Topic: bible

17-years ago, North Village Church began in a home in north central Austin around the Domain with a simple belief: when people experience the power of Jesus personally, they can’t help but want others to experience the power of Jesus. Amen? This is what we’ve been leaning into the last few months. Men and women experiencing the power of Jesus… people coming to faith in Jesus, getting stronger in God’s Word, growing in prayer, turning from the allure of this world and giving their life to Jesus, so that it stirs our hearts to take an interest in others! That’s it!

I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but sometimes in the church we can present Jesus to people like, “If you come to Jesus everything in life will get better, and if you walk away from Jesus everything in life will get hard.” Have you seen this? But, then we meet people who have a great marriage, great kids, great success, and yet they don’t have any interest in Jesus, so that we’re like, “Wait, what?”

Because somewhere along the way, we can start to believe that if we follow Jesus, our lives should work better. And if someone doesn’t follow Jesus, eventually everything should fall apart. But then that’s not always what happens, which raises an uncomfortable question, “If we can have a good life without Jesus…why do we need Jesus?” In our passage, we’re going to see people building cities, developing agriculture, creating music and advancing technology, and they’re probably not that interested in the Lord. Let’s look at Genesis 4:17: 

I don’t want to stir up too much anxiety but it doesn’t take much effort to see we live in a violent world. Just a year ago there was a shooting at the Target off 183 and Ohlen where 3 people were killed. And, just last month a man was shot multiple times on Rainey Street during an aggravated robbery.  In Southeast Austin, another man was killed off Montopolis Dr. And earlier this month there was a shooting in Northeast Austin.  That’s a lot!And, you can blame it on Austin and want to get out into the country, but Twin Falls, Idaho 3 people were killed, 7 wounded at an In-And-Out just last month. So, when things like that happen, we ask the same questions, “Why?  How do we stop them?  What’s going on?”  Is this the end? In our passage this morning, we are going to see there is a pattern in humanity we still see today.  We don’t typically wake up and say, “I am going to rob a bank today.” There’s a progression.  There’s something inside us that begins with a thought, grows with our desires, and is eventually driven by our passions so that sin shows up…but we can’t miss that God keeps moving toward us to bring rescue.

In our passage this morning, we are going to see why humanity has this pattern of working really hard on something that never lasts.  Have you noticed this? We start to get organized, clean out the garage, work on a project and when we finish it feels so good.  But it never lasts! You clean the car, then it gets dirty.  You repair the relationship, then there’s more conflict.  You fix one area of your character, and then another area gets exposed!  It’s never ending!  In our passage we will see we don’t see this pattern by accident.  It is God’s grace drawing us to Himself. 

Have you noticed how most people want to be in a romantic relationship but underestimate how hard it is to be in a romantic relationship? In the beginning it’s all warm and tingly, but then at some point we start to see different values, different goals, different personalities and it starts to take effort!

If you are new this morning, Genesis is in the Old Testament.  Genesis is the first book in the Bible.  These last 4 weeks we have been studying through Genesis and Genesis 1-2 teaches us that all of creation is designed by Him, through Him and for Him, so that in Genesis 1-2 everything is perfect. 

Look, I don’t want to scare anyone, but God’s Word is clear that there is a devil.  He’s not just a character in a scary movie.  He is real and he is the enemy of God, and verse 1 tells us the devil is a created being that is “more crafty than any beast of the field.”  The word “crafty” in the original language means “clever” and we are going to see his clever ways in our passage this morning.  It’s why 1 Peter in the New Testament describes the devil like a lion that prowls around looking for someone to devour.  He’s crafty!

 And the subject of marriage is an exciting topic in our culture right now, because our culture has two competing ideas on marriage right now. 

First view, not interested in marriage.  Marriage is expensive.  Marriage is an institution.  Marriage is designed by governments to control and oppress.  Women don’t need marriage because they can make their own money.  Men don’t need marriage, because they have pornography, so that in our culture today, especially in Austin, it’s common to find people who want nothing to do with marriage.

But, there are some people in Austin who are very excited about marriage.  The excitement doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus, but people love the wedding dress, decorations, invitations, event venue, and finding that special someone. But God’s Word gives us a different perspective toward marriage this morning. 

Good morning. So good to see everyone here on such a nice day. Just another cool summer day in Texas. I am glad you appreciate the irony in that statement. I am not going to talk about irony in today’s message. But I do want to touch on a different literary topic. And that’s authorial intent- the message an author intended to communicate.

It is important for us to consider authorial intent when we watch or hear or read something. Because the actual message intended by the author is often deeper than the surface meaning of the particular words. Let me illustrate with an example from the movie “Frozen.” Many of you have probably heard of the song from the movie, “Do you want to build a snowman?”