The Church of Eleven22 - Stand Alone: Where Have All the Good Men Gone?

Episode Date: December 26, 2021

Recorded live from our Baker Correctional campus. To STAND UP and act like a man you must first BOW DOWN and surrender to Jesus. For if, because of one man’s (Adam) trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17

Well, howdy, Church of 1122, how are we doing? Hey, it's good to see you. It's good to see you. Hey, we're just going to dig in at Baker campus. One of the things you could really help me with is usually I'm at San Pablo preaching to the people in San Pablo, knowing that it's going out to all of our other campuses, this being one of our campuses, and I know that you're listening in, you know. But normally I'm kind of looking at them, preaching the dam.

Here's how it's going today, though. I am talking to you primarily. knowing that all the rest of our church online is listening in. One of the things I just want to say before we get going, man, is that we would not be here. We couldn't have done it without Warden Kish. We appreciate you, bro. And one of the things that you guys, for sure, for sure,

we wanted to reach inmates with the gospel. But we also knew that there were going to be some folks that worked here that were going to be run over by the grace train, and that man is one of them. And he's not the same that he was. when we met him a few years ago when his wife said amen all right so hey here we go so here's what I want to talk to you I want to talk to you in our time together I want to talk to you about what it means to be a man what it means to be a man let me just ask you this let's just let's just let's be

honest together how many of you had a good relationship with your father and your father was a good man. If that's the case, raise your hand high. Okay? How many of you would testify and you would say that was not my story at all? Right. Now, how many of you would like to say from this moment on that from now on in your family, generations from generations and generations to come that you would stand up and act like a man, that you would be the godly man that God's you to be so that your children and your grandchildren here, your grandchildren could be completely different? That's what you would be. That's what you would be the godly man. That's what we're going to talk about. So if we're going to talk about what it means to stand up and act like a man, you've got to ask you a question, what is a man? Because we live in a world right now that doesn't

even know what it is. What is a man? What does it take to be a man? Because I'm going to tell you straight up, I'm a man. I'm a man. And I love to hunt and I love to fish. And I love camo. I love college football. I love chicken wings and nachos. All right? I love to hunt my groceries with a stick and a string. My favorite color is camo. I love boots and plaid. I got more guns than I have. I have. fingers, none on me right now, I promise. None of that makes me a man. It makes me awesome, but not a man. Now, you could be, you could be a scoop neck, skinny jeans, scarf-wearing, vegan,

sipping a latte in your hips to your coffee shop, and you could be a man, theoretically speaking. Those things could be true. But what does it mean to be a man, the kind of man that God created us to be? I can tell you what. A man is a prophet, priest, servant king, provider, and protector. That's what God created us to be when he created us as men. Now, the question then is, well, what went wrong? I mean, how in the world did we go from William Wallace and John Wayne and John Calvin to what we have now? And I'll tell you, there is nothing more dangerous than an insecure, ungrounded man without direction.

It's what bars are full of. It's what gangs are from. of, it's what prisons are full of. It is a dangerous thing for a man to not know who he was. And you can begin to ask, well, what were wrong? And man, we could go historical. We could talk about slavery in the United States. And when the racialization of our society ripped families apart and tore families apart. We could talk about the Industrial Revolution when men begin to take the best hours of their day and leave their family, go to the city to make money, where things like the lunchbox and the lazy board were created. And the idea of raising children became known as woman's work and children missed out on sons, missed out on seeing their dads hiring and firing

and making decisions. You call that discipleship. We could talk about a wartime generation. Like for sure, the greatest generation are those men that came back from World War I and World War II. And most of us in the room were probably, if you had a dad in your life, he probably had some experience for war. my dad fought in Vietnam. And there's a thing that happens in a man's life. When you get in a foxhole to fight for the freedom of this country, you've got to turn a thing off. And sometimes when you get back home, it's hard to flip that thing back on. And so there's just some things when I try to talk to my dad.

He's a good dude, man, no doubt. But there's just some things when I try to talk to him at the heart level. He just says, boy, we don't talk about those kind of things. We could spend time on all of those things. But a big problem is that we don't even know when. a boy becomes a man. I spent a summer in Kenya, Africa, a long time ago. And while I was staying with the Messiah tribe, they're a group of warriors. And when they're like 13, 14, 15, right around that age, the warriors go and they literally snatch the young boys, the 15-year-olds or so from their mama.

And there is a rite of passage. And when you leave, you're a boy, you go up into the mountains and you hunt. It's like 40 days. And you can only eat what you kill. So either you don't come back, But if you do make it back, then everybody knows that you're a man, that you're a warrior. And that you now have responsibility to take care of not only your family but your tribe in that place. And so one of the warriors looks at me and says, so when does a boy become a man in your culture? And I thought, uh-oh, I don't know. I mean, how do you know in our culture when a boy becomes a man? Obamacare says 26.

you can be on your mama's insurance until you're 26. When you turn 27, you've got to get you on. Budweiser says 21. The United States Army says 18. Xbox says 17. D&V says 16. Disney says 10. When you're 10, you've got to pay adult prices.

The only place I can find any continuity in our society is Delta Airlines and Advil both agree. Two years old and you're an adult. Okay? So when does a boy? become a man because here's what's crazy. For thousands of years in human history, there were only two classifications of male. There were boys and there were men. And in every culture all throughout human history and even today all over the world, except for the West, you're either a boy or you a man. And you either started a family, went to war or started a career. And that's what

transferred you from boyhood to manhood. And now, just in the last hundred years, there is a brand new phenomenon in the Western world, and it's called adolescence. You're not really a man, but you're not really a boy. You're kind of a boy that can shave. We call that a dude. A dude is a dangerous thing. A dude is a dangerous thing. And it takes a man to bestow manhood on a boy, but when you don't know what a man is,

then what you got in gangs and what you got in bars and what you got all over the place is you have boys trying to bestow manhood on other boys. And so the way that thing plays out is all we're going to do is consume, whoever can drink them, us, or take the most drugs, or get the most tattoos, or have the biggest truck, or have the sweetest rims, or whoever can have the most cash in their pocket. And then what happens is you've got a bunch of boys that don't know how to be a man. And so the world, the world doesn't help. The world says, no, no, we're just all the same.

We're just all the same. We live in a world right now that can't figure out what bathroom to use. Do you understand? I don't think we're progressing. It's just true. And we're not the same. Anybody got a little boy and a little girl? Are they the same?

Not in my house. No, man. I've got a son, J.P. is 15 now. And when a pine cone would fall out of a pine tree, it was a grenade to him. My daughter Reagan, she would make them friends. He would make them fight. They're just different. and God created you to be a man.

And you should make no apologies about it. And then honestly, the church hasn't been that helpful. Because you know what the church's message to most men is? Hey, come on in, sit down, be nice, be quiet, and... Yeah, we're just going to sit in groups, we're going to put on robes, we're going to sing together. We're going to talk about our feelings. And a lot of men goes, well, I ain't going to do that. If that's what you're offering, that's not what I'm signing up for.

And I don't blame you. Hey, just hear this. To follow after Jesus Christ, you do not have to check your testicles at the door. That's right, I said it, because a lot of people treat it that way. Nah, man, you want to stand up and act like a man, then you bend your knees for the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is a high and holy calling that he would create you to be a man, and he did not give you that strength for you. He gave you that strength, that manhood so that you could be the kind of man that he created you

to be. That means that we are to be the prophet, priest, servant king, provider, and protector of anybody and everybody that he has put in our life. The good news is that the scripture has some really, really good news about what it means to be a man. The Apostle Paul says this in 1st, Corinthians 16. He says, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong, let all that you do be done in love. You see, the core question, the fundamental question that every man created in the image of God has is this, do I have what it takes? Do I have what it takes? In all of our life, we try to answer that question. It's why men have hobbies, dumb hobbies,

like playing golf, because what you're trying to prove is, I've got what it takes. Chase that dumb little ball around, spend all kind of dumb money on it, take lessons, and you're just chasing around and hit the ball and hit the ball and you're just like, get in the hole, do I have what it takes? It's the reason some people learn how to play a guitar or write a song, you've got this thing in you because you're trying to answer that question. it's why you try to bowl up on somebody and try to be tougher than them. It's why you try to make more money than everybody else. You were trying to prove to the world, I have what it takes.

And the ultimate reality is, is you're going to get to this place where you realize, uh-oh, I don't have what it takes. I don't. In and of myself, I can't be who God created to me to be. So then how in the world am I going to stand up and act like a man? My man, you'll never be able to stand up and act like a man until you bend your knee to the Lord'ship of Jesus Christ and realize we can't do it on our own, we need him. So in order to find out something's purpose,

you need to go all the way back to the beginning because we are way off the rails here when it comes to modern day manhood. And so if you go all the way back to Genesis chapter 2, what you'll find in the scriptures is God's purpose for manhood when he created us in his image. Genesis chapter 2 says this,

when no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man. He spoke everything else into existence with a word, mountains and trees and stars and moons.

But when it came to his image bears, he looked at all those things and said, that's good. but then he was going to do something very good and he formed together the form of a man that God knew exactly what he was doing when he created you to be you. In chapter 1 verse 26 God's going to say let us create man in our image and in his image and likeness he created them male and female he created them and attack on gender is an attack on the character of God. He said that a man is not enough to image God and a woman is not enough to image God but

the two come together and compliment, not compete against, when we come together, we image God more completely. God knew what he was doing when he called and created and formed you to be a man. Then the Lord God formed the man of the dust of the ground. By the way, dust of the ground in Hebrew is Adam. That's where we get the name Adam from. And he breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life. And the man became a living creature. So up to this point, he's just the shell of a man. It's not until the Bible lets us know God gets face to face, nostril to nostril with the very first man. This is not a Steph Curry three-pointer from the third heaven way back there.

No, man. He's up close and personal face-to-face, and he breathes the ruach of life into the very first man. He opens his eyes and he's face-to-face with his heavenly father. That's what every single one of us were created for. That's why even when and if he's, you were on top of the world, it didn't feel like it fully and finally satisfied because you weren't created for this world, man. The temporary things that this world can't do it for you. God breathed the spirit into this man, and then he became a living creature.

If you've never surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you've never had the spirit of God breathed into you, and currently, you're not yet living like you ought to be living. I'm not saying you're not a male and you're not a man, but you're not yet in that right relationship with him. This is what happens with the very first man. we were created for that kind of relationship. And the Lord of God had planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. Pay attention to this.

Adam was not created in the garden. He was not created in the place of order. He was created out into wilderness. This might tell you why you are the way you are. Eve is going to be created in the garden. Adam was created out in the woods. why I go every Monday out into the woods to write a sermon. I'm just telling you it's the way I was wired, man. God speaks to me better out there. It also explains the differences between my little boy

and my little girl. And we live in a society right now that thinks there's something wrong with little boys for being little boys. I'm telling you, man. You know, my son, I got him a machete when he was seven. Gratson was my mom. I was like, are you sure? I was like, what could go wrong, you know? Because he's got this little warrior in him, man. He wants to just attack stuff. Cool. No problem. In fact, I've had women at my church, said, well, we don't let little Timmy play with guns at our house. I'm like, well, you know what Timmy's going to do. He's going to take his grilled cheese and he's going to chew it into the shape of a glock, all right? Why?

Because he's a little warrior. The Bible says the Lord is a warrior, and the Lord is his name. And there's a mama's like, is there something wrong with him? Yeah, what's wrong with him is he's a boy, okay? And what we need, what we need is sometimes we're going to need those little boys to turn in those toys, to take real guns to stand on the wall and defend our freedom as a country. That's how God has created us. Now, when we take those real guns and use them in unholy ways, all we're doing is saying,

we haven't grown up yet. We're still just being a boy. And so he formed the man. And then he places him into the garden. And out of the ground, the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight. to the sight and good for food and the tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And now what God is going to do is God is going to give Adam three things under the banner of worship. Like in the garden, they don't ever get together and sing songs like we do. That the way that they lived and interacted with God all day, every day was going to be worship. It says, the Lord God took the man

and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. The first thing that God gives Adam and the first thing that God gives every man is this, is to, he gives him work to enjoy. Work to enjoy. Work is not a result of the fall that God has called us to participate with him as co-creators here on this planet. And it seems to me that there's a lot of folks right now, there's a lot of young boys, really,

and they seem like they're working really, really hard to not have to work. God has created us to join him in creation. Any of you have kids? You ever invite your kids to work with you? Let's be honest, how helpful are they? Not helpful. Not helpful. But you're trying to teach them something.

You want them to come alongside of you and help you because you love it, not because you need their help. God doesn't need our help in this earth. He's inviting us to go to work because we bear his image. and he is a creator of God, and we are also to be creators. A few years ago, my in-laws gave us a trampoline for Christmas because they hate us and want us to die. I think that's what's happening. So the day after Christmas, I go out and I go, come on, JP.

He was probably like seven years old or something. Come help me with the trampoline. It took twice as long. I felt like he was trying to hide the parts from me at one point, you know? But you know what happened when we walked back into the house? And Gretchen says, where y'all been? And J.P. at seven or whatever. Bose, it's chest out. We've been putting together to the trampoline. And I thought,

I've been putting together to the trampoline, and you've been a waste of the time. However, he knew that his dad had called him to come help him. Listen, even while you're here, you're supposed to work. Not be lazy. You're supposed to get a job. And the moment you walk out of this place, you go to work. You go to work. You be a part of God's continuing creation in the society. That's why I do not believe. at all in any kind of sacred, secular divide when it comes to vocation. It's not like my job's holy because I teach the Bible and a construction worker is not. You see, what God has called us all to do is rearrange the raw goods of this planet for human flourishing into the glory of God.

And so I teach the Bible and you may build a house. And you take brick and mortar and put them together in such a way that God can bring a family out of there. Listen, when I was going into seminary, I told my dad, you know, I was going to go into youth ministry. And he said this. He said, boy, you don't get up and go to fun. You get up and go to work. Boy, you don't get up and go to fun. You get up and go to work. God has called us to work. And you need more than just a job. You need a calling. You need a career. But while you're trying to figure that out, get you a job. This is what Adam does. He puts him there to work it and keep it. it says, and the Lord God commanded the man saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,

but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. You shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. The second thing that God gives to Adam is this, a will to obey. A will to obey. It gives him work to enjoy and a will to obey. Listen, and the reason he gives him this will to obey,

because God is for you, he's not against you. And he puts one tree in the garden, and he says, don't. Just stay away from that one. if you eat of that one it will kill you I hope you know this that God's not into rules he's into relationship there was only one thou shalt not

where there is a relationship with God there is freedom and where there is freedom there is no need for a whole bunch of rules the inverse of that is true too and so there was a whole bunch of thou shouts he says he says subdue and cultivate eat of all of the other trees one of God's original commandments in the Garden of Eden was this,

be fruitful and multiply. You know what that means? That's Hebrew for Bown and chika-a-wow-wow. That's what that means. Make babies and fill this place up. That was God's idea. You want to know if we serve a good God? That was his idea.

You understand? He could have made babies however he wanted to. You could have come on one day and your wife's toes all swollen up and there. She's like, look, we got twins. It could have gone that way. And he says, be fruitful. and multiply, he gives him a will to obey. And then the Lord God said,

it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him. He gives Adam work to enjoy, a will to obey, and a woman to love. He says that he's going to make a helper. Everywhere else in the Old Testament where that word is used, it is used to describes God's relationship to Israel. Because Adam needed help. How many of you know a man needs help?

Praise God. Yeah, you do. Me too. Now, here's what this means, fellas. This means that even in here, God has given you these things, work to enjoy, a will to obey, and a woman to love. If you're married, husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and laid himself down for her.

But this isn't just about how we are to love our wives. If you are a man of God, every single female you come in contact with is a daughter of the king, and we should be treating them that way. That means every female staff member. That means whoever it is, your sister, your aunt, whatever it is, whoever it is. Because if you think you can treat a female like a commodity for 20 years, and then one day meet the one, one, one, and then show up at a church and put on a tux and say, I do, and then think somehow you're going to change the way you have been training yourself to treat women.

It's just going to change on one Saturday? then you're crazy. I mean, you're absolutely crazy. My football coach used to always say, hey man, you're going to play like your practice. You're going to play like your practice. You're going to play like your practice. And so what every single one of us need to consistently do, no matter who it is, if you're talking to your mom on the phone or you're writing a letter to your aunt

or you encounter any female, then we treat them as valuable because they are daughters of the most high king, and they deserve to be treated that way. And he gives him this woman to love. He says, now, out of the ground, the Lord had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. And the man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him.

He's looking at him. And he's like, I think this is just pure speculation on my part. I think at the beginning, he was taking this naming very serious. or something like hippopotamus duck bill platypus and then by the end of it he's like this ain't doing it for me rat nat cat bat what we got lord okay because it wasn't working for and he names all of the animals and so the lord god caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept he took one of his ribs and he closed up its place with flesh and the rib that the lord god had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man i want you to notice the order here men

God told God put him in the garden. Adam names everything and then he gets a wife. In other words, he put his house in order so that he could be trusted that God would give him one of his daughters to then be able to live in this place that has been put in order. We got a bunch of young men at our church, a whole bunch of young men at our church. And I disciple a bunch of them, and I can't tell you the number of 20-something-year-olds that live with their mom don't have a job still in school for the ninth year on their first degree

and they'll be like when's God going to give me a girl? I'm like, hold on, bud. If you were God, would you let you have one of his daughters? What would you do if he gave you a girl? And then our boys are like, oh, I know what I'd do. I'm like, okay, Scooter, when that 90 seconds of glory was up, what about the rest of your life? I mean, you've got to have somewhere to let you live at your mom's house right now. You've got to eat. You've got to take responsibility. ability to put into order the chaos that God has given you dominion over, and then maybe you'll be trustworthy to take care of one of his daughters. So he puts him to sleep, he takes the rib out, he makes the woman, and then if you look in your text, this next part is indented.

And he says, she shall be called woman. She love this? The reason that it's indented, by the way, If you look at the Bible, it's indented, is that the interpreters want you to know that this part, Adam sings. This is the first R&B song in the history of the world. This is what's going on. Then he said, this is at last. He goes, at last. This is what's happening here, man. He didn't sing for the monkeys and the dogs and the bats and the apes, did he?

No, no, no, no. But he sees his naked wife. He says, this is at last. This is boning by bones and flesh of my flesh. and she shall be called woman. The word woman, the word woman in Hebrew is almost identical through the word that means mine. So he sees a dog, he's like collie. He sees a bird.

He's like parakeet. He sees his naked wife. He goes, mine. He calls shotgun on his wife. Not in a possessive way, but in a, we are going to be joined together. Calls her woman because she was taken out of the man. And therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife. wife, the king James says, leave and cleave, and they shall become one flesh. According to the

scriptures, marriage is one man plus one woman for one lifetime. That's what it is. And the man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed. Notice the order. They leave, they get married, then they cleave, they're naked and unashamed. A lot of people in our society get that all out of whack. A lot of whack and they get naked first and that's why there's shame in their marriage that is not god's design so god gives adam three things he gives them work to enjoy a will to obey a woman to love all under the banner of worship and they are in this face-to-face relationship with god every single day and it goes exceedingly well for less than one page and then sinner sin comes in and screws everything up chapter 3 verse one. Now the serpent is more crafty than any other beast of the field. Do you know what a liar

the enemy is? He's such a good liar that he convinced a third of the angels to follow him to damnation. He's been lying since the beginning. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made and he said to the woman, did God actually say? You see, every time the enemy speaks, he's lying. And what he wants to do here, because he is the Father of Lies. He does this to you too. He does this to me too. He wants you to doubt your beliefs and believe your doubts. God wants you to believe your beliefs and doubt your doubts. And the thing that he wants you to doubt is he always twist the word of God. And he wants you to doubt the word of God. And he wants you to doubt the work of God, meaning when Christ died on the

cross, did that really count for you? And he wants you to doubt the worthiness of God. This is why he always wants to shut down worship. And so this is what he does. He sneaks his way. He sneaks his way in here and he says, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree of the garden? And the woman said to the servant, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of this tree that is in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it lest you die. By the way, he never said anything about touching it. This is classic legalism right here. See, oftentimes people build some rules on top of the scriptures, and then what they're actually rejecting is not the heart of God, but these man-made rules that somebody made up.

But the servant said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. What the enemy is saying is, you could be your own God. Let me tell you the core of what the enemy wants you to believe. He does not want you to know that God is a good, good father. That's just who he is. And that you were loved by him. That's just who you are.

If you know those two things, it would change everything about everything about everything, and you would not believe the lies of the enemy anymore. You notice that the enemy always tries to trick people so that they could be like God. He never tricks people to say, you could be like me, because nobody wants to be like the devil. He can't point to himself that way. And so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that's called lust of the flesh, and it was the delight to the eyes, that's called lust of the eyes, and that the tree was desired to make one.

one wise, that's called the pride of life, that's all he has. She took of its fruit and she ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. I don't know how I missed this, but for years I did not realize that Adam was right there with her. I thought he was somewhere else in the garden, maybe like, you know, grilling or killing or building a deck or polishing his bass boat or doing something awesome. But these are the two most, this is the, the, the, the, the two most damning words in all of the Bible about manhood. Literally in Hebrew, that phrase with her means elbow to elbow. The problem is not that Adam was doing something wrong.

The problem was Adam didn't do anything at all. That he was passive. That the enemy, a serpent, is talking to his wife and he's standing right there, letting her be tricked, letting her be lied to by this enemy, and he was afraid and he did nothing. and so she ate and gave some to him and he ate and when the eyes of both were open and they knew that they were naked and they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloth and in this

moment religion is born you see every single person rejects god and some people reject god by rebellion forget you god i do what i want with who i want when i want this typically plays out sex drugs rock and roll party and whatever that kind of thing is and we understand what that looks like when we rebel against God by rebellion. But there are some people that reject God with religion. You see, they first rejected God by saying, no, no, no, no. If we want to eat this, we do what we want because we're the Lord of our own lives. But then they also reject God.

And by the works of their own hands, they try to cover over their sin and shame. That's what religion is. When you say, forget you, God, I got this. Because the reality is you ain't got this. And I ain't got this. And by works of the law, no one will be declared righteous. So I don't care how bad you've been. I got good news for you.

You could be saved. And I don't care how good you have been or plan on being. I got good news for you too. You could be saved too. And it's by the same way. And they run and they hide and they sow fig leaves. And check this out. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking.

of the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden and the Lord God called to the man and he said where are you this is an important question man where are you you think God didn't know where they were he knows everything you think you think he needed their help to find out where they were thank God my daughter is growing out of this that'd be really concerned because She's like almost 12 years old now, okay? But when my daughter was much younger, like three or four years old, she would come to me and she'd say, Daddy, can we play hide and go seek?

I was like, of course, baby. And then I'd go, you go first, which means I was just going to sit on the couch for a little while longer, watch a little ESPN, you know, and then she would go, same spot every time. She'd go to her room. She'd put her head under her bed, and her whole body would be right there in the floor. And then she'd say, Daddy, are you coming? I said, baby, did you hide? She'd go, I did.

And then I'd walk into her room. I could see her whole body. but her head. She thought, if he can't see me, if I can't see him, he can't see me. And I would say, are you in here? She'd go, he-h-h-h-h-h-h-h. And I'd say, I found you. She'd go, how did you find me? Because dads know everything, baby. Dads know everything. Remember that the rest of your life. Do you know how silly we must look when we try to run from God, hide from God, as if he doesn't see the very thoughts in our mind, the very condition of our heart? And the reason that he says, where are you is not so that he can find you and bust you. The reason that he says, where are you

is so that he can come and be with you face to face and deal with what's going on. That's what happens here. Where are you? And Adam says, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and hidden myself. And he said, who told you you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? Now listen to this. God is. God is just tossing him a softball. I mean, in this moment, Adam could confess and repent. He could have went, you know what, God, you got me. You got me.

This one's on me. This one's on me. The servant came up and he was talking to Eve and I was afraid. He could have confessed and repent right there, but he doesn't confess and repent. Do you know what he does? He goes, classic man move. Duck cover blame. That's what he does.

And the man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate it. She's like, Adam basically saying, Lord, I'm not sure if it's your fault or her fault, but why don't y'all talk about it and I'll be over here ready to accept your apology whenever you straighten this out. Man, you want to lead your family well? A lot of guys love to talk about that. I'm the head of the house.

You know what that means? You should be the head repenter. You should be the lead apologizer. You want to set an example for your kids? You ain't going to be perfect. You ought to be the first one to go to them and say, I am sorry. This is what the first man does not do. He covers.

He blames. And then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. She does the same thing he does because she learned it from him. And so the Lord God said to the serpent, now he is going to curse everything that Adam has been given. Work to enjoy is going to be cursed. And work is going to be hard. A will to obey is going to be cursed.

And now there's going to be things that we don't want to do, and we do those things, and there's going to be good things that we wish we could do, and we can't seem to pull it off. And the woman to love, that relationship is going to be cursed. So he says to the servant, because you have done this, cursed her to you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field and on your belly, you shall go. And the dust you shall eat all the days of your life. But I want you to see right here, in the beginning, God goes. ahead and lays out the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

He says this, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. And he shall bruise your head and you will bruise his heel. Here's what he's saying. Enemy, you think you've won a mighty battle right here. But there will come a day. We're an offspring from this woman Eve. A singular Jewish man is going to show up.

and you're going to bruise his heel. And little do you know, it's going to get your head crushed. And at the cross of Jesus Christ, when he says, it is finished, the serpent crusher crushed the head of this enemy. Amen. You see, man, we have an enemy. We have an enemy. And the Bible tells us that he's a thief, and he comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

And he's a liar. And he whispers those lies into your ears all the time. And one of the biggest lies that he's going to whisper to you is this, listen, especially you. He's going to try to have you define yourself by your past. He wants your scars to define you. And every time God speaks a word to you, every time you take a step of freedom towards the Lord, a step of surrender towards Christ, the enemy is going to be there. I'm telling you, you trust me.

When you walk out of here tonight, he's going to be in here and be like, that didn't count for you. You see, but here, the reality is this, is that Jesus, does not define you by your scars. You put your faith in him, he defines you by his scars. That at the cross, when he says it is finished for anyone that will believe it counts for you. And then he's going to curse the woman, he says to the woman, he says, I will surely multiply your pains and childbearing and pain. You shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, and he shall rule over you. By the word, by the way, this word desire does not mean what you think it means. It would not be a curse if our wives just desired us all the time. All right, that'd be glorious. It means this. She was created to be a helper, but what feels like helping from her often feels like a hostile takeover to our part. And what begins to happen is God created men and women to be a compliment to one another, not to compete against one another.

And that relationship is cursed. and then to Adam he said because you have listened to the voice of your wife let me explain this did you know you're not supposed to listen to the voice of your wife supposed to listen to her heart and you know this is true you remember the last time you talked to her

and you know she was something was wrong and you said what's wrong and what she said nothing and you believe her that's listening to the voice of your wife you got to listen to her heart the Bible says that husbands are to live with their wives as unto knowledge that means that we are supposed to become a student of her

not so that we can lord it over them, but like Jesus got up from the table when he realized all authority in heaven and earth had been put under his control, and he showed them the full extent of his love, and he dressed himself as a servant and washed his disciples' feet. That's what it means to love and serve her. So he says, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Curse it is the ground because of you. And in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. thorns and thistles shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face, and you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you will return, and the work that we were supposed to enjoy was damaged. And then, here's, oftentimes when I talk to men, here's the danger, men. Because I know you're tough, I get it. And you hear a little talk like this and you think, you know what, you're probably right. You're probably right. When I get home, I got to make some changes. While I'm here, I got some changes. All right. And what we can tend to do is they, I got this.

All right, I got this. All I need to do is get a little refocus and just cowboy up. Just try a little bit harder. And some of you, some of you can do a great job to what? Next Wednesday? Maybe. And then the problem is, you know what your problem is? You. Do you know what every time you've been in trouble? You know what the common denominator is? You. You know what every time you failed?

Let's just talk about me. You know what every time I failed? You know what the problem is? Me, every single time. Every single time. And what's the real problem, if I think I'm the solution for me, nobody's broken more promises to me than me. nobody's lied to me more than me nobody's i mean think of all the times you're like never again will i have

you ever done that one before right so what it means to stand up and act like a man is not to cowboy up it's not to bow up it's not to flex it's not i got this first and foremost it's admitting i don't got this first and foremost it's admitting i need help i'm not just a mistake in need of a life coach. I'm not just a bad person that needs to try to do better, but spiritually speaking, I am dead. Relationally speaking, I am an orphan. Personally speaking, I'm a bond slave to all of my sin. I need somebody to do for me what I can never do for myself. I need to be rescued. And so what God does after Adam and Eve's sin, and he judges that sin because he is a just judge. and he's not going to overlook it because that would make him unholy.

And he condemns that sin. But then look what happens. In verse 20 it says, And the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. God judges their sin. And then this is a foreshadowing of what he wants to do for you and me right now. For the first time in human history, the blood of an animal is shed for the covering of sin.

The blood of an animal is shed for the covering of sin. And what he is foreshadowing is this, is that one day at just the right time that Jesus Christ would show up on the scene, that John the Baptist will point at him and say, behold, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of anyone who would believe. and that Jesus lives a perfect life. He has a perfect record. And then he is sentenced and tried. And he is, he goes to the cross and he dies in our place. Jesus didn't merely die for you. He died instead of you. And the Bible says that God made him who was without sin to be sin for us. In other words, all of our sin record was transferred to Jesus at the cross. And he pushes up on his nail pierce feet and he says, it is. finished paid in full. He served all of our time that we could become the righteousness of God and for whoever would believe, whoever would trust that would Christ die on the cross somehow, somehow. That counted for me that you would be saved. Amen, a baker. You have an incredible

opportunity right now. I know it feels like your world has been turned upside down, maybe just when you had a little glimmer of hope, okay. But you have an incredible opportunity right now to stand up and act like men. When you walk out of this place, whether it's to another facility for a while or when you walk out of this place and you go home, I'm telling you, you have an opportunity to be different, not because you tried harder, but to be different because of what Christ has done for you. And the way that you're going to stand up and act like a man is you bend your knee and say,

Jesus, I need your help. And so I want to give you that opportunity. right now. Maybe you've never surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And maybe for the very first time, right now, we do this at our church all the time. You're ready to admit it. I'm a sinner in need of a Savior.

And that you believe, you trust when Christ died on the cross, somehow, it counted for you and you and you. It counted for you. And that you would confess him as your Lord. I want you to bow your heads. I want you to close your eyes. And whether you're going to be your eyes.

you're right here in Baker or you're watching online, if you were ready to surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ for the very first time, if you were ready to admit it, I'm a sinner in need of a Savior. I believe that when Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. And in this moment, for the first time, I'm ready to confess Christ as my Lord. Would you lift your hand where you are? Would you raise your hand and say, Father, I surrender my life to you. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, fellas, keep it up high. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you because you love this first, and I thank you that you sent your son to pay our debt.

And Lord, I thank you that there is salvation. There is freedom in this place. We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. Now one more thing. One more thing. This ain't going to be the last time we see each other. First of all, when you transfer out of this campus

and you're going to still be a part of 1122, we told you this from the beginning. This isn't just some event we do, man. we go to church together. We're all a part of this same family. There's been a bunch of brothers from here that show up to one of our campuses. Okay?

And you don't come up there saying, I was in prison. That's not, no, man, your past don't define you. Here's what you say. When you walk into one of the other campuses, I used to attend Baker, and now I'm here at Arlington or San Pablo or Fleming or St. John's or whatever it is. And then all you'll do is you'll get connected to your church family that way.

And even more important than that, I want to know who's ready to stand up and act like a man to put boyish ways behind you. And if you were ready, I want you to stand up right now. If you were ready to declare in this crazy world, I'm going to live my life for the one true God. Baker, we're going to, we respond this way every week, okay? we're going to pray we're going to pray and i want you to know this that when jesus died on the cross the curtain that separated the presence of god from the people of god was torn from the top to the bottom not bottom to top like we did it but top to bottom because only he could do it and so you get to

walk into the very presence of god who is the king of kings the lord of lords and you get to crawl up on his lap and call him dad because that's who he is if you know jesus and so we're going pray and we're going to sing. And I want you to sing. We're no longer slaves of fear. We're no longer slaves of fear, but we are sons of the most high God. And then we bring, and listen, at all of our other campuses, that looks a little different than this one. But still, no problem, man. We say, we put you first. You are first. You went first. You love first. So we bring to you our first than best. That may be with your lifted hands. That might be with prayers. That might be that you encourage another brother,

but we're going to bring him our first amiss. So as we respond, we're going to sing, we're going to bring, we're going to pray. Let's respond.