1 00:00:00,527 --> 00:00:03,508 I wonder this, 2 00:00:03,508 --> 00:00:07,439 whether I'm speaking just now 3 00:00:07,439 --> 00:00:11,247 to any perhaps young person, 4 00:00:11,247 --> 00:00:14,127 anybody that's got parents that are Christians here. 5 00:00:14,127 --> 00:00:18,657 Maybe you're an adult. 6 00:00:18,657 --> 00:00:20,887 Do you have thoughts - 7 00:00:20,887 --> 00:00:22,908 this is the question - 8 00:00:22,908 --> 00:00:25,637 especially you young people, 9 00:00:25,637 --> 00:00:29,281 do any of you have thoughts in your heart 10 00:00:29,281 --> 00:00:33,039 that are exactly like the ones 11 00:00:33,039 --> 00:00:42,637 that Eve had right before she ate? 12 00:00:42,637 --> 00:00:46,450 "God's holding out." 13 00:00:46,450 --> 00:00:49,190 You've got some idea God is some sort of monster. 14 00:00:49,190 --> 00:00:50,997 He's against you. 15 00:00:50,997 --> 00:00:52,727 "He's against me!" 16 00:00:52,727 --> 00:00:54,490 "It just feels like He's against me." 17 00:00:54,490 --> 00:00:55,937 It feels like I can never do right. 18 00:00:55,937 --> 00:00:58,032 It feels like He's always trying to take away the fun. 19 00:00:58,032 --> 00:00:59,708 He's always trying to take away the fulfillment. 20 00:00:59,708 --> 00:01:03,179 He's always trying to spoil the enjoyment of life. 21 00:01:03,179 --> 00:01:04,707 Do you think to yourself: 22 00:01:04,707 --> 00:01:06,181 you know what, I'm going to give up 23 00:01:06,181 --> 00:01:07,887 this Christianity stuff. 24 00:01:07,887 --> 00:01:09,547 I don't like this. 25 00:01:09,547 --> 00:01:12,087 I don't like it that my parents bring me here. 26 00:01:12,087 --> 00:01:15,458 I've got to get away. 27 00:01:15,458 --> 00:01:17,858 Do you feel like it's holding you down? 28 00:01:17,858 --> 00:01:19,077 It's so restrictive. 29 00:01:19,077 --> 00:01:20,586 It's so inconvenient. 30 00:01:20,586 --> 00:01:22,087 It's robbed you of so much. 31 00:01:22,087 --> 00:01:24,548 It's so narrow. 32 00:01:24,548 --> 00:01:29,018 Perhaps you dream about life out there. 33 00:01:29,018 --> 00:01:31,658 "Oh, I'm missing it!" 34 00:01:31,658 --> 00:01:32,997 You can watch the movies 35 00:01:32,997 --> 00:01:34,657 or you can watch the commercials. 36 00:01:34,657 --> 00:01:38,008 Young people and all the glory, right? 37 00:01:38,008 --> 00:01:40,158 The beautiful cars and they go to the beach 38 00:01:40,158 --> 00:01:41,309 and they climb the mountains 39 00:01:41,309 --> 00:01:42,579 and they're skiing. 40 00:01:42,579 --> 00:01:44,879 You watch all this and it's like wow, 41 00:01:44,879 --> 00:01:46,192 I'm being robbed of something! 42 00:01:46,192 --> 00:01:48,698 I've got to go to that church on Sunday 43 00:01:48,698 --> 00:01:51,637 with my parents. Ugh! 44 00:01:51,637 --> 00:01:53,898 Christians look so miserable. 45 00:01:53,898 --> 00:01:55,191 People out there look like 46 00:01:55,191 --> 00:01:56,247 they're having such fun 47 00:01:56,247 --> 00:01:57,639 and they're at the bars. 48 00:01:57,639 --> 00:01:59,496 They've got all these women 49 00:01:59,496 --> 00:02:00,517 and all these men 50 00:02:00,517 --> 00:02:02,485 and everybody's beautiful. 51 00:02:02,485 --> 00:02:04,298 And I come here. 52 00:02:04,298 --> 00:02:05,746 It's on the East side 53 00:02:05,746 --> 00:02:09,137 and it looks like an old warehouse. 54 00:02:09,137 --> 00:02:10,689 We go in there and we hear this 55 00:02:10,689 --> 00:02:16,277 and all it is is rules, rules, rules! 56 00:02:16,277 --> 00:02:18,215 And you see, the devil: 57 00:02:18,215 --> 00:02:22,458 "Eve, it's just rules." 58 00:02:22,458 --> 00:02:28,382 "He won't let you eat of any tree in the garden." 59 00:02:28,382 --> 00:02:32,367 And you know that's how he put it at first. 60 00:02:32,367 --> 00:02:36,968 "Has God said you can't eat of any tree in the garden?" 61 00:02:36,968 --> 00:02:39,554 He just tried to put that thought in there. 62 00:02:39,554 --> 00:02:41,735 "It's just so restrictive! 63 00:02:41,735 --> 00:02:43,037 See how restrictive He is? 64 00:02:43,037 --> 00:02:48,987 He won't let you eat any tree in the garden." 65 00:02:48,987 --> 00:02:50,843 But she messed up. 66 00:02:50,843 --> 00:02:54,329 You don't start dialoging with him. 67 00:02:54,329 --> 00:02:59,520 "Well, no, that's not exactly what He said..." 68 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:01,279 Any of you young people, 69 00:03:01,279 --> 00:03:03,626 you're waiting, 70 00:03:03,626 --> 00:03:08,387 eager. 71 00:03:08,387 --> 00:03:12,425 Just waiting to really start living. 72 00:03:12,425 --> 00:03:15,491 By the way, you wouldn't be 73 00:03:15,491 --> 00:03:19,327 the first one to feel that way. 74 00:03:19,327 --> 00:03:21,349 David's over here nodding. 75 00:03:21,349 --> 00:03:23,127 You know what? 76 00:03:23,127 --> 00:03:24,786 I was 16 one time. 77 00:03:24,786 --> 00:03:26,188 I was 18 one time. 78 00:03:26,188 --> 00:03:33,219 I was 21 one time. 79 00:03:33,219 --> 00:03:36,496 The sound of the word "Gospel" - 80 00:03:36,496 --> 00:03:41,697 it's like, that just sounds kind of religious. 81 00:03:41,697 --> 00:03:43,789 And I don't know what all that means, 82 00:03:43,789 --> 00:03:47,728 but it doesn't sound like good news in my ears. 83 00:03:47,728 --> 00:03:49,046 It sounds narrow. 84 00:03:49,046 --> 00:03:51,678 It sounds like it's going to cramp my style. 85 00:03:51,678 --> 00:03:53,927 I want the kind of religion where there's a God, 86 00:03:53,927 --> 00:03:54,886 He smiles on me, 87 00:03:54,886 --> 00:03:56,369 when I die I'm going to go to heaven, 88 00:03:56,369 --> 00:03:57,688 but let me have my sin. 89 00:03:57,688 --> 00:03:58,976 Let me live it up. 90 00:03:58,976 --> 00:04:01,228 That's what I wanted. 91 00:04:01,228 --> 00:04:02,258 All that stuff? 92 00:04:02,258 --> 00:04:04,307 That sounds like rattling chains 93 00:04:04,307 --> 00:04:06,927 that you're going to tie me up with. 94 00:04:06,927 --> 00:04:10,666 And seriously, I mean I would have been. 95 00:04:10,666 --> 00:04:12,598 You put me in a church on a Sunday, 96 00:04:12,598 --> 00:04:15,628 I would have been like a caged animal. 97 00:04:15,628 --> 00:04:19,429 Like let me out of here! 98 00:04:19,429 --> 00:04:21,756 So you wouldn't be the first one that's felt that way. 99 00:04:21,756 --> 00:04:24,373 Lots of us have felt that way. 100 00:04:24,373 --> 00:04:27,737 We know. 101 00:04:27,737 --> 00:04:29,979 Do you imagine somehow God 102 00:04:29,979 --> 00:04:32,368 and this Christian way of life - 103 00:04:32,368 --> 00:04:34,719 it's against you? 104 00:04:34,719 --> 00:04:37,398 "God is against me." 105 00:04:37,398 --> 00:04:40,505 See, that's what Satan wanted her to feel, 106 00:04:40,505 --> 00:04:41,980 that God is against you. 107 00:04:41,980 --> 00:04:43,570 God's an enemy. God's a monster. 108 00:04:43,570 --> 00:04:47,473 God's jealous. God's small. God's selfish. 109 00:04:47,473 --> 00:04:50,209 The real issue isn't how shiny the fruit is. 110 00:04:50,209 --> 00:04:51,754 The real issue is: 111 00:04:51,754 --> 00:04:54,053 This is a God you've got to get away from, 112 00:04:54,053 --> 00:04:55,975 break free from. 113 00:04:55,975 --> 00:05:00,034 This is a God who is opposed 114 00:05:00,034 --> 00:05:01,205 to your best interests, 115 00:05:01,205 --> 00:05:03,174 opposed to your joy, opposed to your fun, 116 00:05:03,174 --> 00:05:06,144 opposed to your happiness. 117 00:05:06,144 --> 00:05:09,115 God's unfair. 118 00:05:09,115 --> 00:05:16,953 He wants you to doubt His goodness. 119 00:05:16,953 --> 00:05:20,875 You see this for what it is. 120 00:05:20,875 --> 00:05:23,306 It's the same old thing 121 00:05:23,306 --> 00:05:25,444 that Adam and Eve did then, 122 00:05:25,444 --> 00:05:28,884 and it just gets repeated today. 123 00:05:28,884 --> 00:05:31,601 You say what do you mean? 124 00:05:31,601 --> 00:05:35,645 Do you know what God did for them? 125 00:05:35,645 --> 00:05:39,523 There's a peach tree. 126 00:05:39,523 --> 00:05:42,873 No worms. 127 00:05:42,873 --> 00:05:45,584 Try that. 128 00:05:45,584 --> 00:05:47,093 I don't know how it was, 129 00:05:47,093 --> 00:05:49,364 but can you imagine the Lord walking with them 130 00:05:49,364 --> 00:05:50,494 in the cool of the garden. 131 00:05:50,494 --> 00:05:51,964 He takes them over to the peach tree 132 00:05:51,964 --> 00:05:57,414 and He says, "Adam, Eve, try this one." 133 00:05:57,414 --> 00:06:01,425 "I designed this one and it's good." 134 00:06:01,425 --> 00:06:02,874 "Try this one." 135 00:06:02,874 --> 00:06:07,813 Like, "wow! That's really good!" 136 00:06:07,813 --> 00:06:09,850 "Have you ever had a strawberry?" 137 00:06:09,850 --> 00:06:11,333 "What's that?" 138 00:06:11,333 --> 00:06:13,004 "Come over here!" 139 00:06:13,004 --> 00:06:17,073 "Try that!" 140 00:06:17,073 --> 00:06:20,953 In spite of all that God had done for them 141 00:06:20,953 --> 00:06:24,024 they believed the lie. 142 00:06:24,024 --> 00:06:27,665 And that's what people go on believing today. 143 00:06:27,665 --> 00:06:31,953 People look at family. 144 00:06:31,953 --> 00:06:34,105 I have family. 145 00:06:34,105 --> 00:06:35,954 I get together with them 146 00:06:35,954 --> 00:06:37,851 at Thanksgiving or Christmas. 147 00:06:37,851 --> 00:06:42,375 I have family. (incomplete thought) 148 00:06:42,375 --> 00:06:44,506 A man gets married - God created sex. 149 00:06:44,506 --> 00:06:46,563 The devil didn't create that. 150 00:06:46,563 --> 00:06:50,275 Intimacy, warmth. 151 00:06:50,275 --> 00:06:52,815 A home. 152 00:06:52,815 --> 00:06:55,315 A place you go in when it's cold and it's warm, 153 00:06:55,315 --> 00:07:00,025 or you go in when it's hot and it's cool. 154 00:07:00,025 --> 00:07:02,644 And there's food. 155 00:07:02,644 --> 00:07:07,925 We can walk into an HEB or a Costco today 156 00:07:07,925 --> 00:07:11,324 and the food! 157 00:07:11,324 --> 00:07:14,174 Look what God has given to us. 158 00:07:14,174 --> 00:07:16,843 And see, you young people, 159 00:07:16,843 --> 00:07:21,114 you've got clothing on. 160 00:07:21,114 --> 00:07:23,013 I remember one time 161 00:07:23,013 --> 00:07:25,673 we were down at the homeless shelter 162 00:07:25,673 --> 00:07:28,423 and we had a Korean family with us. 163 00:07:28,423 --> 00:07:30,600 And the husband looked. 164 00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:34,471 Do you know what a lot of the homeless people do? 165 00:07:34,471 --> 00:07:37,753 Clothes are so abundant 166 00:07:37,753 --> 00:07:40,025 that they get brand new clothes, 167 00:07:40,025 --> 00:07:41,854 they wear them, and when they're dirty, 168 00:07:41,854 --> 00:07:43,575 they just throw them away. 169 00:07:43,575 --> 00:07:45,704 That's what a lot of homeless people do 170 00:07:45,704 --> 00:07:47,515 because clothing is so abundant. 171 00:07:47,515 --> 00:07:51,086 And this Korean man looked at a shirt 172 00:07:51,086 --> 00:07:53,804 that a homeless person just cast on the ground. 173 00:07:53,804 --> 00:07:57,774 He said in Korea, you'd never see that. 174 00:07:57,774 --> 00:07:59,714 We have so much. 175 00:07:59,714 --> 00:08:01,624 God has given you so much 176 00:08:01,624 --> 00:08:08,113 and you say God's against me. 177 00:08:08,113 --> 00:08:10,665 The sunset, the pleasures of this world, 178 00:08:10,665 --> 00:08:14,499 the beauties, the comforts. 179 00:08:14,499 --> 00:08:17,665 "But God's against me!" 180 00:08:17,665 --> 00:08:19,445 Look at Golgotha! 181 00:08:19,445 --> 00:08:21,204 Hear the Son of God: 182 00:08:21,204 --> 00:08:24,249 "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" 183 00:08:24,249 --> 00:08:26,853 God sent His Son into this world 184 00:08:26,853 --> 00:08:28,104 to die for sinners. 185 00:08:28,104 --> 00:08:30,604 "But God's against me!" 186 00:08:30,604 --> 00:08:34,354 "God's against me!" 187 00:08:34,354 --> 00:08:36,498 You need to wake up to the facts! 188 00:08:36,498 --> 00:08:37,999 That's insanity! 189 00:08:37,999 --> 00:08:39,604 He's not against you! 190 00:08:39,604 --> 00:08:42,497 God's kindness is meant 191 00:08:42,497 --> 00:08:46,355 to lead you to repentance. 192 00:08:46,355 --> 00:08:48,721 It's the lie of the devil. 193 00:08:48,721 --> 00:08:50,544 He's not against you. 194 00:08:50,544 --> 00:08:52,296 And His commandments 195 00:08:52,296 --> 00:08:55,174 are meant for your safety. 196 00:08:55,174 --> 00:08:57,664 Repent - change your mind 197 00:08:57,664 --> 00:09:00,394 about the way you're running to hell. 198 00:09:00,394 --> 00:09:01,714 Is that so bad? 199 00:09:01,714 --> 00:09:03,424 Is that so offensive to you? 200 00:09:03,424 --> 00:09:04,495 Change your mind. 201 00:09:04,495 --> 00:09:06,424 Change your mind about this. 202 00:09:06,424 --> 00:09:09,342 Change! Turn! 203 00:09:09,342 --> 00:09:11,471 Turn from running over the cliff. 204 00:09:11,471 --> 00:09:12,837 It's so perilous. 205 00:09:12,837 --> 00:09:15,337 It's leading to your destruction. 206 00:09:15,337 --> 00:09:16,774 Embrace My Son. 207 00:09:16,774 --> 00:09:18,233 He'll take you to paradise. 208 00:09:18,233 --> 00:09:20,124 He'll be a Husband to you. 209 00:09:20,124 --> 00:09:22,694 Oh, there are joys and pleasures forevermore 210 00:09:22,694 --> 00:09:28,249 at His right hand. 211 00:09:28,249 --> 00:09:31,273 The devil told our first parents: 212 00:09:31,273 --> 00:09:33,415 "Don't believe it. 213 00:09:33,415 --> 00:09:34,722 Don't trust God. 214 00:09:34,722 --> 00:09:37,088 He can't be trusted. 215 00:09:37,088 --> 00:09:38,874 Trust me. 216 00:09:38,874 --> 00:09:42,425 I'll tell you the truth." 217 00:09:42,425 --> 00:09:45,755 But it wasn't the truth. 218 00:09:45,755 --> 00:09:47,970 He murdered them. 219 00:09:47,970 --> 00:09:50,837 And he's been a murderer from the beginning. 220 00:09:50,837 --> 00:09:53,223 And they did die. 221 00:09:53,223 --> 00:09:54,884 He said, "eat it." 222 00:09:54,884 --> 00:09:57,145 "Eat as much as you like." 223 00:09:57,145 --> 00:09:59,676 "You won't die." 224 00:09:59,676 --> 00:10:02,424 But they did die. 225 00:10:02,424 --> 00:10:05,303 And you see God is bidding you: 226 00:10:05,303 --> 00:10:11,055 Life. Life. Eternal life. 227 00:10:11,055 --> 00:10:13,424 I offer it to you. 228 00:10:13,424 --> 00:10:16,424 An abundance of life. 229 00:10:16,424 --> 00:10:22,293 A paradise of life. 230 00:10:22,293 --> 00:10:25,054 This excerpt was taken from the full sermon: 231 00:10:25,054 --> 00:10:28,284 The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil 232 00:10:28,284 --> 00:10:31,465 by Tim Conway from Genesis 2.