June 16, 2025 • 29 mins
What happens when paradise is lost? Pastor Mann continues the Divine Design series with a profound exploration of how the Fall in Genesis 3 shapes our understanding of gender, identity, and human brokenness.
The message begins where last week's ended—with Adam and Eve "naked and unashamed" in perfect harmony with each other and with God. But paradise didn't remain paradise. Through one act of rebellion—choosing their own authority over God's—Adam and Eve introduced catastrophic brokenness into creation. This wasn't merely an ancient slip-up; it's a pattern repeated in every human heart, including our own.
Pastor Mann compassionately addresses how this universal brokenness relates to modern questions about gender identity and sexuality. He makes a crucial distinction between experiencing difficult feelings and acting on them. While feelings of gender dysphoria represent real pain, they stem from living in a fallen world where our hearts, as Jeremiah warns, are "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked."
The sermon offers a powerful insight applicable to many struggles: "Not every impulse we experience should be indulged." Our hearts produce desires that often war against what's truly good for us. The question isn't whether our feelings are real—they certainly are—but whether following them leads to flourishing or further brokenness.
Pastor Mann challenges the modern notion that authenticating every feeling is the path to peace. Instead, he points to the Creator who designed us and knows what's best, offering the transformative question we all must answer: Will we continue as our own kings, or will we follow the crucified Creator who died to restore what sin has broken?
Whether you're personally wrestling with gender questions or simply seeking to understand these issues through a Biblical lens, this message provides thoughtful, compassionate guidance grounded in timeless truth.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Foundations of Truth, the Bible
teaching ministry of PastorTimothy Mann and Providence
Church, ormond Beach, florida.
Providence Church is a localassembly of followers of Jesus
Christ dedicated to helpingpeople become committed and
mature followers of Jesus Christ.
Today's message is from theDivine Design series on gender,
(00:23):
sexuality, marriage and theBible.
Now here's Pastor Tim Mann withtoday's message.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Now this series that we're in is called Divine Design
, gender, sexuality, marriageand the Bible.
We've already looked at whyeven address these issues and
then how you arrive at theanswer matters.
Last week, we clearly saw theCreator's design and intention
(00:53):
for men, for women, for marriageand for reproduction.
We discussed that and forreproduction.
We discussed that.
And at the end of the messagelast week, we left Adam and Eve
naked and unashamed.
That's where we left them nakedand unashamed.
(01:14):
They were living in perfectharmony with one another and
with God, and had the storyended there, wouldn't that have
been great?
Had the story ended there,wouldn't that have been great?
Had the story ended there, therest of the Bible would not have
needed to have been written.
(01:34):
But the story did not end inGenesis 2 with a happily ever
after picture of Adam and Eve.
Paradise didn't stay paradise.
Paradise didn't stay paradise.
Paradise didn't stay paradise.
This story took a turn in thechapter of history that is often
called the fall.
That's what we just read thefall.
(01:58):
Adam and Eve sinned.
The creator had instructed Adamand Eve to not eat of just how
many?
One tree, Just one.
Everything else was freelyavailable, as much as they
(02:30):
wanted.
But Satan offered Eve a pathwayof her own choosing, promising
her pleasure and promising herenlightenment.
Do you know that choice had aseductive power long before
modern advertising companieswere invented?
The serpent what did he do?
The serpent, what did he do?
He cast the creator's rule asrestrictive, unfair and
(02:51):
downright petty.
It was restrictive, unfair anddownright petty.
Look again at verse five.
What did he say in verse five?
He said for God knows.
First of all, he lied.
He said you will not surely die.
Then he said for God knows thatin the day you eat of it, your
eyes will be open and you willbe like God, knowing good and
(03:12):
evil.
And so Eve ate from the treethat she was not instructed to
eat from, gave it to her husband.
He did as well.
And of course, at that momentwhen Eve is eating that fruit,
at that moment it did not seemlike she was going down the
wrong path, because why coulddenying someone the offer of
pleasure and enlightenment bewrong?
(03:32):
Eve had seen that the tree wasgood for food, that it was a
delight to the eyes and that thetree was to be desired to make
one wise.
And so her decision was arational, reasonable calculation
, supported by what her feelingswere saying to her.
(03:54):
I mean, how could it be wrongwhen it seemed good?
How could it be wrong when itlooked delightful?
How could it be wrong when itseemed delightful?
How could it be wrong when itseemed wise, especially when her
husband agreed and he sharedthe fruit with her?
Isn't that our story too?
(04:16):
That's our story.
I mean, we don't cast ourdecisions to reject what God
says as the actions of rebels.
We really just see ourselves asowners and masters of ourselves
.
What could be so wrong withthat?
(04:40):
This is the drama of Genesis 3.
The casting off of God's rule,the casting off of the Creator's
rule of His creation, that'sthe drama of Genesis 3.
They cast off the role of beingGod's royal ambassadors
(05:01):
assigned to rule over creationin relationship with Him, and
instead they struck out on theirown.
They struck out on their ownyou can be like god in your own
life.
Satan told the first humans youcan have the authority, you
know what's best.
(05:21):
You can.
Can't trust God, but you cantrust yourself.
And the humans said yes, yes.
(05:41):
Now, in reaching for that fruitthat represented, as we've
talked about a few weeks ago,that represented authority to
rule, because Adam and Evedenied God's authority, they
doubted God's knowledge and theydisputed God's loving goodness.
They would take up the mantleof their own authority.
They would see their knowledgeas perfect.
They would trust wholly inthemselves.
(06:02):
They wanted to make up therules for themselves and remold
the world to fit a new narrative, one in which they sat on the
throne of their lives and theydecided what was right, and they
decided what was wrong.
And this was not an accidentalslip-up.
Yes, the serpent tempted Eve,no doubt.
(06:25):
But this was not an accidentalslip-up, because Eve's choice
was the choice of an alternativelordship.
That was her choice and that iswhy a seemingly innocent,
solitary act of eating from thewrong tree put all of creation
(06:46):
in a death spiral.
That's why eating a fruit wasan act of treason.
It's an act of treason, but theBible's account isn't left in
past tense.
It's in the present tense,because what happened in the
(07:11):
garden of eden has made it allthe way down to you and me.
The bible says this in romans,chapter 3, quoting some verses
from Romans 3,.
The Bible says, as it iswritten there is none righteous,
no, not one.
There is none who understands,there is none who seeks after
(07:38):
God, there is none who does good.
No, not one.
There is no fear of God beforetheir eyes.
So Adam and Eve's story is mystory.
Adam and Eve's story is yourstory.
Can we agree on that?
See, we cannot stand injudgment over Adam and Eve.
(08:03):
I mean, we can sit here andread it this morning and say
what were you thinking?
How many times can that be saidof you?
What were you thinking when youmade that decision, when you
opted for that choice?
We can't stand in judgment overAdam and eve, since every day
(08:25):
we choose at some moment inevery day, we choose the same as
they did, and that's to sit onthe throne by seeking to force
god off, even if it's in amoment during the day, during
the day, and whoever you arethis morning in this room,
online, whoever you are, youcannot point a finger of
(08:48):
self-righteous superiority.
You cannot point a finger ofself-righteous superiority at
anyone who disagrees with youwhen it comes to the questions
of gender identity orhomosexuality, or any other
thing for that matter.
(09:08):
Why?
Because we all inhabit acreation marred by sin and we
all contribute to its brokennessby our own sinful choices.
We all sin differently, but weall sin.
This is our story In Genesis,chapter 3, it's a story that
(09:39):
does not.
It's a history.
It's an account, historicalaccount.
It's not allegory, it's not alegend, it's not a myth.
It's not allegory, it's not alegend, it's not a myth, it's
not a fairy tale.
It's history.
But it's a history, a storythat does not have a happy
ending, because in chapter 3,verse 7, as soon as they had
(10:00):
eaten the fruit, adam and Evebegan to discover that their
choice had not brought pleasureand enlightenment so much as it
did shame, guilt and fear.
Verse 7 says look at it.
Verse 7, chapter 3 says Thenthe eyes of both of them were
opened and they knew that theywere naked.
(10:21):
Now, remember, we had left themnaked and unashamed.
Now they're naked and afraid.
Their eyes of both of them wereopen and they knew they were
naked, and they sewed fig leavestogether and made themselves
coverings.
One of the very first resultsof the first rejection of God is
(10:43):
that people feel ashamed of andawkward about their bodies, and
that is their first experienceof living in a world that is now
beautiful thanks to its creator, but broken thanks to their sin
Right.
(11:04):
This is their first experience,but by no means the only one
nor the worst.
Humanity was the high point ofcreation.
We talked about that last week.
Humanity was the high point ofcreation, so it shouldn't
surprise us that their rebellionaffected the whole creation.
(11:24):
Again, look at Genesis, chapter3, verses 17 through 19.
17 through 19.
Then to Adam he said Becauseyou have heeded the voice of
your wife and have eaten up fromthe tree which I commanded you,
saying you shall not eat of it,cursed is the ground for your
sake.
Or to put it this way becauseof you, because of you In toil,
(11:53):
you shall eat of it All the daysof your life, both thorns and
thistles it shall bring forthfor you, and you shall eat the
herb of the field In the sweatof your face.
You shall eat bread till youreturn to the ground, for out of
it you were taken, for dust youare, and to dust you shall
return.
And so the picture here that theBible paints of sin's effects
over the world are catastrophicand comprehensive.
(12:16):
To put it simply, creation isbroken, creation is broken.
The Garden of Eden was a placewhere work was work and yet
fulfilling, because the earthwould grow trees that were
(12:38):
pleasing to the eye and good forfood and free to eat.
It's a place full of thorns andthistles, where work is
frustrating, hard and sometimesfutile.
Floods, tornadoes, earthquakes,hurricanes are all the result
(13:02):
of a world thrown into chaos byhumanity.
By humanity, we chose to assumeGod's throne.
We chose to assume God's thronebut, ladies and gentlemen, we
cannot rule his creation.
(13:23):
We can't do it.
We can't rule his.
Can I get a witness?
Humans break.
We are dust and we are frailand we are failing.
Cancer, depression, eatingdisorders, heart disease, gender
(13:49):
dysphoria and many other issues, and each of these painful
realities testifies to thebrokenness of creation.
And and that's before we addthe pain caused by moral
failures, choices we choose tomake, that that we deliberately
(14:10):
make Humans break.
Not only do humans break,humans die, humans die.
According to the Bible, thepenalty of sin is death.
We just read it the penalty ofsin is death.
We shall return to the dustfrom which we were taken.
(14:32):
And that reality overshadowsour lives, giving us a sense of,
at least from time to time, asense of futility to all of our
efforts.
And that reality mocks all ofour achievements and it mocks
(14:53):
all of our accumulations,because humans die.
And then, on top of that, weface an eternity outside of eden
and eternity outside of Eden,outside the perfection of God's
(15:17):
presence, separated from himforever.
And this will be torment, andthis is the worst consequences
of our sin.
We're broken actors living on abroken stage and we don't stand
on that stage for very long.
So now that I've got you cheeredup to to think about gender
(15:44):
dysphoria or transgenderism orhomosexuality, or anything else
for that matter, in a way thatlistens hard to God and listens
humbly to God, we need to letHim, the Creator, tell us that
this world is not how it wasintended to be and why.
(16:08):
We need to let him tell us that.
And we need to understand thatthe effects of the fall are not
only around us but also withinus.
And that's really hard to hear,but we need to hear it, and we
need to understand it that theeffects of the fall are within
(16:31):
us.
But it's also good to know thatthe fall, the brokenness
doesn't praise God have to bethe end of our story.
It doesn't have to be the endof our story Now listen, the
Bible says in 1 Peter, chapter 2, verse 11.
Because I want to talk about,just for a few minutes, what
happened to our hearts.
What happened to our hearts?
(16:52):
1 Peter 2, verse 11.
You can mark that down and readit later.
1 Peter 2, verse 11 says Beloved, I beg you, as a sojourner and
pilgrims, now listen to abstainfrom fleshly lust which wage war
against the soul.
(17:13):
To abstain from fleshly lustwhich wage war against the soul.
Now, in every heart there's awar and the heart?
It's interesting.
The heart is both the victimand the culprit.
It's both why?
Because every person's heart isinhabited by sinful desires and
(17:39):
also produces sinful desires.
There's an ongoing battlewithin the heart in which
unhelpful and even sinfuldesires wage war on our
conscience, against our soulbitterness, envy, anger, greed,
(18:03):
lust.
We cannot trust our feelings orall the passions that reside
within us simply because we feelthem.
Our hearts are not pure, farfrom it.
I've quoted this verse alreadyin the last few weeks.
But the bible says in jeremiah17, verse 9 the heart is
(18:25):
deceitful above all things, anddesperately wicked.
Who can know it?
Who can know it?
And so the nature of deceptionis to convince us that our
hearts will not be satisfiedunless we indulge what our
hearts desires.
And our hearts lead us astrayin countless ways.
(18:48):
Let's run with envy for a momentEnvy.
Envy robs people of joy andcontentment.
Envy sours friendships.
Envy can lead to compromisingmorality in order to get ahead
right.
Envy does not produceflourishing or joy in people.
(19:09):
So indulging Envy if youindulge envy, that only results
in misery for yourself andmisery for others.
And what's interesting is veryfew of us actually think this
way, as envy rages on.
Because in the moment, in themoment, the wrath and the
(19:30):
bitterness of envy appeases thesense of loss and jealousy
residing within each of us.
And so, if nothing else, let mejust boil the message down to
this statement we can say amenand go home.
This is it, but I won't be done.
Not every impulse we experienceshould be indulged.
(19:54):
Not every impulse we experienceshould be indulged.
We should be suspicious aboutlistening to our hearts, and
everybody knows this, everybodythis.
Prisons are full of people whoacted in accord with their
feelings and who have been toldby society that they shouldn't.
(20:18):
Every time a therapist, acounselor, tells a patient to
view themselves more positively,what are they doing?
They are accepting that thereare feelings that are unhelpful
to someone's fulfillment.
Our hearts.
Desires can be at war with whatis actually good for our hearts
(20:42):
, and so the real question isthis which desires should be fed
and which desires should bestarved, which, by the way, is a
biblical principle allthroughout the New Testament
which desires should be fed andwhich desires should be starved.
Now you can say well, what doesthis even have to do with
(21:03):
transgenderism, or evenhomosexuality, or even
heterosexual sexual immorality?
What does it have to do withthat?
What does it have to do withsex outside of marriage in
general?
Well, in the same way thatfallen desires pervade the
hearts of all of us let's talkabout gender dysphoria, focusing
(21:27):
on transgenderism in the sameway that fallen desires pervade
the hearts of all of us,individuals with gender
dysphoria experience realfeelings of distress about their
gender identity.
These are real experienceswhere the heart's desire is
(21:48):
telling them one thing aboutthemselves, while their body is
saying something else.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, weshouldn't just dismiss this or
joke about it, because to feelthis way is to experience a
feeling, and many times realdeep pain.
A feeling and many times realdeep pain.
(22:17):
But experiencing that feelingdoes not mean that feeding it
and acting upon it is best or isright.
The impulse to live out anidentity at odds with our
biological sex is to indulgefallen desires that our hearts
believe will bring peace.
But internal longing for peacedoes not mean that finding peace
(22:40):
is possible through breakingthe boundaries of human
limitations and rejecting theway each of us have been created
by the.
I mean it's a little reportedfact that people who undergo sex
reassignment surgery do notstatistically report higher
levels of happiness aftersurgery.
That is to say, acting on the,acting on the desire to live as
(23:04):
the opposite gender to the onethat accords with your
biological sex, does not bringpeace to the heart.
And that's consistent withgenesis, chapter one through
three, and with the world viewthat comes from the bible.
Because the bible tells us thatembracing a desire, any desire
(23:27):
that's at odds with theCreator's design will never
bring ultimate happiness.
It just won't.
The passion to live as a memberof the opposite sex isn't
simply satisfied by surgicallyaltering your body.
There are deeper issues atstake Than exterior physical and
(23:56):
cosmetic alterations.
Now I want to pause here justfor a moment To make a clear
distinction between experiencingthe feeling and acting on the
feeling.
Come back to Eve in Eden at thestart of Genesis, chapter three.
(24:18):
Eve was not sinning when Satanspoke to her to tempt her.
She was not sinning when shesaw the fruit's beauty or even
when she felt like the fruit wasto be desired.
She was not sinning.
She sinned.
Listen to me she sinned whenshe went beyond observing the
(24:40):
fruit's beauty and she followedher reason and her feelings in
opposition to God's word andtook it and ate it.
That's when she sinned.
So, in the same way,individuals who experience
gender dysphoria are notnecessarily sinning when those
(25:03):
feelings occur.
The Bible again hear me, theBible never categorizes unwanted
psychological distress assinful in itself never.
This experience is a sign thatall of ourselves are as broken
(25:27):
by sin as the creation around us.
Is the reason.
This is it.
I'm going to help you out witha few things right now.
Are you paying attention?
The reason that any person everexperienced a physical ailment,
the reason my knee is botheringme, the reason any person ever
(25:52):
experienced a physical ailmentor a psychological state or a
perception that goes againstGod's creative intentions, is
because creation itself isfallen.
God's not picking on you.
So, for example, while havingcancer or depression or even
(26:18):
experiencing gender dysphoria,is not sinful in and of itself.
These experiences, experienceshappen.
These experiences occur becausethe world is broken by sin.
But deciding to let that feelingrule, deciding to feed that
(26:39):
feeling so that it becomes theway you see yourself and so that
it becomes the way you identifyyourself and so that it becomes
the way that you act, is sinful, becomes the way you identify
yourself and so that it becomesthe way that you act, is sinful,
because it is deciding thatyour feelings will have
authority over you and willdefine what is right and will
define what is wrong.
It is this.
(27:00):
It is to act in the same waythat adam and eve did in eating
from the tree.
And when our hearts arehardened and we have decided not
to love god, we have decidednot to treat him as god, we've
decided not to acknowledge himas god, we've decided not to
glorify him as god, all inaccordance with god's word that
our minds are affected too.
(27:20):
Our minds are affected, that isto say, not only our feelings
and desires, but also our logicand our reason are impacted by
sin and speaking of thedifference it makes to live
under god's authority ratherthan how those who live in
(27:41):
rejection of god's right to ruledo.
Ephesians, chapter 4, verses 17through 18, says this.
Ephesians 4, 17 and 8 through18 says this Ephesians 4, 17
through 18 says this this I say,therefore, and testifying the
Lord, that you should no longerwalk as the rest of the Gentiles
walk, in the futility of theirmind, having their understanding
(28:03):
darkened, being alienated fromthe life of God Because of the
ignorance that is in them,because of the blindness of
their heart.
And so, without God in thepicture, without God ruling, our
reason is dramatically impaired.
Look, we can think brilliantly,but not necessarily truthfully.
(28:25):
The question remains do youwant to stay where you are,
being your own king?
Do you want to stay where youare, being your own ruler,
acting as if you are yourcreator?
Or do you want to follow thecrucified creator, who made you,
(28:46):
who died for you, who roseagain for you, who will forgive
you and save you and give you anew life, and he knows what's
best for you?
Who do you want to?
Speaker 1 (28:56):
follow.
You've been listening toFoundations of Truth, the Bible
teaching ministry of PastorTimothy Mann at Providence
Church, ormond Beach, florida.
You're invited to join us onSundays at 1151 West Granada
Boulevard in Ormond Beach Forservice times, bible fellowship
groups and more information onactivities at Providence Church,
go online totheprovidencechurchorg.
(29:20):
Join us again next week at thissame time, on this same station
, for Foundations of Truth withPastor Timothy Mann.
Welcome to Foundations of Truth, the Bible
teaching ministry of PastorTimothy Mann and Providence
Church, ormond Beach, florida.
Providence Church is a localassembly of followers of Jesus
Christ dedicated to helpingpeople become committed and
mature followers of Jesus Christ.
Today's message is from theDivine Design series on gender,
(00:23):
sexuality, marriage and theBible.
Now here's Pastor Tim Mann withtoday's message.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Now this series that we're in is called Divine Design
, gender, sexuality, marriageand the Bible.
We've already looked at whyeven address these issues and
then how you arrive at theanswer matters.
Last week, we clearly saw theCreator's design and intention
(00:53):
for men, for women, for marriageand for reproduction.
We discussed that and forreproduction.
We discussed that.
And at the end of the messagelast week, we left Adam and Eve
naked and unashamed.
That's where we left them nakedand unashamed.
(01:14):
They were living in perfectharmony with one another and
with God, and had the storyended there, wouldn't that have
been great?
Had the story ended there,wouldn't that have been great?
Had the story ended there, therest of the Bible would not have
needed to have been written.
(01:34):
But the story did not end inGenesis 2 with a happily ever
after picture of Adam and Eve.
Paradise didn't stay paradise.
Paradise didn't stay paradise.
Paradise didn't stay paradise.
This story took a turn in thechapter of history that is often
called the fall.
That's what we just read thefall.
(01:58):
Adam and Eve sinned.
The creator had instructed Adamand Eve to not eat of just how
many?
One tree, Just one.
Everything else was freelyavailable, as much as they
(02:30):
wanted.
But Satan offered Eve a pathwayof her own choosing, promising
her pleasure and promising herenlightenment.
Do you know that choice had aseductive power long before
modern advertising companieswere invented?
The serpent what did he do?
The serpent, what did he do?
He cast the creator's rule asrestrictive, unfair and
(02:51):
downright petty.
It was restrictive, unfair anddownright petty.
Look again at verse five.
What did he say in verse five?
He said for God knows.
First of all, he lied.
He said you will not surely die.
Then he said for God knows thatin the day you eat of it, your
eyes will be open and you willbe like God, knowing good and
(03:12):
evil.
And so Eve ate from the treethat she was not instructed to
eat from, gave it to her husband.
He did as well.
And of course, at that momentwhen Eve is eating that fruit,
at that moment it did not seemlike she was going down the
wrong path, because why coulddenying someone the offer of
pleasure and enlightenment bewrong?
(03:32):
Eve had seen that the tree wasgood for food, that it was a
delight to the eyes and that thetree was to be desired to make
one wise.
And so her decision was arational, reasonable calculation
, supported by what her feelingswere saying to her.
(03:54):
I mean, how could it be wrongwhen it seemed good?
How could it be wrong when itlooked delightful?
How could it be wrong when itseemed delightful?
How could it be wrong when itseemed wise, especially when her
husband agreed and he sharedthe fruit with her?
Isn't that our story too?
(04:16):
That's our story.
I mean, we don't cast ourdecisions to reject what God
says as the actions of rebels.
We really just see ourselves asowners and masters of ourselves
.
What could be so wrong withthat?
(04:40):
This is the drama of Genesis 3.
The casting off of God's rule,the casting off of the Creator's
rule of His creation, that'sthe drama of Genesis 3.
They cast off the role of beingGod's royal ambassadors
(05:01):
assigned to rule over creationin relationship with Him, and
instead they struck out on theirown.
They struck out on their ownyou can be like god in your own
life.
Satan told the first humans youcan have the authority, you
know what's best.
(05:21):
You can.
Can't trust God, but you cantrust yourself.
And the humans said yes, yes.
(05:41):
Now, in reaching for that fruitthat represented, as we've
talked about a few weeks ago,that represented authority to
rule, because Adam and Evedenied God's authority, they
doubted God's knowledge and theydisputed God's loving goodness.
They would take up the mantleof their own authority.
They would see their knowledgeas perfect.
They would trust wholly inthemselves.
(06:02):
They wanted to make up therules for themselves and remold
the world to fit a new narrative, one in which they sat on the
throne of their lives and theydecided what was right, and they
decided what was wrong.
And this was not an accidentalslip-up.
Yes, the serpent tempted Eve,no doubt.
(06:25):
But this was not an accidentalslip-up, because Eve's choice
was the choice of an alternativelordship.
That was her choice and that iswhy a seemingly innocent,
solitary act of eating from thewrong tree put all of creation
(06:46):
in a death spiral.
That's why eating a fruit wasan act of treason.
It's an act of treason, but theBible's account isn't left in
past tense.
It's in the present tense,because what happened in the
(07:11):
garden of eden has made it allthe way down to you and me.
The bible says this in romans,chapter 3, quoting some verses
from Romans 3,.
The Bible says, as it iswritten there is none righteous,
no, not one.
There is none who understands,there is none who seeks after
(07:38):
God, there is none who does good.
No, not one.
There is no fear of God beforetheir eyes.
So Adam and Eve's story is mystory.
Adam and Eve's story is yourstory.
Can we agree on that?
See, we cannot stand injudgment over Adam and Eve.
(08:03):
I mean, we can sit here andread it this morning and say
what were you thinking?
How many times can that be saidof you?
What were you thinking when youmade that decision, when you
opted for that choice?
We can't stand in judgment overAdam and eve, since every day
(08:25):
we choose at some moment inevery day, we choose the same as
they did, and that's to sit onthe throne by seeking to force
god off, even if it's in amoment during the day, during
the day, and whoever you arethis morning in this room,
online, whoever you are, youcannot point a finger of
(08:48):
self-righteous superiority.
You cannot point a finger ofself-righteous superiority at
anyone who disagrees with youwhen it comes to the questions
of gender identity orhomosexuality, or any other
thing for that matter.
(09:08):
Why?
Because we all inhabit acreation marred by sin and we
all contribute to its brokennessby our own sinful choices.
We all sin differently, but weall sin.
This is our story In Genesis,chapter 3, it's a story that
(09:39):
does not.
It's a history.
It's an account, historicalaccount.
It's not allegory, it's not alegend, it's not a myth.
It's not allegory, it's not alegend, it's not a myth, it's
not a fairy tale.
It's history.
But it's a history, a storythat does not have a happy
ending, because in chapter 3,verse 7, as soon as they had
(10:00):
eaten the fruit, adam and Evebegan to discover that their
choice had not brought pleasureand enlightenment so much as it
did shame, guilt and fear.
Verse 7 says look at it.
Verse 7, chapter 3 says Thenthe eyes of both of them were
opened and they knew that theywere naked.
(10:21):
Now, remember, we had left themnaked and unashamed.
Now they're naked and afraid.
Their eyes of both of them wereopen and they knew they were
naked, and they sewed fig leavestogether and made themselves
coverings.
One of the very first resultsof the first rejection of God is
(10:43):
that people feel ashamed of andawkward about their bodies, and
that is their first experienceof living in a world that is now
beautiful thanks to its creator, but broken thanks to their sin
Right.
(11:04):
This is their first experience,but by no means the only one
nor the worst.
Humanity was the high point ofcreation.
We talked about that last week.
Humanity was the high point ofcreation, so it shouldn't
surprise us that their rebellionaffected the whole creation.
(11:24):
Again, look at Genesis, chapter3, verses 17 through 19.
17 through 19.
Then to Adam he said Becauseyou have heeded the voice of
your wife and have eaten up fromthe tree which I commanded you,
saying you shall not eat of it,cursed is the ground for your
sake.
Or to put it this way becauseof you, because of you In toil,
(11:53):
you shall eat of it All the daysof your life, both thorns and
thistles it shall bring forthfor you, and you shall eat the
herb of the field In the sweatof your face.
You shall eat bread till youreturn to the ground, for out of
it you were taken, for dust youare, and to dust you shall
return.
And so the picture here that theBible paints of sin's effects
over the world are catastrophicand comprehensive.
(12:16):
To put it simply, creation isbroken, creation is broken.
The Garden of Eden was a placewhere work was work and yet
fulfilling, because the earthwould grow trees that were
(12:38):
pleasing to the eye and good forfood and free to eat.
It's a place full of thorns andthistles, where work is
frustrating, hard and sometimesfutile.
Floods, tornadoes, earthquakes,hurricanes are all the result
(13:02):
of a world thrown into chaos byhumanity.
By humanity, we chose to assumeGod's throne.
We chose to assume God's thronebut, ladies and gentlemen, we
cannot rule his creation.
(13:23):
We can't do it.
We can't rule his.
Can I get a witness?
Humans break.
We are dust and we are frailand we are failing.
Cancer, depression, eatingdisorders, heart disease, gender
(13:49):
dysphoria and many other issues, and each of these painful
realities testifies to thebrokenness of creation.
And and that's before we addthe pain caused by moral
failures, choices we choose tomake, that that we deliberately
(14:10):
make Humans break.
Not only do humans break,humans die, humans die.
According to the Bible, thepenalty of sin is death.
We just read it the penalty ofsin is death.
We shall return to the dustfrom which we were taken.
(14:32):
And that reality overshadowsour lives, giving us a sense of,
at least from time to time, asense of futility to all of our
efforts.
And that reality mocks all ofour achievements and it mocks
(14:53):
all of our accumulations,because humans die.
And then, on top of that, weface an eternity outside of eden
and eternity outside of Eden,outside the perfection of God's
(15:17):
presence, separated from himforever.
And this will be torment, andthis is the worst consequences
of our sin.
We're broken actors living on abroken stage and we don't stand
on that stage for very long.
So now that I've got you cheeredup to to think about gender
(15:44):
dysphoria or transgenderism orhomosexuality, or anything else
for that matter, in a way thatlistens hard to God and listens
humbly to God, we need to letHim, the Creator, tell us that
this world is not how it wasintended to be and why.
(16:08):
We need to let him tell us that.
And we need to understand thatthe effects of the fall are not
only around us but also withinus.
And that's really hard to hear,but we need to hear it, and we
need to understand it that theeffects of the fall are within
(16:31):
us.
But it's also good to know thatthe fall, the brokenness
doesn't praise God have to bethe end of our story.
It doesn't have to be the endof our story Now listen, the
Bible says in 1 Peter, chapter 2, verse 11.
Because I want to talk about,just for a few minutes, what
happened to our hearts.
What happened to our hearts?
(16:52):
1 Peter 2, verse 11.
You can mark that down and readit later.
1 Peter 2, verse 11 says Beloved, I beg you, as a sojourner and
pilgrims, now listen to abstainfrom fleshly lust which wage war
against the soul.
(17:13):
To abstain from fleshly lustwhich wage war against the soul.
Now, in every heart there's awar and the heart?
It's interesting.
The heart is both the victimand the culprit.
It's both why?
Because every person's heart isinhabited by sinful desires and
(17:39):
also produces sinful desires.
There's an ongoing battlewithin the heart in which
unhelpful and even sinfuldesires wage war on our
conscience, against our soulbitterness, envy, anger, greed,
(18:03):
lust.
We cannot trust our feelings orall the passions that reside
within us simply because we feelthem.
Our hearts are not pure, farfrom it.
I've quoted this verse alreadyin the last few weeks.
But the bible says in jeremiah17, verse 9 the heart is
(18:25):
deceitful above all things, anddesperately wicked.
Who can know it?
Who can know it?
And so the nature of deceptionis to convince us that our
hearts will not be satisfiedunless we indulge what our
hearts desires.
And our hearts lead us astrayin countless ways.
(18:48):
Let's run with envy for a momentEnvy.
Envy robs people of joy andcontentment.
Envy sours friendships.
Envy can lead to compromisingmorality in order to get ahead
right.
Envy does not produceflourishing or joy in people.
(19:09):
So indulging Envy if youindulge envy, that only results
in misery for yourself andmisery for others.
And what's interesting is veryfew of us actually think this
way, as envy rages on.
Because in the moment, in themoment, the wrath and the
(19:30):
bitterness of envy appeases thesense of loss and jealousy
residing within each of us.
And so, if nothing else, let mejust boil the message down to
this statement we can say amenand go home.
This is it, but I won't be done.
Not every impulse we experienceshould be indulged.
(19:54):
Not every impulse we experienceshould be indulged.
We should be suspicious aboutlistening to our hearts, and
everybody knows this, everybodythis.
Prisons are full of people whoacted in accord with their
feelings and who have been toldby society that they shouldn't.
(20:18):
Every time a therapist, acounselor, tells a patient to
view themselves more positively,what are they doing?
They are accepting that thereare feelings that are unhelpful
to someone's fulfillment.
Our hearts.
Desires can be at war with whatis actually good for our hearts
(20:42):
, and so the real question isthis which desires should be fed
and which desires should bestarved, which, by the way, is a
biblical principle allthroughout the New Testament
which desires should be fed andwhich desires should be starved.
Now you can say well, what doesthis even have to do with
(21:03):
transgenderism, or evenhomosexuality, or even
heterosexual sexual immorality?
What does it have to do withthat?
What does it have to do withsex outside of marriage in
general?
Well, in the same way thatfallen desires pervade the
hearts of all of us let's talkabout gender dysphoria, focusing
(21:27):
on transgenderism in the sameway that fallen desires pervade
the hearts of all of us,individuals with gender
dysphoria experience realfeelings of distress about their
gender identity.
These are real experienceswhere the heart's desire is
(21:48):
telling them one thing aboutthemselves, while their body is
saying something else.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, weshouldn't just dismiss this or
joke about it, because to feelthis way is to experience a
feeling, and many times realdeep pain.
A feeling and many times realdeep pain.
(22:17):
But experiencing that feelingdoes not mean that feeding it
and acting upon it is best or isright.
The impulse to live out anidentity at odds with our
biological sex is to indulgefallen desires that our hearts
believe will bring peace.
But internal longing for peacedoes not mean that finding peace
(22:40):
is possible through breakingthe boundaries of human
limitations and rejecting theway each of us have been created
by the.
I mean it's a little reportedfact that people who undergo sex
reassignment surgery do notstatistically report higher
levels of happiness aftersurgery.
That is to say, acting on the,acting on the desire to live as
(23:04):
the opposite gender to the onethat accords with your
biological sex, does not bringpeace to the heart.
And that's consistent withgenesis, chapter one through
three, and with the world viewthat comes from the bible.
Because the bible tells us thatembracing a desire, any desire
(23:27):
that's at odds with theCreator's design will never
bring ultimate happiness.
It just won't.
The passion to live as a memberof the opposite sex isn't
simply satisfied by surgicallyaltering your body.
There are deeper issues atstake Than exterior physical and
(23:56):
cosmetic alterations.
Now I want to pause here justfor a moment To make a clear
distinction between experiencingthe feeling and acting on the
feeling.
Come back to Eve in Eden at thestart of Genesis, chapter three.
(24:18):
Eve was not sinning when Satanspoke to her to tempt her.
She was not sinning when shesaw the fruit's beauty or even
when she felt like the fruit wasto be desired.
She was not sinning.
She sinned.
Listen to me she sinned whenshe went beyond observing the
(24:40):
fruit's beauty and she followedher reason and her feelings in
opposition to God's word andtook it and ate it.
That's when she sinned.
So, in the same way,individuals who experience
gender dysphoria are notnecessarily sinning when those
(25:03):
feelings occur.
The Bible again hear me, theBible never categorizes unwanted
psychological distress assinful in itself never.
This experience is a sign thatall of ourselves are as broken
(25:27):
by sin as the creation around us.
Is the reason.
This is it.
I'm going to help you out witha few things right now.
Are you paying attention?
The reason that any person everexperienced a physical ailment,
the reason my knee is botheringme, the reason any person ever
(25:52):
experienced a physical ailmentor a psychological state or a
perception that goes againstGod's creative intentions, is
because creation itself isfallen.
God's not picking on you.
So, for example, while havingcancer or depression or even
(26:18):
experiencing gender dysphoria,is not sinful in and of itself.
These experiences, experienceshappen.
These experiences occur becausethe world is broken by sin.
But deciding to let that feelingrule, deciding to feed that
(26:39):
feeling so that it becomes theway you see yourself and so that
it becomes the way you identifyyourself and so that it becomes
the way that you act, is sinful, becomes the way you identify
yourself and so that it becomesthe way that you act, is sinful,
because it is deciding thatyour feelings will have
authority over you and willdefine what is right and will
define what is wrong.
It is this.
(27:00):
It is to act in the same waythat adam and eve did in eating
from the tree.
And when our hearts arehardened and we have decided not
to love god, we have decidednot to treat him as god, we've
decided not to acknowledge himas god, we've decided not to
glorify him as god, all inaccordance with god's word that
our minds are affected too.
(27:20):
Our minds are affected, that isto say, not only our feelings
and desires, but also our logicand our reason are impacted by
sin and speaking of thedifference it makes to live
under god's authority ratherthan how those who live in
(27:41):
rejection of god's right to ruledo.
Ephesians, chapter 4, verses 17through 18, says this.
Ephesians 4, 17 and 8 through18 says this Ephesians 4, 17
through 18 says this this I say,therefore, and testifying the
Lord, that you should no longerwalk as the rest of the Gentiles
walk, in the futility of theirmind, having their understanding
(28:03):
darkened, being alienated fromthe life of God Because of the
ignorance that is in them,because of the blindness of
their heart.
And so, without God in thepicture, without God ruling, our
reason is dramatically impaired.
Look, we can think brilliantly,but not necessarily truthfully.
(28:25):
The question remains do youwant to stay where you are,
being your own king?
Do you want to stay where youare, being your own ruler,
acting as if you are yourcreator?
Or do you want to follow thecrucified creator, who made you,
(28:46):
who died for you, who roseagain for you, who will forgive
you and save you and give you anew life, and he knows what's
best for you?
Who do you want to?
Speaker 1 (28:56):
follow.
You've been listening toFoundations of Truth, the Bible
teaching ministry of PastorTimothy Mann at Providence
Church, ormond Beach, florida.
You're invited to join us onSundays at 1151 West Granada
Boulevard in Ormond Beach Forservice times, bible fellowship
groups and more information onactivities at Providence Church,
go online totheprovidencechurchorg.
(29:20):
Join us again next week at thissame time, on this same station
, for Foundations of Truth withPastor Timothy Mann.
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