back to index2019-04-28: Our Identity and Destiny in Christ
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If you could turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 2 verses 5 through 8. 00:00:14.920 |
For he did not subject to angels the world to come concerning which we are speaking. 00:00:20.520 |
But one has testified somewhere saying, "What is man that you remember him, or the son of 00:00:28.760 |
You have made him for a little while lower than the angels. 00:00:30.860 |
You have crowned him with glory and honor and have appointed him over the works of your 00:00:36.080 |
You have put all things in subjection under his feet, for in subjecting all things to 00:00:39.920 |
him he left nothing that is not subject to him. 00:00:42.860 |
But now we do not see all things subjected to him." 00:00:46.720 |
Gracious and loving Father, we thank you so much for your consistent love and grace that 00:00:55.560 |
attracts us, where we desire to honor you, to know you, to love you. 00:01:02.040 |
We pray that this morning that you would remind us and refresh us again with your word. 00:01:07.280 |
And I pray that the glory of Christ, Lord God, may be evident in all that we say and 00:01:13.560 |
We pray that from now until the end that it is you that speaks through the Holy Spirit 00:01:19.000 |
and that it would not return until it has accomplished the purpose that you have ordained. 00:01:23.560 |
And so we pray for your blessing this time, in Jesus' name we pray. 00:01:28.080 |
All right, as you guys know, we are continuing our series in the book of Hebrews, and the 00:01:32.760 |
primary subject in the book of Hebrews is obviously Christ. 00:01:37.840 |
And the warning that he was giving to them is not to drift. 00:01:42.420 |
And our temptation in where we are is constantly drifting. 00:01:47.320 |
There's a reason why Jesus said it is harder for a rich man to enter through into the kingdom 00:01:53.200 |
than for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle. 00:01:56.120 |
And the reason why is not because innately the rich are more immoral or they're more 00:02:00.760 |
sinful than anybody else, it's because the rich man has a tendency to rely on himself. 00:02:08.480 |
And so there is no desperate spirit clinging to God. 00:02:12.340 |
And as a natural result of that, we tend to drift because we don't need God. 00:02:19.680 |
We don't need God to take care of our children. 00:02:23.240 |
So it's good to have God, but it is not a necessity. 00:02:25.880 |
And as a result of that, we cling to him when we are reminded, when we have fellowship, 00:02:30.960 |
you might hear good sermons, or go to a conference and then you get jolted for a period, or you 00:02:38.080 |
But on a day-to-day basis, our natural tendency is to just conform to wherever we are. 00:02:45.120 |
So if you happen to go to one church, you conform to whatever that church's standard 00:02:49.880 |
You happen to have a group of friends who do this, and you just naturally conform to 00:02:53.880 |
And it's a little bit easier when you're in college because your community is primarily 00:03:00.480 |
So whether you're at church, or you're at a CCM, or WACF, or whatever you go to, that's 00:03:07.960 |
But as soon as you graduate, you get a job, you have children, you are in the part of 00:03:18.480 |
We're not reminded day-to-day like we were back in college. 00:03:22.040 |
On a day-to-day basis, we're constantly reminded that you don't fit in here, that you're not 00:03:29.160 |
You're not like the salespeople who are getting ahead and getting great jobs. 00:03:35.520 |
So our natural tendency is, "Who wants to be a weirdo?" 00:03:40.000 |
So we drift, we forget, we learn how to function. 00:03:45.040 |
And so we're constantly coming to church just being reminded who we are. 00:03:48.720 |
Don't forget who we are because it doesn't take long for us to forget that. 00:03:58.060 |
Without Christ, the church can easily become a social club. 00:04:02.480 |
Without Christ, everything that you desire from the world, you can pursue it in the church. 00:04:07.160 |
I want honor, I want glory, I want recognition. 00:04:09.440 |
All of that in the context of worshiping God and building a church. 00:04:17.160 |
Christ is superior to the angels, to Moses, to the prophets, to everybody. 00:04:23.640 |
That's basically, in a nutshell, the argument that the author has been making and will continue 00:04:28.920 |
And so the text that we're looking at this morning is a continuation of the argument 00:04:37.320 |
The goal of that is to get us to refocus on his glory and his promise. 00:04:42.940 |
So he starts in verse 5 saying, "It is not to the angels that the world will come that 00:04:50.360 |
it's subject under, concerning which we are speaking." 00:04:56.600 |
The world that we're going to go to, that's going to be permanent. 00:05:01.720 |
If we're confessing Christians, we all believe that we're just passing through and eventually 00:05:05.980 |
we're going to end up into the kingdom of God where Christ is going to be the king and 00:05:10.960 |
He said in that kingdom, the angels are no longer going to be in charge. 00:05:15.120 |
And obviously when he's talking about angels here, Paul and other apostles have made it 00:05:24.040 |
The battle that we are engaging in is not politics, it's not about economy, it's not 00:05:33.000 |
He says our struggle is against flesh and blood, rulers, against the powers, against 00:05:37.480 |
the world forces in darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in this heavenly 00:05:42.840 |
So we've been reminded all over the New Testament that the angels have taken over the fallen 00:05:51.040 |
But the world that we are headed to is going to be reestablished with what God intended. 00:05:58.100 |
The text that we're looking at this morning basically covers redemptive history. 00:06:03.620 |
One of the questions I asked in the Facebook page about this passage is, "Is this section 00:06:08.860 |
talking about Jesus or is it talking about man?" 00:06:14.100 |
And I'm not going to go through, you know, to make my whole sermon try to convince you 00:06:20.500 |
that he's talking about man because I think it's going to be fleshed out as we're going 00:06:25.340 |
He's talking about man's history, where we stand before God, where we were and where 00:06:29.400 |
we are now, and what Jesus is going to be doing about it. 00:06:32.500 |
So basically it's redemptive history in a nutshell. 00:06:37.580 |
And so where does Christ fit in with what's happening in history? 00:06:41.360 |
So if you want a concise history of God's creation, what happened, and where we stand 00:06:50.980 |
now, and so why did Jesus come, what did he accomplish, and where he has taken us, it's 00:07:00.380 |
So starting from verse 5 all the way to the end of the chapter, that's going to be his 00:07:05.780 |
So we're looking at the first part of it, right? 00:07:11.620 |
So he starts by asking the question in verse 6, "But one has testified somewhere," right? 00:07:18.820 |
In other words, first let's begin, where do we stand before God? 00:07:22.860 |
What is man that you remember him, or the son of man that you are concerned about him? 00:07:28.460 |
That question that he asks, it's a direct quote of David's quote as he is praying before 00:07:48.040 |
In a nutshell, basically the question that he's asking is, "Why do you care?" 00:07:58.140 |
The difference between a Christian who believes in a sovereign God and recognizes who God 00:08:03.500 |
is and in light of that knows who he is, versus somebody who does not believe who God is, 00:08:10.020 |
or maybe a Christian who rejects the sovereignty of God and who he is, or the goodness of God, 00:08:16.420 |
the question sounds similar but is a world apart. 00:08:21.740 |
And again, the psalmist is asking the question, "Why do you care?" 00:08:28.080 |
In Psalm chapter 8, 3-4, "When I consider your heavens, the works of your fingers, the 00:08:32.980 |
moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you take thought of him and 00:08:41.660 |
The fundamental difference between somebody who knows God and recognizes him versus the 00:08:47.060 |
world who rejects him is, the question that the world asks is, "Why don't you care?" 00:08:54.980 |
When's the last time you talked to a non-Christian, tried to share the gospel with him, and said, 00:09:16.260 |
So until we satisfy that question, they said, "I can't accept your God," because why does 00:09:27.500 |
But the correct question that every human being should be asking is, "Why should he 00:09:36.160 |
He says, when he considers the heavens, when he considers the fingerprints of what he has 00:09:42.780 |
made, the moon, the stars, in other words, the more he begins to understand the world, 00:09:49.460 |
the natural question that he comes to is not, "Why does the God who created all of this 00:09:58.420 |
I mean, if a famous movie star or a rock star said, "Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?" 00:10:04.640 |
As he is running out of the stadium, he looks over and sees you, and he said, "Hey, hey, 00:10:18.960 |
And so even by the fact that he pointed to you and asked you to come down, automatically 00:10:27.720 |
He picked me out of thousands of people to engage me. 00:10:32.120 |
He didn't give me anything, but just the fact that he recognized me, he's like, "Oh, me? 00:10:39.440 |
But it is a foolish question to ask, considering all that we know about the universe, that 00:10:45.000 |
the question that the speck, in light of the universe, would ask, "Why don't you care?" 00:10:54.720 |
Again, if you were to reverse that in the stadium, and let's say LeBron James is running 00:10:58.160 |
out and said, "You, you, you," and then the guy next to him is like, "What a jerk. 00:11:07.360 |
And you have thousands of people leaving the stadium, it's like, "Why didn't he call me?" 00:11:15.440 |
He's busy, he's tired, he's running into the locker room to get ready for whatever else, 00:11:27.120 |
That question in itself is an arrogant question that does not understand who he is. 00:11:33.260 |
He doesn't understand who he is, he doesn't understand who God is. 00:11:37.600 |
And that's why that question in itself is an arrogant question. 00:11:42.080 |
Fundamentally, is a man who does not understand who he is. 00:11:48.100 |
You kill a bug, you don't think about how that's immoral. 00:11:52.240 |
You don't think about how, you don't think about that bug's family, children, where he's 00:12:05.000 |
Have you ever seen how small, how small we are in the light of the galaxy? 00:12:16.600 |
You almost need a microscope to see the earth and we are a speck on this earth. 00:12:22.800 |
And that speck comes to a God who created all of this, sustains all of this. 00:12:28.480 |
Everything is made by him and for his glory, is asking the question, "Why don't you care?" 00:12:41.220 |
Already in that question there is sinfulness. 00:12:49.800 |
And so when you begin our contact with God as, "Why don't you care?" 00:12:55.940 |
We become the judge and he becomes the person that we are judging. 00:13:01.880 |
And so the world is judging him saying like, "Well, if you care, you should be doing this. 00:13:10.100 |
But a man who recognizes who he is, comes before God and the fundamental question is, 00:13:23.900 |
Why would he care to send his only begotten son? 00:13:31.240 |
He doesn't even talk about, "What is man that you would send his only begotten son to be 00:13:36.380 |
He says, "No, what is man that you are even thinking of him?" 00:13:42.860 |
In the New Testament, it goes way beyond that. 00:13:50.900 |
But in the New Covenant, "Oh my God, that's... 00:13:57.220 |
Not only did he call my name, he called me out, put on the jersey, right? 00:14:05.060 |
"The only dollar that he had, he used it for me." 00:14:13.540 |
Until we come to that point, we recognize who he is and recognize who we are, we will 00:14:18.940 |
never see who he is because we're examining him to judge him. 00:14:24.860 |
Psalm 90, verse 12 is a passage that I quoted last week. 00:14:27.380 |
It says, "So teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom." 00:14:35.820 |
One, to recognize that this life is fleeting. 00:14:39.380 |
The things that matter so much from day to day is fleeting. 00:14:43.980 |
Just like if you were to travel and you know that you're going to come home, you're not 00:14:47.940 |
going to go and see the price of the buildings and how you're going to invest and you're 00:14:53.220 |
going to purchase stuff that you can't bring home because you know you're not going to 00:14:59.180 |
So in other words, one, help us to see how fleeting this life is. 00:15:04.060 |
So we do not build and invest in things that's going to perish. 00:15:10.260 |
But not only is this talking about the larger life and how fleeting it is, but our insignificance. 00:15:18.100 |
Recognizing in light of eternity, we're just a flash that comes and we disappear. 00:15:27.220 |
Every once in a while somebody would ask, you know, you should write a book or you should 00:15:32.500 |
say this or you should do that, and you've got to work hard to build a legacy. 00:15:38.420 |
And that's a thing that I hear more these days. 00:15:55.020 |
By next generation, no one's going to know who Peter Kim is. 00:15:58.820 |
I'm not sure if this church is going to be around, to be honest. 00:16:14.140 |
I mean there are churches that men of God stood like Charles Spurgeon, that the church 00:16:26.860 |
It wasn't because God didn't use them powerfully. 00:16:28.820 |
I mean we read his books, we know all that, but you go to their church, it's empty. 00:16:33.700 |
So I can only be faithful to what God has given today, but like I'm, what happens tomorrow, 00:16:43.540 |
He says, "Teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom." 00:16:50.780 |
Until we are humble before God, we are useless. 00:16:55.600 |
The moment that you begin to think that I have knowledge, I have education, I have experience, 00:17:02.020 |
you know, and I knew somebody years ago who told me that he thinks that Japan, the reason 00:17:12.220 |
why they are not receptive to the gospel as a whole is because they didn't send the right 00:17:18.260 |
You know, meaning that if we had the right training, if we had the right gifted guys 00:17:22.860 |
and we go there, you know why, years and years and years of people have gone and the arrogance 00:17:28.380 |
to think that if we just sent the right people, that revival would break out. 00:17:35.700 |
Until we recognize our weakness before God, we don't pray. 00:17:42.740 |
Prayer is the first thing that we do when we recognize that we're weak. 00:17:46.740 |
Not just to get the task done, but even to decipher my own heart. 00:17:51.420 |
If I'm not regularly in the Word of God and being judged by my thoughts and my intention, 00:17:59.020 |
and I think like, "Oh, if we just apply this, and you know, last time I did this and it 00:18:02.780 |
worked, so let's do that and do this over here." 00:18:05.140 |
There's nothing wrong with any of that, but if our first encounter with God, if the first 00:18:10.460 |
thing that God doesn't convict us is how weak we are and how fleeting we are and how dependent 00:18:16.020 |
we are on Him, everything we build on top of that would be vanity. 00:18:22.140 |
That's why the heart of wisdom, the beginning of wisdom is recognizing our need. 00:18:31.540 |
How do you save somebody who doesn't recognize the need to be saved? 00:18:42.260 |
John 8, 31-33, and I want to look at this passage. 00:18:45.540 |
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, and remember that, believing 00:18:51.500 |
Jesus was preaching about the kingdom of God, Jews were hearing it, and He's talking to 00:18:55.740 |
a group of people who said that they believed. 00:18:59.100 |
If you continue my words, then you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, 00:19:06.980 |
So Jesus continues saying, this is the way to the kingdom, to allow the Son of God, Son 00:19:16.540 |
They answered Him, we are Abram's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone. 00:19:24.340 |
They were offended, because when Jesus said they needed to be set free, they were probably 00:19:35.100 |
These guys, if you went into society, they would have the last seat of wherever they 00:19:41.420 |
And when Jesus says, I've come to set you free, it's like, free? 00:19:45.980 |
We're children of Abraham, we've never been enslaved, so they were offended. 00:19:51.900 |
See, as long as Jesus was talking about the kingdom, the leaders loved John the Baptist 00:20:02.660 |
Do you remember when you read the Gospels, in the very beginning part of their ministry, 00:20:07.460 |
the Pharisees and the leaders came all the way from Jerusalem to check Him out. 00:20:13.220 |
If He's the Messiah, we need to get close to that guy. 00:20:16.540 |
They were all coming out until Jesus and John the Baptist called them out and said, who 00:20:29.320 |
It wasn't until they were called out for their sins that they started to turn on Him. 00:20:36.820 |
They refused to recognize who they were before God. 00:20:41.860 |
Until we recognize who we are, we will never be able to truly understand what He means 00:20:49.540 |
Our love for Him goes up and down based upon finances, relationships, circumstance. 00:20:58.940 |
He's good when things look great, and where is God? 00:21:02.100 |
How come He doesn't care when things don't work out the way we hope for? 00:21:06.740 |
But the question that every believer should be asking every single day, why does He even 00:21:16.740 |
Satan comes and asks, you know, only reason why He's a godly man is because you protected 00:21:23.940 |
Take that away and let me at Him and see what kind of man He is. 00:21:27.380 |
He just, God gives Him permission, Satan goes at it. 00:21:30.580 |
And then the book of Job is three cycles of three of His friends coming and saying, you 00:21:40.540 |
And so the book of Job is a cycle of Job defending himself. 00:21:50.280 |
So the whole book of Job is Job standing up for his righteousness and his friends saying, 00:21:57.740 |
Well, at the end of his suffering, he loses his family, his children, his wealth, and 00:22:08.380 |
And he finally snaps and he comes to God and he says, God, why are you doing this to me? 00:22:21.580 |
And then finally, when his pride breaks and his friends get to him and his circumstance 00:22:28.460 |
gets to him and he begins to cry out to God, why don't you care? 00:22:33.100 |
Why are you not allowing this to happen to me? 00:22:41.380 |
Well, this happened because Satan asked permission and so this was my goal. 00:22:47.820 |
God shows up and he tells Job, put on your big boy pants, right? 00:23:01.580 |
And I'm going to speak to you and you're just going to listen. 00:23:05.300 |
All God says is, where were you when I created the universe? 00:23:13.180 |
Do you understand when I created the universe, when I told the ocean to stop right here and 00:23:22.980 |
And he just goes long list of what he did in creation. 00:23:32.980 |
You're asking the question, why do you not care? 00:23:38.860 |
And then he goes, upcycle, put on your big boy pants, and I'm going to walk you through 00:23:50.380 |
At the tail end of that, Job sees his glory and he recognizes what he has done. 00:23:58.140 |
And this is what he says, Job chapter 42, 36. 00:24:00.900 |
Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? 00:24:06.180 |
Therefore, I have declared that which I did not understand. 00:24:09.900 |
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 00:24:13.460 |
Hear now and I will speak, I will ask you and you instruct me. 00:24:19.180 |
I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes sees you, therefore I 00:24:29.460 |
The whole book of Job was defending his righteousness. 00:24:33.940 |
The whole book of Job was trying to figure out, I've done nothing wrong, why did you 00:24:41.440 |
And then at the tail end, God, you are unfair. 00:24:47.620 |
I had no idea what I was talking about, and then I repent in dust and ashes. 00:24:57.220 |
When I consider the heavens and the stars and the moons, who am I that you would even 00:25:20.660 |
Until we recognize who we are before God, the gospel will not make sense. 00:25:27.340 |
Until we recognize who it is that we are approaching, worship just becomes superstition. 00:25:35.100 |
They just come and put in your time and give you an offering and hopefully if I've done 00:25:38.540 |
good things that God will bless my life and bless my children, but you will not understand 00:25:46.040 |
The beginning of wisdom is recognizing who he is and who we are and where we stand in 00:25:53.940 |
He says, first of all, he says, "Who are we?" 00:25:55.660 |
And then the second he says in verse 7 through 9, to realize that in the end, God created 00:26:01.140 |
us to have glory and honor, verse 7 through 9. 00:26:04.380 |
You have made him for a little while lower than the angels. 00:26:08.220 |
You have crowned him with glory and honor and have appointed him over the works of your 00:26:13.380 |
You have put all things in subjection under his feet, for in subjecting all things to 00:26:17.220 |
him he left nothing that is not subject to him. 00:26:20.220 |
Everything he says here, verses 7, 8, and 9, is pointing back to the creation. 00:26:25.720 |
This is exactly, if you want to like word for word, for the sake of time, I'm not going 00:26:28.940 |
to read the whole passage, but what he says in verse 7, 8, and 9, that's exactly what 00:26:34.700 |
In Genesis chapter 2, verse 7, "The Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed 00:26:39.980 |
into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being." 00:26:49.900 |
God created the animals and he says he created them in their kind, over and over again. 00:26:59.580 |
But when he comes to man in verse 6, 26, God said, "Let us make man in our image, according 00:27:08.020 |
to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the 00:27:12.500 |
sky, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps 00:27:19.060 |
He said he distinguished us from the rest of creation. 00:27:22.620 |
He put his own image upon us, so that when the rest of the creation saw us, mankind, 00:27:33.660 |
And because they saw God's glory off of us, they would be in submission. 00:27:40.260 |
Verse 27, "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him. 00:27:48.220 |
You know what's going on right now, this gender neutrality thing? 00:27:51.620 |
At the core of it is satanic rebellion against God. 00:27:56.340 |
I know some of you may, I don't know what your background is, but I make that very clear. 00:28:04.420 |
To erase the gender between male and female is an ultimate rebellion against God's creation. 00:28:12.080 |
God had declared us male and female to interact, to be fruitful and multiply. 00:28:24.740 |
And he says, you know, we say, we live in a country where we, you know, I believe it's 00:28:29.900 |
a great country, United States, you know, we're all born with inalienable rights, right? 00:28:43.620 |
I can't walk into a department store and I have a right over these products, right? 00:28:52.260 |
You can't just come out of nowhere and say, I have these rights. 00:28:57.820 |
The reason why mankind has certain glory is because God created us to reflect his image. 00:29:10.580 |
That's why when the Bible describes a man who's in rebellion against God and he returns 00:29:20.260 |
When a dog returns from its vomit, we don't say, oh, what kind of a disgusting dog is 00:29:28.820 |
He said, but a man who does that is outside of his nature. 00:29:38.060 |
The reason why there is dignity in man, in all mankind, why there's value even in an 00:29:43.900 |
unborn child is because God declared his glory upon every human being. 00:29:54.860 |
He didn't all of a sudden randomly have dignity. 00:29:59.980 |
If God does not exist, if God didn't place his image upon us, we are no different than 00:30:05.420 |
animals, just because we're smarter than the animals? 00:30:09.980 |
Our dignity and our glory comes from the very reason why we were created, to reflect his 00:30:18.300 |
But he says in verse 8, "But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him." 00:30:24.700 |
That's what God intended, and that's why man is of value, because we were created in his 00:30:31.540 |
image, but as of now, that's not what we experience. 00:30:39.660 |
You know, years ago, when we would go out to Santa Ana and feed the homeless, and there 00:30:46.260 |
was this one particular girl, even to this day, she stands out, because she must have 00:30:51.260 |
been about 5'7", 5'8", blonde hair, blue eyes, she looked like a cheerleader, and she's just 00:30:57.100 |
We would be there every Tuesday feeding the homeless, and that area that we were feeding 00:31:00.580 |
the homeless is not a place that a young girl should be walking around. 00:31:05.020 |
Well, she was out there, and I was kind of curious, because we would always see her about 00:31:10.420 |
She would never come to where we are, and obviously it caught our attention, "What's 00:31:16.940 |
And then eventually, we got to ask one of the guys who would come, and they would feed, 00:31:22.020 |
and he said, "Well, that girl's hooked on crack." 00:31:25.380 |
It was a period of time when crack cocaine was just spreading rampantly, and she got 00:31:31.460 |
So I don't know what her family background was, I don't know what was happening in her 00:31:36.700 |
And we didn't see her every single week, but every once in a while, we would see her out 00:31:41.140 |
there on the street and found out that she, you know, when young pretty girls come out 00:31:44.580 |
there for their own safety, they have to get attached to an older or stronger guy for protection. 00:31:51.420 |
We found out that she was selling her body to get crack, and then she got attached to 00:31:55.620 |
this one of the bigger guys for protection, and you could see her deterioration. 00:32:00.980 |
And after about a year period, we would see her every once in a while, and you would have 00:32:04.940 |
never known that that girl that we saw a year later was that same girl that we saw a year 00:32:17.460 |
The Bible describes mankind as created in glory, in honor, to reflect God. 00:32:25.540 |
Everything that we love about God, God created us in creation to reflect that glory. 00:32:33.300 |
And in that glory, we were to represent Him to the rest of creation, to rule over it, 00:32:40.820 |
Think about creation, I mean, it'd be awesome, you know, when we think about heaven, you 00:32:44.260 |
know, everybody has their own imagination, but much of it is not biblical. 00:32:48.420 |
You think about, "Oh, when I get there, I'm going to have mansions." 00:32:51.140 |
Mansion itself is a creation of a fallen world, right? 00:32:59.180 |
Because we don't want weirdos coming into our house for protection. 00:33:06.020 |
The fact that we have homes, we have clothes, we have walls, we have doors, we have gates, 00:33:14.780 |
If you go to heaven, when there is no sin, there's no perpetrators, there is no shame, 00:33:23.300 |
The weather's going to be perfect all the time, that's my, I don't know, I just made 00:33:38.380 |
You said in the creation, they walked around without shame, and the animals would come, 00:33:43.260 |
and they were naming these animals, and they were happy. 00:33:49.300 |
There was no misunderstanding between husband and wife. 00:33:52.260 |
I said this, and they're like, "Well, I didn't mean that, but you did say it." 00:34:04.820 |
You know, it's kind of a side thing, but I was thinking about if the Chinese culture 00:34:15.780 |
It has nothing to do with what I'm talking about, but I just had a thought. 00:34:19.700 |
You know one thing I really like about the Chinese culture? 00:34:21.900 |
They're very simple in the way that they name everything. 00:34:26.700 |
So you know exactly what dish you're getting when you order in a Chinese restaurant. 00:34:34.500 |
Or you order a stir-fry, you know, whatever, and that's exactly what comes out. 00:34:37.380 |
So I'm thinking like if a Chinese person was naming the animals, it'd be like, you know, 00:34:47.620 |
Anyway, that has nothing to do with anything, but I was just thinking about it. 00:35:01.580 |
When you look at Genesis chapter 1 and 2, before the fall, it was paradise. 00:35:12.580 |
And the reason why is because in Isaiah chapter 14, 12 through 15, it describes Satan's fall, 00:35:21.820 |
How you have fallen from heaven, O star of morning, Lucifer, literally, son of the dawn. 00:35:27.620 |
You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations. 00:35:32.660 |
You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven and I will raise my throne above the stars 00:35:36.740 |
of God and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. 00:35:41.900 |
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. 00:35:46.980 |
Nevertheless, you will be thrust down to the recesses of the pit. 00:35:53.380 |
The power of Satan's rebellion is he saw the glory of God and said, "I want that." 00:35:58.900 |
And he tempted Adam and Eve, "You can be like God too." 00:36:03.340 |
And then when mankind began to multiply, they used all their resources and built the Tower 00:36:12.300 |
All of human history is challenging and wanting to usurp where God is. 00:36:20.080 |
And the reason why is because that's at the center of Satan's rebellion. 00:36:28.220 |
And he's trying to recruit people to do the same. 00:36:32.420 |
There's a reason why Jesus, at the very end of his life, before he goes to the cross, 00:36:37.220 |
the last thing that he teaches his disciples, he humbles himself and he washes their feet. 00:36:43.140 |
And then he says, "He who is the greatest on the earth is the least in the kingdom. 00:36:46.980 |
He who is the least will be the greatest in the kingdom of God." 00:36:49.940 |
He wasn't just simply teaching them life lesson on how to be good citizens. 00:36:55.260 |
Like if you just kind of humble yourself and take care of yourself, you would have a great 00:37:02.460 |
That's true, but he was telling something much more profound and deeper than that. 00:37:09.100 |
Because at the heart of Satan's rebellion and mankind's rebellion is he wants to recapture 00:37:20.780 |
There's a reason why Paul calls everything he lost "dung." 00:37:26.180 |
Because in light of who Jesus is, you know, the whole world is playing a game like the 00:37:33.460 |
King of the hill is basically the guy, toughest guy, is up on the top and everybody's trying 00:37:39.260 |
And then at the end of the game, whoever's at the top wins. 00:37:43.660 |
In a nutshell, that's what the world is like. 00:37:50.620 |
And we're not necessarily swinging and hitting people, but we're working hard to get education 00:37:57.340 |
and make the right decision, raise up our children, all so that we can be the king of 00:38:02.580 |
But the problem is even if you win the game, you became the king of a dung hill. 00:38:11.180 |
Until we recognize who he is and who we are, you will never understand why he came. 00:38:20.820 |
We will continue to fight to be a little bit higher on this dung hill. 00:38:25.020 |
And that's why Paul says in light of Christ, everything became dung in light of who he 00:38:32.620 |
And that's why he's bringing us back to Christ and his glory. 00:38:37.260 |
Until we see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, until we see the glory that we fell 00:38:42.180 |
from, that we reflected, then what he has done will only be a good story. 00:38:51.980 |
I'm not going to go into that today, but I'm just going to give you a preview. 00:38:56.780 |
He says, "But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him, but we do see him," referring 00:39:04.260 |
to Jesus, "who was made for a little while lower than the angels, because that's where 00:39:14.500 |
Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory, honored so that by the 00:39:18.940 |
grace of God he might taste death for everyone. 00:39:23.100 |
Let me conclude by reading this one passage where it tells us where we are headed. 00:39:28.140 |
In Romans 8, 15 to 17, "For you have not received the spirit of slavery, leading to fear again, 00:39:33.740 |
but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry, 'Abba, Father.'" 00:39:39.500 |
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. 00:39:43.780 |
And if children, heirs also, heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer 00:39:50.060 |
with him so that we may also be glorified with him. 00:39:52.940 |
I pray that the promises of God and the vision of Christ, even a glimpse that we've seen, 00:39:59.380 |
would cause us to see this world as God sees it. 00:40:03.300 |
And that every single day we would be asking the question, "Why do you care? 00:40:16.340 |
And I pray that that would lead to a heart of worship before God. 00:40:19.580 |
Let's take some time to pray as we ask our worship team to come.