Episode 1_The Only Answer: Why the Messiah Was Necessary

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Hello, thank you for joining me here on our first episode of 4110,

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a podcast devoted to sharing hope and encouragement through the Word of God.

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Wow, I can't believe it. This is our first episode. And when I look back,

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this ministry project has been in the makings for quite some time,

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I want to say almost six years And I am grateful to God for all that He's done to make today possible,

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You know, this podcast is just an aspect of our ministry at 4110 And God willing,

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there'll be more to come here in the near future So I thank you for joining

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us today on this first episode And I thought it would be appropriate on this

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episode to address a subject that lies at the heart of our Christian faith.

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You know, in today's climate, there's so much opinion, thoughts,

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ideas, methods of what Christianity is, what it looks like, and how it should be lived out.

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And I don't discredit any of them.

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However, I do believe that it

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is important for us to understand certain things so that we have a foundational

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truth That we begin to build from in our understanding of both God's Word and

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how we live out God's Word And what that means for our lives today and into the future.

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And so the subject I want to start with is, why was a Messiah necessary?

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Pretty plain and simple.

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Why was Jesus necessary? You know, our culture positions Jesus as a figure who

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came to earth to die for our sins.

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Our sins, you and me.

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But when you look at Scripture more closely, Jesus was the only answer to the

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condition of sin that had plagued humanity since the fall in the garden.

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And so, yes, he came to die for our sins, you and me personally and individually.

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But Jesus, the Messiah, who God prophesied there in the garden Was the only

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answer to the condition of sin And so when we look at it in that light I want

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to start with this question for you to consider,

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How can we truly understand and appreciate the need for a Savior When we view

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sin as only a personal problem?

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I want you to think about that.

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How can we truly understand the need and appreciate Jesus Christ as a Savior

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when we view sin as only a personal problem instead of a human condition?

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So we tend to think about our sins, the things we do, the things we don't do,

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how that measures up to what God says,

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and then determination on how often we sin, how much we sin,

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how bad we sin to give us an idea of being good or bad, or being a good Christian or a bad Christian.

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And so, it's important that we begin a shift in our thinking so that we can

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start looking at not just sin as a personal problem for you and me,

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but as a condition that has plagued humanity since the beginning at the fall in the garden.

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And so what if we viewed sin as not just a list of wrongs we commit,

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but as a pervasive condition that corrupts the hearts and minds of humanity,

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you know, like a disease.

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I remember when COVID had come out and everyone was afraid, me too, of getting COVID.

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But when your turn came up and you contracted COVID, you didn't think of yourself

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as a bad person versus a good person because you got COVID.

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You didn't go looking for it. You weren't trying to get it, but it happened

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because it was a disease state that was a condition for all of us to have to deal with.

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And so when we begin to look at sin as a pervasive condition that does two things,

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it corrupts the hearts and minds of all humanity, which means you and me.

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So in our episode today, we're going to go through scripture to uncover the issue of sin.

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The early corruption of sin, and God's redemptive plan against sin,

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and the Messiah who was promised to redeem mankind from the bondage of sin.

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So before we get started any further, let's pray.

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Gracious Lord and Heavenly Father, we come before you and we say thank you.

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Thank you for yet another day that you've given us, that we may learn of your

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ways, have your truth embedded in our hearts, so that we will bring glory and honor to your holy name.

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Father, we ask that you would bless this time, that you would open ears,

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that you would open eyes, minds to understand, and a heart to receive what it

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is you have to say to us through your word.

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We give thanks and praise to your holy name. Amen.

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So in this first segment, we're going to look at, just briefly,

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the origin and consequence of sin.

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And we're going to start in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3.

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And here we see the first act of deception, the serpent's cunning words leading

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Adam and Eve to disobey God's perfect command.

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And so now this was not just a personal mistake that Adam and Eve made.

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This was the entrance of sin that would infect every human being born into this world.

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Again, whether you did anything or not.

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So yes, there was a personal consequence to what Adam and Eve did in disobedience to God's word.

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But it was not just about them personally. the choice that they made to disobey

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has now become a problem for all of mankind.

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That means you and me. So anyone that's born into this world is now infected

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with the condition of sin that corrupts hearts and minds of human beings.

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You know, God's original plan for creation was perfect.

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The Bible says he looked at all he created and it was very good.

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Man was created in his image and all of creation was made in perfect order and

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balance with God in the center.

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And here's the challenge. And God knew it.

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With the gift of free will came the possibility of rebellion.

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And you may think, man, why did God even give free will? Because if he didn't

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do that, then it saves the problem.

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But that's just who God is.

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He wants you to want to love him instead of making us love him.

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And so with free will came the possibility of rebellion.

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And we know what happened. The serpent's deception exploited the freedom that Adam and Eve had.

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And sin entered, disrupting God's perfect plan for humanity.

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And here's what's cool. Even in judgment, God's heart did not turn from his creation.

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In Genesis 3, verse 15, God declares there will be enmity between the seed of

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Eve and the seed of Satan.

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And he says directly, you will strike his heel, but he will crush your head.

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Now this is the very first prophecy from God of a coming Messiah,

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One who would ultimately defeat Satan And

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restore God's perfect plan for all

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creation And if you want to kind of delve

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a little bit further in that You can see Romans chapter 8 verses 19 through

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23 So now think about this for a moment At the very point where sin entered

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the world God was already revealing His plan for redemption,

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So what does that mean for us?

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How are we to live in light of this?

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And I would deposit this It's first by understanding Sin is not just a list

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of bad deeds Because then when you think you're not sinning anymore Then you're good.

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Sin is a condition that corrupts everything it touches.

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It is a spiritual disease that affects the hearts, minds, and actions,

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making it a problem for all mankind.

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So now in this next segment, we're going to look at the proliferation of sin

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and God's response to it.

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And so now we're going to move from the garden and roughly 1,600 years ahead.

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So from that 1,600 years to a time when sin had spread like wildfire.

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And so we tend to think when we read it in context that the fall happened,

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God puts them out the garden, and Adam and Eve had a child, Cain and Abel.

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And, you know, we tend to think of this as just a short window.

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But from the time that they were put out of the garden or the fall in the garden.

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1,600 years had passed and sin was spreading like a wildfire.

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And the Bible tells us, the Lord

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saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth.

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And dig this, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart,

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was only evil all the time.

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This is in Genesis 6, verse 5.

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That the great wickedness of the human race had risen to a level where God had

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to do something and intervene.

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It says, every inclination of the thought of the human heart,

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there's that word again, heart, was only evil all the time.

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And it also says this, the Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the

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earth, and it grieved his heart.

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So early on, we have a picture of God on the sixth day when he looked at all

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he had made and said that it was not just good, but he said very good.

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Again, everything in perfect order and balance According to his will So with

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that Why do you think God's heart was grieved?

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Now, you only grieve about something that means something to you.

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You know, the loss of a loved one, the loss of a pet, the loss of anything,

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the loss of a job, the loss of, you know, resources, the loss of a home,

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you know, in natural disaster, whatever it is.

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So when something matters to you, it grieves your heart when you lose it.

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And so here we have a picture, and if God wanted to demonstrate that he doesn't

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have a heart and that he doesn't care, this would never make it into the Scripture.

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But this gives us a glimpse that God cared and loved what he had created.

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And to see how sin rapidly spread and change the hearts of human beings to where

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they only thought of evil all the time.

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That had to be rough for God to see.

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And so God's response to all of this was the great flood.

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It was a judgment on the pervasiveness of sin and wickedness.

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But even here, God preserved a remnant.

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Though he had planned to destroy everything that he created,

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he preserved a remnant, Noah and his family.

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And Noah was not the answer to the condition of sin. he was the means to restart

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humanity by which the answer would come.

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So unfortunately, sin was not defeated, and approximately 400 years now after the flood.

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Humanity's pride led to them building the Tower of Babel.

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And they wanted to do this to make a name for themselves and reach the heavens

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so that they would not be scattered all over the earth.

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And you can see that in Genesis chapter 11 for yourself.

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So, their idea was, we'll build this tower, we'll make a name for ourselves,

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and we will be a strong group and we'll never be scattered over the earth.

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So, God saw their intentions and he intervened.

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What a good God, he intervened by confusing their language and scattering them

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across the earth, the very thing they didn't want to happen.

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And why would God do that?

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Well, God knows unchecked pride and rebellion would have no end.

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If they would get away and do this, there would be no end to what they could do.

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So God's judgment was not just punishment. It was a loving act to restrain humanity's

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self-destructive path away from God himself.

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So if God created man to be in relationship with him, he's not going to allow

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things to be in place that serve as a path away from him.

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He wants to draw people to him.

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So think about it in your own life. How often do you try to build your own tower

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to demonstrate your success,

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your accomplishments, thinking that we can somehow reach a godly level or fulfill

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our destiny apart from Him.

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Many people do that, and Christians are not excluded.

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And so that's not God's heart. His heart is for us to trust Him and completely

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rely on Him and to surrender our plan for our lives, our will,

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for His will to be done and to see His plan unfold because honestly, it's better.

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So I ask this question, what does it mean to you or what would it mean to you

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to surrender your plan and trust God's plan for your life instead?

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So now in this final segment, we're going to look at the covenant of redemption

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and the promised Messiah.

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So now after the Tower of Babel incident, God began a new phase in his redemptive

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plan by calling Abraham, excuse me, Abram, who was later known as Abraham.

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God called him out of his homeland, promising him land of his own,

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promising him descendants and blessings that would extend to all nations.

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And that means you and me. And if you're not familiar with that piece of scripture,

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God's promise to Abram, you can see it in Genesis chapter 12 for yourself.

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So Abram and Sarah were old and barren.

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So that means they couldn't have kids, and they were up in age.

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But God made a promise that he would give him a child.

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And that through that child, there would be descendants as numerous as the stars

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in the sky or the sands on the shore.

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And so God says this to Abraham. And Abraham just simply believed God's promise.

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God said something. And Abraham said, oh, okay.

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You're God. I believe you can do it. So yeah, I believe you'll give me a son.

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And that simple action of belief,

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faith, trust, it says his faith was credited to him as righteousness, as righteousness.

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And so the righteousness that we seek, the righteousness that we desire,

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it's not by all of your deeds per se.

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It's simply by your willingness To

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trust what God says And to step into

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it Convinced in all of your heart That he's

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going to do what he says he's going to do And this

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is the foundation Of the Christian faith

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There is no Christian faith without

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faith Because it is predicated

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on Believing what I'm sharing with you today And believing that Jesus Christ

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was the promised Messiah to come and that he is the only answer to solve the

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problem of the sin condition in this world.

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There is no other way. Trusting God's Word even when circumstances don't make

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sense and challenges seem impossible to overcome.

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That is our way of being.

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Believing what God says through His Word. All 66 books.

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And seeking Him to give us the courage and the strength to step out into His Word.

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That we may have the experiences that he wants to give us that makes himself

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known in a real tangible way in our lives.

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Now, God wanted to do some more in Abraham.

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So God tested Abraham's faith by asking him to sacrifice Isaac,

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his one and only son that was promised to him.

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And if you know the story, Abraham's

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willingness to obey was amazing He was willing to obey And he went through the

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process of preparing and going to sacrifice his son Isaac All the way to the

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point of lifting the knife And the angel of the Lord stopped him.

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And God said, you truly do fear the Lord.

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And what that fear means is regarding what God says.

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So now I know you truly fear the Lord.

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And God affirmed Abraham's faith in him and his reverent regard in him.

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And so through Abraham's descendants, that act of faith, again,

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Then God's plan unfolded.

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And so over the next 2,000 years, the journey of God, his word,

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his people, and all that he did to make sure that Jesus Christ was born,

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that the Messiah would come.

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That's what our Bible gives us. the history of God and his promise of a Savior

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to undo what was done in the garden and restore everything back to his original plan.

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And so when you think of this, how does Abraham's faith challenge you today?

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What does it mean to trust God's promises even when the path is unclear for you?

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What does it mean to you? What does it represent to you today?

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Is there fear in your heart? Is there doubt in your heart? Is there worry in your heart?

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Do you just look and say, I could never be like Abraham?

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That's not the reality of my life or my circumstances.

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For you to ponder. But the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ now gives

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us the opportunity to live a life of faith, which means trusting what God says.

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So to trust what He says, you have to know what He says, and trusting it so

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much so that you step out into it.

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You know, I can believe that a chair behind me is going to catch me when I sit

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down, but I'll never know until I sit down.

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And once I sit down in one chair, I can perfectly believe that any chair that

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I sit in is going to hold me.

00:22:56.691 --> 00:23:02.291
And so not to compare God to a chair by any stretch.

00:23:02.871 --> 00:23:08.111
Actually, he does uphold us with his righteous right hand, which is in Isaiah 41.10.

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But it's to say that to know God so deeply, so intimately, that you know He's

00:23:17.991 --> 00:23:21.371
going to be there for you no matter what.

00:23:21.931 --> 00:23:28.951
So now as we wrap up, let's just look back at what we've learned through this scripture.

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We've learned that sin is not just a list of personal wrongs,

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but a condition that has corrupted all of creation from the beginning with the

00:23:40.171 --> 00:23:42.671
fall in the garden of Eden.

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I want you to truly tie your heart around this truth.

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Sin is not just a list of your personal wrongs.

00:23:53.137 --> 00:23:59.077
Is that, but it's so important for you to understand it's a condition that corrupts all creation.

00:23:59.717 --> 00:24:05.057
And there is no way out of it. And you can't deny that it exists because then

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you would have to be denying the very word of God that says sin entered the world.

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And because of all the evil and the wickedness that we see going on in our world,

00:24:15.317 --> 00:24:22.717
there's evidence of sin and the effects of sin that's very similar to the things

00:24:22.717 --> 00:24:26.637
that were going on during the times before the flood.

00:24:27.077 --> 00:24:32.977
We know that in Scripture, God's judgment and preservation of a remnant through Noah,

00:24:33.377 --> 00:24:40.777
his intervention at Babel, and his covenant with Abraham are all part of a design

00:24:40.777 --> 00:24:44.117
and a divine plan that's unfolding,

00:24:44.117 --> 00:24:49.037
a plan rooted in God's love for his creation.

00:24:49.217 --> 00:24:57.577
And so at the beginning of the Bible, and what's cool is all of this happens in Genesis.

00:24:58.477 --> 00:25:03.957
And so in the first book of the Bible, the scene and the plot is set for what

00:25:03.957 --> 00:25:07.037
the rest of the word of God is about.

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Ushering in the Messiah and then letting us know now what that represents for

00:25:14.317 --> 00:25:15.797
our lives as Christians.

00:25:16.997 --> 00:25:20.577
Jesus was the fulfillment of that plan.

00:25:21.037 --> 00:25:25.197
He is the Messiah, the one who would crush the head of the serpent,

00:25:26.037 --> 00:25:32.997
redeem mankind from the bondage of sin, and make all things new, including you and me.

00:25:33.477 --> 00:25:40.217
So this is the truth for us to hold on to as the clouds of darkness continue to roll in.

00:25:40.217 --> 00:25:47.477
It is this truth shared and lived out by all of God's children that will enable

00:25:47.477 --> 00:25:52.057
us to be a light against the darkness of this world.

00:25:53.461 --> 00:25:57.301
Closing, I want to ask just these final two questions. Number one,

00:25:57.641 --> 00:26:02.701
have you accepted the gift of God through Jesus Christ, the Messiah,

00:26:03.221 --> 00:26:10.261
the one God promised to send, to be the atonement, the sacrifice for all of

00:26:10.261 --> 00:26:15.361
humanity, that we would be redeemed and saved from the punishment,

00:26:15.641 --> 00:26:17.801
the judgment against sin?

00:26:19.144 --> 00:26:26.344
If that's yes, awesome. If that's no, my heart is that you'll ask God into your

00:26:26.344 --> 00:26:30.244
life by simply stating, I believe your word is true.

00:26:30.824 --> 00:26:37.824
I am a sinner, not just because of my bad deeds, but because of the condition

00:26:37.824 --> 00:26:39.804
of sin that I have been born into.

00:26:40.224 --> 00:26:44.584
And you've made a way, Lord God, and I believe your way is the only way.

00:26:45.424 --> 00:26:51.764
Would you pray that in your heart? and just accept what God is offering you.

00:26:53.224 --> 00:26:56.964
Redemption, freedom from the bondage of sin.

00:26:57.404 --> 00:27:02.184
The second question, are you living in the reality of God's redemptive plan?

00:27:02.764 --> 00:27:10.204
Meaning, are you now seeking to live out the truth of what God says about himself

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and about you now in Jesus Christ and what that means for your life?

00:27:15.964 --> 00:27:18.924
Again, our prayer is that the answer

00:27:18.924 --> 00:27:22.284
is yes to both questions Because God

00:27:22.284 --> 00:27:25.284
is an amazing God And Jesus

00:27:25.284 --> 00:27:33.444
is our salvation He is our hope And He is our example For how to live in this

00:27:33.444 --> 00:27:40.944
wicked and sinful world By the power of the Holy Spirit For the glory of God's

00:27:40.944 --> 00:27:43.904
holy name And so in closing,

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We're asking that you ask God to strengthen your faith, to resemble Abraham's faith,

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a faith that trusts what God says, and a faith that lives in the hope of all

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of God fulfilling His word.

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So much for joining me on this episode. May today's word be a blessing to your heart.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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You've been listening to 4110 Ministries Podcast.

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To learn more about our ministry, you can find us on the web at 4110.org.

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That's all spelled out, 4110.org. And if you'd like to keep up with what we're

00:28:42.692 --> 00:28:47.152
doing on social media, you can find us at 41.10ministries.

00:28:47.692 --> 00:28:50.992
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