East of Eden

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we always want to stop and celebrate what is happening, and then think of the future, what is God going to do in the future?

[SPEAKER_00]: As a ministry, we never want to get away from the things that are most important, most essential to what we do here.

[SPEAKER_00]: We, as individuals and as a ministry exist to make much of Christ, that is our goal.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so the way that we explain that, the words that we use to describe that, are to declare Jesus, which means to share the gospel with our believers.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we are to develop Jesus followers, which just means to help others follow Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the ways that this mission is carried out in Redeemer's students is through the preaching of God's Word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here on Winstonites, you're often going to hear us preach through big sections of the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: Often even whole books, we're going to go verse by verse section by section because it prevents us from kind of narrowing in on our favorite Bible passages and rehearsing our favorite Bible stories and it helps expand our horizon to see God's word is amazing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the whole counsel of God's Word is profitable for us for teaching correction, revoke, and training, and righteousness.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to present that week after week.

[SPEAKER_00]: With that being said, sometimes we pause from time to time, and we address some really specific issues that we think are going to be very helpful and profitable for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: This summer, we will be doing just that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the truth is, we live in a complex world that's pretty difficult, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: There are pressures, temptations, challenges, trials, sorrows that you guys are walking through right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we do believe that God's word is sufficient to address every circumstance in our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're going to use this as the foundation, but we're going to dive into those subjects in particular.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our world has become increasingly hostile to Christians.

[SPEAKER_00]: There were biblical values that maybe were assumed in your parent's stage or your grand parent's age, but they are soon no longer.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you guys will run into that if you haven't already as you go to school, maybe go to college and to the workforce, you're going to experience that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have to keep coming back and looking at this word to teach us how someone can respond to these issues in a way that honors God.

[SPEAKER_00]: How can an eighth grader successfully navigate the pomplex nature of life according to what God's word says?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does it look like to live unto God in a sinful and broken world?

[SPEAKER_00]: Those questions and more are exactly what we hope to address in this series called East of Eden.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is our series for the summer.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you see a building being constructed, there's one being built right out there right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be our new auditorium or worship center.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you see those buildings go off, what goes up before any of this structure are these metal frames that's around it and then there's these wood planks that go across, that is called scaffolding.

[SPEAKER_00]: scaffolding is necessary because it it sets the framework and it allows you to actually accomplish the work.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is, it's purpose is to prepare for what is ahead.

[SPEAKER_00]: And tonight's message is going to act similarly.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is going to give us this foundation for how do we tackle all of the issues that we're going to cover in this series?

[SPEAKER_00]: Such as dating, fear of man, technology, anxiety, anger, conflict, and more.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can turn your bibles with me to Psalm chapter 90.

Psalms 90 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: That is what we are going to be studying this evening.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may have never realized this as you read through the Psalms, if you have read through the Psalms, is that there's actually divisions within this book, not just the chapters.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are books that are collections of Psalms, of chapters of Psalms.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Psalm 90 is the first chapter, the first Psalm in book 4.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's written by Moses.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it shows us what I'm calling God's grand design.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Psalm 90, we're gonna look at verse one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth in the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

[SPEAKER_00]: You return man to dust and say, return, O children of man.

[SPEAKER_00]: For a thousand years in your sight are put as yesterday when it is passed, or as a watch in the night.

[SPEAKER_00]: You sweep them away as with a flood, and they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning, in the morning it flourishes and is renewed, but in the evening it fades in withers.

[SPEAKER_00]: For we are brought to an end by your anger,

[SPEAKER_00]: By your wrath, we are dismayed.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have set our iniquities before you and our secret sins in the light of your presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of our days pass away under your wrath.

[SPEAKER_00]: We bring our years to an end like a side.

[SPEAKER_00]: The years of our life are 70 or even by reason of strength 80, but their span is toil and trouble and they are soon gone.

[SPEAKER_00]: We fly away, verse 11. Who considers the power of God of your anger in your wrath according to the fear of you,

[SPEAKER_00]: So teach us, Lord, to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Return to Lord how long, have pity on your servants, satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's that line that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us and for as many years as we have seen evil.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children last verse.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And establish the work of our hands upon us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, establish the work of our hands.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pray with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, help us to see this word as more than just the virtue, more than just characters written on a page, but truly the living and active word of God would appear shall hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Would it convict us as sin,

[SPEAKER_00]: and would have show us the person of Jesus Christ who is merciful and gracious in the loving to those who cry out to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord help us to be ready to receive your word tonight in Jesus' name Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: On May 24th, 2020, my then-girlfriend, Emma and I,

[SPEAKER_00]: got engaged, I proposed and that was a big celebration day.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in order to propose, first, I had to go to a fancy jewelry store and buy an engagement ring.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's always expensive.

[SPEAKER_00]: You might want to start saving now, even if that's way on the rise, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: Save your money.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's worth it.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're not cheap.

[SPEAKER_00]: one of the really cool things about the place that I ordered my engagement ring for because they make them like individual, it's like a custom ring and so you kind of give the jeweler, I don't even know what their title is, but the guy who makes the ring, you get him your instructions, here's what I want and you kind of work together and then there's a big glass wall and you can just go look and watch them actually carve

[SPEAKER_00]: the ring that's going to be yours.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to give to your future spouse.

[SPEAKER_00]: They take this piece of wax and a carve it really intricately, very carefully, and then they put it in this mold, and then they put the mold in a fire and a kiln and it burns off the wax.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then, of course, the liquid metal inside that mold and then outpops the ring.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you were to look at that mold, if you were to peel open just the mold itself, what you would see is an exact imprint of that ring.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wouldn't be all glamorous and made of a precious metal, but it would show something of the ring that it resembles.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we look out at God's created world, we are meant to see the very same.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is displayed in His creation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's my first point tonight.

[SPEAKER_00]: As Moses begins this prayer in Psalm 90, he eludes to the created worlds.

[SPEAKER_00]: He looks at the earth and he compares it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He reflects on God's nature based on what he observes.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is fitting.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are so many beautiful places on the earth that do this.

[SPEAKER_00]: God created the world with power, beauty and order as a reflection as a display of who he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: You ever go to a national park or even a state park you go and you just observe mountains or you observe trees or oceans or even great lengths and you're like, wow, that is incredible how big this is or how old this is or how grand this is.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is meant to be a reflection of the God who put that there.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why in Genesis 1, when God created the world, it says, He looked out, He saw everything that He had made and behold, it was very good.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was pleasing to Him because it was an harmony of His nature.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in our passage, Moses is looking at creation and being reminded specifically of the eternality of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: It just means he is forever, from everlasting, from all the eternity past, God was already there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God will never end forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can't even conceive of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: God sees the mountains.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moses sees the mountains.

[SPEAKER_00]: He sees these enormous piles of rock and dirt.

[SPEAKER_00]: He just thinks, while before that was there, God, you already were.

[SPEAKER_00]: You already exist.

[SPEAKER_00]: You were the one who put that there.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was the one who brought it into existence and he did so with his words, just the breath of his mouth caused that into being.

[SPEAKER_00]: The purpose of the birds that's

[SPEAKER_00]: and the trees that wave their branches, the rivers that roar like thunder, it is all to be a reflection of the God who put it there.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was his design.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's meant to give praise to its creator.

[SPEAKER_00]: And while there, I think there is a sense that God observes those things and he has pleased with what he has made, that's what Genesis 1 says.

[SPEAKER_00]: The fact that you and I have eyes and ears, we have senses that we can experience God's creative world is an indication to us that we are to see those things.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are to observe those things and say, there must be someone who created that.

[SPEAKER_00]: There must be someone who put that there.

[SPEAKER_00]: There must be someone who organized that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beauty does not come out of chaos.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me give you an example, they're many that we could choose from of all of the incredible ways that God has made in the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is probably one that you have never heard of.

[SPEAKER_00]: You might not even believe me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would encourage you after the sermon.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can look it up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, if you don't believe me.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about honeybees, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: Honeybees spend much of their time flying around from flower to flower.

[SPEAKER_00]: They collect pollen and nectar, then they bring it back to their hive and that's what gives the nutrients that they need in order to grow and reproduce.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are foragers.

[SPEAKER_00]: They hunt for a good tree or a flower and then they bring it back to the hive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now think about this though, if a honeybee has to fly out, they're not very big.

[SPEAKER_00]: They don't have all that much energy stored up inside them.

[SPEAKER_00]: It takes a lot of energy to fly all the way across the garrard, you only take 30 seconds to walk it, takes them a lot of energy to get across and get the pond and then come back.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it would be way more efficient if they could just somehow communicate and say, hey, Johnny, over there, there's a good tree that you want to go to.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: attracting with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: So these bees are trying to have a way of communicating and this one man who spent a long time probably too long studying honey bees discovered that they do have a way of communicating and it's called the B-wag old dance.

[SPEAKER_00]: The B-wag, you know, I just just made up.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's not.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, look it up after.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look it up after.

[SPEAKER_00]: when a bee returns to the hive.

[SPEAKER_00]: He does this little dance.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what he's doing in this little dance is he's indicating to the other bees not only which direction they are to go in purporting to the sun using geometry, but also how far they are supposed to fly and he takes into account the amount of wind that is blowing within or against them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, this is how much energy you're going to need in order to get to that point.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he tells them that, by dancing, can you believe that, like, a B is better at geometry than I am.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet this man who studied this and came up with this concept and then proved it, he got a Nobel Prize.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, we forget the God who programmed it into the beat.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've realized that, that God has such an amazing, powerful, ordered, beautiful brain.

[SPEAKER_00]: He just puts stuff like that all over creation, just to show off and say, I am that great.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am that powerful.

[SPEAKER_00]: God does this all over in the physical world.

[SPEAKER_00]: But even beyond, he gives these high point moments in our lives to enjoy, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: A delicious meal, just, I feel like this is from heaven, amen?

[SPEAKER_00]: Good conversations with your family.

[SPEAKER_00]: Laughter with your friends, a sense of accomplishment when you do something hard and challenging, all of those things are an echo of God's gifts to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are made to be received with Thanksgiving.

[SPEAKER_00]: even the physical act of rest, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes you just get home and like the only thing you're looking for, I just want to put it back, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I've been there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is just, it's such a blessing to experience that all of these things are given by God to us for us to experience and to thank Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is we get tricked up when we don't look beyond those gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we don't look beyond the thing that he gives us,

[SPEAKER_00]: In the New Testament, James is talking about wisdom, but I think this is a universal application.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, when we go to God, we are going to the giver.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is the title that he uses of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this giver offers freely every good and perfect gift from above.

[SPEAKER_00]: He does not give with reproach, scolding us for coming to ask him,

[SPEAKER_00]: gladly, freely, lovingly, cheerfully gives to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: That means that every one of the good things that you see, feel and experience is meant to lift your eyes off of this world, all of yourself, and all into the God who made you, and everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is its purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: The world was created good because it was made by a good God, but that raises a question in our minds.

[SPEAKER_00]: What happened?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because yes, there are a lot of good things in this world that we can enjoy.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a lot of hard moments too.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of trials that we have to work through.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what happened in a word, sin?

[SPEAKER_00]: Point number two, sin is shown in dysfunction.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sin is shown in dysfunction.

[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 3 of Psalm 90, the Psalmist says, you return man to dust.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you say, return oh children of man.

[SPEAKER_00]: And these words, maybe you might be familiar with what they lean back to, which is in Genesis chapter three.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moses was actually the writer of this song and the book of Genesis and you can keep a finger or ribbon in Psalm 90 but we're going to go all the way back to the beginning of our Bible's Genesis chapter 3 because I want you to see something there.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: When God placed the first man in the garden he gave him clear instructions and he was to pass on to his wife Eve.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God clearly prescribed He laid out in very plain terms what obeying Him would require and also all of the blessings that Adam would get if He did obey God, if He continued to walk with Him, tragically the man and the woman were deceived and instead they chose their own path of sin, and it takes

[SPEAKER_00]: the Bible to help us understand that sin is not just a little slip up, it's not just an accident, a little mistake.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's against a holy God.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may have heard before the illustration of scratching, taking a key and scratching a car, and if you were to do that in a junkyard,

[SPEAKER_00]: people would just look at you funny, but no one would really care because the car is going to get strapped anyways.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you were to take that same key and go to a used car law and do the same scratch, well, not going to get trouble.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to get kicked out of that car law and you're probably going to have to pay a few hundred dollars to repair that damage car.

[SPEAKER_00]: But now if you take the same little tiny key,

[SPEAKER_00]: and do the same little scratch except this time it's at the Lamborghini store and you're doing it on an event store that's brand new in the show room what's going to happen now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not good at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can get arrested, you're going to have to pay tens of thousands of dollars in order to pay back what you owe.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now the question is, is what change?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the action itself didn't change.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, but the object against it changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: The value of the object that you perform the same action against has increased, and therefore the consequences increased.

[SPEAKER_00]: So now we take that from a car, which there are millions of in this world, to the God that created and owns all things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we can see, this is a big deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sin is a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is more significant than making poor choices.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as R.C.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sprull said, it is cosmic treason.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cosmic treason.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is offensive and it requires the payment of death.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have to understand this framework in order to make sense of what God tells Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter three.

[SPEAKER_00]: He does it in a surprising way, because he gives it a dive and he gives the punishment, but that's not all.

[SPEAKER_00]: It gives a curse on three different people.

[SPEAKER_00]: First he talks to the serpent, which I don't time to go into tonight.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a representation of Satan and all of the undelieving people in the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: But look at verse 16.

[SPEAKER_00]: God speaking to the woman after they had sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and child bearing.

[SPEAKER_00]: In pain, you shall bring forth children.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your desire shall be contrary to your husband but he shall rule over you.

[SPEAKER_00]: or 17 into Adam, he said, 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 as the ground because of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorns and pistols that shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.

[SPEAKER_00]: The main task that God had given the man and the woman in the garden was to be fruitful and multiply to have children and to work and to keep the land.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was their responsibility.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so now, when God curses them, this curse is something that not only puts the stage for the rest of the Bible, but actually our lives too.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to see this.

[SPEAKER_00]: This curse is the reason why life is hard and challenging.

[SPEAKER_00]: because the very things that you were created to do have now become difficult and in a way unnatural to who you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: They will be painful and weary some all the way until you return to the dust.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses recognizes this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in Psalm 90 that is what the echo of God's judgment is being displayed.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's coming out all over in this passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, the people in the world are being carried away.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like they're asleep in a dream.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're just going down this river and they are heading to destruction.

[SPEAKER_00]: They don't even realize it.

[SPEAKER_00]: They don't even recognize what is coming.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their life is lived with zero recognition of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one day it will come to a screeching halt.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what Moses is commenting in Psalm 90.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though these people may relatively have

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll come to an end.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 7 says, we are brought to an end by your anger, by your wrath we are dismayed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in the next verse he connects this judgment to sin,

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, over and over in this passage, the Solomon says, God is the one who is bringing these things.

[SPEAKER_00]: First three, you return man to the dust.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse five, you sweep them away as a flood.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse seven, you're anger in wrath to smash us.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is executing his perfect judgment as the one who sees and knows all things.

[SPEAKER_00]: We often don't connect sin in this function together, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We think, okay, I did this sin and my life is hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: And while in Scripture, it doesn't always communicate that.

[SPEAKER_00]: This one sin is the result of this one hard consequence.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not always the case, but sometimes it is in Scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes we forget that.

[SPEAKER_00]: The dysfunction in general, though, is meant to show that sin is a problem and it is a bigger problem than we realize.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think of it this way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you have cars, one day, hopefully all of you will have a car at some point in your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes when you're driving your car, there's a light that comes on in the dashboard.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does that light tell you?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's telling you that something is wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something is out of order.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what should you do when that light comes on in the dashboard?

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're like me, you might try and wait for seven years and hope that it goes away.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's probably not a good strategy, so far it's worked.

[SPEAKER_00]: But seriously, it could be pointing to something that is really wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you want to know what that is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some people go through their whole lives, feeling the effects of sin, trials, hardships, challenges, and completely missing the point that this might be a warning light in their life to say, God's judgment is real.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is really a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you don't change, there will be a bigger problem that these sorrows in life are not the worst part, but suffering the wrath of God and hell is far worse than that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like when a loving father disciplines his son.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because in a moment, he is called to inflict a small, momentary passing pain with the purpose of curbing their desire or their inclination towards the greater pain that would be coming.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the question that I want you guys to think about is, what is it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the trials that you are facing in your life are meant to be warning lights for you to say, for God to say to you, the path that I am on is not a good path.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, it may even be the path of destruction.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God is not mean in telling you through pain.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually loving you because he's alerting you to the danger of the situation and the gravity of where you're at.

[SPEAKER_00]: How should you respond?

[SPEAKER_00]: The same way Moses responds in Psalm 90, with a prayer of hope that is ultimately found in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the last point.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at verse 12.

[SPEAKER_00]: Teach us to number our days, so that we may get a heart of wisdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Return a Lord how long have pity on your servants, but satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,

[SPEAKER_00]: I love that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Moses starts this prayer with this recognition of the greatness, the majesty of God, and then he confesses his own sin and his need for a Savior, and then he finally reaches this hope that God is going to have mercy on him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And how could he have confidence that this great God who he has offended would have mercy on him in any way other than Jesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: He can't.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Jesus died on the cross, he endured the full weight of the wrath of God, which means that for all of those who trust in what Jesus has done, God will not expect or receive a double payment.

[SPEAKER_00]: If Jesus has suffered for you, that means you won't suffer for it too.

[SPEAKER_00]: That would make God unfair.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moses prays that the Lord would satisfy him.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are a lot of things in this world that can give us a temporary satisfaction.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of those things are good things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of them are not.

[SPEAKER_00]: But all of them are going to fall short in the end if they are viewed apart from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's also interesting that Moses asked for this first thing in the morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, I'm sure some of you can relate.

[SPEAKER_00]: Many of you probably, the first thing when you wake up, you think about or you do,

[SPEAKER_00]: It kind of sets the trajectory for the whole rest of your day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you a bad morning?

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's hard to recover from that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why Moses is asking Lord, in the morning, right when I wake up, satisfy me with what I know is best.

[SPEAKER_00]: Satisfy me with your love.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's his prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love the last verse of this Psalm 2.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let the favor of the Lord are God, the upon us, establish the work of our hands, establish the work of our hands.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's he praying for?

[SPEAKER_00]: of course for help, but also he's echoing back to Genesis 3-17.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's asking that God would reverse the curse and now the work that was going to be painful and toil some and weary some, now he would be blessed as he does it, and it would bring honor to God as he does it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is praying that God's favor would overcome his judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's praying that the land now he lives in would be reverted back to be a land like the guardian of Eden.

[SPEAKER_00]: One day that will happen, and Jesus has already secured it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is not a matter of if, but when we will inhabit it, believe her.

[SPEAKER_00]: But He has not brought it yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is a theme of already, but not yet, and it's everywhere in Scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's an understanding this idea is going to give us this proper perspective on how we are to live in a land that is east of Eden.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know that many of you students are going to be tested in various ways, and many of you already experience in those challenges and trials and tests and pressures, temptations right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe even as you go home tonight, maybe even before you leave tonight.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to equip you through this series with the Word of God to know how to walk and live in that way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you may even be experiencing the warning lights of God's judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if so, cry out from mercy from Him, He will graciously give it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is gracious and merciful.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God has created this world as a display of His glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we see the dysfunction in this world, we are meant to be reminded that there is judgment for sin and it is severe, but we can have hope that what Jesus has accomplished will come to pass in our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to pray with me.