In Genesis chapter 2, we have kind of a second creation story because Genesis chapter 1 actually
covers all of the creation all the way through man being created, male and female both being
created in Genesis chapter 1.
We have Adam and Eve created in Genesis 1.
But in Genesis chapter 2, we back up and sort of retell the story from a different angle.
So it's a different account of the creation that goes into more detail about different
things.
Now the biggest difference between Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2 is that Genesis
chapter 1 is giving the perspective from God's point of view and it's focusing more on the
big picture like a bird's eye view of God's creating the earth and here's what he does.
Whereas chapter 2 is a perspective from the earth and the focus is on man.
Now let me show you what I mean by that.
If you look in Genesis chapter 1, the word that's used over and over again to refer to
God is just simply G-O-D, just God, right?
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, verse 3, and God said, let there
be light and there was light and God saw the light that it was good, right?
So that's one thing.
If we go over to chapter 2, it says in verse 1, thus the heavens and the earth were finished
and all the hosts of them and on the seventh day, God ended his work which he had made
and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made and God blessed
the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it, he had rested from all his work
which God created and made.
So it's clear that chapter 2 is picking up right where chapter 1 left off.
He rolls right in and it's still just using that term God.
God did this on the seventh day.
We've been talking about days 1 through 6.
Now we're going to talk about day 7.
But here's the real transitional verse in verse number 4.
In verse 4 of chapter 2, it says, these are the generations of the heavens and of the
earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
So this is a change.
All of a sudden, instead of just saying God over and over again, now all of a sudden,
he rolls out this new name, the Lord God.
And then all throughout chapter 2, look at verse 5, it says the Lord God.
Verse 7, verse 8, verse 9, it's just consistently all throughout the chapter this new name,
the Lord God.
So chapter 4 is the transitional verse.
Well, let's read it again and notice something that's interesting.
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth.
So notice the order there, the heavens and the earth, right?
When they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
So basically, chapter 1 is about God creating the heaven and the earth.
And chapter 2 is about God creating the earth and the heavens.
You say, what in the world is the difference?
That's the same thing.
The difference is the emphasis.
The emphasis on chapter 2 is from earth's perspective.
Chapter 1 is from heaven's perspective.
Now what atheists and people who scoff at the Bible will do is they'll say, oh, you
know, the Bible is contradicting itself.
It has two different creation stories and they contradict each other.
Who's ever heard that before where they try to say that Genesis chapter 1 is a contradiction
with Genesis chapter 2?
It's not that they're a contradiction.
It's just that they're giving two different perspectives or two different angles.
One is heaven focused and the other is earth focused, okay?
What do I mean by that?
Well, as we read this chapter, the focus is on man all throughout chapter 2.
Man gets a lot more detail.
Right away in verse 5, if you look at the last line of verse 5, it says, there was not
a man to till the ground.
So right after that transitional verse in Genesis 2, 4, right away we're talking about
man, lack of man, right?
And then in verse number 7, we see man being created.
Verse number 8, man is put in the garden of Eden.
Verse number 9, there's a tree that's put there for man's benefit, the tree of life.
Also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which obviously has to do with man as
well.
And all throughout the chapter, the focus is on the man.
Now the biggest thing that the atheist will try to bring up to say that this contradicts
is they'll say, you know, the order that things are created is different.
Because in Genesis chapter 1, of course, God starts out by separating the light and the
darkness and then he creates the firmament, creating the atmosphere and the waters.
And then on day 3, he creates the dry land and the plant life.
Day 4, he creates heavenly bodies like the sun, moon, stars.
Day 5, he creates the fish and the fowl, the animals that live in the water and the animals
that fly in the air.
And then day 6, he creates the land animals.
And then last of all, on day 6, he creates man.
Well, the order is a little bit different in chapter 2 because he talks about the plants
and then he creates man and then he's creating animals.
So they say that's a contradiction, but it's not a contradiction at all.
What actually happened is that God created all those animals that are in the air and
the water on day 5.
And on day 6, before he created man, he created all those animals and then he created man.
But what you have to understand is that God, in chapter 2 here, hand forms examples of
each animal to show to Adam so that he can name them.
So if you would, jump down to verse number 18.
It says, And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone.
I will make him and help meet for him.
And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of
the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.
And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
So God had already created the fowls on the previous day, but what he's doing is actually
making them by hand at this point and showing them to Adam.
So he forms a certain bird and brings it to Adam and says, Okay Adam, what are we going
to call this?
And then Adam names that animal.
He forms some land animal out of the earth.
He's showing him individual examples.
Obviously when God created the earth on day 3, when he says, Let the earth bring forth
grass and let it bring forth trees.
Obviously there's just grass and trees springing up everywhere.
When he says, Let the sea bring forth the living creature that hath life, you know,
let the sky bring forth the fowl.
Obviously there are just millions of examples being created, right?
And when he creates the land animals, there are just all kinds of millions of animals
being created.
But what we're seeing here in Genesis chapter 2 is a zoomed in close up of God interacting
with the man that he's created and he's forming just one example.
So this is not a record of the animals being made that populate the whole earth.
This is just a record of God making one of each and showing it to Adam for the express
purpose of him giving it a name.
Okay.
And whatever he called it, the Bible says at the end of verse 19, that was the name
thereof.
So we're getting more detail.
In Genesis chapter 1, it's just, you know, he made animals, he made man, he made a male
and a female.
He saw that it was good.
Chapter 2, we back up and slow down and look at it from the perspective on the ground and
zoom in on man and see how he gets to name the animals and then he gets a wife and on
and on.
So let's back up and go through this chapter.
It says in verse 5, every plant of the field before it was in the earth and every herb
of the field before it grew, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth
and there was not a man to till the ground.
But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life and man became a living soul.
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had
formed.
Now, what we see here, if we slow down and look at this, is that man was not created
in the Garden of Eden.
Man is created somewhere else and then he's placed into a garden that God prepares for
him.
He's moved there.
I want to point out specifically that the Bible says the Lord God formed man of the
dust of the ground.
Now, in chapter 1, we just see God creating things and speaking them into existence, right?
There are certain things where he just calls out and says, for example, in verse 11, and
God said, let the earth bring forth grass.
Or when he says, for example, in verse number 20, let the waters bring forth abundantly
the moving creature that hath life.
We don't see God there specifically forming and fashioning each sea creature there.
But when it comes to man, we see him forming man and what that actually implies is he's
actually using his hands because the word formed would be like the word that you would
use for a potter who's fashioning something and shaping it out of clay.
So God actually forms man of the dust of the ground and breathes into his nostrils
the breath of life and man became a living soul.
You say, why does that matter?
Well, if we back up to chapter 1, verse 26, it says, and God said, let us make man in
our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in his own image.
Now those that deny the Trinity have a real problem here.
And namely, we're talking about Jews who reject the Lord Jesus Christ.
They believe in a oneness God or modalists or other people who deny the Trinity.
They're going to have a hard time with this verse, let us make man in our image.
So one of the explanations that they'll come up with and say, oh, it's the angels.
You know, let us make man in our image.
That's God and the angels.
That's ridiculous because there's no mention of angels in this passage.
You can't just make things up and just stick them into the Bible.
There's no mention of the angels and the angels are not in the image of God.
So God can't look at the angels and say, let's make man in our image because they don't have
the same image, first of all.
But second of all, if he says, let us make man in our image, that would imply that the
angels are participating in the creation of man.
And we know that the angels did not create man.
God created man so much so that he actually formed man.
You know, we actually see the Lord himself getting down there on the ground.
I believe that Jesus Christ, the son of God, the word of God was there physically in the
garden of Eden.
I believe that he walked with Adam and Eve in the garden and I believe that he actually
got down there on the ground with his hands and that he formed man of the dust of the
earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
You know, sort of like the CPR, those two breaths, right?
He actually breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.
There's no angels involved here.
Don't add things to the Bible that aren't there.
Why don't you just accept the clear teaching of scripture that the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost were in the beginning, they've always existed.
There's always been the Father, there's always been the Son, there's always been the Holy
Ghost and so that's the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost saying, hey, let's make
man in our image because the Lord Jesus Christ is the expressed image of God the Father.
And so we see the Lord God, Jehovah God, actually forming man with his hands, that's what that
word formed would imply, out of the dust of the ground, breathing into his nostrils the
breath of life and man became a living soul.
Verse 8, and the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man
whom he had formed and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant
to the sight and good for food.
Now again, it would be ridiculous to say, oh, they're getting the order wrong.
This has him making man first and then the plants.
No, because we already see that in verse 5 plants were already there and guess what?
Animals were already there too because on day 5 there were fishes and birds and earlier
on day 6 there were already land animals.
So what he's doing here, when it says in verse 9, out of the ground made the Lord God to
grow every tree, he's growing more trees specifically for Adam, here let me show you this, here
we're going to make this for you, this is what your garden is going to be like.
And then it says that there are two specific trees here, halfway through verse 9, the tree
of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, from thence it was parted and became
into four heads.
The name of the first is Pisan.
That is it which compasses the whole land of Havilah where there is gold.
Now why bring up the fact that there's gold there?
Gold is something that man uses, that man cares about.
Out of all the things on this earth, gold is one of the most useful things that there
is.
I was flying in an airplane a couple days ago and I looked out the window and I saw
just this amazing sight.
We were just out in the desert, in the middle of nowhere, there was no civilization and
we just saw what looked like this glowing gold city, bright gold, I mean it was just
lit up, so bright and just the color of gold, I mean it was truly a marvelous sight.
We were joking around, this is the lost city of El Dorado, so we were joking around that
it moves and this is where it is right now.
If you went there it's not going to be there anymore.
But I mean it was pretty amazing, we were just mind blown, we were looking out the window
and we were trying to figure out what is that?
I was trying to figure out is something on fire because it was just so bright and it
kind of changed and everything and I couldn't understand what it was because there was just
nothing else around.
It was probably about 200 miles away but yet you could see it and it was big and bright
and gold and so as we wondered with great admiration, the guy in front of us finally
turned around and said, hey, do you want to know what that is?
He was like, well yeah, obviously and he told us, he said, what it is is it's these giant
gold solar panels.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Does anybody know about those, the gold?
Nobody knows about them.
I talked to some other people after that and they said, yeah, there are these giant solar
panels and they're gold but to be able to see them from hundreds of miles away and they
were so bright and brilliant but why would they be gold?
A lot of things to do with electrical and electricity end up being gold.
Gold is actually a great conductor, it's better than silver, it's better than copper.
That's why microchips often have their little gold conductors and wiring inside them because
it is a great conductor and obviously gold is the form of money in most places and gold
has always been a universal form of wealth and money because it's a precious metal and
so this is again man-centered and man-focused as we talk about creation in this chapter.
What do we bring up about the land of Havilah?
Well, there's gold there, the gold of that land is good.
There is delium and the onyx stone, verse 12, other useful things for man to use.
Verse 13, in the name of the second river is Gihon, the same is it that composite the
whole land of Ethiopia.
Again, Ethiopia is a place where people are going to live, the Ethiopians.
In the name of the third river is Hiddikil, that is it which goes toward the east of Assyria
and the fourth river is Euphrates and the Lord took the man and put him into the Garden
of Eden to dress it and to keep it and the Lord God commanded the man saying of every
tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die.
And then of course we see the next verse where he says that man should not be alone and how
he's going to create a helper for him and when he goes to create a helper for him, he
starts by creating each animal individually like we said just one prototype to show Adam
and then Adam gives it the name and whatever Adam names it, that's the name thereof.
Now let's stop here and think about why God has done some of these things.
What has God done for man in this chapter?
Well he provides work for man to do.
He gives him the garden and says dress it, keep it, till the ground, take care of it.
He gives him choices, he gives him freedom, right?
Now these are things that man needs in his life.
Human beings need these things.
A righteous human being needs these things because Adam at this point is a righteous
human being.
He hasn't sinned yet, he hasn't messed things up yet and so as a righteous man, he still
has these basic human needs.
What are they?
Man needs something to do, some work to perform, some purpose, some job to do, productive work
to do but man also needs freedom.
We as human beings, we thrive in an environment of freedom.
If we lock us up in a cage, we're going to be miserable.
You take away all our choices and decide everything for us, we're going to be miserable.
We need to have freedom.
That's why he said of all the trees of the garden, that means freely eat.
He's giving him work to do but then he's giving him choices so that he can make decisions
about what he wants to eat.
Enjoy this, enjoy that.
He also gives him the freedom to choose the name of the animals.
He's giving him a creative outlet, letting him pick.
Not just saying, this is what it's called Adam, I make all the rules, I make all the
decisions.
No, God, even omnipotent as he is, says, you know Adam, I want to give you some choices.
I want you to have a say about this.
What do you want to call this giant, fat animal with a super long nose and a little tail that
goes, what do you want to call this thing?
He called it an elephant or whatever.
He brings him all kinds of animals and he's calling it a giraffe, a zebra, a cow, whatever.
He's giving man choices.
He's giving him a creative outlet.
He's letting him decide what he wants to eat, what he wants to name things, and there's
even the potential for him to do wrong because he plants right in the middle of the garden
a tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
He could have just left it out.
He could have put an electric fence around it.
He could have put man in a white padded room and put him in a straitjacket and we'd still
be in paradise.
Right?
No, because it's not paradise when you're in a straitjacket, when you're locked up,
when you don't have any freedom, that's not paradise.
Part of paradise is having some choices, having some decisions, having free will.
That's part of the human experience.
Now, we need to be careful that we don't take other people's joy away from them or take
their freedom away and try to enslave or completely imprison the people around us.
What do I mean by that?
Well, we shouldn't imprison our wives.
Shouldn't imprison our children.
Shouldn't imprison our workers at the job.
Now, obviously, there are boundaries that need to be put in place.
God put a boundary here.
He said, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
You know, that's a boundary.
That's a rule that he's making.
But there are other choices that they are allowed to make.
Now, when it comes to our children, I don't believe that we should decide what they're
going to do with their life and make every choice.
Let your children make some choices.
Let them have some options sometimes about what they want to do, what they want to eat.
Now, obviously, they need to eat what's put in front of them, amen?
But sometimes there are opportunities where they get to choose, right?
And let them choose.
Let them have a choice.
You know, what do they want to be when they grow up?
My children can be whatever they want when they grow up as long as they make an honest
living.
You know, if my sons want to be computer programmers or if they want to be carpenters, plumbers,
if they want to be a trash collector, if they want to be a fisherman, you know, I don't
care what they do.
If they go out and make an honest – they don't have to be a pastor or they don't have
to go into the military or they don't have to, you know, become an electrician because
my dad's an electrician and his dad's an electrician and I'm an electrician and, you
know, before those guys there was no electricity, you know.
Let them do what they want, you know, as long as it's righteous, as long as it's godly.
You know, we don't want them growing up and running a liquor store or owning a casino
or a strip club.
We don't want them to grow up and be an extortioner or some kind of an organized criminal.
And we don't want them doing jobs that are dishonest or ungodly or anything like that.
But you know what?
Within the realm of what's right, why does it matter?
Who cares what your kids want to do, right, as long as they're going to be a good Christian.
That's all that matters.
Well, I want them to make a lot of money so their choices are doctor and lawyer.
You know, maybe they're just not cut out to make a lot of money.
Maybe they're just going to be a good blue collar Christian man.
That's okay, right?
That's what they want to do.
You know, you got to enjoy your job.
If you're going to excel, you know, you don't want to just go into a field that you hate.
Well, this pays, so I'm just going to go into it.
You know, we need to do something with our life that we can actually enjoy.
And God isn't just trying to deprive man of all enjoyment and all choices.
No, he says, you know what?
There's boundaries, there's rules, but within those, do what you want.
You know, call this animal whatever you want.
Eat whatever fruit you want.
You have freedom.
So we don't want to imprison our children.
And the same thing with our wives.
Now obviously, you know, the husband's the head of the wife and there's an authority
structure there.
There are rules there.
But you know, your wife needs to have some choices in her life, right?
It's good for her to be able to make some decisions and choices and do some things.
Now, there's a culture out there that wants to lock women up and it's called Islam.
You know, that just, you know, she can't leave the house unless only her eyes are showing
through a little slit.
What in the world, right?
And they have to just be under lock and key.
They can't drive anywhere, can't go anywhere because, you know, otherwise they're just
going to commit adultery, right?
I mean, if we don't lock them up, they're going to commit adultery.
Look, you know, your wife's not going to commit adultery just because she's not completely
confined and locked.
You don't have to put an ankle bracelet on your wife to make sure that she's not going
to commit adultery, right?
Otherwise you have bigger problems in your house and in the heart of your wife, okay?
So the point is that people have to be able to spread their wings a little bit and have
a little bit of freedom and not live in prison.
But there are boundaries.
Now, when it comes to children, the younger the child, the greater the boundary is needed
because little children, they shouldn't just be, have a playpen set up right next to the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
You know, Adam's a grown man.
I mean, Adam made that decision.
He was not deceived.
He knew what he was doing when he ate at the tree.
You know, we don't want to put a little child next to the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil.
And by the way, you know, don't give your children unfettered access to the internet.
They're not ready for that.
I mean, the internet has all manner of wickedness on it.
Any kind of wickedness or filth, you can find it on the internet, right?
Because the internet is just everything in the whole world.
Because they're all knowledge, all information.
And if you just give your children unfettered access to the internet, that is too much freedom.
You know, you need to set up parental controls, either don't give them a device that has access
to the internet, and if you do, there need to be some hardcore parental controls in place.
Because they're too young and the devil is seeking whom he may devour.
He wants to entice them.
He's going to tempt them and get them on things that are the wrong things.
So don't just give your kids unfettered access to the internet.
And you know what?
I wouldn't take my four-year-old, my five-year-old, and six-year-old and put them on a school
bus and just send them to the public fool system.
I mean, come on.
I mean, you're building them a tree house in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
when you do that.
Don't eat of it.
But they're right.
You know, I mean, come on.
You got to have some common sense here to put some boundaries in place.
And obviously we want our children to be able to make some choices, have some freedom.
But we got to start out when they're young making more choices for them.
I mean, a baby's not making money choices for himself, is he?
He's not like, uh, mother, you know, six-month-old or something, mother, I would like the plums
mashed up with squash by Gerber today.
You know, I'm getting a little burned out on the turkey wild rice dinner puree.
You know, they don't make those kind of decisions, right?
Mom is basically just deciding this is the baby food that he's going to eat.
This is the diaper that he's going to wear.
He's not telling mom, you know, I really prefer Huggies to Pampers, mom.
You know, that's all decided by mom.
You know, as he gets a little bit older, you know, he's given some decision making, right?
Because you don't want to just enslave your kids, lock them up in prison, and then all
of a sudden when they're 18, you just drop them off on a corner in their orange jumpsuit
and they're just dropped on a corner, here's 20 bucks, go make it in life.
They have to be eased out into the real world.
You know what I'm saying?
So when your boys start getting older, you start giving them a little more freedom.
And with freedom comes responsibility.
And then you see how they do.
Now, if you start giving your teenagers freedom and they start abusing that freedom, then
you're going to have to rein in freedom.
And you know what?
I learned that if I do right, if I'm responsible, if I'm a good steward of the freedom my parents
give me, they're going to give me more freedom.
And if I'm a poor steward of it, then I'm going to get less freedom.
You know, in the beginning, man had the most freedom.
But you know what happens as a result of sin, of him abusing his freedom and taking of that
tree and all he's going to do?
He's kicked out of the garden and now there's a flaming sword that's keeping him from even
entering that garden.
He can't even go in that garden anymore.
He lost the privilege, he abused the privilege.
So if your teenager is abusing freedom, you know, you need to tighten that up.
But as your kids get older, they need to get out into the world and start making decisions,
start living their life, so that it's not just a light switch from just no freedom to
just all right, you're an adult now, you know, do whatever.
They got to transition into that.
Now, there is a difference between male and female.
God created them male and female.
God created men and women and they're different.
And I have a double standard when it comes to how I raise my kids, oh, it's not fair.
Life isn't fair.
The world isn't fair, okay?
Men and women are not the same.
There are pros and cons to each.
You know, there are benefits to being man, there are benefits to being a woman.
Every man here is glad that they're a man and every woman here is glad that they're
a woman.
Amen?
Otherwise, you know, you might have stumbled into the wrong church or something.
You might need to be down at the universal Unitarianist whatever church that's one that's
got like a devil pitchfork and a rainbow flag outside of it.
But the point is, you know what, God made men and women differently and they have different
roles in life, different paths in life.
You know, my sons, they're going to have to go out and make a living and provide and they're
going to have to provide for their family and make decisions and be a leader.
So I want my children to start working when they're teenagers and I want them to be working
even when they're young and get out there and start working and I think it's a great
experience when you're 14, 15, 16, 17, getting out there and working a job, amen?
And start learning what it means to get up and be there on time and obey orders and say
yes sir and excel and get paid, get a raise, get reprimanded at work.
You know, understand the cause and effect of doing a good job or doing a poor job at
work, learning how to provide, learning how to make decisions, learning how to govern
yourself and have character and not need mom and dad to make every decision for you, you
start making decisions for yourself, the right decisions, okay?
Now my girls on the other hand, they're not going to be going out and getting jobs when
they're 14, 15, 16, 17, no way.
The last thing you want to do is take your precious 15, 16, 17 year old beautiful daughter
and just put her in some fast food environment with a bunch of unsaved dudes that are going
to exercise all their powers of charm and seduction on your precious, godly, clean,
young teenage girl.
You're foolish to just throw your daughter to the wolves like that.
I'll tell you what, you see these Christian girls in their teenage years that go astray
and they go to the devil and they go to the world, you know, they're always running off
with some guy from work or running off with some guy from the public school, okay?
Because they're hanging around all these worldly, and look, they don't have the same willpower
that a man has.
You know, a man and a woman are not the same, okay?
Now that's not to say that they're just going to give in to seduction all the time or something.
I'm not trying to say that, but what I am saying is that they're more vulnerable than
men and they're physically weaker than men.
You know, I'm not afraid of some woman at work or in a work environment of grabbing
my 16 year old son Solomon and forcing him, right?
That's not going to happen because a woman is not going to be stronger than him.
But what about your 15, 16, 17 year old daughter?
You know, some guy might just grab her and just start doing what he wants with her.
He's much stronger.
That's just the facts of life, friend.
Women and girls do need to be protected, okay?
And so don't just put your teenage daughter in this environment where she's around a bunch
of worldly, sinful guys that could be pawing all over her and seducing her and influencing
her.
She's not ready for that.
And you know what?
If I'm wrong, then pray tell me this.
Why is it that in our independent fundamental Baptist churches all over America, when it
comes to the age group of 18 to 25, singles that are 18 to 25, why are there like 10 times
as many men in church as women?
Think about that.
Now, when it comes to the church in general, you know, we have, you know, 50-50 male, female.
But have you noticed in that one demographic, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, you'll have a whole bunch
of single guys.
It doesn't matter whether you're at Faithful Word, Verity, Steadfast, you know, name the
church.
Even in the old IFB, it's the same thing.
There's more of the young single guys than there are of the young single girls.
Why is that?
Because a lot of those young single girls went to the devil, that's why.
Because parents are not keeping them supervised and safe.
And when they turn 18, they send them off to Bible college to do their own thing and
they go off and they get into trouble.
You know, or they're sent off to work at 16, 17.
You say, well, how are they going to get money?
You know, I'd rather just pay for my daughters.
You know, with my teenage sons, I make them pay for things themselves with the money that
they earn.
They have to start paying for things themselves, but with my teenage daughters, I'm just going
to cover that.
Because it's not worth that minimum wage that they're going to be earning down at that fast
food place and just kissing their morality goodbye because you're throwing them prematurely
into an environment that they're just not ready for.
A young, impressionable, 15, 16, 17 year old girl.
And if I'm wrong, then explain why so many of the churches are empty of that demographic.
Look, I remember I was a teenager once in an independent fundamental Baptist church
and I watched so many of those teenage girls hit 18 and go to the devil.
I remember one girl in particular, nice girl.
I talked to this girl at church and I wasn't close with her, but she was an acquaintance
from church.
I always thought she was a nice girl.
All of a sudden she hits 18, she graduates from high school.
I just never saw her again.
I didn't know what happened.
You know, what happened to her, right?
Hey, I'm out soul winning like a year or two later in a super ghetto apartment complex
and I knock on that girl's door and she came to the door and she just looked like a complete
derelict.
Like, I mean, I don't want to say crack whore, but I mean, she was on her way down that road.
She hadn't gotten all the way to that destination, but she was derelict.
I mean, and you know what, you know, I was friendly with her and I tried to encourage
her to get back in church and she was friendly to me and it was, hey, good to see you.
But it was just sad.
You know, I tried to encourage her to get back in church and we'd love to see you, you
know, come on down and whatever.
But man, I walked away just shaking my head like, hey, depressing.
What a shame.
You know what I mean?
And so that's just one, but it happens all the time.
So we need to understand that yes, we want to give our children freedom, but we still
need to use our brain and when the freedom gets out of control, reign it in and also
understand the difference between boys and girls.
My goal for my daughters is to just pay for them and care for them myself and then pass
them off to their husband someday.
And there's a reason why the father walks the daughter down the aisle.
That's not just a fun thing to do at a wedding.
You know, the symbolism there is that the authority is passing from dad to the husband.
You know, dad brings her down and presents her and passes her off to the husband and
she's your responsibility now.
But you know what?
Until you get her to that wedding altar, she's your responsibility, dad.
Take care of her.
Care for her.
Provide the needs and don't be like, all right, you're 16, go out and get a job.
It's not worth it.
You know, you get a second job if you have to.
Don't send your daughter to work, okay?
Send your sons to work, amen.
Let them start pulling their own weight.
But the daughters, you know, I'm not going to do it.
It's not worth it.
It's not worth putting, you put all that work into raising them and teaching them and protecting
them and then you're just going to just throw them out there to go out and you say, well,
but they need to be able to provide for themselves.
No, they need to marry a man that's going to provide for them.
That's God's plan that men provide and that women be keepers at home.
That's the plan.
That's the program.
That's what I want for my daughters.
Say, well, they don't get married right away.
Then they can stay living with me as long as they want.
You know, if my daughters don't get married right away, they can stay living with me until
they are ready to get married.
And when they're ready to get married, I want to pass them off to their husband, a chaste
virgin, a clean young lady, a decent young lady, godly, and pass her off to him.
And then once I pass her off to him, then she's his responsibility, you know?
And then she's ready for adulthood at that point, okay?
And to live with her husband and to work with him.
But I don't want her going out and getting a job, okay?
Now my sons, on the other hand, they need to be given some freedom.
They're given some choices.
You say, well, you know, don't you give the daughters any choices?
Yeah, here's the choice.
They can marry who they want only in the Lord and as long as I don't veto the guy for being
a scumbag, okay?
And I do reserve the right to veto scum.
Now again, you know, what are we talking about?
We're talking about the Garden of Eden.
God gave freedom.
He gave choices.
He didn't dictate their lives, but he did have boundaries, right?
And that's the example for us with our children.
Adam was the son of God, the Bible says in Luke chapter 3, right?
Adam who was the son of God.
So this is a kind of a parenting image here a little bit.
So when we think of our daughters marrying whomsoever they will only in the Lord, there
is a biblical principle in the Old Testament that the father has veto power.
Now what does that mean to have veto power?
A lot of people don't understand this concept of a veto.
Now first of all, let me give you a bad example of a veto, okay?
Let's say, let's say I told my wife, I said, you know what, you can pick where we go to
lunch today, but I have veto power, right?
You pick.
I want you to decide, but I reserve the right to veto if it's something that I just really
don't want, right?
So what if my wife says, okay, how about Chipotle, veto, Olive Garden, veto, Panda Express, vetoed,
Jenga's Grill, vetoed.
What if I'm just vetoing everything until she gets to the one place that I want to go
to?
Is that really a veto?
No, if I just, I already have it in my head, I already know that I'm going to Burgerfi
in Tempe and then just everything else is veto, veto, veto, veto, veto, veto, veto,
veto, yep, okay, yep, Burgerfi, yep, great choice, honey.
Wow, you got great taste in burgers.
Now that's not a veto.
What a veto is would be, you know, if she names something that's just offensive to me
or my taste buds, okay, you know, and my wife doesn't pick things that offend my taste buds
because my wife and I pretty much have the same taste, but, you know, she says, hey,
let's go to Sweet Tomatoes.
That's a veto.
I don't like Sweet Tomatoes.
It doesn't mean I'm just going to veto everything.
You know, I'm just going to veto that one thing, but there are a whole bunch of places
that she could pick that I would like, that I do want to go to.
So you don't want to say, well, I'm dad, I have veto power.
You get this one young man in mind that you're, you know, that you want to kind of have your
arranged marriage going on there and basically you're just not him, not him, not him, not
him.
You know, that's kind of an abuse of the veto, but look, if there's a guy that you know is
a bad guy and you know what, there's sometimes you get a real bad feeling about people or
there are some serious red flags with people or there's something really scummy about that
person's background, you know, you just might say to your daughter, hey, you're not going
to date this guy and you know what, I believe you have the right to do that biblically and
you have the right to enforce that and say, no, you're not allowed to see my daughter.
Okay.
And you know, sometimes parents know things that the kids don't know and maybe they don't
even want to tell their daughter why, but they know something about that person and
they say, you know what, this guy is not for you and daughters need to just trust and respect
their parents judgment on that, you know, but at the same time you got to give your
daughter some options and say, hey, you know, these are the guys that you're allowed to,
you know, possibly pursue marriage with, but not, not Johnny, whatever over there, you
know, this guy.
So the point is, you know, that's what a veto is, right?
So we don't want to misunderstand veto as choosing spouses for our children.
Now as far as my sons with the woman that they marry, you know, I, I'm not going to
exercise veto power, but you know, if I told them, hey, that girl is troubled, then they'd
be wise to listen to that, of course, be very smart to listen to that.
And as I said, there are pros and cons to being a boy or a girl.
You say, oh, it must be nice being a boy.
You get all this freedom, you get to go to work and stuff.
Well, you know, sometimes work's not always a get to go.
You know what I mean?
Because, you know, when I was a teenager, I worked at round table pizza and it wasn't a
get to go.
It wasn't something that was like, yes, I get to go, whoo, please don't give me a day
off.
I need, I need to be there.
You know, I'm not, I wasn't counting the hours to go back there and change over that salad
bar and, and mop that floor and make that dough and make that pizza sauce.
You know, I mean, it's not always a get to go, you know, uh, there's some benefits to
having dad just pay for everything and just take care of you, right?
You know, there's a blessing of, you know, a lot of women choose to stay home and they
don't even believe in the Bible.
They just like the fact that their husband makes money and they can stay home and be a
homemaker and enjoy that lifestyle, that domestic lifestyle.
So, you know, there, there are pros and cons to both, but they're different.
So you know what it is when you don't like the hand that you've been dealt in life?
That's called covetousness.
When you say, well, that's not fair that I don't get to do what he gets to do or I don't
get to do what she gets.
And you know, if the boy says, well, that's not fair.
Dad just buys her everything.
That's not fair.
Or if the, you know, well, you lazy jerk, go work and earn it and buy it yourself.
And then it's also not right for the girl.
Oh, that's not fair.
He gets to go out and have more freedom than I do.
Yeah.
He gets to have more freedom than you.
That's right.
Because he's a boy and you're a girl.
Get over it.
You know, it's just, that's just the way life is.
You know, what do we see in Genesis chapter three, the woman being deceived by the
serpent and you know, she's at, she's at her fast food job at age 16 and the serpent
comes slithering up to her and deceives her and she falls for it, you know, now let's
keep going in the chapter here in Genesis chapter two, the Bible says in verse 19 out
of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every foul of the
air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.
And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
And Adam gave names to all cattle and to the foul of the air and to every beast of
the field.
But for Adam, there was not found and help meet for him.
Now keep in mind, you know, this is all taking place on the sixth day.
That's a long day.
I mean, there's 12 hours in a day, so there's plenty of time.
For him to look at the basic types of animals, and it's not like he's naming
every dog breed.
He's not, you know, it's a Sharpay poodle, you know, Rob Weiler.
Obviously it's just a dog, you know, just the basic animals, dog, cat, horse,
whatever.
And obviously he's giving them names in some primordial language, obviously, you
know, many thousands and thousands of years ago, even before the Bible is written
in biblical Hebrew.
But he gives them the name, but then there's a statement made at the end of
verse 20, but there was, but for Adam, there was not found and help meet for him.
So all these animals could help him in some way.
I mean, animals could help him in various ways.
We today use animals to help us, right?
A dog could help us as a watchdog, you know, an animal, uh, like an ox could
help us plow a field or something, right?
Pull a plow.
Yeah, a horse could help us travel by riding on the back of the horse.
So these animals are helpless, but they're not in help.
Meet for him or suitable for him.
It's not really the helper that he's looking for to just have a pet pet does
not replace wife pet does not replace human companionship, right?
Pet does not replace people.
So the Lord God, verse 21 caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and
he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh.
Instead they're up and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a
woman and brought her under the man.
And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
So not only does he get to name the animals, he even gets to name his wife,
right?
He names her and it says in verse 24 therefore shall a man leave his father
and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.
And they were both naked man and his wife and we're not ashamed.
So in this, in this creation story, we get another perspective from Genesis one.
And so this doesn't replace Genesis one.
This doesn't contradict Genesis one.
This is an adjunct to Genesis one.
This is Genesis one gives us the heavenly perspective.
Genesis two gives us the earthly perspective, God's eye view versus man's
eye view on the ground, things that pertain to man specifically.
And from this chapter we can learn some principles about the human experience.
You know, God created man and he puts them in an environment where he has
certain things.
He has what work to do, and he also has choices to make, and he also has
companionship.
These are three things that we need in our life.
What do we need in our lives?
What do we need to be happy?
What do we need to thrive and succeed?
We need work.
If you don't have work to do, what an idle mind is the devil's workshop.
If you don't have any productive work to do, you're going to get into all kinds of
trouble and you're also going to be miserable.
Nothing more miserable than a man without a job.
Miserable.
And as women, you have work to do too.
Now it's not down with a name tag and a hairnet per se.
What it is is it's in the home is where the work is to be done.
The teenage daughters have plenty of work to do without going out and putting out a
job application because they can sweep the floor, mop the floor, cook the meals, and
you know, that's what they're going to be doing out of the job anyway.
What are they going to do?
Round table pizza, sweep the floor, mop the floor, cook the food, you know, do it at
home and you can cook what you want at round table.
You're just making pizza and pizza and pizza and pizza and more pizza.
You know, at home of all the aisles of the supermarket that may is freely shop and, you
know, of all the recipes in the cookbook that may is cook, you know, except for that
one recipe of knowledge of good and evil that dad doesn't like, you know, stay away
from that.
But the point is that, you know, uh, we need work to do male, female, give your kids
work to say, man, my kids are miserable.
They're, they're unhappy.
Make them work.
They'll be happier.
All they do is play video games and watch TV.
I'll get them to work, give them work to do.
And you've ever noticed how toddlers love to work.
They beg you to work.
They, they're, they're, they're the happiest.
They're glowing when you give them work to do.
Keep that going into childhood, into adolescence, into the teenage years, keep
them working, keep them busy.
They need work to do.
We as human beings at all stages of life need work.
We must work in order to be happy, to be fulfilled and to be healthy.
So we need to work.
Number one, number two, we need to freedom.
Man is created to be free, right?
So we want to make sure that our wives and our children have choices in their life.
That they're, you give them options and don't just dictate everything about their
lives.
You're gonna make them miserable, unhappy, unhealthy, maladjusted, right?
So let them decide something, you know, maybe you've got the school curriculum and
there's some certain things that are set in stone.
Obviously they need, they're reading rotten and arithmetic, but the three R's
amen, but they also maybe could have a few electives or you know what I mean?
Where you, you have your staples and then, Hey, here's, here's some choice.
You want to do this or do you want to do this, right?
Let them make some decisions and let them pursue the occupation that they want to
pursue.
Don't try to vicariously live their life and you know, they're going to do all the
athletic feats that you couldn't manage.
They're going to make all the money that you didn't make.
They're going to achieve all the status that you didn't, you know, let them do
their own thing.
It's their life, you know, let them decide as long as it's godly, let them go into
whatever profession they want, whatever the job, give them freedom, give them
choice.
And then number three, what else do human beings need to thrive?
We've got to have companionship.
We've got to have friends.
We, you can't isolate yourself.
You can't isolate your wife.
You can't isolate your children.
You know, we need friends.
Amen.
And that's part of why we come to church.
Look at all these friends.
They're everywhere.
It's like so many friends of all these friends, you know, you can choose.
So the three things we need work, freedom, and friends.
That's what's going to make us happy.
That's what's going to help us to be healthy and do right.
And that's why God provided man with all these things in, in the, in the garden of
Eden before man messed it up, he had what he needed and that's what we need to give
our children and the people around us.
So as far as never word of prayer, father, we thank you so much for this great
chapter, Lord, and this creation account and Lord, we just pray that you would
just help us to obey you and stay within the boundaries that you've set for us and
help us to be godly and help us to not abuse the freedoms that we have in our
life.
Help us not to abuse the privileges we've been given and help us to be responsible
so that you don't have to keep us on a short leash, but that you could give us
more freedom and more choices.
Lord, and thank you for the wonderful creation that you've given us, all the
wonderful plants and animals that you've given us and foods to eat, and we truly
are blessed in the United States of America, land of prosperity and peace.
Lord, help us in this land of par of peace and prosperity, which is a relative
garden of Eden compared to a lot of other messed up places in the world.
Help us to serve you and love you so that we can continue to have the peace and
prosperity and freedom that we have in America and in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.