Sermon on Genesis 22:1⁠–⁠14

Notes – 8/26/12

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, cover us.

At first may seem very offensive.

______ Kabutz

FAMILY IDOLS – (atery) – children A Mother’s love – “He’s all I got.”

“I’ll defend you even if you’re wrong. I’ll even defend you against God,” who is TRUTH.

Mt 10:37 He that loveth father or mother…. Mama – Who is my mother? (Big offence.) Same is

Gal 4:26 Jerusalem above, which is the MOTHER of US ALL

Constantine –value of Rome, (Family – see Willimon) can become an idol = (lie). Can’t deliver on (promises Gen 22:2) Illusion, deception – demands parents / children – both demand what are people (you are looking for – how many felt let down – neighbors

Gen 22:2 Take now thy son – Abraham reckoned as righteous – trusted in God, vs. reason

Isaac personifies god’s child – 4th commandment honors – God

Ro 1:22 professing = ? Themselves to be wise

Ro 1:30 dishonoring - parents

No direct relationships.

Neh 4:13-15 Every family has a place on the walls – protection

One word in family = W.O.G.

Focus on Family ends in death turns in – psyche, vs. Christ/ Focus on God = life / Christ center or me-mine center.

2 Sam 15:2 Absalom spirit (______) – long hair

Hate the law – no sex outside of marriage – rebellion = hated tutor, Torah, life-saving guardian, school master - God’s law.

Gal 3:24 Law’s purpose was to BRING us to Christ.

Where it leaves the children – wondering who, or where is mommy (new boyfriend) – daddy.

Where does that leave me?

Jn 3:5-6 Born of Spirit is Spirit – flesh is flesh – Isaac / Ishmael

Nestingen – Jewish (separate). Get a load of them!

2 Cor 6:14 Be not unequally yoked together

2 Cor 6:17 come out – be ye separate – from them = (sanct) touch not the unclean thing

Gal 4:30 cast out the bondwoman and her son

Isa 40 – All flesh is grass = but Word endures

Gen 22:2 take your son – sacrifice

Mt. 10:38 Under Christ – mediated life

Problem with families – is famil(iar)ity

Ex 20:5 No other gods before me,

Ex 34:14 Jealous

Acts 6:26 on sheep led to slaughter

Widows, orphans, single

Having no vision, they demand to be married by hook or crook

Isa 46

Gladness

Whether I’m carrying idols = they never free of me or Christ, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, carrying me.

Isa 46 (?) Murmur of children – father’s life not laid down.

If parents are dying for children – dying to live, their living is better.

If you’re living life in Christ – then you will exemplify Christ.

Your children must be taught with your diligence.

Some very primal, life-saving word – NO! And what, mother, does – that word “NO” mean? It means NO!

But what about when daddy tells you NO?

Lk 11:46-49 What foundation is your house being built upon?

ROCK – (1 Cor 3:11 – is J.C. House built on Rock)

1 Cor 10:4 That rock they drank from was Christ, way tack then.

Blackmailing children have an agenda – getting what they want – however they can. That is, by whatever means – tantrums, pouting, throwing things, hitting others – check out Sunday School. Ask, if you dare.

And, it carries over into 1-12 school, into marriage.

Contention Pr. 13:10 ONLY – ONLY – ONLY – ONLY – by pride comes contention – (Family Bookstore) princess Bibles. Talk abut greeting card language…

Those have in most cases, (led to) a pressure put on them TO PERFORM – OUTWARD is all that matters. You can get what you want.

The little idol – has grown up. Even parents may be in the way.

Pr. 31:30 and charm is deceptive, beauty is vain.

SCRIPTURES - Notes – 8/26/12

Gen 22:2 Take now thy son – Abraham reckoned as righteous – trusted in God

Gen 22:2 take your son – sacrifice

Ex 20:5 No other gods before me,

Ex 34:14 Jealous

2 Sam 15:2 Absalom spirit – long hair

Neh 4:13-15 Every family has a place on the walls – protection

Pr. 13:10 ONLY by pride comes contention

Pr. 31:30 and charm is deceptive, beauty is vain.

Isa 40 – All flesh is grass = but Word endures

Isa 46 (?) Murmur of children – father’s life not laid down.

Mt 10:37 He that loveth father or mother….

Mt. 10:38 Under Christ – mediated life

Lk 11:46-49 What foundation is your house being built upon?

Jn 3:5-6 Born of Spirit is Spirit – flesh is flesh

Acts 6:26 on sheep led to slaughter

Ro 1:22 professing = ? Themselves to be wise

Ro 1:30 dishonoring - parents

(1 Cor 3:11 – is J.C. House built on Rock)

1 Cor 10:4 That rock they drank from was Christ, way tack then.

2 Cor 6:14 Be not unequally yoked together

2 Cor 6:17 come out – be ye separate – from them = (sanct) touch not the unclean thing

Gal 3:24 Law’s purpose was to BRING us to Christ.

Gal 4:26 Jerusalem above, which is the MOTHER of US ALL

Gal 4:30 cast out the bondwoman and her son

Sermon Notes – Don O’Connor – 8/26/12

(The message through Jennifer’s ears.)

People who are free and can dance, they have come out of Egypt.

Praise is the victory!

On the night he was betrayed… But, the issue is who betrayed Him?

You women, unless you have itching ears for gossip, if someone calls you up ranting about their husband, tell them they have nothing to say you’d want to hear.

People today will either be offended, or will rejoice.

If your children don’t praise Jesus, they will meet somebody just like them

Ps 137 If I do not prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy, happy shall he be that taketh and dashes the little ones against the stones (we’re talking about devils).

The most offensive scripture I can think of:

Matthew 10:34 (KJV) 34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

I bought into the lie that Jesus came to make my life wonderful; to make things go well in my life.

Matthew 10:35-37 (KJV) 35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. 37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

He author of this word isn’t me. He is the one who died, whose mother held him in her arms – her son – behold the Son of God.

He is not saying don’t love your parents. There is a different kind of love.

Matthew 10:38-39 (KJV) 38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

So, who do you love more than Jesus. Hold onto your hat a bit here.

God is testing Abraham to see if his future is in flesh and blood.

Genesis 22:2 (KJV) 2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Not all Christian parents can make the claim that they love their sons and daughters.

Genesis 22:3-5 (KJV) 3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.

Genesis 22:5-8 (KJV) 5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

This is why Abraham is the father of faith – he left the gods of his fathers – he believed God would provide a lamb.

Genesis 22:9-13 (KJV) 9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. 12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

Jehovah Jirah provides a sacrifice. Isn’t that rather crazy and non-sensical? This is what God requires of every father. God doesn’t go to the woman; he goes to the husband first. If she is rebellious, God will deal with her, to be sure.

What would you do if God said that to you? Now, God knows that Abraham fears him.

Ex 34:24 – no other gods before me. The biggest idols in the church are families – children, as we’ll see.

You may wonder sometimes, why women and children rule in households. It is because if olds men allow.

C.S. Lewis – a family becomes a terrible ruler, a tyrant, when it is put in the wrong place. The family can’t stand the strain of being the ultimate.

Ultimacy is where you have no mediator, but you, what you think, and your reasonings, doctrines, and they are false. If they are true, they are God’s mediations. God makes sure we are challenged by what we know. God is going to try what you think you know. That can become an idol.

We cannot live in an un-mediated, or an ultimacy of relationships, wehre the family becomes the ultimate last word for the Church.

There is no such thing as being unmediated; either God mediates or the devil. There is no neutral ground; it is one or the other mediating you; either the Word of god, or the word of this world, and Satan is the prince of this world. The church is always to be a minority. The Christian Bookstore changed their name from Good New Christian Bookstore, and now it is the Family Bookstore. In China, the government encourages Dr. Dobson’s “Focus on the Family”. If the focus is on the family, the family is going to die. The only reason God has to bring this out is for you r good. You don’t want your family to die.

If it is all about them, they are going to die, or they are already dead – cut off. To die means not just necessarily physical, but ongoing, every day of your life, you will be living in sweat. Your whole life will be one of contention – separation from God. You can comment a little on your family, but they will bring contention too.

The family cannot stand the strain of being ultimate. Willimon – cannot stand as an end in itself, without something above it. The rains and winds come, and without being founded on that rock, who is Christ, the house will fall.

There is a time to be reverent before the Lord. Train your children in this. You haven’

I’m not ashamed at what God has done for me.

Your family is not mean to bear these thigns. There has to be a mediator. The family becomes an idol; but so can anything – a good thing can become an idol. Wine can become an idol. Money can become an idol. Marriage can become an idol. Marriage isn’t an ultimate end. In Deut 23 – eunuchs were not allowed to come into the congregation. God is no longer discriminating between men/women, black/white, etc.

If it is all about families, what about people who are single? If their only goal is marriage, I can understand it, but they just haven’t heard the gospel yet. They spend a lot of their time thinking about marriage. The new bookstore has strange bibles now: The Princess bible, just in case you’re raising up some beautiful princess. What for? Attraction? Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain. If you seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and if your home that is what is spoken there…

Even prosperity can be an idol. It can be a gift of God. Anything you’ve placed before God – unless you hate your father, mother, children, etc. If you take pleasure in your children, before pleasure in God, you’re doomed, and they are doomed.

Prov 31 – last 2 verses – a woman who fears the Lord she shall be praised. She is not trying to impress any male. She has that Rebecca spirit. She starts watering camels and Elieazer, the Holy Spirit, comes into town looking for a wife for Isaac. If you’re looking to trap some flesh, you’re likely to get what you want. You don’t have to go far. There are bars around. But I have no fellowship with that. You’ve ben bought with blood, and your whole problem your whole life was thinking you were you own. Maybe your father was Eli – instead of chastening them, he told them “It’s not good that you do that, but I wouldn’t offend you.” He chastens not because he is angry, but because he loves us.

If you haven’t given birth to totally depraved children, you’re in the wrong building. You’re going to continue their lie. You won’t want to confront them because it’s your beer time, or sports time, which can become an idol. “I touched his hand…” “that’s right.” “Felix Rodriguez gave me a ball.” Do your children want Felix’s autograph, or yours? It is bloody love. It is earned. You can get by with a mask while they’re little, but they start figuring it out.

What about families ruled by Mrs. Fidget. Better yet, what about Robert’s mother? She wouldn’t allow her son to get anything from anyone but her. Storge is good until it becomes a demigod that tries to become god. Life without storge is bad.

We do not have a family church. We have a church that is Christ-centered, not family-centered. If you put your family first, your family will suffer. You all know by experience that this is true. Walk out your AMEN, daily

James – show me your faith by yoru works. What is the Word of Christ? Believe – trust Him as your life and not some perverted thought you’re going to get. That will not fill you up. It all turns into a mirage. You’re going to have a great weekend, and then Monday comes. You’ve been had again. Without the Living Word washing us continually and giving us a prophetic vision…

People are lusting for the one thing, and they don’t have a prophetic vision because their father hasn’t washed them with the Word.

A very good thing can be perverted, and then the good thing becomes an enemy of the best thing.

Idols always lead to bondage. Parents are one of the most persecuted entities there I today. Children are really good at blackmail. “if you don’t give me this…” Train your children right now the on thing they’ve never learned – NO! They don’t understand that word that will meet a lot of hell in the world. If the husband doesn’t understand God’s word to be” No! I’m against that. And if you’re for it, I’m against you.”

God will show up in another form which you won’t be able to distinguish from the destroyer, Satan, the Devil. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

When Children have the power to blackmail, they do use it knowingly or unknowingly. The parents will succumb to it. “Well, I’ll throw a tantrum, a fit.” “I know I’m 32 years old, but I’ll still throw a fit. I’ll just get up and leave, right now.” God doesn’t need a gosh, darn thing I have. There is a god that live in me that doesn’t need anything you have. I tell you this for your sake. I already know. If you have anything before God, will eat you up. If you love anything or anyone, you’re thinking you’re capable to handing ultimacy. There is no mediator – mediating their actions. Every person you meet in this world, you’re in a mediated relationship. Jim Durkin said he had no inner conflicts. Jesus is the mediator. I don’t think of people anymore after the flesh. I think they’re children of God; lost oftentimes, lost sheep of the House of Israel. “Well then, why do you preach law?”

The law leads us to Christ. If you think the law is evil, you think the thing that leads us to Christ is evil. Men, women and children use it.

Parents, under the name of the powerful idol of the day, love, are threatened: You have to change my life, bow to me. This is a perversion of love.

Some like it. It gives them something to do. Let’s go shopping. Momma’s going to get you a diamond ring, if you’re nice. I’m not talking about Jerusalem from above; I’m talking about Hagar.

The Four Loves – the perversion of love. A good thing can become an enemy. A family can become the most contentious thing there is. God comes to wash you, baptize you every day, so you become a clean babe in Christ.

Your real job as a parent is to acquaint them to be involved in the war – to be on the offensive instead of “I’m not getting what I want and it’s someone’s fault.” If you’re still in blame, you’re fighting a losing war. They will be living a lie. Acquaint them with the love that is associated with the cross. Scars.

If yo make your child into an idol, they should have The Princess bible. Idols make them defensive, angry, lose peace, and are cut off from relationships. They don’t make solutions in business. You can even show seeds of division through your children, if you have a separate thing going.

There is One Word. If you have a problem with what I’m saying; have the courage to come up to the microphone. We’d all like to hear it. Or, do you have to say it in darkness? The bible says to me, a pastor, or to any leader, if you find a person taken in a fault, go to them talk with them. If they won’t listen, take another brother with you. For some, their sin has to be exposed to the whole church because it affects you and your children.

Willimon – the family appears to be one of those human arrangements….not to become demonic or destructive.

Are you friends only with those who agree with you (snowboarding buddies)?

Steven Hein: Theological logic….three important adversaries that must e overcome: Sin, death and the devil The foolishness of the gospel will simply be foolishness to your children, and they won’t understand that the foolishness is in their mind if we don’t continually expose the evil that is in their own lives. They have to become aware and brought to a beggar mindset for life. They have a bad vine, bad vineyard, producing bad grapes.

Jeremiah 31:28-30 (KJV) 28 And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD. 29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge. 30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

They won’t be able to blame their parents anymore. If you’re not being washed, they may be right. Baptism is the most hated thing there is. The power is in the continual washing and receiving of mercy every morning.

Here is a promise for you:

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (KJV) 31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

One of our biggest challenges with our young people is to make it clear to them that they are in a war. Pharaoh hates babies; he throws them into the Nile. Make an application for them. This world hates fathers and mothers, and children – families.

Julie

Quote from tossier

Placing the love of our family above the love of God,

Even jo

To exceed the proper bounderies and surplang gods supremecy in our lives..

Trample under foot the moment they hold us back from following Christ. We can be the ultimate one, not Christ.

We are called to be a holy people. If you’re not holy, you’re not being who God called you to be. To get holy, have a preacher who preaches you to death , according to Paulson. Some of you need to preach your children to death.

Everything that comes between you and god; husband, wife, children, parents; they have to go.

Lk 14:26

How are we to understand that word hate – delight in injury…get behind me, Satan. He was rejecting – to hate is to reject.

First Chapter if Iwand. To take a stand for God is to say no to yourself. God comes first to you as an enemy. He is not a friend; he is an enemy. He is an enemy of what would kill you and you family. A man, said Jesus, who tries to serve 2 masters, will hate one or the other. If you try to serve yourself, or your family, or anything, you will hate Jesus. I didn’t say it – the Master did.

About family – if you want to get some understanding – the last 2 chapters of Peculiar Speech.

“We should be socially minded.” We should excel in loving our family, on one level, but not before God. In the liberal, social world people live in to the exclusion of their families. Kabutz – after WW2, the men went to work, the women breastfed the children of others, they had everything in common. Kubutz – is really a failure – a communal, socialistic thing. The Six-Day War.

Patriotism can become a great idol. I don’t know what you think about the Vietnam War, but I still think there are 2 sides to it. For a Christian, his country is heaven. Now, where God has put you, you have an obligation to it.

Interview – by a guy who read this Christian puke,

About Family – Mark Driscoll makes the following comment…relationship…between the nuclear family and the church. Ther ei sno office such as a pastor’s wife, or pastor’s children, and I work very hard to ..our family the top priority over the church. Too many pastors put their ministry above their wives, and children….they do these things just so they can be close to their daddy, which is tragedy. We have a normal, fun, family life…by God’s grace…clear articulation of the kind of idolatry which is common among evangelical Christian today. Craig Carter and myself. For my part, Driscoll’s comments are perhaps…priority of the family.

The problem with…the battle cry of the Dobsons…this sort of moral universe that such comments presuppose…simply are the norm, the moral norm which have values in and of themselves…the ethical vision of the New Testament, by contrast, is constituted by a radical interruption….the scandal and the ethic of Jesus in the early Church…all the commonly…radically disrupted by active apocalyptic disruption by the advent of Christ.

When Christ came, the kingdom of God entered into the world. Everything changed. He brings the future in the present, or the past into the present.

If your relationship with everyone you meet – is it immediate? Don’t get mad at me for your paycheck.

Some come to church for $, their god-project, and they stay on, even if they’re offended.

People called by Jesus have learned that they have live din the illusion of immediacy. The Christian hears and knows there can be no unmediated relationships. It is a question of who is mediating. Is it god, or you and the devil? Even the most intimate ties of blood; father, other, brothers and sisters, marital responsibilities… People stay married in contention because they have not made Christ the center. No human being can fill that empty void.

How do you relate to a client, or a brother you’re working for. You relate to them in the Word of God – every thought, word and action. If no, you’re getting a really bad deal – putting a lot of stress on you that you don’t need. Who is behind it? The one who hates you. If a brother is taken in a fault, the word mediates that. On the other hand, there are times when the opposite is true: We have no fellowship with darkness. “Well, it is my daughter.” They’ll argue you down. They have plenty of energy.

Christ, the mediator, stands between the husband and wife. Christ stands between an individual and a nation, to mediate. Sometimes in a nation you can’t be accepting of what is being put out. Ecology starts right here, where you’re more ecological with each other. Try loving your neighbor, in a mediated relationship, a god-mediated relationship.

There is no way for us other than the path of Christ. Immediacy is an illusion. He separates but he also unites. He cuts off the direct path to someone else. The only relationships we have are mediated. You’ve been told.

Christ guides everyone following Him, into the true way to the other person, via a mediator.

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God. Try it some day. It might be novel for some of you. There are people right here who never really did that.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Those who are left fathers for Jesus’ sake will find new fathers, brother, sisters, fields and houses prepared. No one remains alone. I think we’ll find brothers and sisters everywhere, a soon as we get off our unmediated relationships.

We flee quickly to the promises of abundant live given in the gospels, as though they legitimate our dreams. You children want material things. They’ve been born in the land and have been given much, with little expected. God does give us abundance.

What we need is not satisfaction, or the assurance that we can have it all….demands that we follow in the path of receiving and emptying out, receiving and emptying out…Christ emptied himself of all, starting with his reputation, for the humility of being one of us.

Only thus gain everything. As you give up and lose, you gain everything.

God is still making churches with broken people.

Nehemiah 4:1-2 (KJV) 1 But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews. 2 And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?

Nehemiah 4:14 (KJV) 14 And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

Until you come to say< “I have sinned,” until the Holy Ghost sends a good famine for life….

Fight first for your brother, then your sons and daughters, next your wives, and then your homes. “You mean wives are one step ahead of the houses?” You live in your offense and it is killing you, but at least you have the consolation of being right.

Nehemiah 4:19-20 (KJV) 19 And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another. 20 In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: our God shall fight for us.

Woman, behold thy son, Jesus says to Mary. Mary, look at the child you’re losing, the son you’re giving over for the world. Who is my mother today?

Mother, you are far greater work to God than your vocation. But you could be thankful.

A sword will pierce your heart.. Now, even from the cross….obedient to the will of god. Jesus did not waiver from his god-ordained mission, he is a great pain to his family. “Woman, behold thy son.” In that day, in that part o the world, family origin determined your whole life, your complete identity, and your future.

One of the most counter-cultural thing Jesus did was his sustained attack on the family.

What else commands your allegiance? Who is your mother? Who is your brother? Who is your sister? Whomever it is, can become an idol. “My little darling.” The problem is that you “LOVE” them. The problem with you is you storgeized them and they became your possessions for a while. God comes to break that.

In bapism we are rescued from our family and ourself. Our families, as good as they are. In aptism we are adopptd into a family large enough to make our life interesting. Jesu sis forming the first church commanding us to live as if these foreigners are our relatives…forced to call tehse people ein whom we have no natural affinity, brother and sister. On our campus, Duke University, one evening, a student said…..I have to call these losers brothers. Loyalty to God is above all other loyalties, including family loyalties. Take it or leave it.

Ephesians 5:3-5 (KJV) 3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; 4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

House rules. Ephesians 5:6 (KJV) 6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

This is good news!

The Great Divorce, Chapter 11 – C.S. Lewis -Pam – I want to see my son now. She was a ghost, with no substance, no character, to her life. You can’t talk with someone with no substance. They will be scamming on you – as you’re not useful to them. Repent, believe the gospel, and honor your husband. Stop your gossiping lips. I don’t want to hear it.

Pam – you need to be thickened up. How? You won’t see your son until you value something besides him. If only a little desire for God, let’s start there. “Oh, you mean religion…” She is determined to see Robert. She pet his room in tact and disregarded her other two children. Treating God only as a means to Michael. “If he loved me, he’d let me see my boy.” But he had to take Michael away party for Michael’s sake. “I gave up my whole life…”

Human beings can’t make one another really happy for long. Secondly, for your sake, a tigress shares the same love for their child…he wanted you to love Michael as he understands love. You cannot love another human being until you love God.

The only remedy for you was to take away the object of your love….motherly love is the highest and holiest feeling in all of human nature. No natural feelings…they are holy when God’s hand reigns on them. They all go bad when they make themselves god.

Keeping his room exactly as he left it. Their whole life dominated by the tyranny of the past; your past. The past was all I had. It was all you chose to have.

Some of you still live in the past and you’re choosing to stay there, not believing it is a new day and there is nothing bigger going on than you.

Everything I say or do is wrong to you….of course you’re wrong….shining with love and mirth. We’ve all been wrong. That is the great joke….no need to go on pretending…. I believe in a god of love.

I believe a woman should cherish her children, but when it is above God, it turns rotten.

He’s mine, do you understand, mine, mine, forever. Nothing can be yours by nature. Nature draws to an end. You didn’t make him. You didn’t intend to have a baby. Michael was originally an accident. “Who told you that?”

C.S. Lewis is your friend. And yet, Pam, you have no love at this moment, said the spirit. Don’t you know you can’t hurt anyone in this country.

Women and children can rule, if you allow it.

Deuteronomy 28:41-48 (KJV) 41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity. 42 All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume. 43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low. 44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. 45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: 46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. 47 Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; 48 Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

Because you didn’t serve the Lord with Joy, but just as means to an end, you will not enjoy your children. You’re serving the Lord out of law; maybe to be seen or get some money. I hope it grieves your heart. Give your son to the Lord, Abraham.

Mother here is not just a woman – many men like to be mothers. What could we say then regarding all of this?

So people called by Jesus…the illusion is immediacy – not mediated. This has blocked their faith and their obedience. Now they know there can be no unmediated relationships, even in the most intimate blood ties. Where there are unmediated relationships – there is an unmediated family.

When a family is built upon the Word of God, Jesus Christ, your life will enjoy freedom. Which, up until that, it hasn’t. Every since Jesus called, there are no unmediated relationships, for his disciples.

Even you stand before your nation saying, “God has ordained you to do His will, not your political ambitions.”

There is no way to anyone else, except the path through Christ, and His Word, and our following Him.

Immediacy is a delusion. Anything in my life that seems essential, can be an idol, occupying the place God alone should occupy. Idol, anything by which I live and depend, and that which has a controlling position in my life, demanding my life, my time, etc.

Every person in a family could repent for thinking they’re the center.

Article: Lutheran elementary schools in the US – last 2-3 paragraphs

The improvement of the parochial schools is about vast knowledge of temporal life. But above all, it doesn’t lie in that. The improvement in the school will be in the improvement of religion instruction. It would be better to rear simple hearted children of God than cunning children of Satan. Seek first the Kingdom of God just still be their motto. Establishing the Word.

Gen – the fruit of Adam and Eve’s rebellion was Cain. They ate of the tree of knowledge – started knowing more than God’s Word – Don’t eat that or you’ll die. “Die” is n’t just an eternity, it is your life daily – with strife, contention and sweat. Why? Because knowledge puffs up, and it is only by pride contentions fill your home – the pride of “I don’t need a mediated life. I’ll do what I want. I can pretend I hear what you’re saying, and even repeat it,” but it is the heart the Lord is after.

Prophesy – the book of Revelation that reveals God to us.

Revelation 22:1 (KJV) 1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

Sowed me – took the lid off of my mind, my reason.

Galatians 4:26 (KJV) 26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Revelation 22:1-2 (KJV) 1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Even a good thing can become perverted. I could give you a list, but I’ll let you.

When does this go into effect? If you’re living in an eschatological realm now, you start receiving everything from God right now. This is your future, and it begins to open up your future for you, and you get an entirely different vision which you are to impart to your children.

The peace of God is available to you.

Revelation 22:10 (KJV) 10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

The giants are bread for us today. You haven’t been given the spirit of fear.

Revelation 22:12-13 (KJV) 12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. 13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

Revelation 22:10-11 (KJV) 10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. 11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

Holy –holiness comes from unfeigned love of the brethren, which you can’t do; it has to be given as gift – the fruit of the HS.

Revelation 22:15-17 (KJV) 15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. 16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. 17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Luther: apply this to families. After Luther goes through his commentary on Ecclesiastes, you’ll be feeling pretty if you don’t’ hear it rght – vanity, everything I do is vanity. That is only under the san and is the carnal mind. If you’re in Christ, he’s saying.

It is necessary to eradicate an error….the author is not speaking contempt for creatures. Scripture, by o means, want despised or condemned creatures…all things have been made for the use of man.

What is born of the flesh is flesh. A family that is in the flesh is flesh. When a family is reborn by the Spirit of God, it is very good. God wants to pour that river around you, surround you with the righteousness of Christ, so that everything changes in the twinkling of an eye. For all things that god made are very good. It is not that God doesn’t love mothers, fathers, children, aunts and uncles – he does. But if this good thing is before god, and is unmediated, and it becomes a curse. For your children’s sake, tell them I not too late to seek the kingdom of God, and you’d wran them of the wrath of God on the people in this world.

Mediated relationships – you can hear this as work, or you can hear it as gift. Be-attitudes are not something you doo. Christ imputed it to you. The first message of Jesus begins with “Blessed are you,” You are all those things in Christ. Families, in Christ, are Good.

I want to remind you again that in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, the issue is who has your sins now – all of them? You’re mind. All that I have is yours. You can’t receive it all in one day, but you could start.

Liberty of God – out of your bellies flow. For you to live is Christ.

Blessed are they to whom God is near, and he is near those of a broken heart. God is a god who heals hearts and delivers you from all that internal intimidate and blackmail.

I proclaim what already is – the forgiveness, as an ordained pastor, in the name of Jesus, I forgive you all of your sins. There is not one I see, or want to see. I don’t want too, but sometimes I have to.

We’ve been delivered, are being delivered and will be, because we’re saved. AMEN