She was very excited about the snow this morning.
She walks outside and every little pile of snow she finds with snow.
I think Kyla's pushing in.
Ty, Kyla and I are here again.
I'm a child of grace, but I'm a man of grace
I'm a man of spirit, but I see that there's fear
I'm staring inside of me
I'm a man of grace, but I'm a man of grace
I'm a man of grace, but I see that there's fear
I'm staring inside of me
Be乱 this heart, be mysterious with everything What you're feeling
Spread your thoughts what you're feeling
饰 of the
I'm a man of grace, but I see my voice
We're another Christ's kingdom.
We're a spirit, we're a spirit.
Spirit is living inside of me.
God who brings all of us to see.
Spirit is living inside of me.
Good morning, good morning, good morning.
It's Sunday morning and we're in the house of the Lord seeking to reach new heights in Jesus as he did.
We've got some folks who are still on their way.
We're afraid that they may get sick. We have some folks who are out of town, far, far out of town.
And then we have Ricky, who is not so far out of town, but he's still far out of town.
He's in the Lambertville right now on call for work.
Hopefully he'll get that there, taking care of the people he can be able to get here before we're through.
That was the plan.
He doesn't always have to be on call, but we're going to call this week and that's where it's going to be.
It's a cold weekend, so he's got a bunch of folks that he had to help.
And Brady's got a kind of a cool job, because we're concerned if you're going to help people in their little difficult spot.
I would hope so.
But we'll pray for him and I pray for him to be in town.
He's in Mississippi and others who are not feeling well.
And we pray that God would have his way in his place. And then to remind you, we are not far out Saturday morning.
Saturday morning.
We have the parade for Christmas parade.
And so the kids can all come and ride on the float.
And the adults and healthy teenagers will walk.
And we'll grow candy and we'll hand out flyers and talk to people about Jesus the best we can to represent God.
And here's some getting ready to be done in the next six days.
And so if you would like to help us get ready for that, see Alicia.
She will actually review for that purpose.
There's also a couple of other interesting things on the schedule.
Youth Bible study, Friday.
And then youth choir practice Tuesday after service during the fellowship time.
Okay. So these kind of interesting things and then listen for a lot of Christmas and stuff coming up.
Also, we were supposed to give up copies of that bucket today.
Next week.
So next week, you'll get a copy of the 2025 budget.
So then you'll have one week to look it over and that kind of thing.
And then the following week will have the team will have a membership meeting, which will primarily be for that.
But it'll also be our own and members of the meeting for November and December.
Combine the two.
So we know that November, December always be the time lock going on.
And so we will have one membership meeting beyond the 15th.
Everybody will be here.
I know it.
Claiming it anyway.
And we'll vote on that their budget and be ready for January 1st with that budget.
Okay.
Let's pray together.
We do need candy donations for the parade. We're going to purchase some of the sweet, but if you can bring it back to you on Tuesday or just bring one with you on Saturday.
No more can't.
That's the word.
If you know anybody who likes to donate to that, thank you for that.
You're right.
Thank you.
Father heaven.
We praise you. Thank you.
This Sunday is a day.
It's today.
We're going to make sure that at this point, four hours period, we're alive. You're at work reminded of the sermon recently where we talked about how you care about us and you care about our right now.
You know that you see the future.
We know that, you know, where this shit is going.
And you know how how it all ends.
And yet you care about what we're going through right now.
Well, we pray for healing.
We're healing for those who are sick. We pray for healing for Larry's shoulder.
That's very injury.
Yeah.
This last week.
We pray for quick and ample turnaround.
We do all the things that we think you're supposed to do.
We pray for written as working on that furnace in my work, though, that they'll be able to get that done and get out of there and get here to join us and hopefully doesn't have another call at the time that one's done.
They'll be heading back today from Mississippi and you'll have them travel safely and you'll be with them all the way and maybe they can listen to the message and to leave it later.
We pray for those all over the world who will tune into our podcast this coming week in 20 plus countries as small as we are in numbers and so on.
I think that that makes us feel that it's not true.
You are in it and you are doing amazing things and you are winning the world to yourself.
It is about winning the world to us or to this building or to our idea of what Christianity is about winning the world.
We pray that you will work and every person who hears the word preach every person who hears the music some and that we will be able to pray to you and we will be worried.
We pray all these things that you will think.
Alright would you stand with us for these next couple?
I'm gonna think of shouting my name.
I'm not a liar but it makes my life more to sing.
I will live with my mind in the darkness night for I know that same young lady
and I will walk with you knowing you'll see me through and we can start singing again.
How can I keep you singing your name?
How can I help you say it now?
How can I make you sing and never run?
How can I keep you shouting your name?
I'm not a liar but it makes my heart want to sing.
How can I keep you singing and never run?
How can I keep you singing when I lose myself and go down again?
How can I sing until then?
How can I keep you singing your name?
How can I keep you shouting your name?
How can I make you sing and never run?
How can I keep you shouting your name?
How can I keep you singing until then?
I hear the birds are ringing like a kid
You can't help but love this time of year
It's Christmas time or something in the air
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere
Somehow there's a little more of love
Maybe there's a little less of love
Maybe when you're suddenly aware
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere
It's the smile of everyone who has finally found hope
It's the tears of a mother who shone at her home
It's the joy that we feel and all of that we share
It's the little bit of heaven everywhere
It's funny how it takes somehow a day
To show us how the world could truly change
If we all took the time to really care
There'd be a little more of heaven everywhere
It's the grace that we show to the world that needs hope
It's giving us hope knowing that out of hope
It's the joy that we feel and all of that we share
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere
It's the little bit of heaven everywhere
Angels we have heard of mine
Sweetly singing all our prayers
In the mountains they reply
Echoing their joyous sound
Hallelujah
It's the joy that we feel and all of that we share
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere
It's the little bit of heaven everywhere
Angels we have heard of mine
Sweetly singing it through the night
Alright, so before we get started with anything you may have come prepared to talk about
I wanted to bring to your attention that we are switching spiritual discipline epistheses
So actually as of November 22nd, it's just been very busy to 10 days
But as of November 22nd it was time that we make our 6 month transition into a new spiritual discipline
So the spiritual discipline that we will now be focusing on for the next 5 and a half months
Until May 22nd, which is the anniversary of our church, our church, our Constitution anyway
Will be Bible intake
So Bible intake can compose a lot of things
It can be, it's just about putting more Bible in you
So first of all, if you need anything else, somebody tell me one way that you take in the Bible
And you read it, go
You share the God's love with everyone else
Okay, so you're talking about talking to other people about what you know
And then you hear your own voice talking about God's things, about Bible things
Okay, that's good, I like that, what else do we have?
Simply think something, how do you take more Bible in you?
Just read, read, okay?
So you get the Bible out and read
And so maybe you just randomly pick
Where should I read today?
You know, you might take a verse that says something like, let's see how it goes right there
The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith
Paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrinal schemants
By means of the hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience
As with a brand-mining iron man who forbid marriage and advocates of staining conclusive
Which God has created and been gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth
Where everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected
If it is deceitful gratitude, we're disenchanted by means of the Word of God and prayer
Okay, so then you might take those verses that you just input
And you might meditate on them, you might do some study, you might write some things down
But the point is, you took them in, you read them
Okay, with another example, we just did it by the way, everyone in the room just did it
That's another example, listening, right, listening while somebody else reads
Okay, so if somebody else reads, I just read it, alright, so who's got a Bible in here though?
Alright, alright, get it open, find us a verse
Whoever gets there first
Alright, so I think it's 16, alright, let's hear it
This Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit that we are God's children
Okay, very good, I heard that, okay, did somebody else say something?
Down one five
The light shines in the darkness, so the darkness has not always come in
Oh, I heard that, go ahead
Keepers three seconds, therefore as the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart's edge of the rebellion
Or if they are testing the wilderness, where an ancestor says, you need to try and be insomniated
Yes, very good, I heard that, you got one? You got one?
I doubt it, go ahead
So 24 or 24 more, all of these will be filled with blood and will be well in the Bible
Well, that's a good first, very good, okay, so you all heard it, right?
So we all took in some Bible today, now, give me another example, how might you take in the Bible?
Alicia
Music
Okay, can you elaborate a little bit?
Yes, so there's a lot of songs that we sing that I hear, and when I hear them, it reminds me of a verse in the Bible
So I have a list in my phone that when I hear a song, I can go into the Bible and try to find those words in a Bible verse and compare them
Are they really the same words or just the same words?
Yeah, you will be surprised, actually, if you take the time to dwell on that a little bit, that almost all of the songs that we sing are based on a Bible verse
If you can remember music, better than you can remember the written words of the Bible, that's an easy way
If you will guess those songs, I had a dear friend of mine who used to preach in Dan Adams, and he moved down to Biceson Anyway
I haven't heard much on him since, but most of his sermons were using an old hymn for illustration, and he would go right to the verse
And then he would explain what it means, and it's pretty cool, you can do that, but yeah, they're all based on that
Even if it's not words for words, it's a tactic, like, think about God's love, it might be off of the whole Corinthians chapter 13, not just one verse
I'll get you in a second, I'll go over here
I like it where you can read the Bible, sometimes I can't comprehend, then it's got a verse under me, and it helps me look at it
I want to read this, or that's that, then I go to another one, it's got something underneath, it goes to this one, and it's giving me a rhyme in the Bible now
Good, what you're describing is called cross-referencing, and that's another way you can see Bible in the Bible
And so, what you're doing in my Bible, right here, so all down, every verse, there's little tiny numbers, okay, and then in the middle of the page are what those little tiny numbers represent
And so if I read a verse and I look at the little number that's next to the verse, then I can go read that verse, and then I can find the little number next to that one, and I can go read that one
And you could spend, like, a puzzle, or like a maze, you could spend hours in taking Bible by going cross-reference to cross-reference to cross-reference, okay
And you will retain more
I've even played the game without even using cross-reference, but catacross references, where I've gone to the Bible and picked a verse in chapter
So like I might say chapter 1 verse 7, and then just go to every book in the Bible and read chapter 1 verse 7
And they don't necessarily connect, but I can arresting enough to find that sometimes they do connect very much, and I'm like, wow, that's crazy, because that's right there, right?
For example, do you know what 1 John 3 16 says, and also John 3 16? We know what John 3 16 says, most people memorize that, but do you know what 1 John 3 16 says?
Very interesting to look at that, wouldn't it be? I don't have it memorized, but I know it has a very simple method, so we'll look at it real quick
I can't remember the exact number, but I probably did have it memorized at 1.8
It says, we know love by this, that you lay down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren
We know the conflict between the gods that love the world, right?
Well, 1 John 3 16 says, we know love by this, so that's just the fun thing you do too
It's not a cross-reference, per se, because it's not really talking about the exact same thing, so you can find a little number there that points to the goal over there, but because they're all John 3 16s, that's fun too, right?
Give me something that we haven't talked about yet, or maybe a Bible in fact, go ahead
How do you take Bible in?
Romans 12, do you think Romans 12 21, do you not think over time that people for over time use a Bible in the Church?
Very good, okay, and so what you did there was you quoted a verse from memory, okay?
And if you take a lot of Bible in, or you take the same Bible words in over and over and over, then you will eventually memorize it
Now memorizing is not the same thing as putting it in your heart, you know, kind of wish it was, but it's not, right?
You have to embrace it, you have to accept it for what it says and let it kind of begin to affect you if you want it to be in your heart
So putting it in your mind makes it a lot easier, and then for example, he would be able to quote that from memory, and then we all heard it, right?
So I think you're able to quote it from memory, or as you said, share the truth of the word that you know, and then people can hear it, right?
So Bible intake is our discipline, we're going to talk about that, and we'll have examples of that, probably there are a bunch more
Ariana has it, for example, where she has the Bible on CD, and actually now it's on MP3, right?
By the way, we have license too, so if somebody wants access to that, we can make you a copy, and she looks at that every night when she lays down a bit of that
So when she's laying the Acolyte guard lotion, and maybe read a little bit, whatever, then she lays there going to sleep listening to the button
That's eight million of button, you get it on the radio, you get kind of it on right how many, right?
There's a ton of book studies, and when they do the book study, they will literally go, okay, the next reverse is said a lot, and then they'll talk about it
And then they'll go to the next reverse that says this, and then they'll talk about it, or if I do longer than three verses, and so you're taking me in the Bible, right?
Kids shows are some of the best places to take me in the Bible, because every episode basically has a biblical, magic revival work, and then you show it many tales,
put some verse off at the beginning of the end kind of thing, and you take me in more Bible, and it's fun, and you might laugh, right?
Or if you watch a toddler show, and you get a lot out of it, you might think, I feel kind of silly, but you're still taking me in the Bible, and that's what you need, right?
So this is our discipline for the next six months, so what I'd like you to do, this is your activity, what I'd like you to do is other things that we just talked about,
I know, hopefully, hopefully, you're all reading your Bible or listening to something Bible throughout the week, whether it be songs, music that has name, thinking about how that relates to Bible, whatever,
but I would like you to take one of the ways that we just talked about Bible intake and do it more the next seven days.
So for example, if you know you're not actually reading your Bible, then I'd like you to just plan to read your Bible a little bit every day,
or as much as possible for the next seven days, or you can set it for yourself, right?
You can set it every other day, and I think you should do it every day.
However you set it for yourself, do that over the next seven days.
Take in more Bible, okay, and then when we come next week, we're going to talk briefly about what our experience is for you,
and we decided to take in more Bible, what it used to be that we had for what happened, right?
And I'll close on this slide.
Years and years ago, the first Christian radio station came to Toledo,
and they used to have a thing where they would say, take the Christian radio station, and they would say,
take the SFM paper, take 30 days and listen only to the SFM, only to God's Word song,
God's Word on the radio, that kind of thing, and stop listening to the sector of the radio and watch what happens in your life.
And make a living in 30,000.
Exactly.
And so we want God's Word to make that sober.
And notice in the verses that I read, in the first set, it said that all things are sanctified in part by the Word of God.
Billy Graham said this, he said, I was struggling in my faith.
And who Billy Graham was?
One of the greatest evangelists to ever live in our, you know, in our millenium, right?
Because obviously there have been people waiting for that that were pretty awesome,
or he traveled all around the world preaching the gospel,
he was a humble man generally speaking, has a temper of Bible,
and he didn't plan that, that we kind of got crushed into it, and that it took off,
and he was all over the state, a big part of revival all over the state.
And if he didn't do it, God did it by this afternoon.
And after, while he was in the middle of that, he said, I'm struggling with my faith.
And I'm really struggling to God, give me more faith, God give me more faith, I need more faith.
Billy Graham, he's paying tens of thousands of people to say it weekly, or by the profession anyway.
And he said, God, I need more faith, I'm struggling with my faith.
And God decided to have faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God.
Which of course is what was meant.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God.
And Billy Graham said, wait, so you're saying all I need to do is intake more Bible,
and I'll have more faith?
And so he began to intake more Bible.
You want to believe, you want to trust in God, you want to have more faith?
He'd get more Bible.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Okay?
And so for the next six months, that's us.
We're going to grow in our faith because we're going to focus on the spiritual discipline of Bible intake through the next five months.
Okay?
All right, now that being said, have you come prepared to share something with us today?
If the Lord made it late on your heart.
Tell me take first.
So with my intake, I'd like to say the word of God is some of it's a kind of merciful,
awesome, patient, or providential.
If you ever want to talk about it, we'll talk about it.
It's the map of life.
But I find sometimes like, and don't think there's anything wrong with plans or scripts.
We have movies or plays or video games or nothing.
Some things are wrote down.
Some things are not.
You know, I just want to say that everything I do is not manipulative.
I'm not doing anything to make you do this, do that.
You know, I just want to share the inspiration, but I was reaching out to a brother.
And sometimes it just happens where the word of God, we're in John 16.
And I was very blessed by reading it.
And he was blessed.
And we went back.
I've read it many times, but because I was reading with him, I just kind of went back and realized how great our savior is.
So it came back to which I share this every time in Christmas, Romans 8 16, which I just shared.
The spirit itself testifies by spirit that we are God's children.
When I read that verse, I always have to tell myself, you know, is that a one time thing is an all time thing.
But it's a spirit himself testifies with our spirit, which is little s big s for God's spirit that we are God's children.
He testifies of himself.
And we already know one thing.
God doesn't stay silent.
God's always good and merciful.
So God's always testifying to us.
We are God's children.
Something I like to say.
Yeah, I don't know why this.
I told you it was all the time.
Is this idea of the Christmas spirit, which is cool because it is God's gracious goodness and mercy.
But I've always said it's God's spirit reminding us that it's Christmas.
He's reminding us that the birth of the Savior, he's always reminding us as Christmas.
He's always going to remind us that Jesus is the Messiah is always going to remind us and he testifies himself.
It's not just like what people always say, my guardian angel is that there is an insane.
But I'm saying no man, the angels are saying whatever it's God himself always testifying that we are children of God.
So this is so awesome.
Every day he's reminding us himself.
He's doing himself that we are God's children.
And where I like when Jesus said, if I testify of myself, doesn't matter all the much, but my father testifies of me.
God has not done yet. His witness is strong. Good work.
Okay.
So last week I did a little snippet with the ending of the song.
And there's one part that really sticks out.
And it's been in my head ever since I heard it.
And the thing I shared last week is says, you don't come to God with a contract saying these are my speculations for following you.
You come to God with a bunch of paper saying this is for you to fill out.
So we as as we go to God and we cry out to God, we need to understand that we are letting him take everything from us.
We have to give up our own needs. We have to give up our own wants. We have to give up our own selfish desires.
We have to give up all of that to follow God.
We can't go to God saying I'll follow you, but I still want to do this. I still want to do this.
Yeah, we can't do that.
Even if what you want to do is not saying, but you can't go to God saying I'll follow you, but this is still what I want to do.
You have to go to God saying I'll follow you and if this is what you want me to do, then that's what I'll do.
Now, this is what I want to do in order to follow you.
We have to go to him knowing very well that we are going to have to make sacrifices and some of those sacrifices might be giving up things we enjoy doing.
And then what's cool though is when we do that, when we give up those, when we're willing to give up what we enjoy to follow God,
he is going to give us things that we never thought we would enjoy.
Like, I never thought I would enjoy working with a bunch of teenagers because half the time I don't want to be around anybody,
but there has happened one time where I went to youth group and felt like I really don't want to be here.
I'll feel like that all the way up until I get there.
And then when I get there and we start getting in the violin, we start doing our study and we'll play games.
And like, there is nowhere I'd rather be.
And it's crazy how God does it.
It's amazing how you can see God work when you're willing to give up what you want to do in order to do what he wants you to do.
So, I guess the biggest thing is as we go into the new year and the holiday and everything,
remember what we are here for, remember why we are doing this.
We are doing this to watch God's kingdom grow.
And Christmas is about Jesus' birth.
It's not about the gifts. It's not about even spending time with family.
It's about celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And the sacrifice that he made so we can follow it, so we can know God.
Yeah, I was just thinking as you were talking about right at the end there, how we always measure,
we always think about, I was witnessing this week and I was talking about how Jesus suffered like we'll never know suffering.
We talk about the crucifixion.
It's terrible. The pain of crucifixion is so bad they had to invent a word for it.
The word excruciating.
When we stomp our toe and we think, oh, that's excruciating.
No, it isn't.
If you throw it yourself, you literally crippled yourself.
And so all that pain is excruciating.
It actually isn't because excruciating literally means pain of the cross.
That's a word that they made it to not describe how bad it was.
But at the same time, I submit to you that a greater suffering would be to know the presence of the Father in heaven,
to be in heaven, and then come to the earth as a baby.
And by the way, I don't recall being born, but I know that the description is that your bones essentially liplify and these are exited and come out into the world.
And you're ripped from the womb where you've been warned, you've been taken care of, you've been fed, you're going to have to process all of that.
That's why babies cry, right?
Because it's terrible.
It's terrible.
And so he left heaven for us.
That's a product which we can't know.
We don't know if we think how good, awesome heaven might be, but we can't really know how awesome it is.
And so we really cannot know how terrible the sacrifice will be heaven and come in the exist for 30 fun years on the earth.
And then did he crucify?
He never had a good life.
And then he did that.
What a great sacrifice.
Okay, quick.
Okay, so you know what?
What?
What I like about this song we believe is that it says,
we believe in God the Father, so that means we will keep believing even in the hard times with God the Father and we'll take on the crucifixion.
He'll give us new life.
And I just say, he will do anything for us if we'll just follow him.
So, anybody that's in Israel without following God,
I just hope they can walk the path of Jesus and do anything that will get them back on track.
Brother Tim, would you get us in his prayer? Come on, come on.
You got this. I trust you.
We're with you.
I trust you.
Okay.
in our thought processes or in even witnessing I have made the mistake of thinking that the promise was actually made to Eve.
And it sounds like a great promise when you put it that way.
Like, oh, there's gonna be trouble between your offspring and the servant's offspring,
but your offspring's gonna crush his head. And it sounds kind of good like he was telling Eve a good thing,
but it is an even too Eve. Okay?
So grab your Bibles and go with me if you would.
We're gonna look at that this classic story in a new light today and just a couple of verses.
And I'll read kind of leading up into it so we can see what happened.
But it's Genesis chapter 3.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Okay?
So as you're getting there, in the interest of Bible intake,
we will begin reading Genesis chapter 3 verse 1.
Okay? And then I want you to really get your thinking caps on when we hit verse 14.
All right?
Says this,
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
And he said to the woman, indeed, has God said,
You shall not eat from any tree of the garden.
And the woman said to the serpent,
From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat.
But from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden,
God has said, You shall not eat from it or touch it lest you die.
Notice there that he is questioning her about God's command and she is restating God's command,
and she did get it incorrect.
Remember that the man and the woman were given the command to take care of all of the trees
in the garden of Eden including those two trees at the middle.
And she just said that God said that she was not allowed to touch them and that's not true.
Verse 4,
And the serpent said to the woman,
You surely shall not die,
For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God
knowing good and evil.
Okay?
So let me take the second part of that first.
If they eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
their eyes will be open and they will be like God knowing good and evil.
Is that a lie?
Well, you should take a note, I see several people check.
It's not a lie.
Right?
Is that not exactly what happens when they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
Their eyes are open and they perceive for the first time ever that they are naked
and they have shame and they realize that they have sinned against God.
Okay?
However, the first part where it says for God knows that in the day you eat from it,
your eyes will be open and you will be like God.
Okay?
So they will be like God in knowing good or evil,
except what?
What's the limitation?
How is it different?
How is their knowing of good and evil different from God's knowing of good and evil?
It's limited.
Right?
So they have limited knowledge.
They have their own perception, their own understanding.
They cannot know that God has a plan.
Exactly.
God has no limitations.
So their eyes are open and they know the good and evil,
but in a sense they know their own good and evil and they know what they've experienced
in the good and evil of each other and that kind of thing.
They might even have figured out that the servant had committed an evil against them
by enticing them to eat, but the point is their knowledge of good and evil is limited,
even though their eyes are open and they immediately realize that they have done evil themselves.
All right.
Verse 6.
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food,
all of them were, by the way, all of the fruit-bearing trees were good for food,
that it was a delight to the eyes.
All of them were, by the way, a delight to the eyes.
And the tree was desirable to make one wise.
That's the debatable statement, but it does open their eyes to their own sin and shame.
She took from its fruit an eight and she gave also to her husband with her and he ate.
Notice that he was with her the whole time and does not entered in the conversation.
It's not a good idea for a man to stand around while evil tempts his wife and to do nothing.
And that's exactly what Adam did.
Verse 7.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked,
and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden the cool of the day,
and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
among the trees of the garden.
From the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him,
where are you?
And I assume, we can assume rightly, I think that God knew where he was.
But he calls to him to give him to come out, basically.
Verse 10.
And he said, I heard the sound of thee in the garden.
I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself.
That's Adam's response.
And he said, who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?
And the man said, the woman whom thou gave us to be with me,
she gave me from the tree, and I ate.
So he throws his wife under the bus.
Verse 13.
Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done?
And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate.
And it kind of is so.
I kind of think maybe she deceived herself more than he did,
because he didn't say anything about wisdom.
He said that they would be like God knowing good and evil.
And she translates that to be that the tree is worth use for wisdom.
So she kind of deceived herself, but she was led to do so by the serpent.
She says, the serpent deceived me and I ate.
Verse 14.
Now here we go.
You ready?
And the Lord God said to the serpent, not to Adam or Eve, but to the serpent,
because you have done this, cursed are you more than all the cattle.
Okay.
So before we go any further, let's start looking at the ramifications.
He says to the serpent, because you have done this,
cursed are you more than all the cattle.
So that word cattle is pretty specific there.
It generally means four-legged beast that can be consumed by people.
Okay.
That can be eaten that are.
So we're talking about cows and bulls, maybe even pigs,
although that's kind of a stretch, sheep, goats, right?
So animals that are out there roaming around or sometimes are kept to be eaten by people.
And now the serpent who was previously said to be the craftiest of all of the animals,
the smartest, the wisest, the elevated, if you will, will be lower than all of them.
Now you'll probably say, well, I always thought this serpent was Satan in disguise.
The Bible doesn't say that here.
Later, a couple of places, including the book of revelations,
we're not going to get heavily into this today,
but later it says who was that serpent of old about Satan.
It calls Satan the serpent of old.
All right.
And so we put it all together and people generally think that this was either
Satan himself transformed into a serpent or a serpent that wasn't possessed by Satan
or a certain serpent that was won over to Satan's evil ways.
Okay.
So either way, what we know from here is that Satan, who is definitely involved,
whether he was a shape-shifted, possessed or influenced, he gets the same curse.
Now that's something because elsewhere you can read that Satan was probably the chief of God's
angels.
He was beautiful.
He was a choir leader, a worship leader to God.
Right.
He was able to walk in the throne room of God.
And so now he would be cursed more than all the cows,
bulls, goats, as beautiful as he was, all the influence that he had over God and over God's kingdom.
Now he's cursed more than all those.
This is really humiliation.
There is no other word for it.
Humiliation, terrible, terrible humiliation.
It says, and more than every beast of the field.
So now we're lumping in every other kind of animal that's out there winding around that a person probably wouldn't keep his cattle.
So now he's worse than a muskrat.
He's worse than a skunk.
He's worse than a platypus.
Right.
He's worse than every other animal of the field.
It says, on your belly shall you go and dust you shall eat.
Now, obviously this fits poetically with being a serpent rank because snakes actually slither around on the ground or that kind of thing.
But notice that being on your belly is also a metaphor for humiliation.
It's being brought low.
So as prideful and arrogant as he was, either the serpent himself, who was craftiest of all the beasts,
or Satan, who influenced, possessed, or was actually the serpent, any of those, as prideful and arrogant as they were,
now they're going to travel on their belly all the time, never be able to raise up again.
And dust shall you eat.
So it's interesting.
They sought to gain control, the serpent and possibly Satan, through him, however, sought to gain control of the man.
What is the man made of?
Dust of the earth and breath of God.
Right.
And so now the serpent who sought to gain control of the man who's made of dust of the earth and breath of God will slither around on his belly.
Satan will always be bowed low in humiliation.
And dust shall he eat every day.
In other words, he'll never rise up.
He'll never rain.
He'll never have any authority.
He'll never have anything to be proud of.
Again, he'll always be subject to eating the leftover waste of men.
It's a terrible humiliation.
Verse 15, then he says, and here it is, the prophecy about Jesus, and I will put my enmity.
I will put enmity.
Enmity is hostility, hatred.
So there's going to be a constant break, a friction always between those he's about to talk about.
He says, and I will put enmity between you and the woman.
The you is the serpent, and the curse rolls over to either Satan in disguise, Satan possessing the serpent, or Satan deceiving the serpent.
Any of those three, the curse rolls over to him because of his involvement, and he says, I will put hostility between you and the woman.
So now she's up against it.
We always make it out to be that like his first commission, Satan's first commission is to bring man down.
And men do have a role, and to have their role usurped, to have their role broken down so they can't live like they're supposed to, is a horrible thing.
And we're going to talk about that in one second.
But his first commission is to enmity or hostility between him and the woman.
Okay.
So if you're a woman in the room, know that his first commission was hostility toward you.
Right.
Because you are the solution in this curse that God has given.
It says between you and the woman.
And it says, and between your seed and her seed.
So all of his offspring are all of those who would follow his ideology, all those who would come after him, because that seed does not necessarily only mean like the seed of birth.
Right.
But that seed there, because there's a particular word that it's sperm of that's used for that's where we get the word sperm from.
Right.
It's not that kind of seed.
Right.
This is another kind of seed that talks about like descendants, that which arises out of you.
And so it can include ideology or thoughts.
So when we share somebody Jesus and they accept Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, they become the seed of the kingdom of God.
They now can then go.
Right.
And do the things that God has asked us to do.
We're almost done with the text.
And it says, and he would put it enmity or hostility between your seed, seed of the serpent, seed of Satan and her seed, seed of Eve.
And so he shall bruise you on the head.
He shall bruise you on the head.
And you shall bruise him on the heel.
And so this idea that the serpent, remember the serpent or Satan both, right, he'll never be able to rise up and actually strike somebody.
Always slow.
And when he comes after somebody, he's going to bite, be biting at their heels.
And you understand the concept of what says biting at somebody's heels.
It means they're moving forward and you're barely stopping them.
You're barely slowing them down.
There's not much of a hindrance.
Right.
As, as a dog bites at your heels, you're like knock it off dog, knock it off.
Right.
It's just biting at your heels.
Now the dog bites you in the groin, it's a whole other thing.
If a dog bites you on your butt, that hurts.
Right.
But if he's down there, he just kick him in the face and he's gone.
Just like that.
Right.
And this is the idea that he can only touch that way, the offspring of the woman.
He can only bite at their heels.
But the offspring of the woman will crush his head.
Okay.
And that prophecy then we understand is about Jesus.
It is one of the first, it may be the first, but I'm going to show you before we're done
how it's kind of not the first.
Okay.
It's the first very overt one, very obvious one.
So the first thing I want you to see in this text as we're in the points already
is that the effect here was not an anatomical effect, but it was humiliation.
Anatomical means it didn't have to do with your body.
He didn't make the serpent didn't used to fly.
He didn't fly into the garden of ego.
Oh, hey Eve.
The God really say, the serpent didn't use to fly and now he crawls.
Right.
It's not like that.
The serpent didn't have legs.
He's walking around like a lizard and God says, it's that.
God, God, God, you got no legs.
Now you're going to crawl along the ground.
Now they have a serpent.
Right.
Every animal that exists always existed.
God made them all.
God let Adam name them all prior to the coming of Eve when he was searching for a helpmate
for Eve.
And God let Adam name them all.
So it was not an anatomical change, but it was humiliation.
God put the serpent and Satan who influenced him or possibly possessed him or possibly was him.
He put them permanently in a position of humiliation.
Think about the pain of that.
Somebody really idolizes you, loves you, thinks, man, you're awesome.
And then you do something that really hurts them and they never see you the same way ever again.
Now it's not because they're holding your grugs.
They're not mad at you.
They're not angry at you or whatever, but they know better than to trust you with the big things of life because now you have humiliated yourself.
You have shown that you are not the person of character that you thought you were.
It can be like that.
And that's what it is for Satan.
Access to the throne room of God, leader of the choir, all the angels look to him for what to sing next and whether or not they've hit the right note.
No one is more beautiful.
And now he'll eat the dust of men forever and at best be able to strike at the heel of the offspring of the woman.
And there will always be hostility.
How dare you be hostile to me?
I'm a servant of God.
I lead God's choir.
I am the most beautiful of all the angels.
How dare you be hostile toward me?
Who is this man?
I can shape shift.
I can be anywhere I want.
I know all of God's word like nothing.
Like no limitations whatsoever.
And now you're telling me I'll crawl in the dust and only be able to strike at the heel of her offspring as we are enmity forever.
His arrogance and now he's as low as he can go.
He thinks he had a grand position and he thinks he lost it all.
And God is telling him the results.
Now he can't rightly blame Eve.
Did she do anything of her own volition?
Who started the conversation?
He did.
Who betrayed God?
He did.
He can't rightly blame her.
He doesn't hate her because she ate.
In fact, he probably was like, huh, cool.
She did what I wanted her to do.
Little pat on the back, right?
The enmity, the violence, the hostility is between the serpent and Satan and Eve because God said so.
Satan doesn't hate you because he's inherently evil.
He is inherently evil and the father of lies and a murderer from all time.
We know that, but that's not why he hates men.
He hates men because God said so.
Because God ordained them to reign over everything.
And by the way, when God ordained them to reign over everything, he said, you reign over everything living on the earth.
And then even later, when God is talking to Adam, he says that all the days of your life,
you'll reign over everything on the earth, all the animals.
And now Satan is on the earth.
And so God still gives him reign over this individual who thought he was all that.
He can't rightly blame the man.
He can blame God.
He's not striking at man because man did something so terrible.
In fact, I would submit to you that he probably would think man was not really even worth his effort.
This was not an attack on Adam and Eve.
This was an attack on God.
He can't rightly blame God, really, but he does.
And God placed hostility between him and the woman.
I think that's very interesting.
He is not concerned about right and frankly now has purpose to forever resist the seed of Eve.
The effect was not anatomical, but it was humiliation.
He was lowered from his previous position and instead becomes the adversary.
The accuser who accused God before men, Revelation says that he stood in heaven accusing God before men and accusing men before God.
Now has been cast down and become less than all the cast.
That is an incredible curse.
The second thing to see in here is that the promise was to the serpent, not the woman.
We started out by talking about that.
It is very dangerous to assume somebody else's promise.
If you're a man, you're not going to be able to do that.
You're going to be able to do that.
There is no one else's promise.
If you think I sort of believe in God and I'm sort of following God and you're trying to claim the promises of a Christian, you might want to rethink.
In Matthew 28, it says,
I know a lot of people who claim to be Christians who say,
Well, God is with us. God will be with me. God will be with me all the time.
I even know people who are not Christians that don't even profess the name of Christ and say,
but God said he'll be with us until the end of time.
Those promises are part of the Great Commission.
It says, go ye therefore.
You're supposed to be sharing the gospel and you're baptizing people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
And then he says, as you do that, then lo, I will be with you even to the end of the age.
For those who are not following God to claim that God will be with them even to the end of the age,
that is assuming somebody else's promise and they are just flat out wrong.
People call themselves children of God.
Well, God made Adam and Eve and he made everybody and so we're all children of God.
No, the New Testament says that when you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior began to follow Jesus,
you were given the right to be called the child of God.
No one else has been given the right to be called the child of God.
To assume somebody else's promise is very dangerous.
His hostility toward her seed,
but then ultimately the outcome of his head crushed was predetermined and accomplished in Christ.
And so basically saying there's going to be a problem here.
You're always going to be butting heads.
The serpent's always going to be chasing the seed of the woman around and trying to bite its heel.
And that's exactly how Satan is to us.
That's exactly what's happening.
Sin and temptation are always trying to get their way a little bit, the little bit that they can.
But the truth is the crushing of the head of the serpent is predetermined and accomplished.
Even everything that's going to go on in Revelation as he rises up and he wins countries
and he gets all these people following and worshiping.
And it comes to the point where almost everybody on the earth will take the mark of the beast
and follow the evil leader of the world.
Even in that moment, it will still be predetermined that ultimately he will be crushed.
He will have nothing.
He will spend eternity in a burning pit of fire where he cannot die,
nor can he breathe, eat, sleep, have anything but pain.
His outcome is predetermined.
His hostility toward her seed is set here, but ultimately the outcome of his head crushed
was determined and accomplished.
And then we see that coming out in Christ.
Adam and Eve's curses were for us.
And we struggle thusly to this day.
We always struggle with how to make ends meet, how to overcome suffering, disease.
The world is full of tornadoes and earthquakes and floods,
all of which are birth pains, groaning for that final day of redemption.
When he'll be crushed and God will make everything new.
But we always ultimately win.
Those who are following the Lord Jesus Christ, those who are God's people,
ultimately will win.
In the New Testament, we read in the book of John, beginning in chapter 8,
I'm going to read beginning in verse 30.
We're almost to the conclusion already.
We're going along real nicely.
In John chapter 8, beginning in verse 30, it says,
As he spoke, that's Jesus.
These things many came to believe in him.
So they made the decision that, yes, he's real.
What he's saying is true.
Then in verse 31, this is John 8.31, Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews
who had believed in him.
So let me put this in the context of the Genesis 3 passage.
These are the seed of the woman.
And the Son of Man has now come on the earth.
And the Son of Man is walking amongst them.
And he's about to bring about the ultimate crushing of the head of the serpent.
Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed in him,
If you abide, that means if you remain and live in my word,
then you are truly disciples of mine.
And you shall know the truth.
And the truth shall make you free.
They answered him, we are Abraham's offspring.
In other words, they're saying, we are the seed of Abraham.
And have never yet been enslaved to anyone.
How is it that you say, you shall become free?
Jesus answered them truly, truly.
I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
And the slave does not remain in the house forever.
The Son does remain forever.
If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.
I know that you are Abraham's offspring.
There it is again.
He says, yeah, you're his literal seed.
You're his physical descendants.
You're the children, great, grandchildren, great great great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren.
I understand that you are the great, great, great, grandchildren of the offspring of Abraham.
Yet you seek to kill me, because my word has no place in you.
I speak the things which I have seen my father.
Therefore, you also do the things which you have heard from your father.
They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father.
Jesus said to them, If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham.
But as it is you are seeking to kill me a man has who has told you the truth which I heard from God
This Abraham did not do
You are doing the deeds of your father. So he's saying they have another father not
Abraham who would it would be Eve's descendant and had God as father rather there's he's saying they have another father
Which is Satan they said to him we were not born of fortification
We have one father even God Jesus said to them if God were your father you would love me for I proceeded forth and have
Come from God for I have not even come on my own initiative, but he sent me
Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear my word
You are of your father the devil and you want to do the desires of your father
He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him whenever he speaks a
lie
He speaks from his own nature for he is a liar and the father of lies
But because I speak the truth you do not believe me which one of you convicts me of sin if I speak the truth
Why do you not believe me he who is of God?
Here is the words of God for this reason you do not hear them because you are not of God
The Jews answered and said to him do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan and have a demon
So he's saying in other words. Are you not are you of illegitimate seed?
You're the descendant
Right of illegitimate seed and you have a demon Jesus answered
I do not have a demon, but I honor my father and you dishonor me, but I do not seek my glory
There is one who seeks and judges truly truly
I say to you if anyone keeps my word he shall never see death
The Jews said to him now we know that you have a demon
Abraham died and the prophets also and you say if anyone keeps my word he shall never taste of death
Surely you are not greater than our father Abraham who died the prophets died too whom do you make yourself out to be?
Jesus answered here it is
If I glory myself
My glory is nothing is my father who glorifies me of whom you say he is our God
And you have not come to know him, but I know him and if I say that I do not know him
I shall be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word your father Abraham
Rejoice to see my day and he saw it and was glad that Jews therefore said to him
You are not yet 50 years old and have you seen Abraham?
Jesus said to them truly truly I say to you before Abraham was born
I am
Therefore they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple
There was hostility between Jesus and these men because these men were of Satan
They were the offspring's you got to decide which seed are you of you began as the seed of Eve?
Physically, but which seed are you up? Do you work for God or do you work for Satan?
There is no middle ground if you live in the middle ground you work for Satan
He has to be put in his place
Jesus came as predicted
Satan struck him as predicted he crushed Satan as predicted and now the final crushing is still in process
As we the body of Christ do the work of putting the betrayer under our heel and crushed for an eternity
We are still in the process of informing the whole world of Jesus's victory over death and the availability of resurrection power to elevate men
And women boys and girls to the position of untouchable
Eternally victorious beings that brings us to our conclusion the serpent was told that the seed of the woman would crush his head
Hostility and humiliation. That's the curse
She'll crush your head her seed will crush your head
There will be hostility and you will suffer humiliation
You will eat the dust the remnants of a dead man of a dead body that used to carry a man
You will eat the dust the remnants of a dead body that used to carry a man for the rest of your life
You will be humiliated like that. I
mentioned to you before we
Really got into reading the text that there might be other possible
Prophecies as anybody remember without going there and looking in Genesis 1 28 when God is making me said let us make man
What?
In our own image. That's what it says. Let us make man in our own image
Does anybody remember in Colossians 1 15 what it says about Jesus that he was
Anybody know
He was in the image of the invisible God not made
But he came in the image of the invisible God and so we are
Humans are a prophecy
God made humans
prophetically to look like him in spirit mind and soul and to have relationship with him
Humans are a prophecy. They were meant to be a representative of God
Humans were supposed to represent God on all the earth and now in Christ. That is what we must do
We must represent we must be the body of Christ and be who God made us to be a prophecy if you will an example
If you will a light if you will so that people can understand and realize that God is real
But he sent his son Jesus Christ to once and for all crush the head of Satan and it has been done and yet Satan
Satan is still there nipping at the heels for some reason
anybody here afraid of dogs like
Kind of supernaturally afraid like a phobia
Some people have that some people are just afraid of dogs and a little dog comes out barking and they'll go wherever that dog steers
And that is what the world is doing say there's nothing but that he's a slithering
Beast now in the dirt coming up on people's heels and people are listening to the serpent people are listening to his barker
They're listening to him. He sits outside the door barking and you're like, I got to deal with this dog
I'm terrified of this. I got to deal you open the door and you let him in and he comes in and he bites you
And then he says haha, I bit you you let me bite you and that's it
That's the world that we're living in people are allowing this guy who has nothing has lost everything
He's been humiliated from his high station down to nothing and we're allowing the nothing and we say well he tempted me
No temptation doesn't come when Satan tempts you
Temptation comes when your flesh wants something and you think well, maybe I should listen to my flesh and
Then you go after what your flesh wants and and then temptation becomes sin and sin becomes death
And every human being does it now
Because he's always there. He's there nipping at your heels before you understand the very thing that we're talking about today
Which is that he can't make you do anything people say the devil made me do it the devil never made anyone do anything
Including possession you say well the devil possessed somebody and then that person killed somebody you can see that in the seven funds
He they're passing out people and and that passing out demons using the name of Jesus and Paul and finally demon says hey
Jesus I know Paul I know
But who are you and then he beats them all up and they got all bloody and cast out of the room in their underwear after they
after he beats them all up and like that
That guy could say that demon made him do it, but a person doesn't get possessed without an invitation
Are you open to Satan leading you to do things?
Are you open to evil spirits of demons leading you to do things or have you said I am a follower the Lord Jesus Christ?
And I will crush him at every turn I will crush him and I will crush him again
And I will crush him again, and I'm running over top of the defensive line of Satan because God said from the very beginning
That this will be the battle
It's gonna be me as a seed in an offspring of Eve versus him and I will win
And you're struck him because you're stricken because you you despair because you're sad because you're fearful because you're angry
Get controlling yourself man
You're a child of God and now you submit yourself to God and God alone when he comes barging when he comes fighting when he comes slithering
You stuck on him because he has little more than that a bump in the road
Just as if you were a war horse and he was coming up to mess with you
Horses freak out a little bit about serpents because they get bitten a leg is poisonous and they could die
So they rear up and stop them. That's what they do
The beauty of it is
You don't have to worry about the first part because you can stop him without any chance that he's gonna end you
Because all of his strength and all of his power has been submitted to the curse of God that was given to him when he tempted Eve
Yes, there will be hostility, but all he can do is bite at your heels
The question is why are you not stopping him?
Why don't we take the gospel into the world and tell people that they can be free?
Why don't we tell everybody that Jesus Christ out on the cross and if you'll believe and trust and follow him that you can be free?
And this is the kind of power that you can wield in
This sense humans are a living prophecy
We were to point to the one who would come who would truly be the second Adam and and win the day permanently and
People believed in the way that God would make how do you think Abraham got saved?
How do you think Noah got saved?
How do you think Moses got saved they all got saved believing in the way that God
Would make because around they could see all the testimony of the action of what God was engaged in that ultimately
He was gonna crush the head of the circuit once and for all and the stories were passed out to them
It's very story that we're reading and then eventually in Moses day or sometime after it was written down word for word
So you and I can read today and understand it's done Jesus already came
and acts chapter 17 and
Then we're through and acts chapter 17 Paul is preaching to some guys who just were really interested in a lot of things
And they allowed him to talk about
The Christian faith in front of a huge crowd of people and so he took that opportunity
And he says this this these two verses as part of what he's saying on Mars Hill he says
Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance that means the times when people didn't know
God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent means that we should all turn to God
That's our message all men and women
Everywhere should repent and turn to God turn away from your sin and turn to God only first 31
Because he that's God has fixed the day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed
Having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. It's done. Yes. He's still nipping. Yes
He's still chasing but he'll only chase those who run away
You ever stop a small child from playing tag
And you can get the one in the back because he's the slower one or he's the one that
You nap him up and you like hey
Cut it out. He's like well, he's running away from me
Yeah, I just want to wait for you because you're chasing him or maybe you get the front guy and the chaser comes run up tags him
So hey, we're not playing tag and the front guy says well. He was chasing me
You see we're chasing the lost
We're after the lost and they're running from Satan's
Just tell him about Jesus
and let Satan have his day and what is his day?
It's a day of humiliation
It's a day of hostility
That's a day of being crushed
You could say under Jesus's feet if you don't want to own it
But the truth is if you are the offspring of Eve that is to say if you believe in Jesus Christ
If you are the offspring of God if you are a child of God and a member of the kingdom of God
Then you too are to be crushing the head of Satan
I always look at Eve and we say well if I was there I would never have done that
You know there was a comedian who said he told a long series of jokes
And he talked about Eve being in heaven and there was a line there and all these people were walking all the women
Because of the pain and childbirth that she got all the women were walking up and smacking Eve and say what were you thinking?
What were you thinking? We went through all that pain because you were thinking they're smacking her. It's a joke
But it's not really a joke not a very good joke at all
If we were there we would have done the same thing in our innocence and God knows that and so all those people that are out there who have committed sins and ignorance and innocence they didn't know
God is ready to forgive
But he's asking them to turn now if you have turned
Let's quit playing around and get busy doing the things that God would have us to do
And crushing the head of the enemy
You are made for this purpose to walk with the Lord and crush the head of the enemy
If he comes a nipping all you got to do is one step and crush him
Just say I'm done
Says if you draw close to God he'll draw close to you if you rebuke the enemy he'll flee
You have that kind of power
If you hear the king here are the keys to the kingdom
Whatever you bind on earth shall have already been bound in heaven
Whatever you loose on earth shall have already been loosed in heaven. That's the kind of power you have in these things in overcoming temptation
We are more than conquerors. That's the kind of power we have
Stop playing like your temptation is harder than somebody else's or your evil spirits are more active than somebody else's or your devil is gotten under your skin
All you have to do is crush him
And move forward and do what it is that God would have done
That's what the word says. Are we going to keep playing games like Satan's some big bad scary dude?
Because he isn't. He's been humiliated
If he ever comes to you he'll be crawling
If he ever comes to you he'll be nipping
And if you're stricken to your core by him
It'll be because you open your heart and let it be so
Instead crush him
That's what we were given
One little bit of power
Instead crush him. That's what we were given. One little illustration and then we'll have that equation will be true
Playing football in the side yard
I was a young kid. I was probably like 10
And I was the second youngest person who was going to play
In the side yard where right now we're kind of building our addition where the side yard is not really going to be there anymore
And a few weeks before we had begged to be allowed to play me and one of the younger kids in the neighborhood
We had begged and begged to be allowed to play because the older kids would play. They played tackle football
And they thought we were too young and they wouldn't let us play this
And want to deal with our cuteness, our drama, whatever that happens a lot when older kids want to get away from the younger kids
It's not really good but it did happen
So we had begged and begged and then they just had to play
So then they put both of us young guys on the same team
So it's four on four or something like that inside the yard
And my team weighed about 300 pounds total
And the other team weighed about 700 pounds total
Over twice as much. One big guy playing with over 300 pounds was a sophomore in high school at that time
And I was like, I don't have to play that game. I'm thinking to myself
I think we're pretty much in trouble here. We're going to get annihilated
And the big guy was on the other team and he said, I don't think like that. I don't think like that
And I said, here's the thing. You're quick on your feet, you're fast, and it's going to be hard to get a hold of you, whatever
And we're not going to crush you. We're like, like, happily. I'm not going to pound you into the earth, like that
It's just a friendly game, that kind of thing
So just be smart. Be smart, be mobile, be quick that you can, you'll be quicker than us
And we played about two hours. In the end we lost like one or two touchdowns
And we lost the team that I was on. But it went high scoring. Like in two hours I think we lost 25 touchdowns
And we lost like two touchdowns. Back and forth. But we could, like the kids were ballers
And the guy, we were like, we literally all four of us were riding on him and trying to get him down and we couldn't get him down
And fortunately they said, if he can't, we can only run the ball once every four down
So basically we went one down, two down, three down, four down, touchdown
One down, because we were running four down every time and we couldn't know what was stopping
Once or twice we did stop him. But the point is, if you look at it and you think you can't win
You look at it and you think you're up against something bigger than yourself
If you look at it and you think you're not prepared, then maybe you are
And you'll quit before you ever try. And I think that's why people aren't talking to you about people
That's why people carry their phone around instead of a paper Bible because nobody gets to know that I have a Bible then
It's not just because it's more accessible and searchable and all that, that's all good too, but when you walk into church carrying a Bible
Everybody knows what you're there for. When you walk into church carrying a phone with you, you could just be stopping in
Just like a big fan, nobody really knows. Right?
And so what I'm saying to you is, if we start identifying as Christians, if we start going where Christians
Maybe aren't really appreciated all that much. There's a bunch of guys taking it on to college campuses now, right?
I've been in bars, I've been in dark neighborhoods, dark hours, right?
So start taking the gospel and then the light will shine and Jesus will get the glory and we'll be stepping on Satan's head
Which is what we were made for. Or you can, before the game ever starts, you can say, oh, it's too hard
I can't overcome my temptations. I can't beat down my flesh. I can't focus my mind. I can't read my Bible
You can't learn and grow in Christ. You can do that all right up front, in which case he's going to be on your heels the whole time
You'll never get rid of him. He'll be there biting into your heels the whole time. And it's going to hurt. Over and over and over again
Or just crush him. Just crush him and be done with it. The little dog that bites me, he gets smacked
Or I put my hand in his mouth so far back, he can't close his mouth. Right?
Or I grab him by the scratchers neck and paralyze him. Just let him keep biting and scratching him
I'm not going to kill him unless he's a little dog. He's probably not that dangerous, right?
Satan needs to be stepped on. That's how it's done.
At this time I'll ask the praise team to come forward. We're going to have a final song. If you're here today and you realize and you need to respond to this word
If you realize that God is calling you to save, if you realize that God is calling you to do something that you've not been doing
You're going to put God first in some way that you've not been putting in first
And as we sing the song, this is your opportunity to respond. You're going to say, public, I'm living for Jesus
And by the way, you don't have to have somebody to say I'm living for Jesus. That's somebody stepping on his feet and head
That's somebody crushing him. And that's what we're going to do. We're going to crush him. We're going to run over God
We're like that 300-comp God that used to run over God to me. And that's what we're going to do.
Not because we say so. Not because we want to. I personally, somebody wants to ask me, can we just love Satan?
Not according to what God says. God says there's hostility between us and him forever.
So that's what it's going to be. God says it's not up.
Alright, then we can sing this song and we will be through.
In case I forget after this song, there are a couple of things I'm not sure about.
Come let's bring home to him
Oh God, I come
I come
To death I am
And may we come
To reign my son
A wonderful
To be a
Blackened
And each night, oh, now
Oh God, I come
I come
To reign my son
A wonderful
To be a
Blackened
And each night, oh, now
Oh God, I come
I believe, oh, now
Oh God, I come
I come
You're going to do relax, isn't you? Holy Spirit just put it into my head. So if you're not standing, I need you to stand.
That includes you Larry. I'm sorry, I know you're so worried about me. Stand with me.
Stand up.
I know we're sore, but okay. So I want you to imagine the mind's eye. You got it?
He got it. All right. I want you to imagine in your mind's eye that Satan is at sea.
I've been taking you here today and he's right now biting at the heel of your strong foot.
Whatever foot you choose to use and all together and what we're going to pick our foot up and we're going to step on it on that image.
If you will, below us.
Put your foot up. Put it down.
You have to slam it down as hard as I did. That caused your pain. Don't do it. I know some people are so upset.
We're going to stop the head of Satan. Right here.
Put it down.
Okay. He's a liar and he'll keep lying. He's a murderer and you'll keep destroying people, destroying your character, destroying lives.
Just take note of it. The children of our nation now, who are taking unborn children in our nation and nations all over the world now.
He's the killer of the seed of Eve's hidden hand and we must crush him as soon as we're ready to go.
Now, if by some chance you approach in an open field and you saw somebody who was being attacked by a snake,
would you run out there and grab that snake with your hand and pitch it off into the woods?
No, but it's not.
But what might be safer?
That would be safer.
People are to reach.
I'm going to shovel.
Or bat.
Or sword.
Right. When you go to take out the snake that's after somebody else,
be prepared to wield the sword that God had given you to wield.
And even Jesus used the sword against Satan in his day.
When he was tempted by Satan directly, he brought out the word of God at every instance and he slowly got back to him.
And Satan misused the word of God in his presence and he'll do that to you.
One of the reasons why Bible and Cate's Meditation Study are so important.
You go after the snake that's after somebody else, go with a weapon.
Right. We're going to close in prayer at this time.
And then there are cupcakes. I remember there are cupcakes in the cafeteria in honor of Tyson's birthday.
If we get in there first, which is entirely possible, somebody make sure and get us grab Tyson's toys for cupcakes.
That would be a great idea.
Somebody probably knows what else toys we'd be.
Alright. Our day would be close in prayer and then we'll be free.
Dear Father, I want to thank you for today. Thank you for everything that you've done.
God, thank you for everything that you're going to do.
Lord, I want to thank you for the message. I'm afraid that we all learn a little more and we grow a little more every day.
And with the ever since Bible and Cate over the next six months, God, I'm afraid that we all just get in your word more and read and study and meditate if we have to.
However we do with God, I just pray that we know your word better because your word is the weapon against the devil.
As Dan said, Jesus proved that to us when he was tempted.
He brought back scripture every time that he was tempted to do something and God knows what we should be doing to.
God, I pray that we all remain safe, keep us healthy.
Jesus' name, amen.
Thank you very much.
God bless you. Don't forget Saturday the parade, Tuesday night Bible study.
Bring candy if you want to donate candy.
If you sting a break here, I'm in the toe.
God bless y'all.