As promised on Sunday, I’ll add some things that I cut from the sermon in this post.  For those of you who were at church on Sunday, thank you for hanging in there with me.  I went over quite a bit, but there wasn’t a complaint. On the contrary, many mentioned their gratitude for what they were taught.  And some said they wished they had heard this sermon years earlier.  I knew going in that this sermon was going to be longer.  The amount of content was immense, and my manuscript was long.  But I’m grateful our church loves God’s word and will devour messages like this.  

Previous Sermons

Because I gave general principles, I didn’t have time to give many nuances.  Luckily, through the last 20 years of our church, we have taught some of these things.  Here are some links to those sermons or lessons:

• On Gender:  here’s a link for a series that our friend, Rick Gamache, taught.  https://clfroseburg.com/sermon-series/by-design/
• On Gender roles:  I taught through 1 Timothy twice in our history.  This link has four sermons from 1 Timothy and one sermon from 1 Corinthians:  https://clfroseburg.com/sermon-topic/gender-roles/.
• On Work:  we have taught various things about work and the gospel.  Here are some of those:  https://clfroseburg.com/sermon-topic/work/
• Here’s a sermon about peace that I preached during an Advent sermon:  https://clfroseburg.com/sermon-topic/peace/.  This sermon is a biblical theology of peace.  

As I said in Sunday’s 2nd service, I firmly believe that one reason why the church has lost its voice in the gender discussion in our culture is that we have compromised the gender roles in the church.  We have failed to honor gender roles, protect gender roles, and deeply value one another.  

Further, I’m convinced that recapturing a biblical vision for our work is one of the key ways the church will impact our world.  Our workplace is where we spend 40-60 hours of our week.  It’s the spot where we spend the majority of our lives.  So, it’s essential to see our work for the glory of God and the good of others.  

From the Cutting Room Floor

I took this point out of my sermon because I thought I could put it here, and it wouldn’t detract from the sermon.  But this is a point about God creating law and commands before Genesis 3, how sin distorted our view of law and commands, and how Jesus restores our understanding of law and commands.  But I also took out a section about the never-ending 7th Day.  

The next area is God’s creation of law and commands.  God commanded by saying, “let there be light,” and the light came.  He commanded the stars to show up, and they did.  He told the rivers to water the earth, and they did.  And he told animals and man to be fruitful & multiply.  Procreate, have babies.  Commandment.  Also, as we saw last week, He told Adam not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  

Now, I want you to see something about God’s laws:  before God gave the ‘don’t eat command,’ notice what command He gave them, ‘you may surely eat of every tree in the Garden’…In other words, God’s commands were always “go do everything you want to do,” followed by an “exception”…And God gave us everything we needed but just asked us not to do one thing.  

Now, in Genesis 3, as we’ll see next week, the slippery snake twisted God’s law to make it look like violating God’s law wasn’t a big deal, “you will not surely die,” and to make it look like God was sinister and evil for giving them this command.  “God knows on that day you will be like Him.” And from that point forward, that’s what we see.  Humans now see God’s law for what it forbids rather than for what it provides.  “Sex outside of marriage won’t be that harmful or bad for you.  And if you get pregnant, there are ways to deal with that.  There won’t be any repercussions.”  Yet, there are sisters in the room (or reading this) who will tell you that’s a lie.  “Your body is your own. You can do as you want.  God can’t tell you what to do.  He’s keeping something from you.”  Yet, joy, happiness, and satisfaction in this life have left you, and you wonder why.  God gave us laws and commands for our everlasting joy.  But sin has distorted it to make it look deceitful.  

Well, this is one of the reasons Jesus came.  He came to fulfill God’s laws for us, so we could again delight in God’s law.  He came to empower us to do God’s law and to see God’s law as a provision of His goodness.   So Paul wrote in Romans 7 that the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.  And he wrote that he found sin in his life, holding him back from doing the things of God.  And He asked, ‘who will deliver me from this?’…only Jesus.  

Friends, Jesus restores a love for God’s laws and commands to our hearts.  We see them as a provision from His good & kind hand.  We see them as a protection for our everlasting joy.  

But notice something else about this 7th day:  it never ends. Unlike the other 6 days, there’s no morning and evening.  This tells us about the foundation of all things…God has not stopped celebrating His work, and He has not stopped sustaining His creation with His power and grace.  Further, there is to be a continual celebration in the hearts of humans of the God who created them.  Sin steals this joy from us, but Jesus restores our “Sabbath rest” (Hebrews 4:9).

From the Cheap Seats

• As I said last week…my Cowboys fandom has reached the point where I’m just happy to be in the playoffs with a chance.  Yes, Dak was really bad.  Yes, Mike McCarthy made some bone-headed clock management decisions at the end of the game.  But, back-to-back 12-win seasons (the first time since the ’90s) and a playoff win.  Progress is happening.  But it’s not the 70’s or the 90’s. This is why I’m not losing my mind like this guy:  https://bleacherreport.com/videos/351002-cowboys-fan-loses-it. 
• I can’t remember a professional manager or head coach calling out his team or fans for being too content with winning.  But that’s precisely what Pep Guardiola did.  Watch this 5-minute clip for a public rear-end chewing:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Hh3RlZs08
• At this point, I’m a Bengals fan.  How can you not like Joe Burrow?  And how can you not like an organization that salutes their fans after big wins by someone taking a game ball to a local establishment and telling the fans how much they appreciate them?  Here’s a great article about that:  https://sports.yahoo.com/bengals-game-balls-showing-around-114210485.html.    

To watch or listen to the sermon described in this post, please click here.

Have a great week!

In Christ, 

Dave York