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00:01 Right. So, um, today we're going to look at Genesis chapter 2. And Genesis chapter 2 is very important. It it
00:06 answers a lot of questions to life. Whether it's where do we come from, what
00:11 is the meaning of life, morality, where are we going? Uh, and basically the main
00:17 thing about Genesis chapter 2 is that it we our our purpose is to reflect the
00:24 glory of our good God. We're designed for glory. We're purposed for glory and
00:30 we're relating for glory. Now uh Genesis 2:es 4-7 there are generations of heaven
00:37 and earth and they when they were created in the day that the Lord made the earth and the heavens. The word
00:42 generations is like uh to bear children. Okay. Uh and the Lord God this is a word
00:48 called Yahweh. In chapter one they use Elohim. Uh and Yahweh is a more personal
00:55 name of God. It means it's transcendent, is separate, one cast as more caring and
00:60 involved in the creation of man. And Genesis chapter 2 is a recapitulation of
01:06 what happened chapter one in the on the sixth day. It is not a sequential. There
01:11 are some people who interpret this as sequential. God created human beings
01:16 chapter one and then chapter two out of all the human beings got two special one
01:21 and then they become the chosen race and then the rest then explain that's why Cain got his wife because the people
01:27 were created before uh not so if you look very carefully this is a recapitulation of what actually happened
01:33 chapter one it describes a very barren place where there's nothing there's no
01:38 vegetation uh all there is is just the mist that comes out of the ground and
01:44 see the way God is described. Lord God formed man from the dust from
01:51 the ground and breathe life into his nostril breath of life and the man became a living creature. Here you see
01:57 in chapter one God says let there be light and there was light. Let there be land and there was land. Let there be this let there he creates by his voice.
02:05 In chapter two the author goes into graphic detail how he does it and there's a reason why he does it. He says
02:11 God gets personally involved. In chapter two, you're seeing that there's dirt.
02:18 All that man is is dirt. And in the Old Testament, dirt is a symbol of frustration, of defeat, of worth
02:26 nothing. When people actually um uh mourn the dead, they take the dust, throw upon themselves. It's a sign of
02:33 defeat, of frustration. God comes down and takes what is worthless
02:39 and gets his hands. He's trying to tell you God get his hands dirty and creates and puts his hand on his
02:45 mouth onto this and he creates a man breathes into this and this becomes a
02:51 creature of life. That's why Job writes the spirit of God has made me and the breath of the almighty gives me life.
02:57 And God planted a garden in Eden in the east where you put a man who formed in in in the old testament times only a
03:04 rich person can have a garden. And here Adam is described as the richest man
03:09 alive. Out of the ground, God made to spring up every tree that's pleasant for sight and good food. But in the middle
03:15 of the uh the the garden, there was a tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then there's
03:23 a whole description of what garden of Eden is describing the four rivers, Tigris, Euphrates, and two other rivers.
03:30 And then around all this land is gold and delium. Why is the author doing this? The author
03:36 doing this to tell you that this is a historical place. You actually have Euphrates and tigers to this day. The
03:42 other two we don't know. So therefore, Eden is lost. We don't know where it is. But the important thing is that this is
03:48 a historical geographical place where God has put man a with divine care a
03:54 life of full of possibilities. And here he's in the garden and there's a to knowledge, a tree of knowledge, good and
04:00 evil. And then the tree of life. Tree of life is important because this is where gives you eternal life in chapter three
04:06 when man sins. Uh God says you rather kick him out of the garden of Eden because if he takes uh the tree of the
04:13 the fruit of the tree of life he will live forever in an evil state and that would be a terrible thing. So he kicks
04:19 him out but you see revelations the tree of life is back again. Let me read to you in Revelations. The angels showed me
04:25 the river of the water of life bright as crystal flowing from the throne of God and from the lamb through the middle of
04:31 the street of the city also on either side of the river the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit
04:38 on each month the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. So at the end of time, at the beginning
04:43 there's a garden of Edom, tree of life. At the end there's also a tree of life. Which means God purposed for mankind
04:52 eternal life. And then right in the middle garden, God commanded the man saying, "You shall shall eat of every
04:57 tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. In the day of you eat it, you shall surely die." So here
05:05 you actually have a garden full of possibilities where man is made to
05:12 flourish. It is human flourishing but in obedience. You can have everything you
05:18 want in life but there is obedience. There's the law. Why? Because that is a
05:24 sign of being a creature. All right? God gives you everything except the fact you have to recognize you're a creature. And
05:30 so therefore human flourishing in obedience. If you contrast this to the ancient near east at the same time when
05:35 Moses wrote this people in Babylon described the beginning of time and what
05:40 they describe is that this is the enuma elish uh where there's a god Marduk and how does he create man? Uh I will create
05:47 the first man is called Lulu. I fancy every name called Lulu. I prefer Adam.
05:53 Uh on whom the toil of the gods will be laid for they may rest. So therefore man is supposed to work very hard like those
05:59 mouse running in the wheel so that the gods can rest. Uh he put down here and he imposed service on the ser he opposed
06:06 the service of gods upon them. So man here is a slave uh in ancient near east
06:11 uh writings with the Babylonians. The Sumerians have a different idea. They've got this god called Anki. That is this
06:17 Anki. Can you see? Very ga. All right. Uh Enki. The gods were digging the decanals and piling up silk in Harali.
06:24 The gods dredging the clay began complaining about this life. His mother Namu brought the tears of the gods to
06:29 before Enki and says, "Oh my son, arise from the bed, from the slumber, work is wise. Fashion servants for gods that
06:35 they may produce their bread." So again, man is made to make bread for the gods,
06:40 isn't it? All right. And then you've got uh uh a flawed random creation. Enki
06:45 looked at the one with both feet broken, the one with paralyzed feet, and him for work of the silver smith. So he made him
06:52 do silver smith. He fashioned another one, a third one born as an idiot. And Anki looked at this one. One born as an
06:59 idiot and decreed his fate. He appointed him as the servant of the king, a politician.
07:06 The ones who are idiots go become politician and play around and all that sometime become prime minister. Um
07:15 you see we when atheists get together they they they they condemn. The reason
07:20 why they don't believe in God is say what kind of God is it? You got some Anky produce somebody paralyzed free
07:26 somebody idiot and all that. What kind of God is this? If God is so powerful, how can you create pe you know paralyzed
07:33 feet idiots and all these sort of things? There must not be a God. But Genesis chapter 2 tells you there was a
07:39 time there was a time way back in time when God made everything perfect. Now
07:45 otherwise you will believe like Stephen Hawkings that we are just an advanced breed of monkey on the mining planet of
07:51 a very average star that we can understand the universe that makes us very special just because we can understand the universe. uh if that's
07:58 your outlook in life then it's very very depressing is it uh if you look at ancient Greek right if you look at
08:05 ancient Greek after the Persian wars they decided to give citizenship only to
08:11 the men you know why they are bumutra Athenian males sprang from the soil mean
08:17 the first bumra is actually Greek so they stole it from that idea okay sons
08:23 of the s okay the the Americans They they actually look the whites look down
08:28 the blacks because of Samuel Morton. Uh in 1851 the Charleston Medical Journal
08:33 in South Carolina praised Samuel Morton for giving the Negro his due position as an inferior race. Why? Because they look
08:38 at all the skull and the negro smaller a bit the brain smaller bit so must be inferior.
08:43 And so therefore they use all these characteristics to discriminate against
08:49 various people. The biblical implications that we cannot treat people better or worse based on race, social
08:55 status, gender, riches, accomplishments, jobs, military, uh, rank or even
09:01 royalty. We are to love and serve people. Matthew 25 talks about in the
09:08 last days, the people are supposed to uh uh ask Jesus, Lord, when do we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked
09:15 or sick in prison and did not minister to you? And he said to them, "Truly I said to you, as you did not do it to one
09:20 of the least of these, you did not do it to me." Which means whoever you treat,
09:25 whether is Chinese, Indian or Malay, rich or poor, male or female, as you
09:33 minister to them, you minister to God. And if you mistreat them, this is Isaiah
09:40 chapter one. When you spread your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. It's like a worship session. You all jump up and
09:47 down. God hid hide his eyes. All right. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of
09:53 blood. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil from your deeds before your eyes. Cease to do evil.
09:59 Learn to do good. Seek justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless. And plead the widow's cause.
10:04 Because each person is made in the image of God. So therefore, you cannot oppress them. We are purposed for glory. Why are
10:13 you born? Why are you here today? We are here not only to design to bring glory
10:18 to God. We are purpose. We have a purpose. Ancient idea of work in inuma elish is the man is to work for the god.
10:26 So therefore all the donkey work you do. So work is bad isn't it? All right. So
10:31 if you uh remember that Pandora's box Pandora was given a box by the gods and
10:36 they say you know you tell a woman here's a nice jewelry box that you keep it. I don't open.
10:43 Sure. She open right. She opens and out comes evil. Sickness, envy, suffering
10:48 and work also. So work by the ancient Greeks is basically an evil. All right.
10:54 Plato and Aristotle big philosophers. All right. So work is bad. Now in some
11:01 of you must work in order that the minority the elite might engage in pure exercises of the mind, art, philosophy
11:08 and politics. That's why you got to work to support the politicians starting tomorrow.
11:14 Uh Genesis 2:15, the Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work and keep it. And the Lord commanded
11:22 the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day you
11:28 eat of it, you shall surely die." And here you have a delegation of a
11:34 partnership where actually God gives work to the man. Not that God, you see,
11:40 God can plant a garden. God can create the world. He doesn't need you to bring all you see. He brought them to the man
11:46 to ask him how you call. So bring all the animals the cumbing to the man and
11:51 the man said this one look like coming Mr. and Mrs. Cumbing right and then oh
11:58 this one very big one very tall G giraffe so this is what he's doing um
12:04 you think God doesn't know how to name them God delegates it. is the issue of having dominion. So therefore they are
12:11 partners with God. Um the words to work and keep it in Hebrew are significant.
12:17 Abad is to serve just like Israelites serving God. And Samar is a Hebrew word
12:22 which are religious words to protect or exercise care or great care. The same words that we use for the cherubim the
12:28 angel to guard the garden of Eden. And also the same word were for priests who keep the temple clean and sacred and
12:35 holy. So, so, so basically the garden of Eden is like a temple where you actually
12:40 worship, we actually experience the presence of God. So, you actually have the garden of Eden is a place for human
12:47 flourishing. Everything good happens in the garden of Eden and it's the most unique place in the world. You know why? Because it's a place where you play in
12:54 the garden. It's a home for the couple. It's a workplace for the couple and it's also a temple to worship God. So, on
12:60 Sunday, you don't go to church. You know, the church is in your house. There's no dichotomy between all the
13:06 functions of man. And here they are to express the image of God revealing God through their work. They create their
13:13 marriage, the order of stewardship, everything is reflective of who God is. Here's Julia Gillard in a speech in
13:20 2011. She says prime minister of Australia that work is a social good that governments are to promote and help
13:26 make every available to everyone if the circumstances allow it. Which means governments believe that work is good
13:32 not just to merely to keep you out of trouble but it's actually a social good and and Robert Bank writes the various
13:39 categories of work that we actually have redemptive providential creative these are all good works that we do to glorify
13:47 God in our lives. All right. And all these works actually we believe will carry on until
13:54 eternity. When the new heavens and new earths come here we will carry on the work. So some of you involved in some
14:00 line of earth will be called the sunset industry. You must not do that anymore like my job. When the new heaven and new
14:07 earth come, you think anybody will be sick. Nobody will be sick. All right? So you
14:13 better change. That's why I'm doing this second job. I will still have a job in heaven. All
14:19 right? So work has lost its meaning. If you look in as a survey done in the
14:25 United States some time ago and they they actually looked at employees and the employees said that their their work
14:30 on average employee says that their work is half as meaningful as it should be. So work designed for man to give you a
14:37 sense of accomplishment as part of who you are and and the way we work nowadays
14:42 is half as meaningful as it could be. Nine out of 10 people are willing to work for less money but for more
14:49 meaningful work. They're actually willing to sacrifice 23% of future earnings just take a pay cut just to get
14:54 a better job in terms of meaning, right? Meaningful work means you in retain more
15:02 talent, people have less turnover staff. uh you uh employees work more extra hour
15:10 per week and take less leave and raising one employees experience from average to
15:16 highly meaningful generates extra $9,000 in labor output per year. So our employees have employers have all the
15:23 benefits to actually increase meaningful work. Tim Keller tells us about the current generation.
15:30 Our generation insists that work is be fulfilling and fruitful that it will
15:35 fully fit our talents and for our dreams and that it'll do something amazing for the world. Every young person would do
15:41 that, right? Wrong planet doesn't exist. You know
15:47 why? First of all, work is now a compulsory act of survival. Because of
15:52 sin, you curses the ground because of you. In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and
15:59 thistle it shall bring forth for you. You shall eat all the plants of the field by the sweat of your face. You shall eat the bread until you return the
16:05 ground. Out of it you were taken. You were dust and to dust you shall return. So because of sin work has become an act
16:12 of survival. It's not to do the most as amazing thing for God for in the world. It's been distorted. Work can also be as
16:19 an identity. If you look at uh there are two lines of humanity in Genesis chapter
16:25 4 and chapter 5. The first line of humanity is a line of Cain. The second line is the line of Seth. Seth the godly
16:31 one. If you look at the line of Seth, all of them are always described as they started calling upon the name of the
16:36 Lord. Every descendant in chapter five talks about calling on the name of the Lord. Chapter four talks about Cain's
16:42 descendant. Let's talk about Cain's descendant. Adela bore Jabal. He was the
16:48 father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those
16:54 who play the liar and the pipe. Zilla who bought tubcane. He was the forger of
16:59 all instruments and bronze and iron. You see the people are now being identified
17:05 with the things that they have invented. Isn't it? They're defined. So we talk about Steve Jobes Apple, Jeff Bezos,
17:13 Amazon. Isn't that funny? Now, now instead of God being your identity, who is your
17:20 identity? The work that you do becomes your identity. That's why that's why in western countries you have Mr. Smith,
17:26 Mr. Baker, Mr. Butcher. Why? Because they describe the work
17:31 becomes your identity. And the third issue here is that it's a basis of self-esteem. In in Genesis chapter 11,
17:37 you'll read about the people who gathered together with technology. They got new technology and they said to one another, "Come, let us bake bricks and
17:44 burn them thoroughly. There are bricks for stone, bumenumen for mortar." And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves
17:50 a city and a tower with the top on the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the
17:56 face of the whole earth." So therefore, their job is the basis of their self. Instead, if you were thriving medical
18:02 practice or law practice or business, if you're Jeff Bezos, they make $1 billion every minute. Wow. I feel very chung,
18:09 you know, I'm very powerful. And some people work not because of extra dollar. It's because they want to achieve. So
18:15 this is the evolution of work today and because of that there's a lot of
18:20 distortion in there. If work is your identity you're going to be a workaholic isn't
18:26 it? Of course you want to go to work. Your secretary cow out to you. They bring you coffee every day. All the
18:32 people say boss. You go home. Your wife say go take the garbage out. Right. What you didn't take out.
18:37 Yesterday also didn't take out. Today I didn't take out you. You know I've been there with the baby the whole day in a bucket. You never go and help.
18:44 Right. So you want to go home. I think I better stay at work because you see see
18:50 that's the whole idea workerism because your identity comes from work. At home you're nobody. Your wife don't look at
18:56 you. That's the problem. Or work as self-esteem, competition,
19:02 uh power pay, retirement is a death. A 94 year old who won't retire.
19:08 Halama, you work how long, how much trouble you cause. Some more you don't want to retire unless they force you to retire today. Isn't that I mean that's
19:15 the problem our country, right? Because you got old people who don't know when they should retire
19:21 because why? Work is self-esteem. Today, what is he? ex-p prime minister
19:27 yesterday interim prime minister before that prime minister before that you know and today who are you bola nobody look
19:33 at you anymore because you are an ex nobody looks at an ex it's like your your former wife X right so so I think
19:41 that's the problem work becomes your self-esteem or work as just earning a living if work is just earning a living
19:47 the best thing you earn enough no need to work long and no need to work you retire you die within 5 years they've
19:53 shown because work is important to our human psyche to human development. So
19:59 these are all distortions of work that we experience. Christians are even worse. Christians
20:05 here either got the po poverty gospel or the prosperity gospel. They're like opposites. Some of them believe with the
20:12 poverty gospel that you get possessions. Why? The possessions are evil. Don't better not own many things. I have a
20:18 small proton saga to go. Prosperity gospel. Oh, I must have a big car because it's my right or the purpose of
20:26 money. So, basic needs pro poverty gospel. Prosperity gospel. Oh, I want
20:32 possession to become rich. Godly people in poverty gospel are poor. Godly people
20:37 prosperity gospel are rich. Ungodly people are rich. In poverty gospel, prosperity gospel, they're poor. I give
20:44 because I have to. If you're poverty gospel, you prosperity gospel, I give to get more. Wow. Very good. My spending.
20:51 without gratitude with poverty gospel with prosperity gospel is carefree and consumptive. You see if you look very
20:57 carefully these two kinds of approach to our faith you'll find that they're all
21:02 focused on what you have. Isn't it they make what we own the most
21:08 important variable rather than whom we work for and why we work. They don't ask
21:13 why we work and whom you work for. They only ask about how much I get. You pay me more, I'm off.
21:20 The Genesis alternative is the stewardship of gospel where possessions are responsibility.
21:27 Purpose is to serve God. Godly people are neither rich nor poor. They're faithful. Ungodly people are unfaithful.
21:34 I give because I love God and my spending is prayerful and responsible.
21:39 That is the proper place where work glorifies
21:45 God. Thirdly is that we need to in Genesis chapter 3 learn that we are
21:50 relating for glory. Here you have the Lord said it's not good for the man that you be alone. I will make him helper fit
21:58 for him. Out of the ground the Lord formed every beast of the field, every bird of the heavens and brought them to
22:03 the man to see whether he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was his name. Man
22:09 gave uh to all the livestock and to birds of the heavens and to every beast in the field. But Adam there was not
22:15 found a helper fit for him. So here you have a situation where for the first time everything is good in creation
22:22 chapter one chapter every good you come to the creation of man and woman suddenly I don't know why God doesn't
22:28 make the two fellas one shot. You think you know cannot God can make
22:35 the two fellows one shot right he purposely makes one first make him very lonely you know bring all the animals
22:42 this one Mr. Mrs. dog Mr. Mrs. cat Mr. whatever. So the feel, oh something missing here. I mean that's the way he
22:49 drags it out. And so therefore loneliness God and Adam are in perfect relationship
22:54 and yet something is missing which means this is a design. It's a designed need.
22:60 God has designed a need that we need to have another person to fellowship with.
23:06 There's a story of a recent Japanese billionaire looking for a life party. He flying to he got enough money to fly to
23:11 the moon. I don't know how many of you can take all of us can only afford air Asia fly to Sydney. This fellow can go
23:18 to the moon and back. All he's looking for is a wife. Some of you want to apply. Uh deadline finish. Sorry.
23:27 Also no visa to go. Right. He he wants is the wife the only cure for his
23:32 loneliness? Yes, it is. Otherwise, you take a dog hat, you know. All right. Very faithful dog. Um we see the way God
23:40 created us that we need compliments not clones for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him the words helper is
23:49 doesn't imply that the person is inferior it's just different providing different set of uh skill sets and
23:56 canigo is corresponding which is is correspond to him matching him complimentary to him okay so we need
24:03 lifelong deep fellowship with people different from us not the All right. There was a uh Today show
24:10 very very popular in Australia uh with Allison Langdon, a pretty young girl there. And she was reading out this uh
24:17 uh post from Facebook and Facebook this uh housewife in Brisbane writes, "Broo
24:23 Smith, I always make sure that I don't go to bed until every once is packed, their clothes are set out for the next
24:30 day, including my husband's, and the house is clean, the dishwasher is on, and a load of washing is on. Sometimes
24:35 it means I go to bed at night. Sometimes I go to bed at midnight. I always get up
24:40 early at 4:30 a.m. with my husband to make sure his breakfast to make his breakfast and his coffee.
24:47 And you see like this you know what Allison Langon was doing laughing. You
24:52 stupid woman. Huh? Bingato wake up 4:30 in the morning big coffee and why the fellow cannot get his own breakfast eat
24:59 cereal just pour milk into the thing. You know what's wrong with this husband? They were mocking this woman. But
25:05 actually this woman lives a life out of a posture of serving other people.
25:11 Seeing them blessed is more important. But Allison Langdon cannot see this.
25:17 Which is actually very sad, isn't it? When we have polls, they talk about the
25:22 new government in Malaysia. 14% of the Dewan Rayat are women. Eight
25:28 women or six women in the cabinet. You're always talking about that. How many judges? How many? They never talk about how many women are laborers. How
25:36 many women and men are waiters and waitresses? They only talk about high ranking position. Why? Because we bought
25:41 into this idea that money and status will give you happiness. And that this woman who cooks for her husband and does
25:48 things for her husband is a poor thing. Is that mean? And then so we have a
25:54 generation of women involved in professional life. If you actually have
25:59 on Facebook another post, I make sure before I go to bed, I finish
26:05 all my emails to my clients. I make sure before I go to bed up 12
26:10 midnight, I do all my research for my for my pitch to my boss tomorrow. Then I wake up 4:30 to make sure I'm ready to
26:17 go to work and I'm arrived there before anybody else to make sure the boss see me before he comes in. Last year I got
26:25 promoted to CFO. this year I'll be there as CEO. You think people will laugh?
26:31 They won't laugh because the woman is bought into the idea that this will give
26:37 you happiness. And equality is only defined by such things. And then you can find the the
26:44 thousands of young women in their 30s and 40s who who have followed this lie and actually they came they actually not
26:50 fulfilled. They're not happy and they're looking is there more to life than this?
26:55 So, so we need to be careful. Uh, the other issue is gender fluidity.
27:01 Here you have talking about a woman who is a complimentary to man. Here you have uh this ch lady from the University of
27:09 Bermont and she describes this phenomena called gender fluidity. Uh if you imagine the spectrum and imagine the
27:15 most feminine expression you have ever seen and most masculine you have ever seen. Just sort of imagine where you are
27:21 on that. Which means there's no more male and female. There's this male here, female here in between a big spectrum
27:26 and you you choose where you are going to be and this is very very dangerous.
27:31 Here's one of the uh ladies and she writes or he writes or it writes I don't know they might wake up in the morning
27:38 as a man or as a woman sometimes as both sometime as neither. How I express is
27:44 usually how I dress how I do my hair and then my mannerism change the way I speak might change a little too. So I don't
27:52 know morning I may go to male toilet fe evening I go to female toilet it's a bit
27:57 confusing isn't it and this gets worse for the women you know why this woman called Laurel Hubbet in New Zealand
28:04 every weightlifting competition go gold medal you know why used to be a man
28:10 ah there's an Australian politician said next time Olympics we should have genderless Olympics no male no female oh
28:18 whether go for boxing isn't that or the woman can already I mean what kind of ridiculous thing this is Rose Ward and
28:25 Rose Ward is a very famous LGBTQ transgender person in Australia. She
28:30 started safe schools schools that will teach uh uh uh gender fluidity and
28:36 transgender issues and she writes LGBTI and hetronormativity
28:41 oppression of it are woven into the fabric of capitalism. only Marxism and the overthrow of that system provides a
28:48 theory and the practice genuine human liberation. It offers the hope and a
28:54 strategy to overcome to create a world where human sexuality and gender and how we relate to our bodies can blossom in
29:01 extraordinarily new and amazing ways we can only imagine today. So she's saying
29:07 the LGBTQ population are being oppressed, persecuted by heterronormativity, which
29:14 normal people are who believe in binary sex. And that is the cause of all the psychological issues and all that. And
29:21 and I find it hard to believe because a lot of psychological issues arise from immorality and sin and people struggle
29:28 with the basic binary code which God puts into our lives. You see, we're
29:33 trying to change reality by changing the definitions. In 1930s, you will look at
29:38 the German dictionary at that time. They will have certain words with square bracket and the square bracket we have
29:44 the words NS. You know what NS? Nazi socialist party. That means they will
29:49 actually change the definitions of things. Very dangerous. In fact, in communist China today, they are now issu
29:57 going to issue Bibles translated by the communist party. be very clever, right?
30:02 And you can only read that one. So if you control the dictionary, you control the narrative, you control life itself.
30:08 Uh post 1917 Russia, there are people who are called former person. What do
30:14 you know what happened to you? You're called a former person. They will ship you off to Siberia. They will kill you because you're not a person anymore. And
30:21 so what you do is that they changing the definition of marriage. They're changing the definition of gender. The idea is
30:28 gender is different from sex. XY doesn't necessarily mean male. XX doesn't
30:34 necessarily female. There's such a thing as gender, which is how you act, and what is chromosome, which is actually your biology. And many young people are
30:42 confused. We're looking at about 15,000 young people in the United States who have got this condition called gender
30:48 dysphoria. They don't know what their gender is because they keep getting into the internet and internet telling you,
30:53 you wake up today, you might be m female, tomorrow you'll be male. And those who are upset, disturbed will
31:01 then go for treatment. And this is some state statistics from Canada. You see
31:07 the number of children going for hormonal treatment. They give you hormones, the same kind of hormones I
31:12 give prostate cancer patients to block off all the testosterone. The same kind of treatment they get or some of them
31:18 get the two fellas knocked off, cut off and the breast cut off to change you to a man or vice versa. huge numbers in the
31:25 last few years. All right? And and the data shows that with gender dysphoria,
31:32 when you come into your 20s, when you thought you're a female, everybody reverts back to their chromosomal sex.
31:39 So you're born female and you want to be male. By the time you're 20s, you actually revert back. But you by the
31:44 time 20 years old, they chop off your breast, took your two testicle away. Then what happened to you? So we're
31:51 actually destroying much of ourselves and we're persecuting people who tell the truth. This is Dr. Alex uh David
31:57 McCarron from the UK and he is a A&E doctor for 26 years and he was sacked
32:02 for refusing to use transgender pronouns. I believe gender is defined by biology and genetics and that's a
32:08 Christian uh the Bible teaches us that God made humans male or female. And the
32:14 judge the case because he was sacked he lost the case. The judge said, "Belief in Genesis 1:27, lack of belief in
32:21 transgenderism and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human
32:28 dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others." Specifically here, transgender
32:33 individuals, foundations, foundation Christian beliefs are not worthy of
32:39 respect on par with neo-Nazi ideology, which means sitting down here, most of you are
32:45 neo-Nazis. That is what the world is coming to. The Bible makes no distinction. Bible very
32:51 clear. Man, God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created
32:57 him. Male and female in a binary configuration. Binary configurations are
33:03 seen in creation as complimentary pairs. Heaven and earth, light and darkness,
33:08 day and night, sun and moon, land and sea, male and female, Christ and the church, and then the new heavens and the
33:15 new earth. So the male and female marriage and and the binary configuration is basically a signal
33:21 about the goodness of creation and God's intention of how the new heavens and new
33:26 earth are going to be. So you can't alter that. So now you have the creation of woman.
33:35 Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he was sleep, he he took one of his ribs and closed in his
33:41 place flesh. And the ribs that the Lord had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man. And
33:48 then the man says, "This at last born of my bones and flesh of my actually most
33:54 translators don't do justice to this word. This is at last. This should be yaba dabaoo
34:01 in Hebrew because here you have an amazing most beautiful knockout naked
34:07 woman and God brings to you your bad you're jumping where you say this at last I naming Mr. Mrs. dog Mrs. Mrs.
34:15 This why at last is it's a poor translation. All right. So,
34:22 this is the bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. And
34:27 therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and to hold fast to his wife and they become one flesh. The man's and his wife both naked and were not
34:33 ashamed. And here we have uh the woman
34:39 from Adam the woman not found a helper fit for him. So therefore we're talking
34:45 about somebody different corresponding to him. And then the man said this is
34:50 the bone of my bones flesh of my flesh which means they are like him same equal not born on his feet so he
34:57 can step on her on his head to be ruling over him but out of him at the side by
35:03 side. So they're equal and yet when she when God takes her out of him he's incomplete. is incomplete until they
35:10 come back together again and then they're complete and they shall become one flesh and one flesh is then
35:20 perfect. But look at the last words.
35:26 I have faith in what I see now. I know I've met an angel in person and she
35:32 looks perfect and I don't deserve this. I mean in our minds doesn't everybody
35:38 bear in our hearts this perfect image of the person we're going to marry one day and we've got this whole set of criteria
35:45 and then we finally meet the person and then what they show it doesn't apply to
35:50 them other people it's actually a medical condition where dopamine causes
35:55 excitement and happiness sweat more testosterone causes sexual
36:01 desire aggression chaser more uh phenyl etheramine causes focus attention
36:07 euphoria giddiness cannot walk straight cloud nine uh loss of appetite don't eat
36:14 uh nor adrenaline causes alertness notice the smallest details this disappears after marriage
36:22 don't know where the garbage can pen is and then insomnia cannot sleep for other
36:27 reasons snoring perhaps uh yes it's true we actually have this in love kind of
36:34 euphoria. It's it's a medical condition as it were. Um but the work of marriage is not about whether you find and keep
36:41 your most ideal counterpart. Marriage is about what you do when you discover you can be with the most perfect person for
36:47 you and still find yourself frustrated, exhausted, dragged down and at your wit's end. It happens in it in the best
36:54 of marriages. You come in with this idea of perfection. You're going to crush him
36:60 with your expectation. He will crush you with his imperfections. The the the massive meeting of the two
37:06 imperfections with expectations. And that's a problem with marriage, isn't
37:12 it? And we come with all these sort of things. So you actually um can better describe marriage as what? Dying.
37:20 Marriage is a kind of death that leads to life. If your focus is on yourself
37:25 and the pursuit of your own happiness, you will be miserable. If you learn to die for your beloved and they learn to
37:31 die for you, you'll be filled with joy. Sounds very biblical, isn't it? What is
37:38 marriage? You want to get married? You're going to die. I remember as a husband, as a wife said to the husband,
37:44 you know, wow, my husband, you know, treats me like a god. You know, every meal he brings to me is like a burnt
37:51 offering. [Music] Then another couple went out to Makan,
37:58 you know, Makan a fancy restaurant and you're going to have this before they eat and they notice a lot whacking the
38:04 food. And the wife, hey, I thought you always say prayer before you eat at home. At
38:10 home, you always say prayer one. How come here in restaurant you don't say prayer? Hey darling, here the cook the chef knows how to cook.
38:21 He didn't get any more dinner after that. Harrison Ford uh second marriage Kalista
38:27 Flockard and had some advice. They asked him recently on CNN what is the secret to happy marriage and a very astounding
38:35 words. He said uh don't talk just nod your head. Very sound advice isn't it? Um now
38:44 one thing you forget in this passage is that there is a third person there. The Lord God taken from the man, he made
38:51 into a woman, brought her to the man. And then the man says, "At last, born of
38:57 my bone, flesh of the three people inside the garden, not two. It's not honeymoon, you're alone. This is with
39:02 God. It is God who brings them together. Marriage only works with three people.
39:08 It's not a crowd. It because of three people, it works. The man shall leave
39:13 his father and mother and they become one flesh and the man and wife both naked and they were not ashamed. There's a special union. There's a purpose of
39:20 marriage. There's a purpose in marriage procreative one flesh aspect where they are not only
39:27 one flesh physically in sexual love also besides physical psychological is emotional but for a particular purpose.
39:34 The purpose is that let us make man in our image after our likeness. So God created him in his image and likeness of
39:40 God. So therefore man which is man and woman the purpose of marriage is to
39:45 reflect God. Is this not to have children? Oh I think
39:51 we have time to have children at night when I grow old. Nobody look after me. Better have a few children so they all
39:56 look after me. If that's your idea of I think there better ways you can adopt people and do sorts of things. All
40:03 right. But it is to reflect who our creator is that we are actually created.
40:09 Marriage is actually a mirror. Therefore, a man shall leave his father. This is Ephesians, a mother and father
40:15 and and he actually takes this from Genesis. And hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This
40:20 mystery is profound. I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his
40:27 wife as himself. Let the wife sees that she respects her husband. So therefore, there's a special relationship between
40:33 Christ and the church. A love that is so deep that it can only be comprehended in
40:39 in a very mild way by the depths of marriage. You see, if you look at the trinity, there's a theological term
40:46 called paricchorosis. And it means that that each member of the godhead permeates the other, indwells the other,
40:52 is related to one another and yet it is distinct. And when you have in marriage, you do that. You permeate each other.
40:60 You influence each other. You're related to each other in such a way that you think alike, you act alike and yet
41:05 you're still different. And marriage is supposed to
41:11 mirror that. That's a huge huge huge burden on us of what to do because
41:17 marriage is a mirror of what God is. So marriage is a marriage triangle where there's God and there's you and your
41:23 wife. And the closer you are to God, the closer you are to each other. You can't
41:29 move close to the other without God. And the further you will move from God, then the further you will move from each
41:35 other, it's a marriage triangle where God makes it work out. Which is why
41:40 which is why you don't marry a non-Christian
41:46 because a non-Christian will have somebody else and the third party. It could be Buddha, Krishna or somebody
41:54 else, isn't it? Or nobody. How can the marriage work out? The Bible
41:59 specifically commands against it. It is a sin.
42:05 It destroys the meaning of what marriage is supposed to be about.
42:10 Look at man and woman before the fall and after the fall. Before the fall, a man and his wife were both naked and
42:17 were not ashamed. Why? Because they're perfectly in love with God. God gives them all the
42:23 assurance, all the self-esteem, and all the praise that they need. So, they lack
42:28 nothing. And when they go to each other, they have everything to give because they're rich in God. At the fall in
42:35 Genesis chapter 3, I heard a sound of you in the garden. I was afraid. I was naked. I hit my You start hiding
42:41 yourself because you're inadequate. You're sinful. You have shame. And you're hiding. You're spinning. You're,
42:46 you know, doing all sorts of things. And that is what happens. So you can either
42:53 take God as a coach in your marriage or God as a referee which is what seems to
42:59 be happening in a lot of marriages. Let me end uh with a challenge to all of us
43:05 today. God's mission the theme of our church
43:11 for next year would be this year the gospel for everyone every how does the gospel solve this issue. You see,
43:18 mankind, we've lost our way. We don't understand our dignity in God. We don't
43:23 understand our purpose. We certainly have broken relationships. But we believe the gospel is the answer.
43:31 It is for everyone everywhere. This is a story I told last week of Hayden Bales,
43:37 a young Queenslander, 9 years old, born as a dwarf, and everybody throw him in
43:46 school. He hates to go to school. He go to school. People tro him because he's short and he looks a bit funny, doesn't
43:51 he? And they bully him day in day day in and day out. And then the mother put this
43:57 picture up there on the Facebook with a video of him crying and say, "I don't want to go to school. Give me a knife. I
44:04 want to kill myself." And because of that that he went viral.
44:10 And everybody in the world responded. They raised money for him.
44:16 when they had a rugby match, the national rugby team brought him out and gave him back his
44:24 dignity. Huge tall giant of men grabbing the hand of this young person whom
44:31 everybody rubbished. They restored his dignity. They made him
44:39 feel like he was worth a million dollars. They made him feel he's one of
44:44 them even though he's shorter than them, even though he's not as accomplished as
44:49 them or as famous of them or as valuable as them. But he made them feel that way.
44:55 And you know what happened to Quayon Bales? They raised $496,000 US, which is the equivalent of Malaysian
45:02 what? 2 million, right? You know what he did? This the money is supposed to go to to
45:09 to Disneyland. Most of us go to Disneyland. What's what's wrong? And then keep some money for the schooling,
45:15 right? You know what he did? He gave it away. Every single scent
45:20 because all he's wanted was his dignity restored to be treated like a proper human being.
45:28 And then he has the self-esteem to then treat other people as human
45:35 beings. He said, his mother said as well, this money can use to help other
45:41 people, who's also as needy as I am.
45:49 In the beginning of time, God came down. He got his hands dirted.
45:57 He took a piece of dirt and he made it a man. 2,000 years ago,
46:03 he came to the world. Didn't get his hands dirty. He got his hand blooded.
46:08 They nailed him to the cross to show you and I
46:14 our dignity. That we are worth it. that whatever color skin you are, wherever house you
46:21 come from, big, small, how you look, ugly or handsome or tall or short or fat, obnoxious, bad breath
46:28 and horrible feet, it doesn't matter anymore. Why? Because Jesus loves me and
46:34 died for me. And that is the most liberating thing that we can when someone does that to you, you begin to
46:40 open your eyes and see other people as your savior would see them. And you're
46:47 not going to look at another person and look down on them. You know why? Because Jesus looked at you and looked up at you and died for you, gave his life for you.
46:55 And that is what the gospel is about. The gospel is about Jesus coming and seeing that we were worth the trouble.
47:00 We were worth the time. We were worth the pain. And that transforms us. It
47:06 redeems our dignity. We look at people in a different way. We look at the
47:13 unborn child. We look at a sick person. We look at the disabled in a different way. And God redeems our dignity. You
47:20 know why? At the end of time, God will resurrect us. This is our 10th anniversary. And there are some of us
47:27 who are with Jesus right now. We remember them because they're not dead. They will join us and we will have new
47:34 bodies which are totally incorruptible at all. The gospel also redeems our purpose, our
47:42 circumstances, and our results. The Bible says that from now onwards we work, we are not pleasing men anymore.
47:49 We render service as a goodwill to God knowing that whatever good anyone does,
47:55 he will receive back from God. So when we're working, even though our bosses are bad, we are our it redeems our
48:03 purpose. We work for God and if our bosses are bad, look here in 1 Peter chapter 2, servants, be subject to your
48:09 masters with all respect not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. Gospel doesn't change the condition of
48:16 your work. It changes the condition of your heart. So no matter what work that you do, it
48:23 changes that. And finally, he says, "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be
48:30 steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain. Every single
48:35 thing that you do in whatever job that you have will count for all of eternity.
48:41 And you stand one day before our Lord, he's going to look at you and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." You know, the years ago, there was a big
48:49 church building 150 years ago in Barcelona. They started building. People were
48:55 carving st things in the marble doing all sorts of fixtures. You know this building took 150 years. Today even
49:02 today is not finished yet. You think the guy who started carving the marble marble suit statue then can imagine what
49:08 it looks like today. Today it's not even finished. It also looks like that. But you look inside how
49:15 beautiful it is, how wonderful it is. This last Sagrada familiar. You have a
49:21 chance to go to Barcelona. You need to go even see it. But you never know how beautiful it was for 150 years ago,
49:27 right? And that's the same with us. Every single one of us, God has redeemed our purpose. And when you work, whether
49:33 you sell ice kachang at the side of the road, whether you're a lawyer, whether you're a corporate CEO, whatever work
49:40 that you do, it is not in vain. It counts towards the final product of a beauty that is surpasses everything in
49:46 the new heavens and new earth. That's why we work. That's why all work matters. You know why? Because people
49:53 matter. People matter. Every single person matters. And the work we do with for
50:01 them matters. And finally, the the gospel not only re gives us back our dignity, redeems our work, it also
50:08 redeems our marriages. So husband and wife like Luke and Michelle, they're not going to be perfect. But when they come
50:15 together, the wife submits to the husband. Submission is called
50:21 voluntarily yielding in love. But when she submits to her husband, she submits to the husband as to the Lord. And for
50:28 the husband, if you look here, husband, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Which means the way the wife
50:34 submits in love, the way the husband sacrifices his love for one particular purpose,
50:40 to mirror the love of Christ. That's what it's supposed to be. When your wife
50:46 dies, when your husband dies, the question asked is why in heaven got no husband
50:55 and wife one? Why no married? Why God so unfair? I've been a woman last 80 years.
51:00 That means I cannot be with her for next 2,000 years. Maybe some of you want, some of you don't want.
51:06 There might be complications. What if we marry three wives? Then we go upstairs. Ah, which one? And then some people are
51:12 left out alone. Isn't it? But marriage, you understand the marriage is a
51:17 pointer. It's a pointer. Marriage has a purpose. Marriage fulfills in our sanctification.
51:25 It makes us like God, like Jesus. It makes us godly. The way we forgive, the
51:31 way we love, with the way we sacrifice. That is in marriage. However imperfect it is. You got a lousy marriage. You got
51:37 a difficult marriage. It will teach you to be loving. It will teach you to endure. It will teach you
51:43 patience. Every marriage with its complexities is given to you by God not
51:49 by mistake so that its purpose will be fulfilled. The purpose is that you will stand one day before God
51:56 and ex and he will receive you and say well done good and faithful servant.
52:02 Marriage has a purpose to bring you in Christ to grow in godliness. So the gospel is for everyone everywhere. The
52:11 gospel is reflecting the goodness of God. We're designed for glory, purpose, glory, and we're relating for glory.
52:18 Let's pray. Father Lord, we just thank you for your word
52:26 and we look at Genesis chapter 2 and we look at the way the world is today.
52:34 It is so different. The very ground upon which we stand
52:39 seems to be shifting. We're uncertain. But we are clear about one thing. What
52:46 this world needs more than ever is the gospel of Jesus
52:53 Christ to return to us the dignity that you have designed for us. to return to
52:60 us per our purpose in life and to return to us relationships that will mirror who
53:06 you are. We pray as a church that we would take this mis mission seriously,
53:14 the gospel for everyone everywhere.
53:20 Amen. [Music] Come on.
53:25 [Music]
