and each other. 25:49.860 --> 25:55.340 You see, before sin, Adam and Eve were fully known and fully loved, 25:55.400 --> 25:56.999 and they knew it. 25:57.000 --> 26:00.760 But whenever they sinned, they were still fully known by God, 26:00.800 --> 26:03.100 and they were still fully loved by God, but they didn't know it. 26:03.820 --> 26:11.340 And so they ran, and they tried to hide from God. I wonder if some of you find yourself in that same condition today. 26:12.360 --> 26:19.500 You've sinned, and you know it. You've sinned, and now you feel shame. Maybe you tried to hide 26:19.500 --> 26:24.080 your sin from God and others by either blowing it off as no big deal or not speaking of it, 26:24.120 --> 26:31.920 but it's eating you up inside. You know about about it you know the darkness of your own heart and your own thoughts and now you 26:31.920 --> 26:36.880 feel inadequate to be in the presence of God you feel unworthy to be in the presence of God you 26:36.880 --> 26:45.820 feel shame and because of that you're trying to hide from the Lord and run from him, ignoring him. But today, maybe something is a little bit different. 26:46.740 --> 26:51.540 Today, just maybe you're hearing the still, small voice 26:51.540 --> 26:55.080 of your maker, of God, speaking to your heart, 26:55.600 --> 27:00.100 letting you know that he sees you, yes, in all of your sin, 27:00.120 --> 27:01.659 but he still loves you. 27:01.660 --> 27:02.660 He still loves you. 27:03.800 --> 27:07.020 Now, if that's the case and you sense that and you hear 27:07.020 --> 27:12.360 that still small voice in your heart, I've got some wonderful news for you because Jesus came 27:12.360 --> 27:20.360 and he died on the cross to pay for our sins and to take away our shame and our guilt. And instead, 27:20.500 --> 27:25.500 we're given peace and eternal life. You see, God told Adam and Eve, in the day that you 27:25.500 --> 27:30.340 sin and rebel against me, you shall surely die. That's exactly what happened. They died physically, 27:30.340 --> 27:35.860 but they also died spiritually. Now, death fundamentally is separation. When we die 27:35.860 --> 27:42.540 physically, our body dies. Our spirit is separated from our body. We're no longer connected. When our 27:42.540 --> 27:46.780 spirit dies, though, our spirit is separated from the spirit of God. 27:46.920 --> 27:50.580 We are dead spiritually, no longer connected in a relationship. 27:51.440 --> 27:52.780 And that's what happened to Adam and Eve. 27:52.960 --> 27:54.580 That's why they felt shame. 27:55.360 --> 27:58.400 They knew something was wrong between them and God. 27:58.400 --> 28:01.360 And that happens to all of us in our sin. 28:02.000 --> 28:07.380 But the story of the Bible is how God is going to fix our death problem 28:07.380 --> 28:16.040 and our shame problem and give us life. But in order to do that, God had to deal with the root 28:16.040 --> 28:29.280 problem. And the root problem was not death. The root problem was not shame. The root problem was sin. The Bible says that there is no remission 28:29.280 --> 28:36.740 of sins without the shedding of blood. Now, we're going to see in the next chapter 28:36.740 --> 28:47.220 that the first blood that was shed was actually shed by God. After Adam and Eve sinned, God sacrificed the first animal, which 28:47.220 --> 28:53.500 was the first death. He sacrificed the animal, perhaps a bull, perhaps a goat, maybe a little 28:53.500 --> 29:01.440 lamb. And God made tunic skins and covered Adam and Eve's nakedness and covered their shame. 29:02.260 --> 29:08.000 A foreshadowing of the sacrifice Jesus would make once and for all for our sins 29:08.000 --> 29:14.120 to be a covering for us as well. Hebrews chapter 10 verse number 4 says, 29:14.260 --> 29:21.680 for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. You see, all the 29:21.680 --> 29:30.660 sacrifices of the Old Testament were pointing forward to one final sacrifice, God's Son, Jesus. 29:31.800 --> 29:38.260 So today, if you have never received Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, and John said in chapter 1, 29:38.340 --> 29:42.960 as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God. 29:43.000 --> 29:47.000 If you have not become a child of God through receiving Jesus and you feel shame instead, 29:48.420 --> 29:53.380 you don't feel like you're worthy in God's presence, that's because you are. 29:53.520 --> 29:56.060 We all are without Jesus. 29:57.040 --> 30:03.300 Jesus came into this world to make us worthy again to be in God's presence 30:03.300 --> 30:07.560 so that we now could have a living, vibrant relationship with God. 30:07.560 --> 30:12.780 Just like Adam and Eve will see that they're walking with God in the garden with perfect communion. 30:13.000 --> 30:16.980 We now can walk with God because of what Jesus did. 30:17.380 --> 30:32.160 The New Testament says that Jesus accomplished this by enduring the shame of the cross. And it says that anyone who believes in him will not be put to shame, but instead will be given everlasting life. 30:33.120 --> 30:36.720 So please know, you don't have to run from God anymore. 30:38.040 --> 30:39.580 You don't have to try to hide. 30:39.740 --> 30:41.380 By the way, you can't hide from God. 30:42.000 --> 30:43.159 We try. 30:43.160 --> 30:45.700 You don't have to try to hide from God. 30:46.500 --> 30:53.860 You just need to own it. Here I am. Here's my sin, Lord. Would you take it away from me? 30:54.540 --> 31:01.960 Would you pay for it? Would you take away my guilt and my shame so I can draw close to you? 31:02.980 --> 31:05.660 I want to end with Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14. 31:06.320 --> 31:09.240 It says, seeing then that we have a great high priest, that's Jesus, 31:10.140 --> 31:12.920 who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. 31:13.240 --> 31:14.960 Let us hold fast our confession. 31:15.600 --> 31:19.480 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, 31:19.480 --> 31:24.120 but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 31:25.220 --> 31:26.700 Let us, and listen closely, 31:26.940 --> 31:31.400 let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, 31:31.780 --> 31:36.920 that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 31:37.240 --> 31:38.759 Amen? 31:38.760 --> 31:40.280 Let's bow together in an attitude of prayer, 31:40.520 --> 31:42.340 both here and at Olive Drive. 31:42.340 --> 31:44.940 This is a holy moment in the life of a church. 31:45.740 --> 31:51.740 It's not necessarily a formal moment, though. In just a moment, I'm going to pray. And after I pray, 31:51.820 --> 31:55.640 we're going to stand to our feet. There's going to be some pastors and other leaders 31:55.640 --> 32:09.820 scattered here at the front, and we're going to ask you to give your heart and your life to Jesus Jesus today. The truth is that God loves you. The Bible says, for God so loved the world that he 32:09.820 --> 32:16.360 gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. 32:18.120 --> 32:22.900 I want to invite you to experience that everlasting life. It can start today. 32:23.860 --> 32:27.600 Jesus said, I came to give you life and life more abundantly. He wants you to experience that everlasting life. It can start today. Jesus said, I came to give you life and life more abundantly. 32:27.900 --> 32:30.900 He wants you to experience life like you've never experienced it before. 32:30.900 --> 32:33.320 And it's only through a connection to God. 32:34.020 --> 32:38.720 And that connection to God is only made through Jesus, His Son. 32:40.240 --> 32:43.980 So I want to invite you to place your faith and trust in Him 32:43.980 --> 32:46.160 as we stand in just a moment after I pray. 32:46.780 --> 32:49.720 We're going to ask that you move as God moves. 32:50.420 --> 32:51.560 Only as God moves. 32:53.740 --> 33:00.640 Maybe you need to walk down one of these aisles or walk down one of these staircases and take one of these leaders by the hand and say, it's time. 33:02.300 --> 33:04.259 It's time. 33:04.260 --> 33:06.560 I heard the still, small voice of God. 33:07.540 --> 33:08.880 I need to be forgiven. 33:09.300 --> 33:12.760 I need a real, vibrant relationship with God. 33:12.860 --> 33:14.640 I want to trust Jesus as my Savior. 33:14.780 --> 33:16.120 They'll know exactly how to help you. 33:17.120 --> 33:21.360 When you say, I'd like to be baptized and go public with my faith like others today, 33:21.360 --> 33:25.560 or I'd like to join this church family and become an official family 33:25.560 --> 33:30.700 member here at Valley Baptist, we'd love to have you just come, and we'd like to visit with you. 33:32.000 --> 33:37.340 Maybe you don't really need to talk with a pastor at all. You just need to talk with a master. 33:38.640 --> 33:43.720 These steps are open at both of our campuses for you just to come and do business with God. Maybe 33:43.720 --> 33:50.280 you want to pray something for yourself. Maybe you want to pray as a family. Maybe you want to pray for 33:50.280 --> 33:55.940 our country. However God leads in just a moment, let's do business with him. Let's say yes 33:55.940 --> 34:09.620 to God. Let's pray. Father, we come to you in a great time of need. Lord, collectively for our country, we recognize that we seem to be at such a critical tipping 34:09.620 --> 34:11.499 point. 34:11.500 --> 34:23.300 There's so much division and so many points of conflict and disagreement. 34:24.140 --> 34:25.780 We see things differently. 34:31.080 --> 34:35.120 Lord, would you unite us through your son, Jesus? 34:36.580 --> 34:40.820 You, Lord, are the way to bring us back together again. 34:41.500 --> 34:45.900 So we're asking, Lord, that you would do that. 34:50.440 --> 34:53.080 Lord, I thank you for the great privilege it is to know you. 34:54.800 --> 34:57.040 To know you is to love you. 35:00.680 --> 35:09.379 Father, I pray that others would get to experience that today, 35:09.380 --> 35:17.800 that they would not be so distracted by all of the evil in our world, but Lord, that among it, among the darkness, there would be this bright shining light that is Jesus. 35:19.600 --> 35:25.380 Draw them, please, Lord, to that light. Draw them to your son, Jesus, today. 35:26.240 --> 35:29.280 Please do that which no one else can do but your spirit. 35:29.780 --> 35:32.640 Do a work in us, we ask in Jesus' mighty name. 35:33.160 --> 35:34.239 Amen. 35:34.240 --> 35:35.540 Thanks for listening today. 35:35.800 --> 35:37.380 We hope you enjoyed this message. 35:37.380 --> 35:40.740 And if you did, we would be so grateful if you left us a review. 35:41.400 --> 35:43.500 Also, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast 35:43.500 --> 35:50.100 if you would like to be notified when a new sermon is released. If you feel the Lord calling you to take the next step in faith 35:50.100 --> 35:57.780 through salvation, service, or giving, don't wait. Reach out to us by texting podcast to 88988. 35:58.060 --> 36:03.280 That's podcast to 88988 or connect with us on one of our social media platforms. 36:03.600 --> 36:07.060 You can also visit our website, valleybaptist.org, 36:07.160 --> 36:09.040 to find even more great resources. 36:09.740 --> 36:11.380 No matter where you are in your journey, 36:11.960 --> 36:14.360 know that we love you, we're praying for you, 36:14.480 --> 36:17.360 and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.