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You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You All right, good morning everyone welcome to stronghold Baptist Church if you can grab your hymnals and open up the song 164 Song 164 praise him praise him Song 164 On the first King Jesus Oh Oh Oh Oh Let's turn to our next song, Psalm 224, Psalm 224, there shall be showers of blessing. Psalm 224. There shall be showers of blessing. Rashes reviving again. Over the hills and the valleys. Sound abundance of rain. Showers of blessing. Showers of blessing we need. Mercy draws from the stars falling. But for the showers we drink. There shall be showers of blessing. Send them upon us, O Lord. Pray to us, now we're refreshing. Come in, now wander thy word. Showers of blessing. Showers of blessing we need. Mercy draws from the stars falling. But for the showers we drink. On the last, there shall be showers of blessing. All that's been made in my home. Now I see God through the passing. Now there's some Jesus we call. Showers of blessing. Showers of blessing we need. Mercy draws from the stars falling. But for the showers we drink. Amen, all right, great singing. This morning, at this time, we will be going through our announcements. If you do not have a bulletin, slip up your hand real high. We'll make sure that we get one out to you so you can follow along. And if you open up to the first page, you will see our service times listed there. As always, Sunday morning at 1030. Sunday afternoon again at 4 p.m. Wednesday night at 7. Normally we do a Bible study this week. We are having a preaching service. Brother John Carter is going to be preaching for us this Wednesday. Obviously we have the camping trip this week. We'll get into the details on that in just a minute. But we still are holding regular church service here on Wednesday night. So if you're not going on a camping trip and you want to come out for the midweek service, Brother John Carter is going to be preaching that evening. So come on out here and we're still going to be holding regularly scheduled church. So I just want to make sure everyone is clear about that. We've got the soul winning opportunities listed there as well as the salvations and baptisms. Brother Carter, are you going to be doing that soul winning time tomorrow evening? Are you going to? Same. Same? Okay. So that meeting time still stands. So if you want to go, again, if you're not going out of town and you're going to be in town here, you could hook up with Brother Carter. They've been in the Duluth area, right? Lawrenceville Duluth kind of right near the border there. And it's been some great soul winning. So join him on Monday if you want to go out and preach a gospel there on the Monday night group. We've got the salvation and baptism for the month of May as well as for the year. And we do have a few baptisms still scheduled for tomorrow. Correct? Yes. And so that's going to be exciting. If you get out to the camp, we're going to try to do some baptisms. Tomorrow we'll gather up whoever's around. It's going to be a little hectic going on. There's going to be a lot of people checking in and setting up camp and stuff. But we'll be doing that tomorrow. Now let's go ahead and count up if there's any salvations to report for the week. Anyone get any salvations? What day? Sunday. Sunday? Last week? Yes. Gotcha. Anyone else have anything to report? Salvations for the week? Alright, very good. Moving on, we've got the offering totals at the bottom of the page through the month of May. And just a quick update, it's not in the bulletin, but I've been speaking in communication with the landlord about the space. So everything's looking very, very good. I'm actually looking to sign a lease for starting June 1st to have that space next door. So that's going to be awesome. Really looking forward to that. And it's just a matter of details of the lease that hopefully I can get finished, just resolved. It's kind of a decision whether or not we're going to commit to three or five years. There's different pros and cons to that. So I'm going to weigh the options and we'll move forward on that. But that's really good news. So everything's going very well with that. Appreciate the prayers. Prayer requests, speaking of prayers. Mrs. Doty had her baby. So she had a C-section on Friday. And Everly, if you want to look at the back of your announcements, we've got a little picture there of baby Everly. And she was born at 1.41 p.m. weighing 6 pounds, 3.2 ounces, 19 inches long. So a very healthy baby. Everything came back fine. All their tests and everything was great. So mom and baby are both doing very well. So praise the Lord for that. That's great. Appreciate your prayers for that. I'm just going to pray that Mrs. Doty will then now be able to recover quickly. And we are doing the meal train started for the Doty family. Unfortunately, I mentioned last week, you know, because what we do here as a church, we do Uber Eats for people that have children. I think it's one of the easiest, kind of more convenient ways to be able to allow them to the family to be able to get some food when needed, especially right away when things happen. Because we don't know exactly when typically we don't know exactly when a baby is going to be born. So we provide that as a church. But they said that they're outside of kind of the service area where they live. So that makes things a little bit more complicated. I know there's a Chick-fil-A not too far from them. So, you know, there's other restaurants you could take a look and see if you, because they live so far away, if you wanted to like gift them something, some kind of a gift card or something like that, you can do that. We are gifting them as a church instead of doing the Uber Eats like we've been doing for people. There's a restaurant that's not too far from their house. I was trying to find the closest one so that they could get their meal. So that's what we're doing. We still got to call them today and make sure that everything will work out for that. Anyhow, if you want to bring food or if you want to participate at all and you want any details, other than just gifting, obviously you're going to give them a gift card or something, then that's fine. You don't need to coordinate that. But if you wanted to bring food to them, just make sure you coordinate with either my wife or Mrs. Mosteller on that. Just so that if other people are planning on bringing food out to them, then we could kind of do it on days where they're not inundated with too much food or be able to store it and things like that. So just speak with one of those ladies regarding that. And then continuing on the prayer requests here, of course continue to pray for all the other ladies that are with child in our church. And let's see if we have any updates. Does anyone have any updates out of anyone who's on the list right now that's here today? Anyone have anything changed for our prayer requests? All right. Very good. Continue to pray for everyone. We added Michael Brandon. That's Mrs. Mosteller's father. He's having cataract surgery on May 19th. We've also added Lona Ladd. This is Courtney's great aunt and she has lung cancer. And she's also been, she's just been placed on hospice. So that's a very, not a good situation. And I think she heard, I wasn't 100% clear, but I believe her salvation is also in doubt because she's a Pentecostal. So obviously Pentecostals believe you could lose your salvation, making them not saved. But that's a whole other thing. I want to get into all that right now. But pray for her, pray obviously for her health, but especially for an opportunity to hear the gospel, being on hospice and everything like that. Obviously, just physically speaking, it seems like her time is limited outside of a miracle from the Lord of healing, which of course we're going to pray for. But the most important thing is for her salvation. So pray that she'll be able to hear a very clear presentation of the gospel very soon, hopefully. And then we have Lani. This is Logan's neighbor. I don't know if I spelled the name right, but Lani has stage four cancer. That's correct, right? And do you know what type of cancer, where the cancer is located? Breast cancer? Okay. I'll add that here. But please pray for Lani. And then also Claire's neighbor has cancer as well. Do you know what type of cancer, Vincent? Lorenzo? Lorenzo is taking chemo, right? Lorenzo used his name? Lorenzo Davis. Lorenzo Davis? Lorenzo Favors, like F-A-D-O-R-S. Favors, okay, Favors. Got you. Perfect. Appreciate that. It's nicer to have names to pray for, right? We'll get the information, we'll put whatever we can in there. Obviously, God knows, but it's nice to be able to pray for people individually. And then, also, I forgot to add this to the list. Stephen Smith's father, Carl, for those of you who are on the prayer app, are aware of this already. But he had, they believe it was a mini stroke that he had. They took him to the hospital, and it seems, I think he's doing okay, but I haven't heard any updates. So pray for Carl at Stephen Smith's father, that he'll recover and not have any more problems from that. And I decided to just leave Sure Foundation Baptist Church in there. Pastor Thompson, with their building situation and being able to have a good location to meet at. Pray that God will bless them and all the work that they're doing. On the next page, we've got a Happy Mother's Day for all the mothers in service. And I'm going to ask the ushers to please come forward. And if you're a mother with us this morning, please stand up. We're going to honor you. We've got a small gift for you. We've got some, every mother's going to get one of each, so we've got, these are all different things. You're going to get what you get. Go ahead, stand up, moms. Come on, stand up, stand up, stand up. We've got a cake that was homemade and made for you by Mrs. Johnson, I believe. And then you're going to get a wind chime of either a dragonfly or a butterfly or whatever. So we've got all different types of things. So ushers, go ahead and bring one of each. It doesn't matter what. Just bring those out and remain standing. And we're going to give all our moms a round of applause. So we appreciate the moms in service. And stay standing until you get your gift so we could see, no, hey, one, just one, not a green one and a brown one. One box and one, just one box and one, yeah. Sorry. It doesn't, yeah, it doesn't really matter. Just one box and one dessert. Everyone gets a dessert. Everyone gets a dessert and a box. The boxes are kind of different, I know. They didn't have all of the same kind in stock or whatever, so you just. Yeah, that's all right. I wasn't very clear in the instructions. Normally we get the same thing for everybody, but it's kind of like you've got to deal with the stock issues, right? We've got supply chain issues. So there's only so many of a particular type. We've got to be able to make it work. So we appreciate all the moms with us and all your hard work. All right. Very good. And continuing on, we've got the May challenge. So the challenge for this month is baptisms. We're going to be focused on trying to encourage people to get baptized once they're saved, obviously. Talk to people if they're already saved. Ask them if they've ever been baptized. We are able to baptize people here pretty much at a moment's notice. We've got everything that we need to just quickly fill the tub, add the water, get people baptized, and not have to wait around for it. So we're going to be focusing on that this month. We want to make sure we don't forget about that. Especially when you go out, so when you preach the gospel, the most important thing is that someone gets saved. But you follow up with that by asking people, hey, now that you're saved, why don't you come get baptized, encourage them to come to church, encourage them to get plugged in, and follow up with them if you can. We have the little note cards, hopefully they're still out there, that has a little follow-up card to be able to follow up with people that you win to Christ. If you are able to convince someone or kind of participate in being able to help people get baptized for this month, and you also earn a prize for doing so. So that is the May Challenge. The camping trip, of course, is this week. I think this is the event of the year for our church. This is going to be super awesome, a lot of fun. And if you've been holding out this whole time, not knowing you're going to be able to make it, we still have about, I think, the two campsites that are still available. We just kept those reserved because we've got the whole park reserved anyway, so we might as well just hold on to those for any stragglers, anyone that wants to come in last minute. We've got a couple sites available. But real quick, I want to give you some just details. So tomorrow is when the camp officially starts. I am going to be providing the front office with a list of everybody who's coming and what campsites they have allotted to them. Whether you have a cottage or a campsite, wherever you're staying, they'll have that up front. You need a parking pass to park at the camp. Okay, everyone's going to need to have a parking pass. The church is paying for your parking pass. I am going to be working out a deal with the front office where I'm not sure exactly how it's going to work, whether I'm going to have to pre-purchase some passes or whatever. I'm hoping that they could just kind of give them out and I'll square up with them maybe every day or whatever. But either way, I bring this up so that one, you don't pay for your pass. Okay, you shouldn't have to pay for anything. And two, in order for that to happen, you can't show up to the office before I show up to the office because they won't know what you're talking about. They won't have the list until I get there. So if you show up kind of early tomorrow, just be aware of that. You could show up, you could hang out, you could go to the beach, you kind of do different things. But the check-in is 1 p.m. is the earliest for campsites and the check-in is 4 p.m. for the cottages. Okay, so you can show up a little bit earlier, but don't expect to have your, especially if you're staying in a cottage, don't expect to be able to get in until 4. Obviously, we've got the camp, there's places you could park and hang out and just kind of enjoy the day. But I am planning on being there very early afternoon by 1 p.m. for sure. But if you get there before then, if you don't, if you haven't seen me, we kind of drive around. If you haven't seen me yet, then I haven't talked to the front office yet. My goal is to get there pretty early, okay, but things don't always work out that way for me. So I just want to make sure everyone's kind of clear about that. And you can just always ask, hey, did you talk to our pastor, did you talk to David, did you talk, you know, did he give you the list? If you show up and you're not sure, just ask them. And if they don't know what you're talking about, then you know that I haven't shown up yet. So that's what's going on. I'll make sure, yeah, everything should be covered in that regard. Everything's set. I know everyone's excited. I'm super excited to enjoy this event. We've got the schedule out there on the tables. If you didn't already receive an email, many people who are visiting already got emails, but not everyone in church got an email. And I haven't heard from anyone else, so if you need an email, let me know. But I've got all the stuff out on that front table. And if something is not there, I have maps as well as the church schedule. If you take those and there's no more left and you go to the table and you're like, well, that's not here, let me know. I could print off more. I don't know exactly how many are out there right now. If you want a physical copy of those or you just take a snapshot of it with your phone, whatever works for you. And I'm trying to think, is there anything else? If you have signed up to help in any way, especially with like there's some people who signed up for cooking as well as for cleaning after the services that we're going to be holding there. If you don't remember what days you signed up for, just ask myself or my wife. You could ask me. I've got the schedule on my I don't know if I have it on my computer or not. Actually, we probably I think we just have the. The copy at home, right, Les? You could you could ask one of us. We'll get you that information of what you signed up for. And I appreciate everybody who did offer to help because that's a big deal for us. There's a lot of work to be done to make everything work and go off properly there. And everything else, I'm going to be making announcements every day of the camp, kind of letting everyone know what the next day's activities are going to be, what the schedule is and just what's going on, especially if anything changes. So anyone who also signed up to be a leader in some type of an activity, if something changes, just let me know and we'll change it on the fly and I'll make the announcement that day. So super excited. That starts tomorrow. If you have any other questions, just talk to me after service and we'll get that squared away. Continuing on here. Hebrews Chapter three. So Hebrews Chapter two, the deadline is tonight. If you memorize Hebrews Chapter two, you have to quote it by tonight. Who has already quoted Hebrews Chapter two? You're done. You got it. One, two, three, four, five. Awesome. Is there anyone else who is going to have this quoted tonight? One more. Seven. All right. Very good. Amen. I'm going to hold you to that because I'm going to get the prizes for those. So you got to make sure you get this done. And we're starting this week. So good. I'm glad I gave that extra week because I think there wasn't quite as many that we're going to have it done last week. So there we go. Hebrews three is the next passage. And this one I'm breaking up into smaller chunks. So six verses. I mean, you should be able to do this in a week. I think anyone could do this in a week pretty much, even if you're like, well, I'm not very good at memorizing. It's not that hard. Try to get this done. I'm giving you three weeks to get this done. It's two verses a week. But the first six verses, this is how you get Bible memory done anyways, is you break it up into small pieces. A small piece here, a small piece there, a small piece, small piece. And then you put it all together to get a whole chapter. And then what we're doing here is we're breaking up these chapters into a whole book. It's going to be the whole book of Hebrews. You think, wow, how can I memorize a whole book of Hebrews? Well, you just break it down into small pieces and get all those small pieces done and then start putting it together. So Hebrews chapter 3, six verses. Try to get these six verses done, the whole church. See if you get these six verses memorized and try it out. Just be consistent with it. You know, every day, every other day, make sure you're getting in and just reviewing these and committing them to memory. And you'll be able to earn a prize for that. And kind of maybe, hopefully, if you haven't done much memory, you can see it's not that bad. Yes, it's not always the easiest thing, but if you make sure you commit some time to it, anyone can get this done. So we're doing the first six verses of Hebrews chapter 3. Upcoming events are all listed there. I added here in print the guest preacher. We're having Pastor Jason Robinson from Mountain Baptist Church in West Virginia. He's going to be here on June 5th, so that's exciting. He's going to be preaching for us on that Sunday. And then we've got the church picnic for our anniversary on June 25th. It's a Saturday at the park there. And then Pastor Anderson's going to be preaching for us on Sunday, July 10th. And he's going to be here for both services, so come on out for that. Hopefully we'll have a little bit more access this way when that happens, but we'll see about that. Upcoming birthdays and anniversaries are listed there at the bottom of the page. And of course, already mentioned on the back is that picture of that beautiful little baby, Everly. And I think that's it for our announcements. I'm not seeing anyone raising their hands going, you forgot this, Pastor Robinson. So with that, I'm going to turn the service back over to Brother Peter, who's going to lead us in our next song. Church, if you could open up your hymnals to song 309. Psalm 309, dare to be a Daniel. 309. On the first, standing by a purpose true, He did not repent. O'er than the faithful few, all hail to Daniel's band. Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known. Many mighty men are lost, daring not to stand. Who forgot, had been a host by joining Daniel's band. Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known. Many giants, great and tall, stomping through the land. Heaven to the earth would fall, if met by Daniel's band. Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known. On the last, hold the gospel there high, on to victory's reign. Satan and his souls defy and shout for Daniel's band. Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known. Amen church. It seems time to collect our Sunday morning offerings. Past the ushers, please come up and collect up. Church, while the offering plates are being passed around, if you could open up your Bibles to the book of Genesis, chapter 3. That's the book of Genesis, chapter 3. And as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church, we're going to read the entire chapter. That's Brother Devin, if he can please do that for us. That was Genesis chapter 3. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods. Knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God, walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gaveest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. And sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. And the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dost thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothes for them. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us to know good and evil, and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree. Good Lord, thank you for this chapter, thank you for this morning for us to come here together and to hear your word preached to us. I pray that you would please be with pastor and fill us all with your spirit so that we could be edified this morning and learn something from your word and hopefully be able to apply it to our lives and help us to be doers of the word this morning. And Jesus, I'm going to pray. Amen. Amen. Alright, so we started in Genesis chapter 3. Very commonly read passage, I think just because anyone who tries to read their Bible at all usually starts the book of Genesis and doesn't quit before you get to Genesis chapter 3. So hopefully a lot of people are familiar with this passage. You know, of course today's Mother's Day, and I typically will try to preach sermons related to mothers and Mother's Day and women kind of in general on this day. One, because we honor and respect women, especially mothers. It's a very difficult job. But two, because our culture and our society changes so much and not for the better that we need to cover topics in church from God's word and have a refreshing and a renewing of our mind through scripture to combat what the culture is trying to tell us. And the title of my sermon this morning is Satan's Attack on Women. Satan's Attack on Women. And Satan definitely has an attack on women. He has an attack on men. He has an attack on anything godly for that matter. Now, if you're visiting our church maybe for the first time or you're new or coming here, I want to express this and I want you to keep this in mind that what I'm preaching and what I'm about to preach is not new. In fact, what I'm preaching is very, very, very old. I mean, we started in Genesis. It doesn't really get much older than that, right? And I'm actually going to be using a lot of context and scripture from the book of Genesis to highlight the attacks that are made on women and on mothers from Satan from the way that God intended things to be and the way that God made things. So as I preach, I may say some things that you might be shocked at because it's so different from what the world is saying today. You may find yourself even feeling offended, but I'll ask you this much, and this is why I'm bringing this disclaimer at the very beginning, if you get upset or if you get angry, is it because of my own ideas and thoughts or is it because of what the Word of God says? If you think that's just, well, I'm crazy and you don't believe the Bible says that at all, what I'm going to show you, then fine, you know, accept God's Word for what it says. But as Christians, we turn to the Bible for our source of truth. I think I'm going to be able to convince you that this is what the Bible teaches and this is what I try to do at every sermon is to convince you this is what the Bible teaches and this is what is right and this is what is wrong based on God's Word. But if you say, I think that's wrong, you're wrong because of the Bible says this, then fine. You have to decide for yourself what's true and what's not true. But don't just think, well, I'm just crazy with my own ideas if I'm preaching you literally what the Bible says. And I'm going to tell you this much, everything that I'm going to teach this morning, everything I'm going to teach this morning has been held historically by multitudes of Christians over the years, okay? Things come in and out of fashion or in and out of season throughout history. This is a fact. Different social topics or hot button issues that we have now, the complete opposite was accepted in years past, but also the things that are being proposed now is not new either. It's new in the short term. It's new maybe in our generation, all the crazy things that are happening out there with all the insane thoughts being put out there, people being able to identify as men and women and dogs and whatever else and trying to say that this is tolerated, this is acceptable, but that's not even brand new. There have been plenty of societies throughout history who have fallen into depravity, which is exactly what that is. It's depravity. It's just sinking down into how insanely crazy and far removed from God's word can we possibly get as a people. Well, the United States of America is pretty deep down that path right now, which is why we need to be refreshed and why I'm going to introduce you to the Bible this morning. Okay, this is the Holy Bible. This book's been around for a very long time. It's very old, and it doesn't change. Okay, the times change. Anyone who's been alive for any length of time knows that people's opinions and what's acceptable and what's right and what's wrong according to the world changes. I'm 45 years old. I've seen plenty of changes in my short life on this earth, 45 years. And you think the first 10 of those years, I probably wasn't paying a whole lot of attention other than just knowing what was kind of normal as a 10-year-old at the time. And looking back on that, you can see how many things were completely normal, completely acceptable, say 30 years ago, 35 years ago versus today. I mean, it's almost a complete reversal. It's interesting to me, and it's kind of funny, witnessing the liberal Hollywood movie stars, how there's reaction against movies. These people have this weird ideology that's changed so much that they acted in movies 20 and 30 years ago that now is completely unacceptable. And it's kind of like, I think they don't know how to react because it's their work, and they got a lot of money for that, and they don't really want to speak against their own work. But at the same time, now it's not acceptable at all. So they don't really like to say anything about that, about their own hypocrisy. But most of those actors are just prostitutes anyways. I mean, they're willing to sell themselves and do any role and do anything that's going to pay them money. They're like, yeah, sure, I don't care what you're promoting. I'll just go ahead and act it out. But anyway, that's a whole other sermon for another day. I don't want to get into all of that. But the fact is that there is an agenda against women. And when I say against women, it's against godly women. It's against what God teaches about women and women's roles. So it may be inflammatory to you today, but again, I'm just going to urge you to look at what the scripture says, what does the scripture teach, and say, does this line up? And then you choose, am I going to accept what the word of God says and just take it at face value or not? And if you want to go to a church where people are going to try to explain away and come up with some story or an excuse as to why the Bible doesn't really mean what it says, then go somewhere else, because that's not this church. Because in this church, we believe what the Bible says for what it says. And we don't make excuse, we're not ashamed of it, we're not going to say, oh, well, I mean, people used to believe that, but notice we're in the Old Testament. And we're not in the Old Testament to mock the Old Testament, because you know what, the Old Testament is the word of God. We don't mock the Bible or anything that it says, We accept it, embrace it, and believe it as the word of God. So you ask yourself what you believe, but since you're here with us this morning, I can only assume that you appreciate the word of God for yourself as well. All right, that's all the groundwork. Let's dig into the actual meat of this sermon here. Satan's attack on women goes all the way back throughout history to the Garden of Eden, which is where did we see his first attack was on Eve. The first woman is his first attack victim, and he's able to deceive Eve, right, which is why we have a lot of things where we have them today. Now, there's a couple of ways that Satan attacked Eve. The first thing he got Eve to do was to doubt God's word. Is that really what the Bible says? Is that really what God said? At first, Satan questions. Well, I mean, did God say that you just, I mean, you can't. If you look at everything that Satan says, it's meant to confuse. It's even said in a way that's kind of like, you shall not eat. He said, look at verse number one. Just see it for yourself. Verse number one. Genesis chapter three, verse number one. The Bible says, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. Subtle means kind of shifty and is able to say things, but in a way that that's not quite on the surface, right? Not just overtly evil. He's able to be real subtle about it. And it says in the middle of the verse, And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? So even the way that's worded, he's using these negatives. He said, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? So wait, God didn't say that. God didn't say you shall not eat of every tree of the, you see what I'm saying? Like, God never said you can't eat of every tree of the garden. He said you shall eat of every tree of the garden except this one. But the way that Satan phrases this is already kind of confusing. Wait, has God said you shall not? And then it's like, well, no, God didn't say that. And that's where he gets you on that path of already just being a little confused. That's the way that Satan works. It's very subtle. And then he ends up just flat out lying. So the woman tries to clear this up with the serpent, verse 2. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. So she's trying to straighten him out and say, well, this is what God said. We can't eat of that tree. Or else we're going to die. And then this is where he just flat out lies, verse 4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. That's a lie. Because they did surely die. Now, they didn't die physically. Their body didn't collapse. But our bodies are made up of body, soul, and spirit. And in the day that Adam and Eve ate of that forbidden fruit of that tree, of the knowledge of good and evil, their spirit died in that day. They still had their soul, they still had their body, but their spirit died. Which is why this is what happens to everybody who sins, once you get to that knowledge of right and wrong, when you sin, your spirit dies, which is why you need to be born again in order to be saved. And that's a spiritual birth that takes place when you accept Christ, and your spirit is born again. This is exactly what happened with Adam and Eve, but see, Satan deceives and says, well, you shall not surely die. That's a lie. And Satan is spreading lies today as much as he did back then, targeting women and targeting other people as well, of course, but we're focused on the women today, and trying to get women to not trust the word of God and just be told lies about the word of God. So continuing on here, the Bible says, for God doth know, so he's going to explain why they shouldn't die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Now, that doesn't really explain why they're not going to die, does it? He's just saying, well, but what he does, he throws out something that might be enticing, well, you'll be like gods, knowing good and evil. So now he's trying to persuade her to take it so that she can have all this knowledge and be like a god. But that doesn't mean that God still can't kill her, right? That's not like, well, just because you know things doesn't stop an executioner from executing you, right? You just know now why. Oh, wow, now I know exactly why everything's going on. But it doesn't prevent you from dying, right? But see, here's the thing, he still deceived her, though. By lying and enticing, making that sin look like something she really wants and should have for herself, and kind of showing God as being, well, he's withholding, I mean, knowledge is a good thing, right? Knowledge of good and evil, this is something that you should have. Now, look, wisdom and knowledge are a good thing, right? The Bible teaches that. But understand that in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were in a state of innocence, right? And the Bible also teaches that we should be wise concerning that which is good, but we should be ignorant concerning the things that are evil and bad. And that's also consistent throughout the Scriptures, that we shouldn't know a lot about bad things, we should strive to know a lot about the good things. And this is how Satan historically has tried to deceive people anyways, looking, trying to make himself look like, you know, Lucifer is the light bearer, like he's bringing all this light and knowledge and trying to help people, making God look like the bad guy, and God's word look like, well, see, God's holding you back by not giving you this knowledge of good and evil. But if you think about it this way, is God really holding them back? Knowledge of good and evil, all knowledge of all good and evil. Would you want to tell your two-year-old, three-year-old, four-year-old, five-year-old of all the evil things in the world? Honestly, like, I mean, think about that. The most, the worst things in the world that people do, do you want them just being exposed to everything that's evil? Well, they need to know about it. No, we preserve innocence in children, we train them the right way, we try to teach them all the good things, right, that's going to keep them along the right path, but we don't introduce them to all of these weird, you know, like Satan is trying to do today with introducing little children with all of these sexual topics and things that have nothing to do with five-year-olds, six-year-olds, seven-year-olds. They have no business introducing any of that stuff to children, but they're trying to push that in and cram that in and they make it sound like it's a virtuous thing, just like Satan's trying to make it sound like it's a virtuous thing, oh, yeah, you'll be like a god, you'll know good and evil. No, it's good to keep that innocence. It's wicked to disobey the word of the Lord, but see, Satan wants to make God look out to be the bad guy, and as I get into more of these topics about the attacks on women, the world is going to push, well, the Bible is the bad guy, because you're trying to hold women back, you're trying to do this and enslave women, and you think women are second-class, you're going to hear all this stuff about what our church believes. You will, and I'm not afraid to bring that up. If you go ask other people, oh, man, what do you think about this or what do you think about that church? If they know anything about what we teach about men's and women's roles, most people, the world is going to tell you that we're crazy. Okay, but you decide for yourself, okay? I don't think I'm crazy. I don't think the people here are crazy. We just believe something that's very old-fashioned. We just believe what the Bible says literally. Just because it's not practiced by the world today doesn't make it false, and if you want to accept what the world says, I mean, the world's changing every decade anyways, even shorter than that, on what's acceptable and what's not. We do not believe in, you know, first of all, we don't believe that women are second-class citizens at all. Women are to be loved and honored and respected. The Bible teaches that through and through. But we definitely believe that there are different roles for men and for women, that God, at the very beginning, as we're starting in Genesis, created man different from woman. We're different. No matter how many people want to say, no, no, no, we're the same, and I'm a woman, and you're a man, and you're, you know, and just saying crazy things, that's not true. People say all kinds of things. It doesn't make it true. The fact is, the reality is, men and women are different. I know. You didn't expect to hear such mind-blowing knowledge this morning coming into church. Men and women are different. They're anatomically different, biologically different, even different in their minds. They possess different skill sets that women are more apt for different things than men, and men are more apt for other things that women aren't. It doesn't mean you can't do something, but it means that the ability set, the skill set that God has designed and given to women is a different skill set he's given to men because their jobs are different, because they weren't designed to have the same exact job. And if we want to be in harmony with God's creation as God created us, we should look to how did God design us and how does he want us to live? What role did you give me, God? I mean, do you want to know what God has for you to do, or do you just not care what God thinks and you just want to go and do your own thing? Again, the reason why we're here is because we're looking to the Word of God to help us to say, hey, where would God be happy with me? What would God be happy with me doing? How can I fulfill my role as a man or a woman, as a boy or a girl, in pleasing the Lord and doing what's right in his eyes? That's why we're here. So let's keep reading here in Genesis chapter 3. So he entices her saying, you're going to be as God knowing good and evil, verse 6. And when the woman saw the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat. So she ends up sinning. He entices her. He lies about the Word of God and makes God out to be like the bad guy. But it's a trick. It's a trap. He deceives her. And I would say today, Satan's attacks really aren't any different. He's still trying to convince women to doubt the Word of God and that God didn't say certain things and that, oh, yeah, that's just these crazy fundamentalists that they believe some weird things but that's not what the Bible... And you'll have pastors telling you this. You can go to other so-called Christian churches and they'll go tell you whatever it is that you want to hear and the reason why they do that is because they care more about getting money than they do about you. When you go somewhere and they're only going to tell you everything you want to hear, what's the real purpose of that anyways? We should all be looking to the Word of God to make changes, to be better, to know, hey, where am I doing things wrong so I can get it right? But when you go to a church that no one's ever doing anything wrong and you're just getting a nice little pat on the back going, great job, keep it up, as a congregation is involved in all manner of sin, well, guess what? God's still angry regardless of what that preacher says. That's the facts. That's the truth. See, we care about the truth, not trying to deceive ourselves or get someone else to deceive us willfully and just be like, yeah, tell me what I want to hear. But you know what? Those are the guys that make all the money. Flip back to real quick in Genesis chapter 1. I mean, this is the most basic thing. I didn't think I would ever, when I started preaching, I didn't think I'd ever have to get into this level of simplicity. Let's put it that way. Genesis 1.27. And I didn't start preaching that long ago. 2013, I was ordained as a pastor. 2013, I didn't think, even then, not even a decade ago, nine years ago, that I would literally have to say, you know, Genesis 1.27 was going to have, would be controversial at all. Genesis 1.27, so God created man in his own image, and I'm going to tell you what I'm going to tell you. Genesis 1.27, so God created man in his own image, and I'm not talking about that part, okay? People have controversy over that. In the image of God created him, look at this, male and female created he them. Male and female. Why is that controversial today? Because people are saying there's not two genders. Well, there's 37 and 54 and whatever, you know, that just keeps on going up and up and up. It's like, no, no. Look, it is binary. It's not non-binary. It's binary. It's one or the other. Male or female. I didn't think that a society can ever, now look, I know that's not the majority of people don't believe that stuff. Okay, they don't. The majority of people are not buying into that nonsense because it's so utter foolishness. But the fact that it's even being permissible to be put in mainstream at all is what's shocking to me. And I think part of the reason for that is because the opposition, like us, just don't speak up enough. Don't force that down by, and I don't mean physically, I'm talking about force it down with our voices. So you've got this vocal minority that's insane that wants to push their insanity on everyone else, but no one else is really standing up and saying, no, I'm not going to go along with this. And I've said it before, I'm not going to go along with the preferred pronouns. I'm not going to go along with it at work either. I'm not going to go along with it anywhere in the world. I don't care who it is if you tell me, if someone approaches me and says, and they're clearly a man and says, oh, my pronouns are she, her. I will not refer to it in that regard. You will get downgraded to it status, not upgraded to any other type of pronoun. I'm serious about that. I'm serious about it. I'm not going to play on this issue, and too many people play because out of fear, or politeness, usually it's out of fear, oh, I don't want to lose my job. But you know what? You can't lose your job if everybody in the right mind just refused to do it. What do you think employers are going to do? Fire everybody? Not going to happen. Not going to happen. People are too scared. Look, and this is, I've got a whole another sermon coming soon, maybe even tomorrow, on having the boldness and not fearing when you've got a righteous cause. Because, I mean, Genesis chapter one, you don't get much more milk of the word than Genesis chapter one. He created them male and female. Like, people who weren't even Christians accepted that forever. I don't know if this is a new thing. I said there's no new thing and I bet you people have probably had these thoughts before. But it's insane. Anyways, let's move on from that point because I want to be a little bit more edifying and kind of cover some more ground that might actually make some people upset. Not because I want to upset you but some things that you might actually, you know, this one's pretty simple. This was the easy dipping your toe in water and be like, okay, this sermon's not that bad. I know that there's only two genders. Genesis chapter two. Satan has an attack on the purpose that God even created women to begin with. Okay, and this one is where there might strike some nerves. But we go back to creation. Why did God create Eve? Well, first of all, who did God create first? Adam or Eve? Adam. Created Adam out of the dust of the earth. Right? Breathed the breath of life in him. Adam was created in the image of God as the first human being on this earth. God had a plan. God had a design and work that he wanted Adam to do. That's why he created him. Right? But he decided that, you know what? It's not good that the man should be alone. There needs to be a companion for the man. Now, again, don't mix up what I'm saying here. I'm not saying just because Adam was created first that he's better or more important than a woman. He's neither. Not better and not more important. But God had a job for Adam that he's not gonna be able to completely fulfill very well without having a good companion. And when God was looking for a companion for him, he was, you know, he brought all the creatures, all the animals, all the beasts that he created, and none of them were suitable to be a companion for Adam. Verse number 18, if you all look in Genesis chapter 2, the Bible 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. Now, what does that mean? That word meet is not commonly used today. That word meet means suitable. That's what it means. So I'm gonna create him a help or a helper, right? Someone to help him, a helper that's suitable, that's appropriate. That's me. Because obviously, you know, like dogs are man's best friend, but it's still not quite the most appropriate helper for life for a man. I mean, they're gonna sit at your side and wag their tail and things like that, but it really isn't gonna provide you that much help overall in your life, right? Like getting things done. I'm married to an awesome helper, and I'm gonna go over this more in a week because Leslie puts in tons of work. Now, she puts in the work behind the scenes. I end up getting a lot of credit for things that happen, especially with a camping trip. There's a lot of things that are planned. A lot of things are going on. But I can't do those things. We won't be able to have nearly as many things going on if I were just by myself having to do everything. Now, there's a big work that I think God has for me to do, but there's a big work that God has for Leslie to do as well. See, we both have very valuable jobs in God's eyes to perform. So this isn't a value thing, but it is a role thing. Whose job is what? Having a man in front leading is what God designed for men, but women as the supporting role is an extremely important job that has to be there as well to get everything done the way it needs to be done. Now, if you don't like that, take it up with God is what I'm going to say because that's why God created women to begin with, to be a help suitable for the man. I mean, that's why God created Eve. The Bible reiterates this teaching in 1 Corinthians 11. You can either write this down and note it or you can turn it if you want. We're still got a lot more verses in Genesis to cover because it's that basic that we want to cover a lot of attacks that we could see literally in the book of Genesis, but I'm going to support this, what I'm stating here, with more than just verses from Genesis, okay? 1 Corinthians 11, verse 8, the Bible says, for the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. And that word of in this context means from. So the man is not from the woman, but the woman from the man. What does that mean? Because when God created Adam and Eve, He created Adam out of the dust of the earth, but then He took a rib out of Adam to create Eve. Now, look, I literally believe this to be true. Full disclosure. I believe that the Bible is literal in that regard as well, that this is how God created man and woman. It's not just a story. It's not a myth. It's not a fairy tale. It's reality, okay? And this is reiterated in 1 Corinthians 11. So we get another witness here saying that that's true, that that's what that means. The woman of the man, verse 9, says neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. That's why the woman was created. The woman was created for the man. It does not, again, it doesn't have any dealings with value. We're all valuable in God's eyes, and I would say equally valuable. It has to do with what your job is. Just because the woman was created for the man doesn't mean the man doesn't have a job to do. Great. Well, I just have these slaves, and I'm just going to do nothing. No. That's not God's plan at all. And you're not a slave either, right? I'm throwing out there what people are going to say against what the Bible teaches. That would be one of Satan's attacks to say, oh, yeah, see, so you just got to be some slave while your husband can do whatever he wants, right? No. No. It's not true. Genesis 3, then we're going to go back to Genesis chapter 3, verse 16. You can keep a place in 1 Corinthians 11. I probably should have told you that because we're going to compare more passages since they both apply. Because God created the woman to be a helper, because God created the woman for the man, God put the man in charge in the home as being the authority figure. And again, this flies in the face of what people will tell you today. But I don't care what the world thinks. They're going to change next week and next year anyways. I mean, the next thing you know, the kids will probably be in charge. Genesis 3, 16, this was part of the punishment, by the way, for the woman being the one who was deceived by Satan and eating of that forbidden fruit and then giving that and getting Adam to sin, too. Okay, now look, Adam sinned because he knew what God said and shouldn't have eaten it, but he did it also. They each have their own responsibility. Satan had responsibility because he enticed Eve and lied to her and enticed her to sin. Eve had her own sin because she chose to eat it and got her husband to eat it. And then Adam had his own sin because he chose to eat it after his wife, you know, offered it to him or whatever. They all had their own responsibility in this area, and they all get punished, according to God. But verse 16 tells us the punishment that was brought upon Eve. The Bible says, Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, and sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. So this is where, excuse me, where that's instituted by God, where the man is gonna be the ruler over the husband. Let me put it this way, the husband's gonna be the ruler over the wife. And that context is important, too, because it's not like, as a man, I'm just the ruler over every single woman in this room. No. No. In marriage, I'm the one who rules my household. I'm the ruler in my household with God-given authority, not my own authority. This is what God said the way things are gonna be. And in 1 Corinthians 11, we have this reiterated, as well as in many other places in Scripture, but I'm only giving you two this morning. We have Genesis 3. Hey, your desire's gonna be your husband, and he's gonna rule over you. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 3, the Bible says, But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ. So the head means your boss. So who's the boss of a man? Christ. So yeah, the man has a boss, too. The head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man. So who's the woman's boss? The man. And the head of Christ is God. There's an authority structure laid out in Scripture. The husband is the head of the household and has that authority, but the husband still answers to God, answers to Jesus Christ. And that's a very big responsibility, too. Look, if you've been in the workforce long enough, as you get to different levels of responsibility, which is typically what if you're striving to get promoted within your company, what that means is that you are given more responsibility as you get promoted, which also means that the people that you are working for directly have a lot of responsibility, and your job doesn't get easier. As you climb that chain, it gets harder. There is something to be said in general for someone who can show up to work, do their job, and not have to answer to the CEO every day for what they're doing. There's something to be said for that. That's nice to be in that position, right? But as you get more authority and as you get more responsibility. So the man has, yes, the most authority in the household, but he's answering to Jesus directly to the point to where if the man is telling his wife, instructing on ruling the household how things should run, if the man is wrong in his decision making, he's going to answer to God for that, and the wife can say, this is what my husband said to do. And he bears that responsibility. So it's not like men just have everything made. And we're talking about the ideal biblical model here. Just because people are sinful and abuse different things doesn't mean that that's the way God intended things to be. So if you have a jerk of a husband who doesn't work, doesn't care about what Christ says, and just wants to treat you as a slave, as a woman, that doesn't mean that that's biblical. So don't conflate the two. Don't mix them into being the same thing. It's not the same thing. Because husbands are instructed to love their wives as Christ loved the church and he gave himself for it. So the role of the husband, part of the role of the husband is loving his wife self-sacrificially to be willing to die for his own wife. So that's God's will. You have a husband in that position, but then at the same time, the wife is going to be subservient or submissive to the husband because the husband is in charge and God has put him in charge of being that authority figure. It's just what the Bible teaches. Hopefully you don't think that that's a bad thing. And I don't want this sermon to come across as negative either. It's a beautiful thing. It's actually a great thing. And when we can put this into practice, the closer you can get to being in the will of God, I'm telling you, the better your life will become, the more joy and peace and happiness you will have in your marriage. I could say this 100% for our marriage, and I know I could speak for Leslie on this. We've talked about this in the past. Our marriage continues to get better and better and better because we've continued to get more in our proper roles equally as husband and wife in our marriage throughout time. As we've grown together and put into practice what the Bible teaches here, everything has gotten better in our lives. Everything. Why? Because it's God's will. When you're in God's will, things will work out better because God knows better than we do what's good for us. So if the world's teaching you, no, no, as a woman, you need to have a career, you need to have this, you need to have a backup plan, you need to have everything else before you get married to a man because that man might not take care of you. Look, that's not what the Bible teaches. It's not. It's man's wisdom. It's the wisdom of this world. And if you go into a marriage thinking, well, this may not work out. What if this doesn't work out? That's the wrong attitude to have walking into a marriage. When you walk into a marriage, it's this will work out because it's still death do us part. There is no back out option. Divorce is never even a thought. It should never be a thought. When you get married, don't ever let that D word creep into your mind. Don't allow it. It's not an option. A biblical marriage is till death do us part. God hates putting away. So you don't want to start introducing these other thoughts of like, well, I need this backup plan. No. We're going, I mean, you're going to marry, that's why you just make sure if you're going to get married to someone that you really think about it and give it serious thought and prayer before committing yourself to that person for the rest of your life. Because that's not a choice you could just go, yeah, no, I changed my mind. At least not in God's eyes. You know what? The world, they don't have a problem with that. They don't have a problem with that. But that mindset changes all the time too. I mean, the world thinks it's okay for two men to get married and two women to get married and pretty soon, they're going to think it's okay for men and beasts to get married. And if you think I'm crazy about that, I thought it was crazy that I'd have to talk about men, God created male and female. People are already identifying as animals. Seriously. I literally saw something online and I didn't verify this is true, but it doesn't surprise me if it is true that a man married a hologram. Has anyone seen that? Okay, I see a few heads nodding. I don't know if that's true. I didn't vet the source. Because who knows right now? Well, it was on the internet. It must be true, right? It's like, are you serious? But here's the thing. You would think when you see something like that, well, that's got to be the Babylon bee. That's got to be satire. That's got to be just someone trying to throw something out there to show you how ridiculous the world is. But the problem these days is that the things you think might be satire are true. That's how crazy things have gotten. But you already know that. Let's keep going with scripture here. So God has made the man the head of the woman. And Satan's attack is on women trying to convince them to do things that are contrary to God's will and the roles for which God created them. I'm going to skip over this point just for sake of time. There's so much to cover. But I want to get into, because it's Mother's Day, Genesis chapter 3 again. Look at verse number 20. The Bible says, And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And people throughout the Bible, and even just throughout history, receive names that have meaning. Everybody's name has a meaning. Now, sometimes today people just get names because they just like the way they sound. You know, parents choose name. Oh, I always like this name. It sounds good or whatever. But normally you ascribe names that have meaning. And especially historically, this is very important. And sometimes people will have names that change. Like, God has given people new names. God gave Jacob the name of Israel. Not just because he's like, well, I think it has a nice ring to it. You know, Israel just sounds better. No, because it had meaning. Because he's a prince, right? There's a meaning behind Abram having his name changed to Abraham, and Sarai having her name just Sarah. And throughout Scripture, people have their names changed for meaning. Adam's naming of Eve, the meaning behind Eve, is that she's the mother of all living. So that name kind of helps give you an identity, right? This is who I am. Well, Eve's name, her identity, is wrapped up in being a mother. And Satan's attack is trying to make motherhood look like a bad thing these days when it's a beautiful thing, when it's a wonderful thing. It's a glorious thing. It's a great thing. I mean, without mothers, none of us would be here, right, first of all. We got to at least enjoy that. But second of all, the job of a mother. You know, we were talking about men's roles, women's roles. I said how Leslie helps out with all these different things. I'm kind of at the forefront. But you know what job that she has? It's the same job of raising our children. What kind of price tag could you put on that job? And I'm being dead serious. It's kind of irritating, more than irritating. It's angering when you hear people will say, oh, you don't go to work because my wife stays at home and teaches and raises the children and runs the house and guides the house so you don't have a job. No, she actually has a lot of jobs. But she doesn't get paid by some other boss to clock in and punch in and punch out and do work for other people. She's working for her family. She's working to raise children, which is one of the highest valued positions any human being can have is helping to teach and train the next generation of people, and especially people that you love so much, like your own family. Teaching them the right way, guiding them, instructing them. You don't get those years back. It's a very important job. Nurturing, teaching, all of it. Loving them. Helping them become the people they're going to become. Preventing them from future pitfalls, mistakes, mistakes that you might have made. Trying to prepare them for an evil and wicked world and trying to equip them the best they can. That is an extremely important job that should never, ever, ever be allowed to be just put down on the bottom shelf as, oh yeah, being a mom. Not a big deal. No, it's a very big deal. It's an extremely important job. There's no degradation in Eve's name being wrapped up in the fact that she's the mother of all living. That's an honor. That's not something that, you know, the world may look down on it, but you know what? It's not something that's a bad thing. It's a very, very good thing to have. Now, the Bible says in 1 Timothy 5, and you could turn there if you'd like, 1 Timothy 5 in verse 14 that it's not just bearing children, right? Obviously, Eve is the mother of all living, but she was married to Adam. That was her spouse. They were married. So yes, we want, you know, the title, the role of being a mother is a very important job, but that ought to be done through the right means. Now, in a sinful, broken world, that's not always the way things work, but then you're going to get, if you don't do the way that God plans things and designs things, you're going to end up with a less than ideal situation. Now, you still have the same job if you're a woman that ends up getting pregnant and having a child with someone who's not your husband. Your job's going to be a lot harder. It doesn't change your role of what you still need to do, but you've just made things way more difficult for yourself, and it's going to come with more consequences as a result, which is why it's important to make sure that we can teach this and continue to teach this and stay strong on this that marriage is important and that people should be pure until their wedding day and shouldn't go out. What I'm teaching you now, it may not be common practice anymore, but it used to be common practice. Abstinence used to actually be the norm at one point in American culture. It was. Now, you always have people sinning. You do. You're always going to have people who fornicate you. That's always going to happen, but now people are saying, that shouldn't even be taught. That's just not realistic. You just need to give contraceptives away and do all this other stuff, which is insane. Just because some people sin, they want to abandon the truth, abandon what's right, abandon what God taught, and just say, well, we just need to embrace the sin and just try to mitigate it as much as possible. Wrong. This is where you get down that slope. You keep on just embracing sin. It's going to make things more sinful. We have to keep the standard high, and the more you get in this, you realize it's actually not that high. You just need to keep it standard. It can't change. The standard needs to be the standard. You can't keep lowering it. Just keep it where it is. Keep it where God said it. 1 Timothy 5, verse 14. The Bible says this under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, as the Apostle Paul was writing, instructing Timothy, I will, therefore, that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. That's the will. You can say, well, that's the will of the Apostle Paul. Well, he's writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is the word of God, right? I mean, we don't say, well, that's just the Apostle Paul when you're reading Romans, do you? When you go through the Romans road and show people how to be saved, well, that's just what the Apostle Paul said. No. That's not how we view scripture. Just because it says something that you may disagree with doesn't mean you could just say, oh, well, that's just what he said. But that's what the phony Christians want to do. Well, that's just what David said. That's just what this person said. That's just what that person said. Not when it's written this way. It's not just Paul's will. This is the will of God. That the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, and give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. Look at verse 15. For some are already turned aside after Satan. We're talking about Satan's plan, right? Satan's attack against women. Well, the plan is that the younger women would marry, bear children, guide the house, and give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. And what's the result of not doing that when people don't do that? They already turned aside after Satan. Why? Because Satan's plan is to get people not to do that. To get the younger women not to do this. So when they're not doing this, they're turned after Satan. Turn to Psalm 127. Motherhood is a good thing. And you're going to see it as a very good thing that's promoted in Scripture. And after we're done with Psalm 127, we're going to turn to Genesis 24 if you want to get another placeholder for that. Having children is a great thing. And not just children, but as many children. Having as many children as God's going to bless you with because children are a blessing is a good thing. Another area, another topic that historically no one had a problem with. It wasn't a weird thing. I have six children, and I definitely do not have the most number of children for families in this church. We've got a couple families that have more children than I do, but even with six, I mean, it's a shock to everyone I talk to in the world. At my job, other people meet when they're like, wow, you have six. How do you do it? It's just like this crazy thing. And it shouldn't be that crazy. And historically, it wasn't that crazy. It's context. Where are we now? Well, now it's a crazy thing. And there's obviously multiple ways that Satan will try to attack this. He'll try to get people to doubt whether they could afford to have children, but look, God promises to provide for you. You're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, God's promised to take care of you. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Psalm 127, look at what it says in verse 3. Lo, children are in heritage of the Lord. And again, meaning from God. God gives you this heritage, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. That's a reward. The fruit of the womb is a child. When your womb brings forth, your womb is bringing forth a child, that is a reward. That is a blessing. That is a good thing to have. They're not a parasite. It's not a burden. Now, children are work. They require a lot of work, but they shouldn't be viewed as a burden, like a negative thing. Like, oh, man, now I've got a kid. You should be happy that God has rewarded you with a child. And as we keep reading here, look at verse 4. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. And of the youth means starting having kids from a younger age. It doesn't mean, you know, whatever, like, pedophilia and stuff. It just means as you're young, don't wait till you're older. Young adults these days are saying, well, I'm not going to start a family until I'm 30 or whatever. I kind of want to do all this other stuff and do this, and then we'll start having children. The Bible says, so are children of the youth. And I'll tell you this much as someone who, I didn't get married until I was 31. So I wasn't having kids until after I was married anyways. I just happened to be older having children. It's going to be easier for you if you don't wait. I'll tell you that much. Because as your body ages, physically, you're just not quite as agile as you are when you're younger. So just a word to the wise, you know, it's going to be in your best interest if you're able to get married younger and have children. Now, look, I know that's not the way everything works for everyone, but again, we're looking at, ideally, this is how things would work. This is a broad sense. And everyone's going to be in some type of different situation as a result of different things, whether it be as a result of sin, as a result of other things. People are in different situations. We're talking about, though, teaching what God's word says and what's right, what's ideal, how did God intend things to be, and how did He create things to be. OK, so whether or not people have children. I did a lot of things I shouldn't have done before I got married. That wasn't ideal. And I have to pay the consequences for that. But it doesn't change what the word of God says. I mean, I thank God for the children that He's blessed me with. But it would have been nice if I could have gotten married to my wife 10 years earlier. That would have been great. But we are where we are and thank God for it. Bible still teaches, so are the children of youth. Look at verse 5. Happy is the man hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. So he brings up arrows in the hand of a mighty man. I mean, think about someone who's a soldier who'd be going off to war. Obviously, we have guns, right? But if you're an archer and you're relying on arrows, wouldn't you want to have as many arrows as you could possibly have? I mean, like, you want whatever quiver you're using to carry all of it. Like, man, pack that thing full. I don't want to run out of ammo. It's kind of like in these days, you got a rifle. Well, man, I want to have, like, as many mags loaded and ready to go as possible because I don't want to run out of ammo. I'm going to have the gun belt, right? I'm going to have the whole belt of ammo. I'm going to have mags ready to go and, you know, I don't want to run out. Well, this is the attitude that the Bible is showing and demonstrating here because, children, it's such a blessing. You should want to have as many as you could have. Because it's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. And, you know, sometimes it may require a little bit of faith, but trust God. I don't know all the money. Trust God. It will come. We've struggled. My wife and I have struggled quite a bit. And I bet other families here, if I asked a show of hands, could say, yeah, we've struggled. It doesn't mean you're not going to struggle, but you're here. Here you are. Ask the families in the back there that have, you know, 10 plus children and ask them, you know, eight, nine, 10 children, wow, did you ever struggle? I bet neither one of those men are going to say, yeah, no, no struggle. It's all just really easy and, you know, someone just kept dropping money off on my doorstep, like, without doing anything. No. They're working hard. But here they are. Here they are. And you know what? They're in church. They've got great children. Okay? They're not neglected, abused, or, oh, if you have that many children, you're not going to be able to give it to them. We've got great examples right here. When you do things according to God's plan, I'll let the results speak for themselves. And look, no one's perfect. I'm not trying to say, oh, they're perfect. No. We're all imperfect. It's here. But don't just listen to what Satan's attack is going to be. Oh, you can't have a family like that. It's just like the homeschooling thing. If you homeschool your children, they're going to be weird. They're going to be socially awkward. They're not going to know how to deal with people. Go have a conversation with my children in the back. Any one of them. Pick one out and tell me how socially awkward they are. They're homeschooled. You tell me. And you know what? When you homeschool people in the room right now, the vast majority of the children in this room are homeschooled. Let's see how socially awkward they are after church. Just don't buy in to the nonsense, okay? Have faith in God's word. Man, I got so much, I can't believe. All right. But even, you know, going back to Genesis 24, I said we're going to go back there. This is how Rebecca and her family, when she left to marry Isaac. I love this passage, and I probably preach this every single year about this with having children, but it is an important thing because it has been attacked. There's been doubt placed in people's minds, and you're supposed to plan all of your children this way, and you need to have them at this age, and you could only have this many, and you know. No. It's a wrong mindset. It's not a biblical mindset. Let's look to the word of God and see, wow, is there really a blessing? And if Rebecca was blessed this way, verse 58 of Genesis 24, the Bible says, And they called Rebecca and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go. So first of all, they're not just like sending Rebecca off to be a slave to Isaac. She had the free will to choose whether or not she wanted to go and marry Isaac. And she said, You know what, I will. That's her decision. She chose to go, and they sent away Rebecca their sister and her nurse and Abraham's servant and his men. And they blessed Rebecca and said unto her, Thou art our sister. Be thou the mother of thousands of millions. Thousands of millions. That's billions. And let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them. Now obviously we know she's physically not going to have billions of children. I mean, it's talking about her descendants and stuff. But it's a blessing to have a big family. It's a blessing for your, you know, to have many children of your own and then have many children and then have many children and then have many children until you have billions of people that are, that have been spawned from you. That's their blessing. It's a blessing. It's not a burden. It's not a hardship. It's a blessing. Having children is a blessing. I was going to go, you know what, I'm not going to get into all of this. I'm going to go through because Satan's attack, you're going to see a lot in the news right now. You probably already have been with the Roe v. Wade thing supposedly being overturned. I know it's not happened yet. But the leak by these, you know, by some activist judge who doesn't want this to go forward and happen. It's the only reason why it's leaked is so that you get public pressure so that they could incite the crazies out there that hate God and hate people that want to push for child murder and try to foment a lot of opposition to what's right of saying, no, you don't have the legal right, federally speaking, to just murder a child in the womb. So because this is going on now, you're going to see a lot of different arguments out there. But the biblical argument is that a baby, a child, is life from the moment of conception. And when there's so much biblical evidence for that, and people say, well, it's my body, my choice. You know what? Do what you want with your body, but that other body that's living inside of you is another body. It's another person. There's another soul there. There's another spirit that's not yours. Just as much as you can't go and exterminate any other person just because I don't like you or, you know, think about this. People will call the child a paris. Well, I'm supplying everything. They're being fed by me and everything. Well, you can't just go and kill your own child that's out of the womb. Well, I'm feeding. I'm caring for. I'm changing diapers. I'm doing it. Well, that doesn't give you the right to just kill them. They're not self-sufficient at all. They're relying on you. They're dependent on you to care for them. You don't have the right to kill them. You don't have the right to kill the person that's growing in your womb either because it's a person. And the Bible teaches, you know, there's the passage where, and I don't have this in my notes, but the prophecy of a virgin shall conceive, the Bible says, and when that's quoted, it says a virgin shall be with child. So the same passage, when it's quoted from the New Testament, quoting the Old Testament, conceive is substituted for with child because they both mean the same thing. And once the woman conceives seed, you have an egg and a seed from a man and a woman, they come together and there's conception because they've come together. That's a new life. And at that moment, the woman is with child. With child. That's what matters in all this debate, everything else. I don't care what circumstance you want to throw in there. At that point, you have a person. You have a child. I'm going to read through some of these passages for you just to demonstrate how the Bible clearly teaches that a child in the womb is still literally a child. Job 10, verse 18, the Bible says, Wherefore, then, hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? This is Job kind of lamenting. He's really upset after everything that happened. O that I had given up the ghost and know I had seen me, I should have been as though I had not been, is what he's saying. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. So what he's saying is, because all the stuff that happened, he's so kind of upset and depressed. He's basically saying, why was I even born? He's saying, it would have been better if I was like a stillbirth or I was like someone who just wasn't even born and just went straight from being in the womb to the grave. So not even having been born into this world, but he said in verse 18 that I had given up the ghost. Given up the ghost from within the womb. Why? Because in the womb, that child has a soul. In the womb, that child has a spirit. Okay? That's what giving up the ghost means. You're going to lose that spirit. I wish I would give it, while it's still in the womb. Biblical teaching. Luke chapter 1, another famous passage here with John the Baptist and Jesus Christ's birth. The Bible says in Luke 1 13, but the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zechariah, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife, Elizabeth, shall bear thee a son. And thou shalt call his name John. That's John the Baptist, right? And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth, for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. But this next phrase is very important. And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. He, not some collection of cells, he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. Imagine someone trying to stick a contraption up there and chop off the legs and arms and suck out the brain of John the Baptist who's filled with the Holy Ghost inside of that womb. It's horrifying. But that's what happens with abortions today. It's a child. The Bible clearly teaches it's a child. And then on top of that, in the same passage, when Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, when she finds out she's six months pregnant, she goes to spend time with her to help her out through her delivery. But she's also with child at this point, because that's when she is told by the angel she's going to conceive and what she's going to bring forth, a son and call him Jesus. And that's going to be of the Holy Ghost, right? The Holy Ghost is going to allow her to conceive to bring forth Jesus. Verse 36, I'm going to read in Luke 1. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God, nothing shall be impossible. And that's actually a very great verse anyways for people wanting to have children. Elizabeth was considered barren, not able to have children, but God gave her a child anyways. For with God, nothing shall be impossible. And he proves himself over and over again. Nothing is impossible. Just remember that. And Mary said, behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy word and the angel departed from her and Mary arose. And by the way, this verse is really, so much to unpack here. I've heard so many atheists and God haters say, oh, well, Mary was raped by God. And they try to say these stupid things, like, well, she was just forced on her to have this child, Jesus. No, she gave her consent to carry Jesus Christ right here when she said, be it unto me according to thy word as the angel spake to her before she conceived. Be it unto me according to thy word. That's giving your consent to allow to be impregnated and have Jesus Christ be born. And Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah and entered into the house of Zechariah and saluted Elizabeth. Look at this, verse 41. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb. She's six months pregnant and so that fetus is a baby. The babe leaped. Oh, but that's not a person, right? Nonsense. Of course it's a person. The babe leaped in her womb and the baby heard the salutation, the greeting, and got excited and leapt. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost and she spake out with a loud voice and said, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Again, the fruit of the womb, God's reward, right? The child. And whence is this to me that thy mother, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. But people are fighting to kill the baby that's inside of mother's wombs. You know what? It is disrespectful. Shame on anyone, anyone who wants to say it's okay to kill a living person, especially the most, of all people in the whole world, the most vulnerable, the most helpless, the ones that don't have a voice for themselves, the unborn. If our culture can shift to having a positive attitude on motherhood in general, I think you'd have a lot less women wanting to get rid of their children. If you could stop teaching them, oh, this is a burden, oh, this is going to ruin your life, oh, this is going to be a terrible thing for you, and instead can view children as being a blessing from God and a reward and a good thing, and you know what? Even if it was a result of sinful actions, that child can still be a blessing for you. Now, I'm not saying that you should go out and do it. As I mentioned before, when you stray from God's path, you're going to make things much more difficult for yourself. Definitely, definitely. And you don't want to be sinning against God anyways because then God's going to have to punish you for that. But having life, having a child, is still a blessing. It's a blessing. And we ought to respect and revere the mothers, and we respect women and appreciate the job that they have that's given to them of God, that God designed them to be nurturers, to care for their children, to be able to feed their children, all the things biologically that women can do. It's a great job. It's an important job. And we have high value for that. And the men take on the job in the role of going out to work and sweat and toil and labor so that our wives can raise and nurture the children and be able to give their full attention to their job at home. That's the biblical model. That's a good model to have. That's not disrespectful to anybody. Men go off and work. Women guide the house. You can't convince me of a better way to do things. And this is the way that God taught me. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for giving us this instruction, Lord, and for teaching us as you created us how you created us, dear Lord, and why you created us. I pray that you please help us not to be influenced by this world, not to be influenced by the wiles of the devil and his attack on women and his attack on Christianity in general, dear Lord. Help us to dig into the word and to embrace your word and the teachings that we could find so clearly in scripture, dear Lord, and apply them to our life. None of us are perfect here, God, but we really do want to listen and take heed. Give us more knowledge. Help us understand the areas where we may be wrong about things, where we may not be understanding things properly so that we can do what's right. God, we love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. We're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed, and Brother Peter is going to lead us. Right church, if you could open up your hymnals. Song number 367. Song number 367, My Mother's Bible. It's been a while since we've sung this hymn, so I just want to kind of clear up a couple things here. If you look at the verses, obviously you have verse one, two, three, and four. They're in brackets. So that first part of the verse coincides with that second portion of stanza there. So it'll go like this. There's a dear and precious book, though it's worn and faded now, which recalls those happy days of long ago, and then you'll go back up to the top. It'll be, When I stood at Mother's knee with her hand upon my brow, and I heard her voice in gentle tones and low. You see that? And then we'll go ahead and continue with the chorus. Hopefully I didn't confuse everyone with that. But song 367. On the verse, there's a dear and precious book, though it's worn and faded now, which recalls those happy days of long ago. When I stood at Mother's knee with her hand upon my brow, and I heard her voice in gentle tones and low. Blessed book, precious book, on thy dear old tears they please I love to love. Thou art sweeter day by day as I walk the narrow way that leads at last to that bright home above. As she read the stories of those mighty men of old, of Joseph and of Daniel and their trials, a little David Boal, who became a king at last, a great Satan with his many wicked wiles. Blessed book, precious book, on thy dear old tears they please I love to love. Thou art sweeter day by day as I walk the narrow way that leads at last to that bright home above. And she read of Jesus' love as he blessed the children dear, how he suffered, bled, and died upon the tree. Of his heavy load of care then she cried by flowing tears with her kisses as she said, it was for me. Blessed book, precious book, on thy dear old tears they please I love to love. Thou art sweeter day by day as I walk the narrow way that leads at last to that bright home above. You're doing a great job, John Church. Let's go ahead and finish on the last. Well, those days are past and gone, but their memory lingers still and the thrill of one each day has been my guide. And I seek to do his will as my mother taught me then and ever in his heart my words abide. Blessed book, precious book, on thy dear old tears they please I love to love. Thou art sweeter day by day as I walk the narrow way that leads at last to that bright home above. Amen, Church. Great singing. Happy Mother's Day. Thank you for coming. You guys are dismissed. piano plays softly piano plays softly piano plays softly