1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:15,900 Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest 2 00:00:15,900 --> 00:00:21,100 questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search 3 00:00:21,100 --> 00:00:27,300 and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Meador, lead 4 00:00:27,300 --> 00:00:32,500 pastor of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth 5 00:00:32,500 --> 00:00:39,760 for the life we're searching for. Well, I'm so happy to be back in the book 6 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:43,520 of Genesis today and if you'll take your Bibles and turn to that very first book of 7 00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:48,440 the Bible, Genesis chapter four, is where we're going to be. Finding God in a Chaotic 8 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:52,680 World is the title of our message. We'll be walking through Genesis four through chapter 9 00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:57,800 11 over the next few weeks leading up to Easter and I think you might have heard last week 10 00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:03,480 if you were here, a number of times the statement was made, if you're looking for answers for 11 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:08,400 life's questions, begin in Genesis chapter one through 11. And I really believe that 12 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:13,620 with all my heart because there you have God's creative revelation. He's telling us everything 13 00:01:13,620 --> 00:01:19,040 we need to know in those first few chapters of the book of Genesis. So Genesis chapter 14 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:24,640 four beginning in verse one today, as we begin, let me just ask you to imagine a highway for 15 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:31,160 life, a highway for life. And imagine for a moment that that highway for life has two 16 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:37,800 choices on it. One way is what we would call a narrow way. It's guarded by guard rails, 17 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:45,280 it's very paved, it's strong and solid and stable. It's got signs along the way, it's 18 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:50,560 got lights on this roadway so that no matter whether it's day or night you see the place 19 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:56,920 that you're going. It even has rest stops that you need along the way. It's got a map, 20 00:01:56,920 --> 00:02:03,240 it actually has an active guide to take you as you go down this highway. That's one road. 21 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:09,200 But I want you to also imagine a different road, an exit off this main road, this narrow 22 00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:14,360 road, we would call this a broad road. And no matter where you are you can get off the 23 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:19,160 main road and get on this broad road. Now this broad road is very different from the 24 00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:23,760 main road, the narrow road. The broad road is not paved, it's not solid. You're not sure 25 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:27,760 what you're going to have on the other side of the hill that you're heading for. It's 26 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:34,480 not lit up, it has no lights, it has no signs, no maps, no guides, and you don't know where 27 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:41,360 you'll end up if you take that road. In a very real way Genesis chapter four is about 28 00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:49,400 the story of two roads. One is one that God has given us, it's lit, it's paved, it's predictable, 29 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:54,120 it's clear, it has guard rails and you know where you'll end up. But the other road is 30 00:02:54,120 --> 00:03:00,240 the road that anyone can choose to go on and it can lead almost anywhere. When you read 31 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:05,160 your Bible Genesis chapter one and two it's an amazing picture of God's creation and the 32 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:14,120 beauty of His creation, the clarity, the power of His creation, the power of who He is, and 33 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:19,440 the amazing provision that He gives us in those two chapters is just incredible. Seven 34 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:24,840 day creation, God is at work every day, He speaks and things come into existence and 35 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:31,240 they still go as they went when He created the heavens and the earth. Now Genesis three 36 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:37,360 is the picture of the fall of mankind. Adam and Eve are in the garden and they make choices 37 00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:42,720 that God has forbidden them to make and temptation takes place and sin takes place and they step 38 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:48,760 off the highway that God has built for them and God comes and finds them in the garden 39 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:54,800 and makes provision for that sin and brings them back to a place close to Him. But Genesis 40 00:03:54,800 --> 00:04:00,880 chapter four is the chaos man creates as a result of getting off the road and continuing 41 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:06,780 their own way. Genesis chapter four is that broad road. Genesis chapter four is a group 42 00:04:06,780 --> 00:04:11,160 of people that move in a different direction from the direction God has given them and 43 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:17,420 you begin in chapter four seeing this road that ends in catastrophe and that many are 44 00:04:17,420 --> 00:04:22,320 still on. It's really the story of Cain and Abel and the choices they make and how they 45 00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:27,120 worship God and how they even came about. What you stand with me as we read Genesis 46 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:33,520 chapter four, I'm going to read 16 verses there. Now the man, that would be Adam, had 47 00:04:33,520 --> 00:04:39,280 relations with his wife Eve and she conceived and gave birth to Cain and she said, I've 48 00:04:39,280 --> 00:04:43,400 gotten a man child with the help of the Lord. And we're going to spend some time in verse 49 00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:49,400 one in a bit. Verse two again, she gave birth to his brother Abel and Abel was a keeper 50 00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:53,900 of the flocks but Cain was a teller of the ground. So it came about in the course of 51 00:04:53,900 --> 00:04:58,240 time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel on his 52 00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:03,400 part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and their fat portion. And the Lord 53 00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:11,400 had regard for Abel and his offering but for Cain and for his offering he had no regard. 54 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:16,400 So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Then the Lord said to Cain, why are 55 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:21,160 you angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well will not your countenance be 56 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:26,280 lifted up and if you do not do well, sin is crashing at the door and its desire is for 57 00:05:26,280 --> 00:05:31,320 you but you must master it. Cain told Abel his brother and it came about when they were 58 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:36,840 in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother and killed him. The Lord said 59 00:05:36,840 --> 00:05:41,000 to Cain, where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother's 60 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:45,840 keeper? He said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from 61 00:05:45,840 --> 00:05:50,160 the ground. Now you are cursed from the ground which has opened his mouth to receive your 62 00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:55,080 brother's blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground it will no longer yield its strength 63 00:05:55,080 --> 00:06:00,200 to you. You will be a vagrant and wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the Lord, my punishment 64 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:05,240 is too great to bear. Behold you've driven me this day from the face of the ground and 65 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:09,600 from your face I will be hidden and I will be a vagrant and wanderer on the earth and 66 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:14,600 whoever finds me will kill me. So the Lord said to him, whoever therefore kills Cain, 67 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:19,000 vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain so 68 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:24,200 that no one finding him would slay him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord 69 00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:30,520 and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Father, in Jesus' name illuminate this for 70 00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:36,280 us. Such an important part of this very first family and the directions they took. Help 71 00:06:36,280 --> 00:06:42,000 us be warned, unencouraged about the right way we should go and we ask this in Jesus' 72 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:47,000 name. All God's people said amen. Be seated if you would. 73 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:54,000 Well, there's so many verses here it won't be possible for us to really cover all of 74 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:59,520 these the way we would like to but it is possible to hit the high points in this story, in this 75 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:05,240 text because it really is such an important thing. In this room today are two different 76 00:07:05,240 --> 00:07:12,240 kinds of people. There are the people who embrace what God says in Genesis chapter one 77 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:19,240 through chapter 11 and who find answers and clarity for the reality of life in those answers. 78 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:25,240 There are those that are coming at worship in a different way who have their own ideas, 79 00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:30,240 their own thoughts and they're part of that broad way that we spoke of just a moment ago. 80 00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:34,240 But what I want you to do today, I want you to know that God makes it possible for us 81 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:41,240 to find him in even the darkest of situations. He makes it possible for us to find him in 82 00:07:41,240 --> 00:07:48,240 true history and in true worship. Those two things are the priorities today. And when 83 00:07:48,240 --> 00:07:52,240 I say true history I'm talking about the history of the creation of the world. You're going 84 00:07:52,240 --> 00:07:58,240 to find some things out today about how important it is to understand and to lean into the creation 85 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:03,240 of the history of the world as we have this account from God that I bet you've never heard 86 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:07,240 before. There's some things that I'll say today that I did not know until this past 87 00:08:07,240 --> 00:08:13,240 week. Some interesting insights and some important things that we have to hold on to. I want 88 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:18,240 to encourage you today to lean into the creation account that God gives us in Genesis chapter 89 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:24,240 one all the way through chapter 11 because the fluidity we have in this world today and 90 00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:30,240 the absence of absolute truth and the morality that has gone in a different direction are 91 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:38,240 the result of not leaning into and leaning on what God says took place in Genesis chapter 92 00:08:38,240 --> 00:08:44,240 one through chapter 11. We're even going to see how Abel and Cain have a different view 93 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:50,240 of how God created it even then at that time. I also want to say this. I think it's very 94 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:56,240 important for us to acknowledge that the majority view in populations today about creation is 95 00:08:56,240 --> 00:09:03,240 not biblical creation. It is not God as creator but the majority view, the view that more 96 00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:12,240 people have than any other category is the view that evolution has taken place that God 97 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:16,240 is not required to bring about the world that we have today and all kinds of philosophies 98 00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:22,240 and theories about how it came into being are the majority view today. What that means 99 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:29,240 is that among us, the people of the Church of Jesus Christ, we must get behind, encourage, 100 00:09:29,240 --> 00:09:34,240 especially our younger generation to find their answers in the book of Genesis and to 101 00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:40,240 be equipped to have conversations with those that do not believe as we believe but have 102 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:46,240 conversations in a persuasive, loving way with our culture because we are outnumbered 103 00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:52,240 in what we believe versus those who believe in a very, very different way. So let's go 104 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:58,240 to Genesis for just a few moments and see what we can find out about key questions about 105 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:04,240 how to find God in chaos and where to find him and how to be able to defend that. 106 00:10:04,240 --> 00:10:08,240 Number one, this text tells us that you can find God in history. And when I say history, 107 00:10:08,240 --> 00:10:13,240 I mean true history. The history of creating and framing the world that we live in by the 108 00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:17,240 grace of God. Here at the end of chapter two, at the end of all these creative acts said, 109 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:23,240 not only was it good, but he said it was very good. And one of the biggest battles we face 110 00:10:23,240 --> 00:10:29,240 today is the battle for the truth about true history, about this creative history. And 111 00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:34,240 nowhere is it more evident than the issue of creation itself. The questions that our 112 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:40,240 culture is asking today is, did God really create the heavens and the earth? Or did they 113 00:10:40,240 --> 00:10:45,240 come about by evolution, a Big Bang Theory and some other things that created the world 114 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:51,240 that we have today? Or is it some mix of the two? Is there a God who somehow allowed evolution 115 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:58,240 to make it take place so that it all happened but also science is right as well? And I just 116 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:03,240 need to tell you today that science will position itself against the God of creation and the 117 00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:07,240 revelation of scripture. You're going to have to make a choice. Because when you blend those 118 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:12,240 two, the Bible becomes impossible to truly understand. If you're really trying to read 119 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:17,240 in evolution to the creation account, there's no way you can see exactly what God is saying 120 00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:23,240 and what he is doing and what he has for us. It's so important for us to come to the place 121 00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:30,240 of leaning in on what God said. Now the Bible, God's word was written so that we might have 122 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:36,240 an accurate history of the world from the beginning and to believe in the God who created 123 00:11:36,240 --> 00:11:42,240 it. I'm going to link those two truths together today in a very, very important way because 124 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:48,240 the Bible helps us to understand how God created but he also helps us to understand that he 125 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:53,240 created the heavens and the earth so that we can not only worship him for all of his 126 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:58,240 power and all that he did but we can see why and how he did all this and how we then interact 127 00:11:58,240 --> 00:12:05,240 with people around us. I have to tell you that atheist and scientist and others who 128 00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:12,240 want to create doubt about the historical record of creation have not succeeded in eradicating 129 00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:17,240 the creation account. All they've succeeded in doing is creating skepticism and doubt 130 00:12:17,240 --> 00:12:23,240 among those that wrap their minds around that. But if you buy into the man-made view of the 131 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:27,240 creation of the world, you'll struggle to find God in it. In fact, you'll struggle to 132 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:32,240 find God anywhere. If God didn't create heavens and the earth, then what right would he have 133 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:37,240 to interfere or intervene into it? If life is not about God's purpose and plan, then 134 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:44,240 where do you find a purpose and plan in life? If there is no meaningful reason why things 135 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:51,240 that are difficult happen to us, then everything is chance. Nothing is worth living for. Is 136 00:12:51,240 --> 00:12:56,240 he going to find it difficult to worship a God, the God of creation, if you don't lean 137 00:12:56,240 --> 00:13:01,240 into his creation account? And that creation account is taught at churches, the pillars 138 00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:06,240 and grounds of truth. It's taught in homes where truth is passed on to the next generation. 139 00:13:06,240 --> 00:13:12,240 It's taught in certain schools that embrace this idea of biblical creationism. All these 140 00:13:12,240 --> 00:13:17,240 things are so important, but we are in the minority and we need to know how to defend 141 00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:20,240 our faith. Here's what you're going to have to do. You're going to have to come to the 142 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:25,240 place where you acknowledge that many just will not buy into the creation account, therefore 143 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:31,240 they will not believe your answers and believe your understandings of how God created and 144 00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:36,240 what it all means. And I'll answer a few of those questions that come up over and over 145 00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:40,240 based on Genesis chapter four, just a moment, but you're just going to have to accept the 146 00:13:40,240 --> 00:13:46,240 fact that not everyone will agree with you. And not everyone will agree with the Bible. 147 00:13:46,240 --> 00:13:51,240 But you also have to accept the fact that all of our choices and all of our consequences 148 00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:56,240 and all the fluidity that we find in life with every subject on the planet have to do 149 00:13:56,240 --> 00:14:03,240 with not being willing to buy into, to leaning to God's creative history and the word of 150 00:14:03,240 --> 00:14:07,240 God itself, the truth. So here we go today as we begin to look into this, you can find 151 00:14:07,240 --> 00:14:11,240 God in history. We have a biblical worldview and this is the view that informs us with 152 00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:17,240 all the answers we need to have. So what does this true history tell us? Well go to chapter 153 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:23,240 four, verse one, let's read that again very slowly. Now the man had relations with his 154 00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:27,240 wife Eve. Now please keep in mind Genesis one through three, God has given us great 155 00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:32,240 details about creation and the world and the earth and Adam and Eve and now he's giving 156 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:38,240 us further detail about how the families of the earth move forward. Now the man had relations 157 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:43,240 with his wife Eve and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. And she said, I've gotten a 158 00:14:43,240 --> 00:14:50,240 man child with the help of the Lord. Now if you and I are going to lean into biblical 159 00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:54,240 history, we're going to find answers to cultural questions right here in verse one. If you're 160 00:14:54,240 --> 00:14:58,240 going to lean into the account that God gives us in the book of Genesis, we're not going 161 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:04,240 to be confused about what the rest of the world says about things like marriage and 162 00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:09,240 sexuality and gender and all the confusion and fluidity we hear today. We're not going 163 00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:15,240 to have questions, we're going to have answers. We're going to know what God's design is. 164 00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:19,240 Let me give you an example of that. There are four questions that I believe this text 165 00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:24,240 answers for us today and in doing so we can see God's presence in what he says to us. 166 00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:30,240 First of all, what does this text say about biblical marriage? Now if you go back to the 167 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:36,240 verse and answer the question, what does this text say about biblical marriage? It says 168 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:42,240 that God designed for one man and one woman to be married and that's the pattern God gave 169 00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:49,240 us from the beginning. The original man, Adam, had relations with the original woman created 170 00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:55,240 out of Adam, who's Eve, and she conceived and gave birth. Now that says that God has 171 00:15:55,240 --> 00:16:03,240 a pattern. One man, one woman for life and he designs for them to be together. Now 4,000 172 00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:08,240 years of human history passed between Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the Lord 173 00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:13,240 Jesus walking on the face of the earth. And one day Jesus is in conversation with a group 174 00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:18,240 of people who ask him about divorce but he answers a question in a different way than 175 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:24,240 they imagined and he affirms the creation account in doing so. Matthew 19 verse 4, Jesus 176 00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:31,240 said, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and 177 00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:38,240 female? In other words, from the beginning God created marriage to be one man and one 178 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:43,240 woman and from the beginning that's been true. So what Jesus is doing is he's affirming 179 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:49,240 the true and indisputable creation and design for mankind. He's simply saying this is what 180 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:54,240 I created marriage to be and this is what it should be. Then he answers the second question 181 00:16:54,240 --> 00:17:00,240 in Genesis chapter 4, what does this say about sexual relations? And it says that the man 182 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:07,240 had relations with his wife Eve by design. Heterosexuality is enormity, it's a predetermined 183 00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:13,240 plan that God had for mankind. In fact, it's the only plan God had for sexuality. It's 184 00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:20,240 not one of many on the ranges of a spectrum of sexuality or gender but again Jesus affirms 185 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:26,240 this in Matthew chapter 19 again 4,000 years ago. Now just imagine for a moment 4,000 years 186 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:32,240 going by, hundreds of millions of people being born and living and dying, all these philosophies, 187 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:38,240 all these different kinds of ideas about marriage or sexuality and after all this time passes, 188 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:45,240 Jesus again refers back to creation and says no, this is the only design that God has. 189 00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:51,240 Matthew 19 verse 5, it says, and he said for this reason, a man shall leave his father 190 00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:55,240 and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh so they are no 191 00:17:55,240 --> 00:18:01,240 longer two but one flesh. Now I know we live in a culture that asks a lot of questions 192 00:18:01,240 --> 00:18:06,240 and they don't always start from the same place we start from when we start from the 193 00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:12,240 Bible. They come from a perspective of relativism or atheism or they come from the perspective 194 00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:17,240 of just secular thought. So their ideas about these questions are going to be very, very 195 00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:20,240 different. That doesn't mean that we can't love them. It doesn't mean that we can't have 196 00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:24,240 a conversation with them. But what it does mean is we're going to have to agree to disagree 197 00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:31,240 but we need to know why we disagree. We disagree because the Bible tells us one way and the 198 00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:37,240 world tells us a very different way. And until a person is willing to come to the place of 199 00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:43,240 seeing what God did and why God did it, they may never agree with us completely. But we 200 00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:47,240 can lovingly tell them this is the creation account that God gave us, this is where we 201 00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:52,240 stand and we love to reach out to anyone else that disagrees in any way with that. It's 202 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:56,240 very important for us to have an incredible witness in the world with people that will 203 00:18:56,240 --> 00:19:02,240 vehemently disagree with us. Now there are times when I've had conversations where people 204 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:07,240 would say that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality or homosexual marriage but when 205 00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:14,240 they say that and when they ask that they forget that marriage is affirmed by Jesus 206 00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:20,240 as exclusively a man and a woman. And by virtue of that it excludes every other kind of marriage, 207 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:25,240 not his design. Jesus very clearly said there are two genders in marriage and these are 208 00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:31,240 the two genders that he created, male and female. And only this marriage in the eyes 209 00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:37,240 of Jesus Christ is one flesh. Nothing else is acceptable to God or the Scripture and 210 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:42,240 God of course is that creator. So we have that answer. Then there's another question 211 00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:46,240 we can ask. What does this say about biology and childbirth? Do you notice what the verse 212 00:19:46,240 --> 00:19:53,240 says, verse one? She conceived and gave birth and of course that's not unexpected. We know 213 00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:57,240 that's one of the primary purposes for sexual relations between a man and a wife but it 214 00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:03,240 also goes on and says with the help of the Lord. Now there's something being communicated 215 00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:10,240 here for us today. These words imply the miraculous and sacred acknowledgement that God is in 216 00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:17,240 this whole process of conceiving and giving birth and that bounds a marriage. Really a 217 00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:23,240 beautiful powerful picture. Somehow in our world we have so devalued conceptions, so 218 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:30,240 devalued children and childbirth and that whole process that we don't see them as being 219 00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:35,240 with the help of the Lord. It's not just a biological miracle, it's the fact that God 220 00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:40,240 weaves people in the womb. He creates and weaves us in the womb it says in the book 221 00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:45,240 of Psalms. If you go through the Old Testament you're going to find Hannah talking about 222 00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:50,240 how she conceived with the help of the Lord and the psalmist talking about that powerful 223 00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:55,240 miracle that goes on inside of the womb. Let me just say to you today, you're not an accident 224 00:20:55,240 --> 00:21:00,240 of birth either. No matter how it was you were conceived, God was aware, God knew he 225 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:05,240 wove you in the womb, you are a valued being because God was involved with that process. 226 00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:12,240 Aren't you glad that's true? But our world would say that it's not true. Our world would 227 00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:18,240 prefer to think there is no value and that therefore anything conceived is not truly 228 00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:26,240 a person, not truly valuable. I remember when we first had our first child I was so mesmerized 229 00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:31,240 by the whole process and I know I'm the guy and I know the woman is the one that actually 230 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:36,240 gives birth, there's no question about it. She has the harder job. But I remember being 231 00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:39,240 in that birthing room, this was during the era where they were first starting to let 232 00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:44,240 men in that birthing room and I'm telling you I got so excited about it I was really 233 00:21:44,240 --> 00:21:48,240 asking questions. After our daughter was born I actually said can I help somebody else do 234 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:54,240 that? Can I see this again? And I meant right away. I didn't mean another year down the 235 00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:57,240 road. I meant right away. They had to correct me and say back off, you're a little bit 236 00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:05,240 too overcome with joy there in the moment. But what a miracle. Our child with features 237 00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:12,240 from both my wife and myself, an amazing thing. What an incredible miracle God does in giving 238 00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:18,240 us birth and it goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 4. Listen, if we can affirm that and 239 00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:23,240 see the beauty of that in Genesis chapter 4 verse 1 why cannot we embrace all the other 240 00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:29,240 parts of that? They all go together. They all go together. God speaks about biology 241 00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:38,240 and childbirth. Every child is a child from conception and is valued and to be preserved. 242 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:44,240 What an important truth for us. A fourth question this verse answers is what does this say about 243 00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:51,240 gender clarity? Notice immediately the biological birth of a boy leads them to declare the gender 244 00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:58,240 at birth. I have gotten a man child with the help of the Lord. Gender is not a decision 245 00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:03,240 to be made later on. Gender is an acknowledgement and a declaration of exactly what you have 246 00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:08,240 when that child is born. Our culture would say something entirely different but here's 247 00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:13,240 why we disagree with that. Because from the beginning it's been clear that God wove that 248 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:19,240 child in the womb and at birth, sometimes today before birth we know the gender of that 249 00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:25,240 child and at that moment we simply declare what that child is. I've gotten a man child 250 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:31,240 from the Lord. Listen, when we stay on the road that God has placed for us there's a 251 00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:36,240 lot of clarity. But when you get off that road you make your own way, your own rules, 252 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:40,240 your own ideas, your own thoughts, your own gender, your own sexuality, your own everything 253 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:46,240 else. You have no idea where that destination goes but it's a way from the direction of 254 00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:52,240 the Lord. You can find God in history, in true history when you go back and when you 255 00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:57,240 look at how he created the heavens and the earth. But this text is not just about that. 256 00:23:57,240 --> 00:24:02,240 Verse one lays some great truths down but this text is really about true worship. You 257 00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:10,240 can find God in worship. This is the story of Cain and Abel and the difference in how 258 00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:15,240 they worship God. So the Bible says in the course of time they came and brought an offering 259 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:22,240 to the Lord. Now we've got some presumptions here. I presume and most scholars presume 260 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:28,240 that Adam and Eve's experience with God after they sinned God slew an innocent animal, blood 261 00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:34,240 was shed, sin was covered, relationship was restored. That that truth was passed on to 262 00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:40,240 Cain and Abel in the course of time. So when they came they understood that original pattern 263 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:44,240 of worship, the original pattern that God had with Adam and Eve and they came in the 264 00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:50,240 way they came to God having had some information about that. That's presumed because it doesn't 265 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:55,240 actually say that. But it seems logical to be able to pass down to your children the 266 00:24:55,240 --> 00:25:01,240 most important thing that you can do in worshiping God. I'm sure Adam and Eve did that well. 267 00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:06,240 But here's what the Bible says when these two came to the Lord with an offering. In 268 00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:11,240 verse four and five it says, and the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering but for 269 00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:18,240 Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain became angry and his countenance fell. 270 00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:21,240 Now if you read the Bible you're going to find many, many instructions about how to 271 00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:26,240 worship God and the spirit in which you worship him, different commands about what you do 272 00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:32,240 when you worship. And it begins with that seventh day of rest when God rested and called 273 00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:37,240 man to just look at all of creation and marvel at what God had done. And that was a day of 274 00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:42,240 rest. And so God has built worship into the fabric of our week as a regular devotion to 275 00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:46,240 the Lord in life. That's just part of what God laid down in the beginning. And let me 276 00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:49,240 just say it to you. I know I'm preaching to the choir today in a sense because you're 277 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:54,240 in the room. But how important it is for you to be in the room corporately worshiping God 278 00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:59,240 with other people. How important it is for us to marvel together our powerful God and 279 00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:04,240 how he works and intervenes and how he loves and reaches out. It's so incredibly amazingly 280 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:10,240 important for us to be standing next to people side by side worshiping him with our whole 281 00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:15,240 hearts. It's so encouraging but it's so important to you because you know you're never alone 282 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:20,240 and you know your God is working in your life. You experience his presence in your life. 283 00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:26,240 It's such a big deal. But these verses here tell us that God will look favorably upon 284 00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:33,240 some worship and he will look unfavorably on other types of worship. And you're going 285 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:38,240 to need to know this. This takes up such a huge part of our lives. Since worship and 286 00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:44,240 service are all we can offer God, worship is vitally important. And we can assume several 287 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:49,240 things about this worship experience but here's what we can know. We can know that the scripture, 288 00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:54,240 the words we've just read, emphasize the person before it emphasizes the manner of worship. 289 00:26:54,240 --> 00:27:01,240 Go back and see what it says again in verses four and five. The Lord had regard for Abel 290 00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:08,240 and his offering, for Cain and his offering he had no regard. In other words before we 291 00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:14,240 actually worship we should offer our heart, we should offer ourselves to the Lord. Before 292 00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:20,240 we offer our songs, before we offer our offerings or anything else we offer ourselves to the 293 00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:24,240 Lord. And realize the worship experience is really about sinful man coming to worship 294 00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:29,240 a holy God. And remember we don't do this casually, we don't take this lightly. It's 295 00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:34,240 a very, very serious privilege we have of being able to worship God and really be able 296 00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:40,240 to connect with him. But let's learn some lessons from Cain and Abel. First of all Abel 297 00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:51,240 worshiped by faith, Cain did not. Abel worshiped by faith, Cain did not. Now the reason we 298 00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:55,240 know this is because this worship experience is also repeated several times in scriptures 299 00:27:55,240 --> 00:28:00,240 and referred back to. If you go to the book of Hebrews, the hall of faith, that great 300 00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:09,240 chapter, chapter 11, it says this about Abel. It says for Abel he offered to God by faith 301 00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:15,240 a better sacrifice than Cain. The American standard begins with the words by faith. By 302 00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:20,240 faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice. Now if you want to know the difference between 303 00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:26,240 the two, here's where you start. Because the New Testament clarifies why this sacrifice 304 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:31,240 was so different. It's such a simple line. But I think what you're going to find is that 305 00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:38,240 it opens the door to significant worship in your life or it closes the door to significant 306 00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:44,240 worship in your life. Abel brought an offering to the Lord with a pure and worshipful heart 307 00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:48,240 and his faith and his trust within God and not in himself. We know that much because 308 00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:54,240 he came by faith. Now if you take Hebrews chapter 11 and read verses 1 through verse 309 00:28:54,240 --> 00:29:01,240 4, you're going to find out how that's defined in Cain and Abel's situation. So let's go 310 00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:07,240 back and read verse 1. Now faith is the assurance that things hoped for, the conviction of things 311 00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:13,240 not seen. For by it the man of old gained approval, referring all the way back to Cain 312 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:19,240 and Abel. By faith we understand, guess this, that the worlds were prepared by the word 313 00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:27,240 of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. By faith Abel 314 00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:33,240 offered to God a better sacrifice. Don't miss this. Do you see the connection between 315 00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:39,240 his worship and his view of creation? Do you see a connection between his worship and his 316 00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:48,240 view of who God was? He believed that God created his world and himself. And therefore 317 00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:53,240 because of that kind of faith in this God who created not only the world but himself, 318 00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:59,240 he leaned on God, he trusted God, he sought God, he listened to God, and he would be changed 319 00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:05,240 by that worship experience with God. He acknowledged that God was the creator, that he is able, 320 00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:11,240 that he is all powerful and all wise. His worship revealed so much about his heart, 321 00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:17,240 he considered that the God he worshiped made the worlds out of things which are not visible. 322 00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:25,240 So powerful. In Luke chapter 16 along about verse 31, Jesus is talking about the man in 323 00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:33,240 hell in Hades. And the man in hell in Jesus' story appeals for someone to go tell his brothers 324 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:39,240 about the Messiah. And Jesus in Luke chapter 16 verse 31 said this, if they will not listen 325 00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:45,240 to Moses and the prophets, neither will they listen if one comes to them from the dead. 326 00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:49,240 But in other words, if you can't believe Moses, the cat of creation, if you can't believe 327 00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:54,240 the prophets that point to Jesus, then you're not going to believe if Jesus comes to you 328 00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:58,240 from the dead and appears in front of you. You need to believe the whole revelation of 329 00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:03,240 God. You need to believe the picture of who God actually is. And Abel was able to do that. 330 00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:08,240 He looked at his world and the creation that he was placed in and he basically said the 331 00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:19,240 world is yours and I am yours. I bend my knee to you. And Cain did not. Cain did not. 332 00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:24,240 We're told by that contrast that Cain did not worship by faith. So his view must have 333 00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:30,240 been the opposite of that, which is this world is mine and my life is mine. I'll acknowledge 334 00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:39,240 you however I want, but my life is mine. Let me tell you, that's so common today for people 335 00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:44,240 to come to God and say, well, you are who you are. I'll give you what I want to give 336 00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:50,240 you. My life is mine. This world is mine for the taking. But there is a certain kind of 337 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:54,240 worship that God approves of and a certain kind of worship that God does not approve 338 00:31:54,240 --> 00:32:00,240 of. And that was Cain's approach to God. You know, worship is incredibly important and 339 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:05,240 we see that here in this passage. Not only was faith the difference maker, but Abel worship 340 00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:10,240 and obedience in Cain did not. Genesis doesn't say a great deal about Cain from this point 341 00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:15,240 on, but 4,000 years later the New Testament church in the book of Jude does. And it describes 342 00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:19,240 what we know as creepers in the book of Jude. False teachers, people who are going their 343 00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:24,240 own way, who are trying to corrupt the New Testament church. And the word they describes 344 00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:29,240 those people. But in Jude chapter 1 verse 11 it says, for they, those creepers, have 345 00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:34,240 gone the way of Cain. In other words, that phrase by now has become an acceptable and 346 00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:39,240 understandable phrase of what went wrong back then in Genesis 4. They have gone the way 347 00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:45,240 of Cain and for pay they've rushed headlong into the era of Balaam and have perished in 348 00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:52,240 the rebellion of Korah. So stay with me here. Jude describes people like Cain who disregarded 349 00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:56,240 God's command and made their own way, made their own worship. They were making a show 350 00:32:56,240 --> 00:33:01,240 of worship but their hearts were far from God. In a word, Cain was simply rebellious. 351 00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:08,240 His refusal wasn't accidental. He intentionally and fatally ignored God. And not only did 352 00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:14,240 God, did Cain fail to have faith in God and obey God, Cain's way of dealing with God 353 00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:20,240 became a downward spiral for everything else in his life. I mean this is heartbreaking. 354 00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:29,240 How can the first child of the first two human beings look at creation, look at God, look 355 00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:34,240 at himself and all the animals and plants and everything in the world and say, I'm going 356 00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:40,240 to go my own way. I don't need to worship that God. I want to tell you today it's difficult 357 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:48,240 for us to grasp why sometimes our own children in 2023 don't follow the Lord. Some of you 358 00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:52,240 have grief in your heart. I know what that's like. I know what that feels like to have 359 00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:56,240 kids that we've taught the truth about who turn their backs on God for one reason or 360 00:33:56,240 --> 00:34:00,240 another but can you imagine that in the very first generation? Can you imagine that with 361 00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:06,240 the very first son that Adam and Eve had? If you go even further back, can you imagine 362 00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:11,240 even Adam and Eve deciding to disobey God in the Garden of Eden? What does that say 363 00:34:11,240 --> 00:34:15,240 about the free will of man and what does that say about just the grief of going our own 364 00:34:15,240 --> 00:34:24,240 way and moving off the road that's narrow but true that God has given us to walk on? 365 00:34:24,240 --> 00:34:30,240 But here's an encouraging thing in the middle of it all. Look at God's appeal to Cain. I 366 00:34:30,240 --> 00:34:36,240 love this. Sometimes I weep about this. In Genesis chapter 3 when Adam and Eve sinned, 367 00:34:36,240 --> 00:34:41,240 God came looking for them in the Garden. Isn't that a great picture? Because God was going 368 00:34:41,240 --> 00:34:47,240 to do everything to give them the opportunity to be restored and he did restore them. He 369 00:34:47,240 --> 00:34:53,240 does the same thing to Cain. He reaches out. He says, if you do well, verse 7, will not 370 00:34:53,240 --> 00:34:58,240 your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. 371 00:34:58,240 --> 00:35:03,240 It's desire is for you, but you must master it. Here's the appeal of a merciful God, a 372 00:35:03,240 --> 00:35:08,240 loving God, and the kind of appeal that we need to have for people all around us. Don't 373 00:35:08,240 --> 00:35:14,240 you know you have a choice to make? God offers you a choice so that you can come back to 374 00:35:14,240 --> 00:35:21,240 him. But in spite of personally conversing with Cain, Cain ignores God. Cain goes his 375 00:35:21,240 --> 00:35:27,240 own way. And the rest of his life can be described in four quick statements. Cain became 376 00:35:27,240 --> 00:35:38,240 angry. Cain killed Abel. Cain lied to God. Cain is judged. What a horrific ending that 377 00:35:38,240 --> 00:35:45,240 didn't have to happen, but did because this man would not worship God. Listen today, we 378 00:35:45,240 --> 00:35:50,240 have so many that have to make choices today, and it all comes down to worship. Who will 379 00:35:50,240 --> 00:35:58,240 we worship? Who will we lean into? Who will we trust? Who will we obey? Who will we worship? 380 00:35:58,240 --> 00:36:04,240 And how we worship affects everything in our lives. Everything. What you believe about 381 00:36:04,240 --> 00:36:10,240 the Bible affects you whether you know it or not. And throughout the Bible there are 382 00:36:10,240 --> 00:36:15,240 these encouraging lines that I want to remind you of today. Lines where God consistently 383 00:36:15,240 --> 00:36:21,240 says, seek me and you'll find me when you search for me with all your heart. And almost 384 00:36:21,240 --> 00:36:26,240 every one of those times that those words are spoken, they're spoken into a dark time, 385 00:36:26,240 --> 00:36:32,240 dark cultures, most going in the wrong direction. And then there's this invitation, just like 386 00:36:32,240 --> 00:36:38,240 in the Garden of Eden, just like with Cain for us in those times. I want to remind you 387 00:36:38,240 --> 00:36:42,240 of some of those. David told his son Solomon at the beginning of his reign, if you seek 388 00:36:42,240 --> 00:36:49,240 him, he will let you find him. But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Solomon 389 00:36:49,240 --> 00:36:54,240 later wrote the Proverbs and affirmed this about God and about wisdom. I love those who 390 00:36:54,240 --> 00:37:02,240 love me and those who diligently seek me will find me. You can find God in darkness. God 391 00:37:02,240 --> 00:37:07,240 spoke to the prophet Jeremiah. This is a famous text, chapter 29, verse 13. You will 392 00:37:07,240 --> 00:37:14,240 seek me and you will find me when you search for me with all of your heart. What an encouraging 393 00:37:14,240 --> 00:37:18,240 word. And then Jesus said the same thing in that, in Matthew chapter seven, verse seven, 394 00:37:18,240 --> 00:37:24,240 ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be 395 00:37:24,240 --> 00:37:31,240 open to you. Grab hold of this. Walk away with this statement. When you consistently 396 00:37:31,240 --> 00:37:39,240 seek God in true history and true worship, you will find him and you need to find him. 397 00:37:39,240 --> 00:37:45,240 And when you find him, he will walk with him and you will find joy in him and you will 398 00:37:45,240 --> 00:37:53,240 find trust in him and you will find favor in him. My dear friend, find God in true history, 399 00:37:53,240 --> 00:37:59,240 find God in true worship. He's there. Seek him and you will find him. And not only that, 400 00:37:59,240 --> 00:38:06,240 on the highway that he's built for you, complete with lights and signs and rest areas and maps 401 00:38:06,240 --> 00:38:15,240 and guides and the destination where we all want to end up with him, home with him. Here's 402 00:38:15,240 --> 00:38:21,240 the road. Walk in it. You know, today you may need to make some decisions about your 403 00:38:21,240 --> 00:38:26,240 beliefs. It may be today you need to say, look, I can't play around anymore with what 404 00:38:26,240 --> 00:38:31,240 the scripture says about creation. I've got to make a decision. Will I embrace that? 405 00:38:31,240 --> 00:38:36,240 Will I lean into that? Will I have clarity instead of confusion? Will I be able to rest 406 00:38:36,240 --> 00:38:41,240 on what's true even though I don't understand at all and I don't know how science syncs 407 00:38:41,240 --> 00:38:46,240 with that or doesn't sync with that? I don't have all the answers, but I do know that I 408 00:38:46,240 --> 00:38:51,240 want to worship this God. And I do know that the scripture tells me to lean in on his creation 409 00:38:51,240 --> 00:38:56,240 account and know him well. You may need to make a decision today about your beliefs. 410 00:38:56,240 --> 00:39:01,240 You may just need to make a decision today that you put your faith and trust in Jesus 411 00:39:01,240 --> 00:39:04,240 and you've never done that before. You need to seek him with all your heart. And I'm going 412 00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:11,240 to tell you today, I mean, times are such that urgency is required. Don't walk away 413 00:39:11,240 --> 00:39:18,240 out of here casually thinking it doesn't matter. It matters so much today more than ever before. 414 00:39:18,240 --> 00:39:24,240 Today, seek him while he can be found. We have these decision stations that are available. 415 00:39:24,240 --> 00:39:28,240 I want to give you three invitations today. Number one, go to the decision station today. 416 00:39:28,240 --> 00:39:33,240 If you have questions or you need to make decisions today, we're there for you and we 417 00:39:33,240 --> 00:39:37,240 want to talk to you and we want to appeal to you to stop by on your way out. We made 418 00:39:37,240 --> 00:39:43,240 it so convenient for you to do that. But today, you need to have that conversation stop there. 419 00:39:43,240 --> 00:39:47,240 Number two, I invite you to our guest reception room where I would like to talk with you more 420 00:39:47,240 --> 00:39:52,240 about Cross City Church and how we can connect with you and walk with you in the future. 421 00:39:52,240 --> 00:39:58,240 Then the third invitation is bring somebody with you today. Engage with your world. It 422 00:39:58,240 --> 00:40:02,240 doesn't have to be an argument. It's an act of love to reach out to them, to bring them 423 00:40:02,240 --> 00:40:07,240 back and to walk with them as they work through their questions that they certainly will have 424 00:40:07,240 --> 00:40:12,240 about faith and about God and about creation. I promise we'll treat them well. You take 425 00:40:12,240 --> 00:40:18,240 them, bring them with you. Would you stand with me as we close in a word of prayer today? 426 00:40:18,240 --> 00:40:24,240 Father, I am so very grateful that you give us clarity and we stand on and lean into this 427 00:40:24,240 --> 00:40:32,240 clarity. Lord, I thank you that we can embrace your creation account and we can embrace the 428 00:40:32,240 --> 00:40:39,240 fact that you came as God in the flesh to walk among us. We can embrace that Jesus died 429 00:40:39,240 --> 00:40:44,240 on the cross to pay for our sins and we can have salvation. Father, thank you for loving 430 00:40:44,240 --> 00:40:50,240 us so much that you lead us to that decision and ultimately to eternity. Father, I pray 431 00:40:50,240 --> 00:40:55,240 today for those in the room who need to decide. Father, I pray that you'll help them have 432 00:40:55,240 --> 00:41:00,240 courage and boldness to take those steps of faith. And Lord, give them the ability to 433 00:41:00,240 --> 00:41:16,240 do it. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. You're dismissed.