Video Transcript: Biblical Foundations

Welcome to topic two on domestic tranquility, the biblical and theological  foundations. In the first video, we talked about how domestic tranquility is the is  the opposite of domestic violence. Domestic violence, of course, referring to  disorder, chaos. We see it in the news, North Korea, Syria, the Middle East, in  general, and also everywhere in the world. It's all around us. In your backyard,  we have violence, we have disorder, we have chaos, as well as right here in the  human heart, which is why we want to look at the Bible and what the Bible has  to say about how we need Christ to put things back into order. Very, very  important fact, there's a story that John Maxwell talks tells us in his book,  winning people or winning with people. And the story goes like this, that there  was a woman and a man. The man was in a hot air balloon. He realized he was  lost, and in his hot air balloon, he was at a reduced altitude, and he spotted this  woman below, and descended a bit more and shouted, excuse me. Can you  help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know  where I am. The woman below replied, you're in a hot air balloon hovering  approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees  north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude. You must be an  engineer, said the balloonist, I am. Replied the woman, how did you know? Well, answered the balloonist, everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information. And the fact is, I'm still lost. Frankly,  you've been, not been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip. The  woman below responded, You must be in management. I am. Replied the  balloonist, but how did you know? Well, said the woman, you don't know where  you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are due to a large  you've risen where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a  promise which you have no idea how to keep. You expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is, you're in exactly the same position you were in  before we met, but now somehow you've managed to make it my fault. And  then, of course, John Maxwell goes on to say, How often have you found  yourself in conflict with another person because you see things one way, and he  or she sees them another? Same thing with domestic violence, chaos, disorder,  and some of you watching may be fresh out of prison, jail, and you're taking this  course as part of the restorative justice track, and you're preparing to help  others, of course, in the divinity track and all the tracks, you're always there to  serve God and help others. And domestic tranquility says, let's help people  become all that God has created them to be. But we can look at the biblical and  theological foundations before we can go any further. So what I want to do is, I  want to talk about who God is, and God is the Creator. Genesis 1, Genesis 1,  which we'll get to here. In Genesis 1, we see how God is the Creator. He is the  Creator. That's the first. That is the first, the introduction of who God is. So if you look at Genesis 1, it says, In the beginning, in the beginning, in the beginning,  God created God created God created the heavens and the earth. Now the 

earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and  the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, Let there be light.  And there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, the darkness. He called Night. And  

there was evening, there's morning, and most you know the story of creation.  God is creator. And then we go on to read from here how God created human  beings. God created human beings. First, it was Adam, Adam, Adam. And then,  of course, we read how Adam was lonely. Adam needed a helper. Adam needed  to be in community. And so he made Eve Eve. It says here too, verse 18 in  Genesis 2, the Lord God said, is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a  helper suitable for him. Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground, all the  wild animals, all the birds in the sky, and he brought them to the man to see  what he would name them, whatever the man called each living creature, that  was its name. And then it goes on to say, but Adam, no suitable helper was  found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, to a deep  sleep. Of course, we know the rest of the story. Eve was created. God made  woman and man said, it's now bone, my bones, flesh of my flesh. She shall be  called woman. She was taken out of man. That's why a man leaves his father  mother. He be night with his wife, and they become one flesh, and Adam was  his wife, both naked and felt no shame. There was total transparency between  Adam and Eve and God, Adam and Eve and God and so we see here how God, who is creator, God, with Adam and Eve mankind, there was perfect harmony  mankind, Adam and Eve, they knew exactly what God wanted. They were  walking with Him. They were not, so to speak, in a hot air balloon, not knowing  where they were, lost, confused. Of course, we know the rest of the story  because after Genesis 2, we then get to Genesis 3. And Genesis 3, we find  ourselves reading about the fall, the fall, and it begins with the temptation. The  serpent was more crafty than the wild animals. You remember the story? Did  God really say he must not eat from any tree in the garden? The serpent said, or the devil said, through the serpent to Adam and to Eve. Actually, Eve here first,  and then, of course, Adam joined her. The woman said to the serpent, We may  eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat fruit from that tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will  die. You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman, For God knows  that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God,  knowing good and evil. Okay, so in essence, what was happening here is that  the devil challenged this harmony, this connection between God and Adam and  Eve. And that was the big lie, that Eve and then Adam truly accepted they  thought they had to become God Himself. They weren't like God. Yet the truth of the matter was that they were already like God. They already had the  characteristics, the traits and and they were reflecting perfectly back to God,  mirror image in Genesis 1:26, before this, God said, Let us make mankind in our

image. God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, one God, and then let us make mankind  in our image, which of course, you have probably you studied in your theological classes prior to this class, what that means and so forth. Today, we're simply  touching base with these foundations so we can understand how we then got  into disorder, disorder, how it brings us into this whole understanding of what we need as human beings, for domestic tranquility. We need Christ. But as we see  what's happening with us. We then see how God then is transforming us again.  Romans 12:2, be transformed with the renewing of your mind, God says, but  first we look at the fact that God is creator. Secondly, he is the one who originally made mankind in true harmony and true union with Adam and Eve with people  and things were in order. However, with Genesis 3, we then read how Adam and Eve believed the lie, and then something interesting happens. Not only do we  understand how mankind fell from the relationship with God, but now we begin  to see the relational dynamics. We begin to see what's all happening here,  interpersonally, intrapersonally, in and around Adam and Eve. Let's take a look  verse 6 of Genesis 3, when the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for  food and pleasing to the eye, the pride of life, of course, and the lust that she  had for it, she ate it, gave unto her husband. Adam should have said, No, Eve,  we're not going to do this. He should have been there to protect her. He gave in.  And then the eyes of both them were opened verse seven, and they realized  they were naked, and so they sewed thick leaves together and made coverings  for themselves. Then man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he  was walking the garden and the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord they  hid. So here's the big deal, they were hiding from God over here. What we just  noted, they didn't have to hide. There's no need to hide from God. God and  mankind. They were in perfect relationship, perfect connection, mankind, Adam  and Eve, and the kids they were having. Because, let's say it's we then believe  that that there were kids born to them before the fall, that in fact, they were in  perfect harmony. They knew God's will. They knew what God wanted, and they  they were following God perfectly. They were complete. But the Lord, God called the man, where are you? Where are you? He answered, I heard you in the  garden, and I was afraid, Adam said, because I was naked, so I hid. Now what  we do know is this, is that God already knew where Adam and Eve were. They  didn't have to hide from God. God knows where we are. God knew where Adam  and Eve were, and he was really saying, Where are you? I miss our connection  with you. We are now in disorder, disconnected. This is now no longer here and  I want you back. God is saying, however you disobeyed me. You disobeyed me.  Now let's look at the relational dynamics going on here in Genesis 3:11, he said, God said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree? Of course, God knew, but he was challenging them. He was acknowledging the fact that they did. And man said, woman, the woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it. This is our first example everyone of 

what we call blame shifting. Blame shifting and blame shifting refers to the fact  that Adam did not want to own what he did for his not protecting Eve and eating  the fruit and disobeying God. Of course, it goes on to say verse 13, then the  Lord God said to the woman, what is this you've done? What is this that you've  done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me and I ate it. Another example  shifting the blame. Adam didn't want to own it. Eve did not want to own it. So  now we have God dealing with them like a dad, you Dads out there, of course,  moms, too, parents. You have kids. I didn't do that. Johnny will say or Sue.  Susie would say, I didn't do that. She did. He did. I didn't. I'm innocent. Of  course, you could see all the cookie crumbs on the face, or the the the dirt on  the on the hands God caught Adam and Eve, red handed, as we say, blame  shifting. We don't want to own our shortcomings. And of course, as we read the  story about the man in the hot air balloon, he was shifting the blame on the  woman on the ground, you've delayed my trip, she was saying, well, you're must you must be in management. You must be this type of person, and you just don't know where you are, and it's your fault. We don't know the rest of the context of  the story, but it does take two to dance. Takes two to tango. But God is perfect.  He is Creator. He is the one true God, and God and God is saying to Adam and  Eve, you have fallen from relationship with me. Therefore you will have and of  course, you'll read further in verse 14. Curses are above all the livestock, all the  wild animals, because you have done this, you need to own it. You will own this.  You have now been you, have you, in fact, have cursed yourselves. And woman, you will now have pain in childbirth. Man, Adam men, you will now work by  sweat of your brow. Life is going to get harder. You're going to have conflict.  You're not going to be able to understand each other all the time. Marriage is  more of an art now, and it's going to take a lot of work. Relationships in general  are going to take a lot of work, because we are now falling short of God's glory.  So mankind has now done this as well. And I have this illustration in the other  videos as well. How you have mankind now over here. And God here again, this separation, this gap we call sin. And of course, as we know, Jesus does bridge  the gap. But to look at the biblical foundations here and the theological  implications, the theological results, the fact that because of what happened  here in in this story, that is true, that that did happen. And the theological truth is  that we cannot connect with God on our own. We cannot save ourselves. Only  God, the Creator, can save us. And so that's why we have Christ, God coming  down, putting skin on, dying for us on the cross, and then Jesus owns. Jesus  owns what we did. So we because we can't, we could not own and take the  price it took that God requires to make it right to bring this back into order, this  relationship. And so, God is creator, God is righteous. God is the just judge. And  there's a video that I have attached to this topic from Ray Vander Laan. And the  Ray Vande Laan video talks about how God still calls us into ministry. God still  calls us to be co creators, to be co laborers, to be partners with him and bring 

the good news of Jesus Christ, who made it right, and to bring tranquility, to  bring harmony, yet even in this world where we are broken. And so God then  tells us that, yes, there is hope. Christ made it, made it happen. And of course,  he gives us the history, starting with not only what he said here in Genesis 3,  prophesying that Jesus was coming. But also, of course, we eventually read  about Abraham Isaac, Jacob, the nation of Israel, bringing Messiah to save us  from our sins. So Messiah is coming, please, of course, coming back to that Ray Vander Laan video on Israel's mission, you'll then watch that video and then  write a reflection on that in your journal to help you understand, grasp and also  grow with what God was demonstrating in the book of Genesis with Abraham,  Genesis 12, 13, 14, right on through as Ray takes us there. But also too, we  need to also acknowledge scriptures and the scriptures that help us understand  what God was doing here. And most of you that I assume, all of you understand  that God saves us where what that salvation is unmerited, there's nothing we  can do. And so we go back to Ephesians 2:8-10. And it says here, For as by  grace, you've been saved through faith, not from yourselves. Is the gift of God.  In Genesis 3:15 God was saying, I'm going to bring a gift. I'm going to bring  myself to become, to own the blame, to own the blame. I'm going to own the  blame so that that the blame that mankind is so much deserves I'm going to take it. I'll take the heat so that mankind doesn't have to see once we realize, as by  grace, we are saved by God's work and verse 9, not by works. For no one can  boast where no one can say, I did it for because of this, we are God's  workmanship. Verse 10, For we are God's handiwork. Created Christ Jesus to  do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. And so God took  the blame. Yes, we have hope now. Hope is now. Grace is now, bringing heaven on earth is possible. It is possible. God does the impossible. So we need to  understand that this is where God took us from Adam and Eve to then, of  course, Paul's day to our day, from the Israelites the Old Testament, which you'll  see demonstrated Ray Vander Laan and being right on site in Israel, showing  you the sights and how Abraham lived, and, of course, how that brought us into  Messiah, Jesus. Day to then, of course, bring us into the New Testament  Church, and also into now the modern day church, you and me. So let's come  back to other biblical truths, Romans 3. Here's the evidence. Paul said, All have  sinned. All, not just some. All have sinned to fall short of the glory of God. And  all, all of us, because of Jesus taking the blame, are all justified freely by his  grace, through the redemption that came by Christ. Jesus. Jesus Christ did the  work. That's grace. We didn't have to do the work. Jesus did the work. Okay,  now let's take this and then we're applying it to domestic tranquility. We're now  understanding that we are still called by God as broken people, with our chaos,  with our issues, with our stuff, that God has called us to be Redeemers, as God  used Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and of course, ultimately, Jesus, to bring this world  back to God. And of course, only through the power of Christ, as well as 

Romans 6:23, Romans 6:23 The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is  eternal life. In Christ, Jesus, more evidence to the fact that is a gift we can't  earn. It is God's work, God's initiative. God fulfilling, completing us. God  following through. How many times that have we had it where people said,  Yeah, I'll do this for you, or people promise the world, and they don't follow  through. God followed through. God is not in a hot air balloon wondering where  he is. God is above that balloon, and he knows he sees the whole parade. He  sees the whole it's like Google Earth. He sees the whole parade from the  beginning to the end. And as Creator God says, I will bring the whole earth back  into a relationship with me. Jesus Christ did the work to begin that process so  that we are therefore justified, and when we are justified, justified means This  justified. Okay, we have blame. Jesus took the blame, but now we are justified,  which means just as if we did not sin ever, just as if we have not sinned at all.  So what God is saying is that he is taking the lenses of Jesus, the lens of Christ. He looks at you and me, and he's saying, Ah, my my son, my daughter, my  children, my family, Jesus took the blame. Therefore now I can bring order into  their lives through Jesus Christ, and now I can declare that just as if they've  never sinned, although God knows that we we have, and Paul acknowledges  this in Romans 6. Romans 3, but it says if, and this is where Paul says, you  know, we are justified freely, freely. And then brings our whole world back  together again. God shows us the purpose that He has given to each of us, to  be the head, the feet, the hands of the body of Jesus, to redeem and bring this  world back into order before Jesus Christ comes back. And I would suffice to  say, not only spiritually, but also physically, emotionally and also in community, in community. So we can continue to bring the good news everywhere that God  leads us to go. So no more blame shifting. We need to be self aware, self aware because, as Jesus has taken the blame now to the Holy Spirit. God breathes  into us. He breathes into us restoration. He breathes into us forgiveness.  There's a story of a woman, Lorraine Whoberry, who formed the Stacy  foundation. Might want to look it up online, and the Stacy Foundation was  established because Lorraine had two daughters who were assaulted. One of  them was killed in the assault intentionally, and the other daughter, the killer  thought that she had died too in the attack. However, that daughter played.  Dead, and she survived and lived to tell about it, when this young man was on  death row and the night he was about to be executed, Lorraine tells the story  how she was on a conference call in her lawyer's office with that young man  who was in the prison about ready to be brought to that execution room and  injected with that lethal dose. And as they were talking, the daughter who had  lived she was there too. She let him have it said, how can you and oh, and  you're such a bad person, and so forth and so on. She just had to get it out.  Lorraine, on the other hand, as her daughter was unleashing her her Venom on  him, and as she recounts the story here, she then has her opportunity, once her 

daughter was finished and said, You know what, I forgive you. I forgive you, not  because of of you or for you, but because of me and for myself. I forgive you. I  release you. Jesus Christ releases us from that bondage, that blame of the  disconnect of the of the of what we lost when Adam and Eve disobeyed, and  yes, in fact, they did surely die. But now we have new life in Jesus Christ, and  that new life we look forward to, we have it now through the Holy Spirit to help  Holy Spirit breathes into us. Maybe you remember the word inspirio, and it  means to breathe in inspiration. That word inspiration from, from the root word  inspirio, to breathe in to us, into our hearts, life in this broken world, and what  God chooses to do as what you'll see in the Ray Vander Laan film is that he  says, Now, be a partner with me to breathe life into others. That's how it works,  biblically and theologically, and bring us into the effort of bringing tranquility in  this world, which takes a day by day, moment by moment, one day at a time,  one moment at a time, process. And I mentioned my other lectures, how I  oversee and lead a recovering ministry. We use the Bible. We use the 12 Steps  we we redeem and the Alcoholics Anonymous format, and also the Narcotics  Anonymous format and and many similar formats of facilitating and helping  people who are broken to become whole, to become well. And we do it because  we know this truth is true. Is absolutely true. It's not subjective, not relative. We  don't have to worry that this will go away. No, the truth is, is that God put this in  place through Jesus Christ that he took the blame so we could be justified. And  now the term sanctification comes into mind, sanctification, where this whole  process that day by day, we become more like Jesus. Things are chiseled off,  broken off from the old life, and now we are forgiven by Christ, similar to, again,  how Lorraine's story, Lorraine's story with that killer, how she forgave him. Jesus forgives you. Jesus forgives all. And there's still a process, because God knows  our humanity. He designed it. He knows that we need process. Doesn't happen  overnight. It's not a one time event. But with God's help, we have hope right  now, right now, and result is the exchange life, the exchange life. So as the  steps are being taken, what we want to do. We want to do this. We want to  understand that through that. Romans 12:2, process being transformed by the  renewing of our minds. Here is how it works, as we are, then God's  ambassadors. Again, II Corinthians 5:17, we are therefore Christ's  ambassadors. I mean, the old is gone, the new has come, and therefore we are  Christ's ambassadors. It says further on in that chapter, to bring this truth to  others. So God doesn't need us, we say, But God wants us in this process. And  therefore God's saying, I do need I want you, therefore I do need you. We are  needed. We are needed. So the way God designed the process is to have us  involved. We are involved. So here's how it works. Here's how it works. Once we are saved, God's sanctifying us, Jesus takes the blame, and as we tell the good  news of how Christ bridges us as human beings over to God's side, where  there's life and eternal life and fulfillment and becoming Complete. Here's how it 

works. First we acknowledge. First we acknowledge. We acknowledge that we  are broken. That's the first thing. Second we acknowledge the second we also  through that, admitting acknowledging that we need God, there's also now a  need to desire. We then for desire God's will. We desire God's will. We are  slowly coming back into this whole exchange with God through the power of the  Holy Spirit. This is good. This is needed. God's saying, just, just admit your your  your sin, admit your shortcomings, admit your addictions, admit your your  compulsive behaviors. Just, it's okay. And then, as we desire to do God's will.  And maybe you saw it within yourself when you first became a believer in Jesus  Christ, you said, Oh, I, I just want to win the world. I want to tell everybody about Jesus and and so on. Now, of course, we know the world around us crashes in,  of course, and we still, we deal with realities around us still, but there's that  reality still, though too. Yes, we want to tell people about Jesus Christ. This is  good. Can't wait. Yeah, but I got issues, got problems, and I desire to do God's  will. The third thing, the third thing is that we then need to discover our gifts.  What are the gifts that God is the spiritual gifts, spiritual gift of leadership,  encouragement, the spiritual gift of administration, or of discernment or of  intercession, praying for other people, faith. What are your gifts? Thanks be to  God. Through the people of network, which started at Willow Creek Community  Church and then became its own organization, Bruce Bugbee as founder and  author and his team, they help us to discover our out of the 21 gifts identified in  Scripture, what our top five really are. And of course, we have a good 14 top  gifts, or 15 gifts that we that can then look at and see how they can then shift.  But also there's that top five or top three of our gifts, and we can say yes, that is  truly me. Yes. I can fulfill God's will for my life through these, these top gifts and  the other gifts that follow with it, that that are there, that surface in my in my  results, as I take the profile and as I come to understand who, how God has  made me to be the part, be part of the body of Christ. So acknowledge desire to  do God's will, to exercise our gifts. And the fourth thing from here, as we can  come to know Christ and come alive through him, is therefore we begin to fulfill,  fulfill God's will, as Abraham did. Abraham said, Okay, God, I'll go, left his home  country, went to Canaan. Okay, God, whatever you want. Big example. Now, he  wasn't perfect, of course. You know, he kind of he lied to the Pharaoh. He  doubted God a little bit here and there. Of course, when God told him you're  going to have a son Isaac, even though you're 100 years old. But he was  faithful. God has called you and me to be faithful, to be partners in ministry,  because he has a design for you, a desire to fulfill through you, a whole plan of  bringing domestic tranquility to this world, even though we see chaos  everywhere. That's why the church is so important. And the study of the church,  the theology of the church, the biblical foundations of the church, so we can tell  others and continue to build generation to generation communities of faith, and  also to bring restoration, recovery and sustainability, to God's people and to the 

world around us the best we can and all in God's timing. And from here, we're  going to then discover what our personal dark sides are. Because if we're going  to truly do this, if we are serious about redeeming the world, and it begins with  one, begins with you. God is calling you, and again, the gifts and where God  wants you, the strengths he's given you, not to fix weaknesses, but to maximize  your strengths. God's calling you. He's called me. He's called all of us to work  together, to be the hands and the feet of Jesus, but first, we have to be self  aware and continue to work on me, work on ourselves, so that we can become  stronger, wiser, so much better for the power of the Holy Spirit, so we can be  obedient to God more than Adam and Eve and to become transformed by the  renewing of our mind. That keeps going, keeps working. God works in you next  session, our personal dark sides.