Transcription

Connor:
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris:
Well, hey, welcome back to The Bible Guys.

Jeff:
It’s Friday.

Chris:
It’s Friday.

Jeff:
If you’re listening when we released it.

Chris:
What is that song? It’s Friday, Friday. What is that?

Jeff:
I don’t remember.

Chris:
Yeah. It’s a long time ago. I got the tune wrong. No, no, no. It’s a goofy little song. But it is Friday. And so today we are kicking off the segment.

Jeff:
Well, it’s the most important segment that we do. There’s no doubt about it. If we didn’t do it, it would be full on mutiny from our listeners.

Chris:
We don’t do it every Friday.

Jeff:
I know. And so we’re on the verge of Mutiny.

Chris:
Oh, right.

Jeff:
So rumbling’s a mutiny. Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble, mutiny, mutiny, mutiny. So it is what made Chris mad this week. Because there’s no other way that we’d want to end the first week of a new series than with our favorite segment.

Chris:
So Chris, what made you mad this week? Well, I got to tell you, it took me all of a minute to think of something. It took me all of a minute to think of something. Uh, I, uh, have pretty much stopped going to fast food restaurants. Uh, for the most part, I’m trying really hard to, uh, lose even, you know, more weight and get in the shape. And so I try to refrain myself, but however, I had a moment of weakness and I walked into a, what restaurant did I walk into?

Jeff:
You probably walked into a Tim Hortons.

Chris:
Tim Hortons. Taco Bell? A Taco Bell, yes. Yes, good second guess. Tim Hortons, that’s a terrible first guess. I don’t know. So I walked into a Taco Bell and literally There are people standing around. There’s not a single customer, not even one. I’m, I’m, I’m not even kidding. Not even a person. Okay. Now there’s drive-through happening, right? But there’s not a single person in the whole place. And I walk over to the front desk and they tell me, even though there’s a cash register in front of them and with a, with a credit card machine right there, they said, you have to order at the kiosk. Oh yeah.

Jeff:
Behind you. McDonald’s is doing that too.

Chris:
So I had to turn around and walk over and rummage through. And then I actually thought to myself, I said, well, first of all, I did, of course, say something. And I said, you’re kidding me. And that’s all I said. And they said, no. And I said, okay. So I just turned around and I was boiling inside because I’m thinking to myself, It is taking me 10 times longer and not two times, not three times, at least 10 times longer to rummage through and hit all the different options. And then it tries to up, upsell me. And it says most people with this, uh, uh, it’s not just something that you have to select. You have to actually scroll all the way down and say, no, thanks. Right. And so I am so upset at this point because now all I want to do is order like two items. Right. And I want like extra onions on something cause I’m an onion guy. Right. And I want minus something on this other thing. So I’ve literally have to like seriously just go through these things and hit them. And I was so upset and it took me, it would have taken me 10 seconds to say it. Right. And it probably took me two and a half minutes to press 30 buttons.

Jeff:
Right. And that two and a half minutes, you’re never going to get back.

Chris:
Oh, it’s terrible.

Jeff:
That’s time you could have been scrolling on your phone while they were getting your food ready.

Chris:
Right. Right. Or, or having conversations, Jeff, either one, but still, and then I, then I go back up and then I say something and the guy’s just standing there watching me. And I said, you do realize that took me 10 times longer to like, why do you guys do that? And he’s like, I don’t know. It’s policy. So the poor kid, he was, he was super nice. Yeah.

Jeff:
And he was, well, they deal with it all day long. All the, all the old guys come in and complain to them, but yes, stay off my grass.

Chris:
That’s right. Get off my grass. Take my order. Yeah. Well, you darn kids. But I got to be honest, you know, it’s no different than going through.

Jeff:
They’re conditioning you for when robots run the kitchen. You know that, right? Yes. So they’re going to do this for like five years where you order without talking to a person. And then pretty soon food’s just going to come out to you and they’re going to have eliminated the entire staff. It’s just going to be a building. Right. That’s what’s going to happen.

Chris:
Yeah. Or maybe with one person making sure that nothing malfunctions.

Jeff:
Right. Right. But you, there will be no human interaction with your food at all. They’re just unloading trucks and, and, you know, making sure buns are in the right spot. Tortillas are open. Right. That’s what’s going to happen. But, uh, I think that they’re just, they’re getting rid of the human thing. Cause it’s so expensive. Right. Right. Minimum wage keeps going up and up and up. And, uh, so they’re going to decide the only way they can sell you a $4, uh, burrito is to not pay anybody to do it.

Chris:
Yeah. Well, you’re probably right there.

Jeff:
Oh, I am. I’ve already looked into the future.

Chris:
You’ve already looked into the future. I’ve been to the year 3000. Not much has changed, but they live underwater.

Jeff:
That’s so funny. Well, thank you for being irate about this. I have noticed that a lot of your vicarious anger for all the rest of us is because what you’re mad about is the fact that this is altering the experience for all of us. It’s not just you.

Chris:
Well, it’s all of the above. It is definitely for everybody, but do you understand?

Jeff:
This one is for you though, special. You’re taking this one personal, is that what you’re saying?

Chris:
I’m saying that I’m sad for the world. Yes. Because number one, it took me 10 times longer. It was irritating. But then also it’s so much faster. The world is changing. It’s so much faster to just talk to a human and have the human just type it in.

Jeff:
Well, pretty soon AI, you’ll be able to do that. You just walk up and talk to the computer. You know that. You can already talk to your phone and it’ll tell you everything. Right. So pretty soon you’re just going to walk up and say, hey Siri, I’d like to order. Oh, Siri thinks I’m ordering.

Chris:
That’s so funny.

Jeff:
But that’s what’s going to happen. He’s just going to walk up. Hey, Taco Bell, I’d like to order a… Right. You know, that’s what’s going to happen.

Chris:
Yeah. Well, I’ve got to tell you, it was really irritating to me. Well, thank you. And then there’s these, you know, people on the inside, they don’t like it either.

Jeff:
Thank you for thinking of us. You’re welcome. Right. Thank you for thinking of us.

Chris:
You’re welcome. And I bet you there’s not a single person that thinks, oh, I like it better.

Jeff:
Yeah. I’ve noticed a theme is for you is customer service is a big thing for you. The customer experience.

Chris:
Yes, I do believe in that.

Jeff:
Yeah, me too.

Chris:
And I’ve always believed that I would make a great business owner.

Jeff:
Oh, I think you would too, Chris.

Chris:
I’ve always thought that. In fact, for years when ministry was super hard and still continues to be from time to time, but especially those early years, like the first 10 years, I actually thought, I just want to leave ministry, go own a business, make a bunch of money, and then volunteer at ministry heavily, but not have anybody tell me what to do.

Jeff:
I know so many people that in that first 10 years of ministry do that exactly. Yes. And then they don’t really volunteer heavily.

Chris:
That’s correct.

Jeff:
They start consuming what they make.

Chris:
Because they get money, money. That’s exactly right.

Jeff:
That’s exactly right. And then later on, when they’re older, then they start feeling guilty about that fact. And so then they write checks.

Chris:
You nailed that.

Jeff:
So, hey, you know, not everybody’s cut out for it. I get that part. OK, here we go. So Genesis chapter three. We made it. It only took us a week to get out of the first two chapters. And I’m going to read the first several verses.

Chris:
That’s actually a lot quicker than our old series. Yeah, I know. Our old series, we were, you know, verse by verse in the Gospels.

Jeff:
That’s correct. So I’m going to read the first 13 verses here, if you don’t mind today.

Chris:
I do not mind.

Jeff:
You don’t mind?

Chris:
It’s close.

Jeff:
See how I worded that? Yeah, you were weighing it there for a second. Here we go. Genesis chapter three, verse one. It says, the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals that the Lord had made. One day he asked the woman, did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. The woman replied, it’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we’re not allowed to eat. God said, you must not eat it or even touch it. If you do, you’ll die. “‘You won’t die,’ the serpent replied to the woman. “‘God knows that your eyes will be opened “‘as soon as you eat it, and you’ll be like God, “‘knowing both good and evil.’ “‘The woman was convinced. “‘She saw that the tree was beautiful “‘and its fruit looked delicious, “‘and she wanted the wisdom it would give her, “‘and so she took some of the fruit and ate it, “‘and then she gave some to her husband, “‘who was with her, and he ate it too. “‘At that moment, their eyes were opened, “‘and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness, “‘and so they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden, so they hid from the Lord God among the trees. And then the Lord God called to the man, where are you? And he replied, I heard you walk in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked. Who told you that you were naked? The Lord God asked. Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat? The man replied, it was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it. And the Lord God asked the woman, what have you done? The serpent deceived me, she replied. That’s why I ate it. And then God confronts them all and they fall under the curse.

Chris:
Right. So, um, yeah, let’s, uh, first of all, establish that the Bible never says it was an apple.

Jeff:
That’s correct.

Chris:
So, uh, for those of us who say, Hey, Eve ate the apple or Adam ate the apple, um, just say fruit next time. Although whenever we paint the picture and there’s a visual aid is always an apple.

Jeff:
It can be an apple if you want it to be an apple.

Chris:
Yeah, that’s true. I mean, it could have been an apple. Yeah, it could have been. But it could have been anything other than an apple. It could have been a mysterious fruit.

Jeff:
It could have been a plum.

Chris:
Well, or maybe a fruit that we know not of.

Jeff:
A dragon fruit.

Chris:
Because after all, it was a special tree. A star fruit. No, no. A mango? It could have been the… A lemon? Stop saying fruit. You’re saying fruit. Stop it. I’m saying like a mysterious fruit.

Jeff:
Mysterious fruit. Oh, that’s likely something that we don’t know anything about. Correct. You think?

Chris:
It’s a special tree.

Jeff:
Sure.

Chris:
Could be a special fruit. It’s a glowing mango looking thing that tasted like mud.

Jeff:
What? I don’t know. She said it was good to eat. I was trying to be funny. Yeah.

Chris:
Hey, so let me go ahead and say this. So, so, um, I, I did this, I did this message one time and you would, if you heard this message that I gave from top to bottom, you would think it’s one of the most clever things. Uh, but it follows the pattern.

Jeff:
I’ll be the judge of that.

Chris:
Yeah. Okay. So I do, I do a message where I act like it’s a seminar. And so the title of the message is how to sin successfully.

Jeff:
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You told me this before.

Chris:
Yeah. This is clever. Yeah. How to sin successfully. I’m like, okay. I’m like, guys, if you want to learn how to really, truly have a pattern of sinning successfully, uh, this is, this is the pattern.

Jeff:
If you want to be a really good world-class sinner.

Chris:
If you want to be a really good world-class sinner. I was like, the very first thing you need to do is do what Eve did. This is a perfect pattern. This will model us, our pattern. The first thing you need to do is doubt or make light of God’s Word. That’s the very first thing that happened. Because the serpent comes along and says, did God really say And so that’s the first questioning that is recorded in the Bible, of questioning God’s Word. Because up to this point, every time God spoke, it seems like nothing was recorded in response in terms of rebut. But yet, this is the first time that there is a question. Did God really say, did he really say that you’re not going to live?

Jeff:
Did he really say you’re going to die?

Chris:
Yeah. And so then, and then the second, the second step is, uh, is that you twist or, or, or, or, you know, just twist the, and justify with half truths because that’s what Satan did. So Satan actually kept the truth. He said, you should not surely die. Well, actually that’s technically true. Uh, in other words, like they weren’t going to eat the fruit and die that second. Right. But, but, but really what was true is the process of death,

Jeff:
Their spirit died. Yeah, their spirit died. Yeah, they died spiritually immediately.

Chris:
But their physical self didn’t die. And so Satan takes the word of God and twists it into half truths. And then what she does is she starts to justify it because it says, well, then she says, okay, she looked and she saw that it was beautiful and it was good to eat. So she starts justifying it, right? Anyway, there’s a pattern that goes on here. I’m not sure if I should tell you all seven of them. Maybe I can, if I just glance at these. And so then, and then she justifies. And then what does she do? Is she, she surrounds herself. She surrounds herself with other people who will, who will sin with them. Right. And so then, you know, there’s Adam there. And then, and then it was to run and hide, you know, from the sin, to try and take responsibility. And then I think the last one ended up by blaming, right. And so, you know, so Adam, That’s one of the best. So God says to Adam, hey, why are you hiding? Who told you you were naked? And Adam essentially says, hey, don’t blame me. Blame apple breath over here.

Jeff:
Yeah. Well, not only that, he blames God. The woman you gave me. Right, right. If there’s anybody, I’m the least responsible for this. There’s only three. There’s only three people. I’m the least responsible. I’m just walking through the garden, and she comes up and hands me an apple, and you made her. You gave her to me. I didn’t ask for her. You gave her to me. It’s your fault, ultimately, if you really think about it. If you really think about it, I sinned because you made her.

Chris:
Right. And then, and then of course the woman blames the serpent. Yeah. Right. So everybody has the blame game. And then I get to the end of the seminar and the entire time, by the way, when I’m unpacking this, I say like, okay, uh, justify with half truths. I’m like, now this is, this is essential. Listen, if you don’t get this right, you’re going to, you’re not going to be able to sin effectively. So you’ve got to make sure that you master the art of justifying. Right. And I’m just really getting into this. And so I’m sort of preaching it backwards. And then I get to the very end and I say, okay, so how do you fail? What’s the key to failing? Here’s the key to failing. Don’t do step number one. And I was like, you have to do step number one, which is doubt or make light of God’s word. That’s the key to everything. And if you master step number one, the rest may come naturally. And that’s the way I give the seminar, which by the way, is just incredibly true, isn’t it? It all starts with doubting or making light of what God says.

Jeff:
You know, the amazing thing is if you take that description from a couple of days ago of the Garden of Eden, we didn’t over-talk it, but it sure seems like it’s about a 1500 mile square garden. If you look at where the rivers are and the chunks. So think about this. The Bible says that that tree was in the middle of the garden. So that’s like the distance from Detroit to Miami.

Chris:
Right.

Jeff:
right, is how big it is. So 750 miles is the center, if the 1500 miles is true. So we’re talking somewhere around Chattanooga.

Chris:
And the reason why you’re saying that is because of the location of the rivers. Yeah. And how far apart they are.

Jeff:
Yeah. Euphrates to Tigris. And then, then it talks about Havilah and Cush, right? So it’s about a 1500 mile square garden. And there’s one tree, one tree that God says, she says it’s in the middle of the garden. Right. So somewhere.

Chris:
So it’s somewhere around Tennessee. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff:
Somewhere in Chattanooga. They show up in Chattanooga just going doo doo doo. What? Why? As big as that place is. Right. Why were you there? Isn’t it amazing how we start to fixate on the thing we can’t have, right? So this is why Paul tells us, think about things that are good and honest and true and just, right, and holy. And it’s because if we aren’t careful, we start drawing closer and closer and closer to the thing we can’t have, that person in the office we can’t have. that house we can’t afford, that we’re ready to max out our credit cards because we just can’t have that thing. We have to have the same vacation everybody else has, right? And then we wind up mortgaging our life, ruining so many things because we get fixated on the one thing. Why? Dude, if I had a 1500 mile square garden and God says, don’t eat from that one tree, you know what I’d do? I’d go build a fence like about 150 miles all the way around it. and go, hey, we’re not going inside there because we got all the rest. Think about it. All the rest of that garden was theirs to indulge in for eternity. Right? And here they are. Oh, what an interesting thing. I’m standing by the tree. I’m not supposed to be by it. Isn’t that, you know, we’re always amazed, right? We’re always amazed by that. And then, then that gave the, you know, Satan the opportunity to tempt. People ask sometimes, why did he come as a serpent? Serpents are, any animal he could have come as, the Bible refers to him often as like the dragon, that evil serpent, whatever. It may be symbolic a little bit, but certainly he came to her in a familiar form. Didn’t come as an alien, didn’t come as a rock, didn’t come as something she’d never seen before or something that was benign. It was something she was familiar with. And oftentimes that’s what the devil will do, is he’ll take a familiar thing, something we get comfortable around, and that’s where our temptations will come from, is from where our comfort is.

Chris:
And you and I would say that, you know, hey, it wasn’t believable, like she should have run from it because it actually talked. But yet, think about the world that they were living in at the time. They walked with God in the cool of the day, in the garden. God spoke audibly.

Jeff:
They had just come from… And every day was a new learning experience.

Chris:
Every day was a new thing. they were around a creator that formed them from dust. And Adam saw, or at least didn’t see, he saw the results of God creating woman from his own bones. So the things were so supernatural around them, and not to mention, we’re about to find out that sin has a curse over the garden, they have to tend to it, the weeds, they’re all part of the curse, right? So imagine just how supernatural the garden itself probably was before sin came into the world. So there are different things, not to mention, I’m sure that Adam probably wasn’t responsible for going and finding roaming animals, right? All these roaming animals, God probably brought them to him. So, I mean, there were so many different things that were so supernatural.

Jeff:
And everything would have been, well, so they were all natural. Yeah, you’re right.

Chris:
Everything they were experiencing was natural.

Jeff:
It was all brand new. Everything was brand new for them. So, you know, the serpent speaks to you and you go, oh, apparently those kind of snakes talk. It would have been because it was the first time they’d seen any of these things. Right. Right. And so it would have been totally natural to her, I guess. I guess those kind of snakes talk. That’s cool. Sure. Right. Because you just don’t know. You don’t know anything. It’s just like a clean slate.

Chris:
Right.

Jeff:
And then everything you’re experiencing is brand new. So you have these humans in fully adult bodies, he told them to go and reproduce, right? So they’re fully human or adult bodies, but their minds, if you can think their minds as a young person, just learning a brand new thing, never thought about it before, never experienced it before. If you’re completely and totally innocent about a thing, you’re not surprised by a thing, right? And so I think that’s why the devil was able to come to her. He came to her as a living creature. That’s what he came to her as, and it made sense to her, I guess.

Chris:
You know, the thing you mentioned has undertones of creation, because you just said they created Adam and Eve who looked like they were older, and yet they were brand new, and they were minutes old. So their age, their time, if you try to measure time, you would say they’re only minutes old, but the evidence shows that it appears to be, you know, I don’t know, whatever, 30 years old, right?

Jeff:
Yeah, well, they could process language immediately.

Chris:
Right. So the point is, is that sometimes in science, people will try to measure the earth and they’ll say, well, the earth has to be this old because the evidence shows it.

Jeff:
As opposed to having being created with age. Yeah. Because the planet had to have cooled down to this point. The atmosphere had to have developed to this point. There needed to be a water saturation to this point, a temperature control to this point, distance from the sun at this point, all those things. So if God just created it with time already built in, because God’s outside of time, so if he just built it with age in the same way that he made Adam with age, Adam was able to comprehend language and reproduce when God gave him that command, right? And then could do the work. So God created him with age. And I think that’s what God did with the planet is he created us with age.

Chris:
Yeah. Well, it’s very obvious God did it with the planet because it says that he created the planet in a day.

Jeff:
Do you ever do a YouTube video and you’re trying to get to a very specific thing? I just did this the other day. I was watching heritagechurch.com. I was watching one of our messages and I wanted to scroll to the song at the end of the message. So I just grabbed the little thing and I scrolled it, but I could see the video. Right. All the way up. And I just got to minute 52 or whatever it was. I think that’s what God did is he just grabbed the slider, pulled it right to the point where he needed to have it be in order to have it, have the story start right there.

Chris:
Are you saying that you purposely fast forwarded through my message to see the ending song?

Jeff:
I rewatched the song. I’d already heard the message. Yeah, and it was a fine message, Chris. But that’s what I believe God did, is he just fast-forwarded to the point, because for a being outside of time, time is nothing. He just needed to get to the starting point for us, because time matters to us. So he got at that point, cooled the planet, got everything exactly where it needed to be. So it has age built into it. And yet the story starts at a very precise time. This is the same thing you did with Adam, I think.

Chris:
Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Well, I think that we are at our time.

Jeff:
Yeah. So this is the most devastating moment in human history right here. And then we’ll pick up with the curse and then God’s solution to it.

Chris:
And we’ll do that next week on Monday, if you’re following day by day, and hopefully we’ll see you then on the Bible guys.