Sermon

God Saw Adam's Need (Genesis 2:18-24) [2026-4-12]

Grace & Truth Baptist Church Sermons

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  1. All right, good morning, church family.

  2. If you would open your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 2,

    Genesis 2 chapter mention

  3. Genesis chapter 2, and this morning we're going to be in

    Genesis 2 chapter mention

  4. verses 18 to 24. We've been going through Genesis

  5. for several weeks now. We just started the series and

  6. we've made it through chapter 1 and part of chapter 2.

  7. And this morning we're going to look at Genesis chapter 218 to

  8. 24. So let me read the text.

  9. I'll open this in a word of prayer, and then we'll jump into

  10. the sermon this morning, Genesis chapter 2, beginning in verse

    Genesis 2 chapter mention

  11. 18. Then the Lord God said, It is

  12. not good that the man should be alone, I will make a helper fit

  13. for him. Now out of the ground the Lord

  14. God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the

  15. heavens, and brought them to the man to see what he would call

  16. them. And whatever the man called

  17. every living creature, that was its name.

  18. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of

  19. the heavens, and to the every beast of the field.

  20. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

  21. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and

  22. while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place

  23. with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God

  24. had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to

  25. the man. Then the man said, This at last

  26. is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

  27. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of

  28. man. Therefore a man shall leave his

  29. father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall

  30. become one flesh. Would you pray with me, Father?

  31. I pray this morning as we look at your word and as we ponder

  32. the the statements by the Lord of how it is not good for man to

  33. be alone. As we ponder what it means to be

  34. a helper, as we ponder the mystery of marriage, as we

  35. ponder what it means to to, to leave and cleave and, and all of

  36. these deep, profound statements. God, would you help us to

  37. understand this and to rightly apply it?

  38. God, would you help me to explain the text thoroughly and

  39. succinctly and to apply it in a way that is helpful and

  40. beneficial to all of us. God, we we thank you for your

  41. word. God, we are grateful that we

  42. have instruction from your word. We pray this in Jesus name,

  43. Amen. We have been looking at the

  44. creation story the past several weeks.

  45. Genesis 1 tells us of how God created everything in the

  46. universe and Genesis 2 is kind of a zooming in of Genesis 1.

  47. The narrator tells us they are that, that that God had made man

  48. and he had placed him in the garden to work it and keep it.

  49. And he gives the man every tree in the garden to eat from.

  50. He says I've made all these trees that have food for you to

  51. eat from except one, the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

  52. God tells the man, he says if you eat of this tree you will

  53. surely die. And that's where we left off

  54. last week. We left right off there last

  55. week. So we're going to pick right

  56. back up where we left off last week.

  57. I'm going to start with an exposition of the text where I

  58. basically go through it verse by verse and try to explain it, to

  59. give it meaning. And then at the end I'll give

  60. application of the text for us from this.

  61. So let's start looking at verse 18 a where the narrator says

  62. then the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be

  63. alone. This is such an interesting and

  64. intriguing statement by the Lord.

  65. Such an interesting, such an intriguing statement for at

  66. least four reasons. Number one, for the first time

  67. God said something was not good. In Genesis 14, God saw that the

  68. light was good. Genesis 110 God saw that it was

  69. good. 112 God saw that it was good. 118 God saw that it was

  70. good. 121 God saw that it was good. 125 God saw that it was

  71. good. 131 God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it

  72. was very good. In chapter 2, verse 9, every

  73. tree was good for food. Chapter 2, verse 12, the goal of

  74. that land is good. And then we get to chapter 2,

  75. verse 18, and for the first time in history, God said something

  76. was not good. That's interesting.

  77. Which raises #2 why is it not good for a man to be alone?

  78. You may be wondering that you're like, I, I love being alone.

  79. Why is it not good for a man to be alone?

  80. The text doesn't tell us here, doesn't tell us.

  81. God never. He doesn't say it's not good,

  82. and here's why He just says it. It's not good.

  83. Why is this? I'm going to give my best guess

  84. here. I'm going to give my best guess.

  85. So I'm not, I'm not speaking, you know, in some kind of

  86. authoritative way when I say this, but this is my best

  87. educated guess. God, by definition, is a

  88. relational being. God, by definition is a

  89. relational being. The Trinity has always existed.

  90. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

  91. The Trinity has always existed, and so relationships have always

  92. existed. They've always existed because

  93. we are made in the image of God. I take this to mean that we are

  94. made as relational beings. That part of what it means to be

  95. made in the image of God means to be made as a relational

  96. being. And a relationship by definition

  97. means to not be alone. Now we might say, but Adam

  98. wasn't alone, he had God. Why did he say it wasn't good to

  99. be alone? Adam was not alone, he had God.

  100. Which leads to #3 God made man with specific needs so that God

  101. could meet those needs. God made man with specific needs

  102. so that God could meet those needs.

  103. You ever ask the question of why does hunger exist?

  104. Doesn't have to, right? Hunger is not a product of the

  105. fall. It's not like, you know, Adam

  106. wasn't hungry and then once sin came in the world, he got

  107. hungry. Hunger.

  108. Jesus was hungry. He was perfect.

  109. Why does hunger exist? I think hunger exists.

  110. God created this need so that he could meet that need.

  111. He made needs so that he could meet them.

  112. God created Adam with the need for human companionship.

  113. Why? So that he could meet it.

  114. He gave Adam this need so that he can meet that need #4 Last

  115. thing I want to point out about the statement is that God saw

  116. Adam's need, not Adam. God saw Adam's need, not Adam.

  117. Notice Adam is not complaining to God.

  118. Adam is not bored in the corner of the garden.

  119. God saw Adam's knee before Adam even knew that he had a need.

  120. Look at verse 18. BI will make a helper.

  121. I will make him a helper fit for him.

  122. I want to point out three aspects of the statement.

  123. Make a helper fit for him. I want to point out three

  124. aspects of this. Number one, God says I will

  125. make. I will make Adam didn't find

  126. this helper. Adam didn't create this helper.

  127. God made this helper #2 helper. What does that mean?

  128. What is what is helper mean here?

  129. The Hebrew word is ezer. Ezer.

  130. It's a cognate of the Hebrew word Ezra as that's where the

  131. name Ezra comes from. Ezra's name means helper.

  132. That's what it means. It's an assistant, one who

  133. assist and serves another with what is needed #3 he says I'll

  134. make a helper fit for him. Fit for him.

  135. What does that mean? The Hebrew literally reads

  136. according to the opposite of him.

  137. That's how it reads in the Hebrew.

  138. I will make him a helper according to the opposite of

  139. him. What does that mean?

  140. Translations vary here. Some translations have suitable

  141. I'll make him a helper suitable for him, or matching I'll make a

  142. helper that's matching him, or I'll make a helper that is

  143. corresponding to him. God saw that Adam needed not

  144. just to help her, he doesn't need just to help her, but that

  145. he needed a helper that corresponded to him.

  146. He needed a helper that matched him.

  147. He needed a helper that was suitable for him.

  148. Look at verse 19 to 20. Now out of the ground, the Lord

  149. God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the

  150. heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call

  151. them. And whatever the man called

  152. every living creature, that was its name.

  153. Now what's interesting is that in chapter 1, God called the

  154. light day, and He called the darkness night.

  155. God called the expanse heaven. God called the dry land earth.

  156. God called the waters seas. Up until this point everything

  157. has been named by God. But now that man has been

  158. created, God has entrusted his creation to this man.

  159. And part of entrusting his creation to this man is

  160. entrusting the naming of his creation to this man.

  161. And so God's going to trust naming of these animals to Adam.

  162. Notice God brings the animals to Adam.

  163. He brings them to him. I love how this is worded.

  164. God brought them to the man to see what he would call them.

  165. I love that it's it's as if God is interested in Adam's

  166. creativity. Let us see what names he will

  167. come up with. There's a Christian comedian

  168. many many years ago making a joke about this.

  169. He says that when Adam first started, he was creative

  170. hippopotamus and then 10 hours later, cow.

  171. He finally got so tired he just started naming creatures by what

  172. they were doing. Fly, right?

  173. Whatever Adam called each creature, that was its name.

  174. Keep in mind, naming is a form of exercising authority over As

  175. parents, we name our children. They don't choose their own

  176. name. I mean, maybe some parents let

  177. kids choose their own name, but traditionally we, we, we, we

  178. name our children. We give it to them as their

  179. authority. Adam finishes naming all the

  180. livestock, naming all the birds of heaven, naming all the beasts

  181. of the field. There's only one problem.

  182. There was not found to help or fit for him.

  183. This is an interesting statement.

  184. God said that it was not good for a man to be alone, but Adam

  185. is not alone. He has all these animals with

  186. him. He's got all kinds of animals

  187. with him. So in what sense is Adam alone?

  188. In this sense? There was not found a helper fit

  189. for him. Animals can help us, right?

  190. Horses give us transportation, very good help.

  191. Oxen can help us plow the ground.

  192. Dogs and cats can help us be happy.

  193. But none of these animals wore a helper that was fit for Adam.

  194. So God takes action. God is not done creating.

  195. He made six days. He creates, He rests on the

  196. Sabbath. But God is not done creating.

  197. Look at verse 21 to 22. So the Lord God caused a deep

  198. sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his

  199. ribs and closed up its place with flesh.

  200. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made

  201. into a woman and brought her to the man.

  202. Notice this phrase God caused. God caused and the Hebrew, the

  203. verb there is in the hefeel tense.

  204. That's the causative tense. I mean that God Adam didn't just

  205. fall asleep, God caused him to fall asleep, which is why the

  206. ESP translates it that way. God caused him to fall into a

  207. deep sleep. What is that?

  208. What is a deep sleep? The Hebrew word for deep sleep.

  209. It only occurs 7 times in the Old Testament.

  210. It's the same verb that's used in Genesis 1512.

  211. If you remember as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on

  212. Abram. Or the most well known example,

  213. remember First Samuel 2612 when David sneaks into Saul's camp

  214. and he and he just marches all the way through the camp, goes

  215. all the way up to Saul's head and they take the, the, his

  216. spear and, and the, and the jar of water from his head.

  217. And how did he do that? How did nobody wake up hearing

  218. them coming to the camp? It says the Lord God had caused

  219. a deep sleep to fall upon all of them.

  220. This is kind of like spiritual anesthesia, if you will.

  221. While Adam is sleeping. I love this.

  222. God takes one of Adam's ribs. God performs surgery on Adam.

  223. When I was growing up in the Deep South, they would teach in

  224. church that men have one less rib than women because of this.

  225. I asked my wife, she's like, yeah, we'll talk that too, That

  226. that's not true. Men do not have one less rib.

  227. But they would teach this in the South.

  228. They would teach that men had the 1 less rib because of this.

  229. The rib that God had taken from Adam, God made into a woman.

  230. The Hebrew word for made here this is This is fascinating.

  231. The Hebrew word for made here is literally built.

  232. This word has not been used in Genesis yet.

  233. It's the same word used of Cain building a city or Noah building

  234. an ark or them building the Tower of Babel.

  235. So when God made man, he worked with dust and with working with

  236. clay. God is likened to a Potter.

  237. The the Hebrew verb there is likened to a Potter, but with

  238. working with flesh, God is likened to a builder.

  239. God is a Potter with the man. He is a builder with the woman.

  240. Now what did God build? What did he build?

  241. He built a woman. What is that?

  242. What is a woman? Is it interesting that thousands

  243. of years later, we're still debating the answer to that

  244. question? God made another human.

  245. He made another human. She is like Adam in that she is

  246. human and she is made in God's image, and she is unlike Adam in

  247. that she is a woman and not a man.

  248. And I want you to notice what it says here.

  249. It says that God brought her to the man.

  250. God brought her to the man. Adam didn't find her.

  251. God brought her to him. It's as if God is presenting

  252. this gift to Adam. God gives the best gifts.

  253. Now 2 questions remain #1 why a rib?

  254. You're like, why? Why not a leg, one out of foot,

  255. one out of pancreas, right? Why?

  256. Why a rib? Well, the Hebrew word is

  257. literally side, and that's almost always its meaning.

  258. I don't think rib is actually a good translation.

  259. It may have not been a rib at all.

  260. The NET Bible just doesn't translate.

  261. The NET Bible translates, and he took part of the man's side.

  262. I think that's probably the best translation.

  263. He took part of the man's side. And #2 second question I had is

  264. why did God make man out of the dust but made the woman out of

  265. the man? Why did He do that?

  266. If he can make a man out of the dust, then he can make a woman

  267. out of the dust. But why does He choose to make

  268. man out of the dust but make the woman out of the man?

  269. Why did he do that? Verse 23 perhaps gives us a

  270. clue. Look at verse 23.

  271. Then the man said this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of

  272. my flesh. She shall be called woman

  273. because she was taken out of man.

  274. These are the first recorded words of man.

  275. The very first words that are recorded of human speaking.

  276. These are them. Now I want to point out a few

  277. things. In verse 19, God made all the

  278. animals out of the ground. The text tells us that all these

  279. animals were made out of the ground, and God brought all

  280. these animals before Adam for two purposes.

  281. He paraded the animals before him for two purposes #1 so that

  282. he could name them. And #2 I think God is doing this

  283. to show Adam that none of these animals are a suitable helper

  284. for him. It's as if God wants Adam to see

  285. this. He wants them to see all these

  286. animals that I'm bringing before you.

  287. None of them match you. None of them correspond to you.

  288. But when God made woman, he didn't make her out of the

  289. ground. He made the animals out of the

  290. ground. But he didn't make this being

  291. out of the ground. He made her out of the man.

  292. It's as if God wanted Adam to see, look, look, I have made a

  293. helper fit for you. I have made someone who is like

  294. you. Now Adam immediately discerns

  295. that this being standing before him, he immediately knows this

  296. is not another animal. I have seen all these animals,

  297. and this is not an animal. This being is different.

  298. This is why Adam says this at last is bone of my bones and

  299. flesh of my flesh. Look at how Adam begins his

  300. statement. I love this.

  301. He says this at last. You know that Etta James song at

  302. last. That's that's, that's how I hear

  303. this. You know, I would sing it for

  304. you, but I can't say it's a great song.

  305. Adam had spent hours, maybe days, maybe weeks, maybe months

  306. naming all these animals. I mean, how long does it take to

  307. name the animals? And at and at last, after all

  308. this, at last there is finally a being that is like him.

  309. Adam says she shall be called woman.

  310. Now that is not her name. That is her classification.

  311. That's her classification. The Hebrew word is Esha, Esha

  312. because she was taken from man. Ish woman is Esha, man is Esh.

  313. So he's saying that Esha was taken from Ish.

  314. So he calls her Esha Woman. He calls her woman.

  315. Now I know this is controversial, but remember he

  316. calls her woman indicating his authority over her.

  317. This is prior to the fall. So this authority is not a

  318. result of the fall. It's a part of God's good

  319. design. Now, one side note, one

  320. commentator argues that the phrase bone of my bones and

  321. flesh of my flesh, when he says that it's actually a covenant

  322. formula and that it speaks not of common birth, but of a common

  323. reciprocal loyalty. In other words, it's the same

  324. meaning. It's if you remember in Second

  325. Samuel 51, all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron,

  326. and this is what they said to David.

  327. David, behold, we are your bone and flesh.

  328. In other words, what they're saying is, is that we are with

  329. you as your own bone and flesh. We are with you till we die.

  330. We are as one with you. So this commentary is suggesting

  331. that what David, what Adam is saying here is that he's almost

  332. taking a form of vows here. He's he's making a covenant with

  333. this woman. I was thinking about this.

  334. I was like, man, I wish I had made that in my vows when I got

  335. married. I was like, you are bone of my

  336. bones and flesh of my flesh. I think it's a good theory.

  337. I don't know if it's true, but it's a good theory.

  338. Look at verse 24, last verse. Therefore a man shall leave his

  339. father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall

  340. become one flesh. There is so much packed into

  341. this one verse. I could preach the entire sermon

  342. on it. I almost was tempted to do it,

  343. but we'd be in Genesis forever. Let's break this down though,

  344. phrase by phrase. First word.

  345. Therefore, what does the therefore tell us?

  346. This should probably be translated.

  347. That is why I thought it's probably That is why I think

  348. it's the narrator is basically saying that is why we do what we

  349. do. In other words, you know, if you

  350. ever wonder like why does marriage exist?

  351. Like this is kind of an existential question that people

  352. are asking today, right? Why do people get married?

  353. And he's saying it. That is why that is why we do

  354. this, this practice we have. That is why, that is why a man

  355. shall leave. A man shall leave.

  356. In Hebrew culture, almost all men were married by the time

  357. they were 20 years old. So they would grow up in their

  358. parents home living under their parents authority.

  359. But once a man found a woman that he wanted to marry, he

  360. would leave his mother and father.

  361. No, interesting enough, not necessarily physically.

  362. It was very common in the culture for them to continue

  363. living with their mother and father, which means here that

  364. leave must not mean just like physically.

  365. It also meant it primarily meant to leave their authority that he

  366. was under his parents authority. But once he got married, he was

  367. now came out from under their authority and he became his own

  368. authority. I think that's the idea here.

  369. He would leave his mother and father.

  370. This. That's interesting because if

  371. you're Adam and Eve, you're like, what is a mother and

  372. what's a father? This verse was clearly written

  373. at a much later time. He would leave his mother and

  374. father and hold fast. Hold fast.

  375. What does that mean? This is the broad term.

  376. It's translated 15 different ways.

  377. It basically means to cling to something, use of glue even.

  378. It means to cling to or to fasten oneself to.

  379. It's frequently used of us holding fast to God.

  380. And Deuteronomy says that that we should cling to God, hold

  381. fast to God. What this tells us is that God

  382. intended marriage to be far more than a financial arrangement,

  383. far more than a sexual arrangement, far more than a

  384. social arrangement. The husband is to cling.

  385. Cling to what? Cling to his wife.

  386. This is actually the same Hebrew word as woman.

  387. Wife and woman of the same Hebrew word can also be

  388. translated as wife. Here we get the earliest

  389. introduction to God's institution of marriage.

  390. He's a cling to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

  391. Now what does that mean? Paul says.

  392. It's a profound mystery. I wanted to go into this in

  393. Ephesians, but I was like, I'm going to steal my Thunder if I

  394. preach on Ephesians one day, so I won't.

  395. But this is a profound mystery. So what does it mean to be 1

  396. flesh? Let me give a, a very imperfect

  397. metaphor. One way to think of this as a

  398. yoke. You may have seen a yoke before

  399. you take two oxen. They make this kind of crossbars

  400. A yoke and goes on to both animals.

  401. And they do this that the animals are together.

  402. They, they plow together in a straight line, right.

  403. So even though there's two oxen, it's really one unit, it's 1

  404. unit that's working. That's the idea.

  405. It wouldn't make sense for one oxen to go this way and another

  406. oxen to go this way. OK, How is that going to work?

  407. That, that, that won't work. This yoke puts them together.

  408. They are yoked together. They're they're inseparable.

  409. That's the idea here. They are joined together.

  410. When a man and a woman get married, they become one flesh

  411. in the eyes of God. And we'll stop there with the

  412. exposition application of the text application, I have 7

  413. points of application for US. Seven points of application #1

  414. whether we are married, dating or single, it is not good to be

  415. alone. Whether we are married, dating

  416. or single, it is not good to be alone.

  417. Growing up, I was an extreme extrovert by capital E

  418. Extrovert. I can remember spending the

  419. night at my cousin's house and I loved every minute of it.

  420. When it was time to leave, I would be depressed for most of

  421. my life. I always wanted to be around my

  422. friends. That was just most of my life.

  423. But as I got into adulthood, as I got married, as I had four

  424. kids, and as I had a church family with ministry, I have

  425. really come to treasure my alone time.

  426. I imagine we have some in this room who love to be around

  427. people. If you had a choice, you would

  428. always choose to have someone else around.

  429. And I imagine we have some in this room who genuinely enjoy

  430. being alone. Being around other people may

  431. even be very draining for you. One thing I am realizing is that

  432. year after year, especially after COVID, more and more

  433. people fall into the latter camp than the first.

  434. More and more people. Technology has made it so that

  435. we can be alone and like it, hasn't it?

  436. But it is not good to be alone. It wasn't that Adam was an

  437. extrovert and he asked God, God, can I have a friend?

  438. God, I'm kind of bored here in the garden Guy, could you, could

  439. you make me a friend? God made a declaration.

  440. God said it is not good for a man to be alone.

  441. Now often people take this to me, that it is not good for man

  442. to be single or it's not good for a woman to be single.

  443. That's not the case at all. That is not what this is

  444. teaching. God's Son was not married, the

  445. apostle Paul was not married, and both of them said it was

  446. better to be single than to be married.

  447. This statement is not so much addressing the need for marriage

  448. as it is addressing the need for community.

  449. People often point to the fact that Jesus needed alone time.

  450. That's true. But even in his isolation, he

  451. was with his father. He spent his alone time with his

  452. father. Church, family, you need

  453. community. We all do.

  454. We may enjoy, we may enjoy being alone, but it is not good to be

  455. alone. We need community #2 God saw

  456. Adam's need and God did something about it.

  457. God saw Adam's need and God did something about it.

  458. Our biggest extrovert in the family, Lauren, actually might

  459. pass him up, but I'm not sure. Our biggest extrovert in the

  460. family is Ezra by far. The other day his three older

  461. brothers were all gone at basketball practice.

  462. It was the first time in his life that his three older

  463. brothers were gone at basketball and he was at home by himself.

  464. First time in his whole life that his three older brothers

  465. were gone. He was home by himself.

  466. He was so bored. He looked like his girlfriend

  467. had broken up with him. I could see it on his face.

  468. I could feel it in his soul. As a father.

  469. I, I tried to go befriend him, but I realize I'm like, oh man,

  470. you're getting to that stage where like dad's not friends

  471. anymore. Like, like you want like peer

  472. friendship. When God saw that it wasn't good

  473. for man to be alone, it wasn't because God looked down and saw

  474. that Adam was bored. He he didn't look down and and

  475. see, oh man, he's bored. One thing I thought Adam files

  476. no complaint with the Lord. Adam's not sitting in the corner

  477. of the garden twiddling his thumbs because he has no one to

  478. talk to. In fact, one has to even wonder,

  479. did Adam even see his own need for a companion?

  480. But it didn't matter. Why?

  481. Because God saw his need. God saw Adam's need for a

  482. companion, for a friend, for a helper.

  483. And God did something about it. Brothers and sisters, God sees

  484. your need. God sees your need.

  485. In fact, he sees your need even when you don't see it yourself,

  486. when you don't even know that it exists.

  487. And he will do something about it.

  488. We were at the park the other day.

  489. You know, the weather's been great here lately.

  490. We were at the park the other day going for a walk, and there

  491. were these kids playing kickball.

  492. And as these kids are playing kickball, there was this mom who

  493. was asking them, hey, does anybody need lemonade?

  494. Does anybody want a popsicle? And I was telling Lauren I was

  495. like, moms are fascinating to me.

  496. They're they're always asking, can they need a need a dads?

  497. I mean, we're just oblivious. I don't think I've ever asked my

  498. kid, Hey, guys, you don't need any lemonade.

  499. You don't need a popsicle. God is a Father, but He is the

  500. type of Father who not only sees our needs, he meets those needs.

  501. You may have a need for encouragement or affirmation or

  502. community or direction or peace or rest.

  503. You may not even see that you have this need, but God does.

  504. God sees, just as God saw Adam's need and he did something about

  505. it. Brothers and sisters, God sees

  506. your need and he will do something about it #3 it is a

  507. privilege to be a helper. It is a privilege to be a

  508. helper. When God saw that it was not

  509. good for Adam to be alone. How did God meet this need?

  510. God saw that Adam was alone. He had this need.

  511. How did God meet this need? He didn't say to him, I will

  512. make you a friend. He didn't say I will make a

  513. woman. He didn't say I will make a

  514. wife. He said I will make a helper.

  515. A helper. Now, there are some that

  516. absolutely despise this term. They feel it's degrading.

  517. You might despise this term. Feminism has so infiltrated our

  518. society and our culture, even the modern church, that the idea

  519. of calling women or wives helpers is considered toxic.

  520. But let me remind us all that this Hebrew word, Ezzer, helper,

  521. that Hebrew word ezzer, it's used 17 times in the Old

  522. Testament. Did you know that nine of the 17

  523. times it is used of God, nine of the 17 times it's used of God.

  524. Psalm 121, one to two. I lift my eyes to the hell

  525. hills. Where does my ezzer, my help

  526. come from? My ezzer, my help comes from the

  527. Lord. God is willing to be called our

  528. helper, and so for us in Christ. May we never think this term is

  529. beneath us. It is a privilege to be a

  530. helper. We are like God when we are a

  531. helper #4 God was mindful of Adam's specific need, and God

  532. met that specific need. God was mindful of Adam's

  533. specific need, and God met that specific need.

  534. You ever had somebody who wanted to help and they did help, but

  535. their help was really not that helpful?

  536. You ever had that happen? Sometimes people try to help

  537. with words, right? You share about like a hard

  538. trial in your life and they say, well, at least you have your

  539. health. You know, like, thanks, that

  540. wasn't helpful. Sometimes people give you

  541. unsolicited advice. You ever just been venting and

  542. then somebody gives you like a 10 step plan to fix your problem

  543. and you're like, thank you. I wasn't looking for that, but

  544. thank you. Sometimes we take our

  545. preferences and we place them on others in an attempt to be

  546. helpful the way that we we we try to take our preferences and

  547. put them on others. I will try to clean up Lauren's

  548. messes. She doesn't find it helpful and

  549. her mind, it's not a mess. It's like it's where I wanted to

  550. be and I'm like, I was, I was trying to help.

  551. See, I find it helpful. Sometimes you ask someone a

  552. simple question. You ever ask a simple question

  553. and someone gives you a seminar. Sometimes someone helps you with

  554. the project. But at the end you realize, I

  555. could have done this faster by myself.

  556. God didn't just see Adam's need. God saw Adam's specific need.

  557. Adam didn't just need a helper. He didn't need just a helper.

  558. God could have given him an ox or a donkey.

  559. If all he needed was a helper, they could The ox and the donkey

  560. could help him work and keep this garden.

  561. But God saw that Adam needed a specific type of helper, a

  562. helper that was fit for him, that corresponded to him.

  563. God never gives us unhelpful help.

  564. Ever. He's not only sees our need, he

  565. sees our very specific need. And he meets that need.

  566. Psalm 139 says that God is acquainted with all our ways,

  567. which means He's also acquainted with all of our specific needs.

  568. And He meets those specific needs #5 neither animals nor AI

  569. are suitable helpers for us. We need people.

  570. Neither animals nor AI are suitable helpers for us.

  571. We need people. I see two very dangerous trends

  572. going on in our society. 1 revolves around pets, the other

  573. revolves around AI. According to a 2024 Harris Poll,

  574. roughly 43% of Americans with higher concentrations among Gen.

  575. Z and millennials stated they would prefer to have a pet as

  576. their child rather than a human. 143% That's concerning.

  577. That's concerning. This is not just true with

  578. children, it's even true with dating and marriage.

  579. There are some people who will choose not to get married, or

  580. not to date, or perhaps not even to build solid friendships in

  581. their life. Why?

  582. Because they have a dog or a cat that meets those needs.

  583. That's concerning. What's interesting to me is that

  584. God brought all the animals before Adam and there was not

  585. found a helper fit for him. No animal couldn't meet Adam's

  586. need. And yes, I'm not if you, if you

  587. love dogs and cats or birds or I'm not hating on it, OK, I'm

  588. just saying they're not a helper for you and the way that God

  589. designs to have a helper for you.

  590. And the helper doesn't have to be a mate.

  591. It could be the church. No, not everybody's an animal

  592. lover. You're like, don't worry about

  593. me. I'm I'm not an animal lover.

  594. Never going to own an animal, never going to have a pet.

  595. Also, another dangerous trend going on our society in a

  596. completely different category and that is AI.

  597. There is a growing phenomenon where people are finding helpers

  598. in AI. Some of them develop

  599. relationships with AI. The dangers are real.

  600. AI can create echo chambers, right?

  601. And curate this to tell you what you want to hear.

  602. Does AI ever tell you what you don't want to hear?

  603. There can be an atrophy of compassion.

  604. You don't ever have to show compassion to AI.

  605. And then you can that that muscle of compassion can

  606. atrophy. And when you get to humans, you

  607. don't have it. There's monetized loneliness.

  608. You realize that AI benefits from our loneliness.

  609. It's incentivized. There's also a power nature.

  610. I get to be the boss. I get to be the king of this,

  611. this robot. I can even tell it what I wanted

  612. to say. I can tell it like, hey, when

  613. you respond to me, like, like, call me this.

  614. Call me king. It will.

  615. It'll call you king the rest of your life.

  616. There's a power nature there. In the same way that people

  617. exchanged idols for God, people today are exchanging animals and

  618. technology for people. Friends, God designed us for

  619. human interaction. We will always have this need.

  620. We will never outgrow this need. We will always need people.

  621. We will always need human interaction number six.

  622. In one verse God dismantles same sex marriage, polygamy, divorce,

  623. transgender, and sexual immorality.

  624. In one verse God dismantles same sex marriage, polygamy, divorce,

  625. transgender and sexual immorality.

  626. Genesis 224 is one of the most important verses in the Bible.

  627. It's quoted by Jesus for this reason.

  628. In this one verse God dismantles 5 sinful practices.

  629. Today let's take this one at a time.

  630. Same sex marriage. God says therefore a man shall

  631. leave his father and mother and hold fast to what?

  632. His wife, not his husband, but his wife.

  633. A wife is not holding fast to her wife.

  634. She holds fast to her husband. In addition, he leaves what?

  635. He leaves his mother and father. He does not leave his father's,

  636. he does not leave his mother's. He leaves his father and mother.

  637. B Polygamy. The statement that I have given

  638. before about this topic is this. Polygamy was a practice that God

  639. allowed as a concession in the Old Testament due to man's

  640. weakness, but was not part of his original design and it

  641. always had consequences. God's original design was not

  642. polygamy. God's original design was

  643. monogamy. We see it right here.

  644. Notice a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast

  645. to what? His wife singular, not wives

  646. wife singular. See divorce.

  647. The Pharisees one day came to Jesus to test him.

  648. They asked him, they said, teacher, is it lawful to divorce

  649. one's wife for any cause? And the way that Jesus answers

  650. this question is to quote Genesis 224.

  651. He concludes with this statement.

  652. So they are no longer 2, but one flesh.

  653. What? Therefore God has joined

  654. together, let not man separate D transgender.

  655. In Matthew 19, right before Jesus quoted Genesis 224, Jesus

  656. said this. Have you not read that He who

  657. created them from the beginning made them male and female?

  658. Now that's an interesting statement, isn't it?

  659. Because that's not what it says. It doesn't say that He made them

  660. male and female. It says He made them man and

  661. woman. There's a different Hebrew word

  662. for male and female. In other words, Jesus is saying

  663. a man is a male and a woman is a female.

  664. Further, He doesn't say he assigned them male and female,

  665. doesn't say he assigned them male.

  666. He says he made them male and female.

  667. He created them male and female. Gender is not assigned, it is

  668. created and made by God. Last 1 E Sexual immorality In

  669. Corinth, members of the church are engaging in temple

  670. prostitution, and Paul says to them, Do you not know that your

  671. bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of

  672. Christ and make them members of a prostitute?

  673. Never. Or do you not know that one who

  674. was joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her?

  675. For as it is written here, it is the 2 will become one flesh.

  676. Paul's point in there is that one flesh should only exist in

  677. the confines of marriage. That idea one flesh, it should

  678. not exist outside of marriage. It only should exist in the

  679. confines of marriage. And so in this one verse, don't

  680. ever say that the word of God, that one verse is not powerful

  681. and cannot teach us one verse. God dismantles same sex

  682. marriage, polygamy, divorce, transgender, and sexual

  683. immorality. All of it is there if we have

  684. eyes to see. Last point #7 A prudent wife or

  685. husband is from the Lord. A prudent wife or husband is

  686. from the Lord. Then let me start off by

  687. affirming that even though this passage seems to suggest that

  688. marriage is God's design for his people, you read this and it

  689. seems to suggest that God's design for us is to be married.

  690. Both Jesus and Paul affirm that singleness is better.

  691. When the disciples came to Jesus and they said Jesus, it is

  692. better not to marry. Jesus didn't say to them, no,

  693. no, no, no. He said not everyone can receive

  694. it, only those to whom it is given.

  695. In other words, he, he, he, he affirms it is better.

  696. Paul said he who refrains from marriage will do even better.

  697. First Corinthians 738 So this is not teaching that God's design

  698. is for everyone to be married. And if you're not married like

  699. something's wrong or or you're not living in God's will, no.

  700. But that being said, these verses are not intended to

  701. diminish the beauty of marriage when God made this helper.

  702. I love how this is worded. The text says he brought her to

  703. the man. He brought her to the man.

  704. It's as if God is presenting a gift to Adam.

  705. Proverbs 1914 says house and wealth are inherited from

  706. fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.

  707. And of course this is also true of husbands.

  708. We have around 11 married couples in our church who

  709. regularly attend around 11. Let me take the time to ask

  710. everyone of you and if you're visiting with us, if you're

  711. married as well, if you're, if you're dating and, and, and

  712. you're going to get married one day or if you're engaged and

  713. you're going to be married one day.

  714. Let me take the time to ask you a very direct question.

  715. Do you see your spouse as a gift from the Lord?

  716. Because they are. Do you see your spouse as a gift

  717. from God? Because they are.

  718. Let's pray.