Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28, verse 19, go therefore and teach all nations. Baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to go teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through Australian and international speakers.
And here is today's presenter, Fine Paiaaua.
Well, I pray that as we study God's Word this morning that each of us, our hearts, may be drawn closer to Jesus, but even our love for Jesus maybe grow deeper and that the things of this world may grow strangely dear. I just wanted to share just before I began that this verse which we're going to be studying today, it means so much to me because when I grew up in church, I didn't know anything like, about the Bible sharing. I didn't know how to play guitar, I didn't know how to sing until I was like around 2021.
And as I reflect and look back on my life, I recognise how much time I had squandered, how much time I had given to the world. And once I started taking Bible studies, for the first time I looked back at my life and I was like, Lord, I wasted 20 years chasing foolishness, chasing stardom, popularity. But I didn't recognise that serving Jesus is the most beautiful thing in this world.
And so since then, I've been trying to apply this principle to my own life. I recognise there are so much things that I can do now that by God's grace that I get to share with others. I remember when I was growing up, my cousin, we have a massive family.
Many of my family, if they came here, they'll fill the whole church. It's just too many. But my cousin was the only one who could play instrument.
He always played the piano. And I remember when I was young, I was like, Lord, I would like to play for church one day. And God is so good that I get to play for church.
And whenever someone asks, it's like, yes, please. Because that was always my burden. I really wanted to play.
And so I'm just really thankful that when you serve the Lord, that we're told in inspiration that talents used are talents multiplied. And when God gives you a talent and you don't use it, it's like that person who dag his talents in the ground, it didn't multiply. And so I want to encourage you as we study the word this morning, that each of us may come with just a humble and contrite heart.
Because every time the word is open, I believe that God wants to speak to us. But the question is as Revelation 13 nine says, let him that has an ear, let him hear. And so when you hear the word, oftentimes, even for myself, it's like, I hope she heard that.
I hope he heard that. No, Lord, give me ears to hear your voice. And so before we begin redeeming the time, let us pray together.
Father in heaven, we ask, Father, that this morning, that as we come to the altar, that your Holy Spirit may be present in this place, that we may hear your voice, that you may teach us, Lord, from your word. We ask, Father, that you may enlighten our minds and open our ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to us this morning. I thank you, Lord, for what you're going to do this morning.
And I trust and believe that you are still in the business of transforming lives. And so we ask that as we open the word, please open our hearts, teach us. We pray.
This we ask in Jesus name, amen. Okay, so if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Ephesians chapter five. And we'll begin in verse 15.
And as we turn there, I just wanted to also thank the Castro family. I know Josh shared two weeks ago that he always has the privilege of preceding Joseph. I got the privilege today to precede Joseph, so thank you, Joseph, for that blessing, and to the Castro family as well.
In Ephesians chapter five, if you turn there, Ephesians chapter five and verse 15, Paul is writing to the Church in Ephesus, and the Church in Ephesus is in Asia Minor. If you know anything about Ephesus, one of the gods which they served in Ephesus was called Diana or Artemis. It was a God of fertility.
And if you read acts chapter 19, you get a glimpse into the lifestyle or the environment in which the people in Ephesus, when there was a revival there, a radical revival, the Bible says in Acts 1919 that they brought their curious arts, their books, and the Bible says that they burned it. And it was about 50 pieces of silver. It kind of gives you a glimpse into what Ephesus was like.
And so whenever you read Ephesians, keep this in mind, because when you read Ephesians 515, the Bible says, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. And then verse 16 says, redeeming the time because the days are evil. First thing I want you to get from the text is you find that in verse 15 it says, see then that you walk circumspectly.
Some translations say, walk carefully, walk diligently. Walk in such a way that the decisions that you make in the present will affect your future. But you notice that Paul says that there are two types of people.
You remember Matthew 25, about the ten Virgins. He says, one was wise. I mean, five were wise and five were foolish.
But in verse 15 you find that he says, see then that you walk circumspectly. And he says, not as fools, but as wise. So you find that there are two types of classes, and there will always be two types of classes in the last days as well, is those who walk foolishly and then those who walk wisely.
And then the very next verse, you find this is where we get our title from, where it says, redeeming the time because the days are of evil. You find that redeeming the time is associated with walking circumspectly. Do you see that? And so when we go through our text this morning, I'm sure many of you maybe are wondering or asking, once you saw the title, you're probably thinking, okay, Finn is going to give a sermon on productivity, on being more organised about time management.
And I might touch on that. But what I want to emphasise in regards to this text, as you know, the past few sermons that I've been speaking, I've been emphasising about the home. And I just wanted to share, just very briefly, one of the reasons why I talk about it so much is not so much the fact, because I come from an outstanding family and this is the standard, and I'm kind of giving to you what the standard is like.
No, I'm giving you these discourses from the Bible about the home is because when I went to church, they never talked about that. But I find that when I read the Bible, the Bible is like a medical book. It helps with relationships, helps with every facet of life.
And one of the reasons why I emphasise the home is because I actually grew up in a broken home. I grew up in a home where I saw my father do things to my mother which I didn't appreciate. I grew up in a home where there was dysfunction.
I grew up in a home where there was factions. And even in this present moment, just to be real and transparent with you, even in my family, there are some people, like cousins, I haven't seen for a long time. And it's not because I can't see them, it's just because when the parents are fighting against one another, it philtres down to the children.
And so there are many of my cousins that I have never seen for a long time. It's because of this brokenness. And even to the point where my grandmother, when she was on her hospital bed, she had a stroke and half of her body was paralysed.
And you find it. What's interesting is often in sickness and in disease and in grief, the family comes together. And it was at that moment that when the family came together, I remember I was still young and I came there and I recognised that there was.
I don't know if you've ever been in a room and you just feel this tension. It's like it pervades the atmosphere and you're like, man, someone has something wrong with someone else. You can just see it in their face and you can smell it.
And while my grandmother, she had a stroke and she was there, she eventually passed away. And I believe that she passed away not because of the stroke, I believe she passed away because she saw her family fighting against one another. And that's why I emphasise the home so much.
It's not because I have a perfect home. It's because when I started to study the word of God and look at the dysfunction within families, within the Bible, I found that, man, if you come from a family like that and your family is broken, that the Bible says you can redeem the time. The fact that it says you can redeem the time tells you that if you have squandered time, if you have forfeited time, if you have spent your time in recklessness in this life, that the Bible says you can buy back that time.
And so when you read redeeming, I just wanted to. Just to break this down. I'm a type of a Greek person.
My brother George over there, you know me, but redeeming. The word redeeming in Greek is the Greek word exagorazo, and it's made up of two Greek words. Ek is a preposition and it means out of.
EK, out of. And then Agorazo is where we get the word agora. Have you heard of Agora before? In Bible times, it was a marketplace.
It was a slave market where people would come and sell slaves and they will buy slaves and they would trade for money. So when you see the word redeeming, it's written in the context of this. It means to buy out of the marketplace.
That's what redeeming means. But the interesting thing is the word time there. In Greek, there's two different words for time.
There's one word which is called Kronos. You've probably heard of the word chronology Chronicle. It deals more with time so if you were looking at a clock and you saw it ticking, it's like that's Chronos time where we're counting or measuring seconds, that's Kronos.
But the word which is used in Ephesians 516 is the word Cairos. And Kairos, I explain it this way. If there's a photographer here, like to do with DSLR cameras, you know that the best time to shoot a photo is when before sunset.
And it's this time frame, it's the best time. The lighting is good, the photogenic who on the person's face, et cetera. That time at sunset is what you would call Kairos.
Another example, if your parents are making food and they tell the children, go and clean your room. The child just cries out, mom, is the food ready? Mom will say, no, it will be ready in 20 minutes, Chronos. But when the table is set, the utensils are placed, the aroma fills the room and you can smell it down the hallway.
Mom says, it's ready now. Kairos, do you understand? Similar with. In terms of an agrarian culture, which the Bible is written in, is that if you sow seeds, like, let's say you sow avocados.
That's nice. Avocados. And so you sow avocados.
And then it takes long to just to grow. And then eventually when it's grown and it's ripe at harvest time, that's Cairos. Do you understand? So when it says redeeming the time, it's not just talking about any time, it's talking about those times, those crucial moments where it was the opportune time.
I'm talking about those times when there's an appeal made for baptism and you decide to sit down and you pass by. You know, I actually had a family member who was like that. They were convicted by the Lord and they said, you know what? I want to be baptised.
And you know what happened? She said, I was waiting for my husband. An opportune time. She had neglected that time.
But the Bible says you can redeem the time. Those opportunities where we could have made a stand for Jesus in our workplace, but we didn't. God says, you can redeem the time.
And so you actually find this. I want to just look at the Bible. I hope it's okay if we study the word of God to the earth this morning, but I just want to give you an overview about the importance of the home in Bible prophecy.
Okay? So you find just give you a bird's eye view and then we'll go to a text. Is that in the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, Jesus, who is the creator of the world, you find that when he created the world in the Garden of Eden, there were two precious gifts he gave in the Garden of Eden. And one of the gifts was he gave the gift of the Sabbath, okay? The second one was that he gave the gift of relationship or family.
And so you find that in creation, you find that it centres in relationships, the Sabbath, our relationship with God and the family, our relationship with those closest to us. As you go throughout the whole Bible, you find this theme, because eventually, when you come to Matthew 22 27 to 30, you remember Jesus. He talks about the two great commandments, that the first one is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind.
And he said, this is the first and great commandment, but the second is like unto it, love your neighbour as yourself. So you find once again, this idea of relationship with God, relationship with man, okay? And even till you come to even the Book of Revelation, which you're going to turn there. Revelation, chapter twelve.
Turn there with me. Revelation Twelve is that you find that even in the Book of Revelation, this idea of this relationship with God and relationship with one another, especially focusing on the family, you find it in the Book of Revelation. And the thing is this, that, that which was to be for our greatest joy and happiness, Satan has attempted to be our greatest misery.
I don't know if you've met someone who's in a relationship or in a marriage who wants to get out, just because the partner is just very abusive, very violent. You find that it's very prevalent in our society. And I understand, because like I shared last time I spoke, that Jesus comes from a broken family.
And he understands if you grow up in that brokenness as well. But you find in Revelation chapter twelve. What I find interesting about Chapter twelve is that the Book of Revelation, it's written in.
Has anyone heard of the term Chiasm? Okay. Yes, very good. We have two.
Okay. Free maybe, Greek scholars. Okay, so the Chiasm, all it means is, if I could make it very simple, is if you ever climbed a mountain before, you know, when you climb it all the way to the top, it's called like, you summit the Mountain, right? And so it's kind of the very top of the mountain.
A chaiism in the Bible, what it does is when you look at the verses or a whole chapter or a whole book, you find that they explain these certain ideas and they're building up to this big point, which is at the top of the mountain. And in the Book of Revelation, you find that revelation, chapter Twelve to 14 is like the Chiasm, the essence of what God is trying to say through John to the seven churches. And so in Revelation twelve, you find that this prophecy, it begins with this woman that appeared in heaven.
And the Bible says that she stood in revelation, chapter twelve, verse one, she stood upon the moon and she was clothed with the sun, and the crown was atop of her head and there was twelve stars. And I just want to just stop and just digress for a moment here. I don't know if you've ever heard, but there are some people who interpret this woman as being Mary, that when she died, she ascended into heaven.
Have you ever heard of that before? Okay. There are some people who believe that, and I just want to kind of just, if you subscribe to that belief, just to help you understand this, the first thing I just want you to know is that first of all, in Revelation one, one, the Book of Revelation, it was written in science, right? This woman, let's just say that it does refer to Mary. Okay, I'm just reasoning with you because the Bible says come now and learn as a reason, right? In Isaiah 118.
So if this refers to Mary, the first thing I want you to bring across to your mind is if she did ascend into heaven, which heaven is, she ascended to. Now, my class in the adult service school, I told you how many heavens were there. There was free.
Yes, there was free. You read that in two Corinthians. Twelve, two.
Paul, he says that I knew this man above 14 years ago, that he ascended into the third heaven. And in our Ada Sabbath school class, I told them that the third heaven is where God abodes. The second heaven is the stellar heavens, where the solar system is.
The first heaven is the earth's atmosphere. I don't have time to go through the verses with you, but just take it as it is. I'm just summarising.
It is that if this is Mary and she ascended into heaven, which heaven did she ascend into? You can dialogue with me. It's okay, I'm just reasoning with you. The second, very good.
So if she ascended into the second heaven, does that mean every time someone dies that they go into the second heaven? The second thing, that was my first complication. The second one was where is she standing on the moon. So does that mean that when Neil Armstrong, was it Neil Armstrong who stood upon the moon in 1969, that when he went there, that he saw her there.
That's my second complication. The third complication I have with that is that you find there that she's pregnant. Right.
The Bible says in Matthew 22 30 talking about the resurrection, Jesus says that they become like angels. They neither marry nor are given in marriage. My third complication with that is how did she get impregnated if she was in the second heaven? Do you see where I'm getting at? I'm just trying to, just to reason and understand this.
And the other thing is that eventually, as you read through Revelation twelve, you find that she finds herself in the wilderness. Now the last time I checked, the wilderness was on earth, right? So did she come off the moon. And I'm just showing you, just from the Bible, it just doesn't make sense.
If you read this more in the terms of that, it is a symbol that a woman represents a church, it will make much more sense. And the thing is, which church is this referring to? In the Book of Revelation, there are two types of women, the pure woman and the impure woman. This one is talking about the pure woman, but she is with child.
The best way I describe this is remember when the child came forth, who did the child represent? You can talk. Yes, Jesus. And when Jesus was born, what happened to, was there a New Testament church? Yes.
So if the baby is still in the womb, which church does that represent? The Old Testament Church. Do you understand? Am I getting used to think? Is it okay? Okay. So in Revelation, chapter twelve, just to give you an overview, you find that this great controversy between Christ and Satan, between good and evil, you find it throughout the whole book, from Genesis all the way to Revelation.
And it talks about this war which began in heaven, but then Satan was cast out onto this earth and he couldn't get to God anymore. So what does he do? He attacks God's children. And I think this is very important to understand, just as God's people as well, and parents, you probably understand this more than those who don't have children, is that when your child is hurting, you hurt more.
And so Satan is so he's like a mastermind, kind of. He's an assassin. He attacks the vital organs.
He goes for the heart. And so even in my life I experienced this because I shared with you before. Many of my siblings, they don't go to church.
Family of eight, seven of them don't go to church. Just me, my mum and my dad. And in ministry I've learnt that when Satan cannot get to me, he attacks my siblings.
And I've seen the spiritual warfare, even in my brother's life, to the point where he almost committed suicide. And so I understand just the whole great controversy, the spiritual warfare. And I have learned that if I give up now, it will actually confirm my siblings in their unbelief.
And so I decided when I follow Jesus, I'm going to give all that I have, all that I have to him, because I know I can redeem the time and they can as well. And so in Revelation twelve, you find eventually, just to summarise, go to verse 17, revelation, chapter twelve, and verse 17, that in Revelation chapter twelve, you find that Satan, what he does is if you read the chapter, he actually, he's waiting to attack the man child, which is Jesus. And you find that as you read through, he attacks the mother.
And then in verse 17, notice what it says. And the dragon was wroth or enraged with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of a seed day that keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. I don't know if you've ever seen this before, but this prophecy is written in the context of a family.
Do you see that? And notice that this family, that you don't necessarily see the husband there. It's just the mother and the child. And I just want to make a practical application there because you find that Satan, he attacks not just those who keep the commandments of God, but even the family.
You see from Genesis. I showed you just the bird's eye picture, even to here in verse 17, you find him waging war against the child, against the mother, against the grandchild. It shows you that Satan, he hates the family.
So if he can break the family, he can break the church, he can break the nation, he can break the community as well, because the community, the Church and the nation is constituted by the family. Okay? In Revelation chapter twelve, verse 17, you find that this woman, the husband, is not mentioned. And I just wanted to make a practical application because in life I understand that sometimes marriages may break down.
I understand that sometimes even a woman may come to church and it's just her and her daughter, her and her son. But you see that this prophecy about the great controversy is written in the context of Satan attacking this woman, attacking the child. It kind of gives you a glimpse into the mind of Satan.
He actually doesn't care if you're pregnant. He'll attack you. He doesn't care if you're just a single mother.
He'll attack you. It gives you a glimpse into the mind of Satan. And the thing is this that though the dragon is rough with the woman and goes to attack her, I'm so glad that the Bible in the revelation talks about the bridegroom and that if you find yourself in that situation, Jesus is your husband, that Jesus will come to your rescue.
And so in Revelation 1217, we find that. But now I want to turn to Luke chapter two. Luke chapter two.
If you're following what I'm saying so far, can I hear you say amen? Amen. Okay. I only heard Viti.
Can you say it again? Amen. Amen. Okay.
In Luke, chapter two, turn there to Luke chapter two. I was trying to think of this. When you go to Luke chapter two, is that you find that whenever I look at a subject, I always try to look at it in the context of Jesus.
And so when we talk about redeeming the time because the days are evil, I wanted to look at. Okay, how did Jesus redeem the time? Because when Jesus came and he was incarnated, where did he spend most of his time? And we understand that Jesus Public ministry was three and a half years. Right? But 30 years, where did he spend that? In the home.
In the home. And so if Jesus spent 30 years in the home and then three and a half years in public ministry, where should our emphasis be? In the home. Yeah.
Because God, he's the ultimate example, what it means to redeem the time. And the thing is, if we try to do so much public evangelism and we try to do so much work in the community, I'm not negating that we should do that. I'm just saying that we should be focusing on the home.
And so Jesus, he spent 30 years in the home. And in Luke chapter two, go to verse 52. Luke, chapter two and verse 52.
And when you get there, you can say amen. Okay? Luke chapter two and verse 52. And the Bible says there.
And Jesus, he increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and with man. Now, whenever this verse is often used, people often who I've heard preach this, they often use this in the context of health, okay? So what they do is, and it's a good application, but I want to kind of give you just the context of that, is that it says, Jesus, he increased in wisdom. Now, does anyone know the Greek word for wisdom? Sophia.
So, Sophia, whenever someone introduced themselves, they say the name Sophia, I said, man, your name means wisdom. And that's what the Greek word there, wisdom, it means the intellect, the skill. Jesus, he increased in intelligence and in skill in wisdom that deals with mental health.
Then it says and stature, it deals with physical health, okay. That he grew in maturity. The Greek says maturity and in favour with God, that's spiritual.
And then with man is social. So ultimately there are four dimensions of a human being, according to this verse, that we are physical. Sorry, we are mental, we are spiritual.
Sorry, we are mental, we are physical, we are spiritual and we are social. Now this can be applied on an individual level. For example, you remember during COVID the pandemic, that when we couldn't socialise with people, our social went down.
What happened to the mental health? Through the roof. You see how they're interconnected? Okay, it's a tough crowd this morning. It's a tough crowd.
Okay, I understand. Okay, I'll bear with you as you bear with me. Okay.
There's four dimensions of man. We have mental, physical, spiritual, social. During the pandemic, we couldn't associate with one another except through a screen, okay? And when we couldn't have that social aspect, mental health went through the roof.
You see that these four dimensions, they're actually all integrated and interconnected with one another. It doesn't just apply on a physical level, but it also applies on an ecclesiological level. That's a big word.
It just means like for a church. In terms of a church, if you've ever been to a church and they don't have any social programmes, you can be sure there's going to be some fighting. Because social is so important, right? So important when there's no physical activity, like going mountain biking.
Hey, Viti, if there's none of those things, because why? Because the individual is physical, mental, spiritual, social. So it can be applied on an individual level, complied on a church level, but it can also be applied to the home. And the reason why I say that is when you read the verse, when it says and Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man.
Question is, where did he increase? Where did he develop that wisdom? Where he developed that stature and the favour with God and man? In the home. Next question. How do you know that? Okay, thank you.
You find it in verse 51. Notice verse 51 it says, and remember, this is the story where Jesus was twelve years old, he was in the Temple, his parents left Jerusalem, they went a day's journey and they didn't find Jesus amongst the crowd. And so they came back and the Bible says after three days they found Jesus in the Temple.
I just want to stop and make an application there. Sometimes we look for Jesus in the wrong places. It took them three days.
After three days, they were like, you know what? Let's go to the Temple. Let's go to church now. And the thing is, sometimes we look for Jesus in the wrong places.
It's true. And the thing is, we try to fill the void which only God has put in our hearts. As I've mentioned before in Ecclesiastes 311, the Bible says that God has placed eternity in our hearts.
And many times we go to the wrong places to fill that void. And we understand that it's temporary and it'll always be a void there. But when you come to the Temple and when you come to Jesus, he who is eternal will fill that eternal void in your heart.
Amen. Amen. Thank you, my brother.
And so you find in verse 51. Amen. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Viti, I'm getting fired up here.
I hope you get fired up as well. In verse 51, it says, then Jesus, he went down with them. He came to Nazareth.
That's where his home was. And he was subject to them. But his mother kept all these things where in her heart, you notice then it says, and Jesus increased in wisdom.
So the reason why Jesus increased in wisdom was because he was subject to his parents in the home. And that's why I applied this not just to the individual, to the church, but even to the home. And I'm going to give you these four keys, which I found in inspiration and in the Bible very soon.
But I just want you to keep this in mind. Verse 51, it says that Jesus, he went down with who? With them. That's plural.
And came to Nazareth and was subject to them. So notice Jesus was in continual, submissive subjection to both his parents. And I think that's very important, because sometimes we are selective in who we obey.
We are selective when it comes to our parents. And I understand sometimes your parents may say something that may be contrary to the word. That's when we say, like, Peter, we ought to obey God rather than man.
But until then, I think it's important to understand that Jesus spent 30 years in his home. And I find sometimes with young people, many times they want to leave the home. They just want to experience life, and they eventually leave the home, and then they find out they can't cook and they're a bachelor.
It's like you're supposed to learn that in the home. Yeah. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? I say that from experience, because that's what happened to me.
It's important that we understand that God wants us to increase in wisdom, in stature, in favour with God and man. But it's important that we understand that it's okay to be submissive to your parents. And many times when they tell you to not do things, many times they did it themselves and they know the consequence or the result of that decision as well.
So that's Luke, chapter two and verse 52. And so are you slowly seeing how in the Bible that the importance of the home in Bible prophecy? I want us to go to Matthew 24. Matthew 24.
Please pray for me. My voice. Okay.
Matthew, chapter 24. Matthew, chapter 24. And you know that this is one of the chapters that deal with the signs of the times.
And in Matthew, chapter 24, I just want to read verse 37. Matthew 24, verse 37. And I want you to notice the importance of the home in Bible prophecy as well.
And the Bible says, there, but as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. And it says, for as in the days of Noah that were before the flood, they were doing four things. They were eating and they were drinking and they were marrying and they were giving in marriage.
And the Bible says, until Noah entered into the ark. And then verse 39 it says, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away. And so shall also the coming of a son of man be.
So. Notice that Jesus, he parallels the time preceding the second Coming of Christ. Are we living in that time? Okay, and you find that he talks about the time preceding the Second Coming of Christ.
And he compares that or parallels that to the time of who. What time period does he allude it to? He parallels it to the time of Noah right now, the times of Noah. If you could sum up what the time of Noah was like in Genesis 65, the Bible says that the imaginations of the thoughts of the heart were evil continually.
Wait. The Bible says only evil continually. That boggles me because that's just crazy.
Like every thought of the imagination of the heart was only evil. And so I want you to imagine, if there was a poor person, they walked straight past him. There was no scruple.
Have you ever had a scruple like that before? Is that when you walk past the poor person? Oh, man, I wish I could give my lunch. I wish I could give my money. There was no scruples with these people when they walked past a poor person.
There was no benevolence there. There was no compassion there. The thoughts of men's heart was evil continually.
When they were on the train and on the bus, when they saw elderly man with a walking stick. They didn't want to give up the chair. It's like the thought didn't even come to their mind.
There was no compassion there. The Bible says about the time of Noah that it was evil continually. But why does Jesus allude to this time? Because you notice that he refers to four things.
He says that they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, and they were giving in marriage. Question, is there anything wrong with those things? No, there isn't. Why? Because remember who instituted eating God in Genesis 216 and 17.
The Bible says in the Lord God, he commanded Adam, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it, because in the day you eat thereof, thou shalt surely die. So God instituted eating. Did God institute drinking? Yeah, you kind of read it implicitly in Genesis two.
Because remember, in Genesis 210 to 14, there was four rivers of water that went out of Eden to water the Garden of Eden, which was in the east. And so the river was pishon, Gihon, Hidakel and Euphrates. So God instituted drinking.
It watered the garden, but I'm sure that it would have quenched there first as well. Did God institute marriage? Yes, Genesis 224. The Bible says, if you write it down, you can write those down.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. Did God institute giving in marriage? Yes, he did. In Genesis 221 and 22, it talks about how when God put Adam to sleep, that he took one of his ribs, closed up the flesh.
And the Bible says, and the rib that the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman, and the Bible says he brought her to the man. And so you find that God was the first one who actually arranged marriage. So why did Jesus here allude to these four areas in Matthew 24, verse 37 to 39? Can I show you from the Bible? Okay, turn with me to Genesis, chapter six.
Genesis, chapter six. And we'll read verse eleven and verse twelve. Genesis, chapter six.
Reading verse eleven and verse twelve. And I want you to notice the words. Remember, we're trying to understand, why did Jesus allude to eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage? There's nothing wrong with those things.
But why does he allude to those things? And you see that in the verse. And I want you to pick it up. I'm going to ask you the question, okay.
Genesis 611 and twelve. And notice what the Bible says. It says the earth also was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence.
Verse twelve, it says, and God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. Now, from the text, from what you read, what was wrong with eating? What was wrong with drinking and marrying and giving in marriage? Anyone? You can talk with me. It's okay.
Any ideas? One of my senior pastors, you said, be confident even if you're wroNg. So it's okay. You can call out what was wrong with eating, drinking, marrying and giving a marriage according to the text.
Sorry. Okay, thank you, Nadia. So if you do it excessively, someone said violence.
I'm going to read it again, okay? And this time I'll emphasise the word. In verse eleven, it says, the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. Notice verse twelve.
And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all the flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. Question, what was wrong with the eating? What was wrong with the eating and the drinking and the marrying and giving in marriage? They corrupted it. So what I did was I went back and said, okay, what does corrupt mean? You know what corrupt means? It means to alter from the original or correct formal version.
So when you read the word corrupt there, even in the Hebrew, it's the Hebrew word shakat, it means to degrade or to decay. It means to damage irreparably that they damaged eating so much and they ate so much that you couldn't tell whether they were eating. They were corrupting, drinking so much that you couldn't tell whether they were drinking.
They had corrupted marriage so much that you couldn't tell whether it was marriage or not. They had corrupted, given in marriage so much, and they degraded it and corrupted it that you couldn't tell whether it was being given in marriage. But the question is, when it says to alter to its original or correct form, where do you find the original of marriage? Eating, drinking and giving in marriage? In Genesis, in Eden, which we just read.
So you find that the reason why Jesus alludes to these four things is not because they're bad in and of themselves. It's when we take these things and we corrupt them. And do you find that in our day and age today, people corrupting, eating, people corrupting, drinking, people corrupting marriage? It's interesting, man, I looked up, I was like, man, what are all these different aberrations of marriage? And you've probably heard of all the different types of marriage, but I found this new one.
It's called Salagami. Has anyone heard of salogamy? It's an interesting concept. It's people actually marrying themselves.
That's what sologamy is. I was like, wow. Yeah, wow.
It's crazy, right? It's like, man, you know, I was thinking of that, and I was like, man, if people in Sodom and Gomorrah were alive today and people in Noah's time, it was like, it'll turn their head. It's like, what? What is that? That's crazy, right? These are aberrations of marriage. And the thing is, I'm very sensitive to this topic, because I know that some people, I had a friend in college who actually believed in that type of marriage.
Not to lag me, but same sex marriage and stuff like that. And I'm very sensitive to the fact that people struggle with that. So please don't get me wrong.
All I believe is that God can give you the victory. He can help you to redeem the time. And so the Bible teaches us that these four things, what was wrong was that they were corrupting them.
And I tried to look in the text, and I was like, okay, in what manner were they corrupting it? And I want you to notice I don't necessarily find the eating, but one thing I can say, it wasn't plant based. That's all I can say. Because the original is plant based.
Right. All I can say is, when they were corrupting, eating and drinking, it wasn't the fruit of the vine. I'm sure it was fermented.
But you find that when I studied the chapter in Genesis six, you actually see what type of aberrations in marriage. And you actually find that in verse two, you find two. I found two.
And I compare this with inspiration. And these are the two as well. In Genesis six and verse two, I want you to notice what the Bible says.
And the Bible says, in Genesis six and verse two, it says that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all in which they chose. So the first type of aberration in marriage, please pray for me, is that the Bible says the sons of God saw the daughters of men. The first type of aberration.
And by the way, some people say the sons of God is referring to angels. Once again, in some contexts, that applies in this one, it doesn't, because when you read contextually, you find in Genesis five, it talks about whose descendants. Seth.
Someone said it. Seth. Very good.
Whole of Genesis five deals with Seth's descendants. At the end of Genesis four, it talks about the descendants of Cain. So when you come to Genesis six two, when it says the sons of God, it's referring to the line of Seth, the Holy Seed.
The Holy Seed saw the daughters of men, the line of Cain, unholy seed. And the reason why I say unholy seed and holy seed is because remember the first promise in the Bible in Genesis 315, that I will put enmity between you and the woman and between thy seed and her seed. Thou shalt bruise his head, you shall bruise his heel.
You find these two seeds throughout the Bible, all the way to the Book of Revelation that we read in Revelation 1217. And so when it says that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, you find that there was a mingling between the Holy Seed and the unholy seed. One of the aberrations of marriage you find there is that they were intermarrying.
And I'm not talking about intermarriage in terms of cross cultural. No, it's more referring to when you don't have the same value system. And it's crazy because in our church, unfortunately, it's become a form of evangelism.
No. Amen. That's okay.
The sons of God saw the daughters of men. And the thing is, when you go throughout the Bible, you find it literally. You find it in one kings eleven, one to ten, where the Bible says Solomon, he saw many strange women and he went in onto them, and the Bible says they turned his heart from the Lord.
And when you read that, what happened was he was actually sacrificing children to Molech. That's what the women did. And I just want to say, women, you have a lot of power, man.
It's true. When you read the. Know, Samson was a big brother, but got taken down by a woman.
I'm serious. Yeah. So, you know, you men watch out for the women.
Yeah. Amen. And you women be good to the men.
But you find in the Bible, women have so much, man. There's so much influence. And I'm sure some of us can attest to that, that our women are very influential.
But you find there that that was one of the first things. The second one you find is that they were beautiful. And it says they took, what, wives? And I thought, oh, man, maybe I'll go look at the Greek because I thought it was just singular, but in the Hebrew, it's plural.
So you have not just intermarriage, but you also have polygamy. These were the two forms, according to the text that I found, that they were corrupting marriage. They were corrupting giving in marriage.
And so when you look at this in light of the home and in Bible prophecy, you find that those four things, those two things deal with the home. And that's why home is so important in Bible prophecy, but out throughout the whole word of God as well. Okay, now I just want us to go to Ephesians chapter five again.
I'm coming to a close now. Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter five.
And we're going to read our text again. And you're probably wondering, Finna, how in the world did you connect the family with redeeming the time? It's just like, where is that in the verse? Actually, the Lord showed me this just yesterday. I was like, Lord, how do I connect this? So in Ephesians five, in verse 16, where it says redeeming the time because the days are evil, and it talks about not being unwise, but being understanding.
Eventually, when you read through Ephesians five, you know, Ephesians five, verse 21 to 33, guess what? It talks about the relationship between the husband and the wife. Do you see the connection? It talks about how the husband ought to love the wife. Yeah.
And then eventually, when you get to Ephesians six, verse one to four, it talks about how children should obey their parents. So it's like Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus and saying, look, redeem the time. And then he talks about the family and how in the family, if you have squandered time, that you can redeem the time, that in your marriage, that if you've squandered time and you've wasted time, that the Bible says you can redeem the time.
And so these are the last four things which I want to share with you, just before we finish, is because you remember that I told you that on an individual level, we're four dimensional. Physical, mental, spiritual, social. I showed you in terms of the Church, physical, mental, spiritual and social.
And the last thing I want to share with you is just about the family. Because the thing is, I don't want to assume that people know how to run their family. And I didn't know as well as when I grew up, but as I studied the word, God helped me to understand that we can do our best, but at the same time, understand that children, they have their own minds.
They make their decisions. And I've spoken to many parents, and I like to say they wallow in their sorrow. And the reason why I say that is because they're like my children.
No, longer come to church. And they did their best. They went to Adventist school, they went to Sabbath School.
They sang the Scripture song, and they did all those things. But then today they're not in the church. And I say, praise God that they're not in the church because God doesn't want us just to be in the Church.
He wants us to be in Jesus. But if you're in Jesus, you'll be in the Church. Do you understand? So don't go and defect.
But I just want to say is that I meet a lot of parents who are like that. And I like to encourage them, because remember that the Bible teaches that God is our heavenly Father, right? And God has. His children went astray.
They were rebellious. So even Jesus, like God, understands that even though you may do your best, you can train them up. Eventually they have to make the decision to follow Jesus themselves.
But you provide the environment which is conducive for their spirituality. But they come to a point where this Jesus thing has to be personal for themselves rather than relying upon the faith of their parents. And so you find this in the context of redeeming the time.
And so I usually tell parents, look, you can't turn back the time, which is true, but you can buy back the time. You can redeem the time. And I just want to end with these four points, and then we'll finish.
Is that we're told in inspiration, it's in a book called Education. Page 250, paragraph two. We're told by inspiration that it was God's plan for members of the family to be associated in work, in study, and in worship, and in recreation.
And these are the four things which I want to finish on. Okay? So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Mark, chapter six. Mark, chapter six.
So it was God's plan for members of the family to be associated in these four areas. And I'm going to show you that from the Bible. Mark, chapter six.
And when you get there, you can say, amen. Okay? Amen. In Mark six, verse, verse three.
Mark, chapter six, verse three. Notice the Bible says there in Mark six and verse three, it says, is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph, and of Judah and Simon? And are not all his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him? Question in verse three. Who is the carpenter here? Jesus.
Jesus. Very good. Now keep this in mind.
This verse says, is not this the carpenter referring to Jesus? But now turn to Matthew, chapter 13. Matthew, chapter 13. Matthew, chapter 13.
And verse 55. Okay, Matthew 13, and verse 55, notice the difference. It says, verse 55, is not this the carpenter's son is not this his mother called Mary and his brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Judas.
What was the difference between Mark six, verse three, and Matthew 1355? Who's the carpenter here? Joseph. Very good. I'm just making an application because, remember, inspiration says it was God's plan for members of the family to be associated in work.
You find in one verse it says, jesus was the carpenter. In this verse, you find it was his father that was the carpenter. In the east, the Father would pass on the trade to the child Jesus.
In his 30 years, he wasn't in his room on Facebook, you understand? He was associated with his father. And they were doing work. They were doing practical work and they were working together.
So one of the first thing I would like to recommend, if you don't have this relationship with your children, spend time to work with them like a missionary. Go on a missionary trip or get them involved in working for the Lord. It may not be like spiritual, it may be more temporal.
But it's important that as a family, work together. There's nothing that helps disunity more than when we're not doing things together. So the first thing is, associate with one another in work.
Second one is in study. Turn with me to second Timothy, chapter, chapter three. Second Timothy, chapter three.
Second Timothy, chapter three. So we looked at work. Two Timothy, chapter three.
And when you get there, you can say, amen. Amen. Praise the Lord.
Second Timothy, chapter three. And notice Paul is writing to the Timothy, young Timothy. And he says, in two Timothy, chapter three.
And verse 15, 2nd Timothy, 315. It says, and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Now it says that he knew the scriptures from a child.
Question, who taught Timothy, Mother? Okay, how do you know that? It's mentioned in the Bible. Yes, it is. That's good.
Turn with me to two Timothy, one. Notice what the Bible says. Who taught Timothy? Because it says, and that from a child you have known the Holy Scriptures.
So how did he come into contact with the Holy Scriptures? You find it in verse five of two Timothy, Chapter 1, Second Timothy, chapter one. It says, paul is saying, when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith, this pure faith that is in you, which dwell first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice. And I am persuaded it's in you Also.
I found this verse to be very interesting because often when you think of the teaching of the scripture. Often you think of the parent as the father figure, but you find here is it was actually the mother who was teaching as well. Do you UnderstaNd Why I'M TRYING TO GeT OUT HerE? Is that the responsibility of sharing the scriptures with the children is not just the role of the father, but it's the role of the mother as well.
You find that the grandmother taught the daughter, and then the daughter taught her son. And you Find that PAul Says, this genuine faith, this pure faith. I don't know if you looked at a child before and said, man, your daughter has your dimples.
She has your Eyes. But imagine if someone can look at your daughter or your son and say, man, they have the same faith as you, that zeal to serve God. That's what Was In Timothy.
And so the second point is not Just to Work TOgether, but the BiblE Says we should STudy Together as well. AND so when your ChILdREN come up to you and say, Lord, dad, mom, how come we can't eat dad? Or how come we can't go there? It's like, okay, son, let me show you from the scripture. Let's study Together.
And so that's the second point. Work together, study together. Third point, worship.
Turn with me to Exodus 29. We're coming to an end. We're coming to an end.
I'm so glad you are sticking in there. I know it's a long sermon. I'm sorry.
ExoDus chapter 29. Exodus 29. Amen.
Exodus 29. And this was in the context of the priests and the Father being the priest of the home. Notice what he was supposed to do in Exodus chapter 29.
And we'll read verse 38 and 39. 38 and 39. Exodus 29, verse 38 and 29.
39. Okay, very gooD. And it says there in verse 38 of Exodus 29.
Now, this is that which you shall offer upon the outer two lambs of the first year, day by day, continually. In verse 39, it says, the one lamb you shall offer in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer when at twilight or at evening. So when it comes to worship, and the thing is this, when I grew up, there was no family worship.
Wow. I didn't even know about devotion. What was that? That's, like, foreign to me.
We didn't have any family worship in our home. And I want to encourage you that you don't just work together. You don't just.
What's it called? You study together. Thank you. But you worship together evening and morning.
And one of the ways inspiration says this is that in the morning, it was to be like, your charge the charge for the morning. So, for example, in the morning you have morning worship and it's about patience. And so after you've prayed together, you go about your day.
And throughout the day you learn, I need to be patient. And you pray, Lord, please give me patience today. And be very careful.
When you pray those prayers, it's like you pray, oh, Lord, please give me patience. And then God puts you on the M five in this big long queue, and you're like, why is this happening to me? You pray for patience. Amen.
Praise the Lord. Odigata. But you understand what I'm trying to say, right? You understand what I'm trying to say is that in the morning it was to be like a charge.
And then when you came into the evening, when it came for evening worship, it was a time of celebration and review of the morning worship, so that your daughters come and say, dad, this morning, I mean, throughout the day I was on a work call and someone was being rude, but I remember I needed to be patient. You review what you had in the morning. Okay, so you don't just, what's the first one, you work together.
Second one, you study together. Third one, you worship together. And last one is recreation.
And I remember when I was growing up, and especially when I first started taking Bible studies, man, when you saw me, I was just one of those straight guys. No laugh. Literally no laugh.
It's like very serious type of guy. Over time, God has worked with me. But the thing is, we are also to be recreate, like to socialise together.
Turn with me to Zechariah, chapter eight. Zechariah, chapter eight. I want you to notice this from the Bible.
Zechariah, chapter eight. And you've heard of the term, a family that prays together stays together. Have you heard of that before? This is the same, is that it's not just a family that prays together stays together, but also a family that plays together stays together.
Amen. And so you find in Zechariah. Zechariah, chapter eight.
Zechariah is one of the minor prophets. Zechariah. His name means God remembers.
Zechariah, chapter eight. And let me get there. Zechariah, chapter eight.
Okay, I believe it's verse, verse five. Okay, notice this is talking about Zion. I'm coming to my last point now.
Zechariah, chapter eight, verse five. Notice it says, and the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls. What are they doing playing in the streets of the city thereof? Is there anything wrong with playing? No.
As long as it's recreative in nature. Yeah. And I think this is an important point because once again, all these things I didn't know when I was growing up.
There was no socialising. There was no playing together. And you noticed that the operative word in everything that I said to you was together, work together, study together, worship together, socialise or do recreation together.
And I find that there's a misconception with it when we come into the church as well, that we don't have fun, man, we can have a lot of fun and still be serious about the Lord. But the thing is this is that oftentimes we think that we just have to give up pleasure. The thing is this.
Remember this? In Psalm 1611, it says, thou will show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand is pleasure forevermore.
Okay, so the Bible says we can have pleasure, but we need to seek the pleasure in the right places. And so it's important that as a family, that if we want to redeem the time, that it's important that we work together, that we study together, that we worship together and that we play together. Amen.
And so, as I come to an end, the thing is this. The Bible talks about in the commandments, thou shalt have no other gods before me. Some of us, parents, our jobs are our gods.
Some of us, we spend so much time working that we don't have time for our children. I'm coming to an end now. And you know what I'm talking about.
Your children want to go to the park. And you're like, okay, let's go to the park. And when you go to the park, your children's playing on the swing and they're throwing sand around.
They say, daddy, look at me. And Daddy says, yes, I'm looking. I'm looking.
Spend time not just with your children, but be present there as well. For some of us, our work is our God. For some of us, our career, our studies are our God.
University students, I know you're in holiday, but when the university comes, it's like, I'm all with the study and I don't spend time with my parents. They say, we have dinner, but I can't come tonight. Don't allow your career.
Don't allow your job to be your God. And God says, look, if that's you, your case is not hopeless. Amen.
The Bible says you can redeem the time. This message was made available by the Ride 7th Day Adventist Church. For more resources like this.
Visit their YouTube page 3AMRide Seventh-day Adventist Church. it's been our pleasure bringing you this programme today here on 3ABN Australia Radio.
