Your Family History

Sermon Transcript

- Lord Jesus, we love you. And Lord, we thank you so much for who you are and Lord, we ask in these moments that we get to hear from you today, that you would speak directly to us because we know that no matter where we are in your word, that every time your word is proclaimed that you have something to say to us. And so Lord, we wanna hear you, we wanna hear what you have to say. And so, Lord, come and visit us. Speak to us, Lord, so that we can respond to you. And now all of God's people who are gathered, who are listening online, who desire to hear the Lord, believe what he says, and by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you very loudly, very loudly agree with me this morning by saying the word amen, amen.

Couple summers ago, when I was down in Florida, we were talking with my 97 year old grandma, and we were having this awesome conversation, just about our family history, and our ancestry and just different things about our family. And one that I was aware of was nine generations ago, my great, great, great grandfather was the governor of Delaware, his name was George Reed, and he signed the Declaration of Independence. And she was telling us that story in our family line. And then she talked about her husband, my grandfather, who fled Germany as a full blooded Jew in 1936, which I knew and his parents met him here a year later, but what I didn't know all about him was, when he went back into military service and encounter intelligence during World War Two, earned a Purple Heart and I was fascinated to hear all these stories. And then one story that came out is in some way, I think were related to Albert Einstein. And that was the ones that my kids got so fired up. And I'm not sure how I'm not sure if it's true, my kids believe it. And they're like dad we're totally related to Albert Einstein and then I tell them, I'm like, well, just hold on your mom and I were no Einstein in school. So that didn't pass. But the point is, it's interesting as you look back at your history, and even today in our culture, there's like ancestry.com, and 23andMe. So there's this interest in understanding, in hey, where did we come from? And where are we about and where were we established from and who were my ancestors.

And this morning, I wanna tell you from a biblical perspective, who they are. You're one of the few congregations this morning, that's likely gonna hear a sermon on Genesis four and five regarding the genealogy of the line of Seth. And yet here at Brave Church, we believe that all parts of God's word is inspired. So he has something to say to us through his living an active word. And so I'm gonna invite you to open your Bible this morning to Genesis 4, starting in verse 17. And while you're turning there, let me just set it up what we've been talking about. Not only that God create the world, God gave a blessing to the earth, created man and women in his image, told them they can do whatever they want, except not enough to tree the knowledge of good and evil, which we learned in chapter three, both Adam and Eve did, sin entered the world, death became part of reality. And it began to get passed down through the generations. So Adam and Eve had their first son, Cain, they also had another son, Abel. And we learned last week that Cain was evil and that Abel was good, and that Cain killed Abel. And where we left off last week was him begging the Lord to be merciful to him, so that he could just get away from the presence of the Lord. And what we looked at was the fact that Cain didn't wanna be anywhere near God and it was gracious to him to say, God, just stay away from me, I'll go live my own life, my own way. And so that's where the story left off.

Today, we pick up in Genesis 4, starting in verse 17. Let me finish chapter four, we'll start unpacking that and then we'll look into chapter five as well. Says that "Cain had relations with his wife "and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch, "and he built a city and called the name "of the city Enoch after the name of a son. "Now to Enoch was born, Irad, unto Irad "became the father of Mehujael "and Mehujael became the father of Methushael, "Methushael became the father of Lamech. "Lamech took to himself two wives, "the name of the one was Adah "and the name of the other Zillah. "Adah gave birth to Jabal, "he was the father of those who dwell in tents "and have livestock. "His brother's name was Jubal, "he was the father of those who play the liar and pipe. "As for Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal Cain, "the forger of all implements of bronze and iron "and the sister of Tubal Cain was Naamah. "Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, "listen to my voice, you wives of Lamech, "give heed to my speech, "for I have killed a man for wounding me "and a boy for striking me. If cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech 77 fold."

And here we see the line of Cain. And we need to discuss this because we need to understand as damaging as it was and as damning as it was to Cain, when he left the presence of the Lord, not only for this earth, but he ended up leaving the presence of the Lord for all eternity. He told the Lord, I want nothing to do with you. My heart is hard, I'm unrepentant, I don't want you, I'm upset that you don't accept me just the way that I am, I don't wanna worship you, I don't wanna honor you, God just get away from me and God in His mercy Cain a sign, so that if he were killed, his death would be avenged sevenfold. And so he went and wandered off. And here's where we learn about Cain's line. Now you need to understand, the Bible makes clear as we looked at New passage, New Testament passages last week that Cain was evil in the sight of the Lord and did everything evil. So Cain takes a wife for himself and then we learn about his lineage. We learn about his line, and we don't learn a lot about everybody, we learn that he had a son named Enoch, which is a different Enoch that we're gonna talk about in chapter five who built a city and the city was named after Enoch, then Enoch had a son, Irad and Irad, Mehujael and Mehujael, Methushael and Mathushael became the father of Lamech. So Lamech is seven generations away from Adam, right? Seven generations away from Adam, you have this one Lamech.

So here's the situation that you need to see. In these genealogies, one of the reasons that we see the genealogies is to see not only what happened to the people who were living at the time, but how they lived, how that impacted the next generation of people that came away from them. How that impacted their families, how that impacted their offspring, how that impacted their offspring's families. You get down seven generations away from Adam through the line of Cain, and you have Lamech. And notice what you have in Lamech. Notice what you say. It says this, he took for himself two wives okay? God made clear in Genesis 2 that here's marriage according to God's standards. One man and one woman, a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two become one flesh. We spend a lot of time on this. That's God's definition of marriage. A male and a female leaving their family, coming together and forging a family. When they leave the altar or wherever they get married at, God no longer sees them as two individuals, he sees them as one. That is marriage according to God's standards. We're seven generations away from Adam and what do we have? We have Lamech saying, I'll take two wives. I'll do whatever I wanna do. I'll define marriage my way, I'll be who I am. I'm gonna do it my way. That's what you have.

What else do you notice about this fellow Lamech? Not only did he take two wives, but notice what else we noticed about him. Notice how he talks to his wives. Lamech said to his wives Adah and Zillah, listen to my voice you wives of Lamech. Now I don't know about you ladies, but I don't know if you wanna be talked to like that. Listen to my voice you wives of Lamech, give heed to my speech. Notice what he said, for I have killed a man for wounding me and a boy for striking me. This doesn't mean he killed two different people. This is Hebrew parallelism, it's saying there's one young lad, young boy, probably in his late teens, early 20s that he's killed and why did he kill him? I killed a man for wounding me, and a boy for striking me. If cain is avenged sevenfold then Lamech 77 fold. Here's what he says. I mean, I know what I'd say if I was at a men's conference and I'm trying to say it a little different. He's saying I'm bad to the bone. He's like, look at me, ladies, look at me wives, you thought my, you thought my great, great, great, great, great grandfather Cain was something? Look at me. There was a young guy that tried to wound me, I killed him. He's bragging about murdering somebody. And he gave the penalty he gives for striking him goes way beyond striking him back, it goes way beyond forgiving him. He's basically, you touch me, I'll kill you. 'Cause that's who I am. Evil is all in his heart. He's taken two wives, he wants people to know how evil he is, he wants people to know, don't you dare mess with me, 'cause I'm Lamech. And I'm the man.

And notice what else you notice about this guy. We find out he's got at least three sons. His first wife, Adah gave birth to Jabal. And he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. Now that may not mean a whole lot to us. But agriculture was the industry of the day, which means this, the guy was very industrious and probably very economically or fiscally successful in life. So understand this, even though he's evil and it's producing evil offspring in the world, they're somewhat successful. So he's got this one son that's super industrious, that takes care of all the animals and all these different things. His brother was named Jubal, and he was the father of those who played the liar and the pipe. So here's what they're good at. Musical instruments, creative arts, creativity. Have you ever noticed why certain people are gifted at certain things and other people aren't? Ever seen that before? Do you know, who gives you gifts? God does. That's why if you're really not good at music, when you're 22, at 42, you're probably still not gonna be very good at doing music. I mean, there's a gifting that comes that God gives to different people. One of his sons, super gifted economically, fiscally industrious, business owner. Another son, that's where all the creative arts came from all the music came from, and then notice his third son that comes from his second wife Zillah, she gave birth to Tubal Cain. Why in the world would you name your son after your great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather that was totally evil in the sight of the Lord? Do you know why? Because Lamech thought, I heck of a lot of his great great, great, great, great great grandfather, right? Cain's, the man, I'm gonna name one of my sons after him. He was so evil, he got away with it, he went away from the presence of the Lord so he called this guy, Tubal Cain, and what was this guy responsible for? He was responsible for forging all the implements of bronze and iron. So guess what? All the farming implements, all the things to till, any sort of weaponry, that's what his son did. All three of his sons, super successful in culture, super evil in the eyes of the Lord. Do you know that the world can look upon you and say, what a great looking family and God can say, I don't even know who you are. Do you see that? See, Cain's generations were seven generations away from Adam and Cain's family, and you have somebody completely evil that thinks he's bad to the bone that's taken two wives, that has three different sons, and all of them are completely living for themselves. That's how you know they're not following the Lord. Now this is tragic. Now, here's what you got to know from this genealogical line, none of you come from this genealogical line. There's none of you who Cain is an ancestor of you. That whole line was wiped out in flood, none of you came out of this line. So that's not your heritage, that's not your history. But there was a line that was going that way. And guess what, God sees it going that way and God made a promise back in Genesis 3:15, that he was gonna have a seed that was gonna be raised up and through God's seed, there was gonna be a generation of people that ultimately would bring his Messiah. And so even as God sees it go this way, God thinks, I got a plan. I'm gonna do something different, I'm not gonna let the world get totally out of order, I'm gonna intervene in the world, and I'm gonna do something about it. And that's what God always does. And that's what I wanna pick up and I wanna read from Genesis 4:25 onward, and you might say, are we're gonna really gonna read that whole thing of chapter five? 'Cause I know for most of you, if you're doing your Bible reading, and you start in the book of Genesis, this is usually the part you get to, where you kind of skim over it, and you look at the names, they can't pronounce those, but they sure lived a long time, and I'm on chapter six, right? But I believe that God put this in here for a reason that we need to take a look at it because God wants us to understand something from what he's trying to accomplish, in bringing his Messiah into the world. So if you'll humor me by following along with your eyes and your scripture that you have in your lap, I'll read it and then we'll take a look at some of the things that we observe from what God is trying to do, so we can see how good our God truly is. Genesis 4:25 says, "Adam had relations with his wife again, "and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth "for she said, God has appointed me another offspring "in place of Abel, for Cain killed him. "To Seth, to him also a son was born, "and he called his name Enosh, "then men begin to call upon the name of the Lord. "This is the book of the generations of Adam "and the day when God created man, "he made him in the likeness of God. "He created the male and female "and he blessed them and named them. "Man in the day that they were created. "When Adam and lived 130 years, "he became the father of a son in his own likeness, "according to his image and named him Seth. "Then the days of Adam, after he became the father "of Seth were 800 years, "and he had other sons and daughters. "So all the days that Adam lived, were 930 years, and he died." Pay attention to that, you're gonna hear that over and over again. "Seth lived 105 years became the father of Enosh "and Seth lived 807 years, "and after that became the father of Enosh, "and had other sons and daughters. "So all the days of Seth were 912 years and he died. "Enosh lived 90 years and became the father of Kenan "then Enosh lived 815 years "after he became the father of Kenan "and he had other sons and daughters. "So all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died. "Kenan lived 70 years and became the father of Mahalalel. "Then Kenan lived 840 years "after he became the father of Mahalalel and he had other sons and daughters, "so all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died. "Mahalalel lived 65 years and became the father of Jared. "Then Mahalalel lived 830 years "after he became the father of Jared, "he had other sons and daughters. "So all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died. "Jared lived 162 years, became the father of Enoch. "Then Jared lived 800 years after he became "the father of Enoch, and he had other sons and daughters. "So all the days of Jared were 962 years, "and he died. "Enoch lived 75 years and became the father of Methuselah. " Then Enoch walked with God 300 years "after he became the father of Methuselah, "and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years." Now notice verse 24. "Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. "Methuselah lived 187 years. "became the father of Lamech, "then Methuselah lived 782 years "after he became the father of Lamech "and he had other sons and daughters. "So all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, oldest man that ever lived, "and he died. "Lamech lived 182 years, became the father of a son. "Now he called his name Noah, "saying this one will give us rest from our work "and from the toil of our hands, "arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed. "Then Lamech lived 595 years "after he became the father of Noah, "and he had other sons and daughters. "So all the days of Lamech were 777 years and he died. "Noah was 500 years old and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth." Now for those of us, most of us would be reading that on our own and be like okay, that's enough of that. I mean, I see the repetitive routine, what's God trying to say? Why in the world would God put this in the scripture? First of all, notice this, how many times do you hear the word and he died? And he died, and he died and he died and he died and he died. Didn't God make a promise to Adam and Eve that on the day that they ate from the fruit, they would certainly die? Dying, they would die? Was God truthful to his word? Here's the Gods, one thing God's friends tell us is, I told you so, I'm always true. If I tell you something, you can take it to the bank, you can believe it. I told you dying, you would die, 930 years later, as you've been dying, what happened to Adam? He's dead. What happened to all of his descendants, they're all dead too, why? Because every single person has caught the virus of sin and everyone that has it dies, there is no cure. There is no cure, you will die because of sin. That's what God told us. What we're seeing in the genealogy is God is being truthful to his word, and that everybody who is now a human, although they bear the image of God, although we are image bearers of God, it is marred by sin and because of sin, you will die. That's a fact. Notice what happened. We also see how long that people lived. I mean, did you get a clue as to how long people were living back then? I mean, 777 years seemed like a short life, like it got cut short for Lamech back then, all right? 969 years from Methuselah. It's interesting to notice if you study the Methuselah that was the year that the flood came, he died that same year. I mean, it's really interesting, 'cause God is showing how long these people lived. Why did they live so long back then? Well, let's go back to the beginning. Remember how God created the earth as a perfect place to be inhabited by humankind? And God created an expanse in the sky, and God had a perfect world and there was mist rising up from the ground, it would have been like living in a greenhouse back then. Everything was perfect, perfect sunlight, perfect temperature, perfect water, everything. So even after the fall of man, and before the flood, conditions were different than they are now. After the flood, we don't see people live that long anymore. So some people have problems you really believe, Methuselah lived 969 years? Yes, 'cause the scripture says it. It also tells me this, when we get into scripture, and people have a big time problem with the word day in Genesis 1, like, how do you know it was really a day? Well, because God said it was that's number one. Number two, God was working during the day and then there was evening and it was morning one day. So he says it over and over and repetitive. But it tells me this. It says this in chapter five, it starts off by saying, in the day when God created man, he made them in the likeness of God. Well, what was the day that God created man, that was day six. And then he goes on to talk about how many years it was. God could have told us if in Genesis 1, it was 14.3 billion years, God has the ability to tell us that. He told us it was one day, in chapter five, he tells us how many years there are. God can distinguish between a day and a year, if God had wanted to tell us that the world was created in longer than six literal days, he has the ability to have told us that. It also tells me God is true to his word. We see this all over the place. And it's really interesting, 'cause when we start studying this, we see an entire different line than you see in the line of Cain. And you see that God was looking for a man to do something different than what he was looking to do in Cain. And so God took things into his own hands. In Genesis 4:25, I mean, right after this, and we didn't really discuss this, but think about this. I mean, at the end of 4:23 it says, if Cain was avenged seven times, 77 times for me. I mean do you see how Lamech in Cane's dissent, how evil he was? He didn't see that God was giving Cain grace and bearing with his sin, in hopes that Cain one day would repent and giving him a sign. You know, it was God's mercy. Here's how Lamech saw. Lamech saw it as my great great, great, great, great great grandfather, talk bad to God got away with it, he doesn't want anything to do with God and I don't want anything to do with God either. And by the way, my great great, great, great, great, great grandfather killed his brother and was avenged seven times, I'll kill whoever I want. I'm avenge 77 times 'cause I'm that much better than my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather. I mean, that's what he's saying. So God starts looking for a man and we're gonna see four characteristics of a man that God looks for in this genealogy that he's looking for establishing his line to bring his Messiah through. And the first is this, God wanted a man who would follow Him and change the course of his posterity. God was looking for a man who would follow Him and change the course of his posterity, his future descendants. So we see in verse 25, that Adam had relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth for she said, God appointed me another offspring, in the place of Abel, for Cain killed him. So what do we see in Seth? We see a genealogical line going the evil way, and God says, I'm gonna be merciful. I'm gonna give Eve a son, and the son is gonna replace Abel. What Abel was gonna bring through his righteousness, this is what Seth is going to be. Seth is now going to be the line through which the Messiah is gonna come. So Seth has been chosen by God, why? Because Seth is gonna follow God, and he's gonna honor him, and he's gonna live for God. And you're gonna see a difference in the genealogical line, when you see a dad live for God, love God and follow Him. It changes the course of his posterity. In the same way that we see Cain, reproducing evil, you're gonna see Seth reproducing godliness. And that's what we see. See, God had a plan. And we see all this when we look at all the generations of things, I mean, when we look at Matthew 1, I preached Matthew 1 before the genealogy of Christ, really interesting because it starts looking at the genealogy of Joseph, making sure that Jesus came through the right bloodline that he comes through David, that he comes through Judah, that he's all the right line, and we get down to the end and we see that Joseph was never his dad, because Mary was his mother, because Jesus was born of a virgin. And you really only see five women, mentioned in the genealogical line of Christ. And it's really interesting 'cause you got Tamar and Rahab, both of whom were harlots, right? You have Bathsheba, who was an adulterer, you have Ruth who was a Gentile. And then you have married the righteous one who is the mother of, Mother of Jesus. And those get inserted to show that God uses that which is imperfect to bring his perfect Son into the world. But God is gonna great lengths here to set up this genealogy, so if you wanna study his word to say, how do I know that the Messiah is really the promised one, from Genesis 5 all the way to Matthew 1, all the way to Luke 3, all the genealogies aligned to let you know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. It's awesome. In Luke 3, when we study Mary, it's not going when you see Jesus genealogy, it starts at, it starts with Abraham and works his way all the way down to Joseph. When you start with Mary's genealogy, it starts with Mary and goes all the way back to Adam. And so it looks at her patriarchal family going backwards. And in Luke 3, you're gonna see these same names that we just read. In Luke chapter three, starting in the middle of verse 36, it talks about the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Kenan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the Son of God, what do you see? You see, in Joseph and Mary, it was the exact genealogical line to bring in the Messiah, why? So that if you're really true about studying God's word, you can't miss it. God put this in his word so that we can't miss what he's trying to do to bring the Messiah. And the first thing he starts doing? First thing he starts looking for? Is a man who will follow him and change the course of his posterity. And that's what we see in Seth. Seth is one that is gonna follow after God. He's gonna go after him with everything he has. And really what you see in this, it's almost like a, it's almost like a birth certificate. You know, my birth certificate tells me the date I was born, where I was born, the hospital I was born, I don't reference it very often, unless I'm gonna get a passport or something. It just tells you this is how old he is. This is where he was born. When you look at a genealogy, it's the birth certificate. You see how old the earth is, you see what God was doing to get it there, you see the genealogical order that's bringing in the Messiah. And while it may not be the most exciting part of Scripture to read, what God is trying to do is make no mistakes about it that what he's doing, he actually accomplished in the very way he set out to do it. We see that there's 1656 years from the time that God began the world, until the flood came, which is super important for us, because when we study the flood in coming weeks, you'll see when the world started repopulating through Noah and his family, and how the world will be the exact population that we have right now, based upon those truths. God, it goes to great lengths to show us in his word, what he's doing. Now, you might ask this question, well, how do you know that Seth is a follower of God? Well look at his offspring. See, God not only wanted a man who would follow him and change his posterity, what else did he want? He wanted a man who would proclaim him in the midst of a godless culture. That's what you see in Genesis 4:26. It says to Seth, to him also his son was born and he called him Name Enosh. The men begin, then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. Genesis 4:26 is the first time you see this. Calling upon the name of the Lord means to proclaim the Lord. It means to worship the Lord. It means to pray to the Lord. It means to seek the Lord. What do you see in Seth's son? You see in Seth's son, in the middle of a godless culture, him step up and say, I'm praying to the Lord, I'm seeking the Lord, I'm proclaiming the Lord, I'm gathering people to worship the Lord, because our God is worthy of worship. You say, well, how do you know that the culture was bad? Well, just take a look at Cain's family. You got people living for themselves, doing their industrious, musical, weapon-forming, farm employment type of things, doing everything they can apart from God and now you have Seth's family stepping up and saying, hey, here's what my son does, my son goes after God. My son goes after the Lord, my son honors him with his lips, my son proclaims him in the middle of a godless culture. What does God looking for? He's looking for men, who will proclaim God in the midst of a godless culture. Now, in case you're wondering, like, well, where are you gonna find a godless culture to proclaim in the middle of? just open your eyes, it really doesn't matter where you're listening today, 'cause that's the godless culture around you. I remember when I became a believer about 30 years ago, I remember reading 1st Timothy 3, and I remember thinking 30 years ago, you know what? I'm sorry, 2nd Timothy 3:1-5. I remember thinking, you know, this seems a lot like what I'm seeing right now, 30 years ago. I read it now and I feel like I'm reading the headlines of the news. Check this out. See if you think this is our culture. "But realize this that in the last days, "difficult times will come. "For men will be lovers of self, "lovers of money, boastful, "arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, "ungrateful, unholy, unloving, "irreconcilable, malicious gossips, "without self control, brutal, "haters of good, treacherous, "reckless, conceited, check this one out, "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And finally this, "holding to a form of godliness, "although they have denied its power, avoid such men as these." Where are men like that? They're everywhere. They're just everywhere. What's God looking for? He's looking for a man that will stand up and proclaim that Jesus is the Christ, he's looking for a man that will seek him. He's looking for a man that will worship him, he's looking for a man that will gather his family. That's what God's looking for. Now, why does God look for a man? Why is he looking for a man? Here's why. Because when he established the covenant relationship in marriage, he made men the spiritual head of the home, what it doesn't mean is that man is the boss of his wife to tell her what she can do. It means this, the man is personally responsible for the spiritual well being of the family. Let me say it again, 'cause most of you didn't hear what I said. Your wife is not responsible for the spiritual well being of your family. Yeah, but she's in BSF, she knows more than me. Doesn't matter. You, as a man are responsible for the spiritual well being of your family. How you lead your family spiritually, is up to you as the man, not because you're better than but because that's your responsibility of, that's how God established it. And most of us men are like our first parent, Adam, where we wanna punt responsibility and say, oh, man, it's just too hard, baby you do it. You take care of it. I mean, I'm busy, I mean, I'll show up at church with you every now and again, but I'm not gonna get into that thing, I got more important things to do. Man, there's nothing more important that you have to do, than seeing the face of the Lord and leading your family spiritually, amen?

- [Audience] Amen.

- That's a man's job. That's what we're required to do. And God is looking for men who will proclaim him in the midst of a godless culture. And God is always looking for men to do that. I mean, think about what we're gonna read about here, next week, in the weeks after, I mean, he was looking for someone, and nobody in the world was listening. So he raised up Noah, and what did Noah spend his entire life doing? He was a preacher of righteousness. I mean we talk about a man that had a worldwide platform, it was Noah. He preached his entire life, and how many people got saved in his ministry? Eight, him and his wife, his three kids and their wives. That's it. And most people will look at that and say, oh, what an unsuccessful preacher, only got eight saved? You should come to my church, we save more than that. I mean, he was a preacher of righteousness. It's not how big it is, it's not how much fruit it has, it's how faithful you are. God raised up Noah to do a work because he knew that he would proclaim him. How about Elijah? And the time that Elijah called down fire, at Mount Carmel, and then he fled thinking he was the only one and God said you're not alone. You're not alone. There's 7000 people that haven't bowed their knee to Baal get up, you're fine. Or how about in the upper room? There were kind of against all odds, right? I mean, there's 120 against the world and you and I are here today because of their faithful service to the king. What is God doing? He's always trying to raise up a remnant of men that will actually stand for him and love him and love people and do what he wants them to do. It makes a huge difference in a family. And we see this 'cause now coming out of Adam, guess what we have? Now we got Seth. Now what do we have? Now we got Enoch, Enosh rather, and Enosh is starting to get people to worship together. And it's so important that we do this, that we worship the Lord, that we honor Him, God is always looking for people who will do that. And then what's he looking for? Well, God wanted a man who would love him and yearn for him. God wants men who love Him. God wants men who yearn for him. And it's really interesting, 'cause when you read through Genesis 5, you you read about Adam, and then you read about Seth, and then you read about Enosh, but then look at these guys, you got Kenan, you've got Mahalalel, you've got Jared, before you even get down to the Enoch, like who are these guys? Who's Jared, who's Mahalalel? Who's, who's Kenan? Who are they? Like, what did they do? Bible doesn't tell us. Here's what it tells us. They were a faithful link in the chain of passing on spiritual vitality to the next generation. It means this. Man, when we talk about this stuff, it doesn't mean that you're gonna be widely known across the world. It means that you've been faithful, stewarding what God has called you to be responsible for. That's what we know about Jared, I don't know anything about Jared. I just know he was a faithful link in the chain to get into Enoch, and he was a faithful follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And guys, too often for us, we start thinking about big and vast and influencing, what can I do? And here's what, here's what I wanna tell you. It doesn't matter if you neglect your most important responsibilities, which if you're married is to your wife, and to your kids, let me say it again. If the world thinks you're the greatest success, but at the end of the day, your wife and your children aren't walking with the Lord, that's an absolute utter failure, according to God's standards. I mean, I know for me personally, I mean, I wanna see as many people come to Christ in my lifetime, and if God sent me down, said, Jeff, I'll give you one or two choices, either A, I'll expand your ministry, I'll give you an international platform, we'll grow the church, like you've never seen, we'll plant 15 other campuses or you can make sure that your wife and your kids are growing godly and that you pass on spiritual vitality, that next generation, it's not even a question. They get my number one, they always will, and they know that, right? That's our responsibility. So it's not about how many people know you, it's not about showing off. Look what I do for my family. It's about day after day after day, being faithful with what God called you to do. And what I find really interesting in this text, when I read this, and I read about, Enosh and when I read about Kenan, And Mahalalel and Jared, especially Kenan Mahalalel and Jared, Kenan lived 910 years, Mahalalel lived 895 years and Jared lived 962 years. So what do they do? It means day, after day, after day, after year, after year after year, they just continue to be faithful to the Lord. They continue to do what God wanted him to do. Men, some days, were better than others. Some days were not as good. It means every day we get up, we try again. God's mercies are new every morning. How do we honor him? How do we live for Him? How do we honor our family? How do we honor our wives? How do we raise our kids in a way where God is pleased with what we're doing? That's what God's looking for. He's looking for a man that can do that. A man that loves him and yearns to be with him. 'Cause when you get down to Enoch, that's what you see. In Genesis 5:21, it says he lives 65 years and became the father Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God, 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah. He walked with God, what does that mean? It means he had an intimate relationship with the Lord. It means he loved the Lord. Psalm 84:10, the psalmist writes better as one day in your courts than 1000 elsewhere. And it makes for good songs, right? We sing that song, it makes for a good sermon, and better one day in the courts in 1000 elsewhere, right sister, right brother, aint that good? Oh, praise God. But here's what it means. It means I would rather have God than anything else, not what God would do for me, not what God can accomplish for me, not what God wants to do in and through me, I just want God, I love God. I want his presence in my life. I want more of him in my life. I just wanna walk with Him, regardless of what he brings, I wanna make sure that God and I are intimately close and I yearn for him. And isn't that what we read about what David? I mean, in Psalm 27:4 when he talks about one thing that he seek from the Lord. He said, one thing I've asked him the Lord, Psalm 27:4, that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple. One thing I want from God, I just wanna be close to God. I wanna be, I wanna have his presence. I wanna know him. I want him to know me. I wanna walk with him. That's what Enoch was like. Enoch walked with the Lord, he was yearning for the Lord, right? And what did God do? At some point in time, God just took him home. He didn't die. There's only two people we'll read about that didn't die in the Old Testament, right? Elijah, chariots of fire, I mean, pretty cool scene. And Enoch, he walked with God, and then he was no more 'cause he was with God. And I promise you this, even though scripture doesn't say it, the day that God took Enoch, Enoch wasn't in heaven going, oh, come on, man, how come I didn't get to live 900 years? I mean, the day he left was the day he said, now my goal is fulfilled. It's the same reason that you read Paul in a prison cell right in the Philippians. It says, for me to live is Christ and to die is a bummer, no? For me to live is Christ to die is gain. It's a goal of my faith. It's like momentary afflictions are nothing compared to the weight of glory that is to come. I know, my Lord, I want his presence. Doesn't matter if I'm preaching in front of a group of people, or I'm in a prison cell, I want the presence of God in my life. God's looking for men that want his presence, not for men that wanna be religious, not for men that wanna fake it. I've been a Christian for 30 years. I know how to fake it, right? I mean, I know enough scripture, I could fake it. But God is not looking for people to fake it, God is looking for people that genuinely love him, and genuinely spend time with him and genuinely are changed by him. That's what he's looking for. And God knows that when he gets a man that loves him and yours to be with him, he can do something with that. He can continue to pass that on to the next generation. That's why John tells us in 3rd John 4, he says, "I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children, walking in the truth." What a great word as a father, right? What a great word as a father. Now, as you're listening to this today, as we continue on, some of you are thinking, man, I wish I would have heard this when I had younger kids, I didn't do it, right. It's never too late to start. It's never too late to make a phone call. And it doesn't mean that if you do everything, right, that it's a guarantee that all your kids will follow the Lord. You may have five kids and raise them in the things that the Lord and four of them follow Christ and one of them wanders, and what do I do? You pray for that fifth one, until God brings them home, and you never stop praying for them. And you love them and you seek God for them. And you ask God to do something to them. This is not a message to blame anybody, this is just telling you at the heart of what God's looking for, is you saying, fathers be this way. It's the same reason when they cross over the Jordan, going into the promised land, Joshua tells him to get 12 stones, why? So that when the children ask their fathers, daddy, what are these stones mean? Why does he tell them when the children ask their moms? 'Cause the men are the spiritual leaders. Men were called to give answer for the hope that we have within us to our family. Does this mean God doesn't care about women? No, God loves women. The reality is, and statistics would prove, if you get a family and you get a wife that really loves Jesus, who's pouring into our kids, God will do a work through that. But it doesn't mean that the whole family is gonna go after God, you get a man in a family, that deep in his heart says, as for me, and my house will serve the Lord and he's filled with the love of Christ and tenderness and honors his wife and loves his kids, you get the whole family most of the time. But there's such a responsibility of men. Most people that are hurting their lives, most people, most people, they didn't have issue with their mom, they had issue with who? Their dad, why? 'Cause men carry a mantle and a weight if you're good at it, or if you're bad at it, right? That's what God's looking for men that will step up and worship him and love him and honor him and follow him. And then what else is he looking for? He's looking for a man who will represent him through his eminent judgment, and his ultimate restoration. He's looking for a man that's gonna represent him. So as we get down this line after Enoch, we have Methuselah and then we have Lamech and who Lamech give birth to? A man by the name of Noah. And who's Noah gonna be? He's gonna be God's representative on planet Earth, the eminent judgment is on the way, but so his ultimate restoration. God's looking for men to step up and say, God really is holy. God really is just, God really is truthful. When God says he's gonna punish, he actually means what he says. But I also wanna let you know that God is so filled with love, that there's ultimate restoration for those who are trusting in Him. That's who our God is. And that to preach one without the other is not the fullness of the message of God, that word to proclaim imminent judgment, judgment is coming. And for those that would have a problem saying, man, can you really believe that God in the Old Testament was so mean, he flooded the whole world? My response is, have you read the New Testament? That's child's play compared to what's coming, right? There's just judgment coming for sin. But there's ultimate restoration for those who are trusting in him. And that's what he was asking Noah to do. And nobody was listening except his wife, his three boys and their wives. That's the only group of people that were listening. Nobody else was listening to God. And they're the ones that get in the ark and they're the ones that see the judgment, but they're the ones that go through the judgment and they're the ones that experience the ultimate restoration, God's looking for men that will present him in a way where he's holy. Now, here's the thing about it as men, none of us can do this on our own. I mean, when it comes to us following God, proclaiming God, loving God, representing God, here's what we know, we're all sinners, 'cause we read about everybody in here that dies. And so it can feel like this weighty message that if I'm the one that has to do all this stuff, how in the world am I gonna do all this stuff? See, God already knew that, so he picked another man. And the man he picked was his only begotten son. And God so loved the world that he sent His only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. And what did this man do? He modeled everything that this genealogical line was trying to tell us. His son followed God and everything that he did. We see the life of Jesus, all he did was wanna spend time with his dad. From the time that we see him as a young man in the temple at the age of 12, all the way through his ministry, all the way the garden of Gethsemane, all the way to the cross, what's he doing? He's seeking his father. He's following after him doing whatever he says. Did he proclaim truth? Did he gather people to worship? Did he get people to seek the face of his father? Yeah, that's what he spent his entire ministry doing. Did he love God and yearn to be with him? Oh, yes, he did. He couldn't wait. He loved everything about his dad. Did he represent him well? Did Jesus tell them that intimate judgment was coming and ultimate restoration was possible? Yes, he did. So men, how do we live the life that God requires, we get filled with his spirit so that Jesus can do the work through us. Because I know how some of you think. You hear this genealogical line and you see the line of Cain, and you see the line of Seth and some of you men are sitting here, my whole family tree is like a line of Cain. I mean, I know where I came, my dad, my grandpa, his great grandpa, here's the good news. If you trust Christ, God can change you and change your whole posterity. He can take you an entire different direction than everybody that you've been from and you don't have to blame your past, you can hold on to the hope that you have in Christ for your future so that you can be that and if you do that, God will bear fruit that you won't even see on this side of eternity, amen? Sometimes you go to a men's conference, and you hear stories about well, my dad was a pastor, and his dad was a missionary, and his dad was a pastor and we've had 30 generations of people serving the Lord, it's like, it's awesome, I didn't have that. You can be the first one in your family generation to do that. That's the message. That's the message. I stumbled across something this week. I had heard a pastor talk about this before. So I did some research on my own. One of the greatest theologians in United States history. Well, maybe Jonathan Edwards, certainly one of the best, he lived, he was born in 1703. He was a major voice in America's first great awakening from about 1727 to 1744, but what most people don't know is that Jonathan Edwards had 11 Kids. He was married to a really sweet wife that loved the Lord. Every day after his work before dinner, he would spend an hour with his kids, listening to all their adventures of the day, hear all their stories, and then he would pray a prayer of blessing, over each one of his 11 kids. He was known to be a sought after speaker when he would go on the road, he would take one of his loving kids with him so he could always spend time with him. There's another guy that lived about that time, that was a contemporary of his, his name was Max Jukes, cool name, right? Max Jukes was born in 1720. He was a hardened atheist and he married an ungodly woman. So in 1900, there was this American pastor, an educator, his name was Albert Edward Winship, who wrote a book entitled Jukes Edwards, a study in education and heredity, and it traced the posterity of the two men. So they went to look at all the descendants that they could find of these two men. Jonathan Edwards, and Max Jukes, to see what it was like to have a hardened atheist and an ungodly wife versus having a Christian man with a godly wife who prayed prayers of blessing and invested in his kids, the things of God. And here's what he found. Of Max Jukes, 540 descendants were actually studied, they were able to find 540 of them. And here's what they discovered. 310 died as paupers, 150 were convicted criminals, there were seven murderers, over 100 drunkards and 190 female prostitutes. From Jonathan Edwards, they were able to study 1394 of his descendants. And from them, here's what they discovered. One was an American Vice President, three senators, three governors, three mayors, 30 judges, 13 college presidents, 65 college professors, 100 lawyers, 60 physicians, 75 military officers, 100 preachers and missionaries, 60 prominent authors and 80 other public officials. Men, does it make a difference what we invest in our families? It makes a huge difference. And you can start today. You can start today. There's not a wife here that doesn't want you to lead spiritually in your home. There's not one, there's not one wife that doesn't want you to be treated with the tenderness of Christ that doesn't wanna be honored, that doesn't wanna be elevated, that doesn't wanna be released to do ministry, there's not one kid here that doesn't want the blessing of their father. And some of you are 80 years old and never got the blessing of your father, and are still bothered by it. Fathers, listen, I'm telling you, even if you're older, and your kids are all grown, every single one of your kids still wants to hear the words come out of your mouth, that you love them, and that you bless them for who they are. It's not too late. It's not too late. You can start now. And when Christ comes into our life, guess what he does, he changes us so that we have a desire to follow him a desire to worship him, a desire to love him and desire to stand for him in the middle of a godless culture. That's what he does. And so there's none of us that are too far away to receive God's grace. And this is what he's telling us in the genealogy. I mean, both Cain's line and Seth's line, both what, image bearers of the king. One line said, we want nothing to do with him. The other line says, we want everything to do with him and you see the results. One line got wiped out in the flood, the other line brought forth the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Men, there's so much God wants to do in your life. He's looking for us, men and women to step up, and have a love for him and worship for him and to follow him, and to present him in the way that he wants. 'Cause God wants to bless us in a way that we're a blessing to others. There's a song we're gonna close with today. And it really comes out of two different scriptures that we sing. It's a popular song, you probably heard it on the radio recently called The Blessing. In Numbers 6:24, 25 and 26, hear what the words say. "The Lord bless you and keep you, "the Lord make his face shine on you "and be gracious to you. "The Lord lift up his countenance on you, and give you peace." And then we see in Exodus 20:5-6, where he's given the 10 commandments. "You shall not worship them or serve them, talking about false gods, "for I thy Lord your God, I'm a jealous God, "visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children "on the third and fourth generation "of those who hate me. "But what, showing loving kindnesses "to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." What does God want from us, as families, Christian families? He knows we're broken, we know we're broken. He knows we're not perfect, we know we're not perfect. What does he want? He wants the heart of both men and women to seek after him and to be the fullness of all he wants us to be. Not just so he's a blessing to us, but so that we pass that blessing down and that blessing gets passed down and for as long as we have life on this earth, generation, after generation, after generation after generation, the Lord Jesus Christ is glorified, amen? Would you stand with me this morning? Lord Jesus, we give you all the praise, glory and honor for who you are. Lord, as we sing these words of Scripture as they're sang over us and as we sing them, as well, Lord, let us sing them over our family. Lord, we want you to be a blessing to us. Let us be a blessing to our families. And Lord, all of us have fallen short. If you're here today and you say, I don't even have a relationship with Christ. I've been the guy apart from God, but I wanna, I wanna come home. Here's how you can pray. Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner, I know I'm gonna die in my sin. I realize I've sinned against you, but I wanna turn from them. And I want all your grace in my life. So I wanna exchange my sin for your life, would you come into my life and make me new? And Lord, some of us are here today and we think about our own fathers and we think about what wasn't, but what you want us to think about is where we're going. That from this moment on whether we're a man, woman, boy or girl, that we would live the fullness of what you want us to be, so that our families and our children would be representative of your glory on this planet. Lord do work in our hearts, we give you all the glory, we give you all the honor, we give you all the praise, in Jesus name, amen and amen. Can we give God praise this morning for his word?